[All posts on the quake are compiled here]

Many news sources are reporting over 9,000 dead - some of those sites are timing out, so we'll put a link up for that number later. Though I just saw that Washington Time is reporting the toll at 9,500. And here we have news.com.au reporting 10,000 dead.

Slashdot has an interesting discussion on the earthquake here.

Jeff Ooti remarks on the troubling news that there is silence from Myanmar - someone noted the same thing about Bangladesh earlier today.

More local blogging of the quake here.

President Bush was briefed about the disaster while traveling from Camp David, Md., where his family spent Christmas, to his ranch in Crawford, Texas. White House Deputy Press Secretary Trent Duffy said the United States "stands ready to offer all appropriate assistance" to the nations most affected, inlcuding Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Thailand and Indonesia. "On behalf of the American people, the president expresses his sincere condolences for the terrible loss of life and suffering caused by the earthquake and subsequent tsunamis in the region of the Bay of Bengal," Duffy said in a written statement.

------Updates 2:00 pm EST----

Regarding Bangladesh, Keith Taylor writes:

I'm waiting from reports from Bangladesh. The energy of the sea funneled into the Ganges Delta may have caused the river to break its banks. At the very least, the silty Delta will be flooded. At worst, 141 million people living on a flood plain the size of Iowa will be without potable water or edible crops.

A heartbreaking story, one of many we will hear in the aftermath of this disaster: 'I Lost My Family In The Blink Of An Eye', Says Survivor

Stay tuned for more updates.