22-02-2005

Thai cabinet 100-million-dollar fund to revive tourism
              

BANGKOK: Thailand's cabinet on Tuesday endorsed a 100-million-dollar plan to revive the kingdom's vital tourism industry in the wake of December's catastrophic Asian tsunamis, senior officials said.

The budget is aimed at polishing Thailand's image as Southeast Asia's leading tourist destination through a massive public relations campaign assuring potential visitors that the country is safe.

Thailand reeled in 10 million foreign tourists last year, generating some six percent of gross domestic product, with Phuket alone drawing 2.75 million tourists and two billion dollars.            

21-02-2005

US former presidents visit Sri Lanka

COLOMBO: Former US Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush Sr have toured parts of southern Sri Lanka devastated by December's tsunami.

It was the latest stop in their fact-finding tour of areas hit by the disaster, which also took them to the damaged Indonesian province of Aceh.

Their trip began in Thailand, where they urged the world not to forget the victims and the reconstruction effort.

The two men were asked by the White House to lead fund-raising efforts. 

Relief match for tsunami and flood victims 

LAHORE: Pakistan eleven and rest of Pakistan eleven playing one day relief match at Gaddafi Stadium here for tsunami and Balochistan flood victims. 

Pakistan eleven comprises of Tuafiqu Umer,Salman Butt, Younus Khan, Shoaib Malik, Asim Kamal,Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal, Danesh Kaneria,Rao Iftkhar, Muhammad Sami and Yasir Hamid. 

Rest of the Pakistan eleven suqad comprises of Imran Farhat, Faisal Ather , Misbahul Haque, Bazyed Khan, Faisal Iqbal , Yasir Arafat, Zulqarnain, Tahir Khan, Shahid Nazir, Aamir Bashir, Abdul Rauf, Muhammad Irshad  and Muhammad Khalil. 

Younus Khan leads the Pakistan eleven whereas Misbahul Haque will be the captain of rest of Pakistan eleven.

31-01-2005

Indonesia's tsunami toll and missing rises to 232,945

JAKARTA: Indonesia's health ministry said on Monday the number of people dead and missing after last month's earthquake and tsunami had risen to 232,945.                                    

 27-01-2005

Strong quake recorded off Indonesia's Sumatra

HONG KONG: A strong earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale was recorded on Thursday in the seas off Indonesia's northern Sumatra island, the Hong Kong Observatory said.

The earthquake was recorded at 6:06 am (1006 GMT Wednesday) with the epicentre off the west coast of northern Sumatra, it said.

On December 26 a 9.0-strong quake in the same area produced tsunamis that battered coasts across the Indian Ocean, killing more than 280,000 people in 11 countries.

26-01-2005

Sri Lanka marks one month after tsunami with silence

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka observed a minute's silence on Wednesday as a sign of respect for the nearly 31,000 people here who perished in the tsunami disaster a full month ago.

State and private television stations blacked out their screens at 9:36 am (0336 GMT) while radio stations went off the air at the time the tsunamis struck the island's coastline on December 26.

Politicians and school children planted trees in memory of those who were killed while religious ceremonies were scheduled for later in the day.

                                25-01-2005

Indonesia to publish list of tsunami donors

BANDA ACEH: Indonesia hopes to dispel concerns about official corruption in relief operations by announcing each month the amount of money it receives in foreign donations and where the funds are being spent, the government said on Tuesday.

`We will announce every month, on the 26th, the money we receive,'' said Welfare Minister Alwi Shihab, who is in charge of the country's relief effort. ``We will list down all contributions and where it is going to avoid any suspicion of graft.''

Indonesia was the worst affected of 11 Indian Ocean nations that were hit by the Dec. 26 tsunami. More than 110,000 people were killed in the country and tens of thousands are still missing.

Presumed death toll in tsunamis passes 280,000

JAKARTA: The number of people presumed dead in last month's Asian tsunamis rose to more than 280,000 Tuesday, with Indonesian authorities announcing a further increase in the number of dead and missing.

                                                   24-01-2005

Tamil Tigers declare day of mourning for tsunami victims

COLOMBO: Tamil Tigers said they would observe a day of mourning on Wednesday to mark the one month anniversary of the tsunami tragedy that killed almost 31,000 Sri Lankans, many in the rebels' northeastern stronghold.

"Liberation Tigers declare January 26 as a national day of mourning to remember those who lost their lives in the tsunami disaster in Tamil homelands and in other regions of South Asia," the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said in statement posted on its website. 

According to latest government figures, 30,957 people died in Sri Lanka, 5,637 are still missing and 396,295 still homeless from the tsunami. 

Japanese aid mission arrives in Indonesia

BANDA ACEH: Japan's largest military deployment since World War II arrived in Indonesia on Monday to help tsunami victims.

Three Japanese navy ships carrying 950 Self-Defense Force personnel dropped anchor in Indonesian waters.

The new arrivals will join an advance Japanese team who began work last week on a field hospital to help survivors of the December 26 disaster that left almost 174,000 people dead in Indonesia.            

Tsunami aid may spur democratic reform in Maldives

MALE: The tourist paradise of Maldives says it suffered the biggest economic loss from the Asian tsunami tragedy and wants foreign help.

The United Nations has already issued an appeal for 66.5 million dollars in urgent relief for the tiny Indian Ocean archipelago, which was submerged briefly during the sea surge of December 26 at the cost of 82 lives with 26 missing.

"Western powers will give the money, but they are going to ask for something in return," an Asian diplomat here said. "It will be what they have been trying to push for a long time. That is democratic reform."

                                                19-01-2005

Indonesia lures FDIs for infrastructure build up in Aceh 

JAKARTA: Indonesia has decided to offer some highly attractive terms to the foreign direct investors (FDI) tempting them to undertake the huge work of building up of infrastructures in the Tsunami devastated Aceh province.

Minister for national planning, Sri Mulyani Indrawati has said that the Aceh province would prove to be a test case for Indonesia, in which, either the foreign investors’ confidence would be restored on Indonesia or else Indonesia would no longer remain an attraction for foreign investors.

Indonesia has generously offered some relief in taxes and amendments in the labour laws to foreign investors. 

Aceh was the most affected province of Indonesia by the tidal waves wreaking havocs in South Asian countries on December 26 and, according to an official estimate, $150 billion would be required for restoration of infrastructures over here. 

Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang has appealed to the foreign investors to invest in building roads, installing power plants and in projects providing potable waters. 

Foreign investments in Indonesia stood at $10 billion in 2004, which was three times less as compared to 1997.  

40,000 still missing in tsunami: Indonesia

JAKARTA: Some 40,000 people are still missing in Indonesia's tsunami-hit Aceh, far more than first thought, and the province will need three to five years to rebuild, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Wednesday.

 Almost all of Indonesia's 115,229 deaths from the Dec 26 earthquake and the tsunami it spawned were in Aceh. Indonesia accounts for almost two-thirds of total fatalities from the catastrophe that has resulted in the biggest humanitarian relief effort since World War Two.

 "As of now, we know that there are over 100,000 dead and 40,000 missing," Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in his opening address to an annual conference of Indonesia's donors in Jakarta.

"There are about 500,000 homeless people in the emergency camps and thousands of tsunami orphans," he said.

Artists’ relief camp for tsunami victim 

KARACHI: Karachi artists have setup a relief camp for victims of the tsunami waves in Indian Ocean countries. 

Prominent TV artists Aslam Latar, Ayub Khoso, Shagufta Ijaz and others participate in the relief camp at Sea-view beach.

Artists are taking charges of autographs and photo sessions to donate in the tsunami relief fund.

Somali fishing community struggles to survive after tsunami

HAAFUN: The impoverished fishing community on this Somalian Indian Ocean peninsula is struggling to eke out a living after last month's tsunami killed more than 300 people, mostly fishermen, and reduced villages to rubble.

Some fishermen who survived the December 26 disaster said they would rather struggle to learn another trade to earn a living rather than face the risk of possible future killer waves.

Local officials estimate the tsunami did some 23 million dollars in damage when it wrecked homes and other buildings, ruined what little infrastructure existed and capsized boats.

Though the death and damage tolls in Somalia are dwarfed by those in other badly hit Indian Ocean nations like Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka, residents of Haafun remain skittish.             

Tsunami-hit countries may face tougher battle
                

KOBE: Japan's city of Kobe has been rebuilt 10 years after a killer earthquake, showing how a community can pick up the pieces after tragedy, but experts and residents say a tougher battle awaits countries hit by last month's tsunami.

 Japan has used its economic might to reconstruct Kobe after the worst earthquake in modern times in the developed world killed nearly 6,500 people. 
 

"Reconstruction in Kobe largely owed the financial strength of the country," Norio Maki of the Earthquake Disaster Mitigation research center said.

"Tsunami-hit countries are expected to clear a first phase of recovery easily thanks to support from the world, but restoration of infrastructure doesn't mean revival of their daily life," Maki said.

 Billions of dollars have been pledged to support the countries ravaged by the December 26 tsunamis that killed more than 168,000 people, but Maki warned that in the end the state of the disaster-hit countries' local economies was most important.   

                                                      18-01-2005

Tsunami wreaks havoc to Banda Aceh

BANDA ACEH: Banda, capital of Indonesia’s Aceh province was devastated by killer Tsunami waves lost over 100,000 men, women and children in the disaster. 

Tsunami waves have snatched life from the beautiful city of Banda turning it into heaps of rubble, Geo correspondent in Banda Khurram Malik reported. 

Thousands families vanished in the disaster while others lost their many members. According to an Indonesian NGO 60% of the 350000 population was perished by Tsumai. 

Dead bodies still scattered in the city and thousands being buried daily in mass graves. 

German ship brings tourists to tsunami-hit Sri Lanka

COLOMBO: A cruise ship carrying 626 German holidaymakers arrived in Sri Lanka Tuesday, the first passenger vessel to call here since the Asian tsunamis devastated much of the island's coastline.

The cruise with a crew of 334 called at Colombo port for an overnight visit. A port official said it was going ahead with the visit even though several other cruise liners have avoided the city.

"The cruise ship had been to the Maldives and will leave Colombo tomorrow and head to Myanmar," port spokesman said.

Both the Maldives and Myanmar were also hit by the tsunamis. 

UN not renew travel ban in tsunami-hit Aceh

BANDA ACEH: A United Nations security consultant said on Tuesday there was no longer a heightened state of alert for the group's staff in Indonesia's tsunami-stricken Aceh province.

``We have no heightened alert,'' said UN security consultant.

He said a 24-hour ban on UN staff driving between provincial capital Banda Aceh and Medan, the largest city on Sumatra island, expired early on Tuesday morning and was not extended.

UN staff made the decisions after talks with Indonesian police, he added.

New Zealand announces largest international aid package for tsunami

WELLINGTON:  New Zealand announced Tuesday its largest ever-international aid package of 68 million New Zealand (47 million US) dollars for tsunami-stricken Asian countries.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said 52 million dollars would be spent this financial year and the United Nations would immediately receive 20 million dollars.

The package includes 10 million dollars already allocated.

Clark said the total package set a new level for New Zealand aid.

"This contribution reflects both the magnitude of the disaster and its impact on a number of nations in our region with which we have important bilateral relationships," she said.

Clark said she did not consider New Zealand had been slow to react to the disaster three weeks ago that has killed more than 168,000 people. 

Annan urges spending to limit deaths in disasters

KOBE: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urged the world on Tuesday to learn from the killer Asian tsunami, saying spending now could limit the loss of life and

damage from inevitable natural disasters.

Investing smaller sums before disasters could reduce the toll such catastrophes take in lives and in money, Annan said at the start of a 5-day conference in the city of Kobe in western Japan.

More than 175,000 people were killed and millions left homeless by the Dec. 26 tsunami and pledges of emergency relief stand at more than $7 billion. 

US steps up aid missions in Indonesia 

BANDA ACEH: US aid helicopters stepped up missions on Tuesday to Indonesia's tsunami-hit Aceh province, expanding help to millions affected by the giant wave that killed 175,000 around the Indian Ocean.

Sri Lankan officials said another 7,275 people were now known to have died in the Dec. 26 catastrophe, taking the national total to 38,195. The jump was not due to the sudden discovery of more bodies, but rather a backlog of figures from remote areas. 

                                 17-01-2005

Japan's military team arrives in Aceh
                

BANDA ACEH: An advance party was on Monday laying the ground work in Banda Aceh for the arrival of 1,000 Japanese troops to help Indonesian tsunami relief efforts in what will be Japan's biggest military deployment since World War II.

Self-Defense Forces spokesman Hiroji Yamashita said on Monday three warships would ferry the troops in from January 25, with much of the focus on providing medical aid and logistical support to the international humanitarian operation.

“It is the single biggest deployment since World War II," Yamashita said.

He said the advance group, which arrived on Sunday, consisted of a 20-member medical team who would assess the medical needs of survivors in Aceh, where almost 115,000 were killed in the December 26 disaster.

Tsunami toll reaches to 175,000 

GALLE: Sri Lanka's tsunami death toll shot up on Monday as officials said the more they cleared up, the more bodies they found. 

The island added another 7,275 victims to its list of the dead, taking the national toll over 38,000 and the overall toll around Indian Ocean nations to 175,458. 

"We are coming across dead bodies on a daily basis as we clear the rubble," said a senior public security ministry official. 

Hardest-hit Indonesia has steadily raised its total, but Sri Lanka's body count had stabilized around 30,000 until on Monday.

ASEAN troops in tsunami-hit Aceh

KUALA LUMPUR: ASEAN troops carrying out relief work in Indonesia's tsunami-battered Aceh province will be allowed to remain indefinitely, Malaysian Defence Minister Najib Razak said Monday.

"The representative of Indonesia's military chief General Sutarto told that there is no deadline as such given to our soldiers with respect to our involvement in Aceh and that they can continue to be there until further notice," Najib told a news conference.

 "The 26 March deadline is only for their own planning purposes, but the important thing is that there is no such imposition as to a specific timetable for our withdrawal from Aceh," Najib said, adding this would also apply to troops from other ASEAN countries.

UN agency to set up tsunami aid base in Calang

JAKARTA: The World Food Program said it plans to set up a second base in the previously inaccessible Indonesian town of Calang to provide easier access to the 800,000 people who need food in the area devastated by the Dec. 26 tsunami.

The United Nations agency has been running its aid operations from Meulaboh in Aceh province, the area most severely affected by the tsunami. The agency yesterday completed distributing 30 tons of rice, noodles and high-energy biscuits in Calang, a town between the provincial capital Banda Aceh and Meulaboh, two of the hardest-hit cities in Asia, said Michael Huggins, a spokesman for the agency in Jakarta. 

                                16-01-2005

MKRF-UN Walkathon collects funds for tsunami victims

ISLAMABAD: A large number of people from different sections of society and age groups turned up at a Walkathon organized by Mir Khalilur Rehman Foundation (MKRF) with the cooperation of the United Nations to raise funds for the relief and rehabilitation of tsunami victims.

The organizers of the two events received warm and an overwhelming response from citizens of Rawalpindi and Islamabad who made generous donations to the relief fund for tsunami victims.

The diplomats and foreigners residing in Islamabad showed equal enthusiasm. The residents of Islamabad on every holiday witness a walk for a certain cause but it was a unique event on Sunday.

The Walkathon from China Chowk to Jinnah Avenue was divided into ten zones and the participants paid their donations through tokens. To make people feel a part and parcel of the fund relief campaign, each and every participant had to pass through these zones.

To cross a zone, each participant had to pay Rs 5 or Rs 10 for a token and if he wanted to walk up to the next zone, he had to pay for another token as well. In this way donations were considerably raised.

The Islamabad Administration played their role in making the walk a smooth affair. A heavy contingent of police, which also included female staff, was deputed to ensure security to the participants and organizers.

Swedish PM arrives in tsunami-hit Thailand

BANGKOK: Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson arrived in Thailand Sunday, where he will join his counterparts from Finland and Norway to discuss post-tsunami recovery and check on efforts to identify the missing, a foreign news agency reported.

Persson arrived a few hours ahead of prime ministers Kjell Magne Bondevik of Norway and Matti Vanhanen of Finland.

The three were due to meet Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and have an audience with King Bhumibol Adulyadej later Sunday.

Thaksin told reporters at an event marking Thailand's Teacher's Day that the visiting Scandinavian leaders were coming out of concern for their nationals missing since the tsunami.

‘We don't plan to ask for any assistance from them. They're coming here to ask for our assistance in sending their people back home. Many Swedish people are missing’, he added.

Fifty-two Swedes died in the tsunami disaster across Asia, many of them in

Thailand. Sweden, with its nine million inhabitants, was the country outside of Asia to suffer the largest per capita death toll.

Another 893 Swedes remain missing or unaccounted for from the December 26 tsunamis in the Indian Ocean. 

MKR and UNO rally round for a walkathon today in Islamabad 

ISLAMABAD: Mir Khalilur Rahman Foundation (MKR) and the United Nations Organization (UNO) have got together to arrange a walkathon here for raising funds for the help and relief of Tsunami victims. 

