Asia marks fifth anniversary of Indian Ocean tsunami

Countries across the Indian Ocean are marking the fifth anniversary of the catastrophic tsunami that killed almost 250,000 people.

In Indonesia's Aceh province, where 170,000 died, thousands held prayers in public mosques and private homes.
On Thai beaches, Buddhist monks chanted prayers as mourners held pictures of loved ones lost five years ago.
Hundreds of tourists also returned to Phuket island to mark one of the worst natural disasters of modern times.

A moment of silence was observed on Phuket's popular Patong Beach marking the time the tsunami struck.
German survivor Ruschitschka Adolf, 73, and his wife Katherina waded into the turquoise seawater to lay white roses as a tribute to the dead.
"We [still] come and stay here because we are alive," Mr Adolf told Reuters news agency.
Other ceremonies were expected in the 14 countries hit by the massive wave.
Communities rebuilt
Thousands of survivors in Indonesia's Aceh province, the hardest-hit area, gathered at mosques and beside the mass graves where tens of thousands were buried.
"None of my family members survived in the tsunami," Siti Aminah, 72, told AFP news agency at a grave site near Banda Aceh, Aceh's capital.
"My children, grandchildren, brothers, sisters, they all have gone and left me alone here."
Banda Aceh's main business district, which was completely destroyed by the tsunami, is again bustling with activity, says the BBC's Karishma Vaswani there.
Our correspondent says many have rebuilt their lives thanks to billions of dollars in international aid.
But five years on, the grief and trauma of the disaster are still very real for the people of Aceh, she adds.
After Indonesia, Sri Lanka was the country worst hit by the tsunami.
More than 40,000 people died there and half a million were displaced.
Visitors can still see blackened, destroyed buildings in the country's south and west, the BBC's Charles Haviland reports from Colombo.
There are also large vistas with a view of the ocean from the coast road, which were once blocked by buildings, our correspondent says.
But there has been good recovery too - aid grants have brought some farmers to a higher technical level than before.
And one model village built by a philanthropist - which started out as 1,000 homes for victims - has now developed to take in a health centre, diving classes and more, our correspondent adds.
Unprecedented scale
The tsunami was sparked by a 9.2-magnitude earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra - the mightiest earthquake in 40 years.
In Aceh province, the quake toppled homes and buildings and sent panicked residents rushing into the streets.
About 20 minutes later, a wall of water up to six stories high surged in from the sea, burying thousands in thick black mud and leaving others to scramble up buildings or cling onto trees.
It was a disaster on an unprecedented scale, the BBC's Rachel Harvey reports from Bangkok.
Apart from the deaths, hundreds of thousands people lost their homes and livelihoods.
No single agency or government could have been prepared for the challenges the tsunami presented, our South-East Asia correspondent says.
Following the disaster, the UN has been designated to coordinate relief work in massive disaster zones.
The so-called Cluster System for emergency response was used to good effect after the Padang earthquake in Indonesia in September, our correspondent says.

Europe cold snap kills dozens across continent

Dozens of people have died across Europe as days of snow storms and sub-zero temperatures swept the continent, causing traffic chaos for millions.

At least 29 people froze to death in Poland as temperatures fell far below freezing, while in southern Germany a figure of -33C (-27F) was recorded.

Moscow said it was deploying 9,000 snow ploughs to clear the city's streets.

Air, rail and road transport links were disrupted across northern Europe where more snow was expected in coming days.

Eurostar services between the UK and the continent were suspended on Monday for a third day, as the company launched an immediate review into train breakdowns which have stranded and delayed tens of thousands of passengers since Friday.

'Saturation point'

The crisis prompted French President Nicolas Sarkozy to call the head of national rail carrier SNCF - the majority stakeholder in Eurostar - to order a normal resumption of service by Tuesday.

Meanwhile Eurotunnel - which carries vehicles under the Channel between England and France - said its terminal at Folkestone was at "saturation point" and closed its shuttle car service to new arrivals.

In Poland, police appealed for people to help if they came across homeless or drunk people lying outside, as temperatures dropped towards -20C in some areas.

Most of the 42 people who froze to death in the country over the weekend were homeless, police said.

Meanwhile, one restaurant owner offered tens of thousands of homeless people a hot meal in Krakow's main square.

"The food is not the only important thing," restaurateur Janusz Kosciuszko was quoted as telling Euronews.

"What is also important is that these people know that someone is thinking about them."

Treacherous travel conditions on roads and railway lines caused a spike in accidents across the continent, with several people reportedly killed in accidents in Austria and Germany.

Fifty people were injured when a train hit a buffer in the Croatian city of Zagreb, while 36 were injured when a passenger train derailed in Paris.

Parts of the continent saw 20in (50cm) of snow over the weekend.

In France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, airport operators struggled to clear runways amid thick snowfall, with major disruption to flight patterns.

In France, a second wave of snowstorms hit the country's north on Sunday with Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport warning as many as one in five flights was likely to be cancelled on Monday.

Germany's third largest airport - in Dusseldorf - was also closed because of Sunday's heavy snow.

In Belgium, the three biggest airports - Brussels, Charleroi and Liege - were completely shut. Severe delays and cancellations were reported at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.

Temperatures were forecast to rise later in the week.