Thursday 28 November 2013

Two months on, unidentified body lies preserved at JJ morgue


Two months after the Babu Genu building collapse in the Dockyard Road area, the body of an unidentified male continues to remain in the cold preservation unit of the state-run JJ hospital's morgue.

The man, along with 61 residents in the building, had succumbed to suffocation and multiple injuries after the ground-plus-four-storey building caved in early morning on September 27. All 61 bodies were identified and claimed by respective families.

According to the hospital's forensic department, the body was sent for DNA analysis to Kalina Forensic Science Laboratory more than a month ago. Dr M K Malve, director of the laboratory, said, "The genetic analysis results have been handed over to the Sewri police. If a relative comes to claim the body, DNA sampling can be done and the body can be handed over."

A fortnight after the collapse, claims of a BMC peon — Vijay Narayan Jadhav's body going missing — had come up. While Vijay Narayan was the same age as the unidentified body, his uncle Vijay Dhondu Jadhav claimed that it was not his nephew's.

"We have a capacity for storing 130 bodies, of which the hospital has space for 45 bodies and police department can keep 85. Until we get a police notification, we will keep it preserved," said Dr Ashok Rathore, acting dean in JJ hospital.

Usually, a body is kept for a week or so, this body has been preserved for two months now. Sunil Babar, additional commissioner of police, Wadala division, said, "We usually wait for a month at the most and then cremate unidentified bodies. However, this case is serious and anyone can come to claim the body as well as BMC's compensation. Therefore investigations are still on." The only identification known to the doctors, so far, is that the body may be of a Muslim in his early 40s.

Thursday 28 November 2013

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/two-months-on-unidentified-body-lies-preserved-at-jj-morgue/1200549/

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Wednesday 27 November 2013

Nine killed after roof collapses at Chinese factory under tons of heavy snow


Nine people have been killed in China after a factory roof collapsed under tons of fresh snow.

China's state news agency Xinhua said the accident in the country's northeast Heilongjiang Province happened at around 1.10pm yesterday in blizzard conditions, in the city of Mudanjiang.

Nine people were buried in the rubble of the three-storey factory, where workers assembled household goods in round-the-clock shifts.

Rescuers worked for nine hours to clear the debris, but have now recovered all of the bodies.

Survivors said they ran for their lives after hearing cracking and groaning as the roof caved in.

Officials are now preparing to check the safety of buildings across the city as very heavy snowfall puts extra pressure on standing structures.

Heavy snow has been falling across northeastern China, forcing roads to close and leading to flights being cancelled.

Wednesday 27 November 2013

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/chinese-factory-roof-collapse-nine-2856947

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Boat with Haitian migrants capsize in Bahamas; up to 30 feared dead


A sailboat passing through the southern Bahamas islands with about 150 Haitian migrants on board capsized after running aground, killing up to 30 people and leaving the rest clinging to the vessel for hours, authorities said Tuesday.

The exact death toll remained uncertain. Authorities on the scene confirmed at least 20 dead and determined the number could reach 30 based on accounts from survivors, said Lt. Origin Deleveaux, a Royal Bahamas Defense Force spokesman.

The remains of five victims had been recovered and the Bahamas military and police were working with the U.S. Coast Guard to recover additional bodies as they pulled survivors from the stranded sailboat.

"Right now, we are just trying to recover as many bodies as we possibly can," Deleveaux said.

Authorities believe the migrants had been at sea for eight to nine days with limited food and water and no life jackets, Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Gabe Somma said. Many were severely dehydrated when the first rescue crews reached them. The boat, in addition to being overloaded, likely encountered rough weather, Deleveaux said.

"It was obviously just grossly overloaded, unbalanced, unseaworthy," Somma said. "An incredibly dangerous voyage."

The capsizing of overloaded vessels occurs with disturbing frequency in the area, most recently in mid-October when four Haitian women died off Miami. There have also been fatal incidents near the Turks and Caicos Islands, between Haiti and the Bahamas, and in the rough Mona Passage that divides the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

"Unfortunately we see these types of tragedies occur on a monthly basis," Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Ryan Doss said. "Every year we see hundreds of migrants needlessly lose their lives at sea taking part in these dangerous and illegal voyages."

It's common enough that the Coast Guard recently developed a public service announcement that will run on TV and radio in Florida, Haiti, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic urging people not to risk the deadly ocean voyages.

This latest incident occurred late Monday near Harvey Cays, about 80 miles southeast of New Providence, the island that includes the capital of Nassau, and 260 miles southeast of Miami.

Fishermen spotted the dangerously overloaded sailboat and alerted the Bahamas military, which asked the Coast Guard for assistance in locating the vessel, Somma said. By the time it was spotted, the 40-foot boat had run aground in an area dotted with tiny outcroppings and reefs and then capsized.

Photos taken by the Coast Guard showed people clinging to every available space on the overturned vessel. Some were taken to a clinic on nearby Staniel Cay for treatment for dehydration.

By late Tuesday afternoon, the Coast Guard and Bahamian authorities had rescued about 110 people, including 19 women. Deleveaux said there were no children on board. Smugglers will often seek to blend in with the migrants when they are captured and authorities did not announce any arrests.

Migrants have long traversed the Bahamian archipelago to reach the United States. Thousands have also settled in the Bahamas in recent years. Deleveaux said those rescued from the boat near Harvey Cays would be taken to a military base on New Providence, processed and then repatriated to Haiti.

Wednesday 27 November 2013

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/11/26/10-haitian-migrants-die-100-cling-to-capsized-boat-in-bahamas/

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Search teams in Tacloban in need of K-9 units


Search and retrieval teams in typhoon-devastated Tacloban City are in need of more K-9 units as the search for bodies feared buried under the rubble has yet to be finished.

Bureau of Fire Protection Region 8 Director Pablito Cordeta, who also heads Task Force Retrieval, said two K-9 units from the United States, 4 from The Netherlands, and 2 from South Korea are set to wrap up their work and leave the city.

Cordeta said the K-9 units are important in retrieving the bodies which are now in decomposing.

The BFP has so far retrieved 2,004 bodies in Tacloban.

A separate and official government report from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said 1,932 died in Tacloban City, while 594 remain missing.

In its 6 a.m. Wednesday update, the NDRRMC said 207 more have been confirmed dead in Tacloban; 46 in the rest of Leyte province; and 7 in Eastern Samar. This brings the death toll from the typhoon to 5,500.

The death toll is expected to rise further as 1,757 remain missing: 1,668 in Leyte; 38 in Samar; 20 in Eastern Samar; 14 in Antique; 6 in Capiz; 5 in Cebu; 4 in Iloilo and 1 each in Guimaras and Capiz.

The number of injured rose to 26,136.

Wednesday 27 November 2013

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/regions/11/27/13/search-teams-tacloban-need-k-9-units

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Tuesday 26 November 2013

Winter halts digging at Bosnia's largest mass grave


Forensic experts will quit exhumations during the winter at a mass grave in northwestern Bosnia believed to be the largest found so far from the Bosnian 1992-95 war.

The remains of 430 people have been exhumed since work began in August at the Tomasica grave. The victims were Muslim Bosniaks and Croats from around the nearby town of Prijedor who were killed by Serbs trying to drive non-Serbs out of the area.

In 2001, forensic experts found 373 victims they believe were originally buried at Tomasica, then reburied at the Jakarina Kosa, a nearby secondary grave. In the years since, 36 more bodies have been found at Tomasica.

"If we take into account the bodies found at Jakarina Kosa and later at Tomasica, we can say with certainty for now that 850 bodies had been buried at Tomasica," said Lejla Cengic, a spokeswoman for Bosnia's Institute for Missing Persons, which conducts and coordinates the digging.

Exhumations will resume in the spring, Cengic said, when more bodies were expected to be found. Around 1,200 people are still missing from the Prijedor area.

On Monday, Theodor Meron, the president of the United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, paid his respect to the victims at Tomasica. Standing at the edge of the muddy grave, Meron, a Jew who survived the Holocaust in Poland, Meron said the site had a very special "resonance" for him.

"It looks a little bit like the quarry not far from the city where I spent my war years ... in Poland, where my mother was killed," he said. "And this means more to me than theory of international justice."

The Hague-based U.N. war crimes tribunal has sentenced 16 Bosnian Serbs to a total of 230 years in prison for atrocities in the Prijedor area.

Tuesday 26 November 2013 http://www.trust.org/item/20131125165315-ov5ek

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57 more bodies recovered in Tacloban


The Philippine National Police (PNP) has recovered 57 more cadavers in this city on Sunday, 17 days after super typhoon "Yolanda" (international code name: Haiyan) struck Eastern Visayas provinces.

Senior Superintendent Emmanuel Aranas, deputy director for operations of the PNP crime laboratory, said in a briefing Monday morning that more bodies have been recovered everyday as the national government launched massive clearing operations.

"We have to dispose cadavers immediately since it's already in the advanced stage of decomposition. Since they perished from natural calamities, families of victims don't even bother to identify dead bodies," Aranas said.

Dead bodies were retrieved by the 300 police personnel in the hardly hit coastal villages of Magallanes, Anibong and San Jose district. Clearing operations paved the way for the recovery of more bodies.

Since November 9, policemen have recovered 1,932 bodies in the typhoon-ravaged Tacloban, a city of more than 200,000 population, the capital of Eastern Visayas.

