Ocean disaster toll hits 114,000
New figures reveal at least 114,000 people died in Sunday's ocean disaster.
Officials in Indonesia say the number killed there is now nearly 80,000 and the death toll from the worst-hit area is set to rise still higher.
Aid workers are meanwhile struggling to reach the millions who survived the devastating waves but who now have little water, food or shelter.
Relief teams and supplies are pouring into the region but have yet to reach the hardest-hit and most remote areas.
There are reports of desperate people fighting over aid. Aftershocks and fears of new tsunamis have sown panic among survivors in Indonesia and India.
Across the region thousands remain unaccounted for since the 9.0 magnitude undersea earthquake off Sumatra that forced a wall of water smashing into coastlines as far away as east Africa.
Click here for map of affected area
The US, Australia, Japan and India have formed a coalition to provide relief.
Foreign governments have pledged more than $220m in aid - $35m of which is promised by the US.
City of corpses
Health ministry officials in Indonesia put the new death toll at 79,940.
They explained that the figure had jumped by more than 20,000 after large numbers of bodies were found on Sumatra's remote north-west coast, the area of land closest to the epicentre of the earthquake that triggered the waves.
Government institutions in the region have collapsed and fuel supplies have almost run out, officials said.
The BBC's Andrew Harding in Banda Aceh says relief supplies are barely trickling into the city where drinking water is also scarce and corpses clog the streets.
A logistical nightmare awaits the massive aid operation, he says.
There are reports of fighting among survivors over food in the city.
"There is no food here whatsoever. We need rice. We need medicine. I haven't eaten in two days," a local woman told Reuters news agency.
A lone airport serves the entire region and road links to many remote areas have been washed away by sea waters.
On Thursday, aftershocks off Indonesia triggered fresh panic among survivors in Aceh.
Frustration
Rumours of impending waves quickly spread to the two other countries which bore the brunt of Sunday's tsunamis - India and Sri Lanka.
Indian officials issued a warning, prompting many people to flee coastal areas both in southern India and Sri Lanka.
The UN's relief co-ordinator, Jan Egeland, has said it will take another "two or three days" for the relief effort to get into full swing - by which time it may be too late for tens of thousands of people.
"We are doing very little at the moment," he said.
"I believe the frustration will be growing in the days and weeks ahead."
There are fears that epidemics will erupt because water supplies have been contaminated.
The head of the World Health Organization's crisis team, David Nabarro, says as many as five million people cannot get water, food or adequate sanitation.
Source
India's tribal people safe after tsunami - official
By Suresh Seshadri
PORT BLAIR, India (Reuters) - India's dwindling aboriginal population in the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands is safe as most lived in jungles, far away from the coast hit by a devastating tsunami, a coast guard official said on Thursday.
Experts had feared that some Stone Age tribal people, who have been living on the far-flung archipelago for thousands of years, could be on the verge of extinction after the killer waves that have killed more than 120,000 people across Asia.
"There have been several media reports talking about a threat to the aborigines, indigenous people and tribals of the islands," Vice Admiral Arun Kumar Singh, director-general of the Coast Guard, which is involved in rescue operations, told reporters.
"I have personally verified the extent of this claim and let me tell you that it is absolutely rubbish."
The Andaman and Nicobar group is a cluster of more than 550 islands, of which only about three dozen are inhabited.
The island chain is home to about six tribes of Mongoloid and Negrito origin. Many of the indigenous people are semi-nomadic and subsist on hunting with spears, bows and arrows as well as fishing and gathering fruit and roots. They still cover themselves with tree bark or leaves.
Singh said the Nicobarese, the largest tribal group that lives on Car Nicobar and adjoining islands, bore the brunt of the waves, but the exact death toll was not known.
Coast Guard surveys showed the rest of the tribes such as the Shompen, the Jarawa and the Sentinelese had escaped either because they lived in the jungles far from the coast or because their islands were barely touched by the waves.
"In the Middle Andaman the Jarawa tribes are there and there has not been a single report of casualty. The Sentinelese of North Sentinel Island, which some reports say have been completely wiped out, are all very much there," Singh said.
More than 13,000 people are dead or are feared to have died in India from the tsunami, but rescuers are still struggling to assess the toll in the Andaman and Nicobar islands.
Officials said more than 6,000 people were feared dead in the island chain alone, which is closer to Myanmar and Indonesia than the Indian mainland and is home to more than 350,000 people.
Around 30,000 of the islands' total population is tribal, the majority Nicobarese.
The rest are smaller groups. Some like the Great Andamanese are already down to 30 people while others like the Shompen number between 200-250.
The number of the Onge, one of the most primitive tribes, has fallen in past decades to about 100. There are about 200 Sentinelese, probably one of the world's only surviving palaeolithic people, who are generally hostile to outsiders.
"Our helicopter pilot who flew over the island told me that he has seen several groups of Sentinelese on the beach and that when he dropped food packets they threw stones at the helicopter."
