THE global death toll from the Asian tsunami shot above 226,000 yesterday after Indonesia’s Health Ministry confirmed the deaths of tens of thousands of people previously listed as missing.

About 1,200 people have been vaccinated for measles in Indonesia after two children who lived near them in the tsunami-hit Aceh province became sick with the highly contagious illness, the World Health Organisation said.

Worldwide donations for tsunami relief approached the billion-dollar mark (€738.8m) today as the world’s ships and planes converged on devastated shores.

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.

Scientists describe the devastating earthquake off the island of Sumatra as a “megathrust” – a grade reserved for the most powerful shifts in the Earth’s crust.

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.

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