Asia An unprecedented global aid operation gathered steam to save survivors of Asia's tsunamis as signs crept up of disease in the overflowing morgues after the disaster that claimed more than 130,000 lives. Asia Logistical bottlenecks continued to hamper the distribution of relief supplies to those in most need in Asia's tsunami-hit regions, as funds pledged to the victims topped two billion dollars. Asia Secretary of State Colin Powell was leaving for Asia to inspect the devastation from last week's tsunamis and raise the US profile in relief efforts for countries where more than 127,000 people died. Asia The multinational operation to save more than one million Indonesian tsunami survivors finally picked up steam, a week after the disaster killed up to 100,000 people on Sumatra island. Asia Floods slowed aid to thousands of marooned survivors in Sri Lanka as the United States prepared to mount a military operation to help relief work as the tsunami death toll rose to nearly 30,000. Asia Thailand's confirmed death toll from the tidal wave disaster approached 5,000, including more than 2,400 foreign holidaymakers, and bodies were still being found a week after the tragedy. Asia With thousands of Swedes still missing in Thailand, a week after tidal waves struck the country's coastline, the Nordic nation with just nine million inhabitants could be the Western country worst-hit by the disaster. Iraq Nineteen people were killed in a suicide car bombing of a bus carrying members of the Iraqi national guard in an attack claimed by followers of Islamic militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Syria US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said that Syria had made progress in improving security on the border with Iraq but that it must do more to stop infiltration by foreign fighters. Myanmar Myanmar's military government said it was releasing 5,588 prisoners ahead of the 57th anniversary of independence on January 4, the fourth mass release in six weeks. Mideast Israeli troops poured into the northern Gaza Strip in a bid to halt rocket attacks by Palestinian militants who were rebuked for their tactics by presidential election favourite Mahmud Abbas. Burundi Forty-six rebels and three soldiers have been killed in Burundi in an army assault on the rebel National Liberation Forces near the capital Bujumbura, the military said. Peru At least four policemen died in gunbattles in southern Peru, where an armed revolt against President Alejandro Toledo appeared to be widening, with heavily armed renegade soldiers standing sentinel on blocked roads in the city of Andahuaylas. Afghanistan A US soldier and an Afghan citizen were killed in a gunbattle in western Afghanistan's Shindand district near the city of Herat, a US military spokesman told AFP.