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Yagna for tsunami victims

     Varanasi: People organized a yagna on the banks of the Ganges in Varanasi on Thursday for the salvation of the numerous people killed by the tsunamis. The rituals were performed according to Hindu scriptures accompanied by the chanting of holy hymns. "This yagna is being performed for the salvation of the thousands dead in the tsunami. There are thousands of families, where no one is left to perform the pind daan, hence we, the priests in Varanasi, are performing this ritual for the salvation of the dead," said Sanjay Tripathi, a priest.

Sri Lanka seeks over 100,000 tents for tsunami victims

     Colombo: Sri Lanka today urged global donors urgently to provide more than 100,000 tents for around 73,000 families made homeless by the tsunami disaster. According to The News, most of the displaced people are staying in camps set up in thousands of schools across the island after the December 26 tsunamis destroyed three-quarters of Sri Lanka's coastline, killing 30,800 people. The task forces working on reconstruction said they urgently need tents because schools across the country opened on Monday for the new academic year. Donors such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and other organisations are in talks with the task forces to work out a reconstruction package.

Tsunami toll 160,000 (Go To Top)

      Jakarta: The death toll from the earthquake and tsunamis that devastated Indian Ocean coastlines last month approached 160,000 on Thursday as India and Sri Lanka reported new deaths. According to The News, Indonesia was hardest-hit by the December 26 quake and tsunamis, with 106,523 confirmed deaths and 12,047 people missing, the social affairs ministry said. In Sri Lanka government figures issued on Thursday showed the toll had risen by 11 to 30,893 while the number of those reported missing had come down by 50 to 6,038. In India, more than 300 more people were confirmed dead on the Andaman islands, pushing the official death toll to 10,672 with 5,711 still missing and feared dead. The death toll in Thailand stood at 5,313, but the number of missing continued to slip, down by 91 names Thursday to 3,254, including 1,063 foreigners. Myanmar's Prime Minister Soe Win has said 59 people were killed in the tsunamis and more than 3,200 left homeless. This was down from the UN's estimated 90. At least 82 people were killed and another 26 were missing in the Maldives, a government spokesman said. Sixty-eight people were dead in Malaysia, most of them in Penang, according to police, while Bangladesh reported two deaths. Fatalities also occurred on the east coast of Africa where 298 people were declared dead in Somalia, 10 in Tanzania and one in Kenya.