Dec 29 (Hindu) Hundreds of Sri Lankan doctors, working in the United Kingdom, are reported to be considering President Chandrika Kumaratunga's appeal for them to return home to help with medical relief operations following the tsunami disaster. more..

Dec 29 (PIS) I address you today at a moment of deep shock and grief for our Nation caused by the most terrible disaster that has struck our country in recent history. Due to this natural disaster that has come upon us at an unexpected time and in an unforeseen manner, we have to bear the untimely loss of thousands of valuable lives. more..

Dec 29 (Reuters) Thousands of corpses rotted in Indonesia's tropical sun on Wednesday as rescuers scoured isolated coasts across the Indian Ocean for survivors of Sunday's giant waves that killed more than 68,000. more..

Dec 29 (Kyodo) Nearly 22,000 people have been confirmed dead in Sri Lanka from Sunday's earthquake-triggered tsunamis, and the toll is still rising, a government official was quoted as saying Wednesday. more..

Dec 29 (TN) The Trincomalee District Consortium of Non-Governmental Organizations (TDCNGO) has established an Operation Room in its office working round the clock to channel the distribution of relief materials brought to the east port town in lorries more..

Dec 29 (TN) Thirteen thousand two hundred and sixty one persons, in the Tamil and Muslim villages and towns along Sri Lanka's southeastern coast, have been officially registered as dead, according to the Government Agent in Amparai District. more..

Dec 29 (TN) Mr.Harim Peiris, Presidential Advisor, accompanied by Mr.D.E.W.Gunasekara, Constitutional Affairs and National Integration Minister in the UPFA government, arrived in Jaffna Wednesday to see the devastation of the Jaffna peninsula after Sunday's Tsunami, political sources in Jaffna said. more..

Dec 29 (TN) Mr. Velupillai Pirapaharan, leader of the Liberation Tigers, Wednesday appealed to the international community and the United Nations to generously assist the people of the northeast devasted by the Tsunami. more..

Dec 29 (LBO) Sri Lanka's amateur radio operators are offering their services to any area that needs communications services. Until yesterday The Radio Society of Sri Lanka operated a short wave radio link between Hambantota and the Prime Minister's disaster management office at Temple trees, and government offices in the stricken area. more..

Dec 29 (LBO) Electricity demand fell by 2 mn units over the past two days, as tidal waves washed away coastal homes on Sunday and destroyed supply lines. The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) is restoring supply on priority to hospitals and telecom centres, with most areas at least partially connected. more..

Dec 29 (LBO) Eleven hotels resumed operations in the South after Sunday’s tidal wave caused widespread destruction along the coast and a death toll touching 25,000. Of the 5600 rooms in affected areas, about half are still out of operation, with generators used to restore power in place of damaged transmission lines. more..

Dec 29 (LBO) The Urban Development Authority (UDA) has dropped all routine work to concentrate its efforts in drawing up an coastal belt reconstruction master plan, to rebuild the region guttered by Sunday tsunami. Among the major decision to be made include moving the existing home and other infrastructure inland. more..

Dec 29 (LBO) Sunday’s tsunami has uprooted Sri Lanka’s transport systems and left the railway with damages mounting over Rs 6 bn. “There are extensive damages to the coastal rail system,"said Priyal de Silva, General Manager, Sri Lanka Railways. more..

Dec 29 (LBO) The Sri Lankan government is looking for its missing progeny to speed up rehabilitation activity and aid distribution. A press notice issued in Sinhala from the Government Information Department said “All those (government employees) that are displaced please report back to your offices as soon as possible.” more..

Dec 29 (AT) Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse and Parliamentarian Wimal Weerawansa toured the Eastern Province and visited refugee camps in Trincomalee. Several meetings were also held to discuss victims' needs and the distribution of medicines and other essential items brought in the Indian ships that have called at Trincomalee. more..

Dec 29 (AT) The cumulative Tsunami death toll effecting nine nations is now numbering a staggering 60,000 and the media coverage of the event has been non-stop. more..

