Into the wild: Photographers go to ends of the earth to capture these amazing wildlife shots
By Caroline Graham
Last updated at 4:20 PM on 03rd October 2009
They spend weeks, months or even years waiting to track down and shoot their prey. But when wildlife photographers eventually capture their target, the results - as these picture show - are worth it.
French photographer Eric Lefranc's White Water Fishing shows a young brown bear in Katmai National Park in Alaska trying to catch fish on the salmon run.
White water fishing: A brown bear fishes the salmon run at Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park, Alaska
Mr Lefranc said the creature spent the entire day up to its neck in water, pouncing on fish in a waterfall with varying degrees of success.
Britain's Andrew Harrington spent two weeks in a hide to capture his shot of Russia's Amur leopard - one of just 25 that survive in the wild, making it one of the world's rarest cats.
Lure of the leopard: Andrew Harrington captured this extremely rare Amur leopard in the Russian Far East
Dutch photographer Jan Vermeer's shot of a puffin was taken after he travelled to the remote Varanger Fjord in Norway where each year thousands of seabirds, including puffins kittiwakes, auks and fulmars fly back to the cliffs to breed.
But not all photographers have to go to such great lengths for their shot - in some cases they just land in your lap - almost.
Flying in a snow storm: Jan Vermeer travelled to a remote fjord to capture this puffin
Intimate death: Photographer Miles Kooren was cooling off near a lagoon when this snake and its gecko prey dropped out of a tree
Dutch photographer Miles Kooren was just drying off after taking a dip in a lagoon in Lambir Hills National Park in Malaysia when a paradise tree snake and a gecko fell out of a tree. The scene ended with the snake slowly eating the gecko whole.
The amazing images are among 95 winning or commended entries for this year's Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.
The category winners and overall winners – Wildlife Photographer of the Year and Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year – will be announced at an awards ceremony on 21 October, two days before the exhibition opens at the Natural History Museum in London.
A total of 95 winning or commended pictures in 17 categories feature in the exhibition which will tour regional and international venues after its London debut.
Last year's exhibit in London attracted nearly 161,000 visitors and more than 1 million visitors are expected to see this year's images at international and regional venues by the time the tour ends.
Mother who drowned grammar schoolboy son, 11, in the bath over £290,000 debts is locked up indefinitely
Mother 'was bitten by son on finger during struggle'
By Arthur Martin
Last updated at 9:00 AM on 03rd October 2009
Tragic: James Taylor was drowned in the bath by his mother Jennifer in December 2008. She has been detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act
A mother drugged and drowned her 11-year-old son in despair after running up debts of £290,000, a court heard yesterday.
Jennifer Taylor was detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act for killing James at their home last December.
Taylor, 45, became severely depressed when her son's absent father stopped sending her money to pay for James's upbringing and private school fees.
She had also accrued debts through credit cards and mortgage arrears and was being harassed by creditors, the court heard.
After killing her son, she spent the next two days lying next to his body before she stabbed herself and took an overdose.
Taylor then called the emergency services and told the operator what she had done.
James was found in the bath with his head submerged in the water at the family home in New Ash Green, near Dartford in Kent.
They found Taylor in the conservatory in bloodstained clothes. She
had stab wounds on her thighs, breasts, wrists and arms and was white, cold and weak, the court heard.
Sentencing her at Maidstone Crown Court, Judge Andrew Patience QC described the case as an 'appalling human tragedy' in which 'the life of a happy, bright, talented boy was wasted'. 
Floral tributes outside the family home where James's body was found. His mother admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility
The judge said: 'She was socially isolated, felt let down by others, weighed down by debt.
'There is no question but that she adored her son and had tried to do her best for him but had got deeply into debt in her efforts to do so.
'The financial pressures upon her became intense and she developed an intense depressive illness in the months leading up to the killing.'
He said the illness 'led her to the belief that there was no solution to their problems other than to take James's life and kill herself'.
Taylor denied murdering her son at a hearing in March, but later admitted to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. When arrested she said she had wanted the two of them to die so they could 'be in a better place'.
The court heard that both her parents were dead and she had little support. James had never met his father, Mohammed Al-Rafaey, described as a successful Syrian national who lived in Abu Dhabi. Taylor had a brief relationship with him in the 1990s. 
