Thursday 28 February 2013

Six of 19 hot-air balloon victims identified: Egypt forensics chief


The bodies of six of the 19 tourists who died on Tuesday in a hot-air balloon crash in the Upper Egyptian city of Luxor have been identified, according to Egypt's forensic chief Ihsan Kameel Georgie.

Following the accident, the bodies of the victims were transported from Luxor to several different hospitals in Cairo. Victims included foreign nationals from the UK, France, Belgium, Hungary and Japan, along with nine tourists from Hong Kong.

The bodies have been identified by representatives of the British, French, Japanese and Hungarian embassies. According to Georgie, embassy officials were asked to bring photos with which to identify them.

The forensics chief added that DNA tests would be conducted on the bodies that could not be identified by photographs. DNA samples, he explained, would be taken from victims' relatives and checked against those taken from the bodies.

Georgie added that preliminary investigations had revealed that most of the victims had died from burns or from the long fall from the hot-air balloon.

The balloon exploded at dawn on Tuesday as the pilot attempted to land it following the discovery of a leaky gas cylinder. The crash left only two survivors: Michael Rennie, a Briton, and the pilot, both of whom jumped out of the balloon in an effort to escape the inferno.

Egyptian Prosecutor-General Talaat Abdallah has since ordered an investigation into the incident. The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism, meanwhile, has drawn up a committee to determine the cause of the disaster.

The last hot-air balloon accident in Luxor, which left 16 people injured in 2009, led to a six-month moratorium on all hot-air balloon activity until additional safety measures had been put in place.

Egypt witnessed other hot-air balloon accidents in 2007 and 2008, but neither of these led to any deaths.

Thursday 28 February 2013

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/65804/Egypt/Politics-/Six-of--hotair-balloon-victims-identified-Egypt-fo.aspx

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Hong Kong forensic experts to examine bodies of Egypt balloon accident victims


Hong Kong’s forensic experts will soon examine the bodies of nine Hong Kong tourists who died in a hot-air balloon accident earlier this week.

The experts – including a forensic pathologist and a specialist in the identification of bodies – are part of a seven-member team who arrived in Egypt on Thursday to join another team of government officers to help the victim’s families.

They will assess the condition of the bodies before helping the victims’ relatives to identify them, senior immigration officer Lee Kwong-wah said in Cairo on Thursday.

The nine Hongkongers were among 19 tourists who died after the sightseeing hot-air balloon they were aboard burst into a fireball shortly before landing in the ancient city of Luxor. Their bodies are badly burnt.


The pilot and a British tourist survived. They were both injured. The pilot suffered severe burns and remained in an intensive care unit in hospital.

The accident is understood to have happened when a cable got tangled around a gas tube and a fire broke out.

Thursday 28 February 2013

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1163077/hong-kong-forensic-experts-examine-bodies-egypt-balloon-accident

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No bodies, no compensation for heirs


Several months have passed since the fire erupted at the garment factory in Baldia Town, but dozens of families are still waiting for the victims’ bodies as well as for the compensation amounting to Rs900,000 for each victim’s family.

There are still 23 legal heirs of the victims who have not been compensated because their DNA samples did not match the bodies that were recently buried.

Nazia Parveen is one such legal heir. She is the widow of Riaz Ahmed and the sister of Rafaqat Ali. Ahmed and Ali both lost their lives in the fire at Ali Enterprises, the garment factory.

However, despite providing DNA samples thrice, she was not handed over her husband’s body and is yet to be compensated as well.

Parveen, along with other heirs of the victims, had recently staged a demonstration in front of the Sindh Assembly to demand the victims’ bodies and compensation.

Following the protest, the authorities concerned had held a dialogue with the heirs and persuaded them to allow the burial of 17 bodies that were kept at the Edhi morgue since the time of the incident. After the heirs’ permission, 17 unidentified bodies were buried on Sunday.

After the fire on September 11 last year, which claimed the lives of around 300 workers, the prime minister, the provincial government and Malik Riaz had announced Rs400,000, Rs300,000 and Rs200,000 as compensation for the family of each victim.

Initially, in the absence of a proper mechanism, several heirs allegedly took bodies from the hospitals and the mortuary and buried them.

Since several remaining bodies were apparently beyond identification because they were badly burnt, the government took DNA samples from the affected families, but the resultant report has yet to be released.

Parveen, who played an important role in assembling the heirs to hold a demonstration in front of the Sindh Assembly, told this correspondent that after the demonstration, the Karachi commissioner had claimed that he had the compensation for all the victims’ families.

She said they were requested to allow the mass burial because the sanctity of the bodies was being affected.

She revealed that after the mass burial, there were still five bodies at the Edhi mortuary that have been identified through DNA, but their legal heirs had yet to collect them since they had already buried someone else in their place.

Parveen said when she asked for compensation, she was told to present the death certificate of her husband, which she did not possess.

Her brother’s body was recognised and compensation amounting to Rs700,000 was awarded to his legal heirs.

“I have been desperately going from pillar to post to get the body of my husband and the lengthy and torturous process has made my life miserable,” she said.

She said she lived in a rented house with three children to look after, adding that she did not know when the government would compensate her.

“Government functionaries are asking me to produce proof of death of my husband. That is not my responsibility. The government should have arranged these documents,” she added.

National Trade Union Federation (NTUF) Deputy General Secretary Nasir Mansoor, who has been a strong supporter of the victims’ families, said the government had arranged the mass burial of 17 bodies to get rid of the issue for good.

He said that the victims’ families would continue to suffer as long as the government does not compensate them.

The NTUF is planning to sue the international audit company that had awarded a clean chit to the garment factory two weeks before the fire broke out there, he added.

Thursday 28 February 2013

- See more at: http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-4-162525-No-bodies-no-compensation-for-heirs#sthash.O18J9Sx7.dpuf

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Wednesday 27 February 2013

Website for international dental charts: terms, symbols and/or abbreviations summarized in 10 languages


Very useful website by Scheila Manica (http://www.internationaldentalcharts.com/) This website is a result of her M.Sc project on international dental charts: Guide of International Dental Charts translated into English - decoding international ante-mortem dental charts for INTERPOL Disaster Victim Identification forms (F2), completed in 2011.

The aim of the study was to analyze the tooth numbering system, symbols and abbreviations used in dental charts worldwide. The countries studied were composed of the 188 INTERPOL member countries.

A total of 40 countries replied and 29 common dental alteration terms and their symbols and/or abbreviations were summarized in 10 languages.

Must have for anyone working in international DVI/missing persons/unid'd bodies and involved with dental identification

Wednesday 27 February 2013

http://www.internationaldentalcharts.com/

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Death toll in Winneba road accident rises to 14


Two victims of last Saturday’s fatal accident at Gomoa Mampong who sustained severe injuries have died.

That brings the death toll to 14.

The deceased, both males, were among five injured persons who were admitted at the Winneba Trauma Specialist Hospital.

There are currently only three survivors on admission at the hospital.

Mr John Paul Akonde, the Winneba Municipal Commander of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU), told the Daily Graphic that one injured passenger died on Sunday, while another passed away on Monday.

Meanwhile, the four injured persons who were admitted at the Winneba Government Hospital have been transferred to the Nsawam Government Hospital on the request by their relatives.

According to Mr Akonde, all the dead bodies had been identified by their relatives and the police were awaiting the outcome of an autopsy before releasing them to their relatives for burial.

Twelve passengers on board a 207 Benz Bus, with registration number AS 669 V, died on Saturday morning when their vehicle was involved in an accident.

They were travelling from Nsawam to Mankessim for a funeral when their bus collided with a tipper truck, with registration number GB 2754-12, at Gomoa Mampong.

The driver of the bus, in an attempt to overtake another vehicle, veered into the lane of the truck, resulting in a collision which led to the death of the 12 passengers.

The deceased comprised eight females and four males, including the driver of the 207 Benz bus.

Nine other passengers, made up of five males and four females, sustained serious injuries.

Wednesday 27 February 2013

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/regional/artikel.php?ID=266123

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Families arriving in Egypt to ID balloon crash victims


Relatives of some of the western and Asian tourists killed in a balloon accident arrived in Egypt on Wednesday to identify the bodies of the victims, airport officials said.

Nineteen tourists died when the hot air balloon they were riding caught fire and plummeted about 1,000 feet to the ground Tuesday in the ancient city of Luxor in southern Egypt. One British tourist survived along with the pilot of the balloon, who was badly injured.

The death toll surpassed what was believed by ballooning experts to be the deadliest accident in the sport's 200-year history: In 1989, 13 people were killed when their hot air balloon collided with another over the Australian outback near the town of Alice Springs.

The balloon over Luxor, 510 kilometres (320 miles) south of Cairo, was carrying tourists from France, Britain, Belgium, Japan and Hong Kong plus an Egyptian pilot. The balloon flights provide panoramic views of the ancient Karnak and Luxor temples and the Valley of the Kings, the burial ground of Tutankhamun and other pharaohs.

An airport official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said relatives of nine tourists from Hong Kong arrived in Cairo to identify the bodies of the victims.

The bodies of all the victims were moved on Tuesday to morgues in Cairo. The two survivors were being treated in military hospitals.

According to initial reports, the balloon was in the process of landing after 7 a.m. when a cable got caught around a gas tube and a fire erupted. The balloon plummeted about 1,000 feet to the ground, crashing in a sugar cane field. The bodies of the tourists were scattered across the field around remnants of the balloon.

Authorities suspended hot air balloon flights, a popular tourist attraction here, while investigators determined the cause of the accident.

