Sunday 13 October 2013

Death toll in Banjul - Barra boat disaster reaches 7


Death toll in Banjul - Barra boat accident has climbed to 7, according to a family member of one of the victims who wished not be named.

The accident which happened on Wednesday, was only made public after the bodies were recovered at sea on Friday.

One of the victims of the tragedy was Yusupha Fofana, a businessman from Banjul. A relative of Mr. Fofana said they believed the passengers boarded a canoe bound for Barra at about 9 PM local time on Wednesday. The canoe split open just few miles to the shore, drowning all but the captain who swam to safety and reported the accident to police.

Details are yet to emerge, but it's believed the ill-fated passengers boarded the small boat to go shopping for rams as the Muslim feast of Idl-Adha is celebrated on Tuesday.

The Gambia Ferry Services has not had safe operational ferries for months between the capital city, Banjul, and the north bank wharf town of Barra.

The absence of safe operational ferry services between Banjul and Barra has caused major transportation difficulties for tens of thousands of commuters and businesses. Many risk their lives by ferrying in unsafe canoes and vessels to avoid hours of being stranded aboard public ferries.

Ferry services used to be operated by Gambia Public Transportation Company, GPTC, which has gone bankrupt few years ago.

Recently the UK government has advised its citizens traveling to Gambia to avoid using the ferry services for safety reasons. The advice followed reports of ferries having mechanical failures in mid ocean, causing panic among passengers as they remained adrift in the Atlantic for hours.

Sunday 13 October 2013

http://www.senegambianews.com/1333/51899/a/death-toll-in-banjul-barra-boat-disaster-reaches-7

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Phailin cyclone: Eight more bodies found


Eight bodies were found from Ganjam district, the worst-hit from cylone Phailin in Odisha, taking the death toll in the natural disaster to 15.

Police said two bodies each were found in Berhampur town, Purosottampur, Ganjam town and Rangelilunda areas.

Besides, a large number of people have been injured in Ganjam district.

Seven people were killed yesterday due to heavy rains and high-velocity winds in Odisha before the cyclone made landfall last night, including two at Polasara and Khalikote areas of Ganjam district.

Deaths have also been reported from Khurda(2) and one each from Jagatsinghpur, Puri and Balasore districts.

Sunday 13 October 2013

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/phailin-cyclone-eight-more-bodies-found/articleshow/24093964.cms

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34 bodies recovered after Sicily boat accident


Italian and Maltese naval vessels have pulled 34 bodies from the Mediterranean sea where a boat packed with 250 migrants capsized off Malta near the Italian island of Lampedusa, leaving at least 50 people dead.

Officials said on Saturday they had rescued 206 people from the vessel which sank on Friday as the migrants were trying to enter Europe.

A rescue ship was dispatched to help another boat in distress, the Italian navy said.

Friday's disaster came just over a week after at least 339 people drowned when a boat sank less than a kilometre from the tiny island between Sicily and Tunisia which has become the focal point of a growing migrant crisis in southern Europe.

The victims in Friday’s accident included women and children.

Speaking about the latest disaster, Joseph Muscat, Malta's prime minister, said the Mediterranean was in danger of becoming a "cemetery" for migrants desperate to reach European shores.

Many migrant boats, often packed with people from North Africa looking for a better life in Europe, have capsized on the island of Lampedusa, spilling passengers into the deep waters.

Sunday 13 October 2013

http://mwcnews.net/news/europe/32361-sicily-boat-accident.html

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Trail of Daisy the pig goes cold on North Saskatchewan


The faint blips of the radio tracking signal tell us we are close to the pig, or what's left of it.

Iain Phillips, an entomologist with the Water Security Agency, turns off the boat's motor and we scan the North Saskatchewan River for this special pig. So far, the only farm animals we've seen are the cows from nearby ranches hoofing it down paths along the shore.

We drift past a man resting, perhaps from an early morning hunt, on the shore beside his bow and kayak.

"Are you looking for fish?" the hunter yells across the river.

"No! We're looking for a pig," Phillips says.

"A pig?" "Yeah, there's a dead pig with a radio transmitter inside it somewhere in the river."

I think I hear the hunter laughing as Phillips yanks the motor back to life.

In September, RCMP threw a dead pig named Daisy into the North Saskatchewan River near North Battleford. It sounds like the start of a bad joke, but it's really the beginning of a science experiment with the potential to improve forensic work and missing persons investigations in Saskatchewan and elsewhere.

When a body disappears into the river, finding it is often a matter of chance. Investigators want to make their search efforts more predictable.

