Thursday 29 November 2012

11 dead, 5 missing in boat tragedy

At least 11 people are dead and five remain missing after a fishing boat sank in coastal waters early on Wednesday near Dalian, Liaoning province, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The boat with 17 fishermen and women on board, was overturned by huge waves at about 2 am and sank 2 nautical miles from the Houershi village port at the Jinzhou New Area in Dalian.

One person was rescued and the bodies of 11 people were recovered on Wednesday afternoon, Xinhua reported.

Rescuers were still searching for the five missing people on Wednesday afternoon.

The only person rescued was in stable condition and being held for observation at a local hospital.

The boat set out from Houershi Port at around 1 am and those aboard were about to transfer to a bigger fishing vessel before huge waves overturned it.

One fisherman used his satellite mobile phone to call for help.

Ten of the fishermen and women were migrant workers, and seven people, including the owner of the boat, were from the local fishing village.

The wooden boat was 10 meters long and powered by a 10 horsepower engine.

Sun Caihui, a local fishing boat owner who took part in the rescue, said that strong winds and rough seas made the rescue effort very difficult.

"We received a call from the village head at around 5 am and started our boat immediately.

But their boat had sunk beneath the water and the fishermen cannot be found in muddy seawater," he said.

The rescue was made easier in the afternoon when the tide was low.

"Nothing like this has ever happened in our village," said Sun, who knew some of the people aboard the boat personally.

Sun said that hiring non-local fishing workers is common practice in the village because of a labor shortage.

Gale winds as strong as force 8 on the Beaufort scale swept the coastal waters near Dalian city early on Wednesday, China News Service reported.

The search and rescue operation involved a helicopter, seven maritime patrol ships and 120 other boats.

An investigation into the cause of the accident is under way.

Thursday 29 november 2012

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-11/29/content_15969372.htm

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Wreckage of missing MI-8 discovered; 8 crew members found dead

All 8 members of MI-8 crew that has been discovered several hours ago today, November 29, in Almaty oblast were found dead near the wreckage of the missing helicopter, Tengrinews.kz reports citing the press-service of Almaty oblast administration Ilyas Biyakhmetov.

“Head of Almaty oblast Emergency Situations Department Sabit Bitayev has confirmed that all 8 people who were onboard of the helicopter have been found dead. The helicopter had significant damages with only the aft remaining intact. All bodies were outside of the helicopter,” he said.

The helicopter that went missing in Kazakhstan on November 24 in the area of Koktuma-Dostyk next to Kazakhstan-Chinese border has been discovered only today, November 29. According to Kazakhstan Emergency Situations Ministry, the wreckage of the helicopter was found in the area of the 16th railroad junction.

“The wreckage of the missing helicopter was found 90-95 km from Usharal in Almaty oblast towards Dostyk station, 5-7km east of Dostyk-Usharal road, 15-20 km from Alakol lake. During the fall the helicopter was significantly damaged and only its aft was intact. According to the preliminary information, all the crew members have died as a result of the accident. Two bodies were lifted from under the wreckage. Investigators are working on site. The situation is under control. An investigation has been initiated,” the Ministry said. Law-enforcement authorities and personnel of Druzhbinskaya transport prosecutor’s office has left for the accident site.

"At 6:30 p.m. 6 dead bodies were found at the accident site. The search is being continued," the Department said.

According to the Transport Prosecutors of Kazakhstan, the chronology is as follows:

- The wreckage of the helicopter were discovered at 4.03 p.m.
- A response force of Almaty oblast Emergency Situations Department arrived to the site at 5:15 p.m.
- Six bodies were discovered at 6:30 p.m.
- Two more bodies were discovered a little later.
The MI-8 helicopter with board number 823 owned by Kazakhstan's Euro-Asia Air went missing on November 24 while making a routine flyover of Atassu-Alashankow oil pipeline. The following crew members were onboard:

Captain – Raul Khabibullin;
Pilot – Nurlan Yessenaliyev
Flight mechanic – Vladimir Kim
Engineers – Konstantin Maksayev and Viktor Radomskiy
Accompanying persons - T. Shokparov, A. Sarsembayev, K. Sabirov.

