Sunday 30 September 2012

DNA tests a must

KATHMANDU: With the bodies of the Sita Air Dornier crash victims charred beyond recognition in the fire that engulfed the plane after yesterday’s disaster, forensic experts are finding it tough to conduct post-mortems and identify the victims.

All of the 19 — seven Nepalis, seven Britons and five Chinese nationals — on board the plane died in the second air crash in the country within five months. Dr Harihar Osti, forensic expert at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, said post-mortems were expected to complete by tonight.

“Officials are collecting data on the crash victims and their belongings. We are preparing to recommend the government to conduct DNA tests to establish the deceased’s identities,” he informed.

Although officials from British and Chinese embassies and kin of the deceased have been demanding they be allowed to take stock of the bodies, the hospital said the bodies would not be handed over to the families until DNA tests are conducted.

Experts are facing a tough time identifying the victims’ body parts. They said only DNA tests can determine which parts belong to whom.

Sunday 30 September 2012

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=DNA+tests+a+must&NewsID=349136

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Bodies of French climbers killed in Nepal reached Paris

The bodies of four French climbers who were killed in an avalanche on Manaslu peak in Nepal nearly a week ago reached in Paris on Saturday, sources at Charles de Gaulle airport said.

The four — two guides and two clients — were among eight people killed after an avalanche swept through their camp on the side of the 8,156-metre (26,759-foot) Himalayan mountain early last Sunday, just hours before the alpinists were to make an attempt to reach the peak’s summit.

The other dead included a Spaniard, a German, an Italian and a Nepali guide. Three climbers, two Frenchmen and a Canadian, remain missing and presumed dead following the deadly slide.

A memorial ceremony for the dead is due to be held on Tuesday in Chamonix, the French Alpine village that is considered the birthplace of European alpinism and the home of most of the French climbers killed

Sunday 30 September 2012

http://www.nepalmountainnews.com/cms/2012/09/30/bodies-of-french-climbers-killed-in-nepal-arrive-in-paris/

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Gyari operation: two more bodies found

The dead bodies of two of the soldiers who were buried under an avalanche in the Gyari Sector on April 7 have been recovered on the 176th day of the operation.

A total of 140 people—soldiers and civilian—were buried under the ice on April 7, 2012 and since then an operation is under way to rescue the victims. The rescuers found the 83 bodies till now and there are hopes that more bodies will be found in future.

The bodies have been shifted to Goma Hospital; however, the officials cannot identify it because it has decomposed badly. A team of around 300 soldiers and 50 engineering plants are employed at the search operation in the harsh weather conditions.

Sunday 30 September 2012

http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/national/30-Sep-2012/gyari-operation-two-more-bodies-found?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online%2F24hours-news+%28The+Nation+%3A+Latest+News%29

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Kin of Nepali passengers receive bodies

KATHMANDU, Sept 30: The kin of five Nepali passengers who died in Friday´s Sita Air crash received their dead bodies on Sunday. The bodies were identified on the basis of dental data and personal belongings of the dead.

According to Dr Harihar Wasti, head of Forensic Department at Tribuvan University Teaching Hospital, the bodies of crew members, Captain Bijaya Tandukar, co-Pilot Takeshi Thapa, airhostess Ruja Shakya, and passengers, Dipen Rai and Madan Kumari Tamang, were handed to their kin.

Wu Hui, who was earlier thought be a Chinese citizen, has now been identified as a US citizen and his family members are arriving in Kathmandu to receive the body, according to the department. Dr Wasti said, "The remaining bodies couldn´t be identified till Sunday because of the lack of equipment and sufficient information."

Meanwhile, the problem of keeping dead bodies at mortuary has been solved temporarily. According to the department, four bodies have been kept at the mortuary of US embassy and five have been accommodated at the mortuary of German embassy. The remaining five bodies are at Teaching Hospital.

Seven Nepalis, including three crew members, seven Briton, four Chinese and a US citizen were killed in the crash. Sales and Marketing Manager of Sita Air, Dipendra Shahi, said that the samples have been sent for DNA test to identify other bodies and would take some time to get the reports. Shahi said that the bodies of the foreigners would be handed over only after DNA report arrives.

A probe team that comprises of experts from the UK has started the investigation.

Two aviation experts from the UK have joined the five-member probe team instituted by Nepal government for investigating the crash and the team has started working from Friday.

The panel headed by former tourism secretary Nagendra Prasad Ghimire visited the crash site along with the UK experts, according to Suresh Acharya, joint-secretary of MoCTCA and member secretary of the accident probe team. "Today we surveyed the position of the damaged aircraft and took photographs," he said.

Aided by National Bird Control Committee, the team also inspected the runway where the bird reportedly hit the elevator of the aircraft.

Sunday 30 September 2012

http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=42752

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Nepal plane crash victims' bodies may not be released to families for weeks

Officials told The Telegraph it could be more than a month before their bodies are released.

Seven British men, Raymond Eagle, 58, Christopher Davey, 51, Vincent Kelly, 50, Darren Kelly, 45, Timothy Oakes, 57, Stephen Holding, 60, and Benjamin Ogden, 27, were among 19 passengers and crew killed when their light aeroplane crashed minutes after taking off from Kathmandu airport in Nepal last Friday.

Accident investigators believe the pilot panicked and lost control of the Dornier twin turboprop when a bird hit one of the propellers and crashed while trying to make a sharp turn for an emergency landing.

Officials of Sita Air said the plane caught fire within minutes of the take off, while residents of the tin shack shanty town close to where it crashed said they heard passengers screaming and saw them waving their arms as it nosedived.

The forensic scientist heading the investigation into the cause of the 19 deaths, including four Chinese trekkers, five Nepalese passengers and three crew, has told The Telegraph they all died "on impact", but the fire which engulfed the plane had left most of the bodies "unrecognisable."

The bodies of five Nepali victims, including the aircrew, the British trekkers' tour guide and a local passenger, were released last night after their families identified them from dental records and possessions found on them, including jewellery.

Sunday 30 September 2012

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/nepal/9577170/Nepal-plane-crash-victims-bodies-may-not-be-released-to-families-for-weeks.html

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Friday 28 September 2012

Nepal ends hunt for climbers missing in avalanche

Nepalese rescuers on Thursday called off a search for three climbers who have been missing since a huge avalanche that killed eight mountaineers at the weekend, presuming them dead.

The two French mountaineers and a Canadian disappeared after their group was hit by a wall of snow near the 8,156-metre (26,759-foot) Himalayan peak Manaslu in the early hours of Sunday.

"We have come to an end of the search operation. A team of five sherpas were involved in the operation. But despite their best efforts, they were unable to find them," district police chief Basanta Bahadur Kunwar told AFP.

"They are presumed dead, but the French embassy have told us they may continue a private search," Kunwar added.

Eight people were found dead in the immediate aftermath of the snowslide -- four French, a Spaniard, a German, an Italian and a Nepali guide.

Experts say climbers buried in an avalanche typically have 20 minutes to be dug out before they die from hypothermia or asphyxiation.

Police also fear the missing could have been swept into a crevasse, meaning their bodies might never be recovered.

One of the missing French climbers was Remy Lecluse, 48, a well-known Chamonix-based mountain guide and extreme skier who had recently married and was the father of a two-year-old girl.

An experienced skier, Lecluse carried out more than 500 extreme descents -- long, steep descents on mountain peaks -- in the Alps, Himalayas, Andes and elsewhere.

The French embassy in Kathmandu was not immediately available for comment.

Friday 28 September 2012

http://www.france24.com/en/20120927-nepal-ends-hunt-climbers-missing-avalanche

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New Mass Grave Found in Bosnia: Victims' Bodies near Cerska, Srebrenica - Likely Bosnian Muslims

27 September 2012 - A mass grave containing remains of nine persons was found during an exhumation in the area of Hajvazi in the Osmici municipality in northeastern Bosnia.

Bosnia's Institute for the Missing Persons, INO, says that the remains most probably belong to Bosniak victims, who were killed in November 1992.

“The exhumation in this area will continue, because we expect to find more victims who died in 1992. We are searching a group of 38 individuals, whose remains have still not been found. However, we shall be able to say with certainty whether the remains belong to them only after a DNA analysis,” said Lejla Cengic, spokesperson for the Institute.

The Bosnian State Prosecution issued an announcement, saying that the remains would be transported to the Commemorative Center in Tuzla for further expert examination and identification through DNA analysis.

The Institute for the Missing Persons says that it has been determined that one of the nine exhumed victims is a woman.

“The victims were dumped on top of each other and buried in a shallow grave,” Cengic said.