A pig is the next best thing to a human body, scientifically speaking, so when the Saskatoon RCMP historical cases unit and forensic anthropologist Ernie Walker decided earlier this year to go whole hog and find out how bodies travel in water, they acquired a pig carcass, sewed a tracking device to its vertebrae, and dropped it in the river to float away.

"There are a million different factors, and all we're trying to figure out is how far a body can go," Walker said in a recent interview.

"Quite a few individuals that go in the river in Saskatoon end up around Melfort. I've done probably four of those, and I've always wondered, 'Why there?' Who would think a body from Edmonton could end up in Langham? I didn't until I worked on that file."

The project is simply a test for now, and is likely the first of its kind in North America - possibly the world - to use a pig to study a body's movement in a freshwater system, said Walker, who is an RCMP special constable and University of Saskatchewan professor. If deemed worthy of more study, the project could launch more pigs off different riverbanks at different times of the year in varying water levels.

"It's pretty unusual for law enforcement to be doing this, but the Saskatoon 'F' Division does a lot of good stuff," Walker said.

The experiment is also tied to real investigations, including the case of 83-year-old Bernice Carnahan, one of five people presumed to have disappeared in the North Saskatchewan River system since 1981. RCMP found Carnahan's abandoned car in the Battlefords area near the river in August 2012, and police dogs tracked her scent to the water's edge.

Searching for Daisy On a crisp September morning, two weeks after the porcine plunge, a truck hauling a boat pulls out of the Water Security Agency office at Innovation Place in Saskatoon. Iain Phillips is driving, graduate student Aaron Bell rides shotgun, and they're explaining why a couple of entomologists are preoccupied with pork.

A bug's life can tell us interesting things about a person's death. When RCMP approached the Water Security Agency with questions about tracking a pig carcass in the river, Phillips saw a chance to research a relatively unexplored area of freshwater forensic entomology.

"The insect life-cycle reflects the history of a body from last breath to discovery," Phillips says. "They'll moult many times. It's a predictable timeline. If you find a fly in its fourth or fifth (life-stage) and you know the rough temperature, you'll have a good idea of time of death."

Today's plan, Phillips explains on our way to a boat launch near Denholm, is to find the pig, study the insects or whatever else is on the carcass, haul it back to Saskatoon and dissect it for further research.

Throughout the day, Phillips and Bell describe their work and the research potential of the pig project. First, the discovery. If we find the pig, what will we see? "I expect it will be a little ravaged by animals," he says. "I expect they'll have gone for the organs first and it'll be eviscerated. We'll recover what's left."

Terrestrial forensic entomology research is "very robust" and often cited by lawyers in court, but knowledge of freshwater body decomposition is relatively sparse. While researchers have anchored pigs in freshwater to study decomposition rates, there are more variables in play when a pig floats through different habitats.

The flora and fauna on land, and how that environment interacts with a body, are not the same as in freshwater, and the differences can vary widely when comparing one body of water to another, Bell says.

"Typically, (what's on a) body found in the desert would have a different timeline than a body found in the river."

There is potential to fill in the knowledge gap and, over time with peer-reviewed research, this could help solve missing persons cases and narrow down the locations where John and Jane Does fell into the water.

Phillips believes they have the technology to not only determine approximate time of death but also to tell investigators if, for example, a body found in Saskatchewan came from Edmonton.

But first, we have to find Daisy. Up stream and down stream, checking both sides of the sandbars dotting the river, we travel about 40 kilometres. Bell has his head pressed against the telemetry equipment to hear the radio signals over the motor's buzz.

The signal picks up in a particular area near the boat launch, but there's no sign of Daisy on either riverbank or the sandbars. RCMP officers spotted Daisy a few days earlier, but she's apparently disappeared. "My guess is two things: It got chewed up and the tracker got buried in the sediment, or coyotes dragged it off into the woods," Phillips says.

The pig-sized cooler comes back to Saskatoon empty.

Tracking signal remains silent In the following month, Phillips and his team head out a few more times to look for Daisy on the river and in the woods. During the last search, they couldn't pick up even a faint tracking signal.

Without the test pig, the future of the project - the simple tracking of bodies in the water and the potential forensic research - is unknown. Walker is considering anchoring pigs in the river to get baseline data for decomposition rates in Saskatchewan waters. Phillips hopes the RCMP decide to launch more pigs in the river come spring.

"In the beginning, this was all going to be a learning experience," Phillips says on the phone several weeks after the first search.

"I don't think anyone thought it'd get tied up 10 to 15 kilometres from where we threw it in. In particular, we leaned how far it didn't go."