The tragedy raised worries of another blow to the nation's vital tourism industry, decimated by two years of unrest since the 2011 revolution that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak. The southern city of Luxor has been hit hard, with vacant hotel rooms and empty cruise ships.

Wednesday 27 February 2013

Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/families-arriving-in-egypt-to-id-balloon-crash-victims-1.1173933#ixzz2M7a05mne

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At least 35 killed in Mwingi bus crash


At least 35 people have been killed in a road accident in Mwingi on Wednesday morning.

The accident involved a Garissa-bound bus which lost control and rolled several times at about 3am, according to Traffic Commandant Samuel Kimaru.

Eleven people were killed on the spot while the rest were trapped under the wreckage and it took rescuers more than four hours to help them out.

“It was a very bad accident, it took a lot of time for them to be rescued because the bus was badly damaged,” he said.

Kimaru said more than 20 other passengers have been admitted to the Mwingi District Hospital.

The Traffic Commandant said they have not established the exact cause of the accident that occurred at Tulimani area.

“We don’t know what exactly happened but we are urging motorists to be careful to avoid such accidents. We could not have lost the 35 people, if drivers were careful on the road,” added Kimaru.

Over the weekend, at least 17 people were killed and scores injured in two separate road accidents in Voi and Kilifi on Saturday morning.

In the first accident that happened at Ndii near Voi, 12 people died on the spot after a bus and trailer collided. The dead included 10 men and two women as well as drivers of both vehicles.

Fourteen other people were injured and were rushed to the Voi District hospital for treatment.

"The death toll may increase because there were serious injuries following the accident. Those who were injured are undergoing treatment in hospital," Traffic officer Samuel Kimaru is quoted as saying by Kenya's Standard newspaper.

Police said that the bus which was heading to Mombasa from Nairobi was overtaking another vehicle before it collided with the oncoming trailer.

“This is purely a case of human error, the bus driver was trying to overtake when there is a trailer approaching,” Kimaru told Capital FM News following the 4am accident last Saturday.

The second accident in Vipingo area in Kilifi that claimed five lives involved a matatu and a private van that had previously operated as tour van.

Wednesday 27 February 2013

http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2013/02/at-least-35-killed-in-mwingi-bus-crash/

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Texas overtakes Ariz. in border crossing deaths


The new scrutiny of South Texas by a civil-rights group focused on identifying the bodies of illegal border crossers underscores a geographical shift: Texas is overtaking Arizona in migrant deaths.

An accurate count is hard to gather because state, federal and local agencies keep separate records, with some remains being counted twice. Other bodies are never found.

But a comparison of the Brooks County, Texas, figures with recent numbers from Arizona -- where the information gathering is more centralized -- suggests the Texas death toll has either surpassed Arizona’s or is close. And the increasing deaths come as overall immigration to the United States has dropped dramatically.

U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions, which analysts rely on to measure illegal immigration, are at 40-year lows, though there was a slight uptick in fiscal year 2012. They dropped from more than 1 million in 2006 to more than 364,000 in 2012.

This happened even as Border Patrol increased staffing from more than 12,000 to more than 21,000 for the same period.

The group Coalicion de Derechos Humanos recorded 253 migrant deaths in Arizona in the 2010 fiscal year; the toll dropped to 179 in 2012. Researchers consider the group’s numbers fairly reliable because the bulk of the data comes from Pima County, where the medical examiner’s office processes the majority of border crossers’ remains found in the state.

In Brooks County, the death toll of 129 was up from 52 in 2011. Add to that the roughly 30 other deaths recorded by Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley, and the Texas numbers already are approaching Arizona’s. Another 19 deaths were recorded by Border Patrol in its 2012 fiscal year in other Texas sectors, and that does not include bodies encountered by state and local authorities.

“You’re probably going to have more” deaths in Texas for 2012, said Raquel Rubio-Goldsmith, researcher and adjunct lecturer at the University of Arizona’s Binational Migration Institute.

In Brooks County, there are no signs of the deaths abating. Since Jan. 1, 10 sets of remains have been discovered, compared with four for the same period in 2012.

The shift is so stark that humanitarian groups that once trained their efforts primarily on the Arizona-Sonora region now are alarmed at what is happening in South Texas.

The South Texas Human Rights Project is beginning to pressure Texas localities that don’t take DNA samples of unidentified human remains as it looks to tackle a problem once pervasive in Arizona. Counties there had no centralized way of documenting deaths, making it harder to identify remains. Now all but a handful are processed through Pima County.

Local authorities in South Texas operate like those in the Arizona-Sonora region a decade ago, human rights advocates say. Counties such as Brooks County, overwhelmed, understaffed, lacking medical examiners and funding, haven’t been taking DNA from each body, making it harder for families of the missing to identify them later through DNA matches, the groups say. They held a news conference on the county courthouse steps this week and a prayer vigil at the county cemetery, which has run out of space.

And humanitarian groups haven’t responded in Texas as they have in Arizona.

University of Arizona anthropologist Robin Reineke, who came here to research the growing migrant deaths, was surprised by the lack of groups that set out water, erect warning signs to deter crossings, connect with families searching for the missing.

It’s “strangely silent,” she said.

Observers point to multiple reasons for the shift of migrant deaths to South Texas.

In the 1990s, U.S. enforcement strategies hardened the border in El Paso and San Diego, Calif., pushing migrants into the Sonoran desert, said Douglas Massey, co-director of the Mexican Migration Project at Princeton University.

In 2004 and 2010, new initiatives tightened enforcement in Arizona and pushed traffic into the lower Rio Grande Valley, Massey said.

Meanwhile, other forces were reshaping migration flows. The Mexican economy improved while the United States sank into recession. The average Mexican family got smaller with increased birth control, said Eleanor Sohnen, analyst at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.

An April report from the Pew Research Center showed these forces contributed to a net standstill in migration -- or even a slightly negative migration, with more people moving south than north.

But the same forces that slowed Mexican migration did not extend to Central America -- particularly Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, where stagnant growth and continued gang violence and drug trafficking spur people to leave. Guatemalans continue to have high fertility rates, Sohnen said.

A majority of the people dying in Brooks County came from those countries, according to sheriff’s reports, local law enforcement and Border Patrol officials.

Texas may be more geographically convenient for an illegal border crossing when traveling from Central America. But, analysts say, migrants are also heeding Arizona’s reputation for treacherous terrain and strict enforcement.

For human rights groups bringing new scrutiny to Texas, there seems little hope that the growing number deaths will enter into policy discussions in Washington.

“We’ve been using that vocabulary: ‘humanitarian crisis,’” said Mike Wilson, policy director for the Border Action Network. “It doesn’t move people. Migrant deaths are a regional, provincial story. It just gets no traction.”

Wednesday 27 February 2013

http://www.standard.net/stories/2013/02/26/texas-overtakes-ariz-border-crossing-deaths

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Mexico Drug War: Missing Persons Total At 26,121, Government Says


An official count shows at least 26,121 people were reported missing during the term of President Felipe Calderon, who launched the country's offensive against drug cartels, Mexico's new administration said Tuesday.

Lia Limon, the Interior Department's subsecretary for human rights, said the list used data from local prosecutors across Mexico, and includes people reported missing for any reason during the previous administration. It doesn't include information collected after November 2012.

The list has been a subject of controversy in Mexico for weeks. After Limon said last week that some 27,000 were missing, a member of Calderon's administration disputed the figure, saying the only registry on disappeared people contains 5,319 names. Limon said the government would work to compare the official list with others assembled by government agencies and rights groups.

The government will also work to clarify who on the list may have been a victim of crime, and who may have gone missing for reasons like migration to the United States, a family dispute or a natural disaster.

"We have to be clear that this database doesn't prejudge the reasons that people can't be found, because many of the people on it could be missing for a variety of reasons that don't have to do with criminal acts," Limon said.

She said some sort of investigation had been opened in 20,915 of the cases, but she offered no details.

The Interior Department has granted some public access to the list, but those seeking information must enter a person's name in order to obtain any data.

The civil society group Propuesta Civica recently published a database it said was created by the federal attorney-general's office that contained 20,582. Days earlier, The Washington Post published a story that said it had been given a copy of the database that contained more than 25,000 names.

The organization Human Rights Watch said last week that it had documented 249 cases of disappearances since December 2006, 149 of which showed evidence of having taken place at the hands of security forces.

Searches of some of the names in the rights group's report showed that they did not appear in the new government database.

Wednesday 27 February 2013

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/26/mexico-drug-war-missing-persons-total-26121_n_2767829.html?utm_hp_ref=world#slide=1630097

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Progress in battle to ID lost graves in Plaquemines Parish


It was one of the more morbid aspects of the damage done by Hurricane Isaac -- dozens of caskets in Plaquemines Parish left lying on levees, roads, and farmland after being washed away from cemeteries.

Netiokee Hill thought three generations of her family would remain at Promised Land Cemetery for centuries. But after Isaac, things were different.

Hill said, "When I came down here, I didn't see nothing. My great grandfather's plaque... I didn't see nothing."

The hurricane scattered scores of bodies across the parish. Commander Eric Becnel with the Plaquemines Parish Sheriff's Office said, "We had 194 bodies that were recovered and we identified 134."

Among the missing were the remains of Hill's mother, grandmother, and great-grandfather. "I felt heartbroken, like I relived my mother's passing all over again," said Hill.


Now, thanks to painstaking work by the LSU Forensic Center, FEMA, and the Sheriff's Office, Hill has some peace of mind. The remains of her mother, grandmother, and great grandfather, have now been located and are back at the Promised Land Cemetery.

Hill said, "Words can't explain, I was so happy."