The exhumation was led by an investigator with the Bosnian Prosecutor.

Representatives of INO and the International Commission for the Missing Persons, ICMP, a court medicine doctor, workers of the Commemorative Center from Tuzla and police officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska took part in the exhumation.

According to the ICMP figures, at the end of the conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina there were around 30,000 people missing, presumably dead.

Until now two thirds have been identified and around 10,000 are still missing.

Friday 28 September 2012

http://www.bim.ba/en/341/10/35839/

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Somaliland: Large-scale Exhumations Started

Thursday 27, 2012 (Saxafi News) - For the first time in 24 years since 1988 people of Somaliland will finally find out the truth on what happened to almost 60,000 people and the Massacre that was inflicted by the former Dictator regime of Siyad Barre during the civil war that destroyed the infrastructure and much of the major cities of Somaliland particularly Hargeisa.

“Equipo Peruano Antropologia Forense” in Short EPAF,forensic Investigator team landed yesterday in Hargeisa, Somaliland and accompanying the team is Abdiziz Mohamed Diriye who recently was one of 21 plaintiffs that a court in the State of Virginia awarded $22 million in a case against former Prime minister and minister of Defense of Somalia gen. Mohamed Ali Samatar, which the court found guilty of participated in the Crimes Against Humanity and Human Rights Violation.

Several officials from the government of Somaliland were also present at one of the Mass grave sites in the city of Hargeisa such as The Minister of Justice, Minister of Religious Affairs, and also the Somaliland Genocide Commissioner Mr. Khadar Like.

First to speak was the Minister of Justice Mr. Hussein Ahmed Aidid also former rebel fighter of SNM, talked about the importance the findings will means for Somaliland that has campaigned for 21 years to the international community the atrocities ,genocide and Massacre of innocent civilians across major cities of Somaliland, “41 people were buried on this site alone and were all tide together as you will find out during your excavation, you will also find them in the same clothing when they were taken from their houses, street or village by the Military of the former regime of Siyad Barre.” said the Minister of Justice Somaliland.

Minster of Religious affairs Mr. Khalif Abdilahi also gave a short speech to the forensic team “that no one can forgive the people was behind these crimes and to admit their guilt for these crimes against humanity.”

The Forensic Investigators team and Somaliland Government signed a 5 year contract to excavate all the major Mass graves sites across cities in Somaliland, Jose Pablo Baraybar representing the forensic team and senior out of all the members of the team with 20 yrs. of field expertise in mass graves investigations sites such as Srebrenica (Bosnia) 1996-2002 which is the first case of Genocide to be prosecuted using forensic evidence after the Tribunals of Nuremberg and Tokyo.

The forensic team will also grant students from the Medical Faculty branch of University of Hargeisa, will teach the students detailed knowledge on Forensic Investigation Sites where Genocide has been committed.

The chairman of the Somaliland Genocide commission said the crime happened in 1984 they investigated this site that they are standing today, and most of the victims buried here were normal people that had no affiliation with any of Government, Military institutions.

The commissioner also gave details on all the sites they uncovered across Somaliland, also the commissioner mentioned that each burial site has up to 12 people buried.

Mass Graves Findings by the Somaliland Genocide Commission

Hargeysa: 200 Mass Grave Sites,

Berbera: 12 Mass Graves

Buroa: 8 Mass Graves

Sheikh: 1 Mass Grave

Erigavo: 2Mass Graves Gabiley: 2 Mass Graves

Arabsiyo: 1 Mass Grave

Friday 28 September 2012

http://saxafinews.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=1592:digging-mass-graves-in-somaliland-has-begun&Itemid=27

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A different outlook of death in Guatemala City

Rodrigo Abd / AP — In Guatemala, which has one of the highest mortality rates in the world and where violence is rampant, burial grounds have transformed into social spaces where relatives and friends of the deceased drink and dance as photographers are hired to take pictures and musicians play during funerals. Meanwhile, workers exhume bodies from plots that are behind on their payments, street peddlers set up shop and children play hide-and-seek.

Six years after a burial in the General Cemetery in Guatemala City relatives must pay around U.S. $24 to renew the burial plot for another four years, according to cemetery rules. If there is no payment, cemetery workers exhume the body and place the corpse in a mass grave. Over 2,000 bodies are exhumed annually after relatives fail to pay cemetery fees.

Friday 28 September 2012

http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/27/14128917-a-different-outlook-of-death-in-guatemala-city?lite

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9 dead in tanker-bus collision in Nueva Ecija

SCIENCE CITY OF MUร‘OZ—Leoncio Pajarillo, 39, was ferrying his wife, Evangeline, 42, on his motorcycle to the city center here to catch a bus for Metro Manila. She was to attend an orientation for an overseas job. They never made it. They didn’t know what hit them.

They were among the nine people killed with eight others injured on Wednesday when a Metro Manila-bound bus hit a fuel tanker on Maharlika Highway at Barangay (village) Bantug here, police said.

The drivers of the bus and tanker and the Pajarillo couple on a motorcycle were among those killed in the accident on a newly paved section of the highway in Purok (sub village) Villa Medina at 2:30 a.m.

Supt. Michael Angelo Zuรฑiga, city police chief, said the Victory Liner bus, which came from Cagayan province, tried to avoid the motorcycle carrying Pajarillo and his wife, and hit the fuel tanker instead on the opposite lane.

The Pajarillos died instantly but police could not say which vehicle hit their motorcycle.

The other fatalities were bus driver Victor Ryan Camanguig, tanker driver Silvino Marzo and Donatella Aquino and Marife Cale-Bondoc, who were among 44 passengers of the bus. Three other fatalities, all of them women, have yet to be identified.

The eight injured passengers were taken to hospitals in San Jose and Cabanatuan cities.

Ronnie Calica, one of the two bus drivers, said the vehicle left its terminal in Tuao, Cagayan, for Pasay City at 3 p.m. Tuesday. Calica drove the bus from Cagayan to San Jose City. There, after a pit stop about 12 kilometers from the accident site, he turned over the wheel to his alternate driver, Camanguig.

Calica dismissed reports that Camanguig was sleepy while on the wheel. “He just relieved me in San Jose City. It was my turn to sleep and I was awakened when I fell off my seat,” said Calica, who was seated at the rear section of the bus.

Lilibeth Geron, 33, said her fellow passengers started screaming and jumping out of the windows when they saw other passengers strewn around.

“The impact of the collision was frightening. People were screaming,” said Geron, who complained of leg pains.

Another passenger, Rowella Elepante, 26, said she felt the bus swerve before it hit the tanker.

“I was seated five rows from the driver and was wide awake. I felt the bus swerving to the left as it avoided hitting a motorcycle. In an instant, I heard a loud thud. Then I immediately smelled diesel fumes,” Elepante said.

She said the front part of the bus was wrecked. Four passengers in that section died instantly, she said.

Thelma Estera, a professor at Central Luzon State University whose house is a few meters from the accident site, said she took in some of the dazed survivors and provided them food.

Firemen cleaned up the fuel spilled on the highway. Traffic was stalled for at least five hours until the vehicles were removed at 7:30 a.m.

Friday 28 September 2012

http://www.philstar.com/nation/article.aspx?publicationsubcategoryid=200&articleid=853020

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At Least 14 Killed in Nigeria Gasoline Tanker Fire

Police in north central Nigeria say at least 14 people have died after a gasoline tanker caught fire and exploded.

The Niger State police spokesman told The Associated Press on Thursday that some victims were trying to scoop gasoline from the tanker after it toppled over and turned on its sides late Tuesday in a town about 140 miles (230 kilometers) from Nigeria's capital.

Pius Edobor said the tanker's driver had lost control of the vehicle carrying 33,000 liters of gasoline.

He said many were injured and that nearby homes had been consumed by the fire.

The accident comes two months after a similar incident killed at least 95 people in Nigeria's oil-producing region.

Despite decades producing oil, the majority of Nigerians live on less than $2 a day.

Friday 28 September 2012

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/14-killed-nigeria-gasoline-tanker-fire-17338863#.UGVbqb3R5Bg

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One more victim of Arkankergen massacre identified via DNA test

ASTANA. September 27. Experts of German Legal Medicine Institute have identified remains of one more soldier killed on Arkankergen border post in Kazakhstan, two more corpses remain unidentified, Kazakh Attorney General's Office reported on Thursday.

The Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences Charite in Berlin examined remains of three bodies discovered at the scene of the massacre. The results of the DNA test proved that one of the bodies belonged to Rustem Akylbayev. Unfortunately, German specialists were unable to identify other remains, because they couldn't find cells suitable for DNA test, according to A. Abdildin.