Thursday 29 November 2012

For more information see: http://en.tengrinews.kz/emergencies/Wreckage-of-missing-MI-8-discovered-8-crew-members-found-dead-14914/

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There Are Over 200 Bodies on Mount Everest, And They’re Used as Landmarks

More than 200 people have died in their attempt to scale Mount Everest. The mountain offers seemingly endless options for kicking the bucket, from falling into the abyss to suffocating from lack of oxygen to being smashed by raining boulders. Yet climbers continue to try their skills – and luck – in tackling Everest, despite the obvious dangers. Indeed, the living pass the frozen, preserved dead along Everest’s routes so often that many bodies have earned nicknames and serve as trail markers. Here are a few of the more colofrul tales, adapted from Altered Dimensions:

The body of “Green Boots,” an Indian climber who died in 1996 and is believed to be Tsewang Paljor, lies near a cave that all climbers must pass on their way to the peak. Green Boots now serves as a waypoint marker that climbers use to gauge how near they are to the summit. Green Boots met his end after becoming separated from his party. He sought refuge in a mountain overhang, but to no avail. He sat there shivering in the cold until he died.

In 2006, English climber David Sharp joined Green Boots. He stopped in the now-infamous cave to rest. His body eventually froze in place, rendering him unable to move but still alive. Over 40 climbers passed by him as he sat freezing to death. His plight might have been overlooked as passers-by assumed Sharp was the already-dead Green Boots. Eventually, some heard faint moans, realized he was still alive, and, too late, attempted to give him oxygen or help him stand.

Francys Arsentiev was the first American woman to reach Everest’s summit without the aid of bottled oxygen, in 1998. But climbers do not recognize this as a successful ascent since she never made it down the mountain. Following a rough night time trek to camp, her husband, a fellow climber, noticed she was missing. Despite the dangers, he chose to turn back to find his wife anyway. On his way back, he encountered a team of Uzbek climbers, who said they had tried to help Francys but had to abandon her when their own oxygen became depleted. The next day, two other climbers found Francys, who was still alive but in too poor of a condition to be moved. Her husband’s ice axe and rope were nearby, but he was nowhere to be found. Francys died where the two climbers left her, and climbers solved her husband’s disappearance the following year when they found his body lower down on the mountain face where he fell to his death.

Thursday 29 November 2012

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2012/11/there-are-over-200-bodies-on-mount-everest-and-theyre-used-as-landmarks/

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Six killed as three wheeler crashes into Yal Devi train

Six persons including two children were killed when an overloaded three wheeler they were travelling in collided with the Yal Devi Express train bound for Vavuniya from Colombo, at an unprotected railway crossing in Ambanpola, Kirimetiyawa yesterday morning.

There were seven persons in the vehicle, three males and four females.

A woman who was in a serious condition was admitted to the Kurunegala hospital. She succumbed to her injuries.

Eye witnesses said that the bodies of the victims were beyond recognition. The driver’s identity was established after tracing his identity card. He was identified as Udaya Asiri Wijeratne.

The victims were returning after visiting a relative and were on their way to a ‘Devalaya’

Thursday 29 november 2012

http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=67108

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Trial over junta's `death flights' starts in Argentina

A major trial for crimes, including the so-called "death flights," during Argentina's 1976-83 dictatorship started Wednesday in Buenos Aires.

Several pilots involved in the death flights - in which illegal detainees were thrown alive from planes to their death in the sea - are among the 68 people standing trial for crimes committed in the Navy Officers School of Mechanics, or ESMA, which is believed to have held about 5,000 illegal detainees during the junta.

The regime is believed to have killed about 30,000 people, although they technically are still regarded as "desaparecidos" (missing), because most of the bodies have never been found.

In this case, the courts are dealing with 789 crimes against humanity and are set to hear 900 witnesses. Most of the defendants were Navy officers and petty officers during the dictatorship, although there are also civilians, including former finance secretary Juan Alemann. Some of these people are already serving sentences for other crimes committed in the ESMA.

The opening of the trial was broadcast live at an auditorium in the Room for Memory Institute, which has been created at the facilities of the former ESMA in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Nunez.

