Cuddalore takes a lead in tsunami reconstruction - NIDM

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Sirens wailed as masses, many of them school children, briskly walked inland from the shore, accompanied by Indonesia's minister of research and technology and a handful of foreign tourists. "The biggest challenge is working with the people to make them aware," said German geologist Harald Spahn, who is helping Indonesia set up its alert network. "It is a really complex job that many people underestimate." Underscoring his point, a woman selling baked corn on the beach refused to budge. "I'm not going anywhere," said Wati. "I still have to make some money this morning." In Thailand, ceremonies will be held along the Andaman coast with Buddhist prayers to remember more than 8,200 killed. Balloons will be launched and candles lit along beaches once again filled with sunseeking tourists. But as authorities prepared to open a cemetery for hundreds of unidentified tsunami victims, a new scandal emerged. The United States and six other Western nations said as much as 60 per cent of the US$1.6 million set aside to help identify those who died may have been misused, an unnamed US diplomat was quoted as saying in The Nation, an English-language daily published in Thailand. The money appears to have gone toward travel and other miscellaneous costs, he said, calling for an investigation. In Sri Lanka, the resurgence of a civil war has added to the misery of survivors and slowed efforts to rebuild -- sparking criticism from outgoing UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who urged Tamil Tiger rebels and the military to lay down their arms. "No one could have prevented the tsunami's wave of destruction," he wrote in a statement. "But together, we can stem the tide of conflict, which threatens once again to engulf the people of Sri Lanka." Temple bells chimed to mark the exact time the first wave hit followed by two minutes of silence to remember the 35,000 people killed. And, looking to the future, officials also erected the first of 100 coastal warning towers. In India, where another 18,000 are believed to have died, interfaith ceremonies were being been held and in Malaysia, where 69 people were killed, volunteers were replanting mangroves. The 2004 tsunami generated an unprecedented outpouring of generosity, with donor pledges reaching some US$13.6 billion (euro10.31 billion), but many of those homeless 14
complain they are stuck with poorly built structures that leak, are termite-infested or located in flood zones. Corruption has also marred the process, with several non-government organisations forced to delay projects or rebuild homes after contractors and suppliers ran off with the funds. 'Extreme contrast found in ozone losses at Poles' Press Trust of India Chicago, December 26, 2006 A new study shows just how dramatic the ozone loss in the Antarctic has been over the past 20 years, compared to the same phenomenon in the Arctic. The study found "massive" and "widespread" localised ozone depletion in the heart of Antartica's ozone hole region, beginning in the late 1970s, but becoming more pronounced in the 1980s and 90s. The US government scientists who conducted the study said on Monday that there was an almost complete absence of ozone in certain atmospheric air samples taken after 1980, compared to earlier decades. In contrast, the ozone losses in the Arctic were sporadic, and even the greatest losses did not begin to approach the regular losses in the northern hemisphere, the researchers said. "Typically the Arctic loss is dramatically less than the Antarctic loss," said Robert Portmann, an atmospheric scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, Colorado. Scientists have been tracking the expanding ozone hole over Antarctica for some 20 years now. In October, NASA scientists reported that this year's hole is the biggest ever, stretching over nearly 11 million square miles. In Antarctica, local ozone depletion at some altitudes frequently exceeded 90 per cent, and often reached up to 99 per cent during the Antarctic winter in the period after 1980 compared to earlier decades, the researchers said. In the Arctic, the losses occasionally peaked at 70 per cent, and some losses of 50 per cent were seen in the mid 1990s, when temperatures were particularly low, but the scale and scope of the problem was much less than what was seen in the Northern Hemisphere. Floods, landslides kill at least 80 in Indonesia 15
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Page 5 and 6: The centres were set up by the Dhan
Page 7 and 8: SOS Children's Villages of India an
Page 9 and 10: As it takes stock, the Government s
Page 11 and 12: WORK APACE: Houses being built for
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Page 19: Moderate quake jolts central Japan

Cuddalore takes a lead in tsunami reconstruction - NIDM

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