Thus two more soldiers Denis Rey and Meyrhan Imenov are still missing.

On May 30 a fire took place on Arkankergen border post on Kazakh-Chinese border. In summer 15 frontier guards serve at this post. Some 15 corpses were founded at the scene including 14 border guards and a hunter from the nearby hunting ground located near the post. The fifteenth border guard was found alive near the post. Later border guard Vladislav Chelakh confessed that he killed his colleagues and then set fire to the barracks, where they were. Chelakh named internal conflicts and clouding of consciousness as the reason of killing his colleagues. However, later he refused this confession and said the border post had been attacked. Remains of 11 killed people were earlier identified.

As was reported earlier, the burnt out building of the Arkankergen border outpost with the remains of 14 border guards and one huntsman was discovered on the 30th of May 2012.

The act of terror occurred on the night of 27-28th of May, 220 km away from the Usharal town of Almaty region.

Friday 28 September 2012

http://www.inform.kz/eng/article/2498001

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Seven Britons, five Chinese dead in Nepal air crash: police

Seven Britons and five Chinese are among the dead in a plane crash Friday on the outskirts of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu which killed all 19 on board, according to a revised toll by police.

"The plane crash in the capital has caused death of 12 foreigners, including seven British and five Chinese tourists. The remaining seven, including three crew members, are Nepalese," said Nepal Police spokesman Binod Singh.

Police had initially said five Japanese, two Italians and a Briton were killed in the crash but later corrected the information, which had been given in error by an officer at the crash site.

The Sita Air craft had just taken off from Kathmandu airport and was headed to the small town of Lukla, a gateway to Everest, when it plunged towards a river on the outskirts of the city.

"All 19 passengers of the Sita Air plane have died. The accident site is less than one kilometre (half a mile) from the airport," said Singh.

"The pilots seem to have tried to land it safely on the banks of the river but unfortunately the plane caught fire."

Singh said the plane, carrying mainly foreigners and three local crew, plunged into the banks of the Manohara river early in he morning.

"There are four Nepalis among the dead, apart from the crew. The majority of the dead are foreigners from Western countries," he said.

Dozens of army personnel had arrived at the crash site, said Nepalese army spokesman Ramindra Chhetri, and were battling to bring the blaze under control.

"I was just walking and saw a plane landing. It was caught in fire and I even heard people inside the plane screaming," a witness told Kantipur Television.

Another witness said he saw half burned bodies near the crash site, a slum settlement.

Nepal has a poor road network and large numbers of tourists, pilgrims and professional climbers often rely on the country's 16 domestic airlines and 49 airports to reach remote areas.

The latest fatal crash in Nepal -- the sixth in less than two years -- could potentially lead to new scrutiny of the country's numerous small airlines, which provide vital links to remote parts of the country.

Aircraft and pilots often have to contend with bad weather and difficult landing strips in the Himalayan nation.

In another recent accident in Nepal, a small Agni Air plane taking tourists to a treacherous high-altitude airport near the Annapurna mountain region ploughed into the ground, killing 15 people on board.

In September last year a small plane taking tourists on a sightseeing trip around Everest crashed into a hillside near the Nepalese Kathmandu, also killing all 19 people on board.

The Buddha Air Beechcraft plane, carrying 10 Indians, two Americans, one Japanese citizen and three local passengers, came down in heavy rain and fog at Godavari, about 10 kilometres from the capital.

Friday 28 September 2012

http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/Nepal/Seven-Britons-five-Chinese-dead-in-Nepal-air-crash-police/Article1-936808.aspx

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Wednesday 26 September 2012

Body not found but 58th massacre victim recognized

Although his body has not been found, Reynaldo Momay, a photojournalist from General Santos City, has been formally recognized by the Department of Justice (DOJ) as the 58th victim of the “Maguindanao Massacre” in 2009.

In a DOJ resolution, Assistant State Prosecutor Bernardo Parico said the dentures recovered at the crime scene in Barangay (village) Salman in Ampatuan, Maguindanao, as well as statements of witnesses that Momay was among those killed were enough evidence to prove that he was a victim.

Momay, 63, was working for the weekly community paper Midland Review when he joined a convoy of 58 people that accompanied the wife of then Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu of Buluan town in Maguindanao to the capital, Shariff Aguak, to file his certificate of candidacy for governor on Nov. 23, 2009.

All of them, including 32 media workers, were killed allegedly by members of the Ampatuan clan and their henchmen in Sitio Masalay in Barangay Salman, 3.5 kilometers from the national highway in Ampatuan town. Some were buried along with three vehicles, while others were shot in the head.

Murder charges have been filed against 197 people, including former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr., former Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and former Datu Unsay mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., in Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221.

Only 96, however, have been arrested and detained, and 78 of them have already been arraigned.

New set of charges

With Momay’s inclusion as the 58th victim, state prosecutors filed a new set of charges on Monday. The court’s clerk, Jimmy Cardines, received the revised complaint.

The additional information could mean that all 78 accused, previously arraigned for 57 counts of murder, have to go through an arraignment for the 58th count. Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes has yet to acknowledge the DOJ information and rule on whether those previously arraigned would have to make their pleas of guilty or not guilty on the 58th count.

Without an earlier proof of his death, Momay’s name was not counted among the official victims in legal proceedings of the case. As such, the court has been hearing only 57 counts of murder.

In the DOJ resolution issued on July 12 but filed in court only on Friday, Parico said the evidence was sufficient that Momay was murdered and recommended that the 96 respondents in the massacre case be additionally indicted for Momay’s death.

Daughter’s complaint

In January, the photojournalist’s daughter, Ma. Reynafe Momay-Castillo, filed a murder complaint against the massacre suspects, saying Momay was part of the ambushed convoy of media men and relatives of Mangudadatu.

Castillo said her father had called a friend before the massacre and confirmed that he was in a vehicle along with other journalists on their way to Shariff Aguak.

Momay’s body was never found, although a forensics expert from the Commission on Human Rights claimed to have recovered parts of his dentures. Castillo said the expert had concluded that the dentures did not belong to any of the 57 bodies recovered from the massacre site.

The herbalist who made the dentures identified them as her father’s, Castillo said. She added that there were witnesses who would testify that he was among the journalists who joined the convoy.

As of Tuesday night, Momay’s relatives could not be reached for comment. Castillo left the country last month and joined her mother in the United States

Wednesday 26 September 2012

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/277580/body-not-found-but-58th-massacre-victim-recognized

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Maharashtra Bus accident: 18 dead

Many school children are feared dead in Buldhana district, Maharashtra after a bus had fell off a bridge.

The state transport bus was carrying the school children along with several other passengers as it fell off the bridge. The bodies of few children, a helper and the driver in the bus were recovered at the sire after rescue operations have started.

It has been confirmed that almost 18 people were dead in the accident including several school going kids while the number is expected to rise as search operations continue.

Further details are awaited.

Wednesday 26 September 2012

http://www.andhrawishesh.com/home/in-the-news/33196-maharashtra-bus-accident-18-dead.html

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Tests prove Smolensk victims’ bodies were 'mixed up'

The plane crash in Russia that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others back in 2010 may once again stir controversy as two families in Poland discover that bodies they received for burial had been swapped.

Polish prosecutors announced the finding Tuesday, with DNA test results having been confirmed by two independent labs.

The two bodies were exhumed the previous week after examinations of postmortem documents received from Russia discovered several inconsistencies. The errors sparked concerns that the victims’ remains may have been passed on to Poland incorrectly.

The Smolensk plane crash took place on April 10, 2010. It involved a Polish-operated Tupolev-154, which was carrying seven crew members and 89 passengers including then-President of Poland Lech Kaczynski, his wife, almost all of the country's top military staff as well as civic and religious figures.

The delegation was heading to western Russia to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the slaughter of thousands of Polish nationals by the Soviet secret police in a forest near the village of Katyn. During a landing attempt at Smolensk-Severny Airport, the plane came down after hitting a tree, killing everyone on board. The crew’s visibility was severely restricted by a dense fog.

"The prosecutor's office is also looking into the issue of exchanging the bodies, and is investigating the evidence from this angle," said Colonel Zbigniew Rzepa, a spokesman for the military prosecutor's office.

One of the swapped bodies belongs to Anna Walentynowicz, an activist from the Solidarity trade union widely regarded at home as the “mother of independent Poland." The other body may be of scientist and civic activist Teresa Walewska-Przyjalkowska, Polish media speculate.

The Polish prosecutors’ office is now considering exhuming at least four more bodies from the crash.

