Oscar-Tango | despardes.com

Washington, December 31: US defence agency is using its spy satellites to measure the scope of the devastating tsunami in Asia and help workers manage their relief efforts. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, a defence department component, normally gathers intelligence to support US security. The agency said on Wednesday that it is using its satellite imagery to funnel information, including damage assessments of roads, bridges, ports and airfields, to the US agencies handling disaster relief. Those updates are being used to guide where workers and life-support supplies are sent first. (Agencies)

Exits locked in Argentina nightclub fire

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, Dec 31 - Emergency exits at a nightclub packed with teenagers were padlocked or wired shut when a flare ignited the foam ceiling, sparking a blaze that killed 175 people and injured more than 700 in one of Argentina's worst disasters, survivors and officials said Friday.

Some 4,000 fans at a Thursday night concert by the band Los Callejeros fought to reach the exits as burning debris fell on them. But they found at least four escape routes locked in an apparent effort to prevent people from entering the club without paying, Buenos Aires Mayor Anibal Ibarra said.

"Had they been open, we surely would have avoided a lot of deaths," Ibarra said, calling the locked doors at the Republica de la Cromagnon disco an "irresponsible act." The club's name means Cromagnon Republic.

Police want to question the club's owner, who vanished during the inferno. The concert crowd was nearly three times the venue's capacity of 1,500 people, Argentine media reported. (Agencies)

'I ate leaves, licked bark'

NEW DELHI, Dec 31: Brendina, a 28-year-old Jarawa tribal from Car Nicobar archipelago, survived the tsunami's fury by hanging from a tree for three days. "One by one, my uncles, aunts, all the children went past me. I was hanging from one branch, like a bat, and the tree was rocking. They all looked at me and I kept screaming, 'hold the tree, hold my hand', but they just went away," recounts Brendina. She was in excruciating pain due to multiple fractures on her legs, but found the will to literally hang on.

"I ate leaves, .just bit and swallowed. The water was so salty that when I took a sip it burnt my throat, so I let it remain in the bark for sometime and then licked the wet bark." Her ordeal finally ended when a navy team rescued her on Wednesday.

Another resident of Car Nicobar, 13-year-old Meghna Rajshekhar, was found alive after floating on a door for two days. Meghna, the daughter of an IAF officer, was found walking along a beach in a daze after being washed back ashore. Her parents, however, were not spared by the 10-metre wave which destroyed the air base. She has now been sent to Hyderabad to stay with an uncle, her closest living relative.

In Tamil Nadu, a two-year-old child was found alive beside the body of her dead mother in a graveyard near Periyavila village, three days after the tsunami struck. The girl's family had thought that she had been swallowed by the devastating waves, but a group of people found her when they came to the graveyard to bury the dead.

Two Indian boys also miraculously survived in Yala, the largest wildlife reserve in Sri Lanka, even as a large number of tourists perished there.

Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Nirupama Rao said the story of nine-year-old Farsan, a Parsi boy from Mumbai, was unbelievable. Farsan was found clinging on to a tree and apart from a fracture in the leg and some bruises he was fine. The boy still does not know that his father Kesri Faujdar and mother Mehr perished in the deluge and his brother is among some 40 Indian nationals reported missing.

The other boy who survived is seven-year-old Arvind Sitaraman, who lost his parents and brother. His relatives had arrived from Chennai to take him back home, Rao said.

Swedish nationals were among the worst-hit tourists in Phuket. But a 2-year-old boy, later identified by his uncle as Hannes Bergstroem, was found dazed and alone on a road in Phang Nga province near the beach resort of Khao Lak, about 60 miles from Phuket. The blond-haired boy was reunited with his uncle, who spotted his picture on the Internet. His mother and grandmother are reportedly missing, but his father and grandfather are believed to be in a Thai hospital, though their location and condition is not known.

The Swedish Gulbstrand family found 7-year-old Karl Nilsson � nicknamed Kalle � sitting alone in a Buddhist temple on Phuket. His parents and two brothers were lost. Marie Gulbstrand, a doctor, said her family was sheltering in the temple when she heard cries. Her son ran to her and said he had found a little Swedish boy.

Kalle was in a hotel room on Sunday morning with his brothers, Olof, 5, and Vilgot, 3. His parents, Thomas and Asa, of Lulea, Sweden, were outside, when suddenly water gushed into the room.

He told Marie he was "under the water but somehow I could breathe. I was just closing my eyes and moving with the waves. Then, suddenly the flood ended and I was in another city". He was still in the same place, only disoriented and battered by the tsunami. Like many other children of the storm, life will never be the same again for him. But at least he has the chance to begin afresh. (Courtesy: Times Of India)