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Tsumi-BBC Areas hit by the Asian tsunami could take up to 10 years to recover, the UN secretary general has warned. Kofi Annan spoke of the “sheer complexity” of the relief effort, which is spread across a dozen nations. Aid supplies are piling up in regional warehouses, but in some …

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia – AFP Desperate relief workers are struggling to get food and water to the millions of Asia‘s tsunami victims facing starvation and disease as the death toll passes 125,000, from what the UN has called “an unprecedented global catastrophe”.Urging a matching “unprecedented global response”, UN Secretary General …

Newyork Times ? QAMISHLI – Syria,The Iraqi election next month may be evoking skepticism in much of the world, but here in northeastern Syria, home to concentrations of several ethnic minorities, it is evoking a kind of earnest hope. “I believe democracy in Iraq must succeed,” Vahan Kirakos, a Syrian …

BANDA ACEH – Indonesia -AFP Confirmed deaths from Asia‘s tsunami catastrophe soared past 70,000 and experts predicted much worse to come as the world’s biggest ever relief operation stuttered into life against enormous odds.With 71,763 dead, rotting corpses, smashed sewers, contaminated water and a lack of food and shelter, along …

? JAKARTA – AFP Le bilan des raz-de-mar?e qui ont frapp? dimanche plusieurs milliers de kilom?tres de rivages de l’Asie du Sud et du Sud-Est n’a cess? de s’alourdir mercredi avec plus de 80.000 morts d?j? recens?s mais la Croix Rouge s’attend ? plus de 100.000 victimes.L’?v?nement Le nombre des …

Qamishli is experiencing a new restlessness and even protests.?QAMISHLI, Syria, Dec. 28 – The Iraqi election next month may be evoking skepticism in much of the world, but here in northeastern Syria, home to concentrations of several ethnic minorities, it is evoking a kind of earnest hope. “I believe democracy …

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Nestled off a bustling shopping avenue in central Baghdad, Babylon Farms offers all the retail trappings of Christmas. Baskets brim with glitterdusted ornaments. A 4-foot Santa Claus doll towers over the cash register. Rows of decorated trees and plastic red poinsettias line the shop. The only thing …

The United Nations has begun its largest ever relief operation in response to the Asian quake disaster. Disaster assessment teams have fanned out to the affected countries and local branches are distributing emergency aid, says the organisation. The UN says it faces an unprecedented challenge in co-ordinating distribution of aid …

Fewer Iraqi Christians than usual came to church for Christmas Day prayers on Saturday, but those that did came despite fears insurgents, who have attacked churches and mosques in the past year, would strike again. At Our Lady of Salvation, one of Baghdad’s largest churches, hundreds of Christians sang hymns, …

Rescuers in Baghdad lifted blackened corpses on Christmas Day from the ruins of a suicide truck bombing the previous evening that killed eight people, further unnerving Iraq’s embattled Christian community. A giant fireball ripped the wealthy Mansur district in Baghdad on Friday a few hours after Christmas Eve mass was …