DEATH TOLL RISE IN VIETNAM FLOODS

WIDE-SCALE FLOODS IN VIETNAM 91 KILLED
AS TROPICAL STORM MIRINAE LASHES COUNTRY

HANOI (AFP) - The death toll from Tropical Storm Mirinae has risen to 91 in Vietnam as authorities stepped up rescue and relief operations in affected areas of the central region. In the hardest-hit province of Phu Yen, 26 more deaths were reported as information trickled in from isolated areas, bringing the death toll there to 65, disaster official Dang Thi Lanh said. An additional 22 people are missing, too. Authorities have evacuated nearly 15,000 people from Phu Yen. Some were rescued from rooftops, where they had scrambled to escape the overflowing Ha Thanh River.

In Phu Yen, soldiers in dozens of speed boats are rushing instant noodles, water and clothes to victims in flooded areas who have gone hungry for the past two to three days, she said. In addition, three military helicopters are dropping food to victims in isolated areas. In the neighbouring province of Binh Dinh, two military helicopters continue to drop food and water to villagers still stranded in isolated areas, said Ho Quoc Dung, deputy chairman of the provincial People's Committee. The storm and flooding also left 52 people injured, destroyed or damaged 14,000 homes, and damaged about 12,400 acres of rice and other crops, according the national committee for flood and storm control. Although flood waters are beginning to recede, many areas remain inundated.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

The soul is neither born nor does it die. The soul has everlasting existence. It is exempt from liability to extinction. Under the influence of Maya, the illusory energy of God, which manifests itself in the shape of this mundane world, the soul is again and again vested with a corporeal frame and each conditioned soul passes after death into a series of new existences in heaven and hell or in the bodies of men, beasts, birds, insects, or plants on earth, where it is rewarded or punished for all the deeds committed in a former life.

Srila Bhakti Saranga Maharaj
"Gaudiya Vaishnava Theologhy"
Bhaktivedanta Memorial Library - www.bvml.org/SBSGM/