Officials have now identified about two-thirds of the remains that were carried away in the flood.

On the east bank of Plaquemines Parish, 60 bodies remain unidentified, but the Sheriff's Office promises to keep working to identify as many more as possible. "Efforts are ongoing. We need to reach out to the public if they can come forward and provide us with any information," said Becnel.

The Sheriff's Office has placed anchored metal bands around the recovered graves, to keep future floods from carrying them away again.

Hill hopes that from now on, through hurricanes and high water, the Promised Land Cemetery will remain the final resting place for her family

If you can help identify the remaining bodies with photos or any kind of dental records, give the Sheriff's Office a call at 504-564-2525.

Wednesday 27 February 2013

http://www.fox8live.com/story/21390248/progress-in-the-battle-to-id-lost-graves-in-plaquemines-parish

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Fire in Kolkata market: 19 killed, 50 injured


At least 19 people were killed and 50 people sustained serious burn injuries as a massive fire engulfed Surya Sen market in central Kolkata's Sealdah area early today. The death toll may further go up.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee also visited the fire site after the incident and blamed the unplanned constructions in the area for the fire.

“This is a very tragic incident. And it has happened because of unplanned constructions in the area. We would give Rs. 2 lakh compensation to the family of those who lost their life. I have asked the police, fire department and Kolkata Municipal Corporation to give me report in three days time following which we will take the next step,” Banerjee said.

According to the fire-fighters the fire was detected at 3.50 am at the godown-cum-market complex when the victims were sleeping inside the room. Following which 26 fire-engines rushed to the stop to bring the situation under control. The fire now though under control but is yet to be doused completely.

One woman and 18 men died so far, some sustained sever burn injuries and others died of suffocation. Surajit Kar Purkayastha, Commissioner of Police is at the spot.

Fire service minister Javed Kahn blamed the Left regime for the tragedy.

“This market complex was constructed during the Left rule. It was unauthorized and illegal and did not follow any fire safety norms. Question is how the then government had allowed it to come up? We will take action against the market authorities for not having any fire safety arrangements,” Khan said.

Opposition leader Suryakanta Mishra, rushed to the spot but chose not to react to Khan’s statement.

“I cannot make irresponsible statements. All I can say is that this is the time when we should focus on saving people maximum number of people, providing treatment for the injured and douse the fire. We demand an enquiry into the incident,” Mishra said.

The market has six floors, while the first two floors have godowns, offices and shops the rest of the floors are vacant because of a property dispute among the owners. According to eyewitnesses the fire started on the ground floor, which had several shops stocking Thermocol and jute items and then spread to the first floor and some parts of the second floor.

The reason of the fire is still unknown, however police officials feel that a short circuit may have sparked the fire.

Questions are being raised why the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the fire department did not pull up the market authorities for not having fire safety measures.

The incident brought back the memory of fire at AMRI Hospital in the city on December 9, 2011, which killed 93 patients, and the 2010 Stephen Court fire in Kolkata which killed 43.

Wednesday 27 February 2013

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Kolkata/Fire-in-Kolkata-market-19-killed-50-injured-Trinamool-blames-Left-regime-for-tragedy/Article1-1018079.aspx

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Tuesday 26 February 2013

Minibus Plunges off Cliff in SW China, 7 Killed


Seven people have been confirmed dead and another two injured after a minibus fell from a mountain highway in southwest China's Guizhou Province on Tuesday, local police said.

The minibus carrying nine passengers plunged about 250 meters off a cliff in Libo County, Bouyei-Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Qiannan, at 2:10 a.m. Tuesday.

The public security department, fire department and traffic police rushed to the scene to carry out rescue efforts and investigate the cause of the accident.

Firefighters pulled two people that had been trapped in the crushed vehicle to safety, and they have been sent to the hospital for treatment, firefighters said.

Tuesday 26 February 2013

http://english.cri.cn/6909/2013/02/26/2941s750574.htm

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Egypt hot air balloon crash kills 18 tourists


A hot air balloon flying over Egypt's ancient city of Luxor has caught fire and crashed into a sugar cane field, killing at least 18 foreign tourists, a security official says.

It was one of the worst accidents involving tourists in Egypt and likely to push the key tourism industry deeper into recession. The casualties included French, British, Japanese nationals and nine tourists from Hong Kong, the official said.

Three survivors of the crash — two tourists and one Egyptian — were taken to a local hospital.

According to the Egyptian security official, the balloon carrying at least 20 tourists was flying over Luxor when it caught fire, which triggered an explosion in its gas canister, then plunged at least 300 metres from the sky.

It crashed into a sugar cane field outside al-Dhabaa village just west of Luxor, 510 kilometres south of Cairo, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media.

Bodies of the dead tourists were scattered across the field around the remnants of the balloon. An Associated Press reporter at the crash site counted eight bodies as they were put into body bags and taken away. The security official said all 18 bodies have been recovered.

The official said foul play has been ruled out. He also said initial reports of 19 dead were revised to 18 as confusion is common in the aftermath of such accidents.

Two survivors, including the balloon’s pilot, have been taken to hospital, a security official told news agency AFP.

Tourism official Ahmed Aboud said the balloon was at around 1,000 feet above Luxor, famous for its pharaonic temples and tombs of the Valley of the Kings when the blast happened, which Aboud said was caused by an explosion in the hose between the balloon's burner and its gas canister.

Mohamed Mustafa, a doctor at the hospital where the wounded were being treated, said the dead included tourists from Britain, Japan and Hong Kong. Three more were hurt, he added.

Luxor province's governor told Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr that some of the bodies had yet to be identified.

Photographer Christopher Michel was in another balloon, taking some aerial shots, at the time of the crash.

He told the BBC: "We flew over the ancient ruins. Just before landing in the cornfields, I heard an explosion and saw smoke. I think it was the balloon behind mine.

"I wasn't sure what had happened at first. It was only when we landed we heard the full extent of what happened." In Hong Kong, a travel agency said nine of the tourists that were aboard the balloon were natives of the semiautonomous Chinese city. It did not say whether all nine were killed. The information was posted on the agency's website.

U.S. photographer Christopher Michel, who was on board another balloon, told Britain's Sky News television that the balloon was one of eight flying at the time.

"We heard a loud explosion behind us. I looked back and saw lots of smoke. It wasn't immediately clear that it was a balloon," he said.

In Paris, a diplomatic official said French tourists were among those involved in the accident, but would give no details on how many, or whether French citizens were among those killed.

Speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorised to be publicly named according to government policy, the official said French authorities were working with their Egyptian counterparts to clarify what happened. French media reports said two French tourists were among the dead but the official wouldn't confirm that.

A New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman said its consular staff in Egypt were aware of the reported crash near Luxor. They were working to find out if any New Zealanders were involved.

Hot air ballooning, usually at sunrise over the famed Karnak and Luxor temples as well as the Valley of the Kings, is a popular pastime for tourists visiting Luxor.

The site of the accident has seen past crashes. In 2009, 16 tourists were injured when their balloon struck a cellphone transmission tower. A year earlier, seven tourists were injured in a similar crash.

Egypt's tourism industry has been decimated since the 18-day uprising in 2011 against autocrat leader Hosni Mubarak and the political turmoil that followed and continues to this day.

Luxor's hotels are currently about 25 per cent full in what is supposed to be the peak of the winter season.

Hot air ballooning at dawn is a popular draw with tourists, a mainstay of the Egyptian economy, but visitor numbers have fallen sharply since a 2011 uprising that toppled veteran President Hosni Mubarak. Two years of political instability have scared off many foreign tourists.

Tourism accounted for more than a 10th of Egypt's gross domestic product before the revolt. In 2010, around 14.7 million visitors came to Egypt, but this slumped to 9.8 million people the next year.

Tuesday 26 February 2013

http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/national-news/8355080/Egypt-hot-air-balloon-crash-kills-18-tourists

http://news.yahoo.com/hot-air-balloon-carrying-20-tourists-crashes-egypt-063653885.html

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Three more bodies recovered from nullah


The death toll from the Friday’s bus accident rose to 22 as three more bodies were recovered by rescuers here on Sunday.

Around eight children were still missing, according to the officials of the Rescue 1122.

The rescue operation will continue till the recovery of the all missing children, they further said.

One of the rescuers present at the spot told Dawn on phone that they recovered bodies of two children and a 19 years old girl. On Saturday rescuers had recovered four bodies, including three children and a woman. Army rescue workers also participated in the rescue operation.

A bus carrying people to a wedding party had fallen in Budhni nullah on Friday due to negligence of the driver.

The rescue operation continued till 8pm on Sunday, said an official of the Rescue 1122. “We recovered three bodies in a deep area of the nullah near Daman bridge,” he further said.Two teams of the Rescue 1122 participated in the search of the bodies at shifts.

Meanwhile, a police constable was killed by unknown armed persons in Yakkatoot area on Sunday morning. The policeman was identified as Farman, presently deputed at the Yakkatoot police station.

According to the father of the deceased policeman, his son was on his way home when unknown persons shot him dead. He said they had no enmity with anyone. Police registered FIR and started investigation.

Monday 25 February 2013

http://dawn.com/2013/02/25/three-more-bodies-recovered-from-nullah/

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Monday 25 February 2013

Thames Valley Police making progress on mystery bodies


Investigations into eight unidentified bodies across the Thames Valley have generated inquiries across Europe, Canada and England.

Thames Valley Police's Operation Nightingale was launched in December into cases dating back to 1970.

In January, the force was contacted by a Canadian relative of a tailor whose distinctive Derbyshire-made jacket was found on a body in Berkshire in 1979.

