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Scandinavian humanitarian organizations are pulling the plug on aid to victims of last year's devastating tsunami and earthquake disasters, saying the safety of their relief workers has been jeopardized by Muslim rioters protesting cartoons depicting Mohammed. The Red Cross, Norwegian Peoples Aid, Norwegian Church Aid and the Norwegian Refugee Council announced Thursday that they will be suspending aid projects in Indonesia and Pakistan, reports the Norwegian Broadcasting network [NRK]. Danish aid organizations have also announced they are halting relief operations in some Muslim nations. "It is tragic that this has come in the way, but we must first and foremost...

A recent investigation by the Financial Times, however, has raised serious questions regarding the U.N.’s handling of the tsunami relief effort, in particular the way in which it has spent the first $590 million of its $1.1 billion disaster “flash appeal.”

THE last batch of combat soldiers in Aceh assembled on the dockside yesterday in full kit and armed to the teeth, ready to embark on their troopships as the final act of a bloody 29-year guerrilla war. Supaidin Adi Saputra, Aceh’s military commander, told them they should be proud of fighting to keep Indonesia intact — then told the watching Acehnese: “The flame of peace is burning and we must not let anyone extinguish it.” The head of the feared Indonesian military in Aceh was doing what was almost unthink-able only a year ago; telling its people that the war,...

The indiscriminate, awesome power of the Indian Ocean tsunami did not just annihilate communities, it fundamentally altered the destinies of two bloody, decades-long conflicts. In Aceh, the Indonesian province worst affected by the devastating waves, the apocalyptic aftermath has become a catalyst for peace between the Government and separatists. It seems both parties innately understood that the fighting had to stop if this land was to get the aid required for the huge rebuilding task. Jakarta started the final phase of a troop reduction in Aceh today, a key step in a peace agreement with separatist rebels that was propelled...

One year after a tsunami devastated a dozen nations and killed more than 215,000 people, local charities are still sending help. You'll recall the campaign "From Lubbock With Love" raised over a million dollars for tsunami relief. All that money was donated by citizens right here on the South Plains. It was then split between Breedlove Dehydrated Foods, and the local chapters of the Salvation Army and Red Cross. NewsChannel 11's Kealey McIntire tells us how that money is still helping survivors. >>> A year ago on December 26th, the tsunami wiped out much of Southeast Asia, leaving its residents...

PEACE ACCORD: The move was part of an agreement that ends Asia's longest-running separatist insurgency, and sets the stage for the guerillas to run in elections Indonesia's Aceh rebels formally disbanded their armed wing yesterday, fulfilling a crucial part of a tsunami-inspired peace accord to end one of Asia's longest separatist conflicts and paving the way for the guerillas to enter politics. "The Acehnese national army, or the armed wing of the Free Aceh Movement, has demobilized and disbanded," Sofyan Daud, one of the group's commanders, told reporters. "The Aceh national army is now part of civil society, and will...

Hey gang, This may have been brought up here before and some how I missed it, but can anyone tell me %wise of how much of the promised tsunami relief aid -- esp. the cash money --was actually delivered? A ballpark figure is all I'm looking for. Regards, --YD

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (Reuters) - Mourners across the world gathered on Monday along ravaged Indian Ocean coastlines on Monday to remember more than 231,000 people who died in last year's tsunami. A year on, a huge reconstruction operation has brought hope to hundreds of thousands living in temporary shelters, but the sorrow and pain from one of nature's most ferocious episodes remains strong -- and fears that monster waves could come again. "We think about the lost lives, lost property and lost jobs" said 19-year-old Kanagalingan Janenthra in Sri Lanka's eastern town of Batticaloa."We are in fear. Some of us...

NEW YORK, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Up to about a third of the $590 million U.N. fund spent for the Indian Ocean tsunami relief may have gone to pay for overhead. The Financial Times says its two-month investigation showed the money appears to have been spent on administration, staff and related costs. The $590 million was part of the United Nation's $1.1 billion disaster flash appeal. The newspaper also found several U.N. agencies continue to refuse to disclose details of their relief expenditure in spite of earlier pledges of transparency by senior officials. The flash appeal covered the money donated...

IN Aceh this month I came face to face with human loss so vast that it is difficult to comprehend. With it, I saw human determination that is truly inspirational. The fishing village of Kajhu, just a few kilometres out of Banda Aceh, was home to about 20,000 people last Christmas. On Boxing Day last year no less than half of the villagers were killed by the tsunami -- a disproportionate number women and children, because most of the men were either fishing at sea or working in the hills. So it came to pass that earlier this month, at...

