One of the worst years for disasters

CYCLONE Nargis and the Sichuan earthquake made last year one of the worst for disasters since 1970, in terms of lives lost and economic damage, according to a report released yesterday by the insurance company Swiss Re. Some 240,500 people lost their lives in natural and man-made disasters in 2008, the study found.

Most died in Asia, where Cyclone Nargis killed 138,000 people when it hit Burma last May. An earthquake in China's Sichuan province the same month claimed 70,000 lives, according to the report.

More people died only in 1970 and 1976, with a tropical storm in the Bay of Bengal and an earthquake in China being the main killers in those two years respectively.

Swiss Re put the economic damage caused by disasters last year at $269 billion (about £191 billion), with the earthquake in Sichuan accounting for almost half of this.