Source
"Our helicopter pilot who flew over the island told me that he has seen several groups of Sentinelese on the beach and that when he dropped food packets they threw stones at the helicopter."
Redleg said:Finally some good news...
"Our helicopter pilot who flew over the island told me that he has seen several groups of Sentinelese on the beach and that when he dropped food packets they threw stones at the helicopter."
Great one.. :lol:
Fri Dec 31, 5:52 PM ET
By The Associated Press
The tally of foreigners confirmed dead from the quake and tsunamis throughout southern Asia, according to their countries' foreign ministries. Authorities said thousands were still missing, many of them feared dead. Thai authorities said more than 2,230 foreigners from 36 nations were confirmed dead from Thailand's southern resorts alone.
_ Sweden: 59
_ Britain: 34
_ Germany: 34
_ France: 22
_ Norway: 21
_ Japan: 17
_ United States: 15
_ Italy: 14
_ Switzerland: 13
_ Australia: 10
_ Denmark: 7
_ Singapore: 7
_ Belgium: 6
_ Austria: 5
_ Canada: 5
_ Netherlands: 5
_ Finland: 4
_ South Africa: 4
_ South Korea (news - web sites): 4
_ Philippines: 3
_ Brazil: 2
_ Taiwan: 2
_ Colombia: 1
_ Czech Republic: 1
_ Mexico: 1
_ New Zealand: 1
_ Poland: 1
_ Russia: 1
_ Turkey: 1
Source
Sat Jan 1, 8:29 AM ET
Add to My Yahoo! World - AP Asia
By The Associated Press
At least 123,171 people were killed in 11 countries in southern Asia and East Africa from the massive earthquake and tsunamis on Dec. 26, according to official figures. A breakdown of the toll so far:
Indonesia: At least 80,246 people were killed on Sumatra island, the government said. The health minister said Friday the country's toll could rise to 100,000.
_ Sri Lanka: Some 28,729 killed. About 1 million people were displaced.
_ India: The government said 8,942 deaths have been confirmed but nearly 4,000 more were missing in India's remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands, just north of Sumatra.
_ Thailand: The government said 4,812 people died, including 2,230 foreigners.
_ Somalia: At least 200 killed, said Somali presidential spokesman Yusuf Mohamed Ismail.
_ Myanmar: About 90 people were killed, according to reports compiled by international aid agencies.
_ Maldives: At least 73 people confirmed dead.
_ Malaysia: At least 66 people, including an unknown number of foreign tourists, were dead, according to official reports.
_ Tanzania: At least 10 people killed, said Alfred Tibaigana, police commander in Dar es Salaam.
_ Bangladesh: Two killed.
_ Kenya: One killed.
Source
America Finds Creative Ways to Aid Victims
14 minutes ago
By JAY LINDSAY, Associated Press Writer
BOSTON - A Kentucky widow, moved by the cries of grief she heard in reports about the tsunami disaster in south Asia, invited her entire town to a New Year's Eve bash to raise money for the victims. In California, a college offered free basketball tickets, with a gift for relief efforts the only price of admission.
A group of children in a Seattle suburb stood out in the rain offering "Hot Chocolate for Tidal Wave Relief!" and raised $255.
In ways large and small, people around the country have found ways to help victims of one of history's worst natural disasters.
"I can say the outpouring has been amazing," said Coco McCabe, a spokeswoman for the Oxfam International relief agency. "Even though it's happening on the other side of the world, it feels so close."
Oxfam said Friday it had received almost $6 million in unsolicited donations since the disaster on Dec. 26. The American Red Cross (news - web sites) reported almost $44 million in donations from Americans by Thursday evening.
Three brothers ages 3 to 7 each dropped off sandwich bags containing a few dollars at the Mile High chapter of the Red Cross in Denver, according to spokesman Robert Thompson. The same chapter also accepted a $50,000 donation from a man who requested anonymity.
A group of children in Sammamish, Wash., a suburb of Seattle, stood in steady rain Wednesday selling hot chocolate to fight the chill. Eleven-year-old Thomas Wilson said he couldn't get the rising death toll of his mind
"It's so horrid, so terrible — such a huge loss of family. And I couldn't do anything about it," he said. "Then I did this hot chocolate stand and it made me feel better."
Kids elsewhere around the country were similarly moved.
In New York City, six children ages 12 to 18 worked late Thursday and early Friday to make dozens of cookies, brownies and cupcakes for a door-to-door bake sale organized by Do Something, a youth service group.
Jeffrey Arias, a Boy Scout from Newbury, Mass., attends Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H., with several students from areas hit hard by the giant waves. He and 15 friends stood outside banks and convenience stores Thursday and Friday with donation cans for the American Red Cross
"There's quite a big chance that friends of mine were hit," Arias said. "I can't just stand around and watch the news."
