Monday 14 October 2013

Colombia building collapse: Search for missing continues


Rescue workers in Colombia continue to search for nine people missing after a luxury apartment complex collapsed on Saturday night.

Two bodies have been found in the rubble of the 24-storey tower.

The building in the city of Medellin had been evacuated after cracks were found in the masonry, but a team of construction workers and one resident were in the block when it came down.

Emergency workers said they had little hope of finding anyone alive.

"So many hours have gone by and there has been no movement," said Gloria Echeverri, the partner of one of the construction workers who was working on securing the building after residents discovered structural damage.

Emergency workers have not yet been able to recover the two bodies they located. Heavy rains have forced them to break off from their work for hours at a time.

Residents from another tower in the same complex blamed poor construction materials for the collapse.

"You'd put in a nail and the whole wall would come down," the owner of one apartment told Colombian newspaper El Tiempo.

The apartments in the collapsed block were completed earlier this year and cost between $100,000 (£67,000) and $265,000 (£166,000).

The block is in one of Medellin's most exclusive neighbourhoods.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said Medellin city authorities had averted a great disaster by ordering the evacuation of the tower block on Saturday.

"We have a low number of victims considering what could have happened if there had been no evacuation," he said.

The construction company had insisted that the building was not at "any risk" of collapse and that the cracks were due to "localised damage" on the fourth floor.

Monday 14 October 2013

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-24524591

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70 years after revolt, Sobibor secrets are yet to be unearthed


It was the most successful prisoner revolt during World War II, but the Sobibor uprising never became a primary symbol of the Holocaust. Seventy years later, archeologists at the former death camp are rewriting what’s known about Sobibor’s design, and unearthing haunting glimpses of its Jewish victims.

Their work, however, is now in jeopardy, as bureaucratic tensions and a stymied struggle on the part of the lead Israeli archeologist Yoram Haimi to protect the site’s integrity have delayed authorization from Polish authorities to open a new excavation season at Sobibor.

According to Haimi, this would be the most sensitive and important season to date.

The Nazis built Sobibor and two similar death camps in eastern Poland – Belzec and Treblinka – during the spring of 1942. Intense secrecy ensured that victims could be murdered upon arrival, without realizing where they had been taken.

“I helped Jews out of the trains with all their baggage,” wrote Sobibor survivor Philip Bialowitz in his memoir, “A Promise at Sobibor.”

During eighteen months of operation, 250,000 Jews from all over Europe were gassed in Sobibor’s killing facilities. Bodies were dumped into huge pits and later burned on open-air “ovens” made from rail tracks. At any given time, several hundred Jewish prisoners also labored throughout the camp, serving its German SS masters and Ukrainian auxiliaries.

On October 14, 1943, a group of prisoners – fearing the camp’s rumored liquidation – executed a meticulous and daring escape plan.

After revolt leaders quietly killed eleven top SS officers, most of the 600 imprisoned Jews stormed Sobibor’s electrified fences. Almost half of them made it through minefields surrounding the camp and into the forest.

“Corpses were everywhere,” wrote Sobibor survivor Thomas “Toivi” Blatt in “The Forgotten Revolt.”

“The noise of rifles, exploding mines, grenades and the chatter of machine guns assaulted the ears,” Blatt wrote. “The Nazis shot from a distance while in our hands were only primitive knives and hatchets.”

Only 60 of the Jews who escaped from Sobibor that day lived to see the end of the war, a year and a half later; most were killed during the Nazis’ initial manhunt, or as fugitives in the Polish countryside. Never before – and never again – would prisoners organize so large an escape from a Nazi facility, much less a death camp.

Though the SS had already planned to shut down Sobibor, the October revolt prompted SS chief Heinrich Himmler to immediately order the camp dismantled, and for the site to be erased from history with pine trees.

Remarkably, another Jewish prisoner revolt had occurred just two months earlier, at one of the other two “Operation Reinhardt” death camps – Treblinka, close to Warsaw.

After setting camp buildings on fire, more than 150 Jews escaped from Treblinka, with half of them surviving the ensuing dragnet. In contrast to the hasty, post-revolt closure of Sobibor, the killing operations at Treblinka went on for months.