It's not the first time the remains of Smolensk crash victims have been exhumed. The entire investigation, including the identification of bodies, was carried out in Russia with Polish representatives observing the process. The families of several politicians, however, insisted on independent expertise after their relatives were buried.

On April 10, 2010, President Lech Kaczynski, much of his cabinet and several civil activists were heading to the Katyn memorial near the western Russian town of Smolensk. They were going to attend a ceremony commemorating the mass executions of Poles carried out by Soviet troops during World War II.

In a dense fog, the plane went down, hitting a tree during a landing attempt at Smolensk's airport.

As the investigation proceeded, the crash began to threaten a new discord in relations between Moscow and Warsaw.

The Interstate Aviation Committee and Muscovite investigators blamed the tragedy on the plane's crew. Some circles in Poland met the finding with outrage, accusing Moscow of shirking responsibility.

Nevertheless, Warsaw finally accepted the IAC’s official version of events. But many Poles still believe that Russian air traffic controllers should not have allowed a landing attempt in such bad weather conditions. Some groups also accuse the Russian and Polish governments of being at least partially behind the tragedy. Six bodies of Smolensk crash victims were exhumed last week over suspicion of having been confused. Identities of three victims were eventually confirmed, while the bodies of Anna Walentynowicz, an activist of the Solidarity movement, and Teresa Walewska-Przyjalkowska had been mixed up, pathologists said.

Wednesday 26 September 2012

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_09_25/Tests-prove-Smolensk-victims-bodies-were-mixed-up/

http://rt.com/news/poland-smolenk-russia-bodies-960/

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10 years on, little justice in Senegal shipwreck disaster

ZIGUINCHOR, Senegal (AFP) - Ten years after one of the world's deadliest maritime disasters, relatives of those killed when a Senegalese ship sank in the Atlantic continue to clamour for some kind of justice.

Senegal on Wednesday marks the 10th anniversary of the capsizing of the Joola, a passenger ferry that was crammed more than three times beyond its capacity and tipped over in a storm as it sailed from the west African country's south to the capital Dakar.

The official toll was 1,863 but families of those who vanished say the number surpasses 2,000. The vessel was only supposed to be carrying a maximum of 580 people.

The number of deaths far exceeds the 1,500 or so who perished when the Titanic went down in 1912. Only 64 people survived.

Year after year, victims' families demand the reopening of what had been a swift and unsatisfactory judicial inquiry into the Senegal disaster.

Officials in 2003 concluded that the captain, who died in the wreck, was the only person responsible. Overcrowding and poor maintenance were also blamed.

Senegal that same year declared the case closed after several ministers and high-ranking military officers were fired, without it ever coming before a court.

"Many of the families have been unable to grieve. Most of us never received the remains of our loved ones," said Eli Diatta, a resident of Ziguinchor, the main city of the southern region of Casamance.

Her football-trainer brother perished along with 26 youngsters he was chaperoning.

"The trauma remains. It shows up in many ways: dementia, sickness, school dropouts," Diatta added.

Wednesday's anniversary will be marked by prayers, religious readings and the cleaning of cemeteries. About 500 recovered bodies were buried in mass graves, most unidentified, at four cemeteries.

After then-president Abdoulaye Wade lost the general election this year to Macky Sall, victims' associations are lobbying the new regime to reopen the case, but Marcel Mendy, a spokesman for the justice ministry, said such a move was not planned.

"The state has acted according to its capacity," he said.

The disaster did lead to the tightening of some maritime regulations and improved safety conditions on Senegal's busy coastal ferry route.

Due to the death of 22 French students in the disaster, an enquiry was opened in April in France, which had earlier issued arrest warrants against seven Senegalese civilian and military officials.

Relatives want the wreck refloated to gain some kind of closure and search for any remains that may still exist. Authorities promised to do so under the Wade regime but the project shows no signs of materialising.

"It's a delicate matter and any decision on the refloating must be concerted," Prime Minister Abdoul Mbaye told lawmakers earlier this month.

The wreck is located off the coast of Gambia, a narrow, English-speaking nation that almost bisects Senegal.

Construction began at the start of the year for a memorial to be erected in Dakar to honour the victims, but work there has since ground to a halt.

In Senegal, the majority of families accepted 10 million CFA francs (15,200 euros, $19,700) offered by the state for each victim, but others have refused, still hoping for successful legal action.

The world's deadliest maritime disaster in peacetime occurred in 1987, when the Philippines ferry Dona Paz sank after colliding with an oil tanker, killing more than 4,000 people.

During World War II, a Russian submarine in the Baltic torpedoed the German liner Wilhelm Gustloff, which was packed with refugees. More than 9,000 people died. Wednesday 26 September 2012

http://www.modernghana.com/news/419988/1/10-years-on-little-justice-in-senegal-shipwreck.html

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Tuesday 25 September 2012

Vietnam finds mass grave of communist soldiers

HANOI, Vietnam — Farmers have found a grave containing the remains of at least 20 communist soldiers killed during the Vietnam War.

Military officer Nguyen Van Phat said Tuesday that the bodies were recovered from a rubber plantation in the southern province of Dong Nai. Farmers hunting for scrap metal there found the bodies last week.

The remains have not been identified. Phat says authorities also found 17 pairs of rubber sandals and 23 hammocks among the remains.

He says the soldiers were believed to have been killed while attacking an airport in 1969.

Some 3 million Vietnamese and 58,000 Americans died during the war, which ended in 1975 when communists overran Saigon, then capital of South Vietnam.

The remains of around 300,000 North Vietnamese soldiers have yet to be recovered.

Tuesday 25 September 2012

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501712_162-57519536/vietnam-finds-mass-grave-of-communist-soldiers/

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22 Chinese coal miners trapped in accidents

Efforts to rescue a total of 22 miners, who were trapped following three separate accidents in different parts of China, continued on Monday.

Eleven people were trapped after a fire at Longshan Coal Mine in Shuangyashan, Heilongjiang province, on Saturday morning. Residents reported the accident to authorities on Sunday.

An initial investigation showed that 13 people were working underground at the time. Two were lifted to safety, according to a spokesman at the rescue team’s headquarters.

A team reached the coal mine to oversee the work, led by Wang Shuhe, deputy director of the State Administration of Work Safety, on Sunday.

The county’s coal management authorities had ordered the mine to suspend production on Sept 3, a day after its license expired, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Illegal production is being blamed for the accident, authorities said.

Rescuers extinguished the underground fire on Sunday night. The temperature of the underground area of the mine had been lowered and wind flow in the site was stable as of Monday afternoon.

Rescuers were still working to find the 11 missing miners.

Vice-governor of Heilongjiang Zhang Jianxing said late on Sunday that the operation of small mines in the province will be suspended for two months for inspection and similar problems will be rectified.

On Sunday, the Shuangya-shan government said it will examine potential safety hazards in all mines in the city, and the operation of ones near the Longshan mine will be halted immediately.

Saturday saw flooding at a coal mine in Jidong county, also in Heilongjiang, which trapped six miners.

Another five miners were trapped when a ceiling collapsed at a mine in Zibo, Shandong province, on Sunday.

The accident occurred at about 9:50 am at Dongtai Mining Co. A rescue team involving several departments was set up to find the miners.

As of Monday morning, no miners had been found and rescuers were still making efforts to search, said Wang Hong, an official at Zibo’s coal industry administration bureau.

Meanwhile, a gas explosion injured 13 miners at a coal mine in Anshun, Guizhou province, on Sunday night.

Within a month, two serious coal mine accidents have led to the deaths of more than 60 people.

A coal mine in Panzhihua, Sichuan province, was struck by a gas blast on Aug 29, trapping about one-third of the 154 miners who were working underground at the time. Forty-eight people died.

According to a report by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate on Monday, four safety management officials were detained in the wake of the accident.

Another accident at Gaokeng Coal Mine in Pingxiang, Jiangxi province, killed 15 miners on Sept 2.

According to the work safety administration, 41 accidents triggered by gas blasts have happened in China’s coal mines as of July this year, causing 149 deaths.

Compared with the same period last year, 36 fewer accidents occurred and 142 fewer miners were killed.

Tuesday 25 September 2012

http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-09/25/content_15779516.htm

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Nepal avalanche hit climbers as they were sleeping

KATMANDU, Nepal -- Mountaineers who survived a pre-dawn avalanche high on the world's eighth-tallest peak say they waited an hour for the sun to come up and then saw pieces of tents and bodies of victims strewn around them on the snow.

Italian climber Silvio Mondinelli said he and a fellow mountaineer were asleep when they heard a violent sound and felt their tent start to slide.

