Indonesia floods toll nears 1,000

JAKARTA, Dec 11 (AFP): The death toll in Indonesia's devastating floods closed in on the 1,000 mark Thursday as hundreds of thousands more continued to face shortages, with frustration growing over relief efforts.
Disaster mitigation agency spokesman Abdul Muhari said 990 people had died by late Thursday in the deluge, which laid waste to the northwestern island of Sumatra-the biggest disaster of its kind in recent years. More than 220 people are still missing.
Tropical storms and monsoon rains have pummelled Southeast and South Asia this month, triggering landslides and flash floods from the rainforests of Sumatra to highland plantations in Sri Lanka - and more rains are predicted.
In Sumatra's Aceh province, scene of a cataclysmic tsunami in 2004, residents are slowly piecing back their lives, but frustrations over the pace of relief efforts are growing.