Thu, 30 Dec 2004

MFAT Tsunami update 8

MFAT Tsunami Update 8 At 1130 On Wednesday 29 December

1 An RNZAF 757 Aircraft is scheduled to depart from Whenuapai Airbase at around 2 pm, stopping at Ohakea to pick up forensic equipment. The aircraft will overnight in Darwin before continuing on to Phuket tomorrow morning. On board will be a 10-member Disaster Victim Identification Team, comprising eight Police personnel, a dentist and a pathologist. Also on board will be an Emergency Response Team comprising officials from Police, NZ Defence Force, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. This team will strengthen the team of Police and NZ Embassy officials already working in Phuket.

2 As at 6 am NZ time, NZ officials in Thailand had 770 names entered on their database. Of these, around 350 are confirmed OK, one is confirmed deceased and 17 are in hospitals in Bangkok, Phuket and Krabi. There are unconfirmed reports of two other deceased New Zealanders. Two New Zealand medical personnel, a nurse and a paramedic, are visiting the injured New Zealanders to check on their condition. There were 124 New Zealanders unaccounted for and known to have been in the affected areas. Around 280 others are unaccounted for and thought to have been in somewhere in Thailand.

3 In addition to the 17 New Zealanders reported hospitalised in Thailand, we are aware of two New Zealanders hospitalised in India.

4 In order to account for people registered on our databases, we continue to encourage New Zealanders to advise us if they have heard from their friends and relatives in the affected areas.

5 At 1130 this morning, enquiries had been made through the Red Cross and MFAT call centres concerning about 2200 New Zealanders. Of these around 1000 had been accounted for. Many further calls are being processed - some of these are likely to relate to additional names, while others will relate to previous enquries.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>