James was a pupil at Steephill (pictured), a private primary school in Fawkham, Kent, before he joined a nearby grammar school
He initially sent her £1,000 a month in child maintenance and paid for James's private school fees but at the time of the boy's death Taylor had only £360 available in her current account.
She had to twice re-mortgage the house Al-Rafaey had bought for her, had six credit cards and said creditors were constantly ringing her. In May 2008 she begged Mr Al-Rafaey for more money and he agreed to transfer 25,000 U.S. dollars into her account on condition she never asked for any more.
But soon afterwards she asked for a lump sum to cover James's school fees for the next seven years, which he refused.
Taylor, who did not have a job, confided her money woes to her sister and close friends, who became worried about her mental state and insisted she visited her GP who prescribed her antidepressants and sleeping pills.
When computer experts looked at her internet activity in the months before James's death they found searches referring to 'suicide through debt', 'taking a child through suicide' and 'drowning as my heart keeps pounding'. James was a pupil at Wilmington Grammar School near Dartford, after being withdrawn from Steephill, a £2,245-a-term private primary in the Kent village of Fawkham.
Chris Tapp, director of debt charity Credit Action, said he believed society needed to change its attitude towards money to prevent such cases happening again.
He said: 'This is an absolutely tragic case, but what it does indicate is the impact that financial debt and worries can have on individuals.
Remains of four babies found in flat in Germany
From correspondents in Berlin, Germany
Reuters
October 02, 2009 05:43pm
THE remains of four babies have been found in a high-rise apartment in Berlin, the latest in a series of infanticide cases to hit Germany in recent years.
Police said that a man had uncovered the remains while cleaning out the flat of a woman who died in July after plunging from the 12th floor of her building in an apparent suicide.
The woman, who was 46-years old and, according to German media, 9 months pregnant at the time of her death, is believed to have been the mother of all four dead babies, police said.
Germany has been hit by several similar cases in recent years.
In March a 29-year old woman who killed her two baby girls and hid their remains in her flat was sentenced to eight years in prison.
In 2006, a woman named Sabine Hilschinz received a 15-year sentence for killing eight of her babies between 1992 and 1998 and burying them in flower pots, buckets and a fish tank on her property.
The Hilschinz case sparked a national outcry and politicians have struggled since then to find ways to prevent what appears to be developing into a worrying trend in Germany.
Some clinics, in an attempt to save the lives of unwanted children, have taken to installing heated "hatches" for desperate mothers, which set off an alarm when babies are deposited.
Dozens of dinosaur eggs found
How dinosaurs may have looked like hatching from a clutch of eggs. A 65million-year-old nest has been unearthed in India
From correspondents in Chennai, India
Agence France-Presse
October 02, 2009 08:07pm
GEOLOGISTS have found a cluster of fossilised dinosaur eggs, said to be about 65 million years old, in a village in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, according to media reports.
"We found layer upon layer of spherical eggs and body parts of dinosaur and each cluster contained eight eggs," M. Ramkumar, a geologist at Periyar University who led a survey team, said yesterday, according to The Hindu newspaper.
The eggs, about 13-20cm in diameter and lying in sandy nests about 1.2m wide, were discovered during a study funded by Indian and German scientific institutions.
The clusters were under ash from volcanic eruptions on the Deccan plateau, which geologists said could have caused the dinosaurs to become extinct.
The nesting site was found along the banks and bottom of streams in the Cauvery river basin, containing clusters of fossilised eggs, dung and bone remains of dinosaurs.
"Occurrences of unhatched eggs in large numbers at different stratigraphic levels indicate that the dinosaurs kept returning to the same site for nesting," Anbarasu, another survey team member, said.
The researchers have requested local officials to cordon off the site since a similar discovery in northern India led to a plunder of the fossils.
Bullets, bread and beer, tambourines and toothpaste... and the 180 other things you can to do with a PIG
By Marcus Dunk
Last updated at 1:18 PM on 03rd October 2009
When we tuck into a bacon sandwich, few of us wonder what has happened to the other parts of the pig whose life has been sacrificed so we can enjoy a juicy breakfast.
But one inquisitive writer set out to trace where all the body parts of one porker ended up.
