Tuesday 4 June 2013

In Afghanistan, grief over attack on ICRC's Jalalabad compound.


Whenever Bibi Laila heard the all-too-familiar sound of a bomb blast in Jalalabad, she did not worry - her husband worked for the famously impartial Red Cross, and would never be a target.

Laila's husband, Bashir Khan, worked in one of the world's most dangerous vocations, a gate guard in war-wracked Afghanistan. Despite that, she believed no one would dare attack the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), given its history of working with all sides.

"My husband gave us assurances that he worked at a humanitarian organization and whenever there was fighting, they (the ICRC) collect dead bodies and help both sides, so no harm would come to him," Laila told Reuters in the family's two-room home outside the eastern city of Jalalabad.

Her confidence was shattered on May 29 when her husband opened the front gate of the ICRC's Jalalabad compound.

He was greeted by an aggressive man in traditional clothes who pulled out a pistol, yelled "Allahu Akbar!" (God is Greatest) and shot Khan dead.

"Whoever killed him, may Allah pour out his wrath upon them," wept Laila, covering her face with a long black scarf.

Khan was the only person to die in the attack, the first of its kind on the agency since it arrived in Afghanistan in 1987.

"We have decided to reduce the number of expatriates in the field and in Kabul simply because we don't understand what happened in Jalalabad," ICRC spokesman Robin Waudo told AFP.

"This is a temporary measure that impacts on operations, but we will maintain our humanitarian services for those affected by conflict," he said, declining to give the number of staff being withdrawn or the affected services.

"It was a serious security incident. We are trying to understand how it came about that we were attacked."

The ICRC, which has 1,800 employees nationwide, had 36 staff in Jalalabad, seven of them foreigners who were rescued from the compound.

The aid group maintains strict neutrality in Afghanistan and was thought to be protected from attack by its working relations with the Taliban and other insurgent groups.

The Taliban have since denied any responsibility for the attack, saying they never target those who "truly serve" the Afghan people.

However, senior officials from NATO's International Security Assistance Force and the Afghan government told Reuters they had intelligence that suggested the Taliban was indeed behind the attack.

The ICRC has since decided to remove some international staff and curtail its operations, which - at $90 million a year - are some of its biggest in the world. Some 1,800 ICRC staff work on projects from providing orthopedic limbs and treating war wounded to visiting militants in Afghan jails.

While the attack has sent shockwaves through the international community, for Laila and her seven children it destroyed any notion of a serene family life.

Khan began working with the ICRC during the hardline Taliban regime that ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to late 2001 before it was ousted by a U.S.-led invasion in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

Khan left behind seven children aged between 10 and 20 who live with Laila and Khan's younger brother, Ezatullah, who has three children of his own. They all live in a two-room house in a poor district.

They had relied on Khan's 12,000 Afghani ($220) monthly salary. Both families must now survive on the younger brother's $10 a day income from driving a taxi.

"I may not be able to earn enough to feed all of them," Ezatullah said of Khan's children, as they looked on.

The attack, which involved a suicide bomber, Khan's killer and two other gunmen, prompted the closure of the ICRC's Jalalabad office. Hundreds of residents held a protest on Sunday against the decision.

ICRC administrative officer Mohammad Hanif Durani was in the agency's compound when the attack was launched.

"I was in my office upstairs when I heard a single shot, a cry of pain, and (someone yelling) 'Allahu Akbar'," he said.

"I ran downstairs to see what had happened and ran into one of the attackers. He pointed his pistol at me but it jammed, so he threw the gun on the ground and pulled out a grenade."

Durani said he turned, ran back upstairs and managed to avoid the blast of the grenade. He then jumped out of his office window onto a rooftop, fracturing an ankle and an elbow.

The suicide bomber blew himself up in the compound parking lot, setting fire to five vehicles and damaging a building.

His body was scattered across the compound, and police later told ICRC staff who had witnessed the attack to collect the body parts.

One staffer, who asked not to be identified, said the police told them that since the ICRC's work involved collecting bodies of Taliban fighters and sending them on to their families, they should "take care of this mess too".