Of the total number, 235 bodies are still unidentified by the police scene of the crime operatives, according to Aranas.

"We are asking the National Bureau of Investigation to lead the identification of cadavers to facilitate the disposal of bodies," the official said, citing an administrative order of the health department designating the NBI as the lead agency in cadaver identification after natural calamities.

Police admitted that disposing these bodies have been hampered by lack of equipment that will transport cadavers to mass grave sites in northern villages of Suhi and Basper.

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) deployed only six trucks to transport dead bodies from villages to mass grave sites.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) reported the number of casualties has reached 5,235 when super typhoon "Yolanda" hit central Philippines on Nov. 8. There are still 1,613 missing persons.

Deaths have been reported in 35 towns in Leyte, eight towns in Eastern Samar, and two towns in Samar, according to the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

In typhoon-stricken Leyte towns of Palo and Tanauan, public plazas were converted by the local government as mass grave sites.

However, in many villages, residents tagged burial sites for their relatives. Some are located along roadsides, residential areas, vacant lots and near the shores.

Paula Sydiongco, assistant regional director of the Department of Health Eastern Visayas, said this practice is unlawful considering the health hazards posed to the community.

"We will look into that problem, but our priority for now is addressing other health risks arising from the disaster such as leptospirosis and water-borne diseases," Sydiongco said.

Aranas confirmed there are some illegal burials in Tacloban but they have to tolerate that for now considering the lack of resources to collect all cadavers.

"I think we should tolerate that for now, but we just make sure that burial sites are not close to water sources," he noted.

Tuesday 26 November 2013

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/75608/57-more-bodies-recovered-in-tacloban

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Mexico: Tally of bodies exhumed from clandestine grave grows to 42


The number of exhumed bodies now stands at 42 -- and the digging continues at the latest clandestine mass grave to be discovered on Mexican soil.

This month, Mexican authorities declared that they had exhumed 19 unidentified bodies from the unmarked burial ground along the Lerma River, in the western state of Jalisco. The site is near the border with Michoacan, a state reeling from the presence of violent drug cartels.

Since the initial announcement of the discovery, the number of exhumed bodies has continued to grow as officials continue their grisly work. It is unclear, however, how much closure the discoveries will bring for the families of the thousands who have disappeared in this country in recent years: Thus far, none of the 42 bodies have been identified, a spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office in Jalisco told The Times on Monday.

Such killing fields are a distressingly common reality in modern Mexico, where more than 26,000 people went missing during the 2006-2012 term of President Felipe Calderon. Then, as now, Mexico was reeling from a host of problems connected to organized crime, corruption and the federal government’s attempt to push back against the power of the narco groups. The disappeared include ordinary people, rival drug cartel members and police as well as U.S.-bound migrants, who were a favorite kidnapping target for criminal groups.

The current grave site was discovered after two federal police officers disappeared in Michoacan. Suspects detained in the case later tipped off authorities to the presence of the burial ground.

However, the remains of the policemen have not turned up among the 42 bodies, a spokesman for the federal attorney general’s office said.

Authorities this month also discovered the remains of six men and a woman buried in a lime grove near the Pacific tourist city of Acapulco.

In May, President Enrique Peรฑa Nieto announced the creation of a task force to search for the missing.

Tuesday 26 November 2013

http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-mexico-mass-grave-20131125,0,7743678.story#axzz2ljy2NUpZ

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10 dead, 16 missing after cargo ships sink off east China


Ten bodies were recovered Monday and more than a dozen people remained missing after two cargo vessels sank off east China in two separate accidents, rescue workers said on Tuesday, with officials blaming strong gales and high waves as the likely cause of both sinkings.

The first incident happened at around 9 p.m. local time on Sunday when the local cargo vessel XINGLONGZHOU65 sank off Yantai, a coastal city in northeastern Shandong province. The 88-meter (288-feet)-long vessel, which was loaded with stone, was carrying a total of twelve crew members, of whom rescuers had recovered three bodies by Tuesday while the other nine remained missing.

The second incident happened hours later, just before 3 a.m. local time on Monday, when the local cargo vessel ZIHAISHUN sank off Weihai, which is only about 60 kilometers (37 miles) east of Yantai. The cargo ship was carrying fourteen people when it sank, and rescue workers were able to recover seven bodies while the other seven remained missing.

Rescuers using boats and helicopters continued their search on Tuesday, but authorities said it was unlikely any of the missing were still alive. The Shandong Maritime Safety Administration said strong gales caused the first cargo vessel to begin leaning after it lost power, and contact with maritime officials was lost about six minutes later.

Tuesday 26 November 2013

http://wireupdate.com/10-dead-16-missing-after-cargo-ships-sink-off-east-china.html

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Sunday 24 November 2013

On 24th of every month, they mourn


November 24 marks one year of the terrible fire at Tazreen Fashions, a garment factory in Nischintapur area of Ashulia, and seven months into the deadly collapse of Rana Plaza at Savar that took place on April 24.

The 24th day comes every month, but sufferings of the survivors, and family members of the missing and deceased workers remain unheeded. On this day, they gather on the premises of the two buildings; they did it again on Sunday and demonstrated under the banners of different workers’ bodies and left-leaning organisations.

Most of them lost the only bread earners of the family, while many survivors lost their limbs for which they will not able to work anymore in future. Bangladesh Garments Workers Federation and Bangladesh Garments Workers Solidarity organised programmes on Rana Plaza premises and Tazreen Fashions demanding actual compensation and arrest of Tazreen’s owner Delwar Hossain.

They also demanded a complete list of missing workers. Around 1,000 survivors and family members of the missing and deceased workers gathered at the two places.

They also brought out a rally on Dhaka-Aricha highway and paid tribute to the deceased workers at the Rana Plaza premises. At Savar, the victims’ family members alleged that they had not got any financial support from the prime minister. They said they had already spent a lot of money to prepare documents.

They also expressed anxiety why only some family members had been given compensation. Coordinator of BGWS Taslima Akhter said: “The government officials say the number of missing workers from Rana Plaza collapse is 379, the army says 261, but we found 291 graves at Jurain graveyard.

Show us the actual number of missing workers of these two incidents.” Kanchon Mala, Kamal Hossain and Amina khatun used to work at Phantom Apparels of the 3rd floor of Rana Plaza. Their family members told to this reporter that despite being parents of the deceased, they had to hear from Dhaka Medical College Hospital authorities that the DNA reports did not match.

Those victims family showed original documents to the Dhaka tribune. Prof Anu Muhammad of Jahangirnagar University told the Dhaka Tribune: “We have estimated that the amount of relief gathered in the prime minister’s fund are enough to provide compensation to the survivors and families of the deceased workers.

“If those money is provided properly, the victims’ families will get Tk4.8m each while the survivors Tk2.4m. But we cannot understand why our honourable prime minister is yet to announce the compensation in these two incidents,” he added.

Sunday 24 November 2013

http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2013/nov/25/24th-every-month-they-mourn

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Death toll from China oil pipeline blast rises to 52, 11 missing


The death toll from Friday's oil pipeline blasts in east China's Shandong Province rose to 52 as of 1pm today after four more bodies were found at the scene, rescuers said.

Reports and investigations showed that 11 others were missing in the deadly accident, the rescue headquarters said.

Among the dead, four have not yet been identified, according to the rescue headquarters for the blast accident, which occurred at Huangdao district in Qingdao City.

Six of the dead were professional firefighters with the Huangdao oil warehouse of Sinopec, China's largest oil refiner.

Rescue efforts continued today despite rainy weather. The complicated situation and the remains of flammable gas at certain sections in the explosion area hindered the debris-clearing progress.

Crude oil began leaking from an underground pipeline operated by Sinopec at 3:00am Friday in Huangdao District of Qingdao, according to the municipal government. The valves of the Huangdao oil warehouse were shut about 15 minutes later.

The oil spill then flowed into the city's rainwater pipe network, which empties into Jiaozhou Bay. Two blasts occurred at around 10:30am Friday when workers were repairing the ruptured pipeline.

The damaged pipeline was put into use in July 1986. It is the second pipeline linking Dongying City in Shandong with Huangdao. The pipe measures 711 mm in diameter and runs 248.5 km, with an annual oil transfer capacity of 10 million tonnes.

Ten of the 136 hospitalized are in critical condition, according to provincial health authorities.

About 18,000 residents were evacuated following the explosions, which ripped through roads, overturned vehicles, and shattered the windows and bricks of nearby buildings.

Sinopec's board chairman, Fu Chengyu, apologized for the accident yesterday. He vowed all-out efforts to handle the rescue, relief and aftermath and to cooperate with the investigation team of the State Council to find the cause of the accident.

Sunday 24 November 2013

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/national/Death-toll-from-China-oil-pipeline-blast-rises-to-52-11-missing/shdaily.shtml

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Saturday 23 November 2013

Latvia store collapse: Deaths rise as Riga rescue continues


Rescue workers pulled bodies from the ruins of a collapsed supermarket in the Latvian capital Riga on Friday as the death toll rose to 51 in the Baltic state's worst disaster in decades.

Cranes lifted large slabs from the wreckage of the Maxima store, in a Riga suburb of grey, Soviet-era housing, to find those trapped when the roof collapsed late on Thursday. The supermarket was full of shoppers on their way home from work.