The walkathon commencing at 12 in the day will continue up to 3 pm in the afternoon here on Jinnah Avenue.

Celebrities from different segments of society and a large number of citizens will be participating in this walkathon. 

No March 26 deadline for foreign troops to pullout, says Indonesia

JAKARTA: Indonesia's defense minister said Sunday there is no three-month deadline for foreign troops involved in the massive tsunami relief operation to be out of the country and said Jakarta would like to improve military relations with Washington, a foreign news agency reported.

`We would like to emphasize that March 26 is not a deadline for involvement of foreign military personnel in the relief effort,' Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono said after a meeting with U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz.

`It is a benchmark for the Indonesian government to improve and accelerate its relief efforts so that by March 26 the large part of the burden of the relief effort will be carried by the Indonesian government and Indonesian authorities,' he added.

Canadian PM arrives in Thailand to see tsunami damage

PHUKET, Thailand: Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin arrived on this tsunami-stricken Thai tourist island early Sunday and met with local officials and Canadian volunteers to discuss reconstruction efforts, a foreign news agency reported.

Martin met with Interior Minister Bhokin Bhalakula and with a group of about 20 Canadian volunteers who have worked in international rescue and forensics operations since the tsunami.

Martin then headed to Kamala beach and to a nearby Buddhist temple that suffered heavy damage when the killer waves smashed ashore, killing 5,300 people in Thailand, roughly half of them believed to be foreign holidaymakers.

Martin was expected to stay about nine hours in Thailand, which was hosting three foreign leaders Sunday, with the prime ministers of Finland, Norway and Sweden expected to arrive in Bangkok later in the day.

Canada says 34 of its citizens are still missing after the December 26 Indian Ocean tsunami, while six have been killed or are presumed dead. Ottawa has offered 348.5 million US dollars in aid over five years to tsunami-battered countries. 

                                15-01-2005

Tsunami Driveathon in Islamabad today

LAHORE: A Driveathon being organised by the Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman Foundation (MKRF) at Rawalpindi-Islamabad today to collect funds for tsunami victims.

The Driveathon will pass various roads and avenues of the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Several showbiz artistes and prominent persons will be accompanied with the Driveathon.

The Float will begin its journey from 10:00 in morning and travel several roads and localities in twin cities till 9:00 in night to collect cash donations and goods for the victims of tsunami waves. 

Driveathon for Tsunami victims in Lahore

LAHORE: A Driveathon organised by the Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman Foundation (MKRF) collected funds for tsunami-hit countries here.

The Driveathon started from Davis Road Lahore passing China Chowk, Shadman Market and main market Gulbarg arrived at the Liberty Market. The Float was decorated with the banners of MKRF urging the people to donate more and more for the noble cause. The show created a festive scene on the city road.

The public response was very good and a large number of people gave cash donations besides giving different goods like food items, medicines and cloths to the MKRF for the tsunami victims.

A good number of film, stage and TV artistes participated in the MKRF. They remain engaged in fundraising and collecting donations from noon to night and also participated in a show at Liberty Market.

The next Driveathon to help Tsunami victims by the Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman Foundation  will be held in Islamabad. 

UN provides tents for Indonesian tsunami refugees

BANDA ACEH: The United Nations said on Saturday it would provide emergency tents to house 100,000 tsunami survivors in Indonesia's Aceh province for six months while their homes are rebuilt.

"Our initial assessment is that we are bringing in shelter material for 100,000 refugees," said Mans Nyberg, a spokesman for the UN's High Commissioner for Refugees in Banda Aceh, the devastated provincial capital.

Nyberg said the the UN would begin airlifting tents by helicopter from Banda Aceh and the main Sumatra island city of Medan to badly-affected areas on Aceh's west coast.

US to spend $ 37 million on tsunami warning system 

WASHINGTON: The United States will spend 37 million dollars to beef up its tsunami warning system, President George W. Bush 's science advisor announced.  

The system will cover nearly all US coastlines and allow officials to respond within minutes, Bush science advisor John Marburger said in a statement.  

The new system will become part of the existing Global Earth Observation System, to cover the entire Pacific and Caribbean basins and provide a warning system for half of the world's oceans.  

"This plan will enable enhanced monitoring, detection, warning and communications that will protect lives and property in the US and a significant part of the world," Marburger said in statement. The Bush administration plans to spend 37.5 million dollars over the next two years.  

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will deploy 32 buoys, called Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami. 

UN warns Sri Lanka rebels over tsunami children

BANDA ACEH: The United Nations said it had received reports Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers were recruiting children displaced by Asia's tsunami and had told

the rebels to leave under-age survivors alone.

Indonesia found almost 4,000 more bodies, taking the global death toll from the disaster to more than 162,000 with searches completed in areas most damaged by the Dec. 26 tsunami.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said three children were reported to have been recruited in Sri Lanka's east, where the Tamil Tiger rebels control large pockets of jungle.

"Recruitment  was an issue before the tsunami. It's an issue that continues to be of concern," UNICEF's Sri Lankan representative Ted Chaiban told foreign news agency in an interview.

"We know of three cases of reported under-age recruitment that took place in the east," said Chaiban.

"We said to the rebels you send out instructions that no child that has been displaced by the tsunami should in any way be affected or harassed by any person."

Two of the children had been reunited with their family but a 15-year-old girl was still missing from a camp for the homeless, said Chaiban.

The rebels deny recruiting children, saying many youngsters lie about their age to join the group.

                              14-01-2005

Malaria threat surfaces in tsunami zone

BANDA ACEH: Health officials plan to go door to door and tent to tent with mosquito-killing spray guns beginning on Friday to head off a looming threat of malaria that one expert says could kill 100,000 more people around the tsunami disaster zone.

While the threat of cholera and dysentery outbreaks is diminishing by the day because clean water is increasingly getting to tsunami survivors, the danger of malaria and dengue fever epidemics is increasing, said Richard Allan, director of the Mentor Initiative, a public health group that fights malaria epidemics. 

Over 25,000 leave tsunami relief centers in Sri Lanka: UN

COLOMBO: More than 25,000 Sri Lankans displaced by last month's tsunami have left relief camps in the past 24 hours, the United Nations' refugee agency said on Friday, adding the country needs tens of thousands of more tents.

The Dec. 26 tsunami killed about 31,000 people in Sri Lanka and made another 800,000 homeless. Although many of the displaced have nothing left, hundreds of thousands have returned to their villages to rebuild, aid agencies say.               

UN urges Indonesia to drop troop deadline
 

BANDA ACEH: The United Nations urged Indonesia not to impose a deadline on foreign troops providing relief assistance in tsunami-hit Aceh province. 

"I am sure the Indonesian government will agree with me that the most important thing is to save lives and not have deadlines," said Jan Egeland, UN undersecretary for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordination.

Egeland was responding to Indonesian Vice President Yusuf Kalla's statement earlier this week that he wanted all foreign military to leave Indonesia by the end of March or "the sooner the better".

Egeland said that while the March deadline was unlikely to pose major problems because by then roads would be cleared, he was concerned about foreign aid workers in Aceh. 

Tsunami damage to fishing industries worse than expected: UN

ROME: The devastating impact of the Asian tsunami disaster on fishing and aquaculture in the Indian Ocean is worse and more complex than expected, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Friday.

"The situation is extremely serious, particularly in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, the countries where we have the best information coming through," said Jeremy Turner, head of the agency's Fishery Technology Service.

                              13-01-2005

Asian tsunami death toll rises over 163,000
  
JAKARTA: The death toll from the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Indian Ocean nations passed 163,338 Thursday with the release of updated figures from the Indonesia social affairs ministry.

Geo TV viewers urge all possible help to Tsunami victims

 
KARACHI: Geo viewers continued pouring in e-mails on [geonews@geo.tv] expressing their views as to how best of the roles we can play in the ongoing relief and rehabilitation works of the people rendered homeless and destitute by Tsunami disaster?

Dr. Bakht Jamal from Dubai writes, “On seeing Tsunami disaster, we all have tearful eyes. It is our duty to join hands and provide as much as possible financial help collectively to our Muslim brethren.

Liaquat Ali from Jhang Saddar writes, “The colossal loss of human lives by Tsunami was a great tragedy. Pakistan did its best to help Tsunami victims, which is quite praiseworthy. Although this huge loss from the incident could not be made up, still we should continue trying to help our hapless brothers.”

Malik Sajid from Rahimyar Khan told that lacs of children have been orphaned and left heirless as they lost their parents. We might not be able to give them back their comforts, they enjoyed with their parents, but “We are all duty bounden to help these children for meeting the financial requirements of their rehabilitation.”

Shagufta Mehar from Jaranawala writes, “We shouldn’t at all forget these Tsunami-struck homeless and helpless children on the eve of Eid because they need our help and assistance today.”

Annan calls for global tsunami warning system

PORT LOUIS: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called on Thursday for "decisive measures" to address climate change and said a global early warning system must be set up in the wake of last month's Asian tsunami disaster.

"It is no longer so hard to imagine what might happen from the rising sea levels that the world's top scientists are telling us will accompany global warming," Annan told leaders at a UN conference on small islands here.

The conference that opened on Monday is looking at ways to help the world's most vulnerable states cope with hazards and disasters such as the December 26 tsunami that devastated 12 countries, including the Maldives, a cluster of 1,192 low-lying islands scattered across the Indian Ocean.
 

Seychelles urge tsunami relief fund

PORT LOUIS: The Indian Ocean island-nation of the Seychelles on Thursday urged the creation of special fund for countries hit by the Asian tsunami disaster and echoed urgent calls for a regional early warning system.

The tsunami, which battered 12 nations leaving close to 160,000 dead, caused more than 30 million dollars in damage to the Seychelles where two people were killed, President James Michel told a UN conference on small islands.

"This unprecedented calamity in our region has taught us, in the most compelling terms, that there is an urgent need for an early warning system in the Indian Ocean region, similar to that which exists in the Pacific," he said. 

Sri Lanka seeks over 100,000 tents for tsunami victims

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka on Thursday urged global donors urgently to provide more than 100,000 tents for around 73,000 families made homeless by the tsunami disaster.

Most of the displaced people are staying in camps set up in thousands of schools across the island after the December 26 tsunamis destroyed three-quarters of Sri Lanka's coastline, killing 30,800 people.

The task forces working on reconstruction said they urgently need tents because schools across the country opened on Monday for the new academic year.

Donors such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and other organisations are in talks with the task forces to work out a reconstruction package.  

 Sri Lanka investigates alleged sale of orphans

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka Sri Lankan authorities are investigating whether a man tried to sell two children orphaned by the tsunami. 

They arrested a 60-year-old man after being tipped off about the alleged sale of the children, ages 12 and 13. It's not yet clear what happened to the children.The suspect has been released on bail. 

Scores of children lost their parents to the killer waves December 26th. About 31-thousand people died in Sri Lanka. 

The United Nations and international aid groups are concerned child traffickers could take advantage of the disaster and try to sell orphans into forced labor or the sex trade.

Death toll in Asian quake disaster approaches 160,000

JAKARTA: The death toll from the earthquake and tsunamis that devastated Indian Ocean coastlines last month approached 160,000 on Thursday as India and Sri Lanka reported new deaths.

Indonesia was hardest-hit by the December 26 quake and tsunamis, with 106,523 confirmed deaths and 12,047 people missing, the social affairs ministry said.

 In Sri Lanka government figures issued on Thursday showed the toll had risen by 11 to 30,893 while the number of those reported missing had come down by 50 to 6,038.

In neighbouring India, more than 300 more people were confirmed dead on the Andaman islands, pushing the official death toll to 10,672 with 5,711 still missing and feared dead.

The death toll in Thailand stood at 5,313, but the number of missing continued to slip, down by 91 names Thursday to 3,254, including 1,063 foreigners.

Myanmar's Prime Minister Soe Win has said 59 people were killed in the tsunamis and more than 3,200 left homeless. This was down from the UN's estimated 90.

At least 82 people were killed and another 26 were missing in the Maldives, a government spokesman said.

Sixty-eight people were dead in Malaysia, most of them in Penang, according to police, while Bangladesh reported two deaths.

Fatalities also occurred on the east coast of Africa where 298 people were declared dead in Somalia, 10 in Tanzania and one in Kenya.

                          12-01-2005

Walk held for Tsunami victims in Faisalabad

FAISALABAD: A walk was organized by the Chamber of Commerce and Industries in collaboration with the Mir Khalil-ur-Rehman foundation for the tsunami victims in Faisalabad today.

President Chamber of Commerce and Industries Faisalabad Mian Mohammad Idrees led the walk.   Industrialists, representatives of trade unions, social workers, and common people including school children participated in the walk.

The walk, which began, from district council Faisalabad ended on Chowk Ghanta Ghar. The participants carried placards and banners, which appealed for helping the Tsunami victims. People in large numbers donated cheques and cash for the Tsunami victims.

Only in one hour more then 7 lac of donations was collected. The Chamber of Commerce and Industries has placed relief camps at many different points with the collaboration of the Mir Khalil-ur-Rehman foundation where along with cash, food good, beds, blankets and other necessary goods can be submitted.

Walk for Tsunami victims in Faisalabad today 

FAISALABAD: A walk for raising fund for the victims of Tsunami is being held here today, under the aegis of Mir Khalilur Rahman Foundation in collaboration with Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry. 

The walk beginning here at 11am this morning from District Council Hall will end at Chowk Ghantaghar. 

President, Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mian Mohammad Idrees and other representatives of industry and trade organizations will be leading the walk, while a large number of people from different segments of society including trading community and NGOs are expected to participate.

Tsunami aid delivered in Sri Lanka, says UN

BANDA ACEH: The United Nations said food aid has reached all the needy in Sri Lanka and many of those in Indonesia.

With more than US$4 billion (euro3 billion) in aid promised, UN officials met in Geneva in hopes of persuading donors to honor their pledges and ensure that survivors get the help they need.

A senior official in the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs was upbeat on the progress of aid deliveries following the Dec. 26 disaster, which hit 11

countries in Asia and Africa, killing more than 150,000 people.

In Sri Lanka, the overall relief effort has really gone over the hump,'' he told reporters.

Meanwhile, Puerto Rican pop star Ricky Martin met with Thai officials on Wednesday to discuss the fate of children orphaned by the killer tsunami that struck the country's southwest coast. 

Foreign troops must quit Aceh in three months: Indonesia

JAKARTA: Indonesia's vice president on Wednesday said foreign troops should leave tsunami-hit Aceh province as soon as they finish their relief mission, staying no longer than three months, state media reported.

Indonesia's tsunami toll rises to 106,523

JAKARTA: The death toll from the earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia rose to 106,523 while the number of people listed as missing stood at 12,047, the social affairs ministry said on Wednesday.

                              11-01-2005

No sign of diseases outbreak in tsunami-affected region: WHO

COLOMBO: The World Health Organization said on Tuesday there were no signs of impending outbreaks of serious disease in tsunami-hit areas, but warned that the situation should be watched carefully for a month.

The WHO will need one month to say with confidence that the worst is over, if there is no outbreak, the organization's southeast Asia chief, Samlee Plianbangchang, told reporters in the Sri Lankan capital.

``Until now there is no news of outbreak of any serious disease''in the tsunami-affected region, he said.

Convoy of aid trucks reaches Indonesian town of Meulaboh

MEULABOH: The first major convoy of aid trucks on Tuesday reached the Indonesian town of Meulaboh, which was almost completely cut off by the tsunami disaster, the International Organisation for Migration said.

Indonesia not guaranteed aid workers safety

BANDA ACEH: Indonesia said on Tuesday it could not ensure the safety of aid workers outside the cities of Banda Aceh and Meulaboh in tsunami-devastated Aceh,  the scene of a decades-old civil war.

The chief of operations for the province's disaster relief,Budi Atmaji, told a news conference that aid agencies would need permission to work outside the provincial capital Banda Aceh and Meulaboh, just 150 km (94 miles) from the epicentre of the magnitude 9 earthquake that struck on Dec. 26. 

Death toll in tsunami disaster reaches 157,000

JAKARTA: The number of people killed when an earthquake and tsunamis devastated Indian Ocean coastlines on December 26 rose to 157,576 on Tuesday as Indonesia added another 1,200 to its death toll.

Hardest-hit Indonesia has now reported 105,262 fatalities, with 10,046 people still missing, the social affairs ministry said.

The ministry said the largest death toll was in the almost completely destroyed town of Meulaboh on the remote northwest coast of Sumatra island were 28,251 people died.

Aid workers on the ground say many more bodies are yet to be collected.Another seven were added to the number killed in Sri Lanka, taking the toll to 30,725 confirmed dead, the government said. The number of people reported missing jumped from 4,939 to 5,903, latest government figures showed Monday.

In neighbouring India, the official toll stood 10,136 with 5,630 still missing and feared dead.

