UN failed to coordinate tsunami relief: Red Cross report says

Rivalry between international aid agencies hampered relief efforts after the Indian Ocean tsunami, highlighting the failure of the United Nations to coordinate the rescue operation effectively, the International Federation of the Red Cross said in a report published Wednesday.

About a quarter of a million people died from natural disasters in 2004, about three times the annual average for the past decade, the organization said in the World Disaster Report, an annual assessment of the global responses to natural catastrophes. The tsunami, triggered by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean on Dec. 26, 2004, accounted for about 230,000 deaths.