Victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami plan to sue the United States government for failing to warn tourists of the disaster as it swept across Thailand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and other countries. The legal papers filed in Manhattan federal court accuse the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration- which measures earthquakes, tsunamis, and other earth movements–of being asleep as thousands perished Dec. 26. The petition was filed by the Tsunami Victims Group, consisting mostly of Austrian and German families who lost loved ones in one of the world’s worst natural disasters. The Texas-based hotel chain the Accor Group and the Kingdom of Thailand are also listed as possible defendants. To date, more than 273,000 people are believed dead or missing.