The existence of the death flights has been reported by survivors of the ESMA illegal detention camp and also by former Capt. Adolfo Scilingo, who is serving a jail sentence in Spain after confessing to courts there that he had thrown into the sea 30 detainees who were anesthetized at the time.

The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team identified in 2005 several bodies found in the country's Atlantic coast in 1977. It also certified that they showed fractures that probably were caused by a fall from great altitude and the subsequent impact on the water.

Thursday 29 November 2012

Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/11/28/2783134/trial-over-juntas-death-flights.html#storylink=cpy

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Kishoreganj farmer first to try DNA test

A farmer from Kishoreganj, who lost his daughter in the Tazreen Fashions disaster, went to the National DNA Profiling Laboratory at Dhaka Medical College yesterday to give his blood sample in the hope of locating her grave.

Suma Akhter, 16, daughter of Bakul Miah, 38, was on duty at Tazreen Fashions in Nischintapur of Ashulia on the outskirts of the capital when the fire broke out on Saturday night.

She is missing and presumed dead.

Bakul Miah, the father, yesterday filled up a form with his contact information at the lab.

Bakul told The Daily Star his only wish was to find the grave of his daughter so that he could visit it occasionally and pray for the eternal peace of her soul.

Work on DNA profiling from samples collected from the bodies of 59 unidentified victims started yesterday.

Fifty-three of the unidentified victims were buried at Jurain Graveyard on Tuesday. The bodies of six victims were handed over to their relatives after they identified their dear ones at the DMC morgue.

The DNA samples from all 59 bodies were collected on Monday and kept at the National Forensic DNA Profiling Laboratory.

Ahmad Ferdous, scientific officer at the laboratory, told The Daily Star that the lab had collected samples and had tagged the bodies with numbers before they were buried in tagged graves.

He said the laboratory would make a database of DNA samples collected and match those with the parents or children of the victims.

He said teeth, tissues and bones of the victims had been collected as samples for DNA profiling.

However, one to three months could be required to make DNA profiling of the samples collected. DNA profiling of relatives of the victims would take less time, he said.

Ferdous added that the lab authorities were keeping contact information of the victims' relatives. If their DNA profiles matched with that of a body, they would inform the authorities concerned and the relatives of the matter.

Relatives of many Tazreen employees, who are missing and are believed to be dead, are at a loss as to how and where to go for DNA sampling.

Nilufar Begum, who lost her parents, brother and brother's wife in the blaze, was trying to get to the laboratory yesterday but could not as she did not have proper information.

Thursday 29 November 2012

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=259217

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Update: Five women, four children among 15 drown in Kirthar Canal

As many as 15 people, including five women and four children, were drowned in Kirthar Canal near Amrote Shareef after a passenger van fell into canal on Wednesday.

According to detail, the passenger van was on its way to Golo Daro from Gharhi Yasin in District Khairpur, when reached at Kirthar Canal its fell into it, subsequently at least 16 people were drowned.

According to witnesses, around 30 passengers were in the van.

On receiving information, the administration reached on the spot and started rescue and recovered 15 bodies including of six women and four children while nine people were fished out alive and shifted them to Gharihi Yasin and Shikarpur hospitals.

Some among the dead identified as Bachul Manganhar, Sangaar Jaffery, Umedan Jaffery, child Arshad Jafery (6), Wahid Ali, Jafery (5) and Rashid Ali (9). The Shikarpur deputy commissioner confirmed death of 15 people.

Sindh Minister for Local Government Agha Siraj Durrani confirmed the death of 14 people and told that as many as seven other people are still missing and district administration is searching their bodies and he was directed the administration for help and EDO health, DC, and other officials are present on the spot.

Thursday 29 November 2012 http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012%5C11%5C29%5Cstory_29-11-2012_pg7_12

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Workplaces that are death traps

One of the most disposable items in our country is human life. Abroad we read about loss of hundreds of lives from sinking of overloaded motor launches in rivers, from runaway buses driven by half-trained operators that fall into ditches and, as added measures, deaths from fires in factories in premises that never have been inspected for safety. We are used to watching on TV horrific and heart-rending video images of bodies being recovered from sunken vehicles, scorched buildings, and road side ditches.