Christein Meindertsma, 29, said: 'Like most people, I had little idea of what happens to a pig after it leaves the abattoir so I decided to try to find out. I approached a pig farmer friend who agreed let me follow one of his animals.' 
Identified by its yellow ear tag number, 05049, her pig trail ended with her identifying an incredible 185 different uses to which it was put - from the manufacture of sweets and shampoo, to bread, body lotion, beer and bullets.
Christein said: 'I was shocked when I began to find out just how unusual and varied the different uses for a ordinary pig were. It's almost as if these days, a pig is no longer thought of an animal - more like an industrial raw material with a mind-blowing amount of different uses.'
She found that 4.9lbs of her 16st 3lb pig went to making wine gums, while 4.8lbs went into liquorice. In this process, collagen is taken from the pig and is then converted into gelatine. This finds its way into numerous foodstuffs, where it acts as a gelling agent.
Although not all sweets in the UK contain pork gelatine, many do - including Marks & Spencer's hugely popular and aptly-named Percy Pigs sweets.
It is not only sweets that contain pork gelatine. In some beers, wines and fruit juices, pig gelatine is used to remove the cloudiness from the drink. It works as a clarifying agent by reacting with the tannins in the liquid and absorbing the cloudiness.
Some ice creams, whipped creams, yoghurts and certain butters also contain gelatine, as do certain pet foods. More surprisingly, a number of medicines also contain pig gelatine - everything from painkillers to multivitamins.
Hygiene and beauty products are also made of pig. Fatty acids extracted from the bone fat of pigs are used in shampoos and conditioners to give them their shiny, pearl-like appearance. These acids can also be found in a number of body lotions, foundations and anti-wrinkle creams. Glycerine made from pork fat is also an ingredient in many types of toothpaste.
Christein, from Holland, found that while some companies were reluctant to cooperate in her quest, others claimed that they didn't even realise their products contained elements taken from a pig because of the middle men involved in the complex distribution process.
The confusion is not helped by the fact that it is not clear on products' ingredient labels where they originally came from.
According to the Food Standards Authority, there is no legal obligation for manufacturers to specify whether the gelatine they use is from a pig or another animal. When it is specified, it is often confusingly referred to as Suilline gelatine.
According to Richard Lutwyche - a British pig farmer with more than 60 years experience, chair of the Traditional Breeds Meat Marketing Company and a member of the British Pig Association - the reasons for much of this confusion is due to the industrial-scale of much pig farming.
'In the UK, big commercial farms send their pigs to large abattoirs. The abattoir will find different markets for all the by-products,' he says. 'Everything they can't sell they have to incinerate, so it's in their best interest to sell as much as they can.
'There's an old expression that says: when it comes to pig, you can use everything but the squeal. Over the past 100 years those uses have expanded rapidly.'
Some of the surprising products that can include pig material include photographic film, which uses collagen from pig bones; shoes that use bone glue from pigs to improve the quality of the leather; and certain paints that use bone fat to enhance their glossy properties.
Some makers of cigarettes use haemoglobin from pig's blood in their filters. Apparently this element works as a sort of 'artificial lung' in the cigarette so, they claim, 'harmful reactions take place before the chemicals reach the user'.
And the next time you buy a loaf of bread you would be well advised to read the packaging. Some manufacturers use an ingredient called L-cysteine, which is a protein made from pig or other animal hair and which is used to soften the dough.
A product like Tesco's Plain Tortilla Wraps includes this ingredient. The strangest use for a pig by-product that Christein found was in bullets and explosives. Pig bone gelatine was used to help transport the gunpowder or cordite into the bullet. It is difficult not to be impressed by the sheer versatility of this animal and its parts.
Virtually nothing in a pig goes to waste. The snout from Pig 05049 became a deep-fried dog snack, while pig ears are sometimes used for chemical weapon testing due to their similarity to human tissue.
Tattoo artists even buy sections of pig skin to practise their craft on due to its similarity to human skin, while it is occasionally used with burns patients for the same reason.
Pigs make an enormous contribution to medicine, with insulin, the blood-thinning drug heparin and pig heart valves all vital.
However, for vegetarians, Jews keeping kosher, Muslims and anybody else wishing to avoid pig products, this may not be such good news.
