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DNA Samples Taken From Corpses in Thailand

AP Video - Mon Jan 10, 6:41 PM ET
Thai authorities have been digging up hundreds of bodies in order to take new DNA samples from them.There are concerns that foreigners may have been mistakenly identified as Thai nationals in the chaos that followed the tsunami.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=index2&cid=979

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Disease Threat Grows with Aceh Rains

UN Childrens' Fund vaccinated more than 1,000 children in less than 36 hours to prevent an outbreak of measles
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11 Jan 2005 1401 UTC
http://www.voanews.com/english/portal.cfm

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Tuesday, 11 January, 2005, 03:53 GMT


Tsunami man's two-week sea ordeal

Ari Afrizal's home town of Calang has been destroyed
An Acehnese man swept out to sea by the tsunami has been rescued two full weeks after the wave destroyed his home town.
Ari Afrizal had lived on makeshift rafts and a leaky fishing boat until he was spotted by an Arab container ship at midday on Sunday.

At first Mr Afrizal, 21, feared the ship's crew had not spotted him, but after passing him once it returned and plucked him from the water.

He is the third Indonesian rescued from the open water since the tsunami.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4163587.stm

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11/1/2005, 14:55 GMT+7
http://www.vnexpress.net/Vietnam/The-gioi/2005/01/3B9DA787/

Tsunami image

[image]http://diendan.vnthuquan.net/upfiles/upfiles/5737/F15EBC0778404EA6B7361872EEC23A8F.jpg[/image]

Attached Image(s)

tsunami image

[image]http://diendan.vnthuquan.net/upfiles/upfiles/5737/72A31DE133624044A97958ABC5F7860A.jpg[/image]

Attached Image(s)

Tuesday, 11 January, 2005, 14:41 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/beds/bucks/herts/4165273.stm




Elephant dash saved tsunami girl

Amber Mason and Ningnong were devoted friends
An eight-year-old survivor of the Asian disaster has told how her life was saved by a four-year-old elephant.
Amber Mason, of Milton Keynes, Bucks, was riding Ningnong in the Thai resort of Phuket when the devastating waves struck the beach.

As the wave swept in and with water up to his shoulders, Ningnong dashed out of the waves to the top of the beach, carrying Amber to safety.

Back home, Amber said she felt very lucky that Ningnong had saved her.

She said: "I think Ningnong thought something was wrong and was trying to get off the beach.

"Everyone was running out of the sea and my mum began crying because she thought she'd lost me."

Ningnong's owner, realising that seconds were precious, said he had ordered the elephant to run.

Amber's mother, Sam, believes Ningnong had been crucial in saving her daughter.

"If she had been on the beach on her own or with us on the beach, she would never have lived. The elephant took the pounding of the wave," she said.

Ningnong is back on the beach and playing in the waves and as a thank you for saving Amber's life, her family have said they will pay to Ningnong's owner £30 a month.

Thai Authorities Exhume Bodies for Forensic Tests

By Raymond Thibodeaux Bangkok
12-January-2005 1201
http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-01-12-voa7.cfm




In the haste to bury the dead after the December 26 tsunami, many governments simply buried thousands of victims in mass graves. Now, Thai authorities are digging up many of those bodies for forensic tests to help identify them.

In the days after the tsunami killed more than 5,000 people, Thai authorities ordered the burial of thousands of bodies to avoid the spread of diseases.

In Thailand, the tsunami hit tourist areas packed with tens of thousands of visitors from Asia, Europe and the United States. Up to half of Thailand's victims may be foreigners.

For the most part, Western looking corpses, as well of those thought to have been Asian tourists, were shuttled into refrigerated units and makeshift mortuaries until they could be identified.

WHO: Tsunami Health Risks Remain

By Anjana Pasricha
New Delhi
13-January-2005 1401




The World Health Organization says of Asian countries affected by the tsunami Indonesia is the most vulnerable to disease epidemics. But the agency says there have been no disaster-related disease outbreaks.

The World Health Organization paints a grim picture for Indonesia's remote Aceh Province - the region worst affected by the December 26 tsunami disaster.

WHO South East Asia Coordinator in New Delhi Jay Narain outlined the situation to reporters.

"So there is no health system currently functioning. We have to have these emergency services available there," he said. "Many of the health care workers either they are injured, or they are displaced or some of them have died. Reinforcement from the rest of the country is very, very important."
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http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-01-13-voa17.cfm

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Mosquito sprayers fan out in tsunami zone

Aims to prevent Malaria; Indonesia, rebels pursue permanent truce The Associated Press
Updated: 8:23 a.m. ET Jan. 14, 2005
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - Masked workers with mosquito-killing spray guns began moving through refugee camps Friday in tsunami-battered Aceh province, trying to prevent an outbreak of malaria. Indonesia, meanwhile, said it is pursuing a permanent truce with rebels in the area, the worst-hit by the disaster.