Tuesday 4 June 2013

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/04/us-afghanistan-icrc-guard-idUSBRE9530IH20130604

http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/red-cross-pulls-some-staff-out-after-afghanistan-attack-375248

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Relatives scuffle with police after China fire kills 120


Relatives of workers killed as fire engulfed a chicken processing plant in rural northeast China blocked traffic and scuffled with police on Tuesday, demanding answers to one of China's worst industrial disasters in recent years. At least 120 people died, and more than 70 were injured.

A handful of men and woman knelt in the middle of the road in Dehui in Jilin province to stop cars, while a crowd of more than 100 people gathered around them. Police dispersed the protesters after about an hour.

Zhao Zhenchun, who lost both his wife and his sister in the fire, said human error was to blame for the death toll. "I don't think safety was being managed properly. This should never happen again. They paid the price with their blood. So many of these big disasters in China are caused by lax supervision," he said.

The world's second-largest economy has a poor record on workplace safety. Fire exits in factories are often locked to prevent workers taking time off or stealing things, or blocked entirely. "The rationale behind the locked doors boils down to efficiency. With the doors locked, workers cannot wander about freely, and therefore concentrate on their work," the official Xinhua news agency said.

Safety regulations are also easily skirted by bribing corrupt officials, and in any case China has relatively few fire safety inspectors.

"Tragically, most of the inspections usually come after a disaster like this," said Geoffrey Crothall, a China labour expert with Hong Kong-based advocacy group China Labour Bulletin. "There's very little proactive or routine inspections of factories to make sure everybody's up to code and that's largely because there are too many factories and too few inspectors."

LOSS OF FACE

The disaster is also a major loss of face for a country which seeks to project a global image of a modern, rising power, different from developing countries like Bangladesh where such industrial disasters are frequent.

Ironically, Monday's fire in a building that was just four years old coincided with China announcing its latest manned space mission, a multi-billion dollar scheme designed to showcase the nation's technological prowess and arrival on the world stage after decades of isolation and poverty.

"Many countries have the basic ability to avoid one-time disasters in which more than 100 people die ... China has reached this point," the Global Times, a widely read and influential tabloid, said in an editorial about the fire.

"It is ... a blow to China's modernisation and the latest proof that Chinese society is unable to balance development and safety risks."

Fearful of further unrest - Tuesday marks the sensitive 24th anniversary of China's bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators - Beijing has ordered tight reporting controls.

"Strengthen guidance of public opinion ... strengthen management of the Internet and other new media, resolutely prevent the malicious stirring up or spreading of rumours and gossip," Xinhua said, citing a government meeting.

A Xinhua report said ammonia gas leaks could have caused the explosions at the plant, which is owned by Jilin Baoyuanfeng Poultry Co, a small local feed and poultry producer. Jilin is a largely agricultural province and an important producer of corn and soybeans.

Despite a series of food safety scandals in recent years, there have been relatively few large-scale fatal disasters in China's fast-growing but fragmented food processing sector. Twenty-one people died in 2003 at a meat processing plant in Qingdao, and the China Labour Bulletin said in a report then that management prevented some staff from fleeing until they had "moved the stock to a safe place."

PREMISES LOCKED

More than 300 workers were in the plant at Dehui on Monday, with employees saying they heard a bang and then saw smoke, Xinhua reported. Around 100 workers managed to escape from the plant, whose gate was locked when the fire broke out, it added. Nearby houses were evacuated.

On Tuesday, Yang Xiuya sat cross-legged in front of a car and shouted angrily at police, insisting the doors of the slaughterhouse had been locked at the time of the fire. "My daughter worked there. They haven't given us any explanation. It was time for my daughter to leave work, but the door was locked, so they all burned to death," she shouted.

Another relative screamed at a line of dozens of unarmed SWAT police officers and tried to attack them before women pulled him back. "We can't see our family members and there's no information. We can't see the survivors or the bodies of the dead. They need to let us see the bodies," he shouted, wiping away angry tears.

