Friday 27 December 2013

Last 4 bodies found from Russian plane crash


Emergency workers have recovered the four remaining bodies of the nine victims of a plane crash outside the eastern Siberian city of Irkutsk, a local official said Friday.

The bodies, along with the plane’s black boxes that may provide crucial information about the causes of the crash, were discovered inside the plane but have not yet been recovered, said Valentin Nelyubov, head of the Irkutsk Region’s Emergencies Ministry.

The Antonov An-12 transport plane crashed on Thursday afternoon, killing all six crew members and three individuals accompanying the cargo on board. Five of the bodies were found immediately, and Emergencies Ministry officials had said the search was ongoing for the remaining four.

Officials said that all the victims were residents of the Irkutsk region.

The plane, owned by the Irkutsk Aviation Plant and reportedly transporting industrial cargo from Novosibirsk, damaged the roofs of two military warehouses in the crash.

Russian Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said a criminal case has been opened into possible violations of transport safety rules.

A number of An-12s have been involved in fatal accidents in recent years, including one operated by Russian charter firm Avis-Amur that crashed in Russia's far east in August 2011, killing all 11 on board, following a fire caused by a fuel leak.

That particular aircraft was within 130 hours of its 20,000 hour design airframe life, according to the Moscow-based Interstate Aviation Committee, which investigated the accident. The last Soviet-built An-12 rolled off the production line in 1973.

Pilots generally praise the An-12 as a sound design, and it has a good safety record in its long service with the Russian Air Force. Many, however, are now operated by small airlines, often based in third-world countries, that fail to properly maintain their planes or overload them in a bid to make extra profit.

Friday 27 December 2013

http://www.turkishweekly.net/news/160628/last-4-bodies-found-from-russian-plane-crash-official.html

continue reading

1,000 copses remain unburied in Tacloban City


Close to two months after monster typhoon Yolanda in Tacloban City, people find it hard to move on, as thousands of bodies have yet to be identified and buried.

A lot at Suhi Village serves as a temporary mass grave of more than one thousand unidentified fatalities.

As the days go by, the chances that the remains will be identified become slimmer, and they may forever be written off as "missing."

The bodies are in an advanced state of decomposition, and some are beyond recognition.

It is a very grim sight, reminding one of the horror during the night of the tragedy.

Residents here complain of the stench, which they say clings to one's clothes.

It bothers them, especially when they are eating or when they are about to sleep.

In fact, the residents have put up signboards asking authorities to bury the bodies immediately.

Authorities, however, ask their constituents to be patient, as they need more time to work on the remains.

City Administrator Tecson Lim says forensic operatives are still doing their best to document each body.

That includes taking fingerprints and jotting down detailed descriptions of each one.

The clothes on the bodies have been taken off and set aside for safekeeping.

These will be used to help relatives confirm the identity of the bodies.

Work on the bodies slowed down when personnel from the National Bureau of Investigation went on Christmas break.

But they have now returned to Tacloban to carry out the mass burial of a first batch of remains on Saturday.

Friday 27 December 2013

http://www.solarnews.ph/news/regional/2013/12/27/1000-copses-remain-unburied-in-tacloban-city

continue reading

The corpse collector on the Yangtze River

Rope, pole and life jacket: These are the mundane tools of the unpleasant trade plied by 62-year-old boatman Chen Yangxi, a corpse collector on the Yangtze River in Wuhan, Central China.

Living a kilometer from the country's longest river on Yangluo Jie in the Hubei Province capital city's Xinzhou district, Chen has harvested more than 400 corpses in 42 years.

Despite initially opposing his ghoulish occupation, family and neighbors have come to accept Chen for doing a job nobody else would want to do. Indeed, finding a successor was a serious problem until a middle-aged neighbor from a nearby village volunteered to become Chen's apprentice.

Back in 1971, Chen was working in a textile factory when an old man by the river asked him to help collect corpses. Reluctant at first, Chen says he agreed later when the old man said, "This is to do good and accumulate virtue."

He came to know Ding Dongsheng as one of the few remaining members of the Peixin Shantang charitable organization, established in 1848 to aid river rescue and cadaver collection.

Grieving families

Peering at the puffy bodies, Chen at first was frightened stiff. "My heart skipped a beat, and I had trouble eating or sleeping for a few days," he told the Global Times.

The aging Ding quit in 1981. Five years later he died, leaving Chen the sole member of the charity group.

Before the 1990s, the way it worked was like this: Whenever news came of a floater, Chen would go get it. He wanted to avoid damaging the body by using hooks and so he roped it carefully, pulling it slowly onshore.

Sometimes a family reclaimed the body. Other times, with the unknown cadavers, Chen jotted down their clothes, shoes and other physical features, rolled the corpse up in a straw mat and buried it in a nearby hill.

If families came looking, he would dig the body up and burn it with gas, letting the families take the ashes.

"But that was what we did before," Chen said. "Now I need to send it to a funeral home for cremation. And today I only collect bodies with police approval."

Honor in death

Chen never asks for money.

"I'm not the sort of man to profit from the dead," he said.

