Tsunami

As most of you probably already know, the earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale and subsequent tsunami centred off of Indonesia has created a wide ring of destruction around the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean. Over 12, 000 dead have been accounted for so far, while the numbers will continue to rise as people are found buried or washed up on shore over the next few days. Hundreds of thousands more have been displaced.

Fortunately for those of us in Bangladesh, we were largely unaffected by the tsunami and reports say only two people have died, most likely fishermen in the Sunderbans or near Cox's Bazar and St. Martin's Island. It appears as though the worst affected areas were those lying due east and west of the quake's epicenter, namely Sri Lanka, India and Indonesia. So for anyone who was concerned about my welfare - don't be - but keep your fingers crossed for my two fellow intern friends, a Canadian and a Columbian working for BRAC, who were vacationing in southern Thailand at the time. I've yet to hear word on their whereabouts or well-being, but I hope that means they're just busy trying to get home.

The best source of information in my books is the South Asia section of BBC News online.