"It was only a few seconds and we did not know what happened, but we had slid more than 200 meters (650 feet)," Mondinelli told The Associated Press on Monday. "All we wanted was for it to stop.”

The avalanche hit at about 4 a.m. Sunday while more than two dozen climbers were sleeping in tents at Camp 3 on Mount Manaslu in northern Nepal.

At least nine climbers were killed and six are believed still missing. Ten climbers survived, but many of them were injured and were flown to hospitals by rescue helicopters.

Helicopters flew over the slopes on Monday to search for the missing mountaineers as climbers and guides searched the mountainsides on foot. Rescuers brought down eight bodies -- four French, one each from Germany, Italy and Spain and a Nepali guide -- and were trying to retrieve the ninth from the 7,000-meter (22,960-foot) area where the avalanche struck, police Chief Basanta Bahadur Kuwar said.

Three French climbers and two Germans were transported to hospitals in Katmandu on Sunday. Two Italians were flown there on Monday -- Mondinelli, who has climbed the world's 14 highest peaks, and fellow mountaineer Christian Gobbi.

Mondinelli said a third Italian climber and their Sherpa guide, who were both sleeping in another tent, were buried by the avalanche and died.

Gobbi said they could not see at first when they looked out of their torn tent because it was pitch dark and they had no light.

"We found someone's boots and put them on," he said.

When the sun rose an hour later, they saw parts of tents scattered across the snow, along with people who had been killed or injured.

They said they were able to assist the injured with the help of Sherpa guides who came up from lower mountain camps. Those who could walk made their way down to the base camp while those who were injured were picked up by helicopters.

At least three of the victims were from the French Alps town of Chamonix, a hub for climbers on Mont Blanc and nearby peaks. An avalanche on a route to the summit of Mont Blanc in July killed nine experienced climbers.

Two French climbers were still unaccounted for as of Monday afternoon, the French Foreign Ministry said. The rescue effort was called off "at least for today, probably definitively," Christian Trommsdorff, president of the French Mountain Guides Syndicate, said on BFM television.

A total of 231 climbers and guides were on the mountain but not all were at the higher camps hit by the avalanche.

Nepal Mountaineering Department chief Balkrishan Ghimire identified the eight recovered bodies as Fabrice Priez, Philippe Lucien Bos, Catherine Marie Andree Richard and Ludovic Paul Nicolas Challeat of France; German Christian Mittermeyer; Italian Alberto Magliano; Spaniard Marti Roirg Gasull; and Nepali Dawa Dorji.

Sunday's avalanche came at the start of Nepal's autumn climbing season, when the end of the monsoon rains makes weather in the high Himalayas unpredictable. Spring is a more popular mountaineering season, when hundreds of climbers crowd the high Himalayan peaks.

Mount Manaslu, which is 8,156 meters (26,760 feet) high, has attracted more climbers recently because it is considered one of the easier peaks to climb among the world's tallest mountains.

Nepal has eight of the 14 highest peaks in the world. Climbers have complained in recent years that conditions on the mountains have deteriorated and risks of accidents have increased, with some laying the blame on global warming.

Avalanches are not very frequent on Mount Manaslu, but in 1972 one struck a team of climbers and killed six Koreans and 10 Nepalese guides.

Ang Tshering of the Asian Trekking agency in Katmandu, who has equipped hundreds of expeditions, said low snow levels and the increased number of climbers on Manaslu have made climbing conditions difficult.

"It used to be a low-risk mountain in the past but now that has all changed," Tshering said, adding that conditions have become more unpredictable.

Tuesday 25 September 2012

http://www.king5.com/news/Nepal-avalanche-hit-climbers-as-they-were-sleeping-171037391.html

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Monday 24 September 2012

15 persons still missing, believed to be buried under landslide debris

Family members of the 15 ‘missing’ victims of the Ukimath cloudburst are still hopeful that their dear ones may return home someday. The Rudraprayag district administration, has however, apparently given up hope to find any of these persons alive and has also begun the process of distributing compensation money to the genuine claimants.

Of the total of 69 persons, who were missing as per the records of the Rudraprayag District Administration, the rescue workers have so far recovered 54 bodies. A total of 15 persons are still missing and are believed to have been buried under tons of mud and debris of the landslide that hit the area following a cloudburst earlier this month.

According to the Executive Director of the State Disaster Management and Mitigation Department (DMMD), Piyush Rautela, a magisterial probe has already been ordered and the family members of all the 15 missing persons have been asked to get their statements recorded before the officials.

“The claimants of the compensation money have also been asked to fill an indemnity bond, stating that they will return the compensation money, in case their missing family members are found alive,” Rautela added.

Even as the indemnity bond may make the family members of the missing people, hopeful that they may see their loved ones alive someday, the rescue operators say that the possibility of finding anyone of these victims alive is almost negligible. “We have, however, still not called off the rescue operations and searches for the victims are still on. The final death toll in the tragedy is expected to surpass the present figure of 54,” Rudraprayag District Magistrate, Dr Neeraj Kherwal, said.

Meanwhile as life limps back to normal with people coming to terms with their grave losses in Ukhimath, a team of the Geological Survey of India (GSI) has started surveying the area to study the reasons for the unprecedented mudslides that caused more damage in the cloudburst-hit villages in the district.

Ukhimath area in the Rudraprayag district was the worst hit in the calamity that had flattened dozens of homes in eight villages in the area killing at least 54 people in their sleep. A total of 15 persons are still missing and 14 are presently under medical care. It may be noted that the Government had announced `3 lakh compensation for relatives of those killed and `1.5 lakh to those critically injured.

According to records, nearly 450 residents were rendered homeless after the calamity.

Monday 24 September 2012

http://dailypioneer.com/state-editions/dehradun/96579-15-persons-still-missing-believed-to-be-buried-under-landslide-debris.html

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Sunday 23 September 2012

Flash floods and landslides kill 21 in Sikkim

GANGTOK: At least 21 bodies, including those of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) personnel, have so far been found while eight persons are still missing due to flash flood and landslides in remote areas of North Sikkim, official sources said on Sunday.

The dead include four from the ITBP, two of their family members, and 12 junior officers from the BRO. Other victims were casual labourers, officials said.

Karma Zyatso, chief secretary of Sikkim state, says the workers, who lived in camps, were swept away by the swirling waters of a flooded river Friday in Chungthan, a small town in the mountainous region.

Most of the casualties are reported from Rangma range. Landslides were caused by heavy rains since September 19, deputy commissioner north district T W Khangsherpa said.

There were about nine landslides blocking the main road between Chungthang and Mangan in the district, he said.

Army and IAF personnel have started rescue operations in full swing.

Several landslides blocked the main roads between Chungthang and Pegong. Houses along Lachen river between Rangma and Chungthang were washed away in flash floods along Lachen river.

The state government has declared a state of alert along the establishments on the river banks right from Lachen, Lachung, Chungthang, Mangan, Dikchu, Singtam and Rangpo, a government press release said.

Earlier on Sunday, another landslide was reported from a place 1 km away from Mangan, the district headquarter town of North Sikkim.

As a result of which, official reports said NH31-A has been blocked leaving the northern side of the Himalayan state cut off.

Sunday 23 September 2012

Read more: http://www.windsorstar.com/news/construction+workers+feared+dead+flash+flood+northeast+India+bodies/7286114/story.html#ixzz27Ji76cTd

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9 climbers killed, 6 missing in Nepal avalanche

KATMANDU, Nepal - An avalanche swept away climbers on a Himalayan peak in Nepal on Sunday, leaving at least nine dead and six others missing, officials said.

Police official Basanta Bahadur Kuwar said the bodies of a Nepalese guide and German man were recovered and that rescue pilots have spotted seven other bodies on the slopes of Mount Manaslu in northern Nepal. The mountain is the eighth highest in the world.

Ten other members of the team survived the avalanche but many were injured and are being flown to hospitals by rescue helicopters, he said.

Weather conditions were deteriorating and it was not possible to continue air searches of the mountain on Sunday, Kuwar said.

The identities of the victims were still being confirmed.

The avalanche hit the climbers at a camp at 7,000 meters (22,960 feet) as they were preparing to head toward the summit, which is 8,156 meters (26,760 feet) high.

It is currently the beginning of Nepal's autumn mountaineering season.

Sunday 23 September 2012

http://www.keprtv.com/news/national/9-climbers-killed-6-missing-in-Nepal-avalanche-170889191.html?tab=gallery&c=y&img=2

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Remains of Russia fire victims handed to families

Families of fourteen Vietnamese workers who had died almost two weeks ago in a fire erupting about 114 kilometers from Russia’s capital Moscow received Sunday the victims’ bodies and ashes at the Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi.