Rescue workers cleared away rubble from the store, which had occupied around 1,500 square meters (16,150 square feet), as ambulances and fire engines stood by.

Police said the death toll had reached 51 as of 2000 GMT, including three rescue workers. Thirty-eight more were injured. They said no survivors had been found in the past few hours.

"We're still having moments of silence to listen for voices of people trapped, but unfortunately the only voices out there are of firefighters working," state police spokesman Toms Sadovskis said.

Around 80 firefighters and 56 trainees from a firefighting college continued relentlessly to search for people still trapped more than 24 hours after the accident.

To help rescuers, police created a map, based on security camera footage, showing where shoppers were standing at the time of the collapse.

State rescue service chief Oskars Abolins told TV the search was slow because the rubble was up to 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) deep. Firefighters

were clearing it by hand and with shovels. Abolins said rescue work was expected to continue all night. Firefighters still had to search around 400 square meters for any people, dead or alive.

Riga Mayor Nils Usakovs tweeted that around five people might be still trapped.

Ambulance chief Armands Plorins said cold, damp and the passage of time were all reducing the chance of finding survivors. "But, of course, hope always remains."

The cause of the collapse remains unknown, although police have opened a criminal investigation focusing on the construction of the building.

Interior Minister Rihards Kozlovskis said: "It is clear that there has been a problem with fulfillment of construction requirements."

Local media said workers had been building a roof garden on the supermarket, a single-storey building located about a 30- minute drive from the city center. Soil, grass and parts of a new walkway could be seen dangling from the edges of the collapsed rooftop.

Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis announced three days of mourning from Saturday. He said the collapse had shattered Latvia, a former Soviet republic which joined the European Union nearly a decade ago and will become a member of the euro zone next year.

"In our thoughts we are together with all those stricken by this tragedy," Dombrovskis said. "No matter what the cause of the tragedy is, the number of victims is too big."

Among other post-Soviet disasters to hit the country of 2 million, 23 Latvians perished along with about 800 others in 1994 when an Estonian ferry sank in the Baltic Sea. Twenty-six people died in 2007 in a blaze at a Latvian care home.

Earlier on Friday, about 50 people gathered near the ruins for news of relatives, while others brought candles and flowers.

"I have a wife there. There is no information about her, whether she is dead or alive. Wherever I call, there is no information," Igor Umanov told Reuters Television. He said he believed his wife was alive.

A girl at the scene told public radio she had gone into the shop with her mother when a concrete block collapsed between them and that she was nearly buried in rubble. She managed to escape but had not yet found her mother.

Other witnesses said there was a loud noise and the store went dark. People escaped through holes in the windows.

Rescue workers were called late on Thursday to the store, which according to local media had been awarded an architecture prize when it was completed in 2011. Several were injured by a second collapse because of the building's weakened structure.

Saturday 23 November 2013

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/22/us-latvia-collapse-idUSBRE9AK15F20131122

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Typhoon Haiyan death toll jumps to 5,235 in Philippines


The death toll from this month's Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines has spiked to 5,235, a national agency reported early Saturday.

That figure -- posted at 6 a.m. (5 p.m. ET Friday) on the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council's website -- marks a significant increase from counts earlier in the week. On Thursday, for instance, the toll stood at slightly more than 4,000.

The same agency also reported that 23,501 were injured due to the epic storm, with 1,613 reported missing. The missing amount is 31 higher than a day earlier.

The monster typhoon left behind a catastrophic scene after it made landfall on six Philippine islands on November 8, leaving many without immediate access to food and medical care.

Saturday 23 November 2013

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/22/world/asia/philippines-typhoon-haiyan-deaths/

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Friday 22 November 2013

Relatives call mobiles to find missing in Latvia


Rescuers have been calling for silence at the scene of a collapsed supermarket in the Latvian capital Riga as they try to locate victims by calling their mobile phones.

At least 45 people have died and more are feared missing in the rubble after the building's roof fell in on Thursday.

Victoria Sembele from Latvia's State Fire and Rescue Service said the exact number of people still to be recovered was unknown.

Friday 22 November 2013

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25051321

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INTERPOL experts assist to identify typhoon victims


A group of forensic experts from the International Police (Interpol) will fly to Tacloban City this weekend to assist local authorities in identifying the remains of those who died during the onslaught of Super Typhoon Yolanda.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima made the announcement after meeting on Thursday with the Interpol’s disaster victim identification (DVI) team, which will help the National Bureau of Investigation forensic team identify thousands of cadavers.

The Interpol team is composed of experts from Canada, United Kingdom, Cameron, Jordan, Bosnia and South Africa.

“They said they’re willing to help and they’re willing to extend assistance and give advice to the whole process of DVI. This weekend, they will go to Tacloban City to make an initial assessment so that they will be able to craft or formulate proposals on how to go about the DVI given the magnitude of the casualties,” De Lima said, in an interview.

“That’s the initial team and depending on the exact process, I think more experts from the Interpol will fly to the country,” the Justice Secretary said.

De Lima said the Interpol’s assistance in the DVI operations would be very helpful, citing the same help extended by the international body during the “Princess of the Star” tragedy off Romblon in June 2008.

With this, the integrity of the whole process of identifying the casualties will be ensured with the help of the foreign forensics experts.

“They (Interpol) explained that identifying the corpses is a tedious process. You don’t determine the identity of the dead bodies on the basis of their shirt or their belongings. So what is needed here, according to the Interpol, is a scientific process of identifying the bodies, like DNA testing,” De Lima said.

“It will add further to the anguish of the family if you give them the wrong cadaver,” she added.

The first batch of NBI experts flew to Tacloban Tuesday last week. It was composed of 15 to 20 forensic experts. A second batch followed over the weekend.

According to De Lima, the NBI forensic team is planning to set up apartment-type tombs to be able to identify an initial batch of 700 collected cadavers.

She said the ideal setup – as agreed upon by the Department of Health and volunteer private pathologists - is to put 10 to 20 corpses in a tomb.

Friday 22 November 2013

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2013/11/22/interpol-gets-into-the-act-in-yolanda-s-wake/

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US retrieval team finds more bodies in Tacloban


The team that helped in the search and retrieval of victims in the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the US was among those who retrieved 84 more bodies in typhoon-devastated Tacloban City on Wednesday.

The US team, along with their French counterparts, worked under the Joint Task Force led by Senior Superintendent Pablito Corbeta.

He said the Joint Task Force had recovered a total of 1,678 bodies on the sixth day of retrieval operations.

Corbeta said the latest retrieval came mostly from the areas of Sagkahan and Anibong in Tacloban.

With the mass graves already filled, Corbeta said the task force, in coordination with the city government, is digging another burial site in Barangay Suhi, an area located in the northern part of the city.

Corbeta said they are submitting a daily update to Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas II and the Office of Civil Defense (OCD).

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) had already stopped counting the dead.

As of yesterday, for still unclear reasons, the NDRRMC’s fatality figure remained at 4,011 with 18,557 injured and 1,602 missing.

The NDRRMC only said the government’s 1,526 evacuation centers are now serving 929,893 families or 4,400,697 people displaced by Super Typhoon Yolanda.

The government, meanwhile, has tapped forensic experts from the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) in the identification of casualties.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said the Interpol team, who came from various countries, would meet with the NDRRMC to get official data and statistics before flying to Tacloban this weekend.

“The team will make initial assessment to be able to formulate proposals on how to go about the DVI (disaster victim identification), given the magnitude of casualties,” De Lima said.

She added more members of the Interpol team would arrive in the next days.

De Lima explained the DVI is a tedious and thorough process which cannot be rushed.

“They said we cannot just identify cadavers based on clothing. There will come a time when all the corpses will look alike, so there will be a need to use a scientific method like DNA sampling,” De Lima said.

On the other hand, a group promoting child rights said it will provide assistance in helping recover pertinent data or records of children of families affected by the typhoon.

Airah Cadiogan, Advocacy Officer of Plan International Philippines, said their staff can help in data recovery of documents such as birth registration, especially of children.

“While we are doing assessment of the birth registration status in the country, in our own little way, apart from data recovery... we are also helping in the rehabilitation efforts being conducted by the government and several other organizations to help victims of the super typhoon,” Cadiogan said.

She explained that in almost all emergencies – armed conflicts, natural or manmade disasters and mass population displacements – children can become separated from their families or caregivers.

“Without the protection and care of their families, they are vulnerable to abuse, exploitation and recruitment into armed groups. Unregistered children are particularly at risk as there is no legal evidence of their existence, making them far harder to trace and perpetrators much more difficult to prosecute,” Cadiogan said.

Friday 22 November 2013

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-25050300

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Oil pipeline blasts in eastern China kill 35


Leaked oil from a ruptured pipeline in an eastern Chinese port city exploded Friday, killing at least 35 people, injuring 166 and contaminating the sea in one the country's worst industrial accidents of the year, authorities said.

The leaked oil triggered two huge blasts, one of them tearing up concrete along a city road in Qingdao. Photos posted online showed ripped slabs of pavement, bodies, overturned vehicles and shattered windows in nearby buildings. Black smoke rose above gigantic fuel silos and darkened much of the sky.

