Beachside memorials and religious services have been held across Asia to mark the 10th anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami that left more than a quarter of a million people dead in one of modern history’s worst natural disasters.

With the bodies of almost 400 victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami still unidentified a decade later, Thai police were holding out little hope of gleaning any new information from opening a cargo container packed with unclaimed personal items.

A new theory being investigated is that the food was poisoned on missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

Malaysian investigators are becoming increasingly certain that the missing plane turned back across the country after losing communications, and that someone with aviation skills was responsible for the unexplained change in course.

Vietnam says it has downgraded its search for the missing airliner in the South China Sea and has been asked by Malaysian authorities to consider sending planes and ships to the Strait to Malacca.

Satellite images on a Chinese government website show suspected debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane floating off the southern tip of Vietnam, China’s Xinhua News Agency has said.

Malaysian authorities have defended their handling of the hunt for the missing Boeing 777 – even as they acknowledged they are unsure which direction the plane was travelling in when it disappeared.

A boat carrying local tourists capsized today in India’s Andaman Sea in the Bay of Bengal, killing 21 people.

THE dry weather continues and we have Ireland to ourselves.

PERHAPS even more fascinating than the multicoloured birds and butterflies seen on this Thai island just south of Burma are the ghost crabs, almost as invisible and fleeting as ghosts.

BANGERS at daybreak: it was Chinese New Year in Bangkok.

Its capital, Kuala Lumpur, may feel like the set of Bladerunner, but Malaysia has a rich cultural and culinary mix, great beaches and amazing sights, including orang-utans, writes Pól Ó Conghaile

South Korea’s president said his nation will no longer tolerate North Korea’s “brutality” and said the regime would pay for a surprise torpedo attack that killed 46 South Korean sailors.

More than 30 bodies recovered from a plane that crashed on a Thai island have not been unidentified because they were so badly burned, officials said today.

All 38 passengers and crew aboard a boat that capsized and sank today near a Thai resort island have been rescued, said the governor of the southern province where the accident took place.

Dozens of people were missing after a boat capsized and sank today near a Thai resort island, police said.

KATE MOSS yesterday denied that she married pop singer Pete Doherty while on holiday in Thailand.

SEVERAL different kinds of liquid explosive may have been involved in the terror plot to blow up a number of transatlantic passenger planes, an expert said.

Several different kinds of liquid explosive may have been involved in the terror plot, an expert said today.

Survivors today launched a boat laden with flowers, candles and incense in the first ceremony marking one year since the Indian Ocean tsunami swept away at least 216,000 lives in one of the world’s worst natural disasters in memory.

For two days and a night, nine-year-old Patiwat Khomklat clung to a tree trunk more than a mile off the Thai coast after last year's Indian Ocean tsunami dragged him out to sea.

Nearly a year after the tsunami separated them from their daughter, a German-Thai couple say they are certain their missing five-year-old child will be back with them as a special Christmas present.

A 7.2 magnitude earthquake has hit India's Nicobar Islands today, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

TRANSPORT Minister Martin Cullen and three officials spent a weekend at an exclusive resort on a tropical Malaysian island last year en route to an international conference held under Ireland’s EU Presidency last year.

Rescue workers today recovered the body of an Australian tourist from the sea near the southern Thai resort island of Koh Samui, ending a search for those missing after a speedboat capsized earlier this week.

THAILAND struggled to assess the human cost of its tsunami disaster, pressing ahead with the search for more bodies but sharply reducing the figure for those missing and feared dead.

Rescuers freed a humpback dolphin from a small Thai lagoon where the Asian tsunami had dumped it – returning it today to the Andaman Sea in a rare story of survival 10 days after the massive waves crushed tourist resorts in the surrounding Khao Lak area.

Frustrated rescue workers will have to wait until Saturday to make a third attempt to free a humpback dolphin and her calf from a small Thailand lagoon where the Asian tsunami dumped them 10 days ago, a wildlife expert said today.

OF THE 12 million tourists who visited Thailand this year, many headed straight to the gems of the south to soak up the sun along tropical beaches, dive on spectacular coral reefs and indulge in a languid, sometimes lascivious, lifestyle.

More than 9,300 people across Asia were killed today after one of the most powerful earthquakes on record triggered massive tidal waves that slammed into coastlines in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Thailand and Malaysia.

The most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive waves that swamped coastlines across Asia today, killing more than 5,600 people in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Thailand and Malaysia.

Nearly 170 people were killed and more than 1,900 injured, with scores missing in southern Thai resorts after a major earthquake hit southeast Asia today.

The death toll in the massive south-east Asian earthquake and tidal wave tragedy has passed more than 3,000 people today.

Locals and foreign holidaymakers were celebrating Valentine’s Day in Thailand today by getting hitched underwater, on the backs of elephants and even swinging from cliffs.

Engaged couples have taken the plunge in Thailand on Valentine's Day by getting married under the sea.

Navy officials in Thailand have raided two trawlers in the Andaman Sea and seized heroin and amphetamine pills worth $23.25 million in one of the biggest drug hauls in the country.