The complex workings of the global food and processing industry have ensured that it is almost impossible to avoid pig altogether.
Houston Woman Fries and Eats Pet Goldfish After Fight With Husband
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
PASADENA, Texas — Authorities say a Houston-area woman who was burned up at her former common-law husband fried their pet goldfish and ate some of them.
Pasadena police say it's a civil matter and no charges will be filed. The seven goldfish were purchased together by the couple during happier times.
Police spokesman Vance Mitchell says the man reported on Saturday that the woman took the goldfish from his apartment.
Mitchell says the two argued earlier about some jewelry the man had given her but took back. She wanted the jewelry returned.
Officers who were dispatched to the woman's home arrived to find four fried goldfish on a plate. The woman said she already ate the other three.
The man who can 'taste' words: 'Gordon Brown tastes revolting, while Tony Blair tastes of desiccated coconut'
By Nick Mcgrath
Last updated at 1:33 AM on 03rd October 2009
James Wannerton, 50, is one of an estimated two-and-a-half million people who suffer from gustatory auditory synaesthesia, a cross-sensory neurological condition, which means he can literally taste words. A systems analyst, he lives in Blackpool, Lancashire, with his partner, Jeanette. Here, he talks about how it has affected his life.
Taste of life: James Wannerton suffers from gustatory auditory synaesthesia
One of my earliest memories was when I was about four or five and chanting The Lord's Prayer in school assembly.
But it's not the words, the school hall or the teachers I remember most. It's the flavours, because The Lord's Prayer tasted unmistakably of bacon.
It was the first time I'd experienced tasting words, and most of my early memories are dominated by taste more than any other sense.
At school, I was always one of the dreamy kids - staring out of the window and tasting stuff. Blue was lovely, like a very soft Opal Fruit sweet. My family holidays in Devon tasted strongly of brick dust. Other trips tasted of chocolates and wine gums.
To me, tasting words is as natural as breathing, but as a child I had no idea I was any different from anyone else.
Concentrating and, particularly reading were difficult, as often the words' flavours overwhelmed their meanings, so I had to re-read everything to understand it properly.
That has continued into my adult life - I don't read novels because of the flowery prose, only factual books or books with pictures.
I can't cope with tabloid newspapers either as the flavours are overpowering - the Sun and Mirror are the worst.
And some words taste better than others. French words are difficult because most of them taste eggy, like the crispy bits under a burnt fried egg.
German, which tastes of marmalade, is far more enjoyable. Maybe it's the gutturals.
I don't get that many flavours with the American accent, because words seem to merge into each other. It's somewhat mangled, so I can listen to it quite easily.
One accent I've never been able to bear, though, is cricket commentator Richie Benaud's.
Every word he says has a taste. I can work my way round most things, but with him, the flavours come one after the other. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.
I also have real problems talking to people with very clear diction. They evoke too many flavours.
Mumblers and fast talkers are fine, and people with accents I'm okay with.
Despite the obvious difficulties, I developed strategies for coping and managed to muddle through school and university. But it wasn't until I was 21, on a visit to the US in 1981 - when I saw a woman on TV explaining that she saw colours when she listened to music - that I realised I might not be the only one.
Political flavour: Gordon Brown tastes of mud and Marmite, while Tony Blair tastes of desiccated coconut
I started researching it and, after being given some odd looks from doctors, I was referred to London's Maudsley Hospital, where I underwent a series of MRI scans to look at the part of the brain linked to taste.
When normal people are given headphones and played music and words, no activity is recorded in that area. With me, when the doctors played the same for me, the taste area of my brain lit up significantly.
I was diagnosed with gustatory auditory synaesthesia. At last I had proof that I had a neurological disorder, and it was a huge relief to find out.
I finally felt validated and not mad. Before that point, I'd been frightened of telling people about it for fear of them thinking I was a raving lunatic. Suddenly I felt credible.
Since my diagnosis, I've submitted more than 3,000 words with flavours to researchers at University College London and Edinburgh University, and every now and again they ring up without notice and I have to instantly articulate the taste of whatever word they give me.
My answers are instant and they never change, so it's obviously not just a memory thing.
Synaesthesia is essentially a genetic fault - my mother and sister are also affected, but not as strongly.
