Tuesday 15 January 2013

In zee gevonden man stuurman Baltic Ace (in Dutch)


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De man die 19 december dood in de Noordzee werd gevonden, blijkt de eerste stuurman van de Baltic Ace te zijn. Dit vrachtschip verging op 5 december op ongeveer 75 kilometer uit de kust ter hoogte van Goeree-Overflakkee.

Van de 24 bemanningsleden konden er 13 worden gered. Vijf opvarenden werden dood geborgen, zes lichamen werden nog vermist. Met de vondst van de 31-jarige Poolse stuurman is het aantal vermisten nu nog vijf.

Het Korps landelijke politiediensten maakte dit dinsdag bekend. De politie kon de man identificeren aan de hand van vingerafdrukken.

Een Nederlandse kotter vond het lichaam van de Pool op 19 december ruim 20 mijl westelijk van IJmuiden. Het stoffelijke overschot werd door een reddingsboot geborgen en aan de politie overgedragen.

Duikers van de marine hebben afgelopen weken rond en onder het wrak van de Baltic Ace gezocht, maar troffen geen lichamen aan. De vermisten waren kort na de ramp al doodverklaard.

Tuesday 15 January 2013

http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/21221508/__Stuurman_Baltic_Ace_gevonden__.html

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Landslide kills 6 in Bogor


Six people were killed when a landslide off a 30-meter cliff swept through 10 houses and a mosque in Cipayung, Bogor, West Java, on Tuesday.

The six victims were identified as Roni, 17; Aris, 50; Hendri, 7, and 45-year-old Karmina with her two children, Robi, 21, and Ita, 12.

Bogor Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) head Yos Sudrajat said that the search and rescue team had found two victims, but were still searching for the four others.

“It was difficult for the team to find the victims because the area was inaccessible,” he said, adding that the rescue team was forced to search for the victims without heavy equipment.

Yos said that his agency had also provided a shelter for the victims whose houses had been destroyed. “We have sent 47 people to the shelter,” he said, as quoted by tempo.co.

A local resident, 30-year-old Suma, said the accident occurred at around 6 a.m. “The rain had been pounding the village since last night and suddenly we heard a rumbling sound above our houses,” he said.

Tuesday 15 January 2013

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/01/15/landslide-kills-6-bogor.html

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Spectrometry to the rescue!


The next time a major earthquake strikes it could be an ion mobility spectrometer (IMS), not a sniffer dog, searching for people trapped in the rubble. New research has demonstrated that the instrument can detect a pattern of 12 chemicals that signal the presence of life. This could eventually lead to a handheld device to guide search and rescue teams.

Using chemistry to find people trapped in disaster sites makes sense, according to Wolfgang Vautz, of the Leibniz Institute for Analytical Chemistry, Germany, who helped develop the techique. Sniffer dogs are normally used for this purpose, but they need breaks and can get confused when there are lots of dead bodies around.

Vautz’s idea was to find survivors by detecting signature chemicals in human breath. To identify candidate molecules Vautz and his team sealed volunteer graduate students in a small office for six hours. The air from the room was sampled and put through a GC–IMS instrument – the latter is a type of spectrometer that separates ions according to their size and shape.

Carbon dioxide concentration was the control variable in Vautz’s experiments, as this could only originate from the volunteers’ respiration. At a real-life disaster site though, the situation could be complicated by other potential CO2 sources like fires. IMS analysis revealed that 12 simple organic chemicals – such as octanal and benzaldehyde – emanated from the graduates and increased in line with the CO­2.

By taking samples from inside a void and measuring their chosen chemicals the researchers could reliably discern whether a human was inside. Each sample took three minutes to analyse, and the test was very sensitive. Vautz says it even showed when one volunteer left briefly to use the bathroom.

Stephen Barton, a principal lecturer in analytical chemistry at Kingston University London, UK, says the concept is ‘interesting, not least because of the future possible advances, such as getting an indication of the health of the trapped person’.

Health monitoring is one of Vautz’s longer-term goals for the device. But the immediate challenge is deploying the technique in disaster zones, rather than a laboratory. Vautz says his team ‘struggled’ to carry the 25kg instrument around in a recent field test. But he is confident they can lighten it by choosing only the hardware necessary to analyse the 12 chemicals. ‘There are many examples of handheld IMS detectors already in use,’ he says, ‘one being for the detection of chemical warfare agents.'