The pipeline owned by China's largest oil refiner, Sinopec, ruptured early Friday and leaked for about 15 minutes onto a street and into the sea before it was shut off. Hours later, as workers cleaned up the spill, the oil caught fire and exploded in two locations, the city government said.

The Beijing News cited a resident surnamed Gao, who works in logistics, as saying he was driving past Qingdao's Huangdao district when he felt the force of the blasts, and then realized the ground in front of him had fractured. The air was pungent, many cars on both sides of the road were overturned and there was dark smoke rising in the distance, he said.

"It felt like an earthquake, and I was dumbstruck," Gao said, adding that there was chaos on the street as people ran, panicking, in all directions.

Authorities ruled out terrorism but the incident remained under investigation, it said.




President Xi Jinping urged local officials to go all out in finding missing people, treating the injured and in finding the cause of the accident, state TV broadcaster CCTV said.

Calls to Sinopec's headquarters in Beijing were not immediately answered, but a statement online offered condolences to victims. "We will investigate the incident with responsibility and give timely reports," Sinopec said.

The Qingdao Environmental Protection Bureau said barriers had been set up to contain the oil as it spread into the sea, but that a mixture of gas and oil from a storm sewer exploded and caught fire over the sea.

More than 3,000 square meters (32,000 square feet) of sea surface was contaminated, the city government said.

Authorities said the oil had seeped into underground utility pipes, which could have been a factor in the blasts, but they did not elaborate. They assured the public that the explosions did not affect any petrochemical plant or military facilities in the seaside district and that air quality remained good after the disaster.

The accident is likely to add to growing concerns among the members of the Chinese public about safety and environmental risks that come with oil pipeline projects.

It was China's third deadliest industrial accident this year, behind a chicken factory fire in June in Jilin that killed 121 and a mining accident in March, also in Jilin, that killed 36.

Friday 22 November 2013

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2013/11/21/3331176/oil-pipe-blast-in-east-china-kills.html

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Latvia store collapse: Deaths rise as Riga rescue continues


At least 45 people have died after the roof of a supermarket collapsed in the Latvian capital Riga.

Rescue efforts continued through the night and police have launched a criminal investigation.

Three of those killed were emergency workers who were helping people trapped when more of the roof came down.

The number of deaths makes this the former Soviet republic's worst disaster since independence in 1991, the country's main news agency says.

It is unclear how many more people could still be inside.

The cause of the collapse is unclear although reports say a garden was being constructed on the roof at the time.

British pilot Paul Tribble, 27, was shopping in the store with his partner Elizabeth when the roof fell in.

"I was taken down by shelving falling on me, which skimmed my shoulder and forced me to the ground but I was still able to move," he told the BBC.

"There were torrents of water coming down off the roof. We headed into the back of the supermarket, the aisles were covered in produce and concrete and people lying on the floor."

Mr Tribble said a crane had been loading sand and building materials onto the roof for the past few weeks. He said he believed a lack of drainage following heavy rains had contributed to the fall.

"The police have started the investigation already," said Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis after visiting the scene.

"The criminal process has started about violating building standards."

Interior Minister Rihards Kozlovskis told Latvian TV it was "clear" there had been a problem meeting building regulations.

Latvian rescue services spokeswoman Viktorija Sembele said three firefighters were among those killed.

"We do not know the number of people who are still inside," she told the BBC.

She said people were being asked to call the mobile phones of relatives feared missing to help rescuers find them in the rubble.

TV footage showed rescue workers using mechanical cutters to clear debris from the single-storey concrete and glass building. Cranes were brought in to remove slabs of concrete.

More than 60 soldiers were helping the rescue effort, the army said on its official Twitter feed.

The initial collapse happened just before 18:00 (16:00 GMT) on Thursday, when the store was busy with customers.

Walls and windows also crumbled, leaving the shell of the building piled with rubble, witnesses said.

About 20 minutes later another part of the roof caved in, trapping rescue workers who were trying to reach survivors.

Dangerous work The rescue services believe a total of about 500sq m (5,300sq ft) of roof caved in, according to reports.

Witnesses said customers tried to run out after the first part of the roof collapsed but the supermarket's electronic doors closed, trapping them inside.

Leta news agency said the collapse represented the largest loss of life from a disaster since the restoration of independence in 1991, worse than a fire at a nursing home in 2007 that killed 25.

Normunds Plegermanis, deputy head of rescue services, said emergency teams faced difficult conditions at the supermarket.

"Falls are happening from time to time... it is very dangerous to work inside," he said.

Local media said the store, part of the Maxima retail chain, had been awarded a national architecture prize when it was completed in 2011.

The reason for the collapse is not known. Some have blamed the weight of soil being used to plant a winter garden on the supermarket's roof.

Friday 22 November 2013

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25045879

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Thursday 21 November 2013

Nazi U-boat sunk during Second World War is discovered by divers off of Indonesia - complete with skeletons of its doomed crew


Divers off the coast of Indonesia have discovered the wreck of a WW2 Nazi U-Boat - complete with the skeletons of its lost crew aboard.

Initial researches show it to be U-168, a hunter-killer of the German 'Kriegsmarine' which claimed several Allied vessels before it was sent to a watery grave by torpedoes in 1944.

A team found the wreck, which contains at least 17 skeletons, north of Java earlier this month after a tip-off from local divers.

'This is the first time we have found a foreign submarine from the war in our waters,' said Bambang Budi Utomo, head of the research team at the National Archaeology Centre which found the vessel.

'This is an extraordinary find that will certainly provide useful information about what took place in the Java Sea during World War II.'

As well as the human skeletons, dinner plates bearing swastikas, batteries, binoculars and a bottle of hair oil were pulled from the wreck.

He said further tests were being carried out on the objects to confirm the submarine was indeed 'U-168'. The sub was a type IX C/40 and was launched in March 1942.

Captain Helmuth Pich was its commander on four missions for the Third Reich. He survived with 26 other crew hands when it was lost on October 5 1944 under fire from a Dutch submarine. Some 23 men died in the attack.

Captain Pich lived until 1997 when he died at the age of 83.

In its three hunting expeditions for Allied vessels in wartime, his sub sunk one British, one Norwegian and one Greek freighter. Bambang Budi Utomo, head of the research team at the National Archaeology Centre that found the vessel, said it was unlikely the wreck, 60 miles (100 kilometres) northeast of Karimunjawa island, would be lifted from the seabed any time soon because of its sheer size and the cost involved.

U-168 was part of the Monsun U-Boats which were a group of vessels sent away from the German empire to attack allied ships along trade routes.

Japan occupied Indonesia during World War II, which was then still known by its colonial name of the Dutch East Indies. Germany and Japan were Allies until the end in WW2.

The Monsun U-Boats operated out of Penang, Jakarta and Sabang between 1943 and 1945. These U-Boats were sent to be based in the Far East stations provided by the Japanese but out of the 14 sent only four made it back to Europe.

It sailed from France in July 1943 and arrived at Penang in November of the same year.

U-168 was sunk at 1.30am on 6 October, 1944 in the Java Sea, by a torpedo from the Dutch submarine HrMs Zwaardvisch leaving 23 dead and 27 survivors.

Thursday 21 November 2013

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2511249/Nazi-U-boat-sunk-Second-World-War-discovered-divers-Indonesia--complete-skeletons-doomed-crew.html

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12 gold miners dead in Guinea after collapse


Residents in a mining town in northern Guinea say at least a dozen people are dead after a landslide in the area where they were searching for gold.

Mamadou Diallo, who lives in the town of Siguiri, said Wednesday that eight others were feared dead and five people had been taken to the hospital with injuries.

A rescue operation was underway to try and find the eight who remained missing after the collapse early Wednesday but authorities said the hope of finding more survivors was slim.

Siguiri is located 435 miles (700 kilometers) north of the capital in this mineral-rich West African country.

Expert Mandjan Sano said that most of those searching for gold in the area are artisanal miners who often use outdated techniques that can cause fatal landslides.

Thursday 21 November 2013

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/12-gold-miners-dead-guinea-collapse-20950289

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Washington D.C. sees increase in unclaimed remains


A growing number of Washington DC-area families are failing to show up to claim loved ones who’ve passed away, according to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the News4 I-Team.

Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. health officials all reported spikes in the number of “unclaimed remains” being handled by local medical examiners.

The Maryland State Anatomy Board, which released records showing a 100 percent increase in “unclaimed” and donated remains since 2000, cited economic struggles for the surge.

Ronn Wade, director of the board, said families are increasingly unable to afford the costs of burial and are forgoing the pickup of remains at local medical examiners’ offices.

“There are families, because of circumstances, who don’t have the means to do pretty much anything," Ward said.

Virginia has experienced a 33 percent increase in unclaimed remains over the past year, according to documents reviewed by the News4 I-Team. The District's “unclaimed” remains jumped from 62 cases in 2010 to 97 cases in 2011.

Taxpayers are ultimately paying for the handling of those remains. Financial records obtained by the News4 I-Team show Maryland officials spent approximately $224,000 to handle hundreds of unclaimed and donated bodies between October 2012 and October 2013.

Rising homelessness, reported by homeless advocacy groups throughout the D.C. region, has also triggered in spike in unidentified remains at local health departments.

The homeless, a large number of whom do not carry identification, are difficult for authorities to connect with families. Rosemary Ward, a Germantown, Md. federal employee, spent eight years searching for the whereabouts and remains of her 32-year-old son, Matthew.

