2B newsfeed: Tsunami in Thailand – December 29, 2004

11:48pm, December 29 - What's in the newspapers Right: The December 29 edition of Manager Daily has a photo of the Thai flag at half staff at Government House and a wide shot of corpses on the front pages. Its other two sections have stories about people sending supplies (left) and the relief effort (right). It seems the popular dailies such as Matichon and ThaiRath quickly sold out their December 28 and December 29 editions.

11:04pm, December 29 - Anyone heard news of the Muslim fishing village at Ko Panyi? It was mainly restaurants on stilts and small buildings and a mosque on a sandbar in the Phangnga area.

10:50pm, December 29 - Translations from Thai-language newspapers: ThaiRath

* Thairath donates 10 million baht to for the victims in the south. Channel 7 also donates 10 million baht. Meanwhile Khun Ploypailin, the elder sister of Khun Poom [who was killed in the disaster], donates 410 cc. of blood at Siriraj Hospital for the Tsunami victims in the south.

* Around 1000 dead bodies could not salvaged in Phangnga. The bodies are getting rotten and there are not enough coffins.

* The Election Commission of Thailand gives the green light for the politicians to distribute belongings or support money to give relief to the victims in the six provinces in the south [normally politicians could not give out gifts in the lead up to an election].

10:43pm, December 29 - Translations from Thai-language newspapers: Matichon

* On December 28 an officer searching for survivors heard a voice cry 'give me milk' and the found ' a 3-year-old boy named Warun Paopas struck in the mangrove forest for 3 days. He survives by a miracle. The boy was taken to Takuapa Hospital. [Interestingly, The Nation transliterates the boy's name as Wathanyu Pa-opat and says he was asking for a soft drink.]

* Pratep Somdej Prateprattanarajchasuda Siamboromrajchakumari [HM The King’s daughter, Princess Sirinthorn], the vice president of the Thai Red Cross, sent an email to embassies and hotel associations asking for blood group A, O and RH which is needed for foreign injured victims.

* On December 28, 500 foreigners from the disaster area that are now staying at the gym at Thammasat University Rangsit are delighted with the Thai people's sympathy. They confirmed they would visit Thailand again.

8:45pm, December 29 - Official death toll posted at 8:00pm - new list includes a 'missing' category
The previous three days there have been 5-6 updates of the death toll per day. Today there were only 3 updates, however, a tally of the missing has been added to the official list.

Right: The Nation, December 29, 2004 4:44pm, December 29 - Various videos and photos of the waves and list of the worst natural disasters in history 4:41pm, December 29 - Another webboard set up to handle missing person questions 3:40pm, December 29 - The second item on this page quotes an interesting NYT article: ...Bob Calo, an associate professor at the graduate school of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, said that there had been something of a reversal in the news-gathering process. "If you think back, news gatherers would get the story and then commission a photographer to go and get the pictures," he said. "Now we have flipped it around to where reporters are chasing the pictures, trying to create some context for what viewers are seeing."...

1:53pm, December 29 - Tsunami death toll at Thai beach resort may reach 3,000 - Kyodo 1:38pm, December 29 - Thieves plague Thai tsunami victims - Reuters 10:17am, December 29 - What's on Thai TV - Channel 3, celebrity interview Right: Sarawut Martthong or 'Oun' (left), a movie star, and Nathan Oman (right), a singer with R.S. They survived the tsunami at Mokan Village next to Surin Island in Krabi province and are being interviewed upon their return to Bangkok.