Life
limps back to normal in tsunami-affected areas
Nagapattinam
(Tamil Nadu): Life is slowly getting back to normal
in India's southern Nagapattinam district one of the worst
affected in the country, a week after the killer tsunami
tides washed away thousands of people across Asia and Africa.
People are picking up the pieces of their lives, hit by
one of the worst disasters in living memory. Nagapattinam
is about 320 km south of Madras capital of Tamil Nadu, the
worst hit state on the mainland, with more than 6,200 killed.
Shops have opened for the first time after Sunday and residents
are rushing to buy provisions. "Shops are opening today
only and people are rushing to buy provisions because for
many days they did not a get a chance to buy anything and
they are rushing today," said S.Rajendran, a kiosk owner.
Experts said there was an overwhelming desire to help survivors
and thousands of volunteers and aid workers had poured into
Tamil Nadu, leading to uneven distribution. More than 10,000
people have been confirmed dead across India.
Internet
helps in collecting 8 m pounds for tsunami victims (Go
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London:
Internet technology has often proved to be a crucial
aid to mankind, and once again when the world community
is battling the havoc wreaked by the Boxing Day tsunami
waves, it has emerged as a strong medium of extending help
to the victims as the web is helping aid agencies gather
resources to help cope with the aftermath of the tsunami
disaster. According to the BBC, high-profile web portals
such as Google, Yahoo, eBay and Amazon are gathering links
that lead people to aid and relief organisations. Many people
are making donations via websites or going online to see
how they can get involved with aid efforts. Many are visiting
some aid-related sites that some webpages were struggling
to cope with the traffic. An umbrella organisation called
the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) has been set up
by a coalition of 12 charities and has been taking many
donations via its specially created website. The DEC has
urged people to go online where possible to help because
donations could be processed more quickly than cash donated
in other ways, meaning aid could be delivered as quickly
as possible. The site has so far received almost 8 million
pounds, with more than 11,000 donations being made online
every hour.
Natwar,
not PM to go for ASEAN meeting (Go
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New
Delhi: Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has requested
External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh to represent him
at the special session of the ASEAN to be held in Jakarta
on January 6. The Prime Minister, who was earlier scheduled
to attend the meeting, has decided not to go as he has to
attend the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Mumbai on January
7. The special session of ASEAN has been called to review
the situation arising out of the Boxing Day tsunami calamity
that has claimed nearly 1,50,000 lives in the last week.
Ten
Lankan tsunami-hit refugee camps flooded (Go
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Colombo:
At least 10 camps sheltering thousands of tsunami survivors
were hit by flash floods on Saturday. The survivors, however,
were evacuated in Sri Lanka's eastern Ampara district. A
foreign news agency quoted officials involved with the relief
operations as saying that at least 2,000 people had been
evacuated from the camps located in low-lying areas. "The
situation is not looking good and people are telling that
2,000 people have already been displaced," officials of
the aid group Nonviolent Peaceforce were quoted by the news
agency as saying. Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan authorities
on Saturday put the nationwide death toll at 28,729. An
official at Sri Lanka's National Disaster Management Centre
said 16,525 people were injured and 5,240 remained missing.
Elsewhere, Indonesia's Banda Aceh province experienced major
aftershocks today. Three aftershocks measuring 5.0 or above
on the Richter scale were recorded overnight, but they were
not big enough to cause further tsunamis, an official of
the Indonesian government's Meteorology and Geophysics office
was quoted as saying. The three aftershocks measured 5.3,
5.2 and 5.0 on the Richter scale, he said. In Crawford,
Texas, US President George W Bush said that he was raising
Washington's tsunami-related aid from an initial 35 million
dollars to 350 million dollars. France has promised 57 million
dollars, Britain has pledged 95 million dollars, Sweden
is sending 75.5 million dollars and Spain is offering 68
million dollars.
Dalmiya,
ICC announce two matches for tsunami relief
Kolkata:
The Asian Cricket Council President, Jagmohan Dalmiya,
on Saturday announced that the ACC and the International
Cricket Council (ICC) would select two teams to play a two-match
one-day series to raise funds for tsunami victims in various
countries. The first match of the series, sponsored by the
Asian Cricket Council, would be played in Melbourne, Australia,
on January 10 while the return leg match would be held in
a venue to be selected by ACC in mid-February. Dalmiya said
the Asia XI team would be selected by Chairmen of selection
committees of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh
soon. The proceeds from the first match would be donated
to global relief and development organisation World Vision,
which is providing food and family survival kits to countries
affected by the tsunami disaster, he said.
