Friday 28 February 2014

28 February 1975: Worst ever Tube disaster as 43 die in Moorgate crash


Forty-two Tube passengers were killed after their train failed to stop at Moorgate station in the worst ever crash on the London Underground on this day in 1975.

Driver Leslie Newson, 56, also died after ploughing – without any apparent reason - into a wall at the terminus of the Highbury branch of the Northern Line at 8.46am.

The force of the 30mph crash was so immense that it caused three carriages to completely crumble up and sever passengers’ limbs with twisted shards of steel.

A total of 74 people were hurt on the train, which was later found to have had no faults and appeared to speed up as it entered the station at the peak of rush hour.

Newson, who was considered an unlikely suicide candidate, had carried on past the platform, into the tunnel and smashed through a sand barrier and into a brick wall.



The packed station, which is in the heart of the City, was immediately plunged into darkness as huge amounts of soot and sand filled the air.

Doctors and nurses from nearby St Bartholomew’s Hospital rushed to help dozens of police officers and firefighters in the 13-hour-long rescue effort.

Gerard Kemp of the Daily Telegraph, the only journalist allowed in the tunnel, revealed: 'It was a horrible mess of limbs and mangled iron.

'One of the great problems was the intense heat down there. It must have been 120 degrees. It was like opening the door of an oven.'

A police officer described conditions as 'like trying to work in a sardine can' with the twisted wreckage leaving barely a foot of space for rescuers to squeeze though.

And a firefighter told the UPI news agency: 'Many of the dead have been hit by coach wheels that ripped though the floor'.

Among the last of the survivors to be rescued was 19-year-old policewoman Margaret Liles, who had her foot amputated so that she could be lifted from the wreckage.

As she lay inside the mangled carriage, the officer, who had only joined the Met four days earlier, told her mother outside: 'I’m all right, Mum.'

She and Geoffrey Benton, 27, waited in the choking heat until 10pm before being freed by firemen, whom they both chatted with throughout the rescue operation.

Later, police chief Brian Tibbenham said: 'Their condition is remarkably good considering they spent the whole day face-to-face with dead bodies.'



A subsequent Department of the Environment report determined that the driver had caused the crash, but was unable to say why he failed to stop.

The investigation confirmed that the hitherto conscientious driver never applied the brakes, which had been faultless along with the signalling equipment and track.

The most puzzling revelation was that Newson, who had worked on the Tube for six years, had not even raised his hands to protect his face at the moment of impact.

There was no evidence that he was suicidal – and indeed had £270 in his pocket with which he had planned to use to buy a car for his daughter after his shift.

The coroner’s verdict was accidental death.

A BBC investigation later considered the possibility that he had lost concentration and confused the Moorgate terminus with the closed through-station at Essex Road.

London Underground, which until then had an exemplary safety record during its 112–year history, introduced a raft of new safety measures after the tragedy.

Among them was a system that came to be known as Moorgate protection, which stops a train automatically if the driver fails to brake at dead-ends.

Since the disaster, there have been nine crashes and derailments on the Tube network and only two deaths, both drivers.

London Underground, which is used by up to 4.4million people a day, has on average only one fatal accident for every 300million journeys.

The Northern Line spur was axed at the end of 1975, and the tunnels and Moorgate terminus is now used by a national rail line from Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire.

Friday 28 February 2014

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/-on-this-day--worst-ever-tube-disaster-as-43-die-in-moorgate-crash-172128948.html

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Thailand school bus crash east of Bangkok kills at least 15 people


At least 15 people, including 13 children, have been killed after a bus carrying students on a trip to the seaside collided with a lorry in eastern Thailand.

Authorities say more than 45 others were injured in the pre-dawn accident in Prachinburi involving the double-decker bus and an 18-wheel truck.

About 60 students, aged around 10 to 14 years old, were heading to the resort city of Pattaya from the north-eastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima.

"Thirteen students and two teachers died - 11 of them at the scene - and more than 30 injured are in three nearby hospitals," police lieutenant Colonel Anukarn Thamvijarn said.

He says five of the injured were in a serious condition.

"The bus's brakes may have failed or the driver might have fallen asleep," he said.

The accident reportedly happened on a steep and winding stretch of highway.

Police are searching for the driver, who fled the scene.

Local media showed pictures of a row of bodies covered by sheets laid out by the side of the wreckage of the bus, whose top deck was crushed on one side.

The smash is the latest in a series of deadly accidents involving buses in Thailand, where roads are among the most dangerous in the world.

The accident happened on a narrow stretch of road that cannot be widened because it cuts through a national park, Nuttapong Boontob, from the non-profit Thailand Accident Research Center, said.

"The road is always busy with big trucks as it links the north-eastern region and the eastern seaboard where there are many industrial estates," he said.

