Indonesia says it would give up trying to find a precise toll figure; Nations donate $500 million for relief:

Agencies

Banda Aceh, December 31

An unprecedented world relief drive to shelter, treat and feed

millions of survivors of Asia’s tsunami disaster kicked into

high gear today as donations poured in and aid planes and ships — including a US aircraft carrier battle group — rushed to the devastated region. The death toll passed 1,20,000.

Survivors on the ground grappled with the destruction. Teams of forensic experts in Thailand packed bodies in dry ice as the government announced its death toll in the tsunami disaster had doubled to more than 4,500 people, almost half of them foreigners, and hopes faded that more survivors would be found.

Indonesia’s health minister, Siti Fadillah Supadi, said today that the country would give up trying to find a precise figure for the number of people killed. The country’s official death toll stood at about 80,000, but Supadi said it could reach 100,000. Death counts across the region continued to grow. More than 120,000 people were reported dead in southern Asia and Somalia.

Sri Lanka reported about 28,500 deaths and India more than 7,700. A total of more than 300 were killed in Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Somalia, Tanzania and Kenya. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said yesterday that nations had donated US$500 million toward the relief effort, but more help was needed. While the money starting rolling in, militaries across the globe also geared up to help. The US, India, Australia, Japan and the UN have formed an international coalition to coordinate worldwide relief.

A report said India’s media today lambasted the government for causing tens of thousands of people to flee from coastal areas battered by tsunamis after it sounded an alert which a minister later said was “hogwash”. The defence and home ministries yesterday morning issued an alert to evacuate two km inland after a quake shook Indonesia and little known US-based firm Terra Research posted a warning that an earthquake measuring more than seven on the Richter scale could imminently occur. By late afternoon when that did not happen, embarrassed officials told rescue workers to resume operations.