                               10-01-2005

Emergency phase of tsunami disaster far from over
 
GENEVA: The "emergency phase" of the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster is far from over, a senior Red Cross official said Monday after visiting the region.

Markku Niskala, secretary general of the Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, referred particularly to the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, worst hit by the giant waves.

On Saturday alone around the town of Meulaboh some 2,600 bodies had been recovered, Red Cross officials said.

This "is an alarming figure and only indicates that the emergency phase definitely is not over yet," Niskala said.

He originally said that 2,000 bodies were being collected daily, but aides later said that he had mispoken.

Indonesia's death toll stands at more than 104,000, out of a total 156,000, from the disaster caused by an undersea earthquake off Sumatra on December 26.

After tsunamis, Norway creates crisis response teams
 
OSLO: The Norwegian government, under heavy fire for its slow response to help its own nationals caught in the Asian tsunamis, announced Monday that it would set up two permanent crisis teams to respond to natural disasters.

"In hindsight we realize that we should be better prepared and have more capacity to face the challenges presented by the fact that there is a growing number of Norwegians abroad, for short and long stays," Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik told parliament.

One of the two teams would be able to be mobilised within five hours of a natural disaster.
The government will also consider setting up a crisis management cell, Bondevik said, but he stressed that he thought the existing structure "worked well".

An independent commission is expected to assess the Norwegian authorities' handling of the crisis.

In the days following the December 26 tidal waves, the number of Norwegian victims was grossly overestimated due to confusion -- including a typo error. At one point, Bondevik warned that the number of dead could exceed 1,000. 

According to the latest figures released on Monday, 15 Norwegians died and 77 others are missing.

Among the "missing" Norwegians who later turned up were people who had never set foot in Asia, others who had been in Thailand but who had informed authorities that they were safe and yet others who said they were never contacted by authorities.

Indonesian FM calls for more debt relief on visit to London
 
LONDON: Indonesia's foreign minister Hasan Wirayuda, on a visit to London, called Monday for more debt relief for his tsunami-devastated country to ensure the disaster did not derail other national priorities.

Speaking after talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, Wirajuda stopped short of calling for Indonesia's foreign debt to be cancelled.

He warned, however, that more was needed than a current plan to freeze debt payments on bilateral debts owed by countries affected by the December 26 catastrophe, which killed more than 100,000 people in Indonesia's Aceh province alone.

Speaking during a joint press conference with Straw at the Foreign Office in London, Wirayuda said his country sought "any schemes that would allow us operating space".

"We need to focus on the reconstruction in Aceh, but we do not want other programmes to be affected," he said.

Asked whether he meant debt cancellation or rescheduling, rather than just a moratorium, Wirayuda said his government had been "very careful to talk about debt cancellations or debt rescheduling, because in the past 30 to 35 years we have been faithful payers of our debts".

French charities receive 95 million euros for tsunami relief

PARIS: France's main aid charities have collected a total of  95 million euros (124.5 million dollars) in public contributions for the tsunami relief effort in Asia, according to tally on Monday.

Last week, the total stood at 65 million euros.The chief recipients were the French Red Cross, Medecins sans Frontieres  (MSF), the Catholic agency Caritas and the UN children's fund UNICEF.

Most of the non-governmental organizations said they had registered a slowdown in the number of donations made in recent days.

South African police warn of tsunami fraud scams

JOHANNESBURG:  South African police Monday warned people wanting to donate money to southeast Asian tsunami victims not to respond to email requests for help since many have been identified as scams to fleece people of their cash. "419 fraud scam offenders are now actively involved in circulating scam letters involving the tsunami disaster," said police spokesman Ronnie Naidoo, using the term for advance letters, named after a Nigerian penal code number for fraud.

The 419 scam works on a simple principle. The victim is kept on the hook for as long as possible, paying money, with the carrot of a huge return at the end. The cash never materialises and the scammer disappears into thin air. In some cases, victims are lured into a trap, kidnapped and held hostage for ransom. "These unscrupulous individuals (now) appeal for donations from recipients of these letters, where they claim to be victims of the disaster," said Superintendent Naidoo in a statement issued in Pretoria

The scammers request for money to be transferred via money wiring or direct bank deposits and some 15 letters are currently in circulation, the first being sent on the day of the disaster, Naidoo said. "Please be aware that once the money has been sent, it will never reach the real victims of the disaster," he added. Any donations to help victims should be done through a recognised fund raising organisations, Naidoo said.

Second tsunami match likely to be played in Calcutta, says ICC chief 

MELBOURNE: Calcutta is the likely venue for the return Asian Tsunami Relief Appeal cricket match next month, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said Monday. 

ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said there was a small window of opportunity to stage the game between England's scheduled finish to their five-Test series in South Africa on February 13 and Australia starting their tour to New Zealand on February 17. "We need to fly players in and out and have them there long enough for them to perform at a very high level," Speed told a press conference after the Rest of the World beat Asia by 112 runs at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. "We're not entirely sure we're going to accommodate both groups of players but we'll know in the next day or so, but one way or another I would expect the Australian players will be playing, they have an eagerness and willingness to play in the next game. "I was very hopeful that we would have a date before today so we could announce it but we're not quite there yet. "We need to make calls to England and India and I think we're probably there with a date tonight." Speed said 

Calcutta's vast Eden Gardens arena would be favourite to stage the match, while the Sri Lankan capital Colombo had also been discussed.

World's small islands press for early warning system 

PORT LOUIS: A UN conference on small islands opened in Mauritius on Monday with a call to set up an early warning system in the wake of the tsunami disaster in Asia that left more than 156,000 dead.

"We meet here in Mauritius at a time of terrible death and destruction caused by the Asian tsunami two weeks ago," said UN official Anwarul Chowdhury as he opened a week-long UN conference on small islands. 

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is due to attend the conference later this week after touring the Maldives, a cluster of 1,192 low-lying islands scattered across the Indian Ocean that was hard hit by the December 26 tidal waves.

World conference for tsunami warning system in Japan 

NEW YORK: Installing a tsunami early warning system in Asia will be the major focus of discussion at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction to be held at Kobe in Japan January 18-22.

"Early warning was always going to be a main subject to be discussed at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction. Now, this subject is all the more relevant following the devastation that occurred on December 26 in South Asia," said Salvano Briceño, director of the secretariat for the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR).

Two extra sessions on early tsunami warning have been scheduled at the meeting.

US copter crashes in Indonesia, relief operation suspended

JAKARTA: A US navy helicopter crashed and a strong aftershock struck off Indonesia's traumatised Sumatra Island Monday as aid groups struggled to reach survivors of the tsunamis, while rich countries promised debt relief.

At least four crew were injured when a US navy Sea Hawk helicopter carrying aid crashed into a paddy field shortly after dawn as it flew from the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier moored off the Sumatra coast, officials said.

Navy relief operations on the northern tip of Sumatra, where more than 100,000 people were killed in last month's disaster, were briefly suspended following the crash, the cause of which was not immediately known.

US navy spokesman John Bernard said all 10 people on board survived and had been returned to the Lincoln for medical attention.

Dozens of US military aircraft and vessels were rushed to Indonesia, the country worst affected by the December 26 catastrophe, to take part in one of the largest ever international humanitarian operations.

An hour before the chopper went down, a strong earthquake was recorded off

Sumatra close to the site of the massive quake two weeks ago that unleashed the tsunamis, the Hong Kong Observatory said.

The earthquake, with its epicentre initially determined to be at sea about 60 kilometres (40 miles) southwest of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province, was estimated to measure 6.2 on the Richter scale, the observatory said in a statement.

Meanwhile, with billions of dollars already promised in aid, French Finance Minister Herve Gaymard said the Paris Club of creditor nations had also agreed on a moratorium on debt repayments for countries hit by the tsunami.

A debt repayment moratorium is expected to benefit primarily Sri Lanka and

Indonesia. Paris Club sources said earlier only those two out of the 11 countries hit by the tsunamis applied to have their situations reviewed.

Scientists have warned that Mumbai and Orissa ports can be hit by future Tsunamis urging for possible preparations to meet such an eventuality.

US secretary of state Colin Powell in a TV interview has called for a long term plan to meet relief needs of the Tsunami-hit territories in Asia. He will meet President Bush and brief him about his observations of the visit to Asian disaster-hit region. 

                           09-01-2005

Kofi Annan visits tsunami-battered Maldives

MALE: U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan met with the president of the tsunami-battered Maldives, where 82 people were killed when giant waves hit two weeks ago and met with President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

Meanwhile, wave hit people in some areas of Indonesia could not get relief goods even after the two weeks. In Sumatra, relief activities are continued despite an incident of firing allegedly by separatists. WHO has announced provision of food to wave hit people for six months.

Japanese foreign minister and World Bank chief are also visiting tsunami hit area and they held meeting with Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. They discussed catastrophe and continued relief activities.

The low-lying Maldives, a string of 1,192 coral atolls about 500 kilometers (300 miles) off the coast of India, was inundated by floods after the Dec. 26 tsunami, which killed at least 82 people there.

Annan is visiting countries affected by the tsunami in Asia.

A total of 13 Maldivian islands were destroyed by the tsunami and another 70 experienced disruptions in water supplies and electricity.

In Sri Lanka, at least three persons were killed and 37 others wounded in violence between Hindus and Christians and hand grenade attack.

Nationalities of nearly 2,000 dead questioned in Thailand tsunami

PHUKET, Thailand: Two weeks after the Asian tsunami killed more than 5,300 people in Thailand, the interior ministry Sunday cast doubt on the nationalities of more than one third of them.

Initial examinations of 1,973 bodies have proved unreliable and are undergoing further tests, the interior ministry said.

Many of the DNA tests were conducted on samples that had already begun decomposing, so tests were being redone on any corpses found more than five days after the tsunami hit, Interior Minister Bhokin Bhalakula told reporters.

Of the 5,305 people killed, 1,792 are now believed to be Thai, compared with 2,578 on Saturday, and 1,329 were believed to be foreign, compared with the previous figure of 2,516, the ministry said.

The origin of the remaining 2,184 was uncertain -- a ten-fold increase from the 211 whose nationalities were not known on Saturday.

Doubts about the nationalities of the victims came as a stream of foreign dignitaries was visiting Thailand to witness the devastation, check on the international forensics effort, and offer aid.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer traveled Sunday to Wat Yanyao in Phang Nga, the province which suffered most of Thailand's casualties, where he met with German forensics experts and looked at DNA samples and dental records taken from victims.

After the disaster, the Buddhist Yanyao temple was transformed into a makeshift morgue housing 1,800 bodies, and is the scene of an enormous international forensics effort.

Fischer praised the cooperation between Thai and international authorities and stressed a full accounting of those missing was a top priority.

"Now the first thing we need to know about is the missing people," he told reporters in Phuket.
Sixty Germans are confirmed dead and about 1,000 are unaccounted for, mainly in Thailand's southern beach resorts.

Fischer also reiterated Germany's offer to help set up an alert system for the Indian Ocean within three years, relying on the use of e-mails and mobile phone text messages.

Thailand will host a regional meeting January 28 and 29 on an agreed tsunami early warning system for the Indian Ocean and is inviting all nations affected as well as countries such as Japan, the United States and Germany, the foreign ministry said.

Thailand on Sunday reached out to fellow tsunami victim Indonesia -- the hardest-hit nation with more than 100,000 deaths -- by flying an air force plane carrying a relief team and 7.5 tonnes of aid to the capital of devastated Aceh province.

Team leader Lieutenant General Tanongsuk Tuvinun, a former envoy who once oversaw a ceasefire between government troops and separatists in Aceh, said Thailand had sent aid because its own losses were small by comparison.

"I believe that the scale or the magnitude of the damage is probably quite a bit different, and also in the magnitude of loss of lives," he told.

Thailand's death toll was set to rise, with four bodies pulled from the devastation on Phi Phi island Sunday two weeks after the disaster, Bhokin said.

Italian deputy foreign minister Margherita Boniver also visited Phuket and in talks with officials expressed concern about hundreds of victims buried in mass graves in Phang Nga, sources said.
The tsunami killed at least 20 Italians, and another 338 are still missing.

Phuket on Sunday also hosted Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern who assessed the humanitarian situation and met with Irish volunteers. He told reporters he also impressed on Bhokin the need to quickly identify the bodies.

"He assured us that every assistance will continue to be given to us, and time will be of the essence, that there will be no delay," Ahern said.

With foreign holidaymakers accounting for nearly half the casualties here, Thailand has played host to a steady stream of envoys from around the world. Foreign ministers from Britain, Canada, Japan, and Norway have come since Friday. Their Spanish and Chinese counterparts are also expected, while a US 
Congressional delegation are scheduled to visit the catastrophically hit Thai resort town of Khao Lak on Monday.

The prime ministers of Canada, Finland and Norway, as well as the Swedish king are all due during the week.

Fish off S.Lanka's menu as industry washed away

HIKKADUWA, Sri Lanka: Sri Lankan fisherman Sudda Aiyya stands on the starboard side of his old, damaged fishing trawler and gazes at a shoreline dotted with dozens of wrecked boats and remnants of a tsunami-ravaged
fishing harbour.

Aiyya, 47, started the New Year not knowing exactly how to collect the pieces of his shattered life after giant waves wiped out the small fishing village he lived in on Dec. 26 and left two of his three expensive trawlers beyond repair. 

"The boats that were at sea on Boxing Day were spared. Every other vessel docked inside the harbour was destroyed or damaged," he said, sailing off the coast near the southern fishing hamlet of Hikkaduwa.

The Indian Ocean island's fisheries sector bore the brunt of tsunami waves which killed 30,000 people in Sri Lanka, about 5,000 of them fishermen. It also reduced a 1,500-strong trawler fleet to just 200.

"The boats are not insured, we hope the government will compensate us. Right now the industry is dead," Aiyya said. Sri Lanka produces about 300,000 tonnes of fish annually, contributing between two and three percent of the island's gross domestic product.

The sector earns about $100 million a year exporting shrimp, lobster, tuna and shark fins, largely to Japan, the European Union and the United States.

The government says the industry, which supports more than a million people, will take at least seven months to recover from the setbacks caused by the tsunami.

In the capital Colombo, fishmongers at the city's central fish market are worried at the nosedive in demand for fish. 

"We earned around 60,000 rupees ($700) a day but that has gone down and stocks in the cold rooms are running out," said Imitiaz, a fishmonger for more than 25 years.

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT

Other dealers in Colombo feared a drastic drop in sales as many are steering clear, fearing fish and shellfish could be feeding on corpses washed out to sea.

Tamil Tiger rebels have banned fishing in areas of the northeast of the island that they control for that very reason. 

"It is a big health risk, so I asked my wife not to buy any fish for the next month," said 32-year-old teacher, D. Gunarathne.

The Sri Lankan government is trying to dispel the public's fears, and encourage a return to the island's staple diet. 

"All these people are paranoid -- it is mass paranoia. Most fishes don't feed on rotting corpses," said Nandasena Bambarawanage, secretary of the Sri Lankan Ministry of Fisheries.

"I can give you a guarantee that it is absolutely safe to eat fish," he said.

At least 156,000 people were killed in 13 countries around the Indian Ocean by the tsunami, and fears of contaminated fish are widespread.

"I won't eat fish, there are corpses in the sea ... and the fish eat those corpses. I won't eat fish for at least a year," said Hendra, 34, a worker at a medicine supply firm in Indonesia's devastated Aceh.

Fish sales have also fallen sharply in southern India and fish consumption had fallen from 50 tonnes to just 2 tonnes in Chennai, according to media reports.

Most fishermen in southern India and Sri Lanka are not venturing out to sea because they are either too shocked or their boats are damaged.

Some are also reluctant to repair their vessels, fearing they will lose the chance to get a free new boat from their governments as compensation if they are seen fishing.

Back in Hikkaduwa, Aiyya manoeuvred his remaining trawler to port in waters strewn with engine parts and boat debris.

"Our life was hard enough the way it was. Why was the sea so unkind to us, to the very people who revered it like a God?" he asks.


Outside help reaches most of Aceh, UN says

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia: Emergency relief in Indonesia's tsunami-struck Aceh is heading for a new phase, now that first contact has been established with most remote areas, the chief of U.N. operations there said on Sunday.

"Most communities have been reached," Joel Boutroue told a news conference, though his positive remarks were tempered by acknowledging that most did not mean all -- with some remote coastal areas full of people yet to be helped.

"We need now to probably enter a new phase whereby we should be able to reach all the vulnerable population in a more predictable and even-handed manner."

At least 156,000 people were killed in 13 countries around the Indian Ocean by the earthquake and tsunami two weeks ago, the most widespread natural disaster in living memory. 

Two-thirds of them died in Aceh, and 30,000 in lush Sri Lanka, which said it now planned to look ahead and hoped to get its vital tourism industry up and running soon. 

"We are now engaged in planning for the reconstruction effort which we want to start on Jan. 15," said President Chandrika Kumaratunga. 