We have seen and read about righteous indignation of our public officials at these incidents, dire threats of punishment to those responsible for such disasters that are never carried out, and empty promises that the nation will never face such disasters again.

But while the families of the countless victims wail and lament their losses, the people who are primarily responsible for these deaths and disasters, and their facilitators such as our public officials, are quick to point fingers elsewhere and try to absolve themselves of any wrongdoing. It is as though the people who perished in these disasters ended their lives voluntarily.

When will we learn to take ownership for these completely avoidable disasters? When will we learn to treat each human life as an asset that is more valuable than the product it makes? The recent Ashulia disaster is just another addition to the countless incidents of total callousness that prevails in the country over safety and protection of workers from workplace hazards.

We have had fires in garment factories several times before where workers lost their lives. Only a few days ago we had fires in a low income housing area surrounded by unsafe factories where lives were lost.

Close on the heels of the recent Ashulia fire we also had this lightning-like accident where girders fell off a fly over construction project that killed eleven people in Chittagong.

After none of these accidents or disasters in the past did we hear the people who owned the factories or the buildings come out and take ownership for the tragedies or take measures that would prevent repetition of such incidents. We also did not hear of any punitive action against the defaulting owners by the government. Instead, if I recall correctly, there was plenty of talk of deep conspiracies against the garment industry by persons unknown that were labelled as the causes of frequent fires. No one talked about setting up standards of safety for the factories and workers, or their rigid implementation and monitoring by government. Each incident was allowed to pass into oblivion until another happened.

As in all disasters or accidents in the past a host of reasons has been cited in the press for the Ashulia and Bahaddar Hat misfortunes.

These include failure to operate fire extinguishers in the building, blocking of exit routes of workers and, in the case of the Chittagong incident, a faulty crane that lifted the girders.

Absent from these reports is any indication or statement whether the factory owner or the flyover construction company had any mechanism in place that would ensure safety of workers or equipment.

It is also not clear what role the owners played during and after the incident besides announcing some gratuities to the victims after the fact.

The Ashulia incident and the incident in Bahaddar Hat in Chittagong would not have happened if we had taken lessons from the past. These would not have not happened had we employed a minimum standard of workplace safety, and held the people who engage workers in factories and construction projects, responsible for providing safe workplace.

The garment factories in Bangladesh today are situated on opposite ends of the safety spectrum.

On one end are those modern facilities that are located in different export processing zones and have rather rigid safety standards.

On the other end we have a series of garment factories that line up the Airport Road, Uttara, and other roads, all with cage-like appearances where it seems accidents are waiting to happen.

Workplace safety is a prime consideration for a government before a business is allowed to operate. In western countries a small departure from the safety codes and standards is cause for suspension of the business. Along with strict building codes and safety standards a practice that is regularly in vogue in most industrial countries is training workers in handling emergencies such as fire through drills.

No amount of fire extinguishers will be of use if the people who work in these buildings do not know how to operate them. Along with that also essential is training in emergency response through mock drills. Many of the buildings that I have seen on the Airport Road and Uttara were perhaps not originally intended to be factories, yet we have hundreds of people sweating their way in these accident prone buildings day after day, without a care either from the owners or from the government.

The accidents of this week would not have happened if the employers and our public officials had learnt to take preventive measures from the beginning. The accidents would not have happened if our public officials had strictly enforced the safety rules and taken punitive action against the offenders instead of smelling conspiracies in disasters.

The lives that have been lost at Ashulia or in Chittagong cannot be brought back; nor can the livelihood the victims provided to their families be restored. What can be done is to ensure that such incidents are not repeated.

This can be done by regular inspection of the buildings and the equipment that are used, ensuring that they all meet the minimum standards for safety and operation.

Finding scapegoats for these accidents and finger-pointing will do us no good. I hope and pray that we will not watch and read about such avoidable disasters in the future. I hope and pray that we all learn that human lives are not disposable items.

Wednesday 29 November 2012

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=259150

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