Many of China's deadly industrial accidents happen in the huge coal mining industry, in which more than 1,300 people died last year from explosions, mine collapses and floods. China's worst fire disaster in recent times was in 1994 when 325 died in a theatre blaze in the far western region of Xinjiang in 1994.

Tuesday 4 June 2013

http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/06/04/china-fire-idINDEE95206Q20130604

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Death toll rises in Oklahoma storms


The death toll from deadly tornadoes and severe flooding that struck Oklahoma on Friday and Saturday has risen to 18, including 12 adults and six children, with the bodies of seven people still unidentified, according to the state's chief medical examiner.

Officials on Monday added five victims – three adults and two unidentified children – to the tally of confirmed deaths, said Amy Elliott, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office.

At least five tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma on Friday, catching motorists stuck in traffic on roadways around Oklahoma City and its suburbs.

The storms also caused flash flooding throughout the Oklahoma City area. The Oklahoma County sheriff's department said it conducted several water rescues on Friday and Saturday, helping dozens of people stranded by the flooding.

A 64-year-old man drowned on Saturday morning when he drove off a washed-out bridge in eastern Oklahoma County. His body was recovered a quarter of a mile from where his vehicle was found, the sheriff's department said.

Of the 18 confirmed fatalities, nine were in Oklahoma City while six were in its western suburbs, four in El Reno and two in Union City. Luther, Wewoka and Clearview, east of Oklahoma City, each recorded one fatality.

Three storm chasers who died in El Reno were among those identified by the medical examiner.

The National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma, said that to its knowledge they were the first documented "scientific storm intercept fatalities" in a tornado.

Tuesday 4 June 2013

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/04/us-oklahoma-tornado-toll

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15 people killed in vehicle overturn near Sudan-Libyan Border


A total of 15 people were killed and 5 others injured on the Sudanese-Libyan border when their vehicle overturned in a border guard chase, said Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In a statement, the ministry said 12 Sudanese citizens and three people from other countries were killed when their vehicle overturned chased by Libyan border guards on a crackdown on human smugglers, Xinhua reported.

“7 of the victims have been identified and efforts are being made to identify the rest,” added the statement, noting that the injured “are receiving medical treatment at Al-Kufrah hospital.”

The Sudanese diplomat mission in Libya have made contacts with the Libyan authorities to learn the circumstances of the incident, said the statement, noting “the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs will summon the Libyan charge d’affaires for the same purpose and demand conduction of a an investigation into the case. “

The ministry warned citizens planning to travel to Libya against choosing illegal traffic means and associating with human smugglers, pointing to the great risks illegal migrants might face in the desert between the two countries.

According to labour ministry figures, almost 100,000 Sudanese left the country illegally in 2002, with Libya as a top destination for efforts to transit to Europe.

Tuesday 4 June 2013

http://www.nzweek.com/world/15-people-killed-in-vehicle-overturn-near-sudan-libyan-border-65129/

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10 killed in colliery gas explosion in central China


At least 10 miners were killed and 15 others injured when a gas explosion ripped through a coal mine in central China, the latest deadly incident to hit the country's troubled mining industry.

The blast occurred around 7:55 p.m. on Sunday at Simachong coal mine in Shaodong County of Shaoyang City, an officer with the publicity department of Shaodong said.

At least 10 miners were killed and 15 others injured when a gas explosion ripped through a coal mine in central China, the latest deadly incident to hit the country's troubled mining industry.

Thirty-nine miners were working underground when the accident happened. Twenty-nine were rescued, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted the official as saying.

All 15 injured miners were rushed to a local hospital, where two remain in critical condition, the official said.

Police have detained eight people believed to be responsible for the blast, including the mine's legal representative and managers.

A further investigation into the accident is under way.

On May 25, at least nine people were killed after a coal mine was inundated with water in China's eastern Shandong province.

China's mines are considered among the world's deadliest due to lax safety regulation, corruption and poor operating procedures.