Thailand has poor record on road deaths

Roughly 60 per cent of traffic accidents in Thailand are caused by human error, according to Mr Nuttapong, with poor road and vehicle conditions posing additional hazards.

Bus operators are required to provide seat belts but passengers are not legally obliged to use them.

A recent report by the World Health Organization found that the country saw some 38.1 road deaths per 100,000 people - behind only the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean and the South Pacific island of Niue.

That compares with an average of 18.5 in south-east Asia as a whole.

In December, dozens of people were killed when a bus carrying New Year travellers plunged off one of Thailand's highest bridges in the kingdom's northeast.

At least 20 people were killed in October when a tour bus carrying elderly Buddhist devotees fell into a ravine, also in the northeast.

Friday 28 February 2014

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2014-02-28/thailand-school-bus-crash-east-of-bangkok-kills-at-least-15-people-police-say-driver-fled-scene/1273148

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Organization works to identify migrants who disappeared along border


The Colibri Center for Human Rights was founded with the aim of ending the sorrowful cycle for many families of having a loved one missing in the Arizona desert.

"We're a search center and we're working on the identification of immigrants who died crossing the border, and we have the support of the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner with the Missing Migrants project," said the director of Colibri, anthropologist Robin Reineke.

She said that the center receives calls from families in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and other Central American countries.

She also explained that the work of Colibri consists of comparing the information provided by the families with the remains found in the desert with the goal of identifying the bodies.

"In the conversation about immigration reform in the United States, we want the reality of the border to be understood. We're also seeking to educate; we have families who can tell their story," the anthropologist said.

Currently, Colibri's database contains extensive information about some 2,000 immigrants who went missing along the California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas border with Mexico.

"We found that there is a very wide gap for the families looking for immigrants who disappeared crossing the border and there was nowhere they could call and get trustworthy information. Many call the consulates but the problem is that the information is in different places," said Reineke.

Colibri's Chelsea Halstead, who receives the reports from the families, said that on average they receive 70 calls per week.

The center's vision, Halstead explained, is to help in the creation of a more compassionate border zone where the protection of life is part of the "security" dialogue.

In 2013, 169 immigrants are known to have died in the desert, of whom 95 remain unidentified.

Friday 28 February 2014

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2014/02/27/organization-works-to-identify-migrants-who-disappeared-along-border/

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Report criticizes Mexico for lack of accountability on 'disappeared' people


The Mexican government has reported but not accounted for thousands of people who were reported "disappeared," according to the U.S. State Department "2013 Country Reports on Human Rights" released today.

"In February the Secretariat of Government (SEGOB) reported that 26,121 individuals had disappeared between 2006 and 2012, although government officials acknowledged the figures were not precise," according to the report.

"According to criminal justice experts, most of these were likely to have been perpetrated by TCOs (organized crime organizations). The SEGOB report identified the groups most vulnerable to forced disappearance as human rights defenders, political and social activists, migrants, men living in areas of conflict, and women and children trafficking victims."

The report mentions the status of Luz Estela "Lucha" Castro Rodriguez, a prominent lawyer and human rights activist in Juarez and Chihuahua City, who was threatened. Castro is well known in the El Paso border region.

Last year, the Inter-American Court for Human Rights granted precautionary measures to Castro, who, according to the court, faced "extreme risk" as a result of her work with a women's rights organization in Chihuahua, the U.S. report said. In August, the court extended the precautionary measures, requirement that the government provide security, through at least Sept. 30.

Although Mexico established a national registry for missing or disappeared persons in 2012, the government did not adopt measures to update the database of such persons, the U.S. report said.

The registry did not distinguish between people who went missing and those who were disappeared or kidnapped by criminal groups, the report said. Additionally, the report said the Mexico's National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH) reported that "there were at least 7,000 unidentified bodies of persons killed between 2006 and 2012 in morgues and common graves."

"Kidnapping remained a serious and under reported problem for persons of all socioeconomic levels," the report said, "and there were credible reports of police involvement in kidnappings for ransom, primarily at the state and local level. The National System for Public Security reported 1,032 reports of kidnapping filed between December 2012 and June 2013, although official estimates placed the number of unreported kidnappings considerably higher."

Mexico's violent drug cartel wars also led to displacements in various regions of the country, the report said. "According to the CNDH, approximately 120,000 individuals were internally displaced as of July, most of whom fled their communities in response to violence related to narcotics trafficking."

Friday 28 February 2014

http://www.elpasotimes.com/latestnews/ci_25242123/report-criticizes-mexico-lack-accountability-disappeared-people

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Thursday 27 February 2014

Corpses still being found after Haiyan


Four months after Super Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines, bodies are still being found, though the government hasn't updated the death toll of 6201.

Bodies are still being found under the wreckage almost four months after Super Typhoon Haiyan ravaged the Philippines as survivors struggle to rebuild their lives.

