Asia The biggest humanitarian relief operation ever mounted was under way along Asia's devastated shores as the death toll from a massive earthquake and the tidal waves it unleashed passed 55,000, amid fears it could rise much higher. Asia The rotting corpses of quake victims piled up in Indonesia's Aceh province where up to 27,174 were feared dead and the possibility of disease outbreaks threatened to claim more lives. Asia International aid agencies in Sri Lanka appealed for at least 4.7 million dollars in aid and opened up emergency stockpiles for victims of the devastating tidal waves that killed at least 17,640 people and left about 200,000 homeless in the country. Asia Many thousands of people were missing in India as the number of dead crossed 8,500, nearly half of them in the tropical Andamans, from a killer tsunami that swamped low-lying coastal areas. Asia Hundreds of European tourists in Asian beach resorts were listed dead or missing in the wake of the earthquake-generated giant wave that engulfed the region. Asia At least 1,600 Swedes in Thailand were still unaccounted for following the giant tidal waves that devastated coastal resorts in the country, raising fears that hundreds could be dead. Ukraine Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko was confirmed the winner of Ukraine's rerun presidential election with a nearly eight-point lead over his pro-Moscow rival, according to a final vote tally released by the electoral commission. Ukraine The winner of Ukraine's bitterly-fought presidential election moved to repair damage to relations with Russia while his opponent persisted in blaming the West for his defeat. Iraq At least 28 people were killed in a string of attacks on Iraqi security forces after Osama bin Laden declared fugitive Jordanian Islamist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi his "emir" in the country. Russia Imprisoned Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whose Yukos company's main asset has been effectively renationalised, said he would patiently bide his time in jail for the opportunity to strike back. Mideast A top Hamas leader rejected a call by PLO chief Mahmud Abbas for Palestinian militant groups to lay down their arms in the fight against Israeli occupation, in an interview published. Pakistan Pakistan has told a former Guantanamo Bay inmate wanted for the kidnapping of two Chinese men to surrender by January 15 or face a military onslaught, officials said. Nigeria Nigerian police have arrested two suspected fuel thieves following a pipeline blast which rocked a fishing community outside Lagos last week, the force said, as the death toll rose to 27.