Donnington Operation Nightingale artist's impression An artist's impression of the man found near Newbury in 1979

Two of the other eight cases have led to appeals in Poland and Albania.

A number of calls have been received from Derbyshire in connection with the case of a man in his 60s, discovered in a disused shed in Donnington, near Newbury in March 1979.

He was wearing a single-breasted jacket from tailor JW Marples, which were principally sold to the farming community and possibly made in Chesterfield or Bakewell.

Thames Valley Police distributed around 200 flyers at the Bakewell cattle market and around the local community.

Det Con Alison Brown, from the force's major crime review team, also made an appeal on BBC Radio Derby for information leading to the man's identity.

Concealed inside lorry

Investigations into the death of a man on the northbound carriageway of the M40 in Oxfordshire in January 2000 are focusing on Oxford's Albanian community.

Dorney Operation Nightingale artist's impression Appeals to trace the man found near Eton have been made in Poland

Police believe the man, aged between 17 and 30, may have been an illegal immigrant from Kosovo or Albania, who could have entered the country concealed inside a lorry.

Polish missing persons website Itaka, has been involved with investigations of another case near Eton in May 2004.

The body of a man, aged between 25 and 35, was found floating in the water of Jubilee River in Dorney, Buckinghamshire.

Police have requested Itaka to put the deceased's profile on their website and check their records for a possible identity.

Det Con Alison Brown said: "We would welcome any information regardless of how small or insignificant you think it may be to try and help identify these men."

Monday 25 February 2013

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-21522896

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North Korea's 18 state sanctioned female hairstyles, men get 10


Men and women in North Korea may not be able to cut their hair in trendy, new styles, as the country has launched a campaign allowing women to choose from 18 different “officially sanctioned” hairstyles, while men get to choose from just 10.

It was sparked by communist officials wanting to forbid western influences. The 18 hairstyles women can choose from don’t have much variety, most being short bobs or unstyled medium-length hair.

Usually, women are encouraged to wear their hair straight with traditional Korean dress, but if they wear western clothes, they can wear their hair wavy or curled.

The hairstyles change for married women, too. When a woman is married, it’s frowned upon to wear longer hair. But if a woman is single, she can be more creative with her hair and wear it long, in braids, or put a ribbon in it.

Residents of the country made a TV series in 2005 called “Let us trim our hair in accordance with Socialist lifestyle.” It aimed to promote a certain type of male hairstyle which included a short length in the back and sides.

While this show aired, radio reports popped up all over North Korea urging people to wear tidy hairstyles and appropriate clothing.




The show escalated to send hidden cameras out to catch rebellious North Koreans who were breaking the hairstyle rules. They even began to name and publicly shame those who wore their hair differently.

According to Korean authorities, men should keep their hair shorter than five centimeters and cut it every 15 days.

When a man reaches an older age, he’s allowed to grow his hair up to seven centimeters.

Though the strict guidelines are still enforced, North Korea’s first lady Ri Sol-ju has shown she's more fashion forward, choosing two piece suits and slicked back hair instead of the traditional Korean dress and short bob.

Monday 25 February 2013

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/north-korean-women-encouraged-choose-18-official-hairstyles-men-get-10#

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Nigeria: Truck Kills Eight On Lagos-Ibadan Expressway


Eight persons died on Sunday along Ibadan-Lagos Expressway when the commercial vehicle conveying them rammed into a truck.

Witnesses say the crash, which occurred in Mowe area of the expressway, a stone throw to Redeemed Christian Church of God headquarters, was caused by the truck driver who was reversing on the highway.

The eight passengers, travelling in a space-wagon, were heading towards Lagos from Abeokuta, when the driver, already on a high speed, unexpectedly drove straight into the truck.

All eight passengers died on the spot of the accident, alongside the driver.

It took the accident rescue team almost an hour, before the corpses of the victims could be retrieved from the wreckage.

Other motorists and passengers plying the road who met the accident, could not hold back tears, as the battered bodies of the victims were being pulled from the car.

As at the time of this report, the number plate of the commercial vehicle had been removed, while the truck which caused the crash had been towed to the police station.

The corpses were deposited in the mortuary, as efforts were ongoing by the authorities to locate the families and relatives of the deceased.

Monday 25 February 2013

http://allafrica.com/stories/201302250274.html

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Whose bones made it home from the Vietnam War?


A mass grave was dug up this month dedicated to the crew of an EC-47Q reconnaissance plane at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in Missouri.

The electronic surveillance plane left Pleiku Airbase in the Republic of Vietnam Feb. 5, 1969. About 20 miles northwest of Chavanne, Laos, the crew made its last radio contact at 8:10 a.m. It missed a scheduled stop at noon, and a search began that's continued by family today.

The crash site in the Laotian jungle was first found that fall and analyses of the bones concluded they came from just five to seven men. Convinced the whole crew died in the crash, the military engraved 10 names in the granite headstone at Jefferson Barracks.

The U.S. military still cannot account for 1,654 Americans lost in the Vietnam conflict, and the remains of thousands more never have been recovered.

One Houston family is among those hoping the disinterred grave and DNA exemplars they provided to the military finally will let them know whose bones made it home.

"I would hope that I would find out definitely that my husband was indeed dead," said Cindy Burke, widow of Capt. Walter Burke. "I'm sure that after all this time he is, but I would like a final closure."

Although Jefferson Barracks has more than 500 mass graves, disinterments are rare. Only a handful have been dug up in the last few decades.

Paul Clever holds what he believes may be part of his father's flight vest. He recovered that along with other artifacts from the Laos crash site of his father's spy plane.

Military records show an officer closed the case in 1969 although a report submitted to him said the whole crew was not accounted for in the recovered remains.

In 1995, a recovery team searching for a different crash site found Walter's dog tag, promising Cindy in a 1996 letter that they would return it once a full dig was completed at the site. It's not clear why, but that never happened.

When the son of Sgt. Louis Clever, Paul, received a copy of the dog tag letter from Cindy's daughter, he contacted the Air Force Mortuary Affairs office. The chief of the Past Conflicts Branch found the dog tag in Hawaii, helped return it to the Burke family in November, and now is organizing the disinterment and DNA testing.

"A lot of years ago my mom felt dismissed, that they didn't value the situation and just wanted to be done with it," said Lauren Branch, Burke's daughter. "I think just telling her that he's not forgotten about, I think that meant a lot to her."

Without certainty about whose bones made it home - only one unmarried man was identified - none of the wives knew who might have survived the crash and who might one day come home. Uncertain, none remarried.

The families stitched together a semblance of sanity. The wives tried not to let questions about the crash consume them as they confronted the sudden challenge of being single mothers in an era when that wasn't a term.

Some of the crew's children have few memories of their fathers.

Lauren was just 4 years old when her father's plane was hit and a wing torn from its fuselage.

The return of her father's dog tag last year led to details about the crash she'd never known and which gave perspective to a sadness once without boundaries.

Her mother said she hopes the tests bring her additional closure, but remains upset about how the case was handled initially.

"A lot of things happened that should never have happened," she said.

Cyanide capsules

One crewman's family agreed to the disinterment even though they already know three teeth from Sgt. Clarence "Boone" McNeill are among the bones in the grave.

Using dental records, Boone was the only person identified in 1969. His brother, Walker McNeill of North Carolina, didn't learn about the identification until November.

"We were told that some of the remains had been identified but their policy was to notify only the family involved, so when we didn't hear anything we assumed that Boone was one of the crew members whose remains weren't identified," Walker said.

His mother died in 2006 believing her son was trapped in a Chinese prisoner camp. Walker and his brother Dan, now a four-star general in the Army, never told her they did not share her hope.

The last time Walker saw his brother, Clarence showed him a pill box with two cyanide capsules he had been directed to use if his plane crashed.

"My brother and I weren't surprised that the remains were Boone's because we had already accepted the fact he probably didn't make it," Walker said. "The funeral ceremony at Jefferson Barracks was closure for us."

DNA to be tested

Protesters cursed the families as they drove through the gates of Jefferson National Barracks for a funeral months after the crash.

Paul remembers clouds strangled the sun as Missouri dirt rained onto two off-white caskets.

He was 7 years old when the men in uniform came to the door and told his mother that his father was missing in action, lost.

Lost. That was a word young Paul understood. He lost a He-Man action figure once then found him. He wanted to tell the men and this mother, "I can find him!" They told him to go out and play.

In December, Paul and his wife searched the Laotian jungle for answers obscured by inaccurate GPS coordinates and four decades of growth. In a rocky river bed, they found a few small bones, shirt snap buttons, a ⅜ drive socket, mesh from a vest, a twisted sheet of the fuselage and other small remnants.

Paul revisited the Missouri grave site on a sunny day this month to watch 10,000 pounds of dirt lifted from atop the caskets.

The rotting wood shells held body bags filled with 30 pounds of bone, just one-tenth of the crew's full skeletal weight but more than enough for DNA tests. The testing could take up to a year, but family hopes for answers sometime this summer.

Paul wants to know whose bones made it home, but even if his DNA sample shows a familial match with those raised out of the ground, he said he won't feel closure.

"They say severe trauma changes you on the cellular level and I tend to believe that," Paul said. He plans to continue seeking answers about the military missteps that halted a full recovery and left families without answers for so long.

Cindy hopes the tests will bring closure, although it's tough to know what that will feel like after 44 years of waiting.

"It hurts to have all these old wounds opened up again," Cindy said. "After a while, you get to the point where you go on living. I had children to raise. I have grandchildren now. I'm going to be a great-grandmother for the first time.

"You know, right now we're on hold."