He died in an abandoned Baltimore rowhouse while living homeless in 2003, but was unidentifiable to authorities who recovered his remains. He was buried in 2006 alongside hundreds of other unclaimed or unidentified Maryland men and women at the state’s community grave site for the unclaimed at Springfield Hospital in Carroll County.

Ward finally learned of her son’s death in 2011 after reviewing the website MarylandMissing.com, which tracks unidentified bodies being processed by the state's health officials. Ward said the long wait was painful.

“Always not knowing and not having a sense of where he was," she said.

The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and its Sykesville-based mental health staff stage an annual burial ceremony for the “unclaimed” in June. Ward attended and spoke at one of the recent ceremonies.

“Matthew was with me for 32 years, so he’ll always be with me,” she said.

Thursday 21 November 2013

http://www.csnbaltimore.com/article/metro-dc-sees-increase-unclaimed-remains

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Typhoon Haiyan: Conflicting death toll, forensic process continues


The death toll from Super Typhoon “Yolanda” continued to mount on Wednesday as the group tasked with collecting cadavers from Leyte reported that they found 116 more dead bodies from various areas, many of them carried back from the waters of the San Juanico Straight.

Senior Supt. Pabilto Cordeta of the Bureau of Fire Protection, head of Task Force Cadaver, said the 116 new cadavers brought to 5,154 the number of bodies found in the wake of Yolanda.

Cordeta explained that a problem in tallying process was the reason behind its body count with that of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council whose official count was at 4,011 dead with 1,602 still missing and 18,557 injured, according to the disaster agency’s Situation Report No. 30.

But Cordeta said more bodies are being washed back to shore with Tacloban City and the towns of Palo and Tanauan being the hardest hit.

After the Palace disputed estimates that the death could reach 10,000, Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda again made a double-take on Wednesday and said the estimate that President Benigno Aquino announced in an interview was based only on areas already reached by government.

Meanwhile, forensic pathologists raced to identify the dead in Tacloban City.

Clouds of flies rise as forensic pathologist Cecilia Lim opens body bags one-by-one, in a grim but crucial search for the identities of unknown typhoon victims in the Philippines.

“Some of these remains, their faces are gone. We’re trying to do it as fast as we can before we lose everything,” says Lim, as a truck unloads 80 more dead at her workspace -- the edge of a mass grave outside the storm-shattered city of Tacloban.

A putrid stench rises from the giant pit where around 700 unevenly stacked bodies lie six deep, some of them having lain in the tropical heat for a week-and-a-half.

Scores more lie on the side of the road, lined up in bags and awaiting processing by small, overworked teams.

Lim says the aim is to record rudimentary details before they are buried in the hope that at some point, the bodies can be identified and placed in a proper grave.

“We are trying to do some initial victim identification and post mortem gathering of evidence before the bodies really decompose,” she says.

Many were recovered after being submerged for days in pools of water left by the tsunami-like storm surge that crashed into Tacloban when Super Typhoon Haiyan made landfall on November 8.

As her assistant lifts the limp, wet clothes of each cadaver, Lim takes notes in neat cursive script in a reporter’s notebook, recording the sex and describing distinguishing marks.

Each hand is lifted to check for rings and the pockets are emptied, their contents inspected, logged and photographed.

Long, matted hair is scraped from one woman’s face, exposing her teeth so Lim can take a picture.

Crouching over the bloated body of one man, her knees just above the remains of his face, Lim unfolds a pair of spectacles taken from his shirt pocket, looking for a brand name on the arm before she refolds and photographs them.

“We document the clothes they are wearing, as well as any jewellery, tattoos or scars; something distinctive that people remember,” she says.

Cesar Pretencio rode his motorbike up from Tacloban in the search for his mother’s body.

“We had identified her and she was left in the chapel, but now she is gone,” he says.

“We want to know where she is so we can give her a proper burial.”

Lim nods sympathetically and tells Pretencio she will “keep an eye out” for his mother.

With the disaster known to have left more than 5,500 people dead or missing, the authorities are overwhelmed and Lim is just one of a handful of forensic pathologists who have been called in to help.

Those that are identified can be claimed by family and interred with the usual ceremony. The rest are taken to one of three pits like this.

The corpses are brought by firefighters who drive around the ruined city collecting the dead from among the debris of the storm surge.

“Yesterday we went out on the truck around Tacloban picking up bodies. We got 92,” Gallie Encabo tells AFP.

He is part of a group of 15 firemen who have come from the southern island of Mindanao to help with the recovery after one of the most powerful storms ever recorded.

The teams are being rotated among body collection, mass grave duty and water distribution.

“When the doctors have recorded the marks on the bodies for identification, we will put them in the ground,” he says, gesturing to the pit where a yellow excavator is digging a second trench.

This is the first time they have done body recovery on such a scale, says fellow firefighter Edgar Reyes.

“There are so many,” he says. “Yesterday when we stopped for one body, people would be shouting: ‘Hey, there’s one over here’.”

Lim, who trained in Detroit and Singapore, says that since she and other professionals started work on Monday, they have been trying to impose order on the burial process.

“Normal practice in a disaster like this is for the bodies to be buried in a single line, each one numbered so that they can be located easily,” she says.

“But lots of these have just been dumped in on top of one another. That will mean that we could have to dig up a lot of the grave to get at one body.”

Ideally, she says, they would like to do DNA tests so that scientists can match the dead with those looking for them. But the tests are not cheap, and with cadavers in such an advanced state of decay, not straightforward either.

“Because of the state of the bodies, we will have to get DNA samples from bones, and that isn’t easy.”

Despite a long medical career, Lim admits that dealing with so many corpses after a calamity like this is harrowing work.

“You go through all the training for a mass disaster,” she says. “But nothing can prepare you for this.”

Thursday 21 November 2013

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2013/11/21/death-toll-hits-5-154-on-day-12/

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No visual ID possible in Kazan plane crash


An official in Russia's Investigative Committee said "not a single body fit for identification by relatives was discovered" at the scene of an airplane crash at the airport in Kazan, Tatarstan.

Dmitry Zakharov said on November 20 that more than 1,000 fragments from bodies of the 50 people killed in the crash on November 17 have been sent for DNA testing.

Zakharov said the impact of the plane when it hit the ground was so intense it created a large hole in the tarmac and scattered debris hundreds of meters away from the impact site.

In a related event, a bill banning operation of commercial jets in service more than 20 years was submitted to Russia's State Duma, the lower house of parliament.

The Tatarstan airlines plane that crashed had been in service for 23 years.

Thursday 21 November 2013

http://www.rferl.org/content/no-visual-id-possible/25175089.html

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Interpol forensic team to help identify cadavers in Tacloban


A team of forensic experts from the International Police (Interpol) is set to fly to the typhoon-battered Tacloban City this weekend to help local authorities in identifying the decomposing bodies of those who were killed at the height of super typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan).

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has met with the Interpol’s disaster victim identification (DVI) team, which will help the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) forensic team identify thousands of collected cadavers.

The Interpol team has experts from Canada, United Kingdom, Cameron, Jordan, Bosnia and South Africa.

“They said they’re willing to help and they’re willing to extend assistance and give advice to the whole process of DVI. This weekend, they will go to Tacloban City to make an initial assessment so that they will be able to craft or formulate proposals on how to go about the DVI given the magnitude of the casualties,” Sec. de Lima told reporters after her meeting with the Interpol team.

“That’s the initial team and depending on the exact process, I think more experts from the Interpol will fly to the country,” she said.

De Lima believed that Interpol’s assistance in the DVI operations would be very helpful, citing the same help extended by the international body during the “Princess of the Star” tragedy off Romblon in June 2008.

She also said that the integrity of the whole process of identifying the casualties will be ensured with the help of the foreign forensics experts.

“They (Interpol) explained that identifying the corpses is a tedious process. You don’t determine the identity of the dead bodies on the basis of their shirt or their belongings. So what is needed here, according to the Interpol, is a scientific process of identifying the bodies, like DNA testing,” the Justice Secretary explained.

“It will add further to the anguish of the family if you give them the wrong cadaver,” she said.

The first batch of 15 to 20 NBI forensic experts flew to Tacloban Tuesday last week. A second batch followed over the weekend.

De Lima revealed that the NBI forensic team is planning to set up apartment-type tombs to be able to identify an initial batch of 700 collected cadavers.

She said the ideal setup – as agreed upon by the Department of Health and volunteer private pathologists – is to put 10 to 20 corpses in a tomb.

De Lima has traveled to Leyte to supervise the forensic identification of the victims. The NBI had already appealed to the government for additional funds for the DVI since the NBI would need to spend about P15,000 to P20,000 per “specimen” or body.

Meanwhile, the Department of Justice (DOJ) admitted that it will be difficult to reconstitute the records of pending cases in courts that have been pummelled by super typhoon Yolanda.

“Our chance is to be able to reconstitute the records of the cases from the parties but that too will be difficult,” Prosecutor General Claro Arellano said.

The prosecutors’ office is housed at the Bulwagan ng Katarungan Compound in Tacloban, Leyte. Arellano said, a staff and wife of a prosecutor were reported to be among the typhoon fatalities.

The Office of the Prosecutors will resume work on Monday.

“We are preparing to send typewriters and other supplies to them,” Chief Prosecutors Association (CIPROSA) head and Manila Chief Prosecutor Edward Togonon said.