Three weeks after the Sobibor escape, 42,000 Jewish forced laborers in the surrounding “Lublin District” were murdered. Called “Harvest Festival” by its SS organizers, the unprecedented, two-day killing spree was the Nazis’ solution to the prospect of additional revolts.

In recent years, the remote, less-eulogized Sobibor is where researchers are amassing the most new facts – and artifacts – related to the Nazis’ “Final Solution.”

In 2007, Israeli archeologist Yoram Haimi started excavations at Sobibor, just months after learning that two of his uncles were murdered there. Having quickly obtained permission from the Polish government and initial funding, Haimi’s focus shifted from excavating sites in southern Israel to digging at one of the most hellacious places imaginable.

During half a decade of excavations, Haimi and Polish archeologists have made numerous discoveries about Sobibor’s victims and the former death camp’s layout. To avoid excessive tampering with graves, the team has made heavy use of non-invasive tools such as ground-penetrating radar and satellite imaging.

“Our results bring new information about Sobibor every day we excavate,” Haimi told the Times of Israel on Sunday, as he prepared to fly from Israel to attend commemorations at Sobibor on the revolt’s 70th anniversary.

“We are touching the Holocaust,” Haimi said. “We are not talking about it, we are touching it, physically. Some people say that archeologists play in the sand, but that is not fair.”As he prepared to depart for Poland, Haimi expressed concern about an ongoing lack of authorization from Polish authorities to open a new excavation season at Sobibor. This would be the most sensitive and important season to date, said Haimi, because excavators will work at the mass graves themselves, having obtained special permission from Poland’s chief rabbi.

“Our job is to reconstruct the camp of Sobibor,” Haimi told the Times. ”We are mapping the actual camp and trying to establish how may people were murdered there. We need this new season to have a good chance of actually completing these goals.”

According to excavation reports, tensions developed between Haimi’s team and Polish authorities last season, when researchers spoke out against the plan to build a new visitors’ center. The problem wasn’t the creation of a new facility, but its intended location on the exact spot where Jews were forced to undress and be herded toward their deaths.

In his last excavation report, Haimi proposed using three existing buildings at Sobibor for the new facilities. He and colleagues also suggested alternative locations for a new building. The debate is effectively at a standstill – one that Haimi hopes will be broken when Yad Vashem publishes a comprehensive report on the Sobibor excavations later this month, he said.

Haimi’s early excavations at Sobibor hovered around retrieving victims’ personal artifacts. Among the more anomalous findings were a child’s Mickey Mouse pin and a rare, Slovakian metal version of the cloth star Jews were forced to wear in Nazi-occupied countries.

In part through excavating victims’ belongings, researchers remapped the position of former camp fences, and subsequently determined precise locations for the gas chambers and mass graves. They also found an unexpected, internal train route within Sobibor.

“Because of the lack of information about Sobibor, every little piece of information is significant,” said Haimi. “No one knew where the gas chambers were. The Germans didn’t want anyone to find out what was there. But thanks to what we have done, they didn’t succeed.”

Half a year ago, Haimi uncovered something surprising in Camp 2: a 32-foot long escape tunnel, dug from the prisoners’ barracks to a camp perimeter fence. No one ever escaped through the unfinished tunnel, and its existence had been totally forgotten – until now.

“Now we can understand the testimonies of survivors,” Haimi told the Times about the finding. “We have survivors from ‘Camp 2′ who said the Germans came and took 100 prisoners to ‘Camp 3,’ where they were all killed. Finding this tunnel fills in the historical record.”

Failed escape attempts from Sobibor were depicted in the 1987 British made-for-TV film, “Escape from Sobibor,” culminating in the historic revolt. More recently, excavations at Sobibor inspired several American, Israeli and European documentaries, including this year’s “The Hidden Holocaust at Sobibor,” focused on unearthing the site’s past with new scientific methods.

Just a few survivors of Sobibor remain alive to bear witness. But through the work of archeologists and historians, a model has been forged for new Holocaust research, when unearthed artifacts – and not survivors – will speak for Hitler’s victims.