Monday 25 February 2013

Read more: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Whose-bones-made-it-home-from-the-Vietnam-War-4304680.php#ixzz2LuDo1jcG

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Hoping for closure, families bury unidentified dead


Five months after the Baldia factory blaze, the bodies of 17 unidentified victims were buried at the KMC graveyard near the Hub River Road on Sunday.

According to court orders, government officials had allotted a serial number to every body at the Edhi morgue so that when the DNA reports arrived, they could be identified. But the DNA reports never arrived.

“Seventeen coffins contain bodies. And one only body parts,” said Anwar Kazmi of the Edhi Foundation as volunteers put the sealed coffins in ambulances.

The coffins were taken to a ground in Baldia Town for the funeral rites and then to the government graveyard for burial.

The victims’ graves do not have tombstones with their names, but the serial numbers they were allotted.

The burial could have been carried out months ago if only the government had paid a little attention to the crisis, said Abdul Sattar Edhi, the founder of the Edhi Foundation.

“We live in a poverty-struck country. If people lose someone here, they mourn and protest to an extent. After that, they give up and move on. What else can they do?” he said.

Kader lost his younger brother in the fire. He was 17 years old and his body was never found. “My mother cried for months. But she has given up now. She has accepted that he is no more,” said Kader. “I can only hope that he is in one of these coffins.”

The elderly Muhammad Sharif lost his 21-year-old son Muhammad Hanif in the fire and is still waiting for the body. He has not been compensated as well.

Sharif attended the mass burial hoping that his son’s body was among the bodies of the unidentified victims.

He said Hanif had started working at the factory four months before the fire. Hanif also had a speech impairment.

Sharif had provided his DNA samples twice, but was told that the samples did not match any of the bodies at the mortuary.

His two daughters also have a speech impairment like their deceased brother. Sharif himself has some orthopaedic problems, which have rendered him unable to work.

He approached many government functionaries to be compensated as per the announcement, but was told he needed his son’s body before he could be compensated.

When Sharif approached the Saylani Welfare Trust and the Alamgir Welfare Trust, they assured him that they would provide his family with ration for a month.

Another victim Muhammad Akmal is survived by three minor sons: 10-year-old Hamza, eight-year-old Mubin and two-year-old Ahmed.

The sons also attended the mass burial wondering if they would ever see their father’s body. Akmal had been working at the factory as a supervisor and was employed there for eight years.

After the fire, his widow and their three sons have been waiting to identify his body, but the government has failed them.

They have not been paid a single paisa as compensation so far and their relatives have already spent between Rs40,000 and Rs50,000 on travelling and other expenses as per the government’s requirements for being compensated.

National Trade Union Federation Deputy General Secretary Nasir Mansoor said these affectees had faced a lot of difficulties during the lengthy and inhuman process.

He said the bodies buried on Sunday were unclaimed and there were still 25 to 30 victims’ families who had provided their DNA samples, but were not handed over the bodies.

He said that the government’s tenure would end soon and then the caretaker setup would take over, which would only focus on holding the elections and the fire victims’ issues would be forgotten.

A German delegation of trade unionists, led by Thomas Seibert, also attended the mass burial to express solidarity with the victims’ families.

On September 11 last year, a fire had erupted at Ali Enterprises and claimed the lives of around 300 workers.

The federal government, the head of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and a noted builder had announced compensation for each affected family, but only those affectees were compensated who had identified the bodies.

Most victims were identified by their clothes or the contents of their pockets because their faces had been burnt beyond recognition. The 17 bodies buried on Sunday were kept at the Edhi morgue, as their DNA samples had been sent to Islamabad. Considering the delay in receiving the DNA reports, the court had ordered that the bodies be buried.

Monday 25 February 2013

http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-4-161933-Hoping-for-closure-families-bury-unide

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Sunday 24 February 2013

10 Killed, 17 Injured as tropical cyclone hits Madagascar


Tropical cyclone Haruna and rains that lashed the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar killed 10 people and affected nearly 3 000 this week, the disaster management agency said Saturday.

The cyclone struck on Friday morning in the southwest region and left the island 24 hours later, having claimed six lives and hurt 17, it said. Four other people were killed in torrential rain earlier in the week.

Heavy rains had pounded the island before strong gusts of wind reaching speeds of 200 kmh (125 mph).

The cyclone destroyed around 70 percent of the southwestern city of Morombe, chief ot the National Bureau of Risk and Catastrophe Management, Raymond Randriatahina, told AFP.

The category 2 cyclone was downgraded to a tropical storm after dissipating at sea at 0230 GMT on Saturday.

“This tropical disturbance is expected to bring a lot of rain in southern Madagascar in the coming two days,” a meteorologist, Ndinizara Newsman de Priscofe, said.

About 30 towns in the south of the country had been under threat of violent storms, but only Morombe was severely affected

Sunday 24 February 2013

http://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/10-dead-as-cyclone-lashes-madagascar-1.1475841#.USp1kjDVWCA

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17 unclaimed bodies buried 5 months after Pakistan factory fire that killed 259



A Pakistani government official says authorities have buried 17 bodies that were never claimed after a factory fire killed 259 workers five months ago.

Ghanwar Leghari says the bodies were buried on Sunday, fulfilling a court order issued in southern city of Karachi.

He says authorities have been trying to ascertain the identities of the victims through DNA testing.

If they eventually can identify the victims through matching DNA, the bodies will be exhumed and turned over to relatives.

The factory caught fire on Sept 11, 2012 in Karachi.

The lack of proper fire safety systems in the factory was blamed for the high death toll.

Sunday 24 February 2013

Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/news/Official+unclaimed+bodies+buried+months+after+Pakistan+factory/8008787/story.html#ixzz2LpuDqZLB

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After Fukushima: families on the edge of meltdown



Perhaps one day Aiko and Kenji Nomura will laugh about the Birthday Cake Incident. It happened last autumn. Aiko, a care worker from the city of Koriyama in Japan's Fukushima prefecture, was celebrating her 35th birthday. Her husband Kenji decided to surprise her. On the way home from his job at the post office, he picked up the biggest cake he could find. It was filled with whipped cream and decorated with pink roses.

"I couldn't help myself," recalls Aiko. "Kenji had a huge smile on his face, but the first words that shot out of my mouth when I saw the cake were: 'Is the cream safe?'"

Since March 2011, when a triple meltdown occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant 56km from their home, the Nomuras have avoided buying dairy and other foodstuffs produced in their region. Kenji, 42, confessed to Aiko that he had forgotten to check the cream's origins. "I'm sure it's fine. Please eat some – just this once," he begged her. Aiko refused. She would not let their children have any, either. In silence, Kenji picked up a fork and ate the cake alone, right down to the last crumb. The couple did not speak for two days.

It is almost two years since the colossal earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan that killed 20,000 people and caused the world's worst nuclear disaster in 25 years. The Nomuras' home city of Koriyama, an inland commercial hub with 337,000 people and shimmering views of nearby mountains, was spared the tsunami's monstrous waves. But it could not escape the clouds of radioactive particles that spread widely, following multiple explosions at the Daiichi plant. The total amount of radiation released into the air was (depending on who funded the estimate) between 18 and 40% of the quantity released during Chernobyl in 1986 – and over an area of Japan with a population density 10 times greater. In the aftermath, radiation levels in Koriyama spiked at 30 to 40 times higher than legal limits, contaminating the city with caesium and other long-life radionuclides for decades to come.

The Nomuras, who have two small daughters, Sakura aged three and 15-month-old Koto, have managed to hold together their marriage and family throughout the crisis so far. But only just. Over the past two years, they have had to cope with the arrival of a new baby (Aiko was pregnant with Koto when the disaster struck), periods of enforced separation and life in an environment that feels infinitely less wholesome and secure than it did before.

The stress on family life for all two million people across Fukushima has been immense. Marital discord has become so widespread that the phenomenon of couples breaking up has a name: genpatsu rikon or "atomic divorce".

There are no statistics yet, but Noriko Kubota, a professor of clinical psychology at the local Iwaki Meisei University, confirms there are many cases. "People are living with constant low-level anxiety. They don't have the emotional strength to mend their relationships when cracks appear," she explains. Couples are being torn apart over such issues as whether to stay in the area or leave, what to believe about the dangers of radiation, whether it is safe to get pregnant and the best methods to protect children. "When people disagree over such sensitive matters, there's often no middle way," adds Kubota, who also runs a counselling service.

Moreover, now that what Kubota calls the "disaster honeymoon period" of people uniting to help each other in the immediate aftermath is over, long-term psychological trauma is setting in. "We are starting to see more cases of suicide, depression, alcoholism, gambling and domestic violence across the area," says the psychologist. The young are not immune either. In late 2012, Fukushima's children topped Japan's obesity rankings for the first time due to apparent comfort eating and inordinate amounts of time spent indoors avoiding contamination. "From the point of view of mental health, this is a very critical time," says Kubota.

Most unmentionable of all, cases of discrimination against people from Fukushima are arising within Japanese society. Social stigma attached to victims of radiation goes back to the aftermath of the wartime atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, when men could not find work and women were unable to marry due to fears they were "tainted". While the ignorance that remains is far from universal, it is highly insidious. Tales exist of people from Fukushima being barred from giving blood, having their car windows smashed or being asked to provide a medical certificate of their caesium levels on job applications.

A Tokyo maternity hospital advised a new mother not to let her Fukushima-based parents visit their new grandchild, "just to be safe". Prejudice against women is the most pervasive: many negative comments in the media and on websites insinuate that Fukushima women are "damaged goods". Even some people who are supposedly on the side of radiation victims are prepared to throw them on the reproductive scrap heap.

