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Insane
Location: New Orleans/Chicago
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Good news and bad news:
First the bad news: the death toll is approaching 150,000
The good news: worldwide aid contributions have now topped $1 billion !!!!
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...1503&ncid=2337
Quote:
Tsunami death toll tops 125,000 as global aid pledges exceed 1.1 billion
6 minutes ago
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AFP) - More than 1.1 billion dollars have been pledged to an unprecedented aid effort after last week's Asian tsunamis, the United Nations (news - web sites) said, while devastated countries race to get food and water to millions facing starvation as the death toll topped 125,000.
The UN's emergency relief coordinator, Jan Egeland, said the death toll "may be approaching" 150,000, cautioning the true figure may never be known.
"What we see is that the figures may be approcahing 150,000 dead. The vast majority of those are in Indonesia and Aceh, which is the least assessed area because of logistical constraints," Egeland told reporters.
"It may therefore raise further," he said.
The rescue efforts came amid a global outpouring of sympathy, with the United States saying it would increase its tsunami aid to 350 million dollars.
China also rallied, committing 60.5 million dollars to relief efforts in tsunami-hit countries bordering the Indian Ocean.
"We are now counting new pledges by the hour. We're now between 1.1 billion and 1.2 billion dollars," Egeland said.
Egeland's announcement came after US Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) met UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) to discuss coordination of the global relief effort for the catastrophe.
"This is an unprecedented disaster," Powell said after the meeting. "I hope that the world will be generous."
Powell was due to head to Asia this weekend for a first-hand look at the devastation.
Indonesia has emerged as the country worst affected by Sunday's huge earthquake off its western Sumatra island and the tidal waves it spawned, accounting for more than two thirds of the dead.
Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said her officials had stopped trying to count the dead and would from now on give only general casualty estimates since the death toll was too large to provide an exact tally, the state Antara news agency said.
The ministry said earlier the final casualty number would likely reach up to 100,000. Its last confirmed figure was 79,940.
Starvation, injury and disease were pushing massive numbers of refugees in Sumatra's Aceh province closer to death with each passing hour, the United Nations said.
"The indications are the disaster is going to be a lot worse than we have anticipated already," United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF (news - web sites)) communications director John Budd told AFP by telephone from Jakarta.
Budd said up to 500,000 people were "extremely vulnerable" because of a lack of shelter, while 900,000 children were suffering from a combination of illness, injury, trauma, separation from families and being orphaned.
He said there was a desperate shortage of food and fuel across the province, which had already suffered from a lack of infrastructure due to a decades-long violent struggle between separatist rebels and the government.
"It's a cruel situation. If we get food in, say, rice, there is no pure water or fuel to cook it. We are desperately trying to break this cycle," he said.
Indonesia has called a major summit of global leaders for January 6 to discuss the devastation across Asia, take stock and plot how to overcome the world's worst natural disaster in recent memory.
Heads of state from India and Sri Lanka which have both suffered massive casualties and damage were expected to attend the summit as well as all 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Major aid donors Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea (news - web sites) and the United States were also invited along with representatives from the United Nations, the World Bank (news - web sites), the World Health Organisation, Asian Development Bank and European Union (news - web sites).
The second worst-hit country, Sri Lanka, marked an official day of mourning after cancelling all New Year celebrations with the death toll set to exceed 29,000.
Hundreds of people gathered at the capital Colombo's Independence Square at midnight for candle-lit vigils to begin the new year by remembering those who perished in Sunday's tsunami waves.
But adding a ghoulish note to the tragedy, local media reported that bodies of tsunami victims in Sri Lanka had been stolen from hospitals and "sold" to distraught relatives while fingers and ears of corpses had been chopped off to steal jewellery.
In Thailand, where more than 2,000 foreigners were among 4,560 people confirmed killed, there were also reports of some rescue workers -- or people posing as them -- looting stores or stealing from bodies.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra asked government agencies not to hold New Year celebrations and traditional countdowns in Bangkok and the northern city of Chiang Mai were cancelled, replaced by Buddhist merit-making ceremonies for the dead on New Year morning.
As midnight struck, hundreds of foreign tourists in Thailand's top resort island joined their Thai hosts in tearful hugs and spontaneous candle-lighting.
India, with nearly 12,000 confirmed dead, also called off New Year festivities.
As relief efforts continued in southern parts of the country that bore the brunt of Sunday's horror, officials in the far-flung Andaman and Nicobar islands forecast the numbers of dead there could reach 10,000 alone.
The suffering around the region has led to ordinary people worldwide digging deep into their pockets, with some relief organisations saying they had received record donations.
The possibility of debt relief for poor countries devastated by the tsunamis has also become a major topic as world leaders grapple with the enormity of the human and material cost of the disaster.
Hopes that the disaster could put a stop, at least temporarily, to some of the separatist wars in the region took a knock when the Indonesian military said it was continuing to launch raids against separatists in Aceh, the hardest hit place in the world.
"Our security operations continue, the only difference is that it may be less in scale and intensity," Lieutenant Colonel Nachrowi, of the military headquarters' general information department, told AFP.
In Sri Lanka, calls have been made for the government and Tamil Tiger rebels to unite in the aftermath of the disaster, despite three decades of war that have left 60,000 dead.
President Chandrika Kumaratunga in a New Year message said the unprecedented tragedy was a window of opportunity to seek a permanent solution to the island's lingering ethnic conflict.
"This is a fine opportunity for us to look at the ethnic struggle from a new perspective and realise the need for a new approach for a permanent solution," she said.
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why are you wearing that stupid man suit?
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