Monday 14 October 2013

http://www.timesofisrael.com/70-years-after-revolt-sobibor-secrets-are-yet-to-be-unearthed/

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Red Cross Syria kidnap underscores risks in war zones


The kidnapping in Syria of seven aid workers from the International Committee of the Red Cross and Syrian Red Crescent on Sunday underscores the stark daily risks faced by those helping victims of the conflict.

"Six ICRC staff members and one member of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent have been abducted in Idlib in northwestern Syria," ICRC spokesman Ewan Watson told AFP at the organisation's Geneva base.

"We don't know who took them. It was unidentified armed men," he added, when pressed on whether the kidnappers were thought to be from Syria's rebel side or militias loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.

"We're calling for their immediate, unconditional and safe release," he said.

ICRC and Red Crescent staff in Idlib and the city of Aleppo were scrambling to locate the aid workers and secure their release.

Earlier Sunday, Syrian state television reported that "armed terrorist gangs" attacked the ICRC convoy and kidnapped its members.

Large parts of Idlib province are under the control of rebel groups, including jihadists, who are fighting to oust Assad's regime.

The conflict has killed more than 115,000 people in two and a half years, driven more than two million out of Syria and left millions more inside the country reliant on aid to survive.

The Swiss-based ICRC strives not to be drawn into the politics of conflict zones where its staff serve.

"That's the whole point about being neutral and impartial. It ensures us access," said Watson.

Aid is a sharply political issue in Syria, where United Nations investigators have accused both sides of a range of war crimes, including targeting ambulances, and blamed government forces for denying medical care to opposition-held areas.

The ICRC has some 30 expatriates and 120 Syrian aid workers deployed in the country.

Like UN agencies, it works hand in hand with volunteers from the local Red Crescent, one of the few aid bodies able to operate nationwide.

Twenty-two Syrian Red Crescent volunteers have been killed since the war began in March 2011.

The ICRC is the guardian of the Geneva Conventions, and perhaps best known for visiting prisoners of war.

But much of its work revolves around helping civilians swept up in conflicts, with its staff all too aware of the risks they face.

"Difficult security conditions are very much part of life at the ICRC. There's no such thing as easy access to a conflict zone. By definition they are dangerous," said Watson.

'Isn't going to stop us'

The seven aid workers were abducted near the community of Sareqeb after setting off back to the Syrian capital Damascus.

Watson said he could not confirm their names and nationalities, in part to be sure their families were informed first.

They had travelled northwest on Thursday to deliver supplies to hospitals in Idlib city and neighbouring Sarmin, and to carry out an assessment of health needs in the area.

The convoy was clearly marked with the ICRC emblem, which although it includes a cross is not meant as a religious symbol -- it is a reverse-colour version of neutral Switzerland's flag, chosen by its 19th century founding fathers.

Security is a constant concern for aid workers, notably in wars such as Syria's where front lines can be fluid and convoys have to criss-cross checkpoints manned by different groups within each camp.

"It's a continual, evolving negotiation, in a sense, to ensure that we can get to where we need to be. We're dealing with different security incidents all the time, of all shapes and sizes," said Watson.

Despite the kidnapping, ICRC staff were continuing operations Sunday, notably by helping 3,500 civilians allowed by government forces to leave the besieged town of Moaddamiyah near Damascus.

"We are committed to helping the Syrian people, and that's not going to go away because of this incident. Incidents like this do make us take stock. But the fact that's dangerous isn't going to stop us," said Watson.

Monday 14 October 2013

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/131013/red-cross-syria-kidnap-underscores-risks-war-zones

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Odisha toll 21 as cyclone Phailin triggers flood (update)


The death toll in Odisha today mounted to 21 after 14 more people perished while one was missing in four districts of the state in the aftermath of Cyclone Phailin that also triggered a flood in some areas.

Most of the casualties were caused by wall collapse, uprooted trees and in floods, while a large number of people were injured, official sources said.

Two bodies each were found in Berhampur town, Purushottampur, Ganjam town and Rangelilunda areas of Ganjam district where the high-velocity cyclone left a trail of devastation after making landfall in Gopalpur area yesterday.

Bodies of a woman and a 13-year-old boy were found in Khantapada and Soro areas in Balasore district.

