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Sri Lanka marks one month after tsunami with silence

     Colombo: Sri Lanka observed a minute's silence on Wednesday as a sign of respect for the nearly 31,000 people here who perished in the tsunami disaster a full month ago. State and private television stations blacked out their screens at 9:36 am while radio stations went off the air at the time the tsunamis struck the island's coastline on December 26. Politicians and school children planted trees in memory of those who were killed while religious ceremonies were scheduled for later in the day.

Spiritual Guru visits tsunami-hit village in Tamil Nadu

     Srinivasapuram (Tamil Nadu): Sri Sri Ravishankar, on Wednesday visited Srinivisapuram in Tamil Nadu. Ravishankar distributed relief material, which consisted rice, utensils and other household articles worth 800,000 rupees to more than 3500 affected people. Residents also got a spiritual healing from the guru as a prayer meeting was held to help them come out of their emotional trauma. Earlier, Ravishankar through his 'Art of Living' Foundation has already donated 1.5 billion rupees to victims in India and Sri Lanka. Besides this the foundation had also carried out free 15-minute Art of Living meditation courses for survivors in refugee camps in Andaman and Nicobar islands, which also was ravaged by the December 26 tsunami attacks.

Bhuj families still await rehabilitation (Go To Top)

     Bhuj: Four years after a massive earthquake flattened Gujarat's Kutch region, hundreds of people are still living in makeshift houses. More than 2,000 families in Bhuj district, struck by the tremors on the morning of January 26, 2001, are still living in hve been living in makeshift houses for the past few years. Some of the families cannot afford to rebuild their houses and want to stay here permanently. "We have all the facilities available here like electricity, water etc. Those living here are also good. We are very happy here," said Urmila Ben. "Those who could afford their own houses have gone back. But there are families who don't have an option and cannot build their own house. They are very poor. The families here demand that they should be able to live here permanently. The infrastructure here is good like roads, schools, etc. So they want to live here," said Shyamji, a member of the Bhuj Development Council.