"We can certainly welcome tourists in three months, maximum four," she told BBC television. 

Both countries played down the risks of aid delays or danger to foreign relief workers from long-running conflicts. 

Indonesia's military beefed up security in Aceh after gunfire erupted in the provincial capital Banda Aceh early in the day.

One policeman said it could have been related to a long-running insurgency in Aceh, though another blamed a disturbed government soldier. 

"The security operation conducted by Indonesia's military and police will protect, secure the humanitarian efforts," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said to allay concerns for the safety of hundreds of Western aid personnel pouring into
the province.

The tsunami, triggered by a huge undersea earthquake off the Aceh coast, killed more than 104,000 people here on Dec. 

26, with injury and disease now claiming more lives and around 50,000 people listed as missing -- with hope fading for them. 

The U.N.'s Boutroue, in Banda Aceh, said workers were still assessing areas south of the devastated town of Meulaboh that lay close to the quake's epicentre and has lost a major part of its people. A permanent U.N. base has now been established
there. 

In Banda Aceh, the clear-up got under way in earnest, with convoys of trucks taking mud and debris to dump on the outskirts.

KEEP AID COMING, BUSH ASKS
The waves also killed 15,000 in India, which says it does not need outside aid, more than 5,000 in Thailand and others in Maldives, Myanmar, Bangladesh and several east African nations. 

Governments and agencies have pledged more than $5 billion in aid. Companies and individuals have promised $1.5 billion more.

Rich nations promised on Friday to suspend debt repayments by tsunami-hit nations, which may free resources for rebuilding.

President George W. Bush urged Americans to keep opening their wallets for tsunami victims. 

In Sri Lanka, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the government should use the world's support to heal the country's ethnic divisions and end a civil war with Tamil rebels. 

The government stopped him visiting tsunami-hit areas in the rebel-held north and east on Saturday. 

"The world wants to help Sri Lanka," he said. "I hope Sri Lanka would use the support and the goodwill, not only to recover from this tragedy but as an opportunity to unite in the work for peace."

The war with the Tamil Tiger rebels has killed more than 64,000 people -- twice as many as the killer waves, but over two decades -- but is on hold thanks to a three-year ceasefire. 

Annan was heading to Maldives, a string of atolls no more than three metres (10 feet) high which lost 80 lives and suffered much damage -- and whose people now fear more than ever that rising sea-levels could one day wipe them off the
map. 

"The Maldives are so flat and small and low that the tsunami may not have even noticed us in its path," said environmental expert Mohamed Shareef.

Around 7,500 foreign tourists are dead or unaccounted for, most of them in Thailand, where German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer visited a makeshift mortuary where international forensic experts are trying to identify bodies.

STILL WOBBLING
Australian researchers said the Earth was still shaking from the earthquake off Aceh, the most powerful for 40 years. 

"These are not things that are going to throw you off your chair," said Australian National University researcher Herb McQueen, "but it is certainly above the background level of vibrations that the earth is normally accustomed to."

Scientists say the quake may also have permanently sped the Earth's rotation -- shortening days by a fraction of a second. 

(Additional reporting by Dan Eaton and Achmad Sukarsono in Banda Aceh, Simon Gardner in Colombo, Ed Cropley in Bangkok, Crispian Balmer in Krabi, Dayan Candappa in Male))

(For more news on emergency relief from Reuters AlertNet visit http://www.alertnet.org email: alertnet@reuters.com; +44 207542 2432)


Aceh tsunami survivors still without aid, two weeks after disaster

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia: Concerns remained Sunday that an unknown number of tsunami survivors in Indonesia's Aceh province have not received any aid, two weeks after the disaster that killed more than 104,000 people there.

Aid groups reported the unprecedented humanitarian operation continued to gather momentum amid enormous logistical and infrastructure problems, but conceded some of the most desperate and isolated communities may not have been reached.

"It's impossible to estimate how many people we're feeding," Maria Theresa De la Cruz, head of relief operations in Indonesia for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) told.

"We don't know whether the food airdropped is distributed in all areas. In some areas it's organised. In other areas, as soon as the chopper lands, everyone rushes there."

The IOM, which was one of the few foreign non-government organisations operating in Aceh before the December 26 disaster, is coordinating airdrops to areas cut off by road with the US navy.

Another prominent aid group conducting relief missions in Aceh, Oxfam, said there were over 100,000 people in 200 makeshift settlements across the province with populations ranging from 30 to more than 3,000.

Oxfam's regional advocacy coordinator, Mona Latzo, said a lack of coordination among aid groups and the Indonesian government meant there was no way of knowing how regularly some of the settlements were receiving aid.

"It's likely that many people have not received continued aid. With over 200 communities, it's very difficult to keep on top of who is getting what and when," Latzo told.

In Meulaboh, an isolated city on the west coast where more than 28,000 people have died, relief workers said survivors who originally fled to higher ground were being forced by hunger to return to scavenge for food in the ruins.

"Groups of displaced persons continue to flow into Meulaboh from the surroundings," said Bertus Loun of Global Relief.

"After no longer being able to find enough water or food (in the mountains), they have begun to walk towards the larger population centers."

The logistical problems at the two main airports serving as hubs for aid distribution throughout Aceh is also continuing to plague relief efforts.

The airports -- in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh and the city of Medan in the neighbouring province of North Sumatra -- remain overwhelmed by the numbers of planes trying to deliver supplies, aid groups said.

Latzo said a flight carrying vital equipment for Oxfam arrived in Medan a week ago, but remained stuck there for five days as they could not get landing permission at Banda Aceh airport because of the massive congestion.

She said Oxfam eventually decided to bring the equipment in by truck, a much longer journey that was extended after one vehicle went missing for two days.

"The (aid distribution) situation has improved but we are still experiencing a good number of challenges and we are trying to be creative and think of many different ways to do our work," Latzo said.

The IOM also said it would begin a steady supply of road convoys from the Indonesian capital of Jakarta to Aceh on Monday to avoid the chaos at Banda 
Aceh airport.

"These road convoys will result in more food becoming available. We are basically getting around the bottleneck at the airport," the IOM's spokesman for Indonesia, Chris Lom told.

Meanwhile, survivors receiving regular food and water at camps in and around Banda Aceh were experiencing the next painful stage of their recovery: looking for financial security with their homes, businesses and livelihoods destroyed.

"My life is in a mess now. Unless aid funds come to us directly and quickly, we may all have to bury ourselves together with the dead," 20-year-old Anita told as she queued to collect a bowl of rice and potato at a relief centre.

Anita, who worked in a brick factory that was destroyed in the floods, said she would need 25 million rupiah (2,500 dollars) to rebuild her house and for other financial assistance.

"But if you ask me what's in store in the future, I just don't know. I don't see any light unless we get some financial aid soon," she said.


Irish FM visits Thailand's tsunami-hit Phuket

PHUKET, Thailand: Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern on Sunday visited Thailand's tsunami-hit tourist island of Phuket to survey devastation caused by the killer waves and meet with Irish relief volunteers.

Ahern was accompanied by the heads of the country's main aid organisations, Concern, Goal, Trocaire and the Irish Red Cross.

The tsunami has resulted in one confirmed Irish fatality, a Dublin woman, but foreign ministry officials are "extremely worried" three other people may have also died and acknowledged there was medium risk another four perished.

Ahern held talks with Interior Minister Bhokin Bhalakula who he said gave assurances that Thailand would spare no effort in assisting Irish officials or in the identification of thousands of corpses undergoing forensic testing.

"He (Bhokin) assured us that every assistance will continue to be given to us, and time will be of the essence, that there will be no delay, and that they will do everything they have to do according to international standards, and we accept that," Ahern told reporters at Phuket city hall.

Thailand's response to the disaster "was absolutely excellent from day one," he added.

Concern over victim identification has persisted. On Sunday Bhokin's ministry cast doubt over the nationalities of some 2,000 of the 5,300 confirmed victims in Thailand, saying initial identity checks had proved unreliable upon further examination.

Ireland has pledged 10 million dollars to countries hurt by the massive earthquake off Indonesia and the subsequent tsunamis, and the figure could rise.

"We have ... indicated to the UN and EU that if more is required, we will come up to the mark," said Ahern.

He was due Monday to travel to Krabi province, in which the devastated tropical isle of Phi Phi is located. Two out of the three Irish missing were reported to have disappeared in Phi Phi.
After touring regions of southern Thailand devastated by the tsunami, Ahern was to travel to Indonesia and Sri Lanka to assess the humanitarian needs in those countries as well.


Indian PM holds all-party talks on tsunami relief

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh briefed political parties Sunday on the rehabilitation of nearly three million tsunami victims, a government spokesman said, as massive aid distribution continued.

The meeting followed Singh's whistle-stop tour of two of India's worst hit regions -- the southern Tamil Nadu and the Andaman archipelago.

The meet was also to discuss "the assistance provided (by New Delhi) to the neighbouring countries in the region who were also affected by the tsunami," 
said a statement posted on the home ministry website.

It also comes om the wake of criticism from the main opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that rehabilitation efforts were unsatisfactory.

"There is a need to move away from empty and shallow exercises to address the reality of issues," senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh told reporters Saturday.

The home ministry meanwhile said almost 4,000 metric tonnes of relief supplies -- including food, water, medicines, clothing and tents -- had been despatched to the battered states by Saturday.

India's official death toll in the tsunami stood at 10,012 Saturday with 5,624 people missing, most presumed dead.

The government has assessed mainland damage at 1.6 billion dollars. While there is no bill for the battered Andamans, preliminary reports put the tally at nearly 600 million dollars. Compensation for relatives of the dead is put at more than one billion rupees (23 million dollars).

In the Andamans archipelago Saturday, Singh pledged to "move heaven and earth" to rebuild the islands, and announced a two billion-rupee (45.7-million dollar) relief package.

About 1,205 people are confirmed dead and 5,531 still missing and feared dead on the Andamans which lies close to the epicentre of the undersea earthquake off Indonesia that triggered the giant waves.

Some 380,000 people were still housed Sunday in 614 relief camps, down from 
the more than 500,000 last week.

Some 2.72 million Indians were affected by the tsunamis along 2,260 kilometres (1,400 miles) of mainland coast. The figure includes more than 288,000 people on the Andamans, which had a pre-tsunami population of 356,000, according to government statistics.

A senior health ministry official Friday dismissed reports of the outbreak of epidemics relief camps but admitted a shortage of counsellors to cope with trauma.

Health workers are carrying out mass inoculations against measles and counselling children with help of the United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF and the World Health Organisation.


UN chief "excited" at peace prospects in Sudan, Middle East

COLOMBO: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said he was "excited" at the possibility of peace in Sudan, where a pact was to be signed Sunday, and the re-energising of the peace process in the Middle East, where Palestinians were holding leadership elections.

"I am excited about prospects of peace in Sudan and re-energising of peace process between Israel and Palestine," Annan told a media conference in Colombo after wrapping up a two-day visit of tsunami-affected Sri Lanka.

"I am very impressed by the Palestinians and their transition process after Yasser Arafat's death. Today they have a choice to elect a new leader and the elections are expected to go very well."

He said he expected the new leader would get the support of the Palestinian people and also of the "international community".

"Mahmud Abbas and Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon know each other well," said Annan. Abbas is the overwhelming favourite to win Sunday's vote and replace Arafat, who died two months ago.

He was buoyant at developments in Sudan. "I am thrilled that peace will return again between the North and the South in Sudan. This is a conflict that has been going on for the last 21 years," Annan said.

"Many were sceptical earlier about the agreement between the North and the South but it has made positive impact."

Sudan's Vice President Ali Osman Taha and the country's main rebel leader John Garang were due Sunday to sign a final peace agreement in Kenya to decisively end Africa's longest-running conflict.

The signing ceremony, to be held in Nairobi's Nyayo National Stadium, was to be attended by several heads of state, diplomats and western leaders including US Secretary of State Colin Powell. Thousands of Sudanese refugees in Kenya are also expected to attend.

After a two-day visit to Sri Lanka, Annan was to head later Sunday for the Maldives which was also hit by the giant sea surges on December 26.


Japanese defense chief promises to help Indonesia for next three months 

TOKYO: Japanese defense chief Yoshinori Ohno promised Sunday to keep Japanese troops in Indonesia to help victims of the Asian tsunami disaster for the next three months, as requested by Jakarta.

Ohno, director general of the Defence Agency, met with Indonesian Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono who asked Japan to continue providing emergency relief aid and rescue personnel for the next three months, especially in hard-hit Aceh province, according to Jiji Press.

"We will continue to carry out relief operations with full force," Ohno told his Indonesian counterpart, Jiji said in a dispatch from Jakarta.

The commitment was expressed after Ohno issued an order Friday to dispatch some 1,000 Japanese troops to Indonesia to help tsunami victims.

It will be Japan's biggest overseas deployment since World War II, and some troops have already left Japan for emergency aid operations.

The troops will mainly provide medical and transport support. Massive tsunami waves caused by a powerful earthquake off the coast of the northern Indonesian island of Sumatra on December 26 killed more than 156,000 people in 11 countries.

At least 23 Japanese citizens have been confirmed dead in the catastrophe while 247 Japanese are still unaccounted for.

"Japan belongs to Asia, and we will do whatever we can to help with the Self Defense Force personnel," Ohno told reporters after the meeting with Sudarsono.

"The emergency aid, reconstruction and rehabilitation will take a long time. We want to respond to future requests for help by keeping close communications" with victim countries," Ohno said.

EU president calls for full debt relief for tsunami-hit countries

PARIS: The current EU president, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, told French radio Sunday that he favored "full debt relief" for countries hit by the tsunami disaster in south Asia.

"Personally, I'm in favor of full debt relief for these countries," he told France Inter radio, three days before government creditors in the Paris Club are to meet here to consider a debt moratorium for Sri Lanka and Indonesia, two of the countries worst affected by the December 26 devastating tidal waves.

"But we will have to see with those who are more directly concerned, that is members of the Paris Club, what can be the modalities of a moratorium, or even debt relief," he added.

Juncker also stressed that European Union aid to the tsunami-hit countries would be "revised upwards" in the coming weeks. 

Recalling that at a snap world summit on the tsunami disaster in Jakarta Thursday he had announced an EU aid package of 1.5 billion euros (around two billion dollars), Juncker added: "we will probably revise this European aid upwards within a few weeks."

The tsunamis triggered by a huge earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, killed more than 156,000 in 11 countries along Indian Ocean coastlines.

"The European Investment Bank will put in place a facility of one billion euros, which means that Europe's effort will be long-term," Juncker said, stressing the need for "moving rapidly from humanitarian aid to rehabilitation and reconstruction."

At the Jakarta summit, Asian and world leaders backed a freeze on debt payments from tsunami-hit nations. But only two of the 11 countries -- Sri Lanka and Indonesia -- have asked to have their financial situation reviewed by the Paris Club at a meeting here beginning Wednesday.

Another source close to the Paris Club has said the meeting would debate a 
debt repayment freeze but not a cancellation.

Suspending debt payments from countries affected by the December 26 disaster won the backing Friday of finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized countries.

The British government, which holds the rotating G7 presidency, said the idea would be debated by the Paris Club this week.

With an external debt of 132 billion dollars, of which 70 billion is owed to public creditors or has been guaranteed by public bodies according to the World Bank, Indonesia has said it hopes debt relief will be proffered without conditions.

The Paris Club comprises Austria, Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States.


Indonesian foreign minister to tour Europe over debt relief

JAKARTA: Indonesian Foreign Minister Hasan Wirayuda will leave Sunday for a trip to several European countries to seek clarity on international offers of a debt moratorium following the tsunami disaster.

Wirayuda, who will be accompanied by a technical team from the finance ministry and the office of the top minister for the economy, will leave later Sunday for Britain, foreign affairs ministry spokesmen Yuri Thamrin said.

He will also visit France, Italy, and Germany, Thamrin said, without giving further details. Airport officials said Wirayuda was due to leave Jakarta at 7:00 pm (1200 GMT).

The Detikcom online news service quoted Wirayuda as saying the trip's aim was to gain a greater understanding about the offers of debt moratorium from those countries.

"We will seek clarity on the debt moratorium contract," Wirayuda said, adding that he will also seek to reach a common perception between donor countries and Indonesia on what the nation actually needed.

"Not only for the reconstruction of Aceh but also for the recovery of the economy."

Wirayuda said he would meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair to discuss the scheme, according to Detikom.

Government creditors in the Paris Club are this week due to consider a debt moratorium for Sri Lanka and Indonesia, two of the countries worst affected by last month's disaster.

With an external debt of 132 billion dollars, of which 70 billion is owed to public creditors or has been guaranteed by public bodies, Indonesia has said it hopes debt relief will be offered without conditions.

The Paris Club comprises Austria, Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States.

Aside from Britain, other Paris Club members to have offered debt moratoriums for Indonesia are Germany and Italy Indonesia was the nation worst hit by December 26 earthquake and tsunami disaster, with a death toll of more than 104,000 people in the remote western province of Aceh.


