posted December 29, 2004 06:29 PM            

International Celebrities Among Victims of Tsunami Disaster in Asia Where 67,000 Are Dead

BANGKOK, Thailand Dec 29, 2004 — A German statesman, a Czech supermodel and a Swedish Olympic ski champion were among the vacationers whose search for peace and sun in tropical southern Asia was shattered by the tsunamis that spared neither rich nor poor.

Petra Nemcova who appeared on the cover of 2003 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue was carried away with her boyfriend, the fashion photographer Simon Atlee, after a huge wave plowed into southern Thailand on Sunday.

Nemcova's New York spokesman, Rob Shuter, said the model and her boyfriend had been vacationing in the resort of Phuket when waves overwhelmed their beach hut.

Nemcova, 25, clung to a tree for eight hours as the water swirled around her. She was recovering in a Thai hospital from broken bones, possibly including a broken pelvis, and unspecified internal injuries.

Atlee, 33, was swallowed by the raging waters and was still missing Tuesday.

"I've spoken to Petra several times and she's in pretty bad shape," Shuter said. "She's on pain medication. She probably doesn't realize yet the magnitude of the disaster."

Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl was on holiday in Sri Lanka's pristine south one of the areas most devastated by tsunamis.

Kohl and his entourage were evacuated Tuesday from a hotel by the Sri Lankan air force.

"The helicopter went and we managed to bring him back with six others," Commander Air Marshal Donald Perera told The Associated Press.

Swedish skiing great Ingemar Stenmark was sunbathing in Thailand when he saw an immense wave roaring to shore. He ran for his life.

Stenmark who won two gold medals at the 1980 Olympics and 86 World Cup races was with friends in Khok Kloi, about 30 miles from Phuket.

"The water from the first wave disappeared, but then it came back with terrifying speed," Stenmark told Swedish media. He and his girlfriend were not injured.

Another athlete wasn't so lucky. Troy Broadbridge, an Australian Rules football player, was on his honeymoon in Phuket when he and his bride were swamped as they strolled along a beach. Trisha Broadbridge was safe, but he was still missing Tuesday.

Several Italian soccer players including AC Milan striker Filippo Inzaghi, Milan captain Paolo Maldini, and Juventus defender Gianluca Zambrotta were caught in the maelstrom in the Maldives but were unhurt.

Thailand's royal family also were among the grieving. The Thai-American grandson of King Bhumipol Adulyadej, Poom Jensen, 21, was reportedly jet skiing when the tidal wave struck Phuket. His body was found later.

Hollywood actor-director Richard Attenborough's family also suffered tragedy. His granddaughter, Lucy, 14, perished and his daughter, Jane, and her mother-in-law are missing in Phuket. Another granddaughter, Alice, 17, was being treated in a hospital.

Attenborough's directorial credits include "Cry Freedom," "Chaplin" and the Oscar-winning "Gandhi." He has appeared in scores of films including "The Great Escape," "Elizabeth" and "Jurassic Park."

On Thailand's Phi Phi island, where "The Beach" starring Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed, 200 bungalows at two resorts were swept out to sea, and resort officials said many foreign tourists were among the missing.

Designer Nate Berkus, a regular contributor on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," was carried away with a friend by a tsunami after it ripped off the roof of their hut in Sri Lanka.

posted December 29, 2004 06:46 PM            

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka Dec 29, 2004 — A fisherman who clung to his capsized boat for three days after huge waves swept the Indian Ocean was rescued Wednesday when the crew of a Sri Lankan air force helicopter happened to spot him at sea.

The aircraft had been on a mission to drop food to 300 people cut off by floodwaters when its crew glimpsed fisherman Sini Mohammed Sarfudeen hanging on to his boat off Kalmunai, a town 140 miles east of the capital, Colombo.

"He told us that since Sunday he had been floating in the sea," Group Capt. Ajantha De Silva said. "His condition was bad."

Sarfudeen was taken to the hospital in Kalmunai, where many people flocked to the beach to watch the rescue a rare bright spot amid a disaster that killed more than 22,000 of their countrymen.

One resident, Dr. Fazlul Rahman, was impressed with the fisherman's tenacity.