The remains were sent home Saturday on a Vietnam Airlines flight after the Vietnamese Embassy in Russia together with a few Vietnamese associations had carried out a moaning ceremony for all of them one day earlier.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Russia Pham Xuan Son offered condolences to the unfortunate families and thanked Vietnamese individuals, organizations, and competent authorities in the European country for their help at the reception of the bodies and ashes this morning.

On September 11, a fire swept through a garment factory outside Moscow, killing the fourteen Vietnamese.

Firefighters sent to put out the blaze found their bodies in the factory in the town of Yegoryevsk, southeast of the Russian capital, and four other victims were hospitalized with burns, Reuters reported then, citing the Moscow region emergencies department.

Many migrant workers from Asian countries work in Russian factories in cramped conditions that are often at risk from fires, the UK-based news agency said.

Reuters added death rates from fires are far higher in Russia than in Western countries such as Britain and the United States, pointing out another fire in April on Moscow's outskirts that killed 17 migrant workers living in makeshift quarters at a market warehouse.

Sunday 23 September 2012

http://www.tuoitrenews.vn/cmlink/tuoitrenews/society/remains-of-russia-fire-victims-handed-to-families-1.86898

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Friday 21 September 2012

YouTube unearths 50's plane crash

The 60-year-old wreckage of a Second World War-era bomber in the mountains above Metro Vancouver prompted a search by RCMP for human remains.

Mounties in Pitt Meadows, BC, received a call about human remains found at the site of a 1953 crash.

Inspector David Fleugel says, "We received information from a group of ‘extreme’ hikers who posted a video on YouTube that suggested some human remains were missed in the original recovery and these were still at the site. With the area being so remote, it took a lot of planning and preparation. We are quite satisfied that the complaint we received was incorrect."

On Sept. 14, officers, along with a forensic identification specialist and a dog unit, flew into the area and hiked to the remote location to search.

Const. Alanna Dunlop says no human remains were found.

The Mitchell B-25 went down near Pitt Lake in January 1953 during a training flight.

The lead investigator, Constable Mathew Condon says, "Attending the scene of the crash was obviously a somber experience, considering that five Airmen lost their lives at the location. However, we had to make the attempt in order to ensure that none of their remains were still at scene. Thankfully, the report proved false."

Recovery teams, in 1953, found the site was so remote and the route so treacherous that they had to wait until the following September to recover the bodies.

Friday 21 September 2012

http://www.castanet.net/news/BC/80744/YouTube-unearths-50-s-plane-crash

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7 die, 5 still missing as boat sinks off Bongao

Seven people drowned – three of them children – while five others were still missing as of press time as passenger boat sank off Tampat Point, Bongao, Tawi-Tawi Wednesday morning.

Coast Guard Zamboanga Station Commander Eliezer Dalnay disclosed that the boat named “Siraina” owned by Munib Bakki, was carrying 27 passengers when it encountered big waves causing it to sink about two nautical miles from Tampat Point around 3:30 a.m.

Dalnay said the boat departed Sipangkot Island in Sibutu bound for Bongao without any proper clearance.

When the boat approached Tampat Point, big waves caused the boat to sink.

Vessels, mostly wooden-hulled, serves as the main mode of transportation from one town to the other in Tawi-Tawi province, which comprises 11 island municipalities.

Bakki and four others managed to swim to the shorelines and reported the sea mishap to authorities.

Coast Guard and Philippine Navy personnel assisted by other government agencies conducted search and rescue operations that led to the rescue of 15 persons. They also retrieved the bodies of the seven passengers who drowned.

The two unidentifed fatalities are females and are believed to be in their 30’s.

Only the bodies of Basira and the two unidentified females have yet to be claimed by their relatives.

Dalnay said search and rescue was temporarily halted Wednesday night due to the bad weather condition.

Dalnay said that search and rescue operation jointly conducted by Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and Philippine Navy (PN) personnel resumed Thursday morning in search for the five missing people.

Dalnay said that Ikan has already coordinated with the police for the filing of appropriate charges against the owner and skipper of the vessel, Bakki Munib, for operating unregistered boat and illegal carriage of passengers.

Ikan said M/L Siraina has been operating as a passenger-cargo vessel from Sitangkai town to Bongao municipality and vice-versa.

Friday 21 Septemebr 2012

http://zamboangatimes.ph/top-news/5709-7-die-5-still-missing-as-boat-sinks-off-bongao.html

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Families give DNA to ID gas fire victims

DOZENS of grieving Mexicans have lined up to give DNA samples to help authorities identify 22 relatives who died in a gas plant explosion.

The inferno at a gas distribution centre owned by state-run energy company Pemex killed 30 workers, but only eight victims have been identified since Tuesday's tragedy near the US border.

An official from the prosecutor's office on Thursday told AFP that 22 of the bodies can't be identified because they were burned beyond recognition, requiring grief-stricken relatives to provide DNA samples.

The family members have been waiting anxiously outside the forensics lab in the border city of Reynosa since Wednesday.

"They told me yesterday to wait two or three days because they are all charred and unrecognisable," said the mother of 23-year-old victim Victor Manuel Gomez.

The blast injured more than 40 people, and 25 of them are still receiving treatment in hospitals.

Reynosa hospital director Arturo Justino Ibarra said 13 people were being treated for serious injuries and second-degree burns.

They are all men aged between 20 and 25.

It was Pemex's deadliest incident since December 2010, when an oil pipeline exploded after it was punctured by thieves in the central town of San Martin Texmelucan, leaving 29 dead, injuring more than 50 and destroying 32 homes.

In October 2007, 21 Pemex workers died during a gas leak on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico.

Most drowned when they jumped into the sea in panic.

President Felipe Calderon has ordered the prosecutor's office to conduct an investigation into the blast, which Pemex described as an "unusual accident," ruling out foul play.

Friday 21 September 2012

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/families-give-dna-to-id-gas-fire-victims/story-fn3dxix6-1226478770139

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Thursday 20 September 2012

Update Mexico pipeline fire: Toll rises to 29

The death toll in a pipeline fire at a distribution plant near the U.S. border has risen to 29, Mexico’s state-owned oil company said Wednesday. At least 46 others were injured, and more might be missing.

Juan Jose Suarez, director of the state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos company, told local media earlier in the day that at least five workers had not been seen since the blast. On Tuesday, the company, known as Pemex, said in its Twitter account that a total of seven people were unaccounted for.

President Felipe Calderon said the quick reaction of emergency teams prevented a “real catastrophe,” by controlling the fire before it reached the huge tanks of a neighbouring gas processing plant.

The enormous fire Tuesday hit a distribution centre near the border with Texas that handles natural gas coming in from wells and sends it to a processing plant next door.

“The timely response by oil workers, fire-fighters and the Mexican army was able to control the fire relatively quickly and avoid a real catastrophe of bigger proportions and greater damages if the fire had spread to the center for gas processing, which is right there,” Calderon said in a speech in Mexico City.

The blast and ensuing fire left charred tanks and a mound of tangled steel at the walled plant near the border city of Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas.

Two of the injured were reported in serious condition.

Dr. Jaime Urbina Rivera, deputy medical director of Hospital Materno Infantil de Reynosa just a few miles from the plant, said his hospital had received nine injured workers with first and second-degree burns covering 10 percent to 40 percent of their bodies, with the burns concentrated on their backs and legs. They all arrived conscious, he said.

Pemex officials said the blast appeared to have been caused by an accidental leak, and there was no sign so far of sabotage. The Mexican Attorney General’s Office opened an investigation into the explosion Wednesday, sending more than 20 investigators into the site, which was blocked to the press.

The facility’s perimeter walls, topped with razor wire as a security measure in a country that has seen thieves, saboteurs and drug gangs target oil installations, presented an obstacle for plant workers trying to flee.

Esteban Vazquez Huerta, 18, who was inside the plant when the fire erupted, managed to find a gap in the wire, scale a wall and escape. “We had to climb the wall from that side because the fire, the heat was reaching us,” Vazquez Huerta said Wednesday as he stood outside the plant, waiting for word of missing co-workers.

Until the final moments before the explosion there was no sign anything was amiss, Vazquez Huerta said.

Pemex said workers from contracting firms, such as Vazquez Huerta, and its own employees were performing routine maintenance at the plant, where pipelines from gas wells in the Burgos basin converge. The plant feeds gas next door to separate liquid hydrocarbons from the gas. The production is for domestic Mexican use.

Vazquez Huerta said that suddenly the pipes where he was working, about 300 to 400 yards (meters) from the explosion, began to sound like they were repressurising, after being closed for maintenance.