Thursday 21 November 2013

http://www.mb.com.ph/interpol-forensic-to-help-identify-cadavers-in-tacloban/

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Wednesday 20 November 2013

15 killed, seven injured as vehicle falls into gorge


Fifteen persons were killed and seven seriously injured when the vehicle they were travelling in fell into a deep gorge in Pithoragarh district early this morning.

The mishap occurred at Tauldhar, about 6 km from Dharchula near India-Nepal border in the district at 7.30 AM, killing 15 persons on the spot and leaving seven others injured, Dharchula SDM Pramod Kumar said.

All the bodies have been recovered and the injured have been admitted to a community health centre at Dharchula, he said.

The vehicle carrying milk and vegetable vendors from Ranthi to Dharchula fell into the gorge when the driver lost control near a sharp bend, he said.

The reasons behind the accident is being ascertained but apparently it was caused due to overloading, he said.

Wednesday 20 November 2013

http://freepressjournal.in/15-killed-seven-injured-as-vehicle-falls-into-gorge/

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Don't resort to rapid mass burials, ICRC says


The international Red Cross released a manual on how to deal with dead bodies on Wednesday, knocking down the notion that corpses are a huge health hazard as the death toll from Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) climbed to more than 4,000.

The storm crashed into the central Philippines on Nov. 8, laying waste to just about everything in its path, and bodies are still being pulled from the debris. Many victims have been buried in mass graves.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that, contrary to popular belief, there was no public health justification for rapid mass burials.

"The bodies of those who die in a natural disaster do not cause epidemics, and they are a negligible health hazard," it said in a release.

It said it was unlikely the typhoon victims were carrying epidemic-causing diseases such as cholera, typhoid or malaria and that they likely died from drowning, injury or fire.



"There is only a small risk of developing diarrhea by drinking water contaminated by the corpses—a risk smaller than that caused by the living—and that risk can be eliminated by routinely disinfecting and/or boiling water to prevent water-borne disease."

The guide said the rumors about contamination put political pressure on authorities to resort to rapid mass burials and spraying disinfectants.

"The consequences of mismanagement of the dead include mental distress and legal problems for relatives of the victims," it said.

But it added that rapid retrieval of bodies was a priority because it aided identification and reduced the psychological impact on survivors.

In a section on advice for journalists covering disasters, it said they should challenge any call for mass burials or incineration.

"Please do not jump on the bandwagon of alarmists spreading incorrect information," it said. "Be professional."

Wednesday 20 November 2013

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/336308/news/nation/don-t-resort-to-rapid-mass-burials-icrc-says

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European database of unidentified bodies urged


A Europe-wide database of unidentified bodies should be established, the UK Missing Persons Bureau says.

Joe Apps, who heads up the bureau, told BBC News it would help families who were searching for missing loved ones.

A year ago, the bureau launched a website containing images and distinguishing features of about 500 unidentified bodies found across the UK - a third of the total.

The bodies of four missing people have been identified as a result.

One of the matches followed a call from a man who thought an image on the website was that of his brother, who was last seen in 1994.

Fingerprints proved it was.

But Mr Apps said that, with so many people moving to and from the UK, a wider geographical pool of unidentified remains was needed.

At present, the bureau has records of 1,500 unidentified bodies or body parts from across Britain.

Five new cases are added to the list each month.

"What I'd like to see happen is that families across Europe could go to a single point - a single resource, a single website perhaps - to review all the bodies that are being found across Europe," Mr Apps said.

He estimated the database could carry details of about 7,500 unidentified remains.

"Bearing in mind modern migration patterns and work patterns, it would make it much easier for families to see if they can recognise anybody."

Mr Apps, who served in the police for 33 years before joining the bureau, said he had discussed the plans with agencies including Interpol.

"I believe, and my colleagues believe, it's a good idea - we just need to wait to see how we can make it come true," he added.

One of the cases likely to feature on such a database is that of a woman discovered near Swaffham, Norfolk, in 1974.

Her headless body was found bound and concealed under a dust sheet on heathland.

Nightdress woman was found in Police have released a picture of the nightdress the Swaffham woman was in

Police believe the woman was white, aged between 23 and 35, and possibly from central, eastern or northern Europe.

Five years ago, the woman's remains were exhumed for DNA tests to be carried out.

Since then detectives have been working through a list of 558 women reported missing at the time of her murder to see if there is a match.

Det Insp Andy Guy, who is leading the investigation to identify the victim, said: "She deserves closure and her family deserves closure."

He said a European database was "a fantastic idea".

He pointed out that a number of people who disappeared in coastal areas of Britain were washed out to sea and ended up abroad, so widening the database could make it easier to identify their remains.

He is part of a joint Norfolk and Suffolk police team dedicated to resolving cases of missing persons and unidentified bodies.

Mr Apps said only six other police forces across Britain had set up specialist units for identifying bodies - Police Scotland, British Transport Police, Thames Valley, Sussex, North Yorkshire and North Wales - and he was trying to persuade more to do so.

Wednesday 20 November 2013

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25012645

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Mexico mass graves: Dozens of dead found


Two mass graves have been discovered in Mexico - bringing the number of bodies unearthed over the past 10 days to 39.

The remains of eight people - including a child - were found in the graves near the US-Mexico border after authorities in the northern state of Sonora received an anonymous call.

According to an initial assessment, the pits near a dirt road in the Navojoa municipality contain the corpses of six men, a woman and a minor.

Medical experts say the remains could be about a year and a half old, an official statement said.

Last week, seven bodies were discovered near the resort of Acapulco, less than two days after six cadavers were found.

That comes on top of at least 18 other bodies discovered since November 9 in eight clandestine communal graves near the town of La Barca.

The town lies on the border between the western states of Jalisco and Michoacan, which are seen as a bloody battleground for drug cartels.

Dozens of hidden graves containing hundreds of corpses have been found in various parts of Mexico since a rise in violence between drug traffickers and government crackdown operations.

More than 77,000 people have been killed in drug cartel-related violence since 2006.

Wednesday 20 November 2013

http://news.sky.com/story/1170805/mexico-mass-graves-dozens-of-dead-found

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How to handle corpses during disasters


In the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda (international codename Haiyan), the streets of badly battered areas were filled not only with fallen trees and collapsed houses and buildings, but also with bodies of the cyclone's casualties.

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda on Monday, November 11, said both the Department of Public Works and Highways and the engineering brigade of the military were already instructed to start clearing operations.

But there is an urgency to collect and bury corpses lying around for 4 days now since Friday – and this is not because they pose a risk of communicable disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) clarified.

In its technical note “Disposal of dead bodies in emergency conditions,” WHO said disposing dead bodies during disasters like Super Typhoon Yolanda is important mainly because of the pyschological trauma the bodies may cause to those “witnessing death on a large scale.”

But ample time must be given to identify the bodies.

Two different viewing spaces

The international organization said separate viewing locations should be provided during emergencies: one for viewing a body for identification, and another for viewing a body for grieving purposes.

In Tacloban City, where the Philippine Red Cross estimated at least 1,200 to be dead, WHO standards require an area of over 2,000 square meters if it is to be used to display bodies for identification.

Identification of dead bodies is a lengthy and challenging process, especially when they do not carry any personal information, and relatives have to scour numerous bodies to find their loved ones.

“Once identified, a death certificate should be issued, an official record of death prepared, and the body tagged,” WHO added.

Burial and cremation

WHO discouraged burial in common graves and mass cremation, and preferred burial over cremation. The following conditions must be met in identifying a graveyard location:

- should be agreed with the community
- ground conditions must be given attention
- at least a 50-m proximity to groundwater drinking sources
- at least a 500-m proximity to the nearest habitat
- an area of at least 1,500 square meters per 10,000 population
- burial depth of at least 1.5 m above groundwater table, with at least a 1-m soil covering
- Individual graves are preferred, and in the absence of coffins, bodies must be covered by a plastic sheeting to separate it from the soil.
If the community prefers cremation, WHO said a site for this should be located at least 500 meters downwind of dwellings.

Mortuary sites But if burial and cremation is likely to be delayed, a temporary mortuary site may be put up. WHO recommended a field morgue capacity of 10 bodies per 10,000 population. If possible, bodies should be stored at 4ยบC.

Equipment for mortuary services in major disasters include:

- stainless steel postmortem tables or heavy duty trestle tables covered with plastic sheeting
- wheeled trolleys for transporting bodies within the mortuary
- tarpaulin or plastic sheeting for the floor, if it is not made of concrete
- heavy-duty black plastic sheeting for temporary screens
- refuse bins and bags
- cleaning materials – mops, buckets, cloths, soap, towels
- disinfectant and deodorizer
- protective clothing and heavy-duty rubber gloves
- translucent plastic body bags 0.1 mm thick and labels (if epidemic circumstances)
- wall charts to record progress or large poster boards if there are no walls
- But at a minimum, the following must be provided in a mortuary site: stretchers, leather gloves, rubber gloves, overalls, boots, caps, soap, disinfectants and cotton cloth. Appropriate cleansing of the site must be done when closing it down.

The Department of Health (DOH) said refrigerated vans or dry ice – and not lime, muriatic acid, or potassium alum (tawas) – should be used to avoid the rapid decay of dead bodies.