"It was good to see that the man had the will to live, and this is what saved him," Rahman said.

By CHRIS TOMLINSON

Associated Press Writer

KOVALLUM, India (AP) The villagers living along the highway between Madras and Pondicherry built on the high ground of the coastal plain, but the scattered wreckage and grass stained black by ocean mud show it wasn't high enough.

Thatched roofs lay on the ground Wednesday, tossed aside by tsunami waves that tore away the huts' mud walls from underneath them three days earlier.

New shantytowns were going up across the landscape, cobbled together from scraps of debris and tarpaulins handed out by aid workers but sited far inland from the blackened grass.

By ALISA TANG

Associated Press Writer

BAN NAM KHEM, Thailand (AP) This poor fishing village hemmed in by expensive tourist resorts wasn't missed by the devastating tsunami waves, but its people complained Wednesday that aid efforts are mostly passing them by.

Sorawat Kraipao, 42, manager of a fish processing company, was bitter as he pulled what was left of his furniture from his wrecked home, saying wealthy foreign tourists had gotten much more attention and help than the village's ethnic Thai and Burmese fishermen.

"Help? It was slow in coming," he said. "As for the tourism, the authorities gave that higher priority."

He said that when Thai officials visited the Khao Lak region, they went to the resorts.

"Here it was quiet," he said. "The problem was everywhere, but they focused on the tourist areas. The people here, our lives don't have the same meaning as theirs."

By S. SRINIVASAN

Associated Press Writer

NAGAPPATTINAM, India (AP) A noisy crowd jostled past a young mother holding her infant daughter heading for a load of clothes delivered to a shelter for those who lost their belongings and homes to the raging sea.

Carrying her baby in one arm, 22-year-old Kayalvizhi joined the rush Wednesday, but she turned away without taking anything.

"We may have lost our homes, but this is so demeaning," she said, pointing to the heap of old clothes piled next to the road. "The clothes were used ones, and wearing them is demeaning by itself. But they expect us to pick them up from the road. We don't want anything from them."

Relief officials had tossed the load of dresses outside the shelter and sped on. The clothes lay jumbled where chlorine powder was sprayed to combat contamination from decaying corpses. Thousands of people died in Nagappattinam, one of the worst hit towns along India's southern coast.

The homeless in this town of about 40,000 are getting food and water but little else, and people are losing patience with the authorities.

"How long can we sit here and beg for food? We just want to get back to our normal lives," said one refugee, who gave his name as Valarmathi. "We had our own boat to earn our daily bread. We didn't depend on others for our living. Just get us a boat and we don't need your alms."

By LELY T. DJUHARI

Associated Press Writer

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) Dirty bodies piled up at the bottom of a freshly dug pit Wednesday, looking like one of the mass graves that human rights groups discover from time to time in the jungles of Indonesia's Aceh province.

These weren't victims of Aceh's long-running insurgency. They were the dead from Sunday's earthquake and tsunami, and government officials are burying corpses as fast as possible.

It was a burial lacking any pomp and certainly no dignity. Trucks picked up bloated bodies from around this once-bustling provincial city and delivered them to an open field that once hosted children's soccer games. Two sputtering bulldozers covered them with earth.

A few miles away, a woman who identified herself as Ani sat beside her house waiting for someone to help dig out her five family members from beneath the piles of wood and concrete.

"My sister is still under here," she said. "I can see her clothes and arms, but I can't find anyone who can clear up the debris."

By SEAN YOONG

Associated Press Writer

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) Nearly 15,000 Myanmar soccer fans gathered to watch their national team compete in Southeast Asia's premier tournament Wednesday, but their enthusiasm was dulled by the loss of more than 90 of their countrymen to tsunami waves back home.

The crowd observed a minute of silence before the kickoff against Singapore to mourn the tens of thousands killed across southern Asia on Sunday.

Myanmar fan Hla Tun Min said the gesture comforted him and his friends, most of whom are migrant workers who have heard little news from home, where the secretive military regime rarely provides details of man-made or natural disasters.

"It was really kind of the organizers to think about all the victims," he said. "All that my friends and I know is from the radio. We heard a big wave hit our country, but there isn't any more information. So we are all very anxious and sad."