Asia The death toll in Sunday's Indian Ocean tsunami disaster neared 120,000 as UN Secretary General Kofi Annan spoke of "an unprecedented global catastrophe" which called for "an unprecedented global response". UN UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called on world nations to make a long-term commitment to rebuilding lives and communities shattered by the south Asia tsunami disaster. Britain A rapid surge in donations worldwide brought to over 450 million dollars the funds raised or pledged for emergency relief in Asian countries swept by tidal waves that killed at least 118,000 people. Indonesia Indonesia's tsunami nightmare continued with a death toll surpassing 79,000 on flattened coastlines as panic stirred lawlessness and vital aid slowly reached the sick and hungry. -SriLanka Unprecedented foreign aid poured into Sri Lanka as its tsunami death toll was set to cross 29,000, but relief operations had effectively checked the spread of disease, the president said. India Tens of thousands of Indians fled in terror from coastal areas devastated by killer tsunamis after the authorities sounded a new alert which a minister later admitted had been ill-judged. Thailand Thousands of monks prayed for the souls of almost 2,400 people -- including 710 foreign tourists -- confirmed killed in Thailand's tidal wave disaster and Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said most of the thousands more still missing should be considered dead. France The Internet has proved a godsend to people trying to track down family members and friends amid the chaos following the wave disaster in south Asia, in which almost 120,000 people were reported to have died. Belgium Europe's leaders are scrambling to respond to the Asian tsunami disaster, some of them cutting short holidays amid criticism that they were slow to react to a catastrophe that may have killed thousands of Europeans. Saudi Saudi security forces have killed 10 suspected Al-Qaeda militants in two days of clashes in the capital, including a Yemeni thought to be the terror group's leader in the country, officials said. Iraq More than a dozen Iraqis were killed in attacks across the country as plans were unveiled to deploy 100,000 Iraqi forces to stave off a bloodbath on election day exactly a month from now. Mideast Israel inched closer to a new coalition government that will enforce next year's planned pullout from the Gaza Strip, where nine Palestinians were killed in an upsurge of violence. Ukraine Ukraine's Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich faced one final avenue of appeal Thursday in a desperate bid to contest his loss of a rerun presidential election to opposition rival Viktor Yushchenko. Pakistan Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf formally told the nation that he would stay on as army chief after controversially breaking an earlier promise to hang up his uniform by the year's end. Sudan Khartoum and the main southern rebel group agreed on the last issues in their lengthy peace talks in Kenya, paving the way to signing a comprehensive peace deal to end Africa's longest-running conflict.