Monday 19 November 2012

Pike families remember their dead two years on

Ceremonies marking the second anniversary of the Pike River Coal Mine disaster have ended with songs and the placing of flowers on a special memorial in Blackball, the closest town to the mine.

Twenty-nine men died in a series of methane explosions at the underground coal mine that began on 19 November 2010. Only two managed to get out to safety.

Family members pinned flowers for each of the men to plaques attached to a water wheel at the Blackball Museum of Working Class History.

After songs were sung, Ged O'Connell from the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union, which organised the service, said a few words and urged the families to help him make sure the same thing never happens again.

On Monday afternoon, 160 family members and friends of the mine workers observed a minute's silence at the entry to the mine at 3.45pm, the exact time the first explosion occurred, and a wreath was laid.

A Scottish piper played during the trip to and from the mine, including a lament written especially for the 29 men.

Radio New Zealand's reporter on the West Coast visited the mine ahead of the service.

He says one of the most haunting reminders of what happened is the board where the name tags the men left before going underground for the last time remain.

The Royal Commission's damning report on the tragedy was released on 5 November. It says the company paid insufficient attention to health and safety matters and exposed workers to unacceptable risks in its drive to produce coal.

It also heavily criticised the then Department of Labour for failing to properly supervise the mine.

Prime Minister John Key at the time apologised to the families, saying on behalf of the Government he deeply regrets what happened.

The Prime Minister said on Monday his thoughts were with the people of the West Coast as New Zealand remembered the tragedy.

Mr Key says his words will bring little comfort to the families as they continue to live with what happened, but it is right and fitting to remember the day 29 men lost their lives and the sympathy of all New Zealanders will be with the families. Hard time for families

Malcolm Campbell and his wife Jane travelled from Scotland to farewell their only son, Malcolm Campbell Jnr. They were joined by their daughter Kerry, who lives in Australia.

Mr Campbell told Radio New Zealand's Morning Report programme on Monday reading the Royal Commission report into the tragedy has been horrendous and he can't comprehend the number of things wrong with the mine as it continued to operate.

"My God, you'd think that at least the people in charge would do their best to give them a safe working place. The report just showed that it just wasn't there - it was a total disregard for life."

Mr Campbell says criticism of the miners' role in the tragedy shows that there was no-one watching over their actions. He says attending the memorial will be one of the hardest things his family has had to do.

"We're struggling to find the words to explain this but it's just horrendous for us. I just hope anybody else never has to go through this situation because it's just been a rollercoaster and never-ending emotions all the time."

However, he remains hopeful of one day being able to return home with his son's remains.

Steve Rose, who lost his son Stuart, says Monday will be another step along the way in saying good-bye to his son.

Carol Rose says she remains as determined as ever to see the men's bodies returned to their families.

Neville Rockhouse, who lost his son Ben, was the mine's safety manager, and says while the Royal Commission into the disaster has exonerated him, it is something he will have to live with for the rest of his life.

Monday 19 november 2012

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/pike-river-2010/121219/pike-families-remember-their-dead-two-years-on

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Eighteen persons killed in stampede in Patna during Chhath puja

In a tragic incident, 18 people died when a makeshift bridge collapsed during the Chhath festivities in Patna.

Most of those killed were women and children. Scores others were injured as the brigde caved in triggering a stampede at Adalatganj ghat on the bank of river Ganges, a police official said. The bridge made of bamboo collapsed due to heavy rush.

Fear-stricken people trampled on each other after the bridge collaped at around 1900 hours, Superintendent of Police (SP), City, Jayant Kant said. He confirmed that fourteen had died in the mishap. The toll may rise as the condition of some of the injured persons was critical, the SP(City) said.

The bodies of those killed in the stampede have been sent for post mortem at the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) at Patna, Kant said, adding the the injured persons have been taken to various hospitals for treatment.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced Rs two lakh compensation to the next of kin of the victims, an official spokesman said.

Of the amount, Rs 1.5 lakh would be given by the disaster management department and Rs 50,000 from the Chief Minister's Relief Fund.

The Principal Secretary (Disaster Management) has been asked to launch rescue and relief work on a war footing, he said.

Kumar has directed the Principal Secretary (Home) to probe the incident and told senior officials, including Chief Secretary A K Sinha and Director General of Police Abhayanand to reach the spot and supervise rescue and relief work, the spokesman said.