While the threat of cholera and dysentery is diminishing because clean water is reaching tsunami survivors in Indonesia, the danger of malaria and dengue fever epidemics is increasing, according to the leader of anti-malaria efforts in the region.

“Short-term, we’re trying to prevent an epidemic,” said Richard Allan, director of the Mentor Initiative, a public health group that fights malaria epidemics. “And it may already be too late.”

The death toll from the Dec. 26 earthquake-triggered tsunami in 11 countries has topped 157,000. Two-thirds of the deaths occurred here in Indonesia’s Aceh province.

Fri Jan 14, 2:19 PM ET World - AP Asia


By DILIP GANGULY, Associated Press Writer

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - The infant dubbed "Baby 81" nurses from a bottle of milk and kicks playfully at a pink blanket as nine desperate, heartbroken women quarrel over him — all claiming he was torn from them by the tsunami.


AP Photo
Slideshow: Asian Tsunami Disaster




One man standing outside the nursery at Kalmunai Base Hospital threatened to kill himself and his wife if they are not given the baby. A woman at the hospital said she would kill the doctors unless she gets him.


The battle over the wide-eyed boy, who appears to be about three or four months old, symbolizes the enormous loss in the Dec. 26 disaster.


Children accounted for a staggering 40 percent — or 12,000 — of Sri Lanka's death toll of nearly 31,000. In all, nearly 160,000 people have died across southern Asia.


The loss is especially keenly felt in Ampara district, where the fight over "Baby 81" is taking place. There were 10,436 people killed in Ampara, the highest in Sri Lanka.


The infant, bruised and covered in mud but otherwise healthy, was brought to the hospital hours after the tsunami struck Kalmunai, a remote town in eastern Sri Lanka that is home to Muslims and Tamils. It was partly cut off after a major bridge was swept away by the deadly waves.


He was given the nickname because his real name is not known and he was the 81st admission that terrible day, officials said Friday. No relatives were with him.
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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=516&e=6&u=/ap/20050114/ap_on_re_as/tsunami_baby81

Health Officials Warn of Tsunami Trauma

Yahoo! News Sat, Jan 15, 2005
1 hour, 23 minutes ago Health - AP
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050115/ap_on_he_me/who_tsunami

By MATTI HUUHTANEN, Associated Press Writer

HELSINKI, Finland - Fearful that the southern Asian tsunami may leave millions traumatized, European health ministers urged governments to be mindful of the psychological scars the disaster left behind, especially on children.
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An Acehnese man, right, ties a rope to a woman as he desperately tries to rescue her while being swept by a tsunami Sunday, Dec. 26, 2004 in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province in northwest Indonesia. Both victims later were swept by the strong current and perished. The catastrophe killed more than 106,000 people in Indonesia alone. (AP Photo/Frans Dellian)




Boys who survived the tsunami play volleyball in Seruthur village in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, January 15, 2005. Volunteer groups are organising games like volleyball and other contests to help survivors overcome the trauma of the natural disaster that killed nearly 16,000 people in India. REUTERS/Kamal Kishore

Fri Jan 14,10:28 PM ET
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050115/481/bm10101150325
Health Officials Warn of Tsunami Trauma

11:22 a.m. ET Jan. 15, 2005



BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - The United States is eager to end its military tsunami mission as soon as other nations are ready to take over, the U.S. deputy secretary of defense said Saturday. The United Nations began paying survivors in Indonesia to clear rubble.

Indonesia has expressed unease with the number of foreign troops on its territory and wants them out by the end of March.

“As soon as our military folks can pass these responsibilities on to other folks ... and make sure the job gets done, we will be happy,” said Paul Wolfowitz, who was visiting Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

He also said he hopes the U.S. military’s role in the relief mission will be finished well before the end of March.

U.S. said eager to leave Indonesia soon
Wolfowitz says he hopes military will be finished before MarchThe Associated Press

http://www.msn.com

Sun Jan 16, 9:37 AM ET

Tsunami Death Toll Now Exceeds 162,000

1 hour, 33 minutes ago World - AP Asia


By MIKE CORDER, Associated Press Writer

S. Parameshwarie cries after she returned to her destroyed home in Kalmunai, Eastern Sri Lanka, Sunday, Jan. 16, 2005. Her daughter Jenita Jeyarajah is one of nine mothers laying claim to a baby dubbed 'Baby 81' brought into the hospital after the tsunami on Dec. 26. The fate of the baby now lies in the hands of the courts, and ultimately a DNA test to determine parentage, say hospital officials.(AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050116/481/xvt10301161434

Kalpana Mandal, 18, left, waits before her wedding with Sanjay Mistri, 26, unseen, at a government owned school turned tsunami relief camp in Port Blair, India, Sunday, Jan. 16, 2005. Women blew conch shells and ululated while children beat drums and cheered as the first marriage ceremony at a crowded tsunami relief camp got underway Sunday. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)