Survivors of the Asian tsunami, which claimed the lives of at least 216,000 people last year, launched a boat laden with flowers and candles marking the first anniversary of one of the world's worst natural disasters in memory. The ceremony in Thailand was the first of hundreds to be held to mark the anniversary in the disaster-hit countries. At Bang Niang beach in Thailand's Phang Nga province, mourners placed offerings into a colored, bird-shaped boat that floated into the Andaman Sea. Also a private memorial service for British citizens and two candlelight ceremonies were scheduled to be held later Saturday...

It killed 280,000 people and left more than a million without homes. Some 15,000 people are still missing a year later and presumed dead.It shook the Earth so severely that sensors picking up the quake in Oklahoma on the other side of the planet, while high waves radiated as far as Mexico and the Arctic. The global sea level actually rose by a millimeter, and the very shape of the Earth changed enough to slightly lengthen the day.It was the Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami of Dec. 26, 2004, and today the horrible event is being remembered all around the...

Religious extremists are using last year’s storm to oppress the survivors MARLUDDIN JALIL, a Sharia judge who has ordered the punishment of women for not wearing headscarves, was uncompromising: “The tsunami was because of the sins of the people of Aceh.” Thundering into a microphone at a gathering of wives, he made clear where he felt the fault lay: “The Holy Koran says that if women are good, then a country is good.” A year after the disaster which many see as a divine punishment, emboldened Islamic hardliners are doing their best to eradicate sin — and women are their...

December 22, 2005 -- "Bill Clinton and George Bush Sr. have been named 'Partners of the Year'......... In fact, they've become so close, they're thinking of making a cowboy movie.......

Associated Press Correspondent Denis Gray was aboard the first U.S. helicopters that rushed aid to survivors of last year's tsunami in Indonesia. He recently revisited the same devastated coastline communities. Gray also covered the earthquake in Pakistan. --- LAMPUUK, Indonesia -- There aren't many places in the Islamic world these days where they name streets after American presidents, past or present. But through the tsunami-devastated heart of this village, embedded in a highly conservative Muslim society, runs George Bush and Bill Clinton Road. "We are one big family and those who help us are our brothers. So Americans are our...

Next to one of the lasting reminders of the Boxing Day tsunami in Buddhist Thailand, around 50 people gathered yesterday to worship Jesus Christ. The Love in Action ministry is alongside a 65ft fishing trawler which was swept a mile inland in Nam Khem, the town worst affected by the wave. Survivors of the tsunami make up the congregation at Sunday service in the new ministry at Nam Khem A year ago there were no churches on the Khao Lak coast, where thousands died. As the first anniversary approaches there are a score, mostly set up by United States-based evangelical...

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia : The image of the United States in tsunami-hit parts of Asia may have enjoyed a boost thanks to its massive aid donations, but one year on, residents say US policy speaks louder than dollars. The US-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, along with Washington's pro-Israeli stance, have incensed Muslims across the region, and no amount of aid -- even in tsunami-ravaged Indonesia -- has soothed their anger. "I don't like the leader of the American people. I don't mind the people, I just don't like their leader," says Yan, a 35-year-old Acehnese dried fish trader who...

A "DEAD zone" devoid of life has been discovered at the epicentre of last year's tsunami four kilometres beneath the surface of the Indian Ocean. Scientists taking part in a worldwide marine survey made an 11-hour dive at the site five months after the disaster. They were shocked to find no sign of life around the epicentre, which opened up a 1000-metre chasm on the ocean floor. Instead, there was nothing but eerie emptiness. The powerful lights of the scientists' submersible vehicle, piercing through the darkness, showed no trace of anything living. A scientist working on the Census of Marine...

[snip] After a few minutes, Faridah decided to return to her husband, who had gone back into their house to put on his pants. As she walked home, she heard a noise that sounded like an accelerating airplane engine. She scoured the sky, and when she saw nothing, she looked at the distant mountains, her hand shielding her eyes like a visor. Something massive was coming toward the city. It appeared bluish-black, like the color of the peaks through a haze. Had the mountains sprung loose and begun a charge across flat soil? Faridah had never seen such a thing....

Former US president Bill Clinton and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will attend a ceremony to commemorate the first anniversary of tsunami tragedy in Phang Nga, the permanent secretary for the Culture Ministry said Friday. Khunying Tipawadee Meksawan said Clinton and Rice would attend the ceremony at Haad Lek Beach in Phang Nga's Kholak National Park on December 26. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will chair the solemn ceremony at 4 pm. Tipawadee said former US secretary of State Coli Powell would also attend the ceremony during which Thaksin would lay a stone with 38 points to commemorate the deaths...