There was a blast and he and two co-workers began running. A second explosion knocked them to the ground, but they got up and continued running. They found a space along the back wall that wasn’t topped with razor wire and boosted each other over.

Investigators were interviewing other workers to find out more details that could help determine what caused the leak.

“We don’t have memory of another event of this kind,” he said.

People arrived at the federal prosecutors’ regional office to identify the bodies of relatives.

Gustavo Cruz said his 31-year-old brother, Jaime Cruz, died in the arms of another family member who worked in the plant.

“He was very happy” working there, Cruz said.

Calderon said that the government will carry out an exhaustive investigation of the cause of the fire.

The blast forced the closure of the wells and the evacuation of people at ranches and homes within three miles (five kilometres) of the gas facility, which is about 12 miles (19 kilometres) southwest of Reynosa.

Calderon sent condolences to the victims’ relatives and vowed to make sure those injured receive help.

Pipelines carrying gasoline and diesel in Mexico are frequently tapped by thieves looking to steal fuel, and those sometimes cause spills or explosions. But thieves seldom target gas pipelines.

In December 2010, authorities blamed oil thieves for an oil pipeline explosion in a central Mexico city near the capital that killed 28 people, including 13 children. The blast burned people and scorched homes, affecting 5,000 residents in an area six miles (10 kilometres) wide in San Martin Texmelucan.

Thursday 20 September 2012

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article3917014.ece

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Paternity Testing: 50% Nigerian first born children belong to other men – Expert: incidences recorded at Dana investigation

Geneticists claim rising cases of deceptions, infidelity and adultery among couples have made the need to popularise Deoxyribonucleic Acid testing otherwise known as DNA test inevitable, BUKOLA ADEBAYO writes

Deoxyribonucleic Acid, also known as DNA testing is still not a very popular procedure in Nigeria. However, experts say there is a need to increase awareness on the dynamics of the test .

The importance of DNA testing came to the fore after a Dana plane crashed in Lagos on June 3 killing all 153 passengers including crew members on board and others on ground.

Most of the bodies were burnt beyond recognition. To ensure that the right bodies were given to the right family, the right compensation given to the deserving spouse, child, sibling or relative, the Lagos State Government directed the Forensic and Pathology team of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja headed by Prof. .John Obafunwa to carry out DNA testing on the deceased and their families to erase all doubts.

This decision, according to a source at the Forensic unit unravelled many mysteries. No one was more surprised than the two children of Mr. Taiwo Akinsanya (not real names) when they were told that their DNA profile did not match that of their father, who had died in the plane crash.

One of the distraught children, who spoke with our correspondent at the unit when the hospital refused to release the bodies to them, challenged the credibility of the whole exercise and accused the officials of conniving with their extended relatives to cause chaos in the family.

“I demand that the tests be repeated. They have been compromised by some relatives. They do not want to release the body to us and our mother who could have claimed the body died two years ago. They are raising unnecessary suspicion within the family.”

As the drama unfolded, a reliable source at the unit told our correspondent that following the DNA testing, some bodies could not be released, due to cases of mismatch and until proven otherwise, the bodies would be kept by the hospital.

The source said, “Another family was almost torn apart when the DNA testing of all the three siblings did not match that of the deceased and their grandparents were dead. It was also an emotional exercise for the families as paternity disputes continued to arise.”

Experts have said there is need to increase awareness and facilities for DNA testing in the country, as statistics have revealed that more children are living with parents that are not biologically theirs.

According to a forensic geneticist, Dr. Abiodun Salami, 30 per cent of fathers are unknowingly nurturing and investing in children who are not biologically theirs. Salami, who is also the Chief Medical Director, DNA Centre, Lagos, revealed that 50 per cent of the all paternity tests carried out in his laboratory came out negative and mostly affected were first born children.

He said, “Several surveys have shown that approximately three men in 10 are living under the deception that they are the fathers of another man’s children and with advances in genetic testing, they are more likely than ever to find out the shocking truth. Half of the paternity disputes and tests we carried out in two years showed that the fathers were not biologically related to their children especially when the dispute arose on paternity of first born children.

“We have seen cases of paternity disputes where even the two men claiming paternity to a child are excluded as the biological fathers from test results leaving the mother to look elsewhere for the child’s biological father. I have witnessed shocking cases where men discover that three or four children out of five they had were not fathered by them.”

Salami attributed the increase in paternity disputes and deceptions to infidelity, adultery and increase in sexual recklessness among Nigerian couples.

“This percentage is increasing because of sexual recklessness. Recent trends in sexual health especially in Nigeria suggest that unprotected sex and multiple partners’ relationships are a common occurrence. Another issue is poor family planning among women. Most first born pregnancies are still unplanned.

“I have seen and discussed with women who for one reason or other decide in their own wisdom to give another man’s child to their husbands without the husband’s knowledge.

“As a geneticist, I deal on a daily basis with the fall-out of adultery and other manifestations of selfish behaviour of spouses to their partners. Reproductive deception is morally similar to rape,” he said.

Naturally, when a case of paternity dispute arises in a family, relatives, husbands are quick to accuse the woman. It is assumed that a mother should be able to accurately disclose who the biological father of her child is.

However, Salami noted that only a DNA test could be used to confirm who fathered a child.

According to him, more babies are increasingly being switched without their mothers’ knowledge by nurses, birth attendants and health workers in hospitals.

He noted that baby switches were happening at a disturbing rate in Nigerian hospitals and the geneticist attributed these mix-ups to avoidable errors or malfeasance.

Salami condemned the use of corresponding ID bracelets between mothers and their babies, the most prevalent method in Nigerian hospitals ,which he said, often lead to mix-ups since such bracelets could fall off babies’ ankles or wrists and lead to nurses misreading infants to mothers’ bracelet information.

Apart from the ID mix-ups, he said bed mix-ups by health workers often happen especially in general wards especially after babies have been removed for bathing or treatment.

Salami, sharing an experience said, “I witnessed a case where a friend gave birth to a child and I went to visit, only for the father who was present at the delivery of the baby to come back to the hospital in the evening to say, to the surprise of everyone present that the baby the hospital presented was not his baby because his baby was born with dreadlocks just like him.

“He had to escort the doctors to identify his baby inside one of the cribs. This happened right inside one of the biggest and well known hospitals in Ikeja, Lagos.

“In the light of some of these shortcomings, we encourage maternal DNA testing because if we exclude her, we have established a case of infidelity against her, whereas her baby was switched at the hospital.”

He also urged mothers who doubt or suspect that their babies have been switched to voice their concerns as such cases could be investigated and documented for future references.

“Many people get home and look at a child and wonder if they brought home the right baby. In some reported cases, mothers have voiced their concerns while at the hospital, but did not get the chance to find out the truth until years later through DNA tests.

“To an ordinary person, this may look rare or even sound strange as most cases of babies switched at birth are either undocumented or unknown,” Salami added.

However, as beneficial as paternity DNA testing is, the importance of the DNA testing is still unpopular and often times regarded as irrelevant in Nigeria.

Salami said that most Nigerians often use physical resemblance to fathers as a test of paternity.

“Unfortunately, Nigerians still use physical attributes to determine the paternity of a child. We have seen numerous cases where a child resembles a father, but accurate DNA test results show that such child and father are not related.

“Determination of paternity using physical attributes has led to a situation where illegitimate children have caused untold hardships to families,” he explained.

Shedding more light on the importance of the test as a means of identification, a haematologist with the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, who pleaded an anonymity because he is not the hospital’s official spokesperson, called on government to provide DNA testing and banking (storing) facilities.

He said with these facilities, families could still make DNA verification after parties involved are dead.

Olowoshelu said a sample of the deceased tissues that had been stored could be used and if no biological samples from the alleged father are available, grand parentage testing could be a viable option.

“ If one or both paternal grandparents are unavailable for testing, other family relationship tests–such as genetic reconstructions and siblings’ tests, using the deceased brothers or sisters may be performed to indirectly determine a child’s paternity,” he said.

Earlier, Salami stated that poor DNA profiling and documentation due to lack of facilities and personnel had made this procedure a luxury to many Nigerians. He noted that such stored samples could help solve legal and financial disputes.

“Nigerians must take DNA testing and profiling and banking seriously. There are different reasons to establish paternity including the need to lay claims to a financial support.

“Government must provide DNA testing facilities such that we can have reference DNA for individuals should their remains need to be identified especially for those in high-risk employment such as the military, police, pilots, air hostesses and even those that fly the Nigerian airspace on regular basis.

“We can bank their DNA as a reference in cases of future paternity tests should some parties contest or make claims on inheritances that are not theirs,” he said.