Tuesday 4 June 2013

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90882/8268486.html

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/336366/10-killed-15-injured-coal.html

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Update - Fire death toll at poultry plant in northeast China rises to 119


Fire raged through a poultry plant in northeastern China on Monday, trapping workers inside a cluttered slaughterhouse and killing at least 119 people, reports and officials said.

Several dozen people also were hurt in the blaze in Jilin province's Mishazi township, which appeared to have been sparked by three early morning explosions, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The provincial fire department, on its microblog, attributed the blasts to a leak of ammonia, a gas that is kept pressurized as part of the cooling system in meat processing plants.

State broadcaster CCTV quoted unidentified workers as saying the fire broke out during a change of shifts and may have originated in a locker room at a time when about 350 workers were at the plant, owned by Jilin Baoyuanfeng Poultry Co.

It wasn't clear how many workers had been accounted for and a provincial government media official, who refused to give his name, said he expected the death toll to rise further as more bodies were recovered from the charred building.

The plant's "complicated" interior, narrow exits and a locked front gate made escape difficult, Xinhua quoted survivors as saying.

Some employees raised the alarm shortly after a shift began at 6 a.m., and then the lights went out, boosting the level of panic as workers rushed to find an exit, employee Wang Fengya told Xinhua.

"When I finally ran out and looked back at the plant, I saw high flames," Wang, 44, was quoted as saying. Xinhua said she and three other workers were sent to a hospital in the nearby provincial capital of Changchun.

Another worker quoted by Xinhua, 39-year-old Guo Yan, said the emergency exit at her workstation was blocked and she was knocked to the ground in the crush of workers seeking to escape through a side door.

"I could only crawl desperately forward," Guo was quoted as saying. "I worked alongside an old lady and a young girl, but I don't know if they survived or not."

The disaster killed 119 people, and 54 people were being treated in hospitals, the provincial government said on its microblog. Calls to fire and rescue services rang unanswered and hospital administrators said they had no information about the injured.

By about noon, the fire had been mostly extinguished by about 500 firefighters and bodies were being recovered from the charred buildings. CCTV footage showed dark smoke billowing up from the prefabricated cement structures topped with corrugated iron roofs.

The environmental watchdog has begun monitoring the environmental impact of the fire.

People living nearby said they could smell a pungent odor and some suffered headaches.

Some victims' families have arrived at the scene and demanded the government investigate and announce the cause of the accident as soon as possible.

The fire highlighted the lax safety standards at many Chinese workplaces, despite efforts to compel improvements through regular inspections and fines.

It could also focus renewed scrutiny on China's biggest pork producer, Shuanghui International — unrelated to the poultry plant — as it aims to buy U.S. food giant Smithfield in what would be China's biggest takeover of an American company.

The poultry plant is one of several in the area where chickens are slaughtered and then quickly cut up into pieces and shipped to market. The entire process takes place in near-freezing conditions and such plants are usually built with large amounts of flammable foam insulation to maintain a constant temperature.

Jason Yan, technical director in Beijing of the U.S. Grains Council, said safety considerations usually take a backseat in China to features designed to maximize production and energy efficiency.

"I'm sure they consider some aspects of safety design. However, I think safety, to me, is not the first priority in their design plan," Yan said.

Jilin Baoyuanfeng produces 67,000 tons of processed chicken per year and employs about 1,200 people. The plant is located outside the city of Dehui, about 800 kilometers (500 miles) northeast of China's capital, Beijing.

Established in 2009, the company serves markets in 20 cities nationwide and has won numerous awards for its contribution to the local economy, according to introductions posted online.

The area where the fire occurred is an agribusiness center, especially for poultry. Nearby is one of the biggest producers of broiler chickens in China, Jilin Deda Co., which is partly owned by Thailand-based conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group.

Monday's fire hit a company that is much smaller than Jilin Deda. Though it's unlikely to have an impact on China's chicken supply, the accident came as chicken producers were seeing sales recover after an outbreak of a deadly new strain of bird flu, H7N9, briefly scared the public in April and early May.

Tuesday 4 June 2013

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/10821455

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-06/03/c_132427775.htm

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