The government's confirmed death toll of 6201 has not been updated for a month, as officials investigate whether the recently-discovered corpses are among the 1,785 listed as missing.

UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs Valerie Amos recounted the shock of discovering the dead during a visit on Wednesday to the devastated central city of Tacloban.

"As the debris is cleared, they are finding more dead bodies. We experienced that for ourselves," she told reporters.

Amos visited Tacloban to inspect the progress of the UN-aided rehabilitation effort and check on the condition of survivors of one of the strongest typhoons ever to hit land.

The government's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council confirmed bodies are still being found.

"Sometimes they find two or three a day, then there are days where they find none," its spokesman Reynaldo Balido told AFP.

The latest casualty figures were a month old and did not reflect any subsequent corpse retrievals as the authorities work to reconcile the numbers, he added.

Balido said residents have learnt to adapt to the sight of newly found corpses.

Haiyan raked across the central Philippines on November 8 last year, wrecking 1.1 million houses and displacing more than four million residents of some of the country's poorest provinces according to the UN.

The worst damage was inflicted by huge tsunami-like surges of seawater into Tacloban and other coastal communities.

Thursday 27 February 2014

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/02/27/corpses-still-being-found-after-haiyan

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2 missing Indian navy officers found dead inside naval submarine


The Indian navy rescued sailors from one of its Russian-built Kilo class submarines following an accident off the coast of Mumbai, a mishap that brought back memories of fire and explosions aboard a similar boat in August that killed 18 men and left no survivors.

Seven of the crew were airlifted and treated for smoke inhalation on the INS Sindhuratna, which was inducted into the Indian Navy in 1988, Rahul Sinha, a Mumbai-based spokesman for the nation’s navy, said in a telephone interview. Two sailors were missing, Associated Press reported, citing D.K. Sharma, another spokesman.

The nation’s naval ships in the area were coordinating the rescue mission as efforts were on to locate the missing men, Sinha said.

Rescuers found the bodies of two Indian navy officers inside a naval submarine on Thursday, one day after the men went missing following an accident aboard the vessel, an official said.

Seven sailors were overcome by smoke on Wednesday during a training exercise in the submarine off Mumbai’s coast, but two officers were unaccounted for following the incident.

Rescuers who boarded the submarine after it reached port Thursday found the officers’ bodies, a Defence Ministry official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters. He did not give any further details.

The seven sailors who were overcome by smoke were in stable condition at a Mumbai hospital, said Capt. D.K. Sharma, a navy spokesman.

Sharma said investigators were investigating what caused the smoke.

India’s navy has a fleet of 16 submarines, including 10 diesel-electric Kilo class vessels. They have a maximum diving depth of 300 meters (984 feet), a top speed of 18 knots and are able to operate for 45 days with a crew of 53 people, according to the navy’s website.

There have been several accidents aboard Russian-made submarines in the past 15 years. Twenty Russians died on a vessel when a faulty firefighting system was accidentally activated during trials in the Sea of Japan in 2008. The Kursk sank in August 2000 after an onboard explosion in the Barents Sea, killing all 118 on board.

In December, the INS Talwar, a Russian-built stealth frigate, slammed into a trawler off India’s west coast, sinking the boat and tossing 27 fishermen into the sea. All of the fishermen were rescued.

Another navy frigate ran aground near the Mumbai naval base in January, damaging some equipment. And earlier this month, the INS Airavat, an amphibious warfare vessel, ran aground and its commanding officer was stripped of his duties, the Press Trust of India news agency said.

In a Mumbai dockyard early on Aug. 14, explosions and fire inside the INS Sindhurakshak caused temperature to soar high enough to melt steel, jamming doors and hatches and twisting ladders. That was the worst submarine accident in the country’s history and the biggest setback for the navy since the loss of a warship in 1971 during a conflict with Pakistan.

Thursday 27 February 2014

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-26/india-sub-crew-burned-beyond-recognition-3-bodies-found.html

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Wednesday 26 February 2014

Jayapura landslide: Two more bodies found, one remains missing


A combined military, police and national rescue team has found two more bodies buried in landslides in Jayapura, though one person is still missing.

Jayapura Military Commander Lt. Col. Wahyu revealed that the body of Ronald Kobepa was found on Tuesday at 00:10 a.m., while the body of Alexander Kobepa was found about seven hours later.

Wahyu said a person identified as Nela Kobepa remained missing. “The team is still searching for the victim,” Wahyu was quoted as saying by Antara. Earlier, the team found six bodies at sites where landslides occurred after heavy rain soaked Jayapura on Saturday. The rescue team has faced challenges finding the bodies as the disaster happened in a mountainous area.