World's cricketing elite set to realise tsunami appeal windfall

MELBOURNE, Australia: World cricket's elite gather here on Monday to raise an estimated 10 million dollars (7.5 million US dollars) for the Asian tsunami disaster.

The Rest of the World, led by Ricky Ponting, will take on the Sourav Ganguly-skippered Asia in a one-day international charity match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground as world cricket's response to the shattering events on Indian Ocean shorelines a fortnight ago.

A sellout crowd of about 78,000 and millions of viewers from 122 countries will watch the special match, thrown together at short notice.

Not since Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket in the late 1970s has there been a more star-studded gathering of cricket talent in Australia for one match.

Three of the four all-time leading Test wicket-takers, including the top two Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan, and leading batsmen such as Brian Lara and Ponting will play.

All proceeds from the match will go to aid agency World Vision, which has already raised more than 20 million dollars (15 million US dollars) for tsunami victims this weekend from a mass concert and telethon.

"Having a gathering of players like this in Melbourne is great for this game and it's obviously going to be great for the tsunami relief fund," Ponting said Sunday.

"It's great to see people have come from all around the world to do whatever we can as a player group and as a cricket community for people that are a lot less fortunate than us."

The match has been pulled together in just 12 days, with most of the players assembling here Sunday for a media conference and light training.

No official estimate has been put on the funds likely to be raised from the match, but privately 10 million dollars is being talked about as a realistic aim, with one million dollars (750,000 US dollars) already generated in ticket sales, one million dollars pledged by the match sponsor and 1,000 dollars a run to be donated by a mobile phone company.

All proceeds from food and drink sales, auctions of signed shirts on website eBay, and a telethon to be held in conjunction with the match on the Nine Network will also swell the coffers to aid World Vision's work in the devastated region.

Australian wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist, who is also a World Vision ambassador, said he hoped the nation's outpouring of generosity to help tsunami victims wouldn't be a one-off event.

"It shouldn't just take one freak act of nature to realise just how generous we can be," Gilchrist said.

"There are wonderful long-term opportunities to realise that we can lend a hand."

Several of the players taking part, including Muralitharan and Sri Lankan teammate Sanath Jayasuriya, have been helping in the relief effort by visiting the worst-hit regions with food parcels.

For Muralitharan, the match will be his first in five months after shoulder surgery and is his first in Australia since he boycotted Sri Lanka's tour after a furore over his suspect bowling action.

But Muralitharan said he was expecting better treatment on Sunday than in the past from Australian fans.

The International Cricket Council has declared the match an official one-day international, meaning statistics from the game will count on players' career records.

"Everyone here has got that competitive instinct within them, otherwise they wouldn't be here and they wouldn't be recognised as being some of the best players in the world," Ponting said.

"The idea is to put on the best possible show we can and make it the best spectacle for cricket fans all around the world."

Tsunamis killed more than 156,000 people when they crashed into Indian Ocean coastlines on Boxing Day.

Asian XI: Sourav Ganguly (IND/capt), Sanath Jayasuriya (SRI), Virender Sehwag (IND), Rahul Dravid (IND), Yousuf Youhana (PAK), Alok Kapali (BAN), Kumar Sangakkara (SRI), Abdul Razzaq (PAK), Chaminda Vaas (SRI), Zaheer Khan (IND), Anil Kumble (IND), Muttiah Muralitharan (SRI), Sachin Tendulkar (IND).

Rest of the World: Ricky Ponting (AUS/capt), Matthew Hayden (AUS), Adam Gilchrist (AUS), Stephen Fleming (NZL), Brian Lara (WIN), Chris Gayle (WIN), Chris Cairns (NZL), Shane Warne (AUS), Glenn McGrath (AUS), Dwayne Bravo (WIN), Darren Gough (ENG), Daniel Vettori (NZL). Coach/manager: Steve Waugh (AUS) Umpires: Rudi Koertzen (RSA) Billy Bowden (NZL) 


Hundreds protest outside Sri Lanka UN office over Annan's visit

COLOMBO: At least 300 people protested Sunday outside an office of the United Nations against its chief Kofi Annan's inability to visit rebel held areas of Sri Lanka, a UN official said.

The UN secretary general, who wound up a two-day visit to tsunami affected Sri Lanka an hour earlier, did not visit victims in any of the rebel controlled areas.

"Around 300 people held a peaceful protest outside the UN office in Jaffna and gave us a memorandum which we will forward to the secretary general through our country coordinating office," said Richard Barkle, assistant field officer at UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

"The people gathered were local civilians, members of non-governmental organisations, religious heads and community leaders. We know them well and have good links with them," Barkle told.

He said the protest lasted for about 45 minutes from 10:00am (0400 GMT). Annan said Sunday he wanted to return to Sri Lanka to "see all parts of the country" as he ended a two-day tour of tsunami-battered parts of the island, amid reports the government blocked him from visiting rebel-held northern areas.

"I'm hoping to come back... and see all parts of the country and be of help to accelerate the peace process," Annan told a media conference before heading for the Maldives, which was also hit by the giant waves on December 26.

The Sunday Leader newspaper said President Chandrika Kumaratunga had personally objected to an on-site visit in guerrilla-held territory, fearing the rebels would make political capital out of it.

But the government said the programme had been worked out with UN officials, who had been offered stopovers in the north.

It said in a statement that ahead of the UN chief's arrival it had offered on-site visits in Tamil areas Batticaloa in the east and Jaffna in the north, as well as to tsunami-bashed Mullaitivu in guerrilla territory.

The final programme, it added, had been worked out with UN officials "taking into account the security, programming and time considerations involved."

The row over Annan's visit has again brought tensions between the government and the LTTE to the fore.

In recent days tensions have resurfaced, with the Tigers accusing the government, in its relief efforts, of neglecting Tamil-majority areas in favour of Sinhalese-dominated southern areas -- claims the government denies.


Indonesia says 77,000 still missing in tsunami-hit Sumatra

JAKARTA: Some 77,000 people are still listed as missing on Indonesia's tsunami-hit island of Sumatra in addition to tens of thousands of confirmed deaths, the health ministry said Sunday.

There have been conflicting figures about the casualties from the December 26 disaster in Indonesia. The health ministry puts the death toll at about 95,000 compared with 104,055 claimed by the Social Affaits ministry Tsunamis swept the northern coasts of Sumatra island following a strong earthquake centered in the Indian Ocean about 150 kilometers (93 miles) off the coastal town of Meulaboh.

At least 150,000 people were killed on shorelines around the Indian Ocean by the giant waves.


Sri Lankan doctors monitor possible tsunami survivor

KARAPITAYA, Sri Lanka: Sri Lankan doctors said Sunday they could not say whether a dehydrated patient suffering from pneumonia who was dropped off at their hospital by an unknown person was a tsunami survivor.

The man, who appeared to be in his late 60s, gave his name as Sirisena and said he was from the southern village of Pettigalawatta, but could not answer other questions when he arrived Saturday, doctors at Karapitaya hospital said.

"He's talking a little bit now, but we can't get any reliable information from him because he's so confused," Dr Nilushi Gamachchi told.

"He said he was drowned, but that's all. He said it was about a week ago. We can't say whether he is a tsunami victim or not," she said, adding that he had also complained about being caught up in gunfire.

She said the patient, who appeared frail and had thick stubble on his face, had told doctors he was married and had two children, but later changed the name of the village he came from.

A local report said Sunday he had been pulled from rubble after the tsunami but did not cite any sources.

On Saturday, intern house officer Rasika Gunawardhana said the man was extremely malnourished and that he appeared to have not washed for several weeks.

"On admission he was severely dehydrated, and with a catheter only 10 millilitres of urine was passed. He has pneumonia and there is a fracture, but we can't tell the duration of the healing yet," she told reporters.

She said it was possible that he had been trapped somewhere and "maybe got access to water from rain that has fallen since the tsunami", which hit Sri Lanka on December 26 and killed more than 30,000 people in the island nation.

His medical notes recorded that he was brought to the hospital by an unidentified volunteer cleaner.

Number of Indian children orphaned by tsumani disaster continues to swell

SIKKAL, India: Forty-seven Indian children orphaned in Asia's tsunami disaster were placed at a make-shift orphanage run by the government in devastated Nagapattinam district, an official said Sunday, adding that the number of parentless children would continue to swell.

P. Rajeshwari, chief warden at the orphanage situated in the town of Sikkal (Hurdle) two kilometres (1.2 miles) west of Nagapattinam town in southern Tamil Nadu state, said about 150 orphaned children were identified by the government.

"The orphanage will finally accommodate 100 children. It will be full within a couple of weeks," Rajeshwari told.

Of the 47 children at the centre 22 children have lost both their parents and the rest have a single parent.

Tamil Nadu suffered the heaviest casualties in the December 26 disaster with 7,941 dead while neighbouring Pondicherry lost 590 people. In the worst-hit district of Nagapattinam the total dead stood at 6,035.

Volunteers were sorting out medicines and labelling plastic containers with each child's name written on it to keep a tab on the medicines being administered.

Children were playing with plastic footballs or sat on the floors colouring while others curiously stared at a stream of aid workers, journalists and officials visiting the orphanage.

"After a week they will start going to school. It will be the same schools they were studying at before the tsunamis stuck on December 26," warden Rajeshwari said, adding the government was providing free food and medical help.

A teacher, a cook, two helpers to dress up and bathe small orphans, a sweeper and two policewomen are employed at the orphanage being run at a rented two-story building. It has six rooms and three toilets.

"More toilets are being built. A doctor visits the centre everyday," said Rajeshwari, who has been a government warden in the state for the last 21 years.

Indian activists have called for a one year adoption ban to prevent human traffickers from exploiting children orphaned in the tsunami disaster for cheap labour or the sex trade.

But individuals and non-government organisations are coming forward to adopt the orphans.

N. Sridhar, who runs a non-profit People Welfare Trust in the southern Tamil Nadu state, visited the orphanage to enquire whether some children could be adopted.

His request was turned down by the warden.

"We want to adopt 25 children. She said it is not possible right now and told me to contact the concerned authorities," Sridhar said.

Government permission is required for a private organisation willing to set up an orphanage in India. Strict guidelines and rules are in force for a foreigner wanting to adopt an Indian child.


India's official tsunami toll at 15,639 dead or missing

NEW DELHI: India's official toll from tsunamis inched higher Saturday with at least 10,022 people confirmed killed and 5,617 missing and feared dead.

On the mainland, at least 8,817 people died when the huge waves struck December 26, according to the home ministry Web site.

The number of bodies disposed of in the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands stood at 1,205 while the tally of missing was 5,531, down from Friday's figure of 5,592.

Southern Tamil Nadu state suffered the heaviest casualties December 26 with 7,951 dead while neighbouring Pondicherry lost 590 people. In the worst-hit district of Nagapattinam, in Tamil Nadu, the total dead stood at 6,038.

The ministry said 171 people died in Kerala and 105 in Andhra Pradesh. It said final confirmation was still awaited before it could list all the missing as presumed dead and the search for survivors would go on through next week.

The numbers have been compiled largely on officially documented or disposed of bodies and have lagged behind field reports. Many bodies were buried or burnt without documentation.

The vast majority of the missing are from the Andaman and Nicobar islands where search efforts are still underway. The killer waves washed away roads and jetties, hampering the search.

On the Andamans, the overall picture remains uncertain with locals, police and aid workers fearing some 10,000 people died in the 500-plus islands that stretch over 800 kilometres (500 miles).

Some 377,000 people remained in more than 600 relief camps across India on 
Sunday, down from more than 500,000 last week.

The government has assessed mainland damage at 1.6 billion dollars. While there is no bill for the battered Andamans, preliminary reports put the tally at nearly 600 million dollars. Compensation for relatives of the dead is put at more than one billion rupees (23 million dollars).

Some 2.72 million people were affected by the giant waves along 2,260 kilometres (1,400 miles) of mainland coast, apart from the Andamans, according to government figures.

Death toll in Asian quake disaster more than 156,000

JAKARTA: The number of people killed when an earthquake and tsunamis devastated Indian Ocean coastlines on December 26 stood at 156,237 Sunday as Sri Lanka and India both raised their number of dead.

Hardest-hit Indonesia's death toll remained at 104,055 Sunday, a day after some 3,000 new deaths were added to it.

In Sri Lanka, 30,718 were confirmed killed, the government said. Another 4,939 people were still missing, while the number of people displaced by the catastrophe was around 512,690, according to government figures.

In neighbouring India, the official toll stood at 10,022 with the number of missing at 5,617, most of them presumed dead.

The death toll in Thailand climbed above 5,300, but the number of missing kept dropping as authorities double-checked initial reports, the interior ministry said.

Fourteen more people were confirmed dead Saturday, bringing the death toll to 5,305. The list of missing dropped by more than 70, as authorities revised their figures to 3,498 missing.

Myanmar's Prime Minister Soe Win said Thursday 59 people were killed in the 
tsunamis and more than 3,200 left homeless. This was down from the UN's 
estimated 90.

At least 82 people were killed and another 26 were missing in the Maldives, a government spokesman said.

Sixty-eight people were dead in Malaysia, most of them in Penang, according to police, while in Bangladesh a father and child were killed after a tourist boat capsized in large waves, officials said.

Fatalities also occurred on the east coast of Africa where 298 people were declared dead in Somalia, 10 in Tanzania and one in Kenya.

The US Geological Survey said the earthquake west of the Indonesian island of Sumatra measured 9.0 on the Richter scale -- making it the largest quake worldwide in four decades.

Death toll
Indonesia: 104,055; Sri Lanka: 30,718; India: 15,639; Thailand: 5,305; Myanmar: 59;Maldives: 82;
Malaysia: 68Bangladesh: 2;Somalia: 298;Tanzania: 10;Kenya: 1;
Total: 156,237

* India's figure includes 5,617, listed as missing, most of them presumed dead.


Sri Lanka will need more food in 'a few weeks': president

LONDON: Sri Lanka, one of the countries hit hardest by the Indian Ocean tsunamis, will need more food in "a few weeks", but nobody will starve on the island because of the tragedy, President Chandrika Kumaratunga said Sunday.

"The situation is under control in the whole country", she told BBC television in an interview from Colombo.

"We have sufficient food for a few weeks, but we reckon we have to feed the people who have been displaced, who have lost their houses. About 90,000 houses have been destroyed. In a few weeks we will need more food," she said.

But no one would die of hunger because of the December 26 tsunamis, which affected three-quarters of Sri Lanka's coastline and left more than 30,000 people dead on the island alone, she added.

"We have been sending the food, water and other things from the very first day. In addition to the government, the normal citizens have come up magnificently.

Certainly there will be nobody dying in Sri Lanka because of the tsunami," she said.

Reconstruction work was now a priority and would get under way shortly, Kumaratunga added.

"We are now engaged in planning for the reconstruction effort, which we want to start off on January 15.

"The second operation (after emergency aid), which is the immediate commencement of reconstruction, of damaged roads, schools, hospitals and such like, and of course the houses, we have almost finished planning for it. That is where we need assistance."


India to install tsunami warning system

NEW DELHI: India's government said Sunday it will set up an early warning system and disaster management authority amid criticism it is not doing enough for people orphaned or made homeless by the tsunami disaster.

The decisions were taken at an all-party meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi, a day after his whistle-stop tour of two of India's worst hit regions -- southern Tamil Nadu and the Andamans archipelago.

India's official toll in the December 26 tsunami disaster inched higher Saturday with at least 10,022 people confirmed killed and 5,617 missing, most feared dead.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil told reporters after the three-hour meeting that a bill formally proposing the setting up of the disaster management authority would be introduced in the next session of parliament.

Patil said India would be "part and parcel" of all international efforts aimed at setting up a tsunami alert system.

Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who was also present at the briefing said leaders demanded "an early warning system should be evolved" to prevent further catastrophes like the tsunamis.

"The prime minister readily agreed... a committee has been constituted to look for the best technology available," Mukherjee told reporters.

Sushma Swaraj, a leader of India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) told reporters the government had accepted the suggestion "that India should be part of the international warning system."

The meeting comes in the wake of criticism from the BJP that rehabilitation efforts were unsatisfactory.

Swaraj said many political parties "found it difficult to send relief directly to their activists for distribution."

The home ministry meanwhile said almost 4,000 tonnes of relief supplies -- including food, water, medicines, clothing and tents -- had been despatched to the battered states by Saturday.

Some of the suggestions put forth included the construction of houses at a "distance from the actual sea shore, special care for orphans and widows... a massive operation for adopting the orphan children... and the adequate arrangement for counselling," Mukherjee said.

The government has estimated the tsunamis caused 1.6 billion dollars' worth of damage.

While there is no bill for the battered Andamans, preliminary reports put the tally at nearly 600 million dollars. Compensation for relatives of the dead is put at more than one billion rupees (23 million dollars).

In the Andamans archipelago Saturday, Singh pledged to rebuild the islands and announced a two billion-rupee (45.7 million dollars) relief package.

