Indonesia tried to reassure aid workers after a brief gunfire incident today in the major tsunami aid base of Banda Aceh raised concern for their safety.
"The security operation conducted by Indonesia's military and police will protect, secure the humanitarian efforts," Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told reporters to allay concerns for the safety of the hundreds of aid workers pouring in.
Indonesia's military increased security in Aceh amid confusion over the shooting. Some officials blamed separatist rebels, and others said a disturbed government soldier had fired the shots. No one was hurt. The incident took place outside a deputy police chief's house and near the main UN aid office in the capital of a province where almost all of Indonesia's 104,000 deaths from the tsunami occurred.
The tsunami killed at least 156,000 people in 13 countries around the Indian Ocean two weeks ago, drawing emergency relief from throughout the world.
"You have to proceed with due caution. This has been and is a zone of conflict," Mr Aly-Kahn Rajami, programme manager of CARE International said after the shooting.
In Sri Lanka, where 30,000 people died, President Chandrika Kumaratunga told BBC television that with reconstruction starting on January 15th, "we can certainly welcome tourists in three months, maximum four".
UNICEF's executive director Ms Carol Bellamy said health officials were moving against a possible outbreak of measles. "We need also to be worried about things like cholera or diarrhoea and therefore children becoming dehydrated.
"The good news is to date there has not been any major outbreak of disease," she added.
Meanwhile in Australia, researchers said the Earth was still shaking from the earthquake off Aceh, the most powerful for 40 years.
"These are not things that are going to throw you off your chair," said Australian National University researcher Herb McQueen, "but it is certainly above the background level of vibrations that the earth is normally accustomed to."
Scientists say the quake may also have permanently sped the Earth's rotation and shortened days by a fraction of a second.