Tsunami stories: Measles in Aceh

The United Nations Children's Fund has confirmed a case of measles in Indonesia's tsunami-devastated province of Aceh as torrential rain across the region raised fears there could be an outbreak of dysentery.

Unicef Communications Officer John Budd said yesterday that aid agencies were quickly putting portable sanitation in place at makeshift shelters around Aceh that are housing thousands of the estimated 600,000 people made homeless by the tsunami.

India called 'pathetic'

An Asian human rights group yesterday described India's relief efforts in tsunami affected areas as "pathetic", a charge strongly denied by the Government.

The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission levelled a host of allegations including a lack of co-ordination between various agencies, aid mismanagement, caste discrimination in distribution of supplies, early shutting down of relief centres and a "meagre" quantity of relief being doled out to the survivors.

Leader wants orphan

President Chandrika Kumaratunga wants to adopt a minority ethnic Tamil child orphaned by last month's tsunami, the state-run Daily News reported Tuesday.

Kumaratunga, who is from Sri Lanka's Sinhalese majority, and who has two children, is against sending youngsters to orphanages, the paper said.

The December 26 tsunami killed more than 30,000 people in Sri Lanka.

'Wave rat' delivers

A Canadian student dubbed the "wave rat" for offering the domain name "tsunamirelief.com" for US$50,000 ($72,844) on online auction site eBay has sold it and donated the money to relief efforts, the gaming company that bought it said.

Josh Kaplan, 20, sold the name for US$10,000, which was given directly to a Jewish relief agency.