FRUSTRATED, living in tents and jobless, survivors of last December's tsunami that killed up to 232,000 people around the Indian Ocean are struggling to rebuild six months later.

THE brother of a 23-year-old Wexford man missing since a tsunami devastated South Asia said the discovery of his remains yesterday was still a shock, four months after the tragedy.

Distraught relatives of two Irish people missing since the tsunami struck South-East Asia are still waiting for any trace of their loved ones, it was confirmed today.

TSUNAMI-wracked south east Asia appealed to would-be helpers today: take a holiday.

Miranda Leitsinger, Khao Lak

The bodies of hundreds of tsunami victims are being exhumed in southern Thailand so that new DNA samples can be taken, a forensics expert said today amid concerns that there may be Westerners among them who were misidentified as locals.

Tsunami-wracked Asia appealed to would-be helpers today: Take a holiday.

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.

A MASS grave for victims of the tsunami that raked many of Thailand’s resort areas is not believed to contain the bodies of any foreigners, officials said yesterday.

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.

SUNAMI orphans could be targeted by criminal gangs who want to sell them, child protection experts warned last night.

Swedish and Thai police are searching for a 12-year-old Swedish boy last seen leaving a Thai hospital with an unknown man in the aftermath of the south Asian tsunami.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern has called for three minutes’ silence to be observed tomorrow at 11am in memory of the victims of the Asian tsunami.

While the walls of water that devoured Asian shorelines served as reminders of the fragility of life, fresh crops of survivors became a testament to its resilience.

Rescuers were attempting today to save two dolphins trapped in a small lagoon created when tsunami waves swept them ashore in southern Thailand on St Stephen's Day.

Sweden greeted the new year with a national day of mourning today, flying flags at half mast and lighting candles for 3,500 of its citizens still missing in Thailand.

While foreign survivors of Thailand’s tsunami disaster were put up in an international school complete with beds, television sets and internet connections, locals from a devastated fishing village slept outside, many without blankets, burning wood to keep warm and keep mosquitos at bay.

International teams and thousands of Thais were mounting the country’s largest ever rescue and relief operation today, with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra fearing the death toll will soar beyond 7,000.

Aid workers in one of history’s largest relief efforts today struggled to get food, water and medicine to survivors of the massive quake and tsunamis that the Red Cross says likely killed more than 100,000 people across Asia and Africa.

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.

SCANDINAVIAN countries are preparing themselves for national tragedies as the realisation dawns that most of the Europeans missing after the south Asian tsunami are from Sweden and Norway.

Rescuers were hoping for “individual miracles” of survival as they combed the beaches and islands of southern Thailand today for missing tourists and locals swept away by earthquake-powered tidal waves.

SOLDIERS used bulldozers yesterday to push into a strip of Thai luxury resorts destroyed by tidal waves and picked the bodies of European tourists from ruined gardens and suites as the death toll climbed to 2,000.

A SENIOR television producer with RTÉ said he is lucky to be alive after narrowly avoiding being drowned when the tsunami hit a holiday resort in Thailand where at least 800 people are believed to have been killed.

DOZENS of parents, desperate to find missing children after massive tidal waves battered southern Thailand, turned up at a local hospital hoping that an unidentified two-year-old boy was theirs.

THE sea and wreckage of coastal towns around the Indian Ocean yielded up tens of thousands of bodies yesterday pushing the toll from Sunday's tsunami above 60,000.

Soldiers used bulldozers today to push into a strip of Thai luxury resorts destroyed by tidal waves, and picked the bodies of European tourists from ruined gardens and hotel rooms.

Volunteers dragged scores of bodies from Thai beaches, inland pools and once-luxury hotels today with the prime minister saying the death toll from earthquake-powered tidal waves could pass 2,000.

Dozens of parents desperate to find missing children after massive tidal waves battered southern Thailand turned up at a local hospital hoping that an unidentified two-year-old boy was theirs.

Volunteers dragged scores of corpses from beaches, inland pools and once top-class hotels today with the prime minister of Thailand saying the death toll from earthquake-powered tidal waves could pass 2,000.

AT least 23 people from the Nordic countries were killed and 600 more are missing following the deadly earthquake-driven tidal waves that swept southern Asia on Monday.

At least 23 people from the Nordic countries were killed and hundreds more missing after deadly earthquake-driven tidal waves swept southern Asia.