Jan 1 (AT) The vicious and ferocious Tsunami swallowed the entire coastal belt of our beloved beautiful nation on the peaceful Sunday morning leaving several thousand dead, billions worth properties destroyed, and retarding the country by several decades. more..

Jan 1 (AT) A top level senior military commander with battle-hardened experience in Sri Lankan’s 20 year old conflict told this writer that the Tiger military machine is in very poor shape after last Sunday’s killer Tsunami. more..

Jan 1 (AFP) Wearing shorts, rubber thongs and a pair of washing up gloves, New Zealander Scott Gardiner is standing in a sewerage drain ankle deep in sludge, joining the huge effort needed to clean up Sri Lanka. more..

Jan 1 (AP) Flash floods in eastern Sri Lanka on Saturday forced the evacuation of 2,000 people already affected by a tsunami that killed nearly 29,000 people along the country's coast, officials said. Rains subsided later in the day and flood waters were receding in some places. more..

Jan 1 (AP) Screaming with fear, paralyzed children at a shelter for the physically disabled and mentally ill lay helplessly in their beds as water surged into their dormitories during the tsunami that ravaged coastal areas of southern Asia. more..

Jan 1 (AFP) Japan promised 500 million dollars to countries devastated by tsunamis, by far outpledging all other countries which are racing to help victims of one of the world's worst disasters. more..

Jan 1 (AFP) The United States will send up to 1,500 marines with at least one ship and 22 aircraft, including Black Hawks, to help Sri Lanka's tsunami relief efforts, US marine Colonel Tom Collins said. Operation "Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief" will be the biggest ever US military deployment in Sri Lanka. more..

Jan 1 (PTI) India has sent two aircraft carrying field hospitals and medical personnel as part of its emergency assistance to Sri Lanka's tsunami survivors, the High Commission said here today. At least 140 doctors and other medical workers will be stationed in field hospitals which will be deployed in the southern province, more..

Jan 1 (AP) Christmas Day was an ordinary one for the mortuary caretaker at the main hospital in this coastal city. He helped out with three post-mortems and spent part of the night cleaning up. But the day after Christmas was anything but ordinary. more..

Jan 1 (HT) Tsunami waves killed 135 kids in an orphanage in the LTTE-held Mullaitivu district in Sri Lanka on December 26, according to sources in that area. "The kids were in the LTTE- run orphanage called Chenthalir, which was completely washed out," they said. more..

Jan 1 (XInhua) The destruction in Sri Lanka causedby the Tsunami disaster will be manageable with foreign aid and that it would not have a major impact on the country's economy, the Daily News said on Saturday. more..

Jan 1 (Yahoo) Twisted results : Two Sri Lankan residents stand on a twisted rail track at the Paiyagala train station after tidal waves hit the region. more..

Jan 1 (AFP) The United States said it would deploy up to 1,500 marines for tsunami relief in Sri Lanka as flash floods triggered a new wave of refugees with another 14,000 people reported missing. more..

Jan 1 (TN) Fifteen doctors, including reputed practising surgeons, arrived from London tonight to serve in the tsunami hit Mullaitivu, the worst affected district in the Sunday disaster, said a Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) spokesperson in Colombo. more..

Jan 1 (TN) United Nations Country Team in Sri Lanka has provided relief assistance worth several millions of rupees including direct cash grants, materials such as food and non-food items, medicine and technical support since last Sunday when the devastating tsunami struck the island, more..

Jan 1 (BBC) The National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) in Sri Lanka has brought a stop to attempts made by private parties to adopt children affected by Boxing Day’s tsunami disaster. “Attempts were made by private parties to offer these children with homes. more..

Jan 2 (AP) Legs folded, smiling serenely, several Buddha statues of cement and plaster sit unscathed amid collapsed brick walls and other tsunami debris. To many residents, the survival of the 10-foot-high figures is a divine sign. more..

