Malaysia, S'pore offer airports for aid work<\/p>\n
Agence France-Presse, Kuala Lumpur<\/p>\n
Malaysia has opened its airspace and two airports to U.S. and UN
\nrelief operations for the tsunami-hit Indonesian province of
\nAceh, the foreign ministry said on Monday.<\/p>\n
Singapore has also offered the use of its air and naval bases
\nto the United Nations to carry out relief operations in
\nIndonesia's tsunami-hit province of Aceh, a top minister said on
\nMonday.<\/p>\n
\"We've also been in touch with the UN relief coordinator, to
\nsee how best we can offer our facilities here for (the United
\nNations) to use,\" Defense Minister Teo Chee Hean told reporters
\nat the Sembawang military airbase.<\/p>\n
The UN World Food Programme would use an airport in Malaysia's
\nSubang, a suburb outside the capital Kuala Lumpur, as a base to
\nforward relief supplies to Aceh, the ministry said in a statement
\ncarried by Bernama news agency.<\/p>\n
The United States has been permitted to use the Langkawi
\nInternational Airport in the north to send humanitarian aid to
\nAceh, which bore the brunt of the Dec. 26 disaster, it said.<\/p>\n
Malaysia has also deployed aircraft and helicopters to help
\nIndonesia transport supplies and tsunami victims from Aceh, it
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said the government would
\nsend a navy vessel to Aceh on Wednesday with a consignment of
\nadditional humanitarian supplies and heavy machinery requested by
\nthe Indonesians.<\/p>\n
He said Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi would officially
\nhand over the Malaysian government's contribution to Indonesia's
\ntsunami victims when he attends an emergency summit of world
\nleaders in Jakarta on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Malaysia's confirmed death toll in the disaster climbed to 68
\non Sunday after a two-year-old girl and a 57-year-old woman died
\nin hospital from injuries sustained when the tsunamis hit
\nnorthern Kedah state, police said.<\/p>\n
The giant waves, spawned by a massive earthquake off Indonesia
\non Dec. 26, hit shorelines across the Indian Ocean, killing more
\nthan 144,000 people, about 94,000 of them in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Eight Malaysians were reported to still be missing by late on
\nSunday, including four in Phuket in Thailand, three in Aceh and
\none in Madras in India.<\/p>\n
While Malaysia lies closer to the epicenter of the earthquake
\nthan many countries harder hit, it was protected from the full
\nforce of the waves by Indonesia's Sumatra island.<\/p>\n
The National Union of Tamil School Teachers here has urged
\nschools, teacher training colleges and universities to introduce
\nlessons on natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis, to
\nprepare Malaysians for such eventualities, Bernama said.<\/p>\n
\"Despite tsunamis being in the news for the past 40 years when
\nthey hit Japanese islands, we don't have that vocabulary in our
\nschool subjects,\" said adviser Shahul Hamid Mydin Shah.<\/p>\n
\"It's high time we include them and other natural disasters so
\nthat we will be better prepared in the future.\"<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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