The known death toll from Asia’s earthquake and tsunami catastrophe passed 124,000 today as a deluge from the skies added to the misery in many of the affected nations.

Worldwide donations for tsunami relief approached the billion-dollar mark (€738.8m) today as the world’s ships and planes converged on devastated shores.

Without water or food for six days after a tsunami, villagers on a remote southern archipelago are starving and desperate for relief to reach them, survivors and officials said today.