The CM asked the officials to ensure that the injured persons get the best medical assistance, he said.

The Chhath puja, in which the Sun God is worshipped, is one of the biggest religious festivals of Bihar. Chhath is celebrated six days after Diwali.

Lakhs of devotees offered 'Arghya' to the Sun God on Monday in various water bodies across Bihar on the third day of the Chhath festival.

In Patna, fasting men and women thronged the ghats on the bank of Ganga and stood in waist-deep water to offer prayers to the setting Sun to seek blessings for their families.

Monday 19 November 2012

http://in.news.yahoo.com/18-killed-in-chhath-puja-stampede-in-patna.html

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Anger mounts over Assiut killer train crash

Egypt's Transport Minister Rashad El-Metini has been called for interrogation by the public prosecution, and banned from leaving the country after announcing his resignation following the deaths of 50 school children in a fatal bus accident in Upper Egypt on Saturday.

El-Matini, who potentially faces charges of negligence, was the second official to resign, Railway Authority head Mostafa Qenawi also stepped down following the incident.

A bus carrying 60 kindergarten children, aged between four and six years old, was reportedly hit by a train as it drove over a railway crossing in the Assiut village of Manfalout, Saturday morning.

There are conflicting reports of how the collision happened. The Railway Authority earlier claimed that the bus driver drove the school bus over the tracks despite the fact that the warning lights and sirens were sounding.

However, other eyewitnesses speaking to Al-Ahram's Arabic language news website asserted that the train passed through the crossing at an unexpected time.

A Human Rights report issued the same day by the New World for Development and Human Rights Foundation, who were among the first to arrive to the scene, stated that the death toll of children had risen from 47 to 50 with another 13 in a critical condition.

Hundreds of family members gathered at the scene to identify their lost loved ones, however according to the report only 43 of the child victims have been named, six bodies remain unidentified.

In addition, Egypt's Interior Ministry earlier stated that both the bus driver and his assistant were among the dead.

The report described a blood-spattered railway track, as body parts of slain children remain trapped under the train. Families of those killed, who blocked the track and neighboring road, reportedly refused to remove the bodies before an investigative committee examined the evidence.

"The accident scene was horrific. You could see children uniforms and school books scattered around with blood stains on them," Ahmed Abdel-Karim, an activist at the scene told Ahram Online.

The fatal crash could be attributed to negligence, Abdel-Karim continued, as the 60 children were crammed into the mini-bus that was built to accommodate only 30 people.

In the afternoon, tens of activists gathered at the Assiut governorate headquarters calling for the resignation of governor Yehia Keshk, families of the victims demanded that the ministry be held accountable. A symbolic funeral was also staged in front of the government building according to Abdel-Karim who attended the protest and funeral.

Protests also took place at the Assiut hospital, where the victims were being treated, which were subsequently beaten up by police, Abdel-Karim reported.

The majority of the injuries at the hospital, he added, were severe.

Different political parties groups released statements claiming that government neglect of roads and poor public transportation services were to blame and have resulted in the loss of many lives over the course of the last few years.

"The martyrdom of 50 children in the Assiut train accident on Saturday is only one of a series of accidents caused by negligence," stated the Constitution Party which called for the transport system to be completely restructured.

"The consecutive road accidents are the result of the failure of past governments - the continuation [of these incidents] is a sign that the current government lacks political vision and fails to rightly prioritise," the statement added.

Egypt has witnessed an increase in fatal road and train accidents.

On the same day as the Assiut tragedy, another twelve were killed and several injured after a microbus collided with a lorry on the Wahat Road in south Giza.

Last Saturday, a train accident in the governorate of Fayoum claimed four lives.

October also saw a number of major accidents: three people died and twelve were injured in two separate incidents on the same train in the Nile Delta's Qalioubiya governorate.

In addition, 21 soldiers were killed and 27 injured on 8 October, after a police driver lost control of the vehicle on rugged terrain in northern Sinai.

According to a report published in July 2011 by the Central Authority for Public Transport, road and rail accidents claimed over 7,000 lives in Egypt in 2010 — a rise of 7.9 per cent over the previous year.