About 1,205 people have been confirmed dead and 5,531 still missing and feared dead on the Andamans which lies close to the epicentre of the undersea earthquake off Indonesia that triggered the giant waves.

Some members of the fishing community gingerly set out to sea Sunday for the first time since the tsunamis shattered their homes but stayed near an Indian naval ship which kept a watchful eye on them, officials said.

More than 377,000 people were still housed Sunday in 612 relief camps, down from the more than 500,000 last week.

About 2.72 million Indians were affected by the tsunamis along 2,260 kilometres (1,400 miles) of mainland coast. The figure includes more than 288,000 people on the Andamans, which had a pre-tsunami population of 356,000, according to government statistics.

Officials in Tamil Nadu Sunday said the government would build temporary homes to move tens of thousands of tsunami-affected families out of crowded shelters at marriage halls and schools.

The state would spend 400 million rupees (8.6 million dollars) to build thatched-roof homes for 50,000 families near the site of fishing villages wrecked by the December 26 tsunamis, he said.

Both the government and opposition Sunday agreed unanimously to not scale down Republic Day celebrations -- a showcase of India's military might and cultural diversity -- on January 26 in view of the destruction caused by the tsunami.

"It demonstrates the nation's strength and capacity. It would only serve to boost the morale of the people," the BJP's Sushma Swaraj said. 


Chinese couple donate 600,000 dollars to tsunami relief

BEIJING: A Chinese couple has donated 600,000 dollars to the tsunami relief effort as China's public contributions topped 15 million dollars Sunday, state media said.

The Red Cross Society of China said the couple, who refused to give their names, made their contribution on Friday, Xinhua news agency reported.

The first two million dollars of donations collected have already been given to Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the Maldives, Red Cross spokesman Wang Xiaohua said.

Additional relief materials including medicine, water and clothes would be airlifted to the disaster-hit countries soon, he added.

Among other notable donations has been 1.8 million dollars by China's State Development Bank and 120,000 dollars by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

The Chinese government has pledged 83 million dollars in relief aid and is forgiving four million dollars in government loans to Sri Lanka, one of the 11 countries battered by the tsunami.


More than 5,000 Singaporeans attend tsunami memorial service

SINGAPORE: More than 5,000 Singaporeans led by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong attended a memorial service Sunday in remembrance of the nearly 160,000 who died in last month's tsunami disaster.

"This evening, we gather to remember all those who have died in this calamity, whatever their nationality or race, and to mourn with their families and loved ones," Lee said in a speech.

"Behind the numbers, each death is a tragic story of a human life suddenly snuffed out, a family left behind to grieve the loss, or in many cases a whole family wiped out in one fell swoop.

"Our deepest condolences go to every person who has lost someone dear, and to every community which has been ripped apart by this cruel wave," Lee said.

The one-hour memorial service at a suburban exhibition centre was attended by the high commissioners and representatives from countries affected by the tsunami disaster including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and Sweden.

A minute's silence was observed after representatives from the five countries delivered short speeches and local religious leaders from nine different faiths including Buddhism, Islam and Christianity offered prayers for the victims of the disaster.

Singapore's national flag was also flown at half-mast Sunday in remembrance of those who died in the December 26 earthquake and tsunamis.

Freelance make-up artist Sylvia Kalaiselvi was among the Singaporeans at the memorial service to mourn the victims of last month's tsunami disaster.

"As a mother of five, it is a painful moment for those who have lost their children and I share their burden," she told.

Singapore escaped the disaster that hit neighbouring countries but lost nine of its citizens who are in the affected countries when the tragedy struck and 15 nationals are still missing.

The city-state has accelerated efforts to help the tsunami-hit countries especially to neighbour Indonesia where its armed forces are taking part in emergency and relief efforts in the town of Meulaboh, one of the hardest hit by the disaster.

The tsunamis triggered by a huge earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, killed more than 156,000 in 11 countries along Indian Ocean coastlines.

Billions of dollars in aid have been pledged by the international community to help the affected countries rebuild from the destruction unleased by the natural disaster.

UN chief arrives in Male as tsunami focus shifts to Maldives

MALE: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan arrived here Sunday on the final leg of his tour of tsunami devastated nations as the Maldives showcased how 20 years of hard labour was lost in one of South Asia's hottest tourist destinations.

The Maldives was hosting the world's top diplomat for the first time and planned to show him a now-deserted island -- Kolhufushi -- where all inhabitants are homeless after the December 26 waves.

Annan was received by Foreign Minister Hasthulla Jameel and later met at the airport with World Bank president James Wolfensohn, who is wrapping up his own separate visit of tsunami devastated nations.

"So you have been going through a punishing pace," Annan, who earlier in the week had flown over devastated parts of Indonesia, was heard saying to Wolfensohn.

Annan landed at the Male international airport located on Hululle island, built by joining two low-lying coral islands, which also went under a few feet of water on December 26.

"This is the first visit by a secretary general," government spokesman Ahmed Shaheed said. "We would have preferred it under different circumstances, but we want to show him the destruction."

He said infrastructure built over a period of two decades had been washed away in the tsunami. 

The loss of jetties on smaller islands is seen as a major blow to economic activity in far flung regions of the country stretching 850 kilometers (550 miles) across the equator.

Shaheed said Annan would be flown to island of Kolhufushi, an hour from the capital Male by plane, where all 878 inhabitants are now forced to sleep in traditional fishing boats known as dhonis.

Annan will also fly over Vilufushi where all 1,156 residents have been moved to four nearby islands that escaped relatively unaffected in the sea surge caused by an underwater earthquake near Indonesia.

The death toll in the Maldives is 82 while 26 people are still reported missing, but the authorities estimate they need at least 1.5 billion dollars for urgent relief and reconstruction work.

Maldivian officials said replacement costs in the Maldives were higher than anywhere else in the region because the nation depended on imports for virtually everything.

The country imports all building materials and relies on expensive foreign labour in the construction industry.


Newly aired video captures twin disaster horrors in Indonesian city

JAKARTA: An angry river of seawater and splintered houses that swept up cars and trees as it raced through the streets of an Indonesian city was shown Sunday in a newly acquired amateur video of the tsunami disaster.

The twin terrors of the magintude-9.0 earthquake and ferocious waves were captured on what was intended as a wedding video shot in the Indonesian city of Banda Aceh, where thousands were killed on December 26.

Beginning with dazed women in prayer after surviving destruction wrought by the huge tremor, the film captures the height of panic as people scramble up buildings to escape the torrents and ends with a row of cloth-covered corpses.

The footage aired on Jakarta's Metro TV shows dozens of collapsed concrete buildings being inspected as distraught residents clear up the damage of the earthquake, unaware that the worst is yet to come.

As a cry of panic goes up, hundreds of people race through the streets, ahead of what is initially a small gush of liquid but within five seconds becomes a rapidly advancing mass of debris and spinning vehicles.

From second-storey rooftops where the lucky managed to shelter, the brown torrents roar past, thick with mud and the bricks, wood and tangled metal of destroyed houses. Screams and cries echo over the noise of the rapids.

As the waters slow to a languid pace, hundreds of onlookers can be seen staring in disbelief from the balcony of the city's main mosque, while the first of 100,000 people killed across the region are pulled from the chaos.


Nationalities of nearly 2,000 dead questioned in Thailand tsunami

PHUKET, Thailand: Two weeks after the Asian tsunami killed more than 5,300 people in Thailand, the interior ministry Sunday cast doubt on the nationalities of more than one third of them.

Initial examinations of 1,973 bodies have proved unreliable and are undergoing further tests, the interior ministry said.

Many of the DNA tests were conducted on samples that had already begun decomposing, so tests were being redone on any corpses found more than five 
days after the tsunami hit, Interior Minister Bhokin Bhalakula told reporters.

Of the 5,305 people killed, 1,792 are now believed to be Thai, compared with 2,578 on Saturday, and 1,329 were believed to be foreign, compared with the previous figure of 2,516, the ministry said.

The origin of the remaining 2,184 was uncertain -- a ten-fold increase from the 211 whose nationalities were not known on Saturday.

Doubts about the nationalities of the victims came as a stream of foreign dignitaries was visiting Thailand to witness the devastation, check on the international forensics effort, and offer aid.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer traveled Sunday to Wat Yanyao in Phang Nga, the province which suffered most of Thailand's casualties, where he met with German forensics experts and looked at DNA samples and dental records taken from victims.

After the disaster, the Buddhist Yanyao temple was transformed into a makeshift morgue housing 1,800 bodies, and is the scene of an enormous international forensics effort.

Fischer praised the cooperation between Thai and international authorities and stressed a full accounting of those missing was a top priority.

"Now the first thing we need to know about is the missing people," he told reporters in Phuket.

Sixty Germans are confirmed dead and about 1,000 are unaccounted for, mainly in Thailand's southern beach resorts.

Fischer also reiterated Germany's offer to help set up an alert system for the Indian Ocean within three years, relying on the use of e-mails and mobile phone text messages.

Thailand will host a regional meeting January 28 and 29 on an agreed tsunami early warning system for the Indian Ocean and is inviting all nations affected as well as countries such as Japan, the United States and Germany, the foreign ministry said.

Thailand on Sunday reached out to fellow tsunami victim Indonesia -- the hardest-hit nation with more than 100,000 deaths -- by flying an air force plane carrying a relief team and 7.5 tonnes of aid to the capital of devastated Aceh province.

Team leader Lieutenant General Tanongsuk Tuvinun, a former envoy who once oversaw a ceasefire between government troops and separatists in Aceh, said Thailand had sent aid because its own losses were small by comparison.

"I believe that the scale or the magnitude of the damage is probably quite a bit different, and also in the magnitude of loss of lives," he told.

Thailand's death toll was set to rise, with four bodies pulled from the devastation on Phi Phi island Sunday two weeks after the disaster, Bhokin said.

Italian deputy foreign minister Margherita Boniver also visited Phuket and in talks with officials expressed concern about hundreds of victims buried in mass graves in Phang Nga, sources said.

The tsunami killed at least 20 Italians, and another 338 are still missing.

Phuket on Sunday also hosted Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern who assessed the humanitarian situation and met with Irish volunteers. He told reporters he also impressed on Bhokin the need to quickly identify the bodies.

"He assured us that every assistance will continue to be given to us, and time will be of the essence, that there will be no delay," Ahern said.

With foreign holidaymakers accounting for nearly half the casualties here, Thailand has played host to a steady stream of envoys from around the world.

Foreign ministers from Britain, Canada, Japan, and Norway have come since Friday. Their Spanish and Chinese counterparts are also expected, while a US Congressional delegation are scheduled to visit the catastrophically hit Thai resort town of Khao Lak on Monday.

The prime ministers of Canada, Finland and Norway, as well as the Swedish king are all due during the week.

Sri Lanka may be hit by cyclone: meteorological office

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's tsunami-battered shores are in danger of being hit by a cyclone which is building off its east coast, the meteorological department warned Sunday.

"It is not a cyclone at the moment but there is a possibility of a cyclone within the next 24 hours," department deputy director Lalith Chandrapala told.

Alerts were being sounded on radio telling people still trying to come to terms with the tsunami devastation to be "cautious and vigilant," he said. A low pressure system had developed in the Bay of Bengal around 300 kilometers (187 miles) southeast of the town of Hambantota, Chandrapala said.

"There is no immediate threat to Sri Lanka but if it develops into a cyclone then we will issue a cyclone alert."

Chandrapala said the department had cautioned all government offices and police on the southeast and eastern coast, especially in districts such as Ampara and towns like Galle, Matara and Hambantota.

"We are telling people to listen to radio bulletins so that they can be alert and if it strikes it is easier to evacuate people," he said, adding, however, "We are not expecting any need for that."

A statement by the department said rain or thunderstorms with isolated heavy falls and windy conditions would prevail in the eastern Ulva and southern provinces and in parts of central province overnight and Monday.

"Strong winds, frequent showers and rough seas are expected in the sea areas off the coast extending from Trincomalee to Matara via Hambantota," the statement added.

Sri Lanka was seriously damaged by the tsunamis that struck on December 26, with more than 30,700 people killed and almost a million left homeless.


Aid efforts getting momentum in Tsunami-hit areas

JAKARTA: Efforts mobilized to redress grievances and abate hardships facing tsunami victims are getting momentums gradually here, while life risks being meted out to aid workers of the United Nations have intensified after the UN’s office in Sumatra came under firing.

This has floated the possibilities of aid activities to be hurdled, say reports adding that a large number of the victims still continued to remain far away from the aid facilities after the two weeks of the Asia disaster hit the area, bringing a colossal human loss. 

On the other side, with surge in Tsunami victims at the temporal relief camps health related grave problems have sparked off to an alarming extent. 


No survivor of tsunami will lose life to hunger: WFP 

NEW YORK: The UN says it is optimistic that none of the survivors of the Asian tsunami will lose their lives to hunger, British news channel reported on Sunday. 

Jim Morris, head of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said he expected food aid to reach almost all survivors within the next seven days. 

More than 150,000 people have been killed across Asia. The UN has warned that the toll could rise further as a result of hunger and disease. But no major outbreaks have been reported so far. 

Officials in a number of refugee camps in Sri Lanka have told that disease is being contained and people are recovering. 

Our job is to get food to people to save lives, to address the special nutritional issues relating to women who are pregnant, nursing, and to young children. 

Stars sing, fans give for tsunami victims in Hong Kong

HONG KONG: Some of Asia's biggest stars, including kung fu hero Jet Li and singer Andy Lau, dazzled fans in a marathon Hong Kong concert on Friday to raise funds for survivors of the deadliest tsunami on record.

Fans streamed into the Hong Kong Football Stadium throughout the seven-hour "Crossing Borders" charity show, which showcased well-loved singers from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, many of whom have not performed in public for years.

Many turned up after work and more than 10,000 people stayed until the show ended at about 11 p.m. (1500 GMT), clapping and swaying as they held luminous sticks high in the air.

The show was the first major event to be held by the celebrity world in response to the Dec. 26 catastrophe. Another is planned for Cardiff in Wales and British singer Sting will hold a special concert in Australia.

A string of famous actors, directors and sporting personalities have also made large individual donations. 

In Hong Kong, top regional stars like Hong Kong's Andy Lau, Jackie Cheung, Frances Yip, Taiwan's Chang Hui-mei, Coco Lee, Zhang Xiao-yan, and China's Sun Nan packed the stage where they gave a rendition of the signature song "Love".

"Love" is the Chinese version of "We Are The World", the song which Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie wrote in 1985 to raise money for famine-struck Africa.

Tickets to the show were free and it was beamed live to 40 television stations and Web sites across the world. 

BRUSH WITH DISASTER

China's top action movie star, Jet Li, who was in the Maldives with his family during the disaster, made a surprise appearance and spoke of his brush with the Dec. 26 tsunami. 

"The waters were swirling and rose so fast. After I ran three steps, they were up to my neck and I was carrying my little daughter and holding my aunt ... we fought on," Li said. 

"Today we stand here, we are here to give. After such a life and death experience, I want to do more," Li said, adding that he was about to hand over cheques totalling more than HK$1 million on behalf of his family and friends.

The stars urged fans to fill up more than 120 donation boxes dotting the stadium while television viewers were encouraged to call hotlines to donate. Company representatives took turns to walk onstage to hand over giant cheques.

Tennis star Serena Williams, who is in Hong Kong for a tournament, surprised fans when she walked onstage. 

"I'm pledging HK$80,000 to the tsunami victims," said Williams, adding that she would also set aside part of her takings from Hong Kong to the cause.

By the end of the show, donors who called into the event's hotlines and handed over cheques onstage had pledged over HK$30 million (US$3.8 million) to the tsunami victims. 

The show is the latest in a string of private sector efforts in Hong Kong to raise funds for survivors of the tsunami, which killed over 150,000 people.

The catastrophe has left no one untouched and ordinary people from across the territory have dug deep. 

More than 760 prisoners in the high-security Stanley Prison, where some of the city's most hardened criminals are locked up, donated HK$141,788 (US$18,178) on Thursday.

Hong Kong's government, criticised for acting too slowly after the tsunami, has pledged HK$17 million, while private donations have surpassed HK$530 million so far. 

Relief supply base set up in Malaysia amid Aceh airport woes

JAKARTA: A humanitarian air hub has been set up in Malaysia to feed at least 400,000 tsunami survivors in Indonesia's Aceh province over the next week, the World Food Programme (WFP) said Saturday.

The United Nations and other aid agencies established the base at Subang military airport in Kuala Lumpur to overcome congestion problems at Indonesia's overwhelmed airports, WFP executive director James Morris told reporters here.

"In a matter of five, six or seven days we will feed 400,000 people, depending on the extent of the damage on the western coast (of Aceh)," Morris said.

"The numbers could go to as high as one million. Hopefully that will not be the case."

