Thousands of Swedes still missing in Thailand a week after disaster

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/050102/1/3plwu.html


Sunday January 2, 8:15 PM

Thousands of Swedes still missing in Thailand a week after disaster

With thousands of Swedes still missing in Thailand, a week after tidal waves struck the country's coastline, the Nordic country with just nine million inhabitants could be the Western country worst-hit by the disaster.

Around 3,500 Swedes are still unaccounted for in Thailand, with 59 confirmed dead, the foreign ministry said Sunday, but the death toll was certain to rise......


.....Sweden obtained authorisation from Thai authorities to send an Antonov 124 Condor freight aircraft with 12 cooling containers and 2,000 body bags to repatriate victims.

Swedish families, fearing that the bodies would be burned by the Thai authorities, reacted with the relief to the news........

that a cousin a few years older than I was planning on taking his family (wife and kids) to Thailand for the Christmas holidays.

And on another branch of the Norwegian family - another cousin was planning to finish the last leg of her teacher training in Sri Lanka "in the New Year".

:-(

Will be trying to find out status later today.

It was an eerie way to learn that they could be in peril, or could have perished. In cheerful holiday Christmas cards... talking about what the kids were going to be doing in the new year.

I don't want to offend, but, I also have to think that the impact on western nations' citizens has also made more aid likely--although the focus will likely be solely on Thailand and not the poorer nations.

Perhaps, though that can be some concillation. Their loss has made possible more help for those left behind.. May you and all the families find solace and peace of mind in this difficult time.

http://rawstory.rawprint.com/1204/westboro_tsunami_statement_1230.php

"RAW STORY has discovered that the Westboro Baptist Church leaders known for picketing the funeral of Matthew Shepard, the young college student brutally murdered in Wyoming in 1998, have released {a} statement regarding the tsunamis which hit Southeast Asia earlier in the week.

The statement, which was posted on their website Wednesday alongside dozens of other archived "press releases," thanks God for the tsunami and for the death of any gay Swedish vacationers who perished at the time."

needs Christ's compassion to come into his life, because he is perhaps more evil in his behavior and words than anyone who claims they are a Christian. I pray he changes before he dies, unlike him, I believe all can be saved by Christ (Whosoever), he says it's only a select few on his hatesite. And pray that that boy who's missing's family never sees his website...