Sunday 13 October 2013

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/Trail+Daisy+goes+cold+North+Saskatchewan/9030323/story.html

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11 missing in China bridge pier collapse


The number of missing persons following the collapse of an under-construction bridge pier has risen to 11 in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, local government said Saturday.

The No. 4 pier of a bridge across the Yangtze River in Fengdu County collapsed and became submerged in water at about 10:30 a.m. Saturday, said the Fengdu County government.

The accident happened after a beam on a floating crane fell and impacted steel cofferdams, which supported the pier.

Ten construction workers and one resident went missing after the accident. The resident, who was washing clothes at the riverside, was swept away by waves generated by the pier collapse.

Two people sustained minor injuries and are being treated in a hospital.

Sixteen vessels and 141 rescuers are searching the river for the missing people.

Construction has stopped and the cause of the accident is still being investigated.

Sunday 13 October 2013

http://english.cri.cn/6909/2013/10/13/2702s792016.htm

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At least 20 killed in Mali boat capsize on River Niger


At least 20 bodies have been recovered after a boat carrying hundreds of passengers capsized on the River Niger, Mali, on Friday night, officials say.

The vessel broke up near Konna whilst en route north from the town of Mopti to Timbuktu.

Over 200 people are known to have survived the accident, but it is not yet clear how many are still missing.

Officials said the boat was overloaded with goods and may have carried as many as 400 passengers.

The boat broke at the stern on a branch of the river near the village of Koubi, with some 210 survivors, Commander Dramane Diallo of the rescue services told the Agence France-Presse news agency.

He said the reason for the boat overturning was unknown but an investigation is under way.

Dozens of people are still feared missing, but there are conflicting reports over the exact numbers.

Emergency officials, quoted by AFP, said 23 people were still missing.

However, the mayor of Koubi, Sory Diakite, told AP that only 210 of the 400 passengers onboard had been accounted for.

Eyewitness Ibrahim Yattara, who was asleep with his pregnant wife onboard the boat when it sunk, told Associated Press it collapsed because it was overloaded with cargo.

"With the excess weight it broke into two pieces. I started to swim and looked for my wife but after a while the boat was completely under water."

He says his wife is still missing.

Local residents say many of the passengers would have been schoolchildren returning to the north for the start of their new academic year.

Officials have warned the death count may rise, as recovery operations continued late into Saturday afternoon.

Many Malians opt to travel by water, often in rudimentary canoes, due to poor road conditions in the north and the relatively high cost of overland travel.

At over 4,000km (2,500 miles) long, the Niger river connects landlocked Mali's arid north with the more fertile south.

Sunday 13 October 2013

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-24509477

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Panamanian cargo ship feared sunk in cyclone, fate of crew unknown, rescue mission on


MV Bingo, a Panama-flag vessel, with 3,083 metric tonnes of iron ore, is presumed to have sunk in rough weather about 19 nautical miles south of Sagar Island. The ship's crew of 18, comprising 17 Chinese and one Burmese national, abandoned the ship and headed towards the western bank of Sagar in a life raft.

Officials of the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) and the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) are now trying to ascertain whether they were washed ashore or picked up by a merchant vessel.

The Sagar Island is at the southernmost-tip of West Bengal, close to the port of Haldia. Sagar has an anchorage. The ship left the Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) on Saturday evening and crossed Sagar, trying to reach open waters before Cyclone Phailin struck the Odisha and Andhra Pradesh coastline.

It isn't clear what happened thereafter. KoPT officials suspect that the ship developed engine trouble and laid anchor in the open seas. The heavy swell made the cargo shift in her hold, causing the ship to list towards one side.

"The ship, of 2006-make, had 232 metric tonnes of furnace oil and 30 metric tonnes of diesel in her tanks. Around 6.30pm on Saturday, we received a distress call and sent the ICGS Vajra, which was on patrol in the area to investigate. The MV Bingo was located about 19 nautical miles south of Sagar. It was listing 45 degrees to the starboard (to its right side). The crew had abandoned ship. Due to Cyclone Phailin, the swell was extremely heavy — between 7-8 metres — and the ICGS Vajra could not pull the crew members on board," said MA Warsi, DIG, Indian Coast Guard.

According to him, Coast Guard Dornier planes took off on Sunday morning for Search and Rescue (SAR) operations. There was no trace of the ship at the spot where it lay anchored on Saturday evening. It was presumed to have sunk at a depth of 8-11 metres.

"We are continuing with our SAR operations. KoPT has also been alerted to maintain a look out for the ship or members of the crew. Our dorniers are also looking out for any oil spill that may take place. Till now, no spill has been spotted," Warsi added.