It is caused when neurological pathways between the senses are not pruned during brain development, resulting in an overlap of the senses.
Some people can 'hear' textures, others can 'see' smell.
Looking back and knowing what I do now, tasting words has seriously affected the way I interact with people, and I'm sure that's why I became a systems analyst, which is quite a solitary occupation.
I've avoided weddings and parties over the years, and if I know someone with a horrible tasting name is going to be at a social situation, then I just won't go. I'm not going to let it dominate my existence to the point where it ruins my life, but it does play a part in the decisions I make.
Most of my friends have names that taste nice, and I have avoided people on the basis that their names tasted unpleasant.
Gordon tastes of muck. Gordon Brown is even worse. It's a revolting name - a mixture of mud and Marmite. Absolutely disgusting.
Tony, on the other hand, tastes of desiccated coconut. And I don’t mind Martin, which has a Bakewell tart flavour.
I'm drawn to girls with nice tasting names - it was part of the attraction. If the name tastes nice, then it's a plus, but it has got me into trouble a few times.
Some girls have had lovely names but disgusting temperaments. It's my synaesthesia choosing wrongly for me.
I could never go out with someone called Helen - the mucus flavour is overpowering. Barbara, on the other hand, tastes of rhubarb, and Jemma of melted sweets.
My partner is called Jeanette, which is nice, as she's a mild bacon flavour. I'd rather she was called Genna or Gemma or Hanna or something sweet like that, but such is life.
At least she's not called Jane, which has a dusty taste.
People ask me if I could wave a magic wand would I get rid of my synaesthesia, but I wouldn't live without it, despite the difficulties and the isolation it can bring.
It forms a big part of my pleasurable memories, so if I didn't have that, my memories would feel very flat.
It's a bit like tinnitus really. It's always there, but you just have to learn to work your way around it. But I would like to be able to turn it off for a few days.
Message in a Bottle Lands 3,000 Miles Across Atlantic in France
Friday, October 02, 2009
ROCKPORT, Mass. — A bottle with a message written by a woman who tossed it into the sea in 2003 off Cape Ann in Massachusetts was found 3,000 miles across the Atlantic off the coast of France.
Michel and Daniele Onesime say they were going fishing last month from the port at St. Gilles Croix de Vie when they found the bottle in the water.
The message was from Ann Hernandez, a lighthouse keeper on Thacher Island off the coast of Rockport, where she had thrown bottles with notes into the water every October on her birthday since 1991.
In the note, Hernandez identified herself and urged any finders to send a card to her year-round home in Park Forest, Ill.
The Onesimes tried to do that, but learned Hernandez died unexpectedly last year at the age of 61 from complications from surgery.
Mysterious Mercury reveals more surface secrets to Messenger spacecraft
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 8:03 AM on 02nd October 2009
A new glimpse of our smallest neighbour, Mercury, has been unveiled by the Messenger spacecraft.
The craft passed by just 142 miles from its surface at 12,000 miles per hour and captured striking views on its approach.
Mercury's northern horizon cuts a crisp line against the blackness of space in this latest image from the Messenger spacecraft. The surface in the lower right corner of the image is near Mercury's terminator, the line between the light dayside and dark night side of the planet
The wide angle camera was able to capture a new basin that has never been seen before. Around 160miles in diameter it has a double-ring structure. Concentric troughs caused by forces pulling the surface apart are visible in the basin and are a rare discovery.
A number of pit craters, that are arc-shaped depressions, were pictured by Messenger. Unlike impact craters, pit craters are rimless, often irregularly shaped, and steep-sided, and they display no associated ejecta or lava flows.
The Messenger team were hoping to take close-up pictures of other features glimpsed during the first two fly-bys, but an unexpected signal loss just four minutes before making the closest approach meant the craft went into safety mode. When returned to operational mode, it reported all systems were functioning normally again.
Messenger will now enter into orbit in 2011 after it used the planet's gravity during the latest fly-by to help slow it down.
The outer diameter of the newly discovered impact basin is around 160 miles. 
The unnamed crater in the centre of the image, viewed at close range for the first time displays an arc-shaped depression known as a pit crater on its floor
Mercury is a planet of extremes. It has the oldest surface and is also the hottest with the highest variations in surface temperature from -183C to 427C. It is also the densest and scientist believe two-thirds of it must be made from an iron-metal composition. Like Earth, it has a global internal magnetic field, which Mars and Venus do not.