Another obstacle is finding out how chemicals from fires and breached industrial faculties would interact with the analytes in real life. ‘Next we will need to find a partner from the search and rescue services to work with, so we can test this properly, in an ethical way,’ Vautz says.

Tuesday 15 January 2013

http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2013/01/ion-mobility-spectrometry-sniffer-dog-natural-disaster-survivors

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Eight killed as truck turns turtle in Gazipur


Eight people were killed and three others injured as a fertiliser-laden truck overturned on the Dhaka bypass road near Ulukhola Bridge in Kaliganj upazila in the early hours of Monday.

Identities of the deceased could not be known immediately after the accident.

Police said a Rajshahi-bound truck loaded with fertiliser from Sylhet skidded off and turned upside down on a road divider in the area at about 3:00am after its driver lost control over the steering wheel, leaving eight people dead on the spot and three others injured. The people were travelling in the fertilizer-laden truck.

Police said the eight passengers died on the spot and three suffered injuries as the fertilizer bags fell on them.

On information, police recovered the bodies and rescued three injured removing piled up sacks of fertiliser.

Of the injured, one Mujibur was admitted to Tongi Upazila Health Complex and two others were sent to local clinics.

Sub-inspector Murad Hossain of Kaliganj police station said 12 day labourers were on the truck carrying fertilizer.

It is assumed that they could be hailed from different areas of the northern region and were travelling back home.

But police failed to trace whereabouts of the driver and helper of the truck.

Tuesday 15 January 2013

http://www.dailyprimenews.com/details.php?id=5231

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Ten killed in Sukhothai collision


Ten people, among them a five-year-old boy, were killed on Tuesday in a head-on road accident in Sukhothai's Khiri Mat district.

The tragedy took place on the Sukhothai-Kampaengphet road at about 8.30am when a green pickup loaded with workers heading out of Muang district crashed head-on with a bronze pickup heading to Muang district.

Police arriving at the scene found bodies scattered on the road while others remained trapped in the vehicles.

The driver of the bronze pickup, who was identified as Shinakorn Soikham, was found dead at the wheel. Three passengers in the green pickup were killed and trapped in the car. Four of eight passengers who were thrown out of the back were killed. The rest were injured and rushed to a hospital nearby. Two of them, a mother, known only as Nam as well as her five-year-old son succumbed to their injuries.

Police are investigating the cause of the crash.

Tuesday 15 January 2013

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/aec/Ten-killed-in-Sukhothai-collision-30197954.html

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NEMA Recovers Three Bodies, Six Vandals' Boats


Following the pipeline explosion, which occurred at the weekend, leading to the death of over 25 persons at Arepo village in the Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) yesterday said it had recovered three charred bodies as well as six boats belonging to suspected vandals.

This is just as the state Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) of complicity in the incessant cases of pipeline vandalism across the state.

No fewer than 25 suspected pipeline vandals who had allegedly gone to siphon petrol from a ruptured NNPC pipeline were burnt to death when the pipeline exploded.

However, according to an eyewitness account, the casualties were not only vandals but also security guards attached to the area.

It was gathered that prior to Saturday's explosion, the vandals had engaged officials of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) guarding the area in a gun duel on Friday during which about five persons were killed.

Speaking to THISDAY, the NEMA spokesperson in the South-west zone, Mr. Ibrahim Farinloye, said about three charred corpses had been recovered from the swampy area, adding that evacuation was ongoing.

He, however, lamented that the evacuation process was being slowed down given the swampy terrain of the location.

He said: "Evacuation of bodies will commence tomorrow (today) but three bodies have been recovered so far. We saw one body at our first visit and two more bodies were seen coming up from under the river.

"The agency will employ the services of those who know the terrain well to recover more bodies."

But he urged the state government to stop trading blame and seek sustainable ways to end the incessant pipeline vandalism in the area.

On how to prevent disasters of such magnitude from recurring, Farinloye said such could only be achieved when state governments become pro-active and work with NEMA.