Jan 2 (CNA) Parkway Group Healthcare, one of Singapore's largest private healthcare groups, will send 28 volunteers to Sri Lanka to render medical aid. The team will leave on Sunday night. The team members are prepared to face challenges in one of the hardest-hit tsunami disaster zones. more..

Jan 2 (AP) A teenager who escaped death but was left orphaned and homeless by the Asian tsunami met yet one more agony: gang rape, one of several cases of child abuse being investigated in the disaster zone, an official said Saturday. more..

Jan 2 (BBC) Fourteen-year-old Renuka gazes out to sea, her eyes scanning the foaming surf before settling on a rock jutting out from the water. "There, somewhere there," she murmurs, pointing to the spot where her father's boat went down. more..

Jan 2 (Yahoo) Loss of a son : A homeless Sri Lankan woman Sukhriti cries as she mourns the loss of her eight-month-old son who was washed away by the giant tsunami waves which devastated two-thirds of the country's shoreline. more..

Jan 2 (AP) Danger comes in many forms in the aftermath of a natural disaster: aftershocks, landslides, falling debris. Add one more in a war zone: Uprooted land mines. Traveling on the road near Elephant Pass - a narrow isthmus that was a repeated battlefield during Sri Lanka's 20-year ethnic war - more..

Jan 2 (SVH) For Patrick Green, the terrifying wave came in a trickle. He and friend Becky Johnson were in the elevator of a Phuket hotel, on their way to the beach, where they planned to get one last hour of Thai sun before heading to the airport. more..

Jan 2 (Reuters) President Bush, seeking to bolster America's humanitarian image after the Asian tsunamis, called on Saturday for flags to be flown at half-staff next week to honor victims of the disaster. more..

Jan 2 (AFP) Sri Lanka on Saturday confirmed that nearly 14,000 people have been missing since the tsunami disaster struck. The country’s official death toll could jump to more than 42,000, the president’s office said. more..

Jan 2 (TO) A BRITISH tourist described yesterday how he had saved his wife and children from the onslaught of the tsunami by tying them like Christmas decorations to the top of a palm tree. He told of his desperate ploy — using beach towels to hold his loved ones in place more..

Jan 2 (AP) Screaming with fear, paralyzed children at a shelter for the physically disabled and mentally ill in Galle, Sri Lanka, lay helplessly in their beds as seawater surged around them. The tsunami roared in on the day after Christmas. more..

Jan 2 (BBC) The refugee camps on the southern coastline around Matara which is grappled with health hazards is not getting enough aid supplies. Eight children fallen ill were admitted to Matara General Hospital on Friday night. more..

Jan 2 (AT) Within a space of less than one year Velupillai Prabhakaran’s military machine has been crippled by two massive forces: 1) Karuna’s breakway from the east and (2) the Boxing Day tsunami that smashed his northern naval and military bases. more..

Jan 2 (AT) It was a rare spectacle; almost as rare as the tsunami that devastated South East Asia. For a few hours at least Sri Lanka’s squabbling politicians came together as never before in a vigil to honour the memory of the victims of the worst ever natural disaster faced by the country. more..

Jan 2 (AT) It may well be the reverse in our case. The Tsunami may have delayed or deflected Prabhakaran’s war due to logistical considerations as well as those of world opinion, but the separation of Sri Lanka may occur more or less peacefully and speedily, more..

Jan 2 (AT) Sri Lankan High Commission here is to ask the international broadcaster ‘SkyNews’ for air time to respond to allegations made by one of its correspondents flown into Sri Lanka to cover the tsunami disaster and bias by the TV network. more..

Jan 2 (AFP) A two-match one-day series between an International Cricket Council XI and an Asian XI was announced as part of the global cricket community's efforts to support the victims of the tsunami that devastated countries across the Indian Ocean. more..

Jan 2 (AP) A day after President Bush upped the U.S. pledge to $350 million, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced Saturday that his country would contribute up to $500 million to relief efforts. The increased aid came as a deluge from the skies deepened the misery for tsunami-stricken areas, more..