Death of a woman and a boy were reported from Mayurbhanj district while another boy and a woman died in Bhadrak district where a boy was missing, the sources said.

Seven people were killed yesterday at Polasara and Khalikote areas of Ganjam district.

The cyclone led to floods in the two districts of Bhadrak and Mayurbhanj where near half of Baripada town was submerged.

"Post-Phailin, we are alert to rise in water level in rivers because of downpour across the state. Water level of rivers Budhabalang, Baitarani and Rusikulya have risen," Special Relief Commissioner P K Mohapatra told reporters here.

The flood water of Budhabalang entered Baripada town causing panic among local people.

The administration shifted patients of the district headquarters hospital in Baripada town from the ground floor to the first to as flood water gushed into the premises.

Besides the town, several villages in Kuliana, Bangirposi and Betanati areas were inundated by flood water, according to district emergency office sources.

While flood water was flowing over Bangirposi-Bhuasuni bridge, road communication was disrupted.

The flood threat was also felt in Bhadrak district as river Baitarani rose up to the danger mark, said Rajendra Panda, District Emergency Officer.

The Kuansh Bridge over river Salandi has been damaged.

However, there was no flood threat in Mahanadi river system, the special relief commissioner said.

Monday 14 October 2013

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/1903171/report-odisha-toll-21-as-cyclone-phailin-triggers-flood

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Uttarakhand tragedy: DNA testing of bodies runs into rough weather


A few months before Phailin struck India’s East Coast pulverising everything that came its way, the trail of another natural disaster in Uttarakhand would show you how such calamities can turn a tragedy into a government farce.

The Uttarakhand Government had announced DNA sampling of the over 500 dead victims (out of over 5,000) and match each with the claimant relatives so that the victims are identified and the government can decide the compensation. Two months after the samples were taken, a row has erupted between the Center for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD), Hyderabad, and the state Government over payment issues. So, the relatives will have to wait longer before they hear a word from the government.

The disaster cell in the police headquarters has been receiving calls daily from across the country from the victims’ relatives about the status of their DNA samples.

The Tribune has learnt that the Hyderabad-based lab has stopped work pending payment.

Inspector General (Law and Order) RS Meena said police officers will soon meet CDFD officials to resolve the issue.

“The lab’s management has raised payment concerns as they say they will have to do DNA analysis and profiling of all persons who lost their lives in the tragedy. Some of their doubts cleared after we told them only 550-600 samples need to be analyzed,” said Meena.

Sources said in all 559 DNA samples have been sent to the lab. As many as 95 relatives of missing persons too have given their DNA samples to the state authorities for a DNA match.

A police officer said, “The CDFD estimates about Rs 8,000 on each DNA analysis and profiling. It asked the government as to how the payment would be made.”

“People from many states come to me in Dehradun daily to know the status of their DNA analysis,” said IG Meena. He said he had no idea when the sampling exercise would be over. “The process is time-consuming,” he said.

The Uttarakhand Government had announced DNA sampling of the over 500 victims out of over 5,000 and match each with the claimant relatives so that the victims are identified for compensation purposes.

Two months after the samples were taken, a row has erupted between a Hyderabad lab and the state government over payment issues. So, the relatives will have to wait longer before they hear a word from the government.

The Tribune has learnt that the Hyderabad lab has stopped work pending payment.

Monday 14 October 2013

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20131014/main3.htm

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Stampede on bridge leading to Ratangarh temple in Madhya Pradesh, death toll rises to 109 pilgrims (update)


The Navratra festivities ended in tragedy when 109 pilgrims including women and children were killed and more than 100 injured in a stampede on a bridge leading to the historic Ratangarh temple in Datia district of Madhya Pradesh on Sunday. It was a disastrous re-run of the 2006 stampede when more than 50 pilgrims had got washed away falling in panic into the Sindh river off the same bridge in 2006.

Large crowds began converging on the site from early morning, according to witnesses, as Hindus celebrate the end of the Navaratri festival.

The festival is dedicated to the worship of the Hindu goddess Durga, which draws millions of worshippers to temples, especially in northern and central India.

