Tsunami Disaster in Brief

An Indonesian woman has been found alive after drifting for five days in the Indian Ocean following last week's tsunami which swept her out to sea from her home on Sumatra island. Melawati, 23, was spotted clinging to a floating sago palm tree in waters near Aceh province and was picked up by a Malaysian tuna ship. Officials said she survived by eating the tree's fruit and bark.

Four Indonesians, who had been in a motorboat off the coast of Sumatra when the tsunami struck, were found alive yesterday on a boat that drifted to a remote Indian Ocean island, Indian military officials said.

They were rescued by an Indian coastguard ship after turning up on the Indian-ruled Great Nicobar island, 87 miles away from the earthquake's epicentre.

The four men could barely speak after their ordeal and would say only "Indonesia" when asked their names.

A 10-year-old Indian girl survived for four days alone in the jungle, living off berries and coconuts, after the tsunami swept away her family when it smashed into the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

The girl, Almesh Javed, escaped to a thick forest after she saw her parents and sister washed out to sea when the deadly wave hit their home on Nancowry island.

At least 5,000 people are feared to have died in the tropical islands 750 miles off India's east coast.

Rescuers are trying to save two dolphins trapped for eight days in a small lake in southern Thailand, after they were swept more than half a mile inland by the tsunami.

The exhausted dolphins, one of whom appeared to be injured, were trapped in a lake left behind by the wall of water, an environmentalist on the scene said. He said it was thought they were Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins.

A team of Japanese researchers which has been gathering data on tsunamis for 12 years has estimated the Thailand tsunami was 10 meters (33 feet) tall at its highest point.

The team has been examining water marks left on the cement buildings that remain standing, north of Phuket. A spokesman for the team said the wave's velocity may have been six to eight metres per second (15 to 19 mph).

Aceh province's only newspaper Serambi Indonesia was back in circulation six days after the tsunami ripped through its offices, killing more than 100 staff and throwing two of its printing presses into the car park. The paper has survived threats from the government and rebels for its coverage of this war-torn corner of Indonesia. "Cholera is threatening our refugees", read the banner headline of the first edition printed in Aceh's second city, Lhokseumawe, and handed out free.