Thursday 20 September 2012

http://myondostate.com/w3/paternity-testing-50-nigerian-first-born-children-belong-to-other-men-expert-2-incidences-recorded-at-dana-investigation/

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Polish family claims Russia 'mixed up' remains of Smolensk victims

Anna Walentynowicz, who as the forefront of the Solidarity movement in its struggle against communist rule, died along alongside Lech Kaczynski, the then Polish president, and 94 others when their plane crashed near Smolensk in western Russia in April 2010.

Since the disaster there have been strong suspicions that Russian authorities failed to indentify the bodies correctly.

Walentynowicz's presumed body was exhumed on Monday and her son Janusz has now said that the remains are "not the body of my mother".

"That's my opinion, and the doctors' opinions all the results of the examination will come later," he said. "But I know what I saw in Moscow, I know my own mother, and the person I saw today on the autopsy table was certainly not the person I recognised as my mother."

Piotr Walentynowicz, Anna's grandson, was also adamant.

"I do not recognise that body as my grandmother's body," he said.

The exhumation had been carried following requests from the family and prosecutors to check the veracity of the Russian autopsy reports carried out in the days after the official government plane slammed into the ground as it tried to land in dense fog.

The force of the impact was so great that some of the bodies were torn apart making formal identification difficult.

Pathologists also exhumed the body of Teresa Walewska-Przyjalkowska, another crash victim, to scotch or confirm suspicions, that the two bodies had been confused. This week's exhumation brings the total to five, and the prosecutor's office has confirmed that another four will take place.

If the results of the new autopsies reveal that Russian pathologists made mistakes then they could result in calls to exhume President Kaczynski and his wife Maria, who also died in the crash. The late presidential couple were interred in Krakow's Wawel Castle, the Polish equivalent of Westminster Abbey, and any exhumation would be carried out in the full glare of the media.

Thursday 20 September 2012

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/9555681/Polish-family-claims-Russia-mixed-up-remains-of-Smolensk-victims.html

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15 Die in Southwest Nigeria Truck Crash

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Police in Nigeria's southwest say at least 15 people have died in a crash involving two trucks and many other vehicles.

Ogun state police spokesman Olumuyiwa Adejobi said Wednesday a truck driver collided head-on with cars and motorbikes on a highway leading to the commercial capital of Lagos on Tuesday.

He said the truck driver was trying to avoid hitting a truck coming from another road at a major intersection, but that his speed was too high.

Adejobi said the junction, which has no traffic lights, is notoriously dangerous.

Ogun State Federal Road Safety Commander Ayobami Omiyale said authorities could not immediately give a tally of those who had been killed and injured because they were taken to different hospitals.

Crashes are common on Nigeria's poorly maintained road network.

Thursday 20 September 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/09/19/world/africa/ap-af-nigeria-truck-crash.html?_r=0

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Wednesday 19 September 2012

Boat capsizes in Bihar, 10 people feared drowned

Patna, September 19: Ten people were feared drowned when a boat carrying about 25 people capsized in Punpun river near Karwa village in Arwal district on Wednesday.

While 15 people swam to safety, the remaining 10 others were feared drowned in the river, police said.

Local officials have rushed to the spot to supervise rescue operations, they said, adding divers have been pressed into service.

A National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team from Patna has been called in to assist rescue and search operations.

The occupants of the boat were on way to Karwa bazar from Anuwa village.

Wednesday 19 September

http://www.siasat.com/english/news/boat-capsizes-bihar-10-people-feared-drowned

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Nine more dead bodies recovered from flood areas

QUETTA: The destruction by unprecedented floods is continuing in Jaffarabad, Naseerabad and Jhal Magsi districts of Balochistan as 9 more dead bodies have been recovered, rising the death toll to 108, on Tuesday.

According to reports, devastating floods had inundated more than low-lying areas in Naseerabad, Dera Allayar, Dera Murad Jamali and other areas forcing the people to leave their homes.

Sources said that the situation in Jaffarabad district was becoming serious as a huge torrent had entered the district from neighbouring areas of Sindh rising the water level in Dera Allayar and other areas to six to feet. “9 dead bodies had been recovered from Gott Shah Nawaz Bugti while dozens of other are still missing” they added.

However, according to official figure 28 people had been killed so far due to devastating floods.

Sources said that the people were facing acute shortage of food and drinking water as due to huge devastations by the floods the relief activities were not enough.

The army and the Frontier Corps have launched rescue efforts and have been shifting flood affectees to safe areas in helicopters and boats and the Provincial Disaster Management Authority is sending relief goods to the affected area, but the affectees are not satisfied with the slow pace of the rescue and relief operations.

Expressing his concern over the plight of the people in Naseerabad and Jaffarabad districts, he said that intrusion of fresh torrents from Kandkot-Kashmor areas of Sindh into these districts has raised the water level, causing further devastation and rendering tens of thousands of families homeless.

About 0.6 million people have been affected by the recent flash flood caused by the torrential rains. Initial reports has suggested that 28 people has lost their lives alone in Naseerabad while, we fear, there might be many causalities. Some other official sources told that death toll in Naseerabad and Jaffarabad districts have crossed 100.

Sources maintained that thousands of people still marooned in the flood water and waiting to be rescued. About 7,000 cusecs of fresh torrents has entered Naseerabad and Jaffarabad Sindh which has risen the level of water to seven feet, playing havoc over a vast area.

The irrigation sources told in view of the surge in the water, four cuts have been made in Dera Allah Yar bypass to divert the flow of water to low-lying areas.

Thousands of families have taken shelter on the banks of roads and canals in Naseerabad and Jaffarabad after floods washed away their houses. Data of losses caused by the recent spate of rains has suggested that crops on 24866 acres of land destroyed while 3900 houses were completely swept away and 1654 were partially damaged, said focal person on floods.

He maintained that under three-prong strategy, rescue and relief activities were in full swing in the rain- hit areas. Six helicopters, 18 boats were in the rain-battered areas to rescue the trapped masses.

Train service connecting Balochistan to other provinces has already been suspended, since the flash floods ravaged the region. The flash floods have inundated the portion of railway track linking Balochistan with other provinces

Wednesday 19 September 2012

http://dailybalochistanexpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/balochistan-flood.jpg

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18 killed in road accident in Rajasthan

Jaipur, Sep 18 - Eighteen people were killed while at least 11 others were injured when four vehicles collided in Rajasthan’s Pali district Tuesday, police said.

Local residents placed the bodies of the deceased on the road for five hours demanding compensation, following which traffic came to a standstill on the highway.

According to the police, the accident occurred near Sumerpur town in the district around 5 p.m., some 350 km from Jaipur.

“Of the deceased, at least 15 persons are from a family belonging to a village near Beldhar town in Sirohi district. They were returning home after a visiting a temple,” said a senior police officer.

The officer said that a tanker rammed into a jeep, a car and an army vehicle.

“Those injured in the mishap include six army personnel. They are undergoing treatment at hospitals in Pali and Jodhpur,” the officer said.

Wednesday 19 September 2012

http://vancouverdesi.com/news/18-killed-in-road-accident-in-rajasthan/

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Tuesday 18 September 2012

10 dead; 49 injured in Reynosa Pemex refinery explosion

Ten people died and 49 were injured in an explosion Tuesday at a Pemex refinery on the outskirts of Reynosa.

Mexican firefighters and emergency personnel are working to suppress a fire in the Petroleos Mexicanos refinery on the city’s outskirts.

The fire took place during Tuesday late morning at the Pemex refinery while the catalytic plant Number 1 was undergoing maintenance repairs when for yet unknown reasons a flame sparked and quickly spread through the plant, Pemex officials confirmed.

Reynosa media reports showed workers receiving medical treatment for injuries.

Basic details and photos of flames burning at the refinery quickly spread via social media Tuesday morning.

Mexico's state-owned oil company says the fire is burning at a monitoring station, the Associated Press reported.

The pipeline mainly serves wells in the Burgos basin that produce natural gas.

Pemex said that the station is normally staffed.

Pipelines carrying gasoline and diesel in Mexico are frequently tapped by thieves looking to steal oil products.

Earlier this month, four Pemex workers were injured after a fire broke out at the Madero refinery in Tamaulipas. Another blaze at the same refinery occurred on August 13.

A number of blazes at Pemex facilities have been caused by illegal tapping of pipelines, which have been preyed upon by criminal gangs. Tamaulipas, which borders the United States, has been ravaged by drug gangs in recent years.

Tuesday 18 September 2012

http://www.themonitor.com/articles/fire-63960-refinery-personnel.html

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