Last year, prominent anti-nuclear activist Hobun Ikeya, the head of the Ecosystem Conservation Society of Japan, said at a public meeting: "People from Fukushima should not marry because the deformity rate of their babies will skyrocket."

Aiko and Kenji are eating lunch when I arrive to meet them at a wooden restaurant just outside Koriyama's city centre. It is a freezing winter's day, but inside there is a charcoal-burning stove and the comforting smell of roasted sesame. The couple are sitting at a low table on a tatami-mat floor eating calmly while their impossibly cherubic girls, Sakura and Koto, clamber all over them.

The restaurant, Aiko says, is their new sanctuary. Called Ginga no Hotori ("Edge of the Galaxy"), it is a former Japanese health-food restaurant that has transformed itself into a place serving something even better for the body: guaranteed non-radioactive meals. "It's relaxing to eat here. I don't have to cook or worry," says Aiko, who is swaddled in a brightly coloured jumper and scarf. "And the food is very tasty."

Enormous effort goes into preparing the tofu burgers, black sesame buns, organic miso soup and other menu items. Hidden behind a rustic partition is a high-tech metal panel with dials and switches that operates a gamma spectroscopy machine. It looks similar to an industrial-size Magimix, except it measures levels of the potentially deadly radioisotope caesium 137. The restaurant's owner, Katsuko Arima, an energetic 50-something in a blue bandana, explains that each food item must first be peeled and chopped before being placed in the machine for 30 minutes. "Samples from everything we use in our cooking are checked and re-checked," Arima says. "It's a lot of work, but I wanted to do this to give people some certainty, some peace, when they eat here."

While the restaurant is one of a kind, numerous citizens' groups with similar machines have set up makeshift offices in shopping centres so people can self-test everything from their groceries to garden soil. "Nobody trusts the government any more," says Arima. She cites recent cases of official incompetence when supplies of beef, rice and vegetables declared safe by the authorities were found to be heavily contaminated. "You can only trust yourself."

Aiko and Kenji Nomura agree. After lunch, they tell me that conflicting information about safety issues has caused countless arguments. "We've ended up screaming at each other," says Aiko. Now they have made a pact to take their health, and that of their daughters, into their own hands as much as possible. "We would rather move away from here altogether, but we can't afford it," says Kenji, a softly spoken man with a fringe that sits neatly on the rim of his spectacles. "I would have to give up my job. It is hard to find new work in the current economy." Koriyama, like many affected towns, is outside the mandatory evacuation zone. The government decreed that the radiation risk to health was "minimal" beyond a 30km radius around the plant and has provided no support to help people leave independently. Kenji says it is afraid of triggering an exodus that would impoverish the disaster-hit region even more.

The official position on radiation risks is based on the fact that very few Fukushima residents received doses over 100 milli-sieverts per year – the level above which some scientific studies show is the threshold for an increased risk of cancer or other serious disease. But other epidemiological studies show that cancer can occur in much lower doses. Last November, UN special rapporteur Anand Grover visited Fukushima and censured Japan for its narrow assessment of potential damage to health. But it is, as they say, complicated.

The science, not to mention the politics of how it is disseminated to the public in a world that is polarised over nuclear power, is a phenomenally intricate business.

The Nomuras believe there are far too many variables and unknowns to feel secure. "If there's one thing we've learned, it's that the government and scientists don't have all the answers," says Kenji. "Even if the risks are low, we must do everything we can to minimise our daughters' radiation exposure." Aiko nods. "As parents who have to live here, it's the only option," she adds.

In practice, this means trying to seal all the leaky edges of their world without turning it into an over-sanitised bubble. It is a difficult balance and Aiko admits she often struggles. "Sakura always wants to pick up flowers and leaves when we're outside, and I hear myself saying things like, 'Don't touch. Get away from that.' It's sad." The family wear facemasks outside and drive instead of walking. They dry their laundry and air their futons inside. They avoid tap water, fish, seaweed, dairy and locally grown rice and vegetables. Like most people, they own a portable dosimeter for measuring external radiation (a popular home brand is Mr Gamma). Although most of Koriyama has been decontaminated through washing and removing topsoil, high radiation levels can return with wind and rain. The periodic discovery of new concentrated radioactive "hotspots" everywhere from playgrounds to parking lots is a constant concern.

Arima brings a tray of radiation-free coffee. It turns out it is also coffee-free coffee. It is her own recipe of steeped bamboo charcoal grains, charred soy beans, azuki beans and crushed brown rice. "It has excellent decontaminating properties," she declares, cheerily. Everyone drinks it down and, like everything else in Arima's restaurant, it is surprisingly delicious.

The next morning I visit Aiko and the two girls at their apartment. Kenji is at work. Their home is in the classic utilitarian Japanese style: low-rise concrete exterior with tatami floors and cream walls inside. We sit at the living-room table, with drying laundry dangling over our heads. Although Sakura and Koto have plenty of cute toys lying around, the girls never stray from their mother during the whole three hours we talk.

Aiko was driving when the magnitude-nine earthquake struck at 2.46pm on Friday, 11 March 2011. As a care worker for the elderly, she was on her way to visit a disabled widower. "The road started shaking and I stopped the car. The quake was so violent the traffic lights were waving like flags." Kenji was at home that day taking care of Sakura, then 15 months old, who had measles. "I managed to call him on my mobile. They were not hurt."

At first, the Nomuras were preoccupied with the news emerging about the annihilation of towns along the beautiful Tohoku coastline. The tsunami reached up to 40m – taller than Nelson's Column – and it was obvious that hundreds, possibly thousands of lives, were lost. "I couldn't stop crying. I'd never seen anything like it," says Aiko. She heard the dulcet tones of the NHK newsreader mentioning the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, but she was not alarmed. "All I caught was that there was not a serious problem." Indeed, it's now emerged the government knew a cataclysmic failure of the cooling systems was likely to occur, but failed to raise the alarm.

On the evening of the disaster, an official spokesman told reporters: "There is no radiation leak, nor will there be a leak." When the hydrogen explosions began, the authorities continued to downplay the severity and misinform the public.

The Nomuras had much at stake when the reactors blew up. Aiko had just realised she was expecting Koto; she was only five weeks pregnant. The joy of learning they were to have another baby quickly turned into frantic despair. "We knew radiation was especially dangerous for unborn babies, so we were terrified." Mollified by continued government reassurances, it took about a week before Aiko decided to flee south with Sakura. This was too late to prevent their exposure to iodine-131, a radioisotope with a half-life of about eight days, that attaches to the thyroid gland. Iodine-131 is believed to be the cause of hundreds of cases of thyroid cancer among children in Chernobyl. As of February 2013, Japan has tested 133,000 children in Fukushima and found abnormal thyroid cysts and nodules in 42% of them. Three cases of cancer were confirmed and another seven were suspected cases "with an 80% chance of malignancy". The issue is bound to escalate further.

Sakura is still waiting to be tested. Aiko went south to friends in Osaka. Kenji remained at home. As stories of major contamination dominated the news, she pleaded with her husband to leave Koriyama, too. "I told him it didn't matter about his job. I didn't care about money." Kenji, she says, grew furious with her. He had worked at the post office since he was 20 years old; he told her that leaving his colleagues would be like desertion. "Some people in Koriyama even put pressure on me to come back. They said if we're all going to die, we should die together – that's the mentality," says Aiko.

In November 2011, near the end of her pregnancy, Aiko left Osaka for Tokyo. The capital had more specialists in the effects of radiation on unborn children and it was closer for Kenji to visit. But their three-year marriage was on the point of collapse. "We wanted to make it work, but it seemed impossible. Neither of us was prepared to budge."

Being alone in the capital, a heavily pregnant nuclear refugee with a young toddler in tow, was almost "breaking point" for her, she says. Koto was born with a "strange mark" on her bottom, but otherwise apparently healthy. The couple were elated. The crescent-shaped mark was so unusual that 10 specialists came to examine it, Aiko says, and none of them could determine what it was. "All the doctors were in the room at once. I felt like we were guinea pigs." They still have no answers about the mark.

When Koto was a few months old, Aiko gave in and moved back to Koriyama. "It was too damaging for the children to be separated from their father, living like gypsies." The atmosphere in Koriyama is very different now, she says, than when she left in March 2011. Fukushima, formerly one of Japan's richest agricultural areas, producing rice, seafood and vegetables, is now trying to recover economically. In the finely calibrated world of Japanese social interaction it is taboo to admit to not buying local produce or even to mention radiation fears. The nearby city of Iwaki even has a superhero called Jangara, a local resident in an Ultraman-type costume, who appears at events for children. His arch enemies are "fools and sloppy people" who complain about radioactivity and spread fuhyo higai – harmful rumours – that the area is not safe to visit.

Aiko understands the desire to regenerate the area and dispel negativity – but not at the cost of downplaying the disaster or the dangers it still poses. She is angry with the government and the power company, Tepco. She is also angry with herself and everyone else in Fukushima who colluded with nuclear power.

"We are all responsible," she says. "We voted for the plant to be built, we wanted the material benefits it would bring." And she worries, terribly, about whether her daughters will face their own problems with fuhyo higai in the future.

Still, the Nomuras' greatest concern is the actual health of their daughters. Serious health consequences of low-dose radiation, which enters the body's tissues and damages DNA, often do not show up for years. As the second anniversary of the disaster approaches, the couple are happy they are rebuilding their family life and that their home region is slowly regenerating. But the passage of time also brings an unwelcome twist.

