Also, and I hesitate to say this at such an early stage of the relief effort here, but the authorities in India at least, and some other countries in the region, have become quite good at dealing with severe flooding, or earthquakes, catastrophic events on a tsunami scale, if you will.

BBC: NEWS | Programmes | From Our Own Correspondent | Lessons in dealing with disaster

If America sacrifices prestige and moral authority on the world stage to buy temporary relief, Western states know exactly how to score the transaction: civilization loses, barbarians win.

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He pointed out that only interim relief was being sought at this stage, and that granting it would cause minimal disruption to Facebook.

BBC: Facebook

In 2005, as Katrina became the single most catastrophic natural disaster in U.S. history, Nagin took center stage on behalf of victims when he excoriated the slow pace of federal and state relief efforts, even using profanities.

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Atkinson, who in 1999 starred in a Doctor Who special for Comic Relief, said it had been "a secret ambition" of his at one stage to play the Doctor.

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