Dec 29 (BL) I got back from a trip to the southern city of Galle just a little while ago. My brother in law Mahesh (who's currently visiting from Australia) and I joined my sister and a couple of others who volunteered to the Sri Lanka Red Cross society to go. more..

Dec 29 (HT) The United Nations, which is going to be a key relief provider to tsunami- hit Sri Lanka, will be meeting the LTTE's leadership on Thursday, to organise relief and rehabilitation in areas under the control of the Tamil rebel group in the North Eastern part of the island. more..

Dec 29 (HT) A shopping mania and the lure of cooler climes in the hills of Central Sri Lanka may have saved the lives of up to 1,000 Indian tourists in this island country, the shores of which were battered by the murderous waves of the tsunami last Sunday. more..

Dec 29 (BBC) A UN team has arrived in Sri Lanka to asses the magnitude of the disaster and coordinate relief efforts, Dumeetha Luthra reporting from the southern city of Galle said. The authorities have set up nine distribution centres and a small scale relief effort has begun, more..

Dec 29 (BBC) Relief workers are battling to overcome transport and communications problems to bring aid to about one million Sri Lankan homeless. A UN team has arrived to assess the magnitude of the disaster. more..

Dec 29 (BBC) Timmo Gaasbeek and Natasha Cassiere are a married couple who live in Batticaloa in eastern Sri Lanka where Natasha works for the charity Save The Children in the region. Timmo has been keeping a diary for the BBC News website, more..

Dec 29 (BBC) Janaka Wickramasinghe shuffles and sighs wearily as he contemplates the queue in front of him. He has been waiting for more than an hour to fill up a jerry can of petrol in the only functioning petrol station in the Sri Lankan town of Galle. more..

Dec 29 (AP) Wildlife officials in Sri Lanka expressed surprise Wednesday that they found no evidence of large-scale animal deaths from the tsunamis — indicating that animals may have sensed the wave coming and fled to higher ground. more..

Dec 29 (CI) Sri Lanka's tour of New Zealand has been abandoned, and the team is returning home after the tsunami disaster which ravaged Sri Lanka on Boxing Day. Earlier the tour had been put on hold for a week, but after the players made it known that they wished to return home, more..

Dec 29 (AFP) Sri Lanka pressed its entire public service and the military into an unprecedented relief operation as it grappled with the magnitude of cleaning up after its worst disaster. more..

Dec 29 (ADS) A Tucson woman, vacationing with her family in Sri Lanka, was among the tens of thousands of people killed Sunday by the massive, earthquake-triggered tsunamis. Her death and the growing natural disaster affecting their homeland and at least nine other Asian and East African countries have stunned the small Sri Lankan community in Tucson. more..

Dec 29 (AFP) The Canadian Red Cross and Canadian government announced they would send 25 tonnes of food and other aid to Sri Lanka for victims of tsunamis, which also hit other Asian countries. more..

Dec 29 (MT) From the banks of the Rogue River, Shamila Irish is organizing a relief effort for her native country, Sri Lanka. She was born in Galle, a port city in southwestern Sri Lanka hard hit by the massive tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean. more..

Dec 29 (PIS) The precious lives of nearly of an estimated 25,000 people lost perhaps would make one wish and millions of homeless have only one hope and the nation at large one dream - an urgent and united effort by the political leadership to rebuild the tragic and devastated Sri Lanka. more..

Dec 29 (PIS) Sri Lanka is witnessing the largest relief and rehabilitation activities in the wake of the Tsunami waves that caused immense destruction to lives and property on 26 December 2004. more..

Dec 29 (Reuters) An Internet site set up by an Italian schoolboy, and previously dedicated to "The Simpsons," is helping people track down loved ones missing since the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster. more..

Dec 29 (XInhua) UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called on Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga last night to express condolences and pledge assistance, the president office said on Wednesday. more..

Dec 29 (Reuters) U.S. President George W. Bush said on Wednesday the United States' initial grant of $35 million in the aftermath of the tsunami disaster in South East Asia was "only the beginning of our aid." more..