"It's impossible to recover fully from a nuclear accident," says Aiko. "Each anniversary Kenji and I will be thinking: 'Is this the year that one of our daughters will get sick?'"

Note from blogger:

Not really DVI but an interesting article about the socio-cultural impact of a (nuclear) disaster, particularly the stigmas experienced by people from the Fukushima area in Japanese society

Sunday 24 February 2013

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/feb/24/divorce-after-fukushima-nuclear-disaster

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15 dead in Cianjur road accident



The police report that 15 people have died in a road accident in Cianjur, West Java, after a truck loaded with lubricants experienced a failure in braking system, hitting two small city buses, some motorcycles and houses

“After hitting several cars the truck driver tried to stop by driving into the fence of a house located near the road. The truck then over turned,” West Java Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Martinus Sitompul said on Saturday.

According to the police preliminary accident report, the dead comprised eight men and seven women. He added that the police had as yet only managed to identify two of the victims, Ahmad Noval Fauzi and Zaenal Samsudin.

Martinus said the truck driver, Manan, who is currently in a critical condition, has been named a suspect. Manan will be questioned when he is fit enough.

Sunday 24 February 2013

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/02/23/15-dead-cianjur-road-accident.html

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10 killed in home collapse caused by explosion in south Vietnam



A total of seven people were confirmed dead and three went missing after three houses in a small alley in south Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City's District 3 collapsed following two explosions at dawn on Sunday, said the police.

Local police told Xinhua that rescuers have pulled seven bodies out of the rubble, while three others are still unfound.

The cause of the explosion was initially identified at the house of a man working for Lac Viet company, who produces tools for fires and explosions in movies. Many objects in the shape of guns and grenades were taken out of the house by rescuers.

According to Vietnamese state-run news agency VNA, the explosion broke out in a populated area in the downtown of Ho Chi Minh City where many private houses are located.

Initial information has it that local people living in the alley on Nam Ky Khoi Nghia Street in front of Vinh Nghiem Pagoda heard two explosions in five minutes and later discovered three houses were in flames with walls already collapsing, Tuoi Tre, a Ho Chi Minh City-based daily's website, reported.

Local residents said the explosions occurred at around 0:15 a.m. local time on Sunday.

According to the Tuoi Tre report, after being informed of the incident, hundreds of firefighters on more than 12 fire trucks came to their rescue.

The blast also caused a shockwave that shook houses within a radius of several hundreds of meters and even broke some windows.

Tuoi Tre quoted a local woman named Nguyen Thi Phuong, who was sleeping in her house at the time of the incident, as saying, "My family of four heard a big explosion that shook the whole house. We felt a surge of panic then and later smelt the smoke allegedly coming from fire-crackers. We fled our house to safer areas."

Sunday 24 February 2013

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-02/24/c_132188646.htm

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UN Urged To Probe Matale Grave


The United Nations (UN) has been called to assist in the investigations into the mass grave unearthed in Matale last year.

In a written statement submitted to the UN Human Rights Council, ahead of the 22nd session which begins tomorrow, the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC), a nongovernmental organization, has said that the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances should, through their experts, study the situation and the conduct of inquiries relating to the remains of the 200 or more persons found in Matale and assist the Sri Lankan government to ensure that these inquiries meet international standards.

The ALRC also suggested that the international community assists the Sri Lankan government with expertise, equipment and the necessary financial resources for the proper conduct of investigations as well as the preservation of these remains under ideal conditions, which are required for such purposes.

The ALRC and its sister organization, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), have documented numerous cases of enforced disappearances to the government and the UN Working Group.

“According to forensic experts who have so far done the preliminary work, the remains of the bodies indicate injuries and therefore the experts now regard the site containing these remains as a crime scene,” the written statement said.

The statement further stated that the assumption so far is that these remains are of persons who were arrested as suspects of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna during the period of its second uprising, known usually as the second insurrection between 1987 and 1991.

“Now that it has come to the notice of the authorities of the discovery of these remains in what may be called a mass grave it is the duty of the state to conduct thorough inquiries into the circumstances under which these persons have suffered the injuries which are evidenced by their remains and to ensure a credible course of action leading to the discovery of all the details relating to the alleged crimes,” the statement added.

ALRC says there are serious concerns about the manner in which the remains are being preserved and also the manner in which the inquiries are being conducted.

“There are detailed processes and techniques essential for the scientific investigation of atrocity crimes. These include methods for the location, evaluation, excavation, recovery and recording of mass graves and the analysis of human remains and other evidence in order to establish the identity of victims and the cause and manner of their deaths,” it said.

The ALRC is concerned that if international cooperation is not extended to Sri Lanka in the investigations then there is the possibility of the neglect of these remains which may lead to their destruction as a whole or in part and if the remains are not preserved under proper conditions their evidentiary value may progressively degenerate.

Sunday 24 February 2013

http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2013/02/24/un-urged-to-probe-matale-grave/

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Bus accident death toll reaches 19



Death toll from the Friday’s bus accident rose to 19 as four bodies were recovered on Saturday from the flooded nullah where the vehicle taking people to a wedding party had fallen, rescuers said.

A spokesman of the 1122 rescue service Aruj Sherazi told Dawn with the latest recovery of four bodies — three children and one woman — the total death toll reached to 19.

However, he said the operation was still continuing and there were chances of recovery of more people.

According to the people of the Badoo Samarbagh village, wherefrom the ill-fated bus started its journey towards Mardan, the death toll might increase.

Local police while referring to the statements of the relatives of the victims said that 11 people were still missing.

Officials said the operation for recovery of the missing people was still going on but it seemed that they might have washed away by the floodwater.

Sunday 24 February 2013

http://dawn.com/2013/02/24/bus-accident-death-toll-reaches-19/

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No bodies found in capsized NS fishing boat


A local dive team did not find any bodies during a search of the capsized Miss Ally off the coast of Nova Scotia, RCMP announced Saturday evening.

Police said the captain of a private fishing boat, the Slave Driver, announced at about 6:10 p.m. local time that divers from his vessel “visually confirmed that no wheelhouse, or sleeping quarters were attached to the hull of the Miss Ally and that no bodies were located.”

The Canadian Coast Guard vessel Sir William Alexander, with two RCMP members on board, remains at the scene “to provide safety and security” in the area around the capsized vessel.

The capsized fishing boat Miss Ally is shown in an undated Canadian Forces handout photo.

“On behalf of RCMP and Department of National Defence and Canadian Coast Guard, we express our deepest sympathies to the families,” RCMP Supt. Sylvie Bourassa-Muise said in a statement.

The RCMP announced earlier that a Canadian naval ship is en route to the site, and they hope to send an unmanned underwater vehicle to “gather more information and photos from the vessel.”

In a joint statement released Saturday afternoon, the RCMP, Department of National Defence and the Canadian Coast Guard said HMCS Glace Bay had departed Halifax and was expected to arrive in the area overnight. They will begin an assessment in the morning. After days of fruitless searching, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Woods Harbour, N.S. said the hull of the 13-metre boat was spotted, intact, at approximately 9:40 a.m. (AT) Saturday in the Atlantic Ocean off southwest Nova Scotia.

Conditions at sea and the position of the ship were making search efforts difficult, the statement indicated.

“The over-turned Miss Ally is located 129 nautical miles South East of Halifax, where the water depth is 900 metres and combined with sea and weather conditions the location of the hull further complicates efforts to investigate the submerged portion of the hull,” it read.

An aerial photo shows what the RCMP believe is a piece of debris from the wreck of the Miss Ally in the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013.

Miss Ally, with its crew of five men under the age of 35, was on an extended halibut fishing trip when it became stranded in bad weather and capsized last Sunday.

An aerial search on Tuesday had spotted the hull floating 120 kilometres from shore but both the navy and coast guard left the area after the rescue mission had been called off that evening.

Late Thursday night, RCMP released surveillance images showing what they believed to be debris from Miss Ally’s hull, suggesting the boat had been shattered.

But on Friday, officials said the debris may actually have been items from the deck, and the hull could still be intact. Maj. Martell Thompson, spokesperson for the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Halifax, said once the rescue mission for the survivors was called off Tuesday at 6 p.m., the navy and coast guard pulled away from the area.

“We don’t do recovery, we do search and rescue,” Thompson told The Canadian Press in an interview.

After the search for survivors was called off, families of the fishermen asked federal authorities to recover the vessel to determine if there were bodies inside.

Saturday 13 February 2013

Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/no-bodies-found-in-dive-team-s-search-of-miss-ally-1.1168720#ixzz2LmAcNQ1v

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Bus plunges into canal, at least 13 dead


At least 13 people, including women and children, were killed and another 12 injured when a passenger bus plunged into a canal in Badhu Samarbagh village on Friday afternoon.

Thirteen bodies have been recovered from the canal, which was flooded due to continuous rain, a Rescue 1122 official said. The injured were shifted to the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) where their condition was said to be critical, while a few children are still missing, he added.

The overloaded bus was taking passengers to a nearby village to attend a wedding ceremony.

A Khazana police official confirmed the ill-fated passengers drowned in the flooded canal when the vehicle skidded and overturned on the muddy road.

He said that police reached the spot soon after the incident and a rescue operation is underway.

Some of the dead taken to LRH have been identified as Sher Afzal, Kainat, Sherana, Kolai, Godrai, Khalida, Kola and two children — Usman and Mahnoor.

A large number of locals reached the site to help rescue workers, but excessive water in the canal complicated the operation, said residents.

At least two people were said to be missing till the filing of this report. “We have been told that some children are missing and we are searching for them in the canal, but it will take time,” said another rescue worker.

