TSUNAMI IMPACT: For Thousands, Life Is “Unbelievably Grim”

A survey of more than 50,000 tsunami survivors in five Asian countries has revealed that most of them have been doubly devastated: losing their loved ones in the December 2004 natural disaster, and subsequently having their human rights abused by their own governments.

TSUNAMI IMPACT: Mixed Blessing for Most Marginalised

Although Chellapappa lost two of her children to the tsunami that smashed every home in the fishing village of Samanthanpettai on Dec. 26, 2004, she now has reason to smile: a brand new concrete-roof home with electricity, running water and a sanitary toilet.

TSUNAMI IMPACT: Tourists Return to Thai Coasts, in Remembrance

Antonio Da Mata Coelho was among the hundreds of foreigners who flew into southern Thailand over the weekend to be part of a pilgrimage to mark a year since last December's Asian tsunami.

TSUNAMI IMPACT: Child Survivors Carry Scars

Her drawings of the sea offer a window into the mind of a nine-year-old child whose life was shattered when the Asian tsunami flattened her coastal village on the morning after Christmas Day, last year.

TSUNAMI IMPACT: Still Coping With Trauma

When Indian psychosocial support specialist Mitesh Govender arrived in Sri Lanka six months after the tsunami struck, he was taken aback by the reception he received in this village, 160 km south of Colombo.

TSUNAMI-IMPACT: For Sex Workers, the Show Must Go On

Clad in skimpy black bikini and knee-length boots, the young Thai woman gyrated around the silver pole and blew kisses at the mainly European patrons of the go-go bar she was performing in.

SRI LANKA: Growing Violence Eclipses Tsunami Anniversary

The three-year ceasefire between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam totters at the brink of collapse as violence escalates to unprecedented levels in the north of the country.

CHALLENGES 2005-2006: Website Opens Tsunami Aid to Public Scrutiny

As survivors in Asia struggle to rebuild after last December's devastating tsunami, a new window of hope has opened in cyberspace for four affected countries.

CHALLENGES 2005-2006: Possible Pitfalls in Aceh

There is a shared optimism in Aceh, where both the Indonesian government and the former rebels have stuck to the peace agreement signed in Helsinki on Aug. 15. But analysts warn of a few potential pitfalls on the path towards a lasting peace.

TSUNAMI IMPACT: EU Pledges Ongoing Support

Almost one year after the devastating earthquake and mammoth ocean waves that hit coastal areas of 13 countries, the European Union says tsunami survivors are still living in dire conditions.

TSUNAMI IMPACT: Aid Groups Take Stock One Year On

Almost a year after the tsunami, two of Europe's largest humanitarian and development aid networks say the European Union must take significant steps to ensure a sustained recovery in those countries still suffering the aftermath of the disaster.

TSUNAMI-IMPACT: Burmese Migrant Victims Remain Invisible

The death of his 26-year-old sister and three nephews in last December's tsunami gives Maung Newe Win a narrative of grief that entitles him to an invitation to official events being planned to mark the disaster.

TSUNAMI IMPACT: Disasters Give New Image to Voluntarism

Catastrophes, such as October’s South Asian earthquake and last December’s Indian Ocean tsunami, have given voluntarism a new role and respectability.

POLITICS-SRI LANKA: Clear Choices in Close Electoral Contest

When 13 million Sri Lankan voters cast their ballots on Thursday, they will do so with clear choices before them and the sense that this is the closest contest for the top job since 1979, when the country adopted executive presidency.

PAKISTAN: Focus Shifts to Quake Children

''The beautiful thing about children, in any emergency situation, is their resilience, both mentally and physically, that stands them in good stead to survive, and this, I never fail to marvel,'' says Stephen Matthews of the World Vision (WV) Global Rapid Response Team.

TSUNAMI IMPACT: Uncertainty Rules Sri Lankan Beaches

This tourist destination, famed for its golden beaches, has regained some of the splendour lost when the Dec. 26 tsunami turned the limpid waters into a mass grave.

DEVELOPMENT: Fire Alarm Is Ringing, But the Hoses Are Dry

The United Nations, under relentless pressure to provide humanitarian assistance to hundreds of thousands of people hit by a rash of recent natural disasters worldwide, is hoping its proposed new Central Emergency Respond Fund (CERF) will be up and running by early 2006.

TSUNAMI IMPACT: Politics Narrows Coastal Buffer Zone

It was one of the most contentious issues that followed the December 26 tsunami. Declared days after the waves killed 35,000 people and damaged billions of dollars worth of coastal property, the construction-free, 'buffer zone' was seen as protective by some and as an impediment to speedy reconstruction by others.

TSUNAMI IMPACT: Recovery Hampered by Negligence, Corruption

The widely-publicised tsunami recovery efforts undertaken by relief agencies and governments in five disaster-affected countries - Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and the Maldives - remain hampered by incompetence, corruption, discrimination and lack of public accountability, according to a new report released here.

TSUNAMI IMPACT: Monumental Trouble in Sri Lanka

The twisted hulks of three railway carriages, standing near where they were picked up and slammed against houses in this fishing village by the Dec 26 tsunami, symbolise the power of nature as well as human frailities exposed in the aftermath.

TSUNAMI IMPACT: NGOs Can Add to Disasters

Among the estimated 300 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that descended on the shores of Aceh in the wake of the devastating Dec. 26 tsunami was a group that sported the name 'Scientology'.