Epidemics

In case of a medical epidemic, handling of bodies must be left to experts. Burial or cremation must be done immediately after death, but the size of the gathering in the funeral must be limited to avoid spreading the epidemic.

WHO also provided quick guidelines on how to prevent the spread of an epidemic after being in contact with corpses. To prevent a cholera epidemic, careful washing with soap and water is required once exposed to cholera vibrios present in dead bodies.

Ebola, which easily spreads through bodily secretions like blood and saliva, can also be killed by careful washing, according to WHO.

But DOH noted that infectious microorganisms present in dead bodies is not viable after 48 hours.

Handling of corpses is also crucial. Protective clothing should be worn to avoid fleas and lice that could spread these diseases. WHO also said bodies must be stored in body bags before burial or cremation

Wednesday 20 November 2013

http://www.rappler.com/move-ph/issues/disasters/typhoon-yolanda/43453-who-handling-corpses-disasters

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Tuesday 19 November 2013

Six killed as private plane crashes in central France


A small plane crashed Tuesday in France's central Burgundy region, killing six people, officials said.

The accident occurred a little after 11:00 am (10:00 GMT) near the village of Mouffy, firefighters said.

The single-engine TBM-700 plane was registered in the United States and was flying between Annecy, a tourist destination in the French Alps, and Toussus-le-Noble, a small airport in Paris's western suburbs.

The plane crashed into a field. Civil aviation authorities say the victims, all French, have not yet been formally identified. The cause of the crash is under investigation.

France has witnessed a number of crashes involving small planes this year including one near Lyon in September when a Cessna aircraft came down shortly after taking off from an airfield near Lyon. The plane burst into flames as it crashed into a field near the runway, killing all four on board.

And at the beginning of September, two British residents were killed when the plane they were travelling in, also a Cessna, crashed off the coast of Jersey, in the English Channel, after taking off from Dinan in western France.

In August, The Local reported how an elderly brother and sister were among three people killed when a tourist plane crashed into a field in Puy-de-Dome in central France.

Just a week earlier, two men were killed instantly when the Cirrus SR20 single-engine aircraft they were travelling in crashed in the Loire region of central France.

Tuesday 19 November 2013

http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=121559&frid=22&seccatid=46&cid=22&fromval=1

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Sardinia hit by cyclone and flooding, at least 16 killed


At least 16 people have been killed in flooding prompted by a cyclone and heavy rain that swept through the Italian island of Sardinia.

A number of people are reported missing after rivers burst their banks, sweeping cars away and causing bridges to collapse.

The worst-hit area appears to be in and around the north-eastern city of Olbia.

Prime Minister Enrico Letta has spoken of a "national tragedy" and a state of emergency is expected to be declared.

"We're at maximum alert," Giorgio Cicalo, an official from Sardinia's civil protection authority, told Italy's Rai TV.

"We haven't seen a situation as extreme as this, perhaps for decades. Especially because it's been across the whole island."

Hundreds of people across the Mediterranean island have been moved from their homes because of the flooding caused by Cyclone Cleopatra.

Sardinian Governor Ugo Cappellacci told Italian TV that the situation on the island was "dramatic".

Olbia Mayor Gianni Giovanelli was quoted by Sky TG24 as saying that the city had been hit by an "apocalyptic"' storm.

Cyclones are extremely rare in the Mediterranean.

Reports from the island say flood waters in some areas were up to 3m (10ft) high.

A Brazilian family of four drowned when their basement flat in the town of Arzachena, in the northern part of the island, filled with water. Two children were among the dead.

Three people died when a road bridge collapsed on to their car near Olbia, according to local media.

In a separate incident, a mother and her daughter were found dead in their car after it was swept away by floods.

Among the victims was a police officer who died after a bridge collapsed as he tried to escort an ambulance.

Tuesday 19 November 2013

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24996292

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Russian authorities continue looking for bodies in plane wreckage


The president of the Russian republic of Tatarstan declared Monday a day of mourning as crews continued to look for bodies in the wreckage of a Russian jetliner that crashed on landing a day earlier.

All 50 people on board, including the son of Tatarstan regional President Rustam Miinikhanov, died in the crash in Tatarstan’s capital, Kazan.

The victims ranged in age from 13 to 87, according to a list of names the airline posted on its website. Among them was Lt. Gen. Alexander Antonov, the regional chief of Russia’s Federal Security Service, and a British national.

“Not all the bodies have been located,” Deputy Emergency Situation Situations Minister Vladimir Stepanov told local media Monday morning. “The main work will be completed today.”

Officials do not know why Tatarstan Airlines flight 363 crashed. Part of the answer may lie in the Boeing 737′s flight and data recorders. Russian officials say they’ve found the flight recorders, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency said Monday. Russia’s Interstate Commerce Committee reports that the recorders’ container was seriously damaged, the news agency said, but they’ve been sent to Moscow and could provide some information by Tuesday.

The plane, carrying 44 passengers and a crew of six, took off from Moscow’s Domodedovo International Airport, about 700 kilometers (435 miles) west of Kazan.

The pilot tried two times to land before the plane slammed nose-first into the ground, officials told local media.

The jet was 23 years old and had been in service with at least eight airlines, including Air France, Uganda Airlines and Bulgaria Air, according to aviation industry websites.

In a November 2012 flight, it was forced to cut short a flight to Moscow and return to Kazan after losing cabin pressure, according to the website AeroInside.

Security cam footage showing a Tatarstan Airlines Boeing 737’s nosedive has been released. The reason for the crash that claimed 50 lives remains unknown, although technical malfunction and pilot error are the leading theories.

The footage shows just how futile any efforts at rectifying the situation must have been in those final moments. The plane is seen to be falling vertically out of the sky before exploding on the runway.

“We will not land” were the last words that chief pilot Rustem Salikhov told an air traffic controller at the airport.

"The plane simply fell. It went vertically into the ground. After the plane hit the ground there was an explosion," transport minister Maksim Sokolov said.

As experts examined the crash scene, they reportedly confirmed that the airliner began spinning before hitting the ground. They believe the fuselage is buried four meters underground.

“Practically half of the aircraft was in the ground,” Life News quoted a source as saying.

This complicates the recovery operation, as the bodies of the two pilots and those who traveled in business class are underground, along with half the cabin.

Parts of the fuselage, which is now in tatters, were scattered within a 2.5 kilometer radius. The plane's back was completely ruined.

One witness told RT earlier that she was “on board that same Tatarstan airplane from Kazan to Moscow earlier on Sunday afternoon. The flight itself went quite smoothly but, just before the landing, the plane started vibrating fiercely. Initially I thought it was the weather - but when we got out of the plane, it turned out the weather was quite nice. The plane was shaking; it was dragged from side to side. We landed on our first attempt, but it was a really bad landing and I felt like the plane was going to roll off the runway.”

Despite all this, the latest checkup - two days before departure - had found nothing wrong.

Supporting the view that all five factors discussed could have caused the fatal crash – pilot error, weather conditions, poor fuel, badly observed safety measures, and the plane’s disrepair – Michael Weiss, a civil aviation consultant who used to fly the same type of plane that crashed in Kazan, told RT that in the majority of cases, it is always a combination of factors.

“All of these factors are going to be looked at...there are going to be so many things looked at, keeping in mind that accidents generally don’t happen from a single event," he said.

Russia has tried to improve its checkered reputation for air safety in recent years.

In 2011, then-President Dmitry Medvedev grounded two classes of Soviet-era aircraft after a pair of crashes that killed more than 90 people, including a charter plane crash that killed an entire professional hockey team.

Medvedev said Russia would have to upgrade its aircraft fleet, step up safety standards and radically cut the number of airlines

Tuesday 19 November 2013

http://rt.com/news/kazan-plane-crash-video-882/

http://fox5sandiego.com/2013/11/18/russian-authorities-continue-looking-for-bodies-in-plane-wreckage/#axzz2l5CTH1Zv

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7 dead after minibus plunges into ravine


A minibus transporting 13 tourists, believed to be Chinese, plunged into a 15-meter-deep ravine Monday after experiencing engine trouble on the narrow, treacherous road at Jl. Pantai Suluban, Pecatu in South Kuta.

As of 9 p.m., the local authorities had confirmed that seven people had been killed in the accident, including the driver, the tourist guide and five tourists. The number of fatalities is feared to rise since several passengers were still receiving intensive treatment in local hospitals.

Severely injured passengers were rushed to Kasih Ibu Hospital in Kedonganan; Bali International Medical Centre (BIMC) in Nusa Dua; Surya Husada Hospital in Siligita; and Sanglah General Hospital in Denpasar.

The police and hospitals have yet to release the identities of the victims. There was also contradictory information about the nationalities of the victims, with the police identifying them as Chinese, while the local chapter of the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) stated they were Taiwanese. The driver is believed to be an Indonesian national, identified as Agus Bachtiar Usman.

The accident took place on Monday afternoon at around 2:45 p.m. local time. The minibus fell into a ravine near Blue Point Hotel on Jl. Pantai Suluban.

Bali Traffic Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Beno Lauhenapessy said that the minibus was moving along the main road that connects Padang Padang Beach with the famous Uluwatu Temple. It was reported that the group planned to visit the temple, which is perched on a cliff and was believed to be the enlightenment site of an influential 16th century Hindu sage.

