Indonesia death toll rises

Indonesia today increased its tsunami death toll by 5,000 – pushing the worldwide toll from the December 26 disaster to more than 162,000 people – as the nation’s defence minister said there is no three-month deadline for foreign troops helping in the massive relief efforts to leave.

“We would like to emphasise that March 26 is not a deadline for involvement of foreign military personnel in the relief effort,” Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono said after meeting US Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz in Jakarta.