Yet this extraordinary planet is also the least explored in the Solar System. Before the current Messenger mission only 45 per cent of the planet's surface had ever been glimpsed, using the Mariner crafts in the 1970s.
Now after three flybys in 2008 and 2009, around 95 per cent of the surface has been imaged. Only a few small sections around the poles have yet to be covered.
The team are hoping to answer six key questions about Mercury: Why is it so dense? What is its geological history? How does its magnetic field work? What is the structure of its core? What are the unusual materials at the poles? What volatile materials are there?
A spokesman from the Messenger team said: 'Understanding this "end member" among the terrestrial planets is crucial to developing a better understanding of how the planets in our Solar System formed and evolved.'
Quake Survivors Saved by Text
Saturday, October 03, 2009
PADANG, Indonesia — An earthquake survivor trapped in a collapsed hotel in western Indonesia sent a text message saying he and some others were alive, triggering a frantic rescue operation, but hopes faded Saturday as sniffer dogs failed to detect life.
Padang's police chief said voices and claps were heard from survivors buried in the Ambacang Hotel since Wednesday's 7.6-magnitude quake, which killed at least 715 people. He said one survivor — who had been staying in Room 338 — sent a text message to relatives Friday, saying he and some others were still alive.
"We estimate there are still eight people trapped alive under Ambacang Hotel," Col. Boy Rafli Amar told reporters. "We are still trying hard to evacuate them." After more than six hours of searching, Amar said, "so far rescuers have found nothing."
As he spoke, rescuers used backhoes and drills to try and break a passage through thick slabs of concrete of the six-story hotel.
Hidehiro Murase, the head of a Japanese search dog team, said its search has been fruitless.
"We did an extensive search this morning, but there were no signs of life. Our dogs are trained to smell for living people, not the dead, and they didn't sense anything," he told The Associated Press.
Six Swiss rescuers entered the rubble through a hole but came out minutes later.
"I haven't seen any sign of bodies yet, but the stench filling the air is very strong," said one of them, Villa Stefano, wiping sweat and dust from his face.
The quake devastated more than 60 miles (100 kilometers) along the western coast of Sumatra island, prompting a huge international aid operation in a country that sits on a major geological fault zone and has dozens of quakes every year.
The United Nations estimated the death toll could rise to 1,100. More than 20,000 houses and buildings were destroyed and 2,400 people hospitalized across seven district, said Priyadi Kardono, a spokesman for the national disaster agency.
Block after block of toppled hotels, hospitals, office buildings and schools had yet to be searched in Padang, a port city of 900,000. Dozens of unclaimed corpses were laid out in the scorching sun at Dr. M. Djamil General Hospital, Padang's biggest, which was damaged in the quake.
Eric van Druten, a 31-year-old Australian surfer, said several of his friends were staying at the Ambacang and another hotel. He said he ran toward the swimming pool when the earthquake began to shake the building.
"But the wall collapsed, so we had to get out. There is still a heap of people in the pool," he said.
On Thursday, rescuers pulled out two women — a student and a teacher — from the debris of the Foreign Language School of Prayoga.
The teacher, Suci Ravika Wulan Sari, was extracted almost exactly 48 hours after the college crumbled in the 5:16 p.m. quake, killing dozens of students.
"She was conscious. Only her legs and fingers are swollen because she was squeezed," said the institute's director, Teresia Lianawaty. "Thank God! It is a miracle."
Eight hours earlier, 19-year-old student Ratna Kurniasari Virgo was pulled out. For 40 hours she had lain trapped with a broken leg between the collapsed walls of her college and the bodies of her dead friends.
"Her dead friends were beneath and above her. Fortunately, she was able to withstand the stench for 40 hours," said Dubel Mereyenes, the doctor who treated her. "She has a severely injured leg, but we will try to avoid amputation."
Fuel was being rationed amid a power outage, water and food were in short supply and villagers dug out the dead with their bare hands.
As the scale of the destruction became clearer, Vice President Jusuf Kalla told reporters in the capital, Jakarta, that the recovery operation would cost at least $400 million.
