The international operation to identify the victims of the tsunami in Thailand may take more than a year, according to a leading member of the forensic team. The world’s largest missing persons investigation has been complicated by the inadequate handling of thousands of bodies in the chaotic aftermath of the disaster.

Fresh evidence has emerged of the extent of destruction and appalling conditions in Fallujah, still deserted two months after a major United States offensive against the insurgent stronghold. Ali Fadhil, an Iraqi journalist working with The Guardian‘s film unit and one of the few reporters to travel independently to Fallujah, describes in a Channel 4 News film on Tuesday a ”city of ghosts” where dogs feed on uncollected corpses.

The newly elected Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, on Monday night said the Palestinians are ”ready for peace” and he is eager to resume negotiations with Israel abandoned four years ago. On his first day in office, Abbas said: ”We extend our hands to our neighbours. We are ready for peace, peace based on justice. We hope that their response will be positive.”

Wrapped in a bundle of warm blankets and lucky to be alive, four-month-old Thomas Bekele still faces a precarious future. Orphaned three weeks ago when his mother died from tuberculosis, he is one of the almost five million orphans in Ethiopia — a mushrooming crisis that the government warned was "tearing apart the social fabric" of the country. The rising number of orphans has, however, raised the demand for adoptions to a record high.

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