He said: "Prevention can be achieved when state governments leave blame apportioning and work towards closing the gaps for effective disaster management. We are incapacitated until the state governments are ready to do their job.

"In our line of work, the state and local governments are very important and it is only when the two tiers come together and work with us that maximum success will be achieved.

"At a point we set up the grassroots disaster management organisations to reduce the risk of disasters but no sooner had we handed them over to the state and local governments, did they abandon it."

Meanwhile, Amosun who was on an on-the-spot assessment tour of the fire scene lamented that the swampy nature of the terrain made it difficult to organise effective rescue operations.

He said: "This is clearly failure of governance. Indeed, I have to say that the NNPC by their inaction are aiding and abetting this and I want to believe they are part of the pipeline vandalism.

"In fact, people here are endangering their lives because there is no access to this place. Look at the canoe that NNPC is using in this time and age to protect a billion-dollar investment.

"Even if the place is combustive, can't they use solar-powered boats? For me, it is straightforward, if NNPC supports us, we will get the whole place cleared."

He noted that if the corporation provides the state government with about five to 10 swamp boogies, the entire area would be cleared and platforms erected in its place as well as electronic chips.

He added that Close-Circuit Television (CCTV) would be mounted with a control room where the entire area will be monitored mechanically.

He said: "How can vandals hold us to ransom? Just look at dead bodies littering everywhere. It took us 45 minutes to access the place because it is hard to access the place.

"I even understand that it is the same spot where the three NNPC officials were killed last year. Since oil is the bedrock of the nation's economy, investing in security which will protect oil facilities cannot be over-emphasised."

Also, the House of Representatives yesterday condemned the incessant incidence of oil pipeline vandalism in parts of the country and its negative impacts on the economy. Aside the Arepo explosion, another oil pipeline vandalism was reported by the Joint Task Force (JTF) at Ovade, Oghara, Ethiope-West Local Government Area, Delta State.

Chairman, House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Hon. Dakuku Peterside, who condemned the incidence, observed that in recent weeks, Nigeria had witnessed needless deaths and damage to property following the attacks on oil pipelines in different parts of the country. The lawmaker said that oil pipeline vandalism poses grave security, health and environmental risks and results in enormous economic consequences.

"My grievance is with those who vandalise our pipelines and I condemn in strong terms the sponsors and perpetrators of this evil. Pipelines are used all over the world to distribute petroleum products; therefore Nigeria should not be an exception.

"This continuous sabotage of our commonwealth has continued for too long because culprits have not been adequately sanctioned. I call on the relevant security agencies to be up and doing in the protection of our oil facilities," he said.

According to Peterside, pipeline vandalism was largely responsible for the use of trucks in transporting petroleum products across the country.

He drew a nexus between this system of transporting fuel and the recent inferno that occurred when a fuel tanker crashed and exploded into flames at Mbiama in Rivers State. At least, one person was killed and many others seriously injured at the Mbiama incident.

"This is due to the fact that our petroleum pipelines are not safe and functional, thus the resort to the use of tankers to convey products and its associated risks. The dead victim, it was gathered was selling drinks at a spot very close to the scene of the accident. This incident occurred just seven months after several people who were scooping fuel from a damaged tanker in the same area were killed in an explosion.

"The repeated tanker accidents in Mbiama axis of the East - West Road also brings to the fore the urgent need to fix the road which has been on for over five years. The East- West Road is a critical road infrastructure that should be given priority attention," he said.

Tuesday 15 January 2013

http://allafrica.com/stories/201301140784.html

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Chinese authorities apologize for rapid cremations


Authorities in southern China have offered a rare apology for failing to consult with relatives before rapidly cremating the remains of 46 victims of a landslide blamed by some on a local mining operation.

Officials had hoped to avoid spreading disease and spare relatives the trauma of viewing the mangled remains, state media reported Tuesday. They also said the morgue in the remote part of Yunnan province had no refrigerator, requiring that remains be dealt with swiftly.

"We did that because we were afraid that the bodies would start to decay, and some bodies have been damaged in the landslide and we thought the family members would be too distraught to see them," Hu Jianpu, deputy head of Zhenxiong county, where the disaster occurred, told state broadcaster CCTV.