Hundreds of thousands of devotees had thronged the remote Ratangarh village temple in Madhya Pradesh state's Datia district to honor the Hindu mother goddess Durga on the last day of the popular 10-day Navaratra festival.

Up to 400,000 devotees were already inside or around the temple in Datia district, which is about 350 kilometers (220 miles) north of the state capital Bhopal, when the stampede took place.

Eyewitnesses said over-crowding of the bridge, which is 500m long and 10m wide, caused one of its railings to snap, which led some people to shout that the bridge was collapsing. With more than a lakh of people for the pilgrimage, this set off panic with people trying to rush to safety, which caused the stampede.

Unconfirmed reports said police lathi charge to control pilgrims from jumping a queue created alarm and drove people in one direction, leading to sudden surge of people on the bridge that caused one of its railings to snap, which in turn created the panic. Sindh, a tributary of the Yamuna, is engorged with rains in past weeks and many people also fell into the river, the reason why administrative officials fear that the death toll could rise.

It may also have been caused a rumour that a bridge to the Ratangarh temple in the central state of Madhya Pradesh was about to collapse after it was hit by a lorry.

Most died after being crushed underfoot but others are believed to have drowned after jumping into the river.

Ashok Argal, a federal lawmaker from the region, placed the blame on crowds trying to rush across the bridge.

"It is wrong to say there were any administrative lapses. The administration had taken steps and made fool-proof arrangements to avoid any untoward incident," he told AFP.

"Sometimes there is little cooperation from people and people are always in a hurry, because of which this unfortunate incident occurred."

The Times of India reported that crowds could be seen pelting police with stones as frustration grew over the rescue operation.

Efforts to reach the injured and ferry them to hospital were being hampered by the huge volume of traffic in the area.

The bridge itself was a ghastly sight with bodies sprawled even as rescue teams from Gwalior, a mere 75-odd km away, were delayed due to battered roads and a 10-km long traffic jam. Pilgrims said there were only nine constables and a sub-inspector manning more than one lakh people along the 500-metre bridge when the stampede occurred.

"We have counted 105 bodies so far. Several pilgrims died on way to hospital. The toll may rise," said chief medical and health officer RH Gupta. Director general of police Nandan Kumar Dubey put the toll so far to "around 85". Most of the lakh-odd pilgrims in Datia, around 405 km north of Bhopal, were from Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

The crush of the stampede killed mostly women and children. Many bodies were pulled from the river, but there were fears that some bodies may have been washed away.

Relatives crowded a state-run hospital to take the bodies after the autopsies and searched frantically for loved ones among the injured people being treated there. Volunteers and residents pulled many bodies out of the Sindh River, where people had jumped when the chaos started Sunday.

Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan ordered a judicial inquiry into the tragedy and Congress president Sonia Gandhi has expressed shock and anguish. The Ratangarh temple is 55 km from the Datia district headquarters.

India has a long history of deadly stampedes at religious festivals, with at least 36 people trampled to death in February as pilgrims headed home from the Kumbh Mela religious festival on the banks of the river Ganges.

Some 102 Hindu devotees were killed in a stampede in January 2011 in the state of Kerala, while 224 pilgrims died in September 2008 as thousands of worshippers rushed to reach a 15th-century hill-top temple in Jodhpur.

Monday 14 October 2013

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/110-pilgrims-killed-in-stampede-on-bridge-leading-to-Ratangarh-temple-in-MP/articleshow/24110208.cms

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Death toll rises to 32 in Mali river boat disaster (update)


The death toll from one of the worst ever river boat sinkings in Mali has jumped to 32, including many young children, local officials and survivors said Sunday.

Rescuers were still hunting along the Niger river for the missing after the tragedy struck overnight Friday in central Mali, while survivors hailed local villagers for preventing an even heavier death toll.

"Until now, 32 bodies have been recovered but there are still people in the water we are searching for," said Ibrahim Waigalo, an advisor in the village of Koubi near the site of the accident.

The dugout boat, carrying scores of people and a large amount of merchandise, broke up on the Niger near Koubi, which lies around 70 kilometres (40 miles) north of the central city of Mopti.

Local officials had said on Saturday that 20 people had perished, including 15 children, while 23 were missing and 210 survived.