Chen handles every corpse carefully and never demands payment, civil affairs department official Yu Bingyan told the Wuhan-based Chutian Metropolis Daily.

Of course he won't turn down cash if it's volunteered, Chen explained, whether small or large.

"I accept their courtesy as a mark of respect to them," he said.

The daughter of a drowned man who went missing eight days proffered Chen 1,000 yuan for retrieving the body on December 8.

The police also sometimes summon him to help handle corpses in other places. Each time he is paid 100 to 400 yuan.

The police conduct forensic identification before sending the bodies to a funeral home, he noted.

Unlike Chen, some other corpse collectors had stirred controversy for demanding money from family of the dead.

A boatman in the city of Jingzhou, Hubei Province, for example, triggered nationwide anger on October 24, 2009, by refusing to collect a corpse from the water unless paid 36,000 yuan ($5,930). The dead body was of a student who had drowned trying to rescue two children who had fallen into the river.

Corpse collectors Wei Yingquan and his 38-year-old son Wei Zhijun charge at least 500 yuan for their services to bereaved families along the Lanzhou section of the Yellow River in Gansu Province, Northwest China.

They collect only what they deem "recognizable" corpses and fasten them to the riverbank where the current is slow. If nobody comes within three weeks, they let the bodies float away.

Touching a dead body is bad luck in traditional Chinese thinking. Fearing neighbors' ostracism, Chen's wife Lü Xueping has many times begged Chen to quit. Nevertheless, Chen is widely respected for what he does.

"We all know what he's doing. He is doing good," said neighbor Zhang Meiying.

One of Chen's daughter-in-laws opened a small restaurant at home and business is pretty good. The healthy returns from the business have helped convince the family that Chen's job has not brought bad karma. But nobody in the family wants to inherit his unusual line of work.

"Both my sons refused," Chen said. "They said they were too timid to do the job."

His 37-year-old son Chen Fang works at a machinery plant and his 34-year-old son Chen Yuan is a driver.

He understands the young men's concerns, Chen said. He himself has seen too many corpses, and inferred too many sad stories and probable suicides.

It's a taboo among fishermen to let their boats touch a corpse.

Even if someone lends a boat to Chen, they demand he use his rope to keep the body away. If contact occurs, Chen must burn paper and banish the bad luck.

The civil affairs bureau has hunted for more people like Chen, but applicants balk at the job description.

The job demands not only an absence of superstition, Chen explained, but also a strong character. Luckily in 2003, Zhang Xingwang, now 50, agreed to give it a try.

"The first experience with me, he was so scared he nearly fell into the water," Chen joked. "And he dared not look at the body, let alone touch it."

Chen Yangxi is a "household name" around Wuhan, explained Feng Weihua, a manager of the Yangluo online community. He is the last living inheritor of the traditional Peixin Shantang customs, Feng stated.

"The local government should subsidize him and his apprentice, and have the cause be passed down," Feng told the Global Times.

Apprentice Zhang is more used to his job nowadays. As Chen's assistant, he shares 40 percent of the income.

"But he still refuses to touch a body," Chen said.

With a monthly pension of more than 2,000 yuan, Chen could kick back and enjoy a more leisurely life with his two grandsons.

But he has no plans to retire. "I'm still physically healthy," he said. "I can still collect for another 10 years."

Friday 27 December 2013

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/834420.shtml

continue reading

South Korea identifies remains of police killed in Korean War


A South Korean police officer who was killed in the Korean War has been identified 63 years after his death in battle, the defense ministry said Friday, marking the 10th set of remains sent home for burial through DNA testing.

The Defense Ministry's Agency for Killed in Action Recovery and Identification (MAKRI) retrieved his remains in Chuncheon in Gangwon Province in May last year, along with his uniform, personal equipment and belongings.

The police officer, Kim Se-han, was dispatched to the battle site shortly after the Korean War broke out in June 1950. Kim died five days after the dispatch at the age of 24, the ministry said.

The military recovery team discovered his identity through a DNA test, as his daughter, now 64, had registered her DNA samples in search of her father's remains six decades after the three-year conflict.

MAKRI has collected 26,673 DNA samples from bereaved families to verify the identities of the fallen soldiers so that their remains can be returned to their loved ones. The agency has retrieved 8,744 remains of fallen soldiers since 2000 and collected DNA samples from 6,373 bodies.

The agency has only been able to return 83 sets of remains to families, while the rest of the remains are awaiting DNA and other forensic tests.

Friday 27 December 2013

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/yonhap-news-agency/131226/s-korea-identifies-remains-police-killed-korean-war

continue reading

Asian tsunami disaster anniversary


Bitter memories of December 26, 2004, were relived in the coastal villages of Chennai, Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, Kanyakumari and Tuticorin districts when the ninth anniversary of tsunami was observed on Thursday.

In Nagapattinam, the town which lost the largest number of people, next of kin were still grappling with the loss of their loved ones. For 38-year-old Anbarasi, who had lost her young son to the killer waves, time is yet to play the healer. The fishing hamlets were littered with hoardings bearing eulogies of the dead and commemorated memories of loved ones. Occasional wails, solemn silences, and choked tears punctuated the sordid atmosphere.