One of the major problems of the relief effort in Aceh has been the inability of the airports at Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, and Medan, the capital of the adjoining North Sumatra province, to cope with the huge number of flights bringing in supplies.

"The air hub will not only relieve the extreme congestion in the two airports in Sumatra, but will sharply reduce travel time," Morris said.

Flying time from Subang to Medan and Banda Aceh is 90 minutes and two hours respectively. It takes more than twice that amount of time to fly to the two cities from Jakarta, he said.

Morris said the air hub went operational on Friday with a Malaysian airforce C-130 Hercules transport plane flying to Banda Aceh with the first delivery of an eventual 700 metric tonnes of fortified biscuits.

The Malaysian airforce, the UN Humanitarian Air Service and the UN joint logistics centre are jointly managing the air hub.

In Banda Aceh, the spokesman for the International Organisation for Migration's Indonesian operations, Chris Lom, also said the bottlenecks at Banda Aceh and Medan continued to be a significant problem.

"These are little provincial airports that can't handle that many C-130's landing so many times a day, as well as so many trucks coming in," Lom said.

"It's an extraordinary situation which they weren't prepared to handle. They don't have the space to store all the supplies."

Lom said the IOM, which is coordinating much of the relief effort in Aceh for the UN, would start trucking in supplies from Jakarta because of the backlog problem.

More than 104,000 people in Indonesia died in the December 26 earthquake and tsunami disaster, with virtually all of the fatalities in Aceh.


Death toll in Asian quake disaster tops 156,000

JAKARTA: The number of people killed when an earthquake and tsunamis devastated Indian Ocean coastlines on December 26 stood at just over 
156,000 Saturday after Indonesia reduced its number of deaths by almost 3,000.

The Indonesian government revised down the nation's death toll to 104,055 from a figure of 107,039 given earlier in the day, the social affairs ministry said.

An official with the ministry's relief coordination center, Wawan Setiawan, blamed the mistake on overlapping tallies from different districts, but said the latest tally had been thoroughly checked for its accuracy.

In Sri Lanka, 30,680 were confirmed killed, the government said. Another 4,883 people were still missing, while the number of people displaced by the catastrophe was around 578,224, according to government figures.

In neighbouring India, the official toll passed 10,000 with the number of missing at 5,624, most of them presumed dead.

The death toll in Thailand climbed above 5,300, but the number of missing kept dropping as authorities double-checked initial reports, the interior ministry said.

Fourteen more people were confirmed dead Saturday, bringing the death toll to 5,305. The list of missing dropped by more than 70, as authorities revised their figures to 3,498 missing.

Myanmar's Prime Minister Soe Win said Thursday 59 people were killed in the tsunamis and more than 3,200 left homeless. This was down from the UN's 
estimated 90.

At least 82 people were killed and another 26 were missing in the Maldives, a government spokesman said.

Sixty-eight people were dead in Malaysia, most of them in Penang, according to police, while in Bangladesh a father and child were killed after a tourist boat capsized in large waves, officials said.

Fatalities also occurred on the east coast of Africa where 298 people were declared dead in Somalia, 10 in Tanzania and one in Kenya.

Indonesian government revises down death toll to 104,055

JAKARTA: The Indonesian government revised down the nation's death toll from the earthquake and tsunami disaster to 104,055 on Saturday, from a figure of 107,039 given earlier in the day, the social affairs ministry said.

An official with the ministry's relief coordination center, Wawan Setiawan, blamed the mistake on overlapping tallies from different districts, but said the latest tally had been thoroughly checked for its accuracy.

The latest death toll of 104,055 is nearly 3,000 higher than Friday's figure of 101,318.

Novi Ardan, a spokesman for the health ministry, which has previously given out precise figures on the number of people killed in the disaster, said the death toll was 95,000, with about 77,000 others still missing.

The health ministry said this week it no longer intended to give a running account of precise numbers because of the difficulties in getting an accurate picture, and with the final figure expected to be much higher.

Nearly all of the fatalities have been in the remote province of Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra island, where massive walls of water wiped out entire villages along the west coast.

The United Nations has repeatedly warned the Indonesian death toll will rise dramatically higher as assessments are completed of communities in remote 
areas of Aceh.

"The death toll will grow exponentially on the western coast of Sumatra," the UN's emergency relief coordinator, Jan Egeland, said on Monday in New York when the official figure for Indonesia was 94,081.

"We may be talking tens of thousands of further deaths in this area." On Friday he said: "I don't think we are even close to having any figures of how many people died, how many people are missing and how many people are severely affected."

UN chief tours tsunami-ravaged Sri Lanka

UNITED NATIONS: UN chief Kofi Annan Saturday toured tsunami-ravaged areas of Sri Lanka as the WHO declared the health situation of hundreds of thousands displaced on the island by the massive waves to be under control.

The United Nations Secretary General flew by helicopter over the southern town of Galle to view firsthand the destruction caused by the December 26 tsunami, said sources.

He then landed at the wave-battered eastern town of Hambantota, where he was joined for a ground tour by Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse and World Bank president James Wolfensohn.

"This is a beautiful country but I am sorry for the people who suffered this destruction. (The UN) will try to reconstruct it as much as possible," Annan said in Hambantota.

Thousands of locals gathered in the streets to greet him as he toured the town and made a number of stops, including at the Galwella Buddhist temple where he spoke to monks about the devastation wrought by the earthquake-triggered tsunamis.

He then drove to the nearby Tabeer Jumma mosque where 80 tsunami-affected Muslim, Hindu and Christian families are housed. He spoke to survivors, posed for photographs with three orphaned children who had lost their parents in the giant sea waves and met clerics from the three religions.

They briefed him on the conditions of the people in the mosque-turned-relief camp and was told a steady supply of food was reaching those taking shelter there.

At an emergency summit of world leaders in Jakarta on Thursday, Annan said donors must stump up 977 million dollars of immediate cash relief to help those affected by the tsunamis or face a possible second wave of carnage as disease loomed.

The UN chief arrived in Colombo as US Secretary of State Colin Powell was leaving the island after completing a day-long tour.

With the tsunami focus shifting to Sri Lanka after Thursday's summit in Jakarta, a slew of world figures have descended on ravaged Sri Lanka, among them World Health Organisation (WHO) director general Lee Jong-Wook.

Lee told a media conference in Colombo Saturday the health of Sri Lankan tsunami survivors is under control but the tragedy has been a major setback for the public health sector on the island.

While there had been an increase in diarrhoea cases in some of the affected areas in Sri Lanka, Lee said, "that is to be expected.

"It is quite normal after a catastrophe of this magnitude because of a shortage of quality water and the lack of sanitation facilities," he said. "But there is not any new epidemic."

Sri Lanka country representative Kan Tun told reporters the WHO had managed to contain severe outbreaks of diarrhoea, malaria and dengue fever.

"Nothing has happened yet," he said, adding however that between 50,000 and 75,000 dollars was needed for "immediate disease prevention" in each of the affected areas in which the WHO is working -- or a total of some 20 million dollars.

According to the latest figures, Sri Lanka's death toll from the tsunamis stands at 30,680, with another 4,883 people still missing. From almost a million in the immediate aftermath of the calamity, the number of people still displaced in Sri Lanka is 578,224.

Lee, meanwhile, said he believed, after touring affected areas of Sri Lanka in recent past days, the emergency stage was beginning to shift to "recovery, rehabilitation and self-reliance."

"The tsunami crisis is a tragedy... is a major setback for the social, economic and health development gains of years within the region," he said.

He added, however: "Great damage has been done but the backbone of public health in Sri Lanka has not been broken."

Who declares massive food aid for Tsunami-hit people

JAKARTA, Indonesia: World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced Saturday massive food aid for Tsunami-hit people of Srilanka and Indonesia.

Executive Director WHO, James Moras, said the organisation was presently caopable to provide food to 0.7 million people in Sri Lanka, whilist in a week it was ready to deliver food to around four hundred thousand people in Indonesia.

He said further, “Our prime planning is to arrange food resources for the Tsunami-strken people." 

Tsunami toll passes 150,000 mark

BANDA ACEH: The official death toll from the Asian tsunami climbed past 150,000 on Saturday, as Indonesian authorities increased their tally by nearly 3,000 while adding tens of thousands to their count of the number left homeless from the disaster. Officials expect the toll to rise further still.

Indonesia's toll has risen sharply in recent days as teams of rescuers recover corpses from previously inaccessible regions, many on the western coast near the epicenter of the magnitude-9.0 quake that spawned a tsunami affecting 11 countries in Africa and Asia.

The increase in number of dead came even as authorities held out little hope for the tens of thousands still missing. Officials in Sri Lanka and Thailand, which were also hard-hit by the killer waves, say thousands were unlikely to be found alive.

Sweden, Britain and France have warned they feared that nearly 1,100 of their citizens missing in the disaster were dead. 

Japan orders biggest military deployment for tsunami disaster

TOKYO: Japan will send some 1,000 military personnel to Indonesia in the country's biggest overseas deployment since World War II to help victims of the Asian tsunami disaster, an official said on Saturday.

Japanese defense chief Yoshinori Ono issued the dispatch order on Friday following talks with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi who has called on the country's military to do their utmost to help survivors.

The troops will mainly provide medical and transport support, a defense agency spokesman said. 

S Korea pledges US$15 million to rebuild Sri Lanka

COLOMBO: South Korean Prime Minister Lee Hae-Chan pledged on Saturday US$15 million (euro11.5 million) to Sri Lanka in aid and technical assistance to help the island nation recover from the tsunami disaster.

Lee concluded a two-day visit to Sri Lanka with his foreign and trade ministers, during which he traveled to the devastated southern city of Hambantota to inspect relief efforts carried out by Korean organizations.  

Indonesian tsunami death toll reaches 107,039

JAKARTA: The Indonesian death toll from the December 26 earthquake and tsunami disaster has climbed to 107,039, the social affairs ministry's relief coordination center said on Saturday. 

                            07-01-2005

7,000 more bodies recovered in Indonesia

JAKARTA: Around 7,000 more bodies were recovered from tsunami hit Indonesian areas.

The Indonesian officials said on Friday they recovered 7,000 more bodies from Mculaboh area of Sumatra, Indonesia.

They said due to disruption of communication, no contact was made to this area.

Spokesman for Indonesian Army said more bodies were being recovered as the relief workers heads towards other areas.  

Germans donate 330 million euros for tsunami disaster
 
BERLIN: The German public and companies have together pledged more than 330 million euros (431 million dollars) for Asia's tsunami disaster, an independent watchdog for German charities announced on Friday. 

It makes the country one of the most generous contributors worldwide to the huge relief effort, and is additional to the 500 million euros promised by the government.

The amount is the most ever collected in Germany for a catastrophe abroad, the German Central Institute for Social Issues (DZI) said.

The record for donations from the German public is the 350 million euros collected for the victims of floods in eastern Germany in 2002.

One of the biggest individual contributions came from Michael Schumacher, motor racing's Formula One world champion, who donated 7.5 million euros.

A separate survey found that 62 percent of Germans have donated to help the victims of the December 26 earthquake-triggered tsunamis which killed at least 
153,000 people across the Indian Ocean.

Only five percent of the 1,000 respondents said they did not intend to make a donation.

The survey also showed that the devastation caused by the tidal waves had not discouraged Germans from spending their holidays in the countries affected 
-- 83 percent of those questioned said they could imagine going to the Indian Ocean area soon.

Sixty Germans have been confirmed dead and around 1,000 are missing in the disaster, mainly in the southern beach resorts of Thailand.

UN chief stunned at 'utter destruction' as tsunami toll rises

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia: United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan voiced shock Friday at the devastation from Asia's tsunamis as the death toll continued rising and countries began assessing the cost of rebuilding their shattered coastlines.

"I must admit I have never seen such utter destruction -- mile after mile and you wonder where are the people, what happened to them?" Annan said after flying over the Sumatra coast nearly obliterated in the December 26 disaster.

A day after making an impassioned plea at a summit in Jakarta for nearly a billion dollars in cash for immediate relief work, Annan saw a glimmer of hope in the Indonesian town of Meulaboh, which was torn to pieces by the last week's titanic waves.

"There we saw people begin to pick up the pieces and get on with their lives and of course it shows about the resilience of the human spirit. And I believe that in time, given the support and efforts by the government and the international community, the people will be able to pick up and carry on.

"But they are going to need lots of help," he said. The confirmed death toll from the catastrophe soared more than 7,000 Friday to 153,428 as more deaths were confirmed in Indonesia. Indonesia's social affairs ministry said the toll had risen to 101,318 from 94,200.

The ministry earlier said the death toll in the country had jumped by almost 20,000 but later revised the total downwards after a counting error was discovered.

But the United Nations, which is in now in charge of global relief efforts, has warned that tens of thousands more dead may be as yet unaccounted for in Indonesia.

Billions of dollars have been pledged in aid and some of the worst affected countries began Friday totting up the bills for rehabilitating the tsunami-ravaged areas, a task which could take many years.

Indonesia said it needed 2.15 billion dollars over the next five years to rebuild Aceh, ground zero of the disaster. The Maldives put its bill at 1.5 billion dollars, while India, which has so far spurned aid for relief efforts, held its cap out for longer-term aid.

Besides direct aid, the Group of Seven industrialised nations was to support a freeze on debt repayments of countries worst affected by the tsunamis to help them rebuild, according to Britain, the current president of the Group.

Annan's visit to Aceh came two days after a stop here by US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who told a crisis summit in Jakarta that Washington had disbanded a six-nation relief "coalition", criticized as a challenge to UN authority.

But the UN chief expressed gratitude to the United States for its military relief to tsunami victims, which has included helicopter airdrops of supplies to the most remote reaches of the worst-hit Sumatran province of Aceh.

"I think we are all on this together and I think the effort of the US and the core group they they created have been absolutely crucial," Annan said.

A vanguard squad of 15 US Marines and a small group of Navy sailors landed in the provincial capital Banda Aceh to prepare for a major deployment to reinforce a US operation.

The United Nations is mounting its largest ever relief operation to help tsunami victims but warned its efforts faced major obstacles as transport links and communications in Aceh had "essentially collapsed" in the disaster.

Indonesia, and especially Aceh, should receive about 371 million dollars of the 977 million dollars in cash called for by Annan in a flash appeal at the Jakarta summit, the UN's humanitarian coordination agency said.

"As many as two million people there are in need and one million of them require immediate assistance," Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator Yvette Stevens told journalists in Geneva.
She said some 167 million dollars from the emergency relief money would head to Sri Lanka, the second most-devastated country with more than 30,000 confirmed deaths.

Powell toured the island's battered coastline amid a bitter row between government and rebels over aid distribution.

The United States' top diplomat drove through the centre of Galle, where homes and shops were crushed by the massive waves and dozens of fishing boats still litter the streets.

"I had a chance to witness the destruction first hand and only by seeing it on the ground can you really appreciate what it must have been like on that terrible day," Powell said through an aide.

Special prayers offered for tsunami affectees

LAHORE: Special prayers for tsunami victims were offered in more than five hundred mosques in the provincial metropolis here on Friday after Juma prayers.

Speaking on the occasion, religious scholars expressed their concern over the apathy of certain Muslim states who have so far failed to announce donations for the affectees.

They called for awakening Islamic states from deep slumber and extend helping hand to the affectees who were  hit-hard by the natural calamity.

Allama Khabir Azad, Maulana Imran Ahmed and Allama Maqsood Ahmed of Data Darbar while addressing the huge 'Juma' congregation paid glowing tributes to the Pakistani government for announcing donations, cash and medical assistance for the affectees.

They stressed upon the followers to seek mercy from the Almighty Allah to avoid reoccurrence of similar disaster in future.

The religious scholars also called upon the people to donate hides of sacrificial animals only to the affectees of disaster who are in great need of financial and moral help from the humanity.
"Ghaibana Namaz-e-Janaza" was also offered at some places for the Muslims who were killed in tsunami disaster.

UN looking for more aid at tsunami aid meeting next week
 
GENEVA: The United Nations is hoping for more contributions for aid to tsunami victims at a ministerial meeting with donor countries in Geneva next week, a UN spokeswoman said Friday.

"We are counting on countries to announce new contributions in cash as well as in kind, through bilateral and multilateral channels," said Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian 
Affairs.

International aid agencies will also outline the state of play with their operations around the Indian Ocean and their needs, she added.

On Thursday, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan launched an appeal for 977 million dollars in relief aid for five million people in affected areas over the next six months.

Governments have made public pledges of four billion dollars in long term and short term aid, including 1.6 billion dollars of concrete offers of immediate relief listed by OCHA.

The OCHA, the main coordinating body for the global aid effort, has been unable to say how much of the money, or detailed aid in kind such as rescue and medical teams, supplies and aircraft, it has received so far.

Byrs reiterated that the UN was hoping that pledges would turn into reality at the Geneva meeting.

"We are expecting them to say: 'In so many days we will be able to unlock so much," Byrs told journalists.

China had indicated that it would pay at least half of the 63 million dollars it had promised by the end of the month, she added. 