Sunday 13 October 2013

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Panamanian-cargo-ship-feared-sunk-in-cyclone-fate-of-crew-unknown-rescue-mission-on/articleshow/24091914.cms

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Madhya Pradesh temple stampede: Over 70 dead including women and children


Over 70 pilgrims including children were killed and more than 100 injured in a stampede at Ratangarh temple in Datia district of Madhya Pradesh on Sunday morning. Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has ordered a judicial inquiry to probe the tragedy.

At least 50 were killed in stampede, while others drowned after jumping off the bridge in panic. The Ratangarh "Mata" temple located about 55km from district headquarters and 405km north of the state capital.

"Total of 68 bodies have been recovered so far, and the count is on. Some others have died on way to hospital, so the toll might three digits," said a senior intelligence officer.

The tragedy was allegedly caused by rumour that the bridge on Sindh River, through which the pilgrims were heading towards temple, was collapsing after a tractor trolley rammed into it and fell into the river. There were more than 50,000 devotees around the spot.

Eyewitness Manoj Sharma, 28, told TOI on phone that "police lathicharge during the panic run worsened the situation, forcing many to jump off the bridge." He is a resident of Bhander village in Datia district was along with his friends to visit the temple when the tragedy took place.

Huge traffic jam on way to the temple as a result of the incident has hampered relief work. Irate mob started pelting stones at the police. Subdivisional officer of police (SDOP) BN Basave was also thrashed.

"The figure could be more than 50. We are yet to recover bodies from the river," Chambal range DIG DK Arya told TOI on phone.

The tragedy occurred 55km from the district headquarters when the pilgrims were crossing the Sindh river bridge to attend a religious ritual on the ninth day of the Durga festival at the Mandula Devi temple. In 2006 more than 50 pilgrims were washed away when water was released from the Manikheda dam in adjoining Shivpuri district.

"The casualties could be in three figures, we are waiting for final reports," says DGP Nandan Kumar Dubey. Police officials are on the spot to recover the bodies and send injured to hospital.

Chief secretary, DGP and ADG intelligence have flown to the chopper on the spot.

Senior BSP leader and former Congress Rajendra Bharti alleged that the district collector and SP were busy with election management in Basai — 85km from the district headquarters — notwithstanding the fact that there would be a massive gathering near the temple. The administrative officials claim it otherwise.

Team of more than 20 doctors have been dispatched to the spot, and an alert has been sounded in surrounding Shivpuri district. The casualty wards of district hospitals have been vacated. Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, while announcing a compensation of Rs 1.5 lakh each. Leader of opposition Ajay Singh has appealed to the chief minister to increase the compensation amount.

It was a religious frenzy compounded by administrative failure led to a tragedy in 2006 when more than 50 pilgrims were killed while crossing Sindh river.

Sunday 13 October 2013

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/MP-temple-stampede-Over-70-dead-including-women-and-children/articleshow/24093310.cms

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Peru bus crash kills all 51 on board (update)


A makeshift bus carrying 51 people back from a party in south-eastern Peru has plunged off a cliff into a river, killing everyone on board including 14 children.

The accident happened as the red and yellow cargo truck made its way back from a party in the provincial capital of Santa Teresa, an area about 310 miles (500km) south-east of Lima. It went off the road and fell about 200 metres into a deep ravine, ending up in the Chaupimayo river below.

Rescuers equipped with little more than flashlights spent the night searching without success for survivors amid the twisted steel and large boulders, pulling bodies from the water. Authorities said victims were found as far as 100 metres from the impact site, suggesting they were thrown from the vehicle.

"We haven't found a single survivor," said firefighter Captain David Taboada, who was leading the rescue operation.

Firefighters had said 52 people died in the accident but later in the day Santa Rita police issued a press release saying the official death toll was 51, including 14 children.

The cause of the accident had not been determined, Taboada said, adding that the vehicle was "coming from a party in Santa Teresa at which a lot of alcohol was consumed".

Firefighters were placing the recovered bodies on a soccer field above where the crash took place. Throughout the following day relatives of the victims arrived to identify their loved ones.

Fedia Castro, mayor of the district where Santa Teresa is located, told Canal N television that rural farmers must rely on informal forms of transport, such as this cargo truck, because no public buses exist in the area.

The high-altitude roads of the Peruvian Andes are notorious for bus plunges, with poor farmers comprising many of the victims. Last year, more than 4,000 people were killed in such accidents.

Sunday 13 October 2013

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/13/peru-bus-crash-kills-51

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