Monday 19 November 2012

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/58430/Egypt/Politics-/Anger-mounts-over-Assiut-killer-train-crash.aspx

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Already Desperate, Haitian Farmers Are Left Hopeless After Storm

A woman who lost just about everything now gives her children coffee for meals because it quiets their stomachs a bit. Another despondent mother relives the awful moment when her 18-month-old baby was swept from her arms by a flash flood. The bodies of a family of five killed in a mudslide still sit in a morgue unclaimed.

Haitians, who know well the death and despair natural disasters can cause, suffered mightily from Hurricane Sandy, which bashed the country's rural areas and killed at least 54 people.

Three weeks after the hurricane's deluge, Haiti, still struggling to recover from the earthquake in January 2010, is facing its biggest blow to reconstruction and slipping deeper into crisis, United Nations and government officials say, with hundreds of thousands of others at risk of hunger or malnutrition.

All around this hamlet and others nearby, the men and women who farmed bananas, plantains, sugar cane, beans and breadfruit stare at fields swept of trees, still flooded or coated with river muck that will probably kill off whatever plants are left. They had little, have endured much, and now need more. Hardened by past disasters, they still fear the days and weeks ahead.

"I do not know where we will find money for food and school now," said Olibrun Hilaire, 61, surveying his wrecked plantain and sugar cane farm in Petit-Goâve that supported his family of 10 children and grandchildren.

As if the quake were not enough, Haiti is now suffering the combined onslaught of storms and, before that, drought, imperiling its food supply, causing $254 million in agricultural losses and throwing 1.6 million people -- about 16 percent of the population -- into dire straits.

Tropical Storm Isaac in August destroyed farms in the north, preceded by a spring drought that devastated farms there. Then came Hurricane Sandy, which passed west of Hispaniola and over Jamaica but was large enough to send 20 inches of rain over southern Haiti.

Last week, as the government and the United Nations took stock of the storm and grappled with flooding in the north from a fresh cloudburst that left 10 people dead, they issued an emergency appeal for $39 million in humanitarian aid to a world weary of its recurrent disasters. United Nations officials said they had received pledges for about $8 million, and the Haitian government said it was in talks with donors to raise at least half the requested amount.

"This is a major blow to Haiti's reconstruction efforts, making life for most vulnerable Haitians even more precarious," said the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Haiti, Nigel Fisher. "International partners' ability to respond has been reduced by dwindling donor support," he added.

The recent storms have damaged or destroyed 61 cholera treatment centers, leading to fears that there may be fresh outbreaks of an epidemic that has already killed more than 7,500 people since 2010.

The storm's rare direct strike on the New York metropolitan area was devastating, but the heartache here, too, is wrenching and the recovery years off, if it happens at all.

Residents of Petit-Goâve, all of them quake victims who resettled in a plantain grove near a river, swam and climbed over tents and tombs in a nearby cemetery to escape the rising water. But Marie Helene Aristil lost her grip on her infant daughter, Juliana, whose lifeless body was found a mile away.

"It should have taken me, too," Ms. Aristil, 25, said softly.

Jacqueline Sataille and her four children ignored warnings to evacuate their hillside hovel in Grand Goâve near here because they did not want to leave their possessions behind, friends said. Ms. Sataille and the children, ages 3 to 18, died when a section of the hill, denuded of trees, buried them.

A friend, Dornelia Raton, who lost her corn and bean crops and resorted to feeding her children just coffee for the day, said nobody had claimed the bodies for a funeral.

She looked to the heavens, humming a Creole gospel song with the refrain, "Jesus, this is my burden, please help me," in answer to questions of how she would manage, with food as well as seed, fertilizer and other materials to replant her crops.

The hurricane took aim largely at agriculture, a quarter of Haiti's economy. After the quake in 2010, there were promises, never fully met, of revitalization -- things like new irrigation ditches and canals, river dredging and reforestation.

Though government officials have blamed unfulfilled aid pledges, international donors blame political uncertainty for the lack of progress. President Michel Martelly is on his second prime minister in a year and a half in office amid squabbles with Parliament.

"Donors don't contribute if there is no government," said Myrta Kaulard, the country director of the United Nations World Food Program, one of the agencies rallying aid to help 20,000 families make it through the winter.

The government estimates it will take $1.5 billion to modernize domestic agriculture and reverse decades of ill-conceived policies -- including a reliance on cheap, subsidized American rice and Dominican poultry -- that have left Haiti importing more than half of its food.

