A boat carrying more than 20 tourists capsized off the coast of Thailand today but all passengers were rescued after spending three hours at sea, police said.

The boyfriend of one of the Irish people killed in December's tsunami in southern Asia has been giving evidence to an inquest into her death today.

Dublin City Coroner's Court has begun hearing inquests into the deaths of three of the four Irish people killed by December's tsunami in southern Asia.

THE girlfriend of an English man who was killed in the Asian tsunami disaster never knowing she was pregnant has given birth to his baby.

A 28-year-old Irish woman who died in the Asian tsunami disaster is due to be laid to rest today.

The body of a Dublin woman who has been missing since the St Stephen’s Day tsunami disaster in the Indian Ocean has reportedly been identified in Thailand.

The body of Conor Keightley, the second confirmed Irish victim of the Asian tsunami, is due to be flown back to Ireland today.

Noel Baker and Juno McEnroe

THE body of Eilís Finnegan, the only confirmed Irish victim of the Asian disaster, returned home yesterday.

The body of the Irish woman killed in the St Stephen's Day tsunami disaster in the Indian Ocean is being flown home today.

It has been confirmed that the body of Eilis Finnegan will be brought home to Ireland on Friday.

Millions of people throughout Ireland and the rest of the European Union are due to observe a three-minute silence at 11am for the victims of the St Stephen's Day tsunami in the Indian Ocean.

The body of the first Irish victim of the Asian tsunami was found in Thailand 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.

TEARS of joy were shed at Dublin Airport yesterday when four young Irishwomen caught up in the weekend earthquake in Thailand were reunited with their families.

There were tears of joy at Dublin Airport today as some of the Irish tourists fleeing the devastated regions of South East Asia made it home.

Workers from Indonesia to India rushed to bury corpses to ward off disease today as cargo planes touched down with promised aid – from lentils to water purifiers – to help the region cope with its tsunami catastrophe.

The confirmed deaths in a mammoth Asian quake and tsunami soared above 60,000 today as worst-hit Indonesia readied bulldozers to dig mass graves for corpses in a rush to ward off disease, which the UN health agency said could double the toll.

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.

FEARS are growing that two Irish women are among the more than 1,000 people confirmed dead in Thailand.

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.

RESCUE teams converged on beaches and remote islands in search of the missing yesterday as authorities reported that more than 430 people, including a number of foreign tourists, were killed and 4,100 injured when earthquake-spawned tidal waves devastated idyllic resort areas of southern Thailand.

Each year at this time some disaster seems to mar the Christmas and New Year festivities.

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.