It is one of the deadliest river disasters in Mali, according to the local authorities. While accidents involving the rudimentary canoes are frequent, Mopti governor Ibrahima Hama Traore said the human loss this time was exceptional.

"It was the residents of Koubi who saved us. It is thanks to them that there are not even more dead," said Seydou Maiga, a teacher who survived the tragedy.

"There were lots of women and children. Yesterday we buried 13 children, it was terrible," he added.

Maiga said the boat, which was en route from Mopti to the fabled desert trading city of Timbuktu over 700 kilometres (400 miles) away, was overcrowded.

He said 218 people had bought tickets for the boat trip. "But there were many more than that on board, I don't know how many, perhaps 300 as there were people who hadn't bought tickets."

Passengers on the capsized boat said they believed hundreds of people were on the overladen vessel when it sank Friday. But the ship's owner did not have a full list of who was on board, making it impossible to determine the actual number of people missing.

The boat was headed from the central port of Mopti to the northern desert city of Timbuktu, packed full of people traveling ahead of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha this week. Many Malians choose to travel by river even though the journey takes several days and nights because it is easier than traversing the region's poor desert roads.

An AFP journalist in Koubi saw the bodies of a woman and a young girl pulled from the Niger, while the deputy mayor of the neighbouring village of Konna -- about 20 kilometres away -- said 10 bodies had been recovered there.

"Unfortunately it is certain that other bodies will be found," said the official, Demba Samouka.

The exact causes of the incident were not yet clear but one survivor said it came just after the upper deck of the boat collapsed.

"The boat was overloaded... When we realised the roof was giving in, we were asked to get off... Minutes later, the boat tilted left, then right and eventually capsized," said Moustapha Ousmane Maiga.

Rudimentary canoes are the main means of transport for residents of Mali's central and northern regions travelling to the towns dotting the Niger, the main river in west Africa.

Often powered by a van motor, they can sometimes carry tonnes of merchandise as well as over 100 passengers.

The Niger is more than 4,100 kilometres (2,500 miles) long and connects landlocked Mali's arid north to the more fertile south.

Speaking to AFP on the site of the disaster Sunday, Mariam Hacko said she had travelled all the way from the capital Bamako to look for her relatives.,

She found her brother alive but not his wife and godchild.

Hacko complained that the emergency teams had to drive more than 400 kilometres (250 miles) and arrived on the scene with no equipment.

"The villagers on the other hand are here, they are doing everything. The burials, the rescue effort, they are in charge of everything."

Mahmoudou Ibrahim combed the waters frantically for his family after they and hundreds of other passengers were catapulted into the Niger River when their boat capsized.

On Sunday morning, crews pulled the bloated bodies of three of his children from the river: 1-year-old Ahmadou, 3-year-old Salamata and 4-year-old Fatouma.

There is still no sign of his wife, Zeinabou, or their 5-year-old twin girls, who were last seen curled up on mats aboard the ship.

"The pain that I feel today is beyond excruciating," he said from the village cemetery where he buried the remains of his three children Sunday in the sandy dirt.

Ibrahim Yattara, 29, also awaited each body retrieved from the river for any sign of his wife. The two were traveling to see family in Dire, and to share the good news that she was pregnant.

With each passing hour he became more fearful she was gone. On Sunday afternoon, they found her body and buried her in the village on shore.

"She was the only woman I had ever loved since childhood," he said. "We were so happy to know that she was pregnant. Today I am sick of life. It has no meaning for me."

Many of those traveling to Timbuktu by boat were schoolchildren returning to class and who were unable to swim.

Abouri Djittey drove through the night from the capital of Bamako — a distance of 435 miles (700 kilometers) — after learning that his 7-year-old daughter Ramata had drowned.

Now he thinks often about a dream he had days before the accident, in which Ramata was on a boat and fell into the water.

"After seeing the bodies coming out of the water in a badly decomposed state, I cannot bear to see my daughter like that," he says. "I prefer to return to Bamako without seeing her body."

Monday 14 October 2013

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/43-dead-dozens-missing-after-boat-sinks-in-Mali/articleshow/24116262.cms

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