■ Myanmar
Twelve die as bridge falls
Tidal waves killed about 12 people when a bridge collapsed on the southern tip of Myanmar, fishing industry officials said yesterday. The deaths made Myanmar the ninth country to be struck by waves sent thundering across the Bay of Bengal by the earthquake off Sumatra. The deaths occurred on Sunday at Kawthaung, opposite the city of Ranong in southern Thailand, the officials said. They said the fate of fishing trawlers out at sea at the time of the tidal waves was not yet known. State-controlled television reports warned that aftershocks were likely to follow for three days and warned the public to take precautionary measures such as not standing under tall buildings.
■ Aid Efforts
International help offered
International aid efforts got under way, with private, government and UN aid teams heading to southern Asian countries devastated by tidal waves. Pope John Paul II lent his moral voice to calls for the international community to help. The International Red Cross in Geneva issued an initial appeal for donations of 7.5 million Swiss francs (US$6.7 million) in cash, relief goods or services for the next six months. "Thousands have already died because of the flooding, but unless there is a rapid response to the emergency, many more people could die in the coming days," said Jasmine Whitbread, international director of the aid group Oxfam.
■ Health
Danger of epidemics
The UN warned yesterday of epidemics within days unless health systems in southern Asia can cope after more than 23,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands left homeless by a giant tsunami. "This may be the worst national disaster in recent history because it is affecting so many heavily populated coastal areas ... so many vulnerable communities," the UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said. "The longer term effects may be as devastating as the tidal wave or the tsunami itself ... Many more people are now affected by polluted drinking water. We could have epidemics within a few days unless we get health systems up and running."
■ Japan
Doctors sent to Sri Lanka
Japan yesterday sent emergency doctors to Sri Lanka and promised more aid was on the way as it searched for at least 43 Japanese people unaccounted for. The government mobilized its diplomats to search for survivors amid reports of Japanese casualties in the tragedy on the Indian Ocean coastlines, which are popular with Japanese tourists during the year-end holidays. An emergency survey of 17 major Japanese travel agencies said 43 of their 1,305 customers who went to the affected region were unaccounted for.
■ Maldives
Death toll increases
At least 43 people have been confirmed dead and 63 reported missing in the popular tourist destination Maldives yesterday, the government said. The Maldives High Commis-sioner Mohamed Asim in Colombo said the airport in capital Male was now open. Among the victims was one British tourist, he said. Pres-ident Maumoon Abdul Gay-oom has declared a state of emergency in the archi-pelago nation, his official Web site said.
■ Pakistan
Officials start Kashmir talks
The foreign secretaries from India and Pakistan began two-day formal talks in Islamabad yesterday on the contentious issue of Kashmir and peace and security as part of the ongoing composite dialogue between the two neighbors. The foreign secretaries were to review the progress of the entire dialogue process and find possible ways to move ahead, according to comments by Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Masood Khan before the meeting. Pakistan is likely to float fresh ideas for the solution of the Kashmir dispute, as well as some new measures to build confidence in the field of nuclear and conventional arms.
■ Japan
Empress ban may be lifted
Japan will set up a task force to consider allowing a reigning empress, an official said yesterday -- the government's first review of a post-World War II law that limits imperial succession to men. Japanese law bans women from ascending to the Chrysanthemum Throne. But no boy has been born to the Japanese royal family since the 1960s, and government officials have been fretting about how to solve the royals' most serious succession crisis in centuries. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said a 10-member task force comprised of government officials, legal experts and scholars would begin meeting in January to examine legal revisions.
■ China
Couple nabbed over bomb
Police have arrested a couple allegedly responsible for a bomb that killed eight people at a central China farmhouse, the government said yesterday. Li Xingxu and his wife, Hu Chunxiu, were arrested in Hunan Province on suspicion of planting the bomb last week as part of a revenge plot, Xinhua reported. Police believe Hu stole the explosives from a fireworks factory. The Dec. 23 blast killed farmer Li Xingkui, six members of his family and a friend. The dead included an 8-month-old baby. The husband and wife were allegedly furious with the farmer, Li, for giving evidence against them during an assault case earlier this year, the report said.
■ France
Ten die in explosion
Ten people were killed, 14 were injured and several were missing after an explosion on Sunday in an apartment block in Mulhouse, eastern France. It was believed to have been due to a gas leak, rescue services said early yesterday. Firefighters worked through the night to search for victims of the blast, which devastated a four-storey building that was believed to house around 30 people. Early yesterday, officials said they had pulled eight bodies from the ruins and located two others, but had not yet been able to extricate them from the rubble.
■ South Korea
Roh wants to talk to Kim
South Korea's President Roh Moo-hyun said he is ready to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il -- but doesn't think it's possible amid current international efforts to persuade the communist North to give up its nuclear ambitions. The North Korean leader had agreed to visit the South after hosting former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung in Pyongyang for a historic inter-Korean summit in 2000. But details of the proposed visit were never finalized. "If a summit is possible, I intend to accept it irrespective of time or place," Roh said in an interview published yesterday in Seoul's Kyunghyang Shinmun newspaper.
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