After hearing the victims' cries on news reports, Claire Neal, decided to throw a New Year's Eve fund-raiser at her house in Owensboro, Ky., a city of 54,000 on the Ohio River. A local business donated gourmet candy for the $50-per-ticket event.
"When I woke up, I thought 'I can do this, and I can do it right now,'" said Neal, 75, a widow who has hosted several community fund-raisers. She said people donated more than $7,000 Friday night and she expects to get more in the mail.
The University of California at Santa Barbara athletic department offered free admission to the Gauchos' basketball game Thursday to anyone who brought a donation of canned food, bottled water or a piece of clothing.
"You look at the number of children and the amount of damage and the shape the world is in over there compared to the lives we get to live here," head coach Bob Williams said. "It's a chance to do a small, minute thing."
For the next month, Philadelphia's Reading Terminal Market will collect donations in a 4-foot bronze pig that stands in the center of the farmers' market. In Elizabeth City, N.C., Jacklyn Phillips, plans to collect 1,000 used bicycles and, with the help of local prison inmates, refurbish them and ship them to Indonesia so people can get around on damaged roads.
Sri Lankan native Preethi Burkholder is charging $15 for a benefit slide show of her homeland Monday in Aspen, Colo. In Hawaii, North Shore Catamaran Charters plans to donate all proceeds from a special sunset whale watch cruise on Jan. 14 to tsunami victims.
New Delhi native Naveen Sachar hopes to net $10,000 from a Jan. 7 fund-raiser he arranged at a Chicago bar. His relatives in central India were unhurt, but he said he mourns for victims and survivors who've lost everything.
"We were opening Christmas gifts that morning and people there were trying to recover bodies," said Sachar, a 36-year-old business consultant. "The least we can do is raise some money to help."
Source
At least 6,000 Europeans are still missing - most of them presumed dead - after the Indian Ocean disaster wrecked beach resorts in south-west Thailand.
Sweden estimated 3,500 of its people were missing and said the national death toll could top 1,000.
Germany has more than 1,000 missing, and hundreds of tourists from Italy, Norway, Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands are also unaccounted for.
The Thai resorts of Khao Lak and Phuket were hardest hit by the giant waves.
Nearly 2,000 foreign tourists died in Khao Lak alone, when luxury hotels full for the Christmas holidays were swamped.
Bodies arriving in temporary mortuaries are often unrecognisable after days lying in the tropical heat.
More than 4,500 bodies have now been recovered in Thailand, almost half of them foreigners.
Where possible, the bodies of foreign tourists are being stored in refrigerated container lorries, but more temporary mortuaries are needed to house corpses.
Forensic experts will try to identify victims using DNA samples and dental records provided by relatives.
The highest death tolls confirmed by European nations so far are: Sweden (59), Britain (34), Germany (34), France (22) and Norway (21).
The actual death tolls are expected to be much higher.
Sad New Year
New Year's Day will be an official day of mourning in Sweden, Finland and Norway.
Many local authorities throughout the Nordic countries have cancelled New Year celebrations.
European countries have pledged millions of dollars in aid and planes carrying experts and supplies have been flown to the region.
The EU's humanitarian affairs commissioner, Louis Michel, said the EU had reserve funds to help the stricken countries if the 33m euros ($45m) already pledged proved insufficient. He said the EU had an extra 300m euros available in separate emergency funds.
But he stressed that funds would be needed for reconstruction, beyond the current emergency.
Anxious search
On the ground in the disaster zone, many Europeans are still waiting for news of friends and relatives missing since Sunday's waves.
Locals and tourists are looking at the dead to see if their loved ones are there, or examining message boards posted with photos of the dead.
One of the coordinators of the forensic teams in Thailand, policeman Carl Kent from Australia, urged relatives to refrain from visiting the mortuaries, which were in "difficult environments".
"Family members must steel themselves to the fact that this process will take a considerable period of time to resolve," he said.
The BBC's Chris Hogg in Phuket says that after the Bali bombing it took five months to identify about 200 victims.
The Danish, Swedish and Norwegian foreign ministries have been sharply criticised by some of their nationals in Thailand, who accuse them of reacting too slowly to the disaster.
The European Union is planning a special meeting of EU aid ministers early next month to co-ordinate relief efforts.
Mr Michel said he would attend a conference of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) in Jakarta next week to gauge the immediate needs.
Source
SwordFish_13 said:Hi,
Hopes fade for missing Europeans :?
EUROPEANS DEAD OR MISSING
- Sweden: 59 dead, about 3,500 missing
- Germany: 34 dead, over 1,000 missing
- Britain: 34 dead, unconfirmed number missing
- France: 22 dead, 96 missing
- Norway: 21 dead, 430 missing
- Italy: 14 dead, 700 missing
- Finland: 14 dead, 263 missing
- Switzerland: 12 dead, 850 missing
- Denmark: 7 dead, 419 missing
- Austria: 5 dead, up to 100 missing
- Russia: 1 dead, 80 missing