At the LRH, family members were seen searching for their relatives in the morgue and surgical wards. While some were consoling each other, others were screaming and weeping inside the main building of the casualty department.

“Where can I find my brother Zeeshan? He is missing,” shouted Adnan while looking for his younger brother in the morgue. He then fell down on the floor and wept as over a dozen relatives tried to console him. “He is at home, somebody has called me from home,” replied his near-hysteric mother.

Adnan said he told his family not to hire that bus because he knew the driver was inexperienced, but the elders did not listen. “This is the driver’s fault and he escaped from the scene while there are a number of people who are still missing in the water,” he claimed.

Saturday 23 February 2013

http://tribune.com.pk/story/511340/slippery-conditions-bus-plunges-into-canal-at-least-13-dead/

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Eleven people die in accident on Winneba-Accra road


Eleven people died on the spot and seven others sustained injuries when a 207 Benz Bus on which they were traveling for a funeral collided with a heavy duty tipper truck at Gomoa Mampong, near Okyere, on the Winneba-Accra road in the Central Region, on Saturday.

The Winneba Municipal Commander of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) John Paul Akande, confirmed the tragedy to journalists at Winneba.

According to the MTTU Municipal Commander, the 207 Benz Bus with registration number.AS 669 V, which was conveying the mourners from Nsawam to Mankesim, collided with the truck with registration number GB 2756 Z.

He said the injured, five males, including a seven-year old boy, and two women, were receiving treatment at the Winneba District Trauma and Specialist Hospital.

ASP Akande said bodies of four males and seven females yet to be identified had been deposited at the mortuary of the same hospital.

He said it took a combined team of police, fire service officials and the ambulance service personnel about four hours to remove dead persons and survivors from the bus that got stuck under the tipper truck.

ASP Akande said the cause of the accident was yet to be established by the police, who were investigating it.

Saturday 23 February 2013

http://vibeghana.com/2013/02/23/eleven-people-die-in-accident-on-winneba-accra-road/

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Friday 22 February 2013

Heroes to the rescue



The first three months of 2011 were an acid test for the Australian Capital Territory's 16-year-old urban search and rescue capability.

In early January two USAR 2-trained ACT Fire and Rescue members, Mark Johansen and Peter Fitzgerald, were sent to Queensland's Lockyer Valley as part of the joint NSW/ACT response to that emergency.

A little more than a month later, nine Canberra search and rescue volunteers were sent to New Zealand in response to the earthquake that rocked Christchurch on February 22. Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/heroes-to-the-rescue-20130222-2exc5.html#ixzz2LdsVi4Yc

Part of the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake.

Then, on March 11, 2011, while rescuers were still on the ground in Christchurch, a magnitude 9 earthquake devastated the north-east of Japan, causing a tsunami that peaked at 40.5 metres in some areas.

Canberra's first Urban Search and Rescue course was conducted in 1995, just two years before the Thredbo landslide disaster that killed 18 people and, miraculously, left Stuart Diver alive.

ACT Fire and Rescue's superintendent Pat Jones, the territory's top urban search and rescue expert, a veteran of Thredbo and a member of the third taskforce that was sent to Christchurch in March 2011, says the capability that has since evolved is world-class and that training modules developed in the ACT had become the gold standard adopted across the world.

He said urban search and rescue workers were classified by skill level and fell into one of three categories.

The first category, for which almost all police, SES, paramedics and firefighters have done mandatory training, qualifies a rescuer to be on top of the rubble pile in the event of an earthquake or other catastrophe.

Requirements include a knowledge of situational awareness, safe working practices and search and first-aid techniques.

To become a USAR 2 volunteer is a big step up and involves specialist and demanding training, which is usually carried out in Queensland or Adelaide.

Rescuers can be trained to this level only in specially built environments which simulate disaster zones and give them hands-on experience of working ''in the rubble pile'', one of the most dangerous rescue environments. Jones said that after an earthquake, landslide or building collapse, the rubble formed voids, cavities, tunnels and gaps into which survivors might crawl in search of safety. It was a highly unstable and topsy-turvy world, particularly after an earthquake where aftershocks almost always follow the main event.

''Once you are in the pile, it is surreal,'' he said. ''You don't know what is up and what is down; walls have become ceilings, ceilings floors and you don't know where you are. You are working with police whose job is to gather intelligence and pass it on to you.''

Thredbo was an example of this and police were able to pass on facts such as ''the third floor bathroom has brown tiles''. ''That type of information helps you orient yourself,'' Jones said. ''Thredbo was a very scary situation; I was cutting up [from the hole] and others were cutting down. I'm not a brave person but there would be something wrong if you weren't scared.''

There are currently more than 40 Category 2 qualified urban search and rescuers in the ACT Fire and Rescue Service, a disproportionately high number given the size of the force overall and one that recognises its role as a potential first responder across the alpine villages as well as in Canberra proper.

Veterans of the USAR 2 training told Fairfax it was intended to push participants hard mentally as well as physically. Claustrophobic tendencies are weeded out early and volunteers have to master vertical rescue, confined space and trench rescue techniques.

The training environment is loaded with urban waste, unpleasant fluids and rubble. It is considered the pinnacle of rescue training and participants have to qualify just to do the course.

''For us to have this number of people with such a demanding qualification takes a major commitment,'' Jones said.

The 48-year-old superintendent, who has been with ACT Fire and Rescue for a quarter of a century, is one of a handful of USAR 3 qualified rescuers in the territory. This means he is qualified to carry out the command and control function in a post-disaster environment in addition to having the same skills as the USAR 2 volunteers.

''These are the on-the-spot decision-makers, the people making life-and-death calls that affect their own team members as well as potential survivors,'' an ACT-based USAR 2 volunteer said. ''The only real comparison would be a command role in a battlefield environment.''

Jones was at Kambah for the naming of two new fire trucks on February 22, 2011, when he took the call alerting him to the Christchurch earthquake.

He was part of the third Australian taskforce, which brought together members from all over the country, that arrived in Christchurch on March 5, 2011.

''Over the 13-day deployment, team members worked 178 hours, the equivalent of 22 working days,'' he said. ''I learnt more in that 13 days than I ever would in my career here.''

Unlike taskforces one and two, which had been deployed for rescue and then body recovery, taskforce three was part of a program called ''beyond the rubble pile''.

This meant members went out beyond the devastated Christchurch CBD and worked with residents in the suburbs and areas that had not been so badly affected. Because the sewerage system had been cut, some jobs were as basic as digging toilet holes.

''Taskforce one completed 58 tasks in the rubble pile, recovering seven bodies and carrying out one live rescue,'' Jones said. ''Taskforce two, from Queensland, carried out 94 tasks, recovering 43 bodies and assisting in the recovery of many more.

''What these teams had to do was horrific; the only Australian comparisons you could make in terms of the physical trauma to victims are the Granville train smash, the Thredbo landslide and the Newcastle earthquake - but this was on a much larger scale.''

Jones, who had a good idea of what disaster looked like after the Thredbo landslide and the 2003 Canberra fires, said he was still unprepared for what he saw in Christchurch.

''I had been in Christchurch on holidays just three months previously,'' he said. ''I had walked around the city with my family and places I remembered as happy places had all been destroyed.''

The work of the third taskforce often bridged the gap between ''normal life'' and the disaster in ways members of the first two deployments would have found hard to believe. ''A lot of what we did was humanitarian work,'' Jones said. ''I remember a couple of jobs as very significant.

In one case we went into the ruins of a collapsed doctor's surgery and recovery the records of 1500 patients. This meant [the doctor] was able to set up a temporary surgery, with all her records, outside the CBD.

''We also had a crew access the safe at a restaurant that had been destroyed. The owner was desperate to get his cash out so he could pay his staff. The family, who lost their son in the earthquake, were so grateful they stayed on and cooked for the rescue teams on a volunteer basis.

''Christchurch has built on the Anzac spirit. That bond has been strengthened by what we did and I know that if something bad happened in Australia I'd love to have the New Zealanders here.''

Shocks still being felt

The 6.3-magnitude earthquake that struck Christchurch at 12.51pm on February 22, 2011, was much more devastating than the 7.1-magnitude quake that had struck New Zealand’s second largest city six months before, on September 4, 2010.

While technically weaker, the epicentre of the ‘‘aftershock’’ was much closer to the surface and only 10 kilometres from the centre of the city.

Christchurch is still recovering two years later and the population has fallen from 360,000 to about 355,000. Aftershocks are still being felt.

Five major aftershocks hit Christchurch between 1.04pm and 7.43pm on February 22, 2011. They ranged in Richter magnitude from five to 5.9. These hampered initial efforts to search for survivors and to evacuate the central city.

The Christchurch earthquake killed 185 people, levelled or devastated much of the CBD, and injured between 1500 and 2000 people, 164 seriously.

The first team of Australian urban search and rescue (USAR) workers (72 members, NSW) arrived within 12hours. The second team, from Queensland, arrived on February 24. It had 70 members and sniffer dogs.

A third Australian USAR team was dispatched on March 4 and 5. This team focused on humanitarian work as part of a program called ‘‘beyond the rubble pile’’.

Nine volunteers from ACT Fire & Rescue and ACT Ambulance were among the hundreds of Australians who crossed the Tasman to help.

Craig Perks, Matt Spackman, Chris Lind and Sam Evans were members of the first taskforce. Kaye Bradtke, Col O’Rourke and Superintendent Pat Jones were members of the third taskforce, as were paramedics Darren Neville and Robert Wiggins.

Friday 22 February 2013

Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/heroes-to-the-rescue-20130222-2exc5.html#ixzz2LdrBhO84

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