Farming has never been easy here, despite rich soil, regular rain and blasting sunshine. There is little irrigation to control the water, roads are so shot that produce spoils or is damaged before it reaches urban markets, and a good crop could yield about $1,000 for the year.

A number of initiatives have produced modest results in improving production and efficiency in farming, which 60 percent of Haitians, mostly tenant farmers on small plots, rely on to feed their families. But a report last month by Oxfam, an international aid agency, said there was no coordinated strategy to avert widespread crisis and neglect.

"The government and the international community must put greater emphasis on coherent agricultural policies to revitalize production and create value to help Haitians get back on their feet and improve their living conditions," Oxfam said.

Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe said in an interview this month that the government would focus more on shorter-term goals like dredging riverbeds and repairing bridges and roads, and less on "big studies" that never seem to go anywhere.

"We have limited means, and the devastation is huge," he said, looking weary after having just received pictures of fresh flooding and casualties. "We are going to use this tragedy to invest in prevention."

The government, Mr. Lamothe said, was working on plans to provide farmers with cash assistance and seeds and to use locally grown products in emergency food kits, to support farms that can still produce.

Economic distress in the countryside could undermine the government's goal of halting migration to teeming big cities like Port-au-Prince, where severe overcrowding contributed to the high death toll in the earthquake.

"We are a fragile state and can only do what we have the financial means for," Mr. Lamothe said.

But patience is wearing thin. There have been demonstrations in rural communities demanding more government help.

In Fauché, a name that can mean penniless or a scythe, protesting farmers blocked the main coastal highway this month for a couple of hours, after food handouts quickly ran out and other promised relief never arrived.

The devastation was pronounced, with trees snapped in half by winds and banana and plantain groves destroyed by rushing water. A 30-year-old man was missing, presumed swept into the sea, residents said.

Several residents blamed deforested hilltops -- the trees were cut to make charcoal to sell -- for the avalanche of water. They sounded skeptical that much would be done and knew from experience of past floods that the silt smothering good soil would take years to overcome naturally.

Brunel Casimir lost some of his plantain crop after Tropical Storm Isaac, but he had salvaged some saplings and had replanted them only to see Hurricane Sandy wipe out what had remained. Food prices at the roadside markets have already doubled this year; the $20 a week it costs now to feed his family of eight is out of reach.

"At night I pray to God," he said, "and ask what can I do?"

Monday 19 November 2012

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/world/already-desperate-haitian-farmers-are-left-hopeless-after-storm-662677/#ixzz2CgiB6tK0

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Family presented with Vietnam veteran's dog tags after 4 decades

The family of an airman who was killed in action is getting some closure after more than four decades.

On Saturday, the wife and children of Cpt. Walter Burke were presented with his dog tags at a Katy Veterans of Foreign Wars post. Burke's plane was shot down in Vietnam.

Several bodies were recovered from the crash site, but only one was identified leaving family members wondering what really happened to Burke.

Now with the dog tags, the family can find some closure.

"We had such a long period of time where we kind of tucked it away and this happened really fast so it's been kind of overwhelming and I don't think we've really had a chance to process,” Lauren Branch, Burke’s daughter, said Saturday.

The aircraft Burke was in was shot down on Feb. 5, 1969; the dog tag was subsequently found in Laos.

According to Air Force records, Burke was the third pilot on an EC-47 communications aircraft that departed Pleiku on a radio direction finding mission over Laos and failed to arrive at its destination.

Search and rescue efforts were begun when the aircraft failed to land at Hue-Phu Bai as scheduled and continued for six days without result. The ten crewmen aboard the aircraft were initially classified as Missing in Action.

In December of 1969, the plane’s wreckage was found near Ban Phan Laos. The remains of the crewmen were recovered and subsequently interred in a communal grave at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis.

Monday 19 November 2012

http://www.khou.com/news/local/Family-presented-with-Vietnam-veterans-dog-tags-after-4-decades-179862791.html

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31 Perish In Tamale

A motor accident involving a fully loaded Metro Mass Transit (MMT) Neoplan bus, travelling from Kumasi to Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region and a Benz 207 bus from the opposite direction, claimed 31 lives on Friday evening in Tamale.