Military and commercial planes shuttled in tons of emergency supplies, although rural areas remained cut off due to landslides that reportedly crushed several villages and killed nearly 300 people.
While the damage was most severe around Padang, an Associated Press reporter saw virtually no remaining structures in the rural, hilly district of Pariaman, a community of about 370,000 about 50 miles to the north.
Landslides had wiped away roads and there was no sign of outside help.
In Padang, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told a crowd of people whose relatives are missing to "please be patient," assuring them the government was doing everything in its power to save lives.
Millions of dollars in aid and financial assistance came from Australia, Britain, China, Germany, Japan, the European Union, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Denmark and the United States, Indonesian officials said.
Wednesday's quake originated on the same fault line that spawned the 2004 Asian tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen nations.
Buried in a ghost village: War veteran laid to rest at church whose parishioners were relocated by MoD in 1942
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 1:18 PM on 03rd October 2009
In a remarkable ceremony an 85-year-old war veteran has been buried in an isolated hamlet he and 1,000 villagers was forced to leave 67 years ago.
William Hancock became the first person to be buried in the Norfolk 'ghost village' of Tottington since residents were evicted in 1942 to make way for a 1,700-acre military training area.
The villagers were promised that they would be allowed to go home after the war but this never happened. But Mr Hancock, who was born there, never gave up and battled for years for people to be given the chance to return.
But yesterday Mr Hancock, known as Billy, had his request to be buried next to his grandparents answered when he was laid to rest in the hamlet's churchyard thereby becoming the first person to be buried there for more than half a century.
Burial: William Hancock became the first person to be buried in Tottington for 50 years. The hamlet is now a deserted 'ghost village' after the MoD took over the land in 1942
Military activity and exercises in Thetford Battle Area, Norfolk, were suspended for several hours as the extraordinary service went ahead.
Mr Hancock's son, Andrew, said his father would have seen being buried in Tottington churchyard as a small victory in his fight for justice.
'Over the years he tried to keep the issue in the headlines,' he said. 'If he had ever won the lottery he would have taken the Ministry of Defence to court over it.
'There is a house in the village called Hancock's Cottage and he saw it as the family home and wanted to move back there.
'He believed the military had broken their promise. Some villagers went on to find jobs elsewhere in the Breckland area while others were forced to move away from their beloved corner of Norfolk to find work.'
Final wish: William had written in his will that he would like to be buried at Tottington. Throughout his life Mr Hancock had battled for the residents to be allowed to return
His coffin is laid to rest in the deserted hamlet. Military exercises were suspended during the service 
Mr Hancock joined the Navy at 16 and after being demobbed led a varied career including being landlord, farmer and shepherd
Mr Hancock's son, Andrew, said his father would have seen being buried in Tottington churchyard as a small victory in his fight for justice
Mr Hancock's wife Barbara said her husband had written in his will that he wanted to be buried at Tottington.
She said: 'It has taken a lot of work to get permission to do it and we are thankful to the MoD for allowing us to.'
An afternoon funeral service at St Peter's Church in nearby Merton was attended by nearly 100 mourners as British Legion members staged a guard of honour outside.
In a moving service, Mr Hancock's son-in-law, Adrian Stephens, gave a speech which provoked both tears and laughter.
He said: 'The number of people in this room shows how much he was loved.' He added that Mr Hancock was a 'recycled teenager' who 'played a lot of jokes and had a young outlook'.
'Until recently he had been mowing lawns and doing shopping for "old people" - most of whom were younger than him,' said Mr Stephens.
'He will be sadly missed, but he will not be forgotten.'
Following the funeral, Mr Hancock's family and close friends travelled in convoy to the burial ground in Tottington along the single track roads of the battle zone.
A military official observed from a distance and helicopters clattered overhead as he was buried next to his grandparents, Walter and Caroline Hancock.
Born on May 11, 1924, Mr Hancock joined the Royal Navy at 16, a year younger than the official joining age.
While in the forces he married his first wife Lilly and, after being demobbed, moved with her to Shipdham where he began a long and varied career. He re-married in 1968 after Lilly died suddenly.
He was a landlord of various pubs in the area and also worked as a farmer and a shepherd. He worked as a porter at an auction house until his 85th birthday.