And for the children of Annai Sathya Home for tsunami orphans, who were too young to cope with a loss so intense, this annual floral tribute stoked emotions forcing them to relive those times and come to terms with their loss.

Earlier, tributes were paid at the Tsunami memorial erected in memory of 6,045 victims. Similar tributes were paid at the Keechankuppam memorial.

Fishermen – from Arockiapuram to Neerodi in Kanyakumari and Periyathalai to Vembar in Tuticorin - stayed away from sea as a mark of respect to the hundreds of people swallowed by killer waves.

As many as 43,804 families, comprising 1.88 lakh people, were affected in the coastal areas of Kanyakumari district.

People offered floral homage at the ‘Tsunami Stupi’ at Triveni Sangamam Park in Kanyakumari. Special prayers were offered at the Anthirayas Church at Manakudi, St. Alex Church in Kottilpadu and Kanikkai Matha Church in Colachel, places of mass burials.

Fishermen, along with their family members, offered flowers to the ‘Tsunami Stupi’ at Colachel, Kottilpadu and Manakudi. Residents of Kottilpadu took out a silent procession and lit candles.

In Tuticorin, fisher folk, mostly clad in black, took out a silent procession towards Threspuram coast and paid floral homage in the shore. The mourners carried candles and flowers.

Children of a special school run by National Child Labour Programme at Inigo Nagar conducted a candle light prayer.

“Nine years after the tragedy, coastal families are slowly returning to the mainstream. Their social status has also improved, post-tsunami, due to mechanisation of fishing craft. In future, the focus should be on education, health and hygiene,” says Rev. Fr. Gildos, Director, Coastal Peace and Development, Kanyakumari.

Pereliya

A special tsunami commemoration ceremony at the tsunami memorial in Pereliya was held under the patronage of the Maha Sangha led by Southern Province Chief Sangha Nayake and Ruhunu University Chancellor Ven. Rajakeeya Panditha Pallaththara Sumanajothi thera. The ceremony commenced with floral tributes being placed at the Tsunami Memorial by all present, on Thursday (Dec.26).

Chief incumbent of Telwatta Raja Maha Viharaya and Galle and Matara District chief Judicial Sanganayake Ven. Pituwala Sumana thera administered Pansil. Catholic religious rites were performed by Rev. Brother Suren Fernando. Ven Rajakeeya Panditha Pallaththara Sumanajothi Nayaka Thera delivered an anusasana.

The refurbished ill fated train in the 2004 tsunami, reached Paraliya yesterday carrying a large crowd to pay tribute to the tsunami victims.

A special tsunami victim commemoration was also jointly organised by the Ruhunu Medical Faculty Judicial Medical Unit and Akmeemana Pradeshiya Sabha at the mass grave of tsunami victims at Kurunduwatta, Akmeemna where over thousands of unidentified bodies of victims were buried.

Tsunami commemoration functions were also held in Thotamune in Matara, in the Tangalle and Hambabtota towns.

Phuket

The Phuket community yesterday morning honored those who died in the devastating tsunami that struck the island in 2004 with a ceremony at the Tsunami Memorial Wall in Mai Khao followed by the traditional “Light Up Phuket” candle-lighting ceremony on Patong Beach last night.

About 50 people turned out at the Tsunami Memorial Wall in Mai Khao, including a few foreigners. The service in Mai Khao began at 8:30am with Buddhist monks conducting a mass prayer, followed by a Muslim service and then a Christian service.

After the religious ceremonies, attendees observed one minute of silence to remember their loved ones lost to the waves on December 26, 2004.

Wreaths were laid along the wall starting at 10:30am, with the ceremony drawing to a close at midday.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people attended another tsunami memorial service at Baan Nam Khem in Takuapa, Phang Nga.

Friday 27 December 2013

http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket_news/2013/Phuket-honors-victims-on-ninth-anniversary-of-the-tsunami-23113.html

continue reading

32 killed as bus plunges into ravine in Thailand


At least 32 people were killed and five critically injured today when a speeding bus plunged into a ravine in northeast Thailand.

The bus, coming from Khon Kaen was enroute to Chiang Rai province, crashed into the guard rail of a bridge in Phetachbun district and fell into the 50-metre deep ravine, police said.

The bus was carrying 40 people, they said, adding 27 bodies were found in the bus and many more outside.

Five critically injured were rushed to two hospitals where one of them died.

Information about the remaining three persons was not immediately available.


The mishap occurred as millions of Thai motorists are expected to travel during the New Year holidays.

Traffic accidents are common in Thailand. Earlier in October, at least 20 people were killed when a tour bus carrying elderly Buddhist devotees plunged into a ravine in the country's northeast.

According to a recent report by the World Health Organisation, Thailand witnessed some 38.1 road deaths per 100,000 of population, compared to an average of 18.5 in Southeast Asia as a whole.

Friday 27 December 2013

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/32-killed-as-bus-plunges-into-ravine-in-Thailand/articleshow/28003278.cms

continue reading