Twenty-five out of the 31 dead bodies of the road accident have been identified by their respective families and released for burial by authorities of the Tamale Teaching Hospital, as at noon yesterday.

The identified persons included a woman who was recently wedded and two female graduates of the University for Development Studies (UDS) who were travelling to Tamale to participate in the 13th congregation of the university.

The incident occurred after the MMT bus with registration number AW 238 Z, travelling from Kumasi to Bolgatanga, collided head-on with a Benz 207 bus with registration number WR 2712 C, coming from the opposite direction.

According to an eyewitness, Illiasu Salifu, the incident occurred at about 7:15pm at Kogni near the Barwah Barracks, Airborne Borne Force, when the Benz bus driver attempted to overtake a motorcade and veered into the lane of the speeding Metro Mass bus, resulting in the head-on collision.

At the time of leaving the hospital in the early hours of Saturday, 30 people were confirmed dead on arrival but six more died later on admission.

Checks by DAILY GUIDE revealed that the Benz bus had onboard 38 passengers while the MMT bus had over 65. It is feared that there would be no survivor on the Benz bus which is mangled beyond recognition.

It took the intervention of personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service and the Police to recover several bodies and injured persons trapped in the wreckage.

An orthopedic surgeon at the hospital, Dr Ibrahim Abubakari, who led a team of 40 paramedics to attend to the casualties, told DAILY GUIDE that 40 persons were in critical condition, stating that the hospital had been overwhelmed.

Sources however hinted that the survival of a number of them was in doubt in view of the severity of their cases, but health personnel had promised to do their best for them to recuperate.

Alex Ayietta, Regional Director of National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), who briefed journalists, faulted the Benz bus driver for reckless driving. He underscored the need for drivers to adhere to road safety signs to safeguard lives as the Christmas festivities drew closer.

He disclosed that the police would conduct thorough investigations into the matter, expressing his heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families.

The Northern Regional MTTU Commander, Godwin Cashman Blewushie, hoped all the dead those who might not have heard of the incident.

Yusif Alhassan, who identified his sister, a student of Business College International (BCI), at the scene of the incident, said she was on her way back to school after visiting home when she was involved in the accident.

He told DAILY GUIDE that someone picked her phone and dialed his number, prompting him to rush to the scene only to be met with the sad news of her death.

Monday 19 November 2012

http://www.dailyguideghana.com/?p=67546

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11 killed in Hazaribagh slum fire

At least 11 people were burnt to death and 15 injured when a devastating fire raged through a slum and its adjoining tin-shed buildings in the capital’s Hazaribagh area early Sunday.

Of the deceased, six are children while five are women.

Witnesses and local sources said all the dead victims, who are tenants of a two-storey tin-shed house adjacent to Boubazar slum, died in their sleep as the fire originated around 3:00am.

The firemen recovered nine charred bodies from the bathroom of the tin-shed houses while two others from the kitchen.

A total of 46 families stayed in the houses from where the 11 bodies were found.

The deceased were identified as Munni Begum, 25, her two and a half-year-old daughter Meem; Shahinur Begum, 26, and her daughter Julie, 6; Helena Begum, 40, her daughter Aklima, 8, and her three and a half-year-old grandson Sakib; and Sokhina Begum, 55, and her granddaughter Moyna Akter, 12; Anwara Khatun, 60; and Abdullah, 7.

The fire, which sources are still remained unclear, spread within minutes at Boubazar slum at Rayerbazar Road in Hazaribagh and burnt to ashes around 700 shanties, 12 tin-shed buildings, 30 shops and five rickshaw garages, locals claimed.

Rafiqul Islam, officer-in-charge of Hazaribagh Police Station, however said at least 500 shanties were gutted during the fire.

On information, seven units from several fire fighting stations rushed to the spot and managed to quench the fire around 7:00am after a hectic effort of around four hours, duty officer of Fire Service and Civil Defence office said.

Meanwhile, Dhaka District Administration office donated Tk 20 thousand to the family members of each deceased for their funeral.

The bodies were sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue.

Of the injured, 10 were rushed to the DMCH and Mitford Hospital.

Local lawmaker Fazley Noor Taposh and Inspector General of Police Hassan Mahmood Khandaka visited the scene around 9:30am and 11:00am respectively.

Sunday 19 November 2012

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/latest_news.php?nid=42529

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