The official Xinhua News Agency and CCTV reported that county officials issued their "sincere apologies" to the relatives.

Residents who usually bury their dead after elaborate funerals protested the rapid cremations, prompting the unusual apology.

Stability-obsessed local Chinese authorities sometimes seize the bodies of accident victims to prevent emotional scenes that could develop into protests against them, as well as to persuade relatives to quickly agree to compensation offers.

Calls to Zhenxiong county and Communist Party offices rang unanswered Tuesday, and a local spokesman did not answer calls to his cellphone.

The cause of Friday's landslide amid steep, snow-dusted mountains remains under investigation, with some villagers blaming a local mining operation.

Xinhua quoted some villagers as saying blasting and other mining work had opened up huge fissures in the mountain looming over the villages of Gaopo and Zhaojiagou, where 14 homes were smothered.

A preliminary investigation last week blamed saturation from more than 10 days of rain and snow for the disaster.

Tuesday 15 January 2013

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_22375361/china-authorities-apologize-over-rapid-cremations

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Egypt train crash kills army recruits


At least 19 people have died and more than 100 injured in a train derailment south of Cairo, according to officials.

The official Mena news agency quoted health ministry officials who said 107 wounded were being treated in hospitals near the site of the accident in Giza's Badrasheen neighbourhood over Monday night. They said the number of dead was expected to rise.

The train was taking young recruits from south Egypt to a military camp in Cairo when two carriages went off the rails shortly after midnight in the Giza neighbourhood of Badrasheen, officials said.

More than 60 ambulances were sent to the site of the accident, where rescuers were working to extract survivors and bodies from the twisted heap of metal on the side of the rails.

Prime Minister Hesham Qandeel was met with howls of outrage when he arrived at the scene, with local residents shouting, "You have blood on your hands, Mr. Hesham." His security quickly whisked him away, an AFP photographer said.

The injured have been taken to local hospitals for treatment, the health ministry said.

The accident comes less than two weeks after a new transportation minister was appointed to overhaul the rail system, and just two months after a deadly collision between a train and school bus.

The state-owned Ahram website reported that the 12-carriage train was carrying 1,328 conscripted Egyptian soldiers headed north from Assiut to Cairo.

Roy Hamad Gaafar, a survivor, said he was on board when the last two carriages detached from the rest and derailed.

Images carried on Egyptian satellite channels showed residents using flashlights to help rescuers reach people trapped in the wreckage.

According to media reports, it is the fifth deadly train accident since President Mohamed Morsi was sworn in as Egypt's first Islamist president in June.

Morsi's tenure so far has been marked by political divisions over the role of religion in politics and freedoms, but the latest accident is a further test of how his government will deal with Egyptians' everyday problems.

In a message on Twitter, the president's Muslim Brotherhood said "sincere condolences go out to the families of the victims of the horrific train crash in Badrasheen, we pray for speedy recovery of the injured."

The spokesman of the armed forces also sent condolences on his official Facebook page.

Transport minister Hatem Abdel Latif, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, said an investigation will be launched into the accident.

President Mohammed Morsi named a new transportation minister on 6 January in an effort to improve railway safety. The post had been left vacant in the aftermath of an accident that killed 49 kindgergarten pupils in November 2012 when a speeding train hit their school bus.

Accidents due to negligence regularly killed scores over the three-decade rule of Hosni Mubarak. The railway's worst disaster was in February 2002 when a train heading to southern Egypt caught fire, killing 363 people. Media reports quoting official statistics say rail and road accidents killed more than 7,000 people in 2010.

Egyptians have long complained that the government has failed to deal with the country's transport problems, with roads as poorly maintained as railway lines.

Tuesday 15 January 2013

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/15/egypt-train-crash-army-recruits

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=56452

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Young tribals want tattoos erased


As soon as she secured admission in a Ranchi college, Anita Oraon made her mind up - she would have the tattoos on her face removed as soon as she could. Like most girls from the Oraon tribe, Anita in her childhood was tattooed with three marks on the brow and two on each temple. But little did she realize then that the ink would become a burden too heavy to carry all her life.

