December 26, 2004

The first survey of language use in the People's Republic of China reveals that 53% of its population can communicate in Standard Mandarin, the official spoken language of the country. (China Daily)
An earthquake of magnitude 9.0, the strongest earthquake in 40 years, strikes in the Indian Ocean off the western coast of Sumatra. While initial reports state that the resulting tsunamis killed approximately 100 people, by the end of the day this estimate has increased to over 14,000 people in coastal areas of Thailand, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, India, Bangladesh, Burma, Indonesia and Malaysia. Tremors are also felt as far as Singapore, eastern countries of Africa, and north-western Australia. A state of emergency is declared in Sri Lanka, where over 31,000 people are feared dead. (USGS) (CNN) (BBC) (The Star) (Wikinews) (Channel News Asia) (The Times of India)
Ukrainians go to the polls in a rerun of the presidential runoff vote, supervised by about 12,000 international observers. Turnout is reported to be comparable to the two previous votes, just short of 55 percent at 1300 GMT. Early exit polls suggest opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko has won by a wide margin (Reuters) (Guardian) (BBC)