Jan 2 (SS) TONY Blair last night admitted he had underestimated the scale of the tsunami disaster that has spiralled into the most critical international emergency for generations, but he failed to explain why he remained on holiday while the crisis unfolded. more..

Jan 2 (BBC) The picturesque, eastern Sri Lankan coastal region of Amparai district was directly in the path of 26 December's tsunami - and reportedly took the country's first blow from the ferocious waves. There was massive loss of life and property in the Muslim-dominated district. more..

Jan 2 (BBC) On a quiet leafy lane in Galle's colonial Dutch fort, two lorries have backed up carefully against the front door of a private home. Inside, Zoe Ziglione directs several Sri Lankans who are unloading the truck's cargo - bread, rolls, buns and biscuits, all from Austria. more..

Jan 2 (Yahoo) Sri Lankan children victims of the deadly tsunamis queue up to receive food at camp for displaced people in the southwestern coastal town of Hikkaduwa on 31 December 2004. more..

Jan 2 (GU) Wonder. Wrenching, yearning wonder. Dreams, and awe, and childhood tales; a longed-for excitement, and a fascination with the different. This - all of this, and a host of added gestures - was all he said he thought of, for all those 90 seconds which brought the three waves: the man who was first to see the monster. more..

Jan 2 (HT) Jagat Singh, son of External Affairs Minister, K Natwar Singh, refused to be rescued by a helicopter after he was stranded at the Taj Exotica Beach Resort in tsunami-hit Bentota last Sunday. more..

Jan 2 (HT) The LTTE's naval chief, Colonel Soosai, has denied speculation in south Sri Lanka that the tsunami has wreaked his outfit. He told the London-based Tamil TV station "Deepam" on Wednesday, that the damage inflicted by the tsunami was "not that significant". more..

Jan 2 (HT) SriLankan Airlines has launched a massive effort to rush relief material and supplies to Sri Lanka following last week's killer tsunami that killed several thousand people on the island's coast, Ajith De Alwis, country manager, Qatar at the airline, said here yesterday. more..

Jan 2 (AFP) Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga thanked northern neighbour India yesterday for rushing relief materials to the tsunami-battered island even as it struggled with disaster on its own shores. more..

Jan 2 (AFP) Tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka will see an early rebound after the current dip triggered by last week's tidal wave catastrophe that sent foreigners fleeing, officials say. more..

Jan 2 (Reuters) Grimacing at the acrid stench of death, fishermen waded into the sea off Sri Lanka's tsunami-ravaged southern coast on Sunday to recover their sunken vessels as thousands tried to pick up the pieces of broken lives. more..

Jan 2 (Reuters) Jagged-edged chunks of yellow and blue brickwork lie in piles along the palm-fringed beaches of Sri Lanka's windsurfing mecca of Arugam Bay. Before the tsunami, those bricks were homes. more..

Jan 2 (IANS) Partly due to ignorance and partly because of misplaced optimism, there is a feeling that the killer tsunamis that ravaged Sri Lanka may push Tamil Tiger guerrillas to sue for peace with the government. Nothing could be further from the truth. more..

Jan 2 (TS) A group of 14 doctors left Sunday for Sri Lanka, the third medical team China has sent to help with the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunamis that ravaged Asia and Africa a week ago. more..

Jan 2 (AFP) Seafood has disappeared off Sri Lankan dinner tables with people fearful of eating fish that may have been feeding on corpses washed out to sea by last week’s tsunami, shopkeepers said on Sunday. more..

Jan 2 (TN) The Sunday Tsunami has left the main road network of the east and southeast coast of Sri Lanka in tatters, leaving many areas still marooned and hindering relief and rescue work, Col. Bhanu, a senior commander of the Liberation Tigers who is directing urgent humanitarian operations in the region, told TamilNet Saturday. more..