Often ridiculed at school and on the streets of the city because of the marks on her face, Anita decided she would go for a laser tattoo removal process before her life in college began. "Traditionally, girls from the Oraon tribe get tattoos - know among us as godna - on their faces at childhood and as they grow up they got more on the arms and the back. I got mine removed before joining college because I knew my classmates would make fun of me. I did not want them to believe I was different from them."

Anita is not the only young tribal who has chosen to get rid of the ink and the ancient tribal art is now on the brink of disappearing. Youngsters are reluctant to get a godna done and those who already have are queuing up at skin clinics to get them removed.

Dr Saroj Rai, the only dermatologist in Ranchi to offer tattoo-removal facilities, said: "Almost 10 to 15 tribal girls approach me every month to get their godnas removed. Most of them are young and are about to join college or are going for job interviews. They believe that the godna is embarrassing and people look at them differently and with repulsion because of them. Some married women also approach us for the therapy, but their numbers are not as large."

The various tribes of Jharkhand had different reasons for marking themselves - while some did it to prepare the young folk for the mental and physical pains of life and help distinguish them from people of other tribes, others believes it was a form of a permanent ornament, something that would stick with them even in the afterlife.

Girdhari Ram Gaunjhu, former head of the tribal and regional languages department at Ranchi University, said: "For the Ho folk, godna was a sign of purity, the Santhals believed that a tribal without a tattoo would be eaten up by insects after death and the Khariya people looked at it as a mark of courage and valour. Every tribe had different tattoo designs to distinguish themselves from each other," said Gaunjhu.

Unlike the simple tattoo process used by the ubercool in cities these days, getting a godna can be very painful. Women artists - known as 'malaarin' - used to go from village to village and make godna on girls above the age of 10. Gaunjhu said: "The girl is held tightly and a piece of cloth is stuffed in her mouth. A bundle of seven needles - dipped in a mixture of kajal and the milk of a lactating woman - is used to carve the pattern on the girl's face. The wound is covered with fresh cow dung, which works as an antibiotic. The whole procedure of making a godna takes at least three days and the pain can last for weeks."

So why have the tribals who have gone through such pain to ensure their traditions do not disappear are now choosing to get rid of them?

Gaunjhu believes that people do not want to be recognized as tribals anymore. "Except for some who flaunt their tribal legacy for political interests, most believe they are looked down upon by the so-called upper classes," he said. "Students in particular do not want to be identified as tribals - they are apprehensive that even if they get admissions for higher education on merit, they will be discriminated against on the pretext of being from a reserved quota," Gaunjhu added.

Migration to urban centres for jobs and livelihood is another reason for the tribals to ditch their tattoos. "Many tribal folk are now settled in big cities and they do not see this art form on the streets there. Their sensibilities have been altered by the life in metros and they do not want their children to undergo the pain they have been through," Gaunjhu said, adding that Body piercing, another traditional tribal art, is also going the godna way into oblivion.

Though some tribals lament the loss of tradition, most are not in favour of godna. Budhni Oraon, a 75-year-old, said: "I know that godna is an integral part our culture and lifestyle, but they are more of a problem in this era. I still have the tattoos that I got in my childhood while I was living in my ancestral village where everybody had a pattern on their bodies. But I do not want my grandchildren to get them done."

Budhni added: "After I moved to Ranchi with my family, the people here started treating us badly and did not give us any respect. The sight of a godna invites ridicule in cities and I do not want my children to go through the insults that I have had to face."

Ironically, the urbanization that is causing the disappearance of tribal arts could also lead to their revival. Tribal tattoos have now been adopted by the city youth as a style statement and people flock to the dime-a-dozen artists to get themselves inked. Mike Cowasji, a prominent Delhi-based tattoo artist, gets at least four to five youngsters a month demanding a tribal pattern - mostly Maori or Celtic - on their bodies. "Tribal adaptations of zodiacs and animal figures are among the most preferred and many also choose the warrior and valour symbols," he said

The trend has been evident in Jharkhand as well. Gaunjhu said: "We do see some youngsters making a traditional godna or getting ears pierced, but they are now doing it to make a fashion statement, not to uphold tradition."

Tuesday 15 January 2013

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ranchi/Young-tribals-want-tattoos-erased/articleshow/18026824.cms

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