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.

As the first anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami approaches, 805 of the 3,750 bodies received by Thailand’s victim identification centre remain unidentified, officials said today.

Rescue workers searched for victims today after a ferry carrying dozens of people sank in foul weather off southern Thailand, leaving at least eight dead and 12 missing, police said.

Peter Dejong, Banda Aceh

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.

A German man sought following the disappearance of a 12-year-old Swedish tsunami victim in Thailand has been cleared after being interviewed by police.

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.

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.

A year ago they were filming battle scenes for the movie Alexander – now six elephants are pitching in to help with the massive clean-up effort from the tsunami that devastated many of Thailand’s prime tourist destinations.

Teams of forensic experts packed bodies in dry ice today as Thailand’s government announced that its death toll in the tsunami disaster had doubled to more than 4,500 people – almost half of them foreigners – and hopes faded that more survivors would be found.

Thailand’s government announced its death toll in the tsunami disaster had doubled to more than 4,500 people – almost half of them foreigners – and hopes faded more survivors would be found.

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.

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.

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 death toll from the killer waves unleashed across the Indian Ocean by the megaquake climbed inexorably toward 50,000 tonight.

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.

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.

NEARLY 300 people, including a number of Western holidaymakers, were killed and more than 2,300 injured in southern Thai resorts after a major earthquake hit southeast Asia yesterday, causing tidal waves and flooding, a government disaster centre said.

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.