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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.
08-01-2005
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.
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