At an uphill and angled section of the road, the minibus’ engine stuttered before suddenly dying out.

“The bus driver put the brakes on for several minutes. When the driver tried to turn on engine and move forward, it suddenly switched off again and the bus moved backward before plunging into a 15-meter-deep ravine,” Beno explained.

The locals and, later on, emergency crew from the Denpasar National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) scrambled to the accident site and had to navigate difficult terrain to evacuate the victims. It took them three hours to complete the task.

Police were still investigating the exact cause of the fatal accident. Beno said that the police had yet to make any conclusions about the cause of the accident. “We are still investigating the case, and we will surely investigate it in a thorough manner,” he said.

Beno added that the Bali Traffic Police would evaluate the safety signs and equipment installed on the accident-prone road.

“Since there has been an accident, we will improve the infrastructure on roads that are prone to accidents. It will include providing traffic signs to show all motorists that the road is dangerous,” Beno said.

Dudut Rustyadi, head of the forensic facility of Sanglah General Hospital, confirmed that the facility had received the bodies of all the fatalities.

“We will carry out a postmortem examination on all the victims once we receive an official notice from the police,” he said.

Tuesday 19 November 2013

http://www.thejakartapost.com/bali-daily/2013-11-19/7-dead-after-minibus-plunges-ravine.html

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Typhoon Haiyan: Bodies ripped from graves


Skulls lie on tombstones and a hand reaches out from a grave at a cemetery in the eastern Philippines, after a typhoon so powerful it pulled the dead from the earth.

Shell-shocked survivors speak of how there was nowhere to hide when the storm brought the ocean surging ashore, sweeping through a school where children and the elderly cowered.

Typhoon Haiyan killed at least 75 people in the small rural town of Hernani. Another 45 are missing.

And like something from a nightmare, the storm surge was so powerful it washed bodies from their graves as it swept over the local cemetery.

Those who survived the onslaught were horrified to discover the graveyard in ruins.

"It was a hair-raising sight. Some of the dead were sticking halfway out of their tombs. Others were strewn across the street," said Claire Gregorio, an aid worker from the nearby Catholic diocese of Borongan.

"The water came in and just swept everything away," said Gregorio, one of the first aid responders to reach Hernani, pointing to the ocean about 700m away and hidden by a strip of now-dead mangrove forest.

Jumble of tombs

On the day an AFP team visited, the Catholic cemetery in this deeply religious country was a jumble of upturned and broken concrete and marble tombs, half-buried by the fine, crushed coral that came in with the water.

A calcified hand stuck out of one broken grave, several skulls lay on top of tombs and a thighbone sat on the ground.

Romeo Vazquez, aged 45, recalls how the waters rose rapidly around 02:00 on 8 November and did not retreat for five terrifying hours.

"These fields were like a sea at the time," he said.

"There were houses and boats afloat as well as people, both the dead and those still alive."

His family all survived after sitting out the flood on a small hill behind their house. But relatives who had been laid to rest once before have now gone.

"My brother is missing, his shattered tomb was empty," he said. "My grandmother's remains are also missing."

Farmer Luciano Habagat, aged 70, waded to safety through chest deep water when the waves engulfed his home.

"Peopl>e were awake because of the strong winds, but it was very dark. Some people sought sanctuary in a nearby school while others ran to the hills," he said. His sister died in the flood.

Fled to school

Gregorio, the church aid worker, said villagers had fled to the school because they thought they would be safe there.

"The elementary school was an evacuation centre, but after a while the floor became wet and the water tasted like salt," she said, relating stories from survivors.

"When they opened the doors the seawater exploded in their faces."

Typhoon Haiyan was one of the strongest ever recorded when it thundered through the Philippines, cutting a swathe of destruction and killing thousands.

More than a week after it hit, 1 600 people are still officially listed as missing in addition to the 3 976 dead, and up to four million are homeless.

A huge global rescue operation has swung into action, with millions of dollars' worth of aid being delivered around the clock.

But food remains scarce, especially in remote areas. There is no power and no running water across a wide area, and even in some of the larger cities, decomposing bodies still lie on the street.

In Hernani, survivors could not wait for an official effort to re-bury their dead.

Most of those that were disinterred were put in a mass grave, after a blessing from the parish priest, apart from one man whose funeral had been held just two days before the storm, said Gregorio.

"The relatives decided to re-bury him in a grave of his own."

Tuesday 19 November 2013

http://www.news24.com/World/News/Typhoon-Haiyan-ripped-bodies-from-graves-20131119

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Monday 18 November 2013

Why are some victims more important than others?


A headline in the Daily Mail last week read: 'Two Americans among 1,700 killed in Philippines Typhoon". An estimated 2,000 Filipinos have perished, but it's the loss of two western lives that may trigger the deployment of expensive DNA technology to the region.

Forensic identification is required to identify those bodies that have been destroyed beyond recognition by any other means.

A recent study by Carnegie Melon University in Pittsburgh highlights the human rights incongruity in access to vital DNA technology. Researchers exposed an unofficial, unspoken, global hierarchy, where some human remains are deemed more worthy than others when it comes to investing in DNA identification.

The technology was deployed, for example, in Bosnia and in the aftermath of the 9/11 World Trade Centre attacks, but not in Rwanda, or Haiti.

The authors highlight the fact that, in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, DNA technology was employed to identify victims in Thailand – the area with the highest proportion of western tourists. Non-western victims in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and other areas were not, it seems, deemed worthy of such investment.

The CMU study calls for international structures to be put in place to promote more equal access to forensic identification, ensure their fair and efficient use and provide uniform protections to participants following large-scale conflict and disaster.

In April, the collapse of the Rana Plaza Factory in Bangladesh made international headlines. More than 1,130 workers, mainly women, were killed as a result, some would argue, of corporate manslaughter.

In spite of allegations of overcrowding and human rights abuses, the owners of Rana Plaza are unlikely to pay the price. A few weeks ago, Primark announced that it had authorised a second wave of payments to victims and their families. The first installment came to the princely sum of £130 per victim.

Those who received the paltry compensation said it ran out within weeks; others say they have received nothing.

Matalan, Benetton and Bonmarche were also reportedly operating from Rana Plaza. Apparently, these companies have not offered any compensation.

According to Action Aid, six months on, 94% of Rana Plaza victims are still awaiting compensation, 92% of survivors have not gone back to work, with 63% of those reporting physical injuries including amputations, paralysis and severe pain.

Exacerbating the families' battle for justice is the lack of bodies, which, if presented, would trigger their compensation. Although the technology has been made available to identify Rana Plaza victims, problems with incompatible software have plagued the process.

Apart from the obvious emotional implications of this, there are also legal, social and economical ramifications.

Death benefits are being withheld on the grounds that the government has not been able to formally identify all the victims.

For the victims of conflict and disaster, the nightmare doesn't end when the world's media averts its gaze.

For the survivors and the destitute, despairing families of the deceased, the cost of being a third-class global citizen is never ending.

Human rights are for all – not just those who can afford to buy them.

Monday 18 November 2013

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/news-analysis/why-are-some-victims-more-important-than-others-29762494.html

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Forensic team identifies Tacloban dead


Three pathologists struggled yesterday to identify dozens of fast-decomposing bodies at a mass grave, victims of the strongest typhoon ever recorded, illustrating the scale of the task the Philippines faces in the hardest-hit city of Tacloban.

More than 3,900 people are believed to have been killed when Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in the central Philippines on Nov. 8 and the sea surged ashore like a tsunami.

The pathologists from Manila’s University of the Philippines worked with three morticians to identify bodies laid out in the dirt on the edge of the pit in the evening sunlight.

It is on the tenth day after the disaster, that the meticulous process of identifying the bloated and rotting corpses has taken place at the grave, the main site for bodies collected from the debris of Tacloban.

Identification is especially important to Catholics in the predominantly Roman Catholic country.

As the pathologists overturned the bodies, they took photographs and notes of features, dimensions and other details like clothes, jewellery and mobile phones.

They had worked at a rate of 15 bodies-an-hour since sunrise with no shelter from the blazing sun.

With more than 300 bodies delivered to the site since Sunday, good-humoured but frustrated pathologist Raquel Del Rosario-Fortun said identifying all victims would be impossible without more staff and facilities.

She pleaded to Alfred Romualdez, Tacloban’s mayor who was visiting the grave, for more help.

“Everything actually is very difficult, given the resources that we have,” she said.

“There’s just a few of us right now. The thing is, we just want to start a system. And we’re hoping that this could go on. The idea is to try and examine all the bodies here, and not just dump them in a common grave.”

Romualdez said he was exasperated by the speed of the central government’s response to the storm and said his city lacked the facilities and expertise for responses like identification of bodies.

“It’s going very slow,” he said. “It’s a process that was not studied or thought of ... Every year we’re hit by strong typhoons. There must be a template already for this. It’s about time our government prepares for the next storms.”

Beside the pit, people unloaded a coffin made from scavenged debris from the top of a van and clambered through the graveyard to push it into narrow hole in a concrete wall.

Mourners said the dead man had been shot five times. They did not say why.

Tension has run high in Tacloban as desperate residents have looted and fought for scarce supplies.

Monday 18 November 2013

http://www.gulf-times.com/asean-philippines/188/details/371997/three-pathologists-in-struggle-to-identify-dead

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