Dec 29 (ANN) Sunday’s sea-borne terror had caused considerable damages to security forces, particularly the navy and the sea tigers, security officials said. The navy’s losses had been on the southern coast while the sea tigers’ on the eastern coast. more..

Dec 29 (ANN) The government and the people are facing the challenge of countering the biggest ever disaster caused to the nation by the tidal waves that hit this country on Sunday. Political leaders and the people have responded magnificently. more..

Dec 29 (PI) Plan Sri Lanka’s Program Unit Manager R W W Wijerathne reports from Hambantota – a coastal district particularly hard-hit by the devastating tsunami. Hambantota is part of Plan Sri Lanka’s South East program unit, which Mr Wijerathne managed to reach within hours of receiving the news of the disaster. more..

Dec 29 (Reuters) Tamil Tiger rebels, hemmed in by a landmined border in Sri Lanka's northeast, appealed for help as they dug mass graves to clear thousands of corpses strewn by the tsunami. They said nearly 10,000 people had died in areas they control, while almost as many again were missing. more..

Dec 29 (Reuters) Australia have donated their prize money for winning the second test against Pakistan to a fund for the tsunami victims in Asia, captain Ricky Ponting said on Wednesday. Their $13,000 cheque for victory in Melbourne will now be sent to the disaster fund more..

Dec 29 (Yahoo) Sri Lankan villagers line up to get food supplies from a relief van in the tourist town of Hikaduwa on the southwestern coast of Sri Lanka. Bloggers around the world are posting links to relief groups for readers seeking to provide immediate help. more..

Dec 29 (BBC) Asantha coughs as he stirs his bowl of milk at the St Aloysius college hall in the southern Sri Lankan town of Galle. He is among 200 people who are sheltering in the college gymnasium. more..

Dec 29 (SLTB) A dedicated website – www.contactsrilanka.org – has been established by the Sri Lanka Tourist Board (SLTB) to provide easy access to vital information in the aftermath of the Tsunami. more..

Dec 29 (SLA) Several instances where LTTE cadres forcibly tried to take away lorries laden with essential relief items, destined for Tsunami victims in un-cleared areas in Trincomalee and Wanni districts have been brought to the notice of the Security Forces by disappointed relief workers of State sector and NGOs including a Media agency. more..

Dec 29 (SLA) AMPARA district, one of the fertile agricultural regions in the east of Sri Lanka, was the worst affected of all districts, following the Sunday morning catastrophe that claimed over 12,848 lives of Sri Lankans and some foreigners. more..

Dec 29 (SLA) No other occurrence in the contemporary history of Sri Lanka except Sunday’s massive natural disaster that claimed over 15,508 human lives within minutes united the whole nation of Sri Lanka under one umbrella irrespective of ethnicity, religion, language, caste or creed. more..

Dec 29 (FT) Sri Lanka was on Wednesday struggling to cope with offers of assistance from the United Nations and dozens of aid organisations as the death toll from Sunday’s tsunami rose to at least 22,000. more..

Dec 29 (AP) Sri Lanka Amid the death and destruction, there are some stories of survival in south Asia. A helicopter has plucked a Sri Lankan fisherman from the Indian Ocean. Officials say he told the crew he'd been clinging to his boat since it capsized in the monster waves powered by Sunday's earthquake. more..

Dec 29 (AT) President Chandrika Kumaratunga received Mr. Michel Barnier the External Affairs Minister of France yesterday evening at the President's House. Mr. Barnier conveyed to the President the condolences of President Jacques Chirac and the people of France. more..

Dec 30 (TWP) This was taken on Monday afternoon, a few miles inland from the coast. As you can see, children just want to be children, given half a chance. I thought it might be time for a break from all the harrowing images bouncing around the world, and the worldwide emotional leap-tide as we all struggle to understand what has happened. more..

Dec 30 (WP) The tsunami that surged across the Indian Ocean on Sunday split into two mighty rivers when it reached the formidable 17th-century Dutch fortress that is the defining landmark of this southern port. The two sides of the torrent enveloped the 40-foot-high walls of the fortress and then met again behind them -- at Galle's bus station. more..