Powerful quakes off Taiwan

Two powerful earthquakes off Taiwan triggered a regional tsunami alert yesterday as thousands lit candles and visited mass graves to mark the second anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami.

On December 26, 2004, giant waves triggered by one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded pulverised villages along Indian Ocean shores, killing or leaving missing about 230,000 people. Hours after ceremonies in which thousands across the region stood in silence for two minutes, earthquakes measuring 7.1 and 7.0 magnitude hit southern Taiwan, prompting a tsunami alert for the Philippines. This was later lifted and there were no reports of major damage in Taiwan, southern China or Hong Kong.

But the jitters underscored the fear of tsunamis across Asia and beyond.

At a mosque in Ulee Lheue, Aceh, the Indonesian province worst hit by monster waves in 2004 that came rolling out of the sea on a bright Sunday morning, imam Usman Dodi told worshippers the tsunami was a religious warning.

"Please forgive the people who have left us for their wrongdoing," the imam prayed, returning to a sermon some religious leaders preached after a disaster that killed or left missing 169,000 people in northern Sumatra. Half a million were also made homeless.

The seaside mosque in Ulee Lheue became an icon of one of history's worst natural disasters.

It was the only building left standing after a magnitude 9.15 earthquake ruptured the ocean floor off the tip of northern Sumatra, triggering waves that slammed into the coastlines of a dozen Indian Ocean nations at the speed of a freight train.

Former US Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush visited the town and helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars in rebuilding projects.