Biggest aid operation gets underway

THE world’s biggest aid operation geared up yesterday to help Asian countries stricken by tsunamis that smashed coastal towns and left misery and the risk of disease in their wake.

The unprecedented effort involved neighbouring Asian states, European countries, the United States and international organisations, as well as countless people offering whatever individual help they could.

But foreign doctors and relief workers faced vast devastation, with the latest death tolls across the region totalling more than 60,000.