Byrs praised the donors' reaction in the wake of the tsunamis, which killed about 153,000 people and wrought havoc stretching from Asia to Africa when they hit Indian Ocean coastlines on December 26.

The UN said it was not yet clear at what level countries would be represented in Geneva, or how many countries would take part.

The world body could organise another conference on long-term aid for reconstruction of the tsunami-devastated areas later this month, Byrs said.

Japan to send 1,000 troops for tsunami aid

TOKYO: Japan plans to send up to 1,000 military personnel to help relief efforts in tsunami-hit Indonesia, Defence Minister Yoshinori Ohno said on Friday.

The dispatch in the wake of the Dec. 26 Indian Ocean tsunami, which has killed more than 150,000 people, would be Japan's largest postwar military deployment for overseas disaster relief. 

The mission will include medical aid to prevent epidemics, said Ohno, who was due to leave on a trip to several Asian countries including Indonesia on Saturday.

As part of the tsunami relief mission, a Japanese air force C-130 transport plane with about 40 personnel was due to arrive on Friday in U-Tapao in Thailand from where it will transport personnel and emergency supplies, mainly to Indonesia.

Ohno has also ordered navy vessels and army medical and airlift teams to be ready to deploy to help relief efforts.

UN chief stunned by tsunami destruction in Indonesia

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia: United Nations chief Kofi Annan said Friday he was stunned by the level of devastation caused by tsunamis along the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island.

‘I must admit I have never seen such utter destruction -- mile after mile and you wonder where are the people, what happened?’ he was quoted as saying by a foreign news agency shortly after flying over the worst-hit areas.

440 British dead or missing in Asia disaster: Straw

LONDON: British Foreign Minister Jack Straw, speaking on television from Thailand, said on Friday that 440 Britons had either died or were missing following the tsunami disaster in the Indian Ocean.

Straw, speaking from the island of Phuket in an interview broadcast live in Britain, said that the 49 people were now confirmed dead and that 391 were still missing.

The previous official toll put the total dead at 41, with at least 199 missing.

US Secretary of State arrives in Sri Lanka 

COLOMBO: U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in Sri Lanka Friday to inspect tsunami-devastated areas and hold talks on relief efforts with the government, a foreign news agency reported.

Powell arrived from Jakarta where he pledged the United States give the lead to the United Nations on the massive international aid effort to the 11 countries hit by the Dec. 26 calamity.

The first stop on the four-hour visit to Sri Lanka was to be the devastated south coast city of Galle.

Sri Lanka lost more than 30,000 people to the catastrophic wave, and more than 800,000 people have been displaced.

Indonesian tsunami death toll jumps to 113,000

JAKARTA: Indonesia's official earthquake and tsunami death toll jumped by nearly 20,000 people Friday to 113,306, the citing government sources a foreign news agency reported.

The Ministry of Social Affairs increased its count from the previous estimate of 94,200. More than 10,000 are still missing in the Aceh province of Sumatra island, which was devastated by a huge Dec. 26 earthquake and the waves it triggered, the ministry said.

It said 1,443 people were hospitalized and 21,659 houses had been destroyed and 544,927 people were displaced, up from the previous estimate of 517,226.

Orphans of the world bond in Japan in wake of tsunami disaster

TOKYO: Children orphaned in disasters around the world gathered in Japan on Friday, ahead of the 10th anniversary of the killer Kobe earthquake, to build support for others like them -- including youngsters newly orphaned by Asia's tsunamis.

Fifty-three children aged between 10 and 18 who lost their parents in war, attacks and natural disasters were beginning 10 days of rallies, meetings and a camp in Tokyo to share experiences with each other and the outside world.

Among them were 20 Japanese children who lost their parents in the January 17, 1995 earthquake at Kobe which killed more than 6,000 people and devastated the western Japanese port city.

Other earthquake orphans meeting in Japan were from Algeria, Colombia, Taiwan and Turkey. The meetings have also drawn war orphans from Iraq and Afghanistan as well as children, who lost their parents in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 
2001 in the United States.

Annan arrives in Indonesia's tsunami zone

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia: United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan arrived in the Indonesian province of Aceh Friday for a tour of the region worst hit by last week's earthquake and tsunami disaster, a foreign news agency reported.

Annan touched down at 9:45 am (0245 GMT) in the city of Banda Aceh, which bore the full force of the December 26 catastrophe that killed more than 146,000 people around the Indian Ocean, two-thirds of them in Indonesia.

The UN chief on Thursday made an impassioned appeal at an emergency summit 
for almost one billion dollars of urgent assistance for millions of survivors threatened by disease. 

                                    06-01-2005

Text messages assist catastrophe recovery

JAKARTA: Text messaging technology was a valuable communication tool in the aftermath of the tsunami disaster in Asia.

The messages can get through even when the cell phone signal is too weak to sustain a spoken conversation.

Now some are studying how the technology behind SMS could be better used during an emergency.

EU hikes tsunami aid package

JAKARTA: The European Union on Thursday pledged an extra 461 million dollars of aid to the victims of the tsunami disaster, bringing to roughly two billion dollars the bloc's total commitment to relief efforts.

Tsunami victims in dire need of One billion dollars aid

JAKARTA: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the gathering that the world was in a race against time to get food, medicine and supplies to the need.

"Millions in Asia, Africa, and even in far away countries, are suffering unimaginable trauma and psychological wounds that will take a long time to heal," he said. "The disaster was so brutal, so quick, and so far-reaching, that we are still struggling to comprehend it."

He said his organization continued to estimate that the final death toll will surpass 150,000 from the giant waves spawned by a 9.0 earthquake off Indonesia's northwest coast Dec. 26.

"Although we were powerless to stop the tsunami, together we have the power to stop those next waves," Annan said, calling for the establishment of a tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean.

Annan appealed $1.7 billion in disaster relief over the next six months for victims of the tsunami, but it wasn't immediately clear if that plea included the previous pledges or was a request for more.

World leaders opened an emergency summit Thursday with a moment of silence for the tens of thousands of tsunami victims, before focusing on the best way to rush nearly $4 billion pledged worldwide to millions of survivors.

Earlier, world leaders observed a moment of silence for the tens of thousands of tsunami victims.

President of Indonesia, the worst effected country of Tsunami in his address urged world community to step up relief operations for the victims.

US dissolves tsunami aid core group

JAKARTA: The United States announced on Thursday it was dissolving the "core group" of nations it formed to expedite aid for victims of the Asian tsunami disaster and would work under the United Nations.

Secretary of State Colin Powell told an international conference in Jakarta that the core group, initially formed with India, Japan and Australia, had "served its purpose" in catalyzing relief efforts.

"It will now fold itself into the broader coordination efforts of the United Nations as the entire international community works to support the nations who have suffered this tragedy," he said in prepared remarks.

Global tsunami aid hits $3 billion 

BANDA ACEH: Australia and Germany pledged more than $1 billion in tsunami aid yesterday, raising the global tally to more than $3 billion and prompting a senior European official to warn against nations being drawn into a bidding war. 

 A meeting of world leaders beginning today in Jakarta, Indonesia, will focus on how best to disburse the aid to victims of the Dec. 26 disaster  which killed more than 139,000 people around the Indian Ocean shores.

ASEAN tsunami summit 

JAKARTA: Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders are to meet in Indonesia today (Thursday) to help coordinate relief efforts for the Indian Ocean tsunami tragedy

This special meeting will be held on January 6. it was was proposed by Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong after a magnitude-9.0 earthquake triggered giant waves that swamped countries on the Indian Ocean on December 26, killing tens of thousands of people.

ASEAN members Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand were among those that suffered casualties.

The principal objective of the meeting is to coordinate all international relief efforts, and possibly to link all forecasting systems of ASEAN member states.

The ASEAN meeting could possibly include China, Japan, South Korea, the United Nations and the World Health Organization.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The meeting would coincide with an emergency summit of world leaders due to take place in Jakarta Thursday to rally aid for disaster-hit countries.

Leaders from Japan, Australia and China together with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and US Secretary of State Colin Powell are scheduled to attend the meeting.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer expressed a hope that the summit would develop concrete measures for coordinating relief and rehabilitation efforts.

"... (The summit) will make a major contribution to ensuring that there is a coordinated effort and (that) they are stronger contributions than might have been the case without the summit," Downer said on Wednesday before meeting Kalla.

He said the Australian government was particularly concerned about medium- and long-term relief and rehabilitation efforts.

"In the case of Aceh, these communities have been stripped bare, and I think it could take years (to rebuild) ... by, and with the help of the outside world, the survivors," Downer said.

The death toll in the wave tidal was increasing and rescuers were founding many bodies from debris of house and other things.

According to reports about 100,000 people were killed in Indonesia due to tsunami.

977 million needed for tsunami disaster relief: Annan

JAKARTA: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Thursday that 977 million dollars was immediately needed to cover humanitarian emergency needs for five million tsunami disaster survivors over the next six months.

Launching an appeal at a world summit in Jakarta, Annan said the December 26 catastrophe had likely killed more than 150,000 people and was the worst natural disaster the United Nations had ever had to respond to.

 Annan said the figure of 977 million dollars would provide for an immediate "focused set of programmes" that the UN and affected nations had agreed on.

                                                                   05-01-2005

Tsunami victims need emergency relief for six months 

JAKARTA: United Nations has said Tsunami-hit countries would need a sustained emergency aid for at least six months. According to a UNICEF report fearing child trafficking in Indonesia and India authorities have slapped restrictions on youngsters leaving outside the camps. 

The moves this week come amid concerns by child welfare groups that the gangs are whisking orphaned children into trafficking networks.

Save the Children Fund in Andhra Pradesh has told a news channel that they are fearing that strangers taking children from the relief camps so the government has prohibited taking children out of the relief camps without formal documents. 

UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy has said that one third of the Tsunami death toll was comprised of children. The relief organizations should ensure provision of clean water, food and medical facilities to the disaster-hit children. They should care children separated from parents or orphaned in the disaster and protect them from any exploitation, he said.

Child survivors of tsunami face new risks : UN 

BANGKOK: One million child survivors of Asia's devastating tsunami face major risks in the coming weeks from malnutrition, disease and human traffickers, the United Nations children's fund UNICEF warned on Wednesday.

"The real challenges to children have not retreated with the tidal waves," UNICEF's East Asia director Anupama Rao Singh told reporters in the Thai capital, where the UN's regional relief efforts are being coordinated.

"What we are particularly concerned about is the likely spread of epidemics water borne diseases, malaria and other diseases," she said, adding increased malnutrition caused by lack of food and water meant these children were now extremely vulnerable to illness.

"If a child is malnourished then threats to that child's life increase 100-fold," she said.

Other immediate concerns were preventing child traffickers from exploiting the disaster and caring for children separated from their families, she said.

"Separated children who have lost one or more parents, their numbers are increasing day by day and we expect this to be a major issue."

Singh said the agency was aware of reports that children had been trafficked out of Aceh, Indonesia and that joint efforts with regional governments and aid agencies to trace, register and re-unify separated children were underway, but needed to be stepped up.

She also said authorities in Indonesia had ordered a short-term ban on the movement of children out of Aceh and the country to prevent human traffickers exploiting the situation.

UNICEF estimates it will take at least six months to repair or rebuild tsunami damaged schools and health centers and document all separated children, but said ensuring counseling and returning them to schools could take years.

Over 1,000 foreigners missing in Thailand

BANGKOK: Almost 1,100 foreign tourists are among a total of 4,499 people missing after the tsunami disaster in Thailand, the interior ministry said on Wednesday.
 

Ten days after the disaster, the ministry for the first time gave separate figures for Thais and foreigners who are missing.

It said 3,423 Thais and 1,076 foreigners are still untraced. Officials have said earlier that most of them must be presumed dead.

The ministry's disaster mitigation unit said 5,265 are now confirmed dead 2,542 Thais, 2,510 foreigners and 213 whose race could not be established.

UK to increase tsunami aid

LONDON: British Prime Minister Tony Blair has predicted the British Government will eventually give "hundreds of millions" in aid to countries hit by the tsunami disaster.

He was speaking before the UK joins a three minutes silence at noon across the EU for the estimated 150,000 dead.  

Destruction on tsunami- hit Sumatra horrific: Powell

BANDA ACEH: US Secretary of State Colin Powell toured Indonesia's tsunami-wracked Sumatra island on Wednesday and said the devastation was the worst he's ever seen.

``I've been in war and I've been through a number of hurricanes, tornados and other relief operations, but I've never seen anything like this,'' Powell said after flying over flattened villages along Sumatra's northern coastline.

``I can not begin to imagine the horror that went through the families and all of the people who heard this noise and then had their lives snuffed out by this wave.'', he added.



                                                       04-01-2005

Tsunami aid operation stumbles as UN fears tens of thousands more deaths
(Updated at 2105 PST)

BANDA ACEH: A global push to reach survivors of Asia's tsunami faltered Tuesday after a plane accident in Indonesia and heavy rain in Sri Lanka with the United Nations warning that the death toll from the disaster could rise by tens of thousands.

With the official toll already reaching to nearly 150,000, US Secretary of State Colin Powell held talks in Thailand on creating a tsunami warning system to prevent a repeat of the catastrophe, kicking off a regional tour to include a crisis summit Thursday in Jakarta.

Ahead of the meeting, the world's major industrialized countries and the Paris Club of creditor nations moved closer on Tuesday to freezing the debt of countries ravaged by the disaster, said sources.

Navy relief ships leave for Sri Lanka and Indonesia
(Updated at 1630 PST)
ISLAMABAD: Two Pakistan Navy ships left for Sri Lanka and Indonesia on Tuesday from Karachi, Geo TV reported. Two C-130 airplanes carrying 250 doctors, engineers, paramedics, medical supplies, relief goods and foodstuff have already reached in Indonesia. 

The relief mission proceeding to the Tsunami-hit countries with two ships being led by Commodore Mohammed Ehsan Saeed. “43 doctors from Pakistan Navy will be in the relief mission with PNS Khyber and PNS Muaawan, which will establish a 50 bed hospital for the victims”, Commodore Saeed told newsmen in Karachi. The mission will use three helicopters for shifting the patients, he further said. The relief ships will reach Sri Lanka in six days. 

They will establish medical camp for a week in Sri Lanka and will proceed to Indonesia for another weeklong medical camp in Sumatra and Aceh.

Hundreds of Swiss killed in tidal waves: President Samuel
(Updated at 2040 PST)  
BERN: Several hundred Swiss nationals died in the tidal waves that devastated Indian Ocean nations last month, President Samuel Schmid said Tuesday. "A lot of Swiss people who have been declared missing will definitely not be coming home," he said.

According to the latest figures from the foreign ministry, 23 Swiss nationals are confirmed to have died in the December 26 tidal waves, while 105 are missing. Around 500 Swiss are listed as unaccounted for, including 360 in Thailand, 50 in Sri Lanka and the Maldives and 20 in India. A further 70 others who had been listed as missing have been since located.

Hundreds of Myanmar fishermen killed by tsunami
(Updated at 1525 PST)
GENEVA: Hundreds of fishermen were probably killed in Myanmar by Indian Ocean killer waves, the World Food Program said on Tuesday, as Yangon put the tsunami toll at 53 killed and 21 missing.

Rains lash eastern Sri Lanka, slow relief operations
(Updated at 1350 PST)
COLOMBO: Heavy rains slowed relief operations in Sri Lanka's worst affected region on Tuesday as international aid piled up amid concern tsunami survivors may be exposed to disease at overcrowded shelters.

The government announced the formation of three task forces comprising state and private sector experts to oversee relief efforts in the badly-battered island, where 30,196 people died, 3,746 are missing and 861,016 were displaced by the giant wall of water.

400,000 Indonesians refugees after tsunami
(Updated at 1000 PST)
JAKARTA: Nearly 400,000 Indonesians have been displaced by the massive earthquake-triggered tsunami that swept Aceh province, the health ministry said on Tuesday.

It said in a statement that 400,000 people were refugees. Some 94,081 people have been confirmed killed.

New quake jolts India's Nicobar Island
(Updated at 0940 PST)
NEW DELHI: An earthquake of moderate intensity, registering 5.3 on the Richter scale, hit the coast of India's Great Nicobar island early on Tuesday, the meteorological department said.

The Andaman and Nicobar islands have been rattled by dozens of aftershocks since a huge undersea earthquake off nearby Indonesia generated tsunamis that crashed into Asian coastlines killing almost 150,000 people on December 26.

Moderate quake hits Indonesian town 
(Updated at 0930 PST)
JAKARTA: A moderate quake measuring 4.8 on the Richter scale rocked Indonesia's densely populated East Java province on Tuesday but there was no report of casualty or damage, the Meteorology and Geophysics office said.

The tremor hit at 10:08 am (0708 GMT) and was centered some 15 kilometers (nine miles) under the surface of the earth 16 kilometers east of the town of Bondowoso, said spokesman Budi Waluyo.