Wednesday 26 February 2014

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/02/26/two-more-bodies-found-one-remains-missing.html

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10 workers dead in Thai building collapse


At least 10 workers died and 17 others were injured when a large concrete beam collapsed Tuesday at a construction site just outside Bangkok, police said.

Television footage showed rescue workers using sniffer dogs and a digger to reach bodies stuck beneath large chunks of broken concrete and twisted metal at the sprawling site in Samut Prakan province, which borders Bangkok.

Two of the injured were in a critical condition in hospital, according to provincial police.

"There are 10 dead and 17 injured who are in hospital," police commander Thatchai Hongthong told AFP, revising down an earlier toll of 11 dead.

Volunteer rescue teams scoured the building site for bodies but by Tuesday afternoon had stopped their search.

"There were 40 workers on site at the time of the collapse, now we have stopped searching as I'm confident we have retrieved all of the bodies," said rescue worker Anyawut Pho-ampai.

Labour groups have warned about lax safety standards and low wages at Thai construction sites, especially for migrant workers from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, who are often paid below the country's minimum daily wage of $9.2.

The nation has seen a building boom over recent years as the property market has soared.

Wednesday 26 February 2014

http://english.cntv.cn/program/asiatoday/20140225/105636.shtml

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Skeletal remains of 80 bodies found in Mannar


Skeletal remains of nearly 80 bodies have been excavated in Mannar in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province, which bore the brunt of the brutal war between the Sri Lankan armed forces and the Tamil militants.

Amid allegations that the bodies could be those of Tamil civilians, the government, in its response to a report by U.N. Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay’s report on Sri Lanka, has suggested that the people were those killed when the LTTE controlled the area, or when it was occupied by the IPKF — a military operation by India between 1987 and 1990.

“With regard to the recovery of skeletal remains, it has been revealed that the area had been occupied by the LTTE for 30 years, except during the period 1988/89 when it was occupied by the IPKF, till the area was liberated in 2008, it was not under the control of the GoSL” the government said in a statement on Tuesday.

The matter is being investigated by the police under the supervision of the Magistrate of Mannar. Asked whether there was any indication of when the bodies were buried, forensic pathologist Dhananjaya Waidyaratne, who heads the forensic exercise, said it was difficult to say anything now for, the bone fragments had to be examined.

Speaking to The Hindu, the judicial medical officer said: “We have put the fragments in 80 boxes according to where they were found. The actual number of bodies could even be more than 80.”

In December 2013, a group of construction workers working at Thirukatheeswaram, Mannar, spotted the skeletal remains, sparking a new controversy over the alleged killings of Tamil civilians in the area. Some even feared that these were bodies of persons now considered missing — a government constituted commission is compiling details of complaints of disappearances.

The government ordered excavation of the area, and the exercise that began on December 23 resumed on Monday after it was suspended for some time.

Wednesday 26 February 2014

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/south-asia/skeletal-remains-of-80-bodies-found-in-mannar/article5726760.ece

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Tuesday 25 February 2014

50 Years after Eastern Air Lines Flight 304 crashed into Lake Pontchartrain leaving no survivors, something still remains


The flight took off from Moisant Field at 2:01 a.m. on its way to Atlanta. It was lost from radar screens just nine minutes later. A worker on a dredge anchored in Lake Pontchartrain saw a greenish light. And on the north shore, in Mandeville, Mrs. R.C. Smith heard a bang. Nearby, a young couple momentarily paused the Beatles record spinning in the living room: a sound like thunder had, momentarily, drowned out the sound of the 1960s.

"What was it?" Ella Rogers asked her boyfriend, Craig Knight.

Then they put the record back on.

"It" was the crash of Eastern Air Lines flight 304, a jetliner capable of carrying 126 people, crashing into Lake Pontchartrain five miles west of the Causeway, killing all 58 on board - Feb. 25, 1964. The event, 50 years ago today, marked the first jet liner crash in New Orleans history - a day that weaned the city from the heady days of commercial air travel's infancy into a stark new reality, recalled aviation historian Vincent P. Caire.

"It was a brand new, a relatively new jet aircraft. Everyone was very proud of it," Caire said. "It was the first big DC-8 crash, the first in New Orleans, and it exposed a very significant problem."

Though investigations have since uncovered the mechanical failure that caused the crash, it went down in local lore as something of a mystery. Investigators stopped seeking wreckage 45 days later, after uncovering a reported 56% of what they had expected to find. But where was the rest of the aircraft? Where were the remains of 26 passengers - to this day not identified?

Where the aircraft crashed, five to seven miles south of Mandeville's shore, the water was 15 feet deep. Recovery workers blamed the silt layers below for swallowing the evidence; they said the plane could be as far as 50 feet below the water's surface.

Still, investigators did find evidence: the co-pilot's jacket - with the name "G.W. Newby" stencilled on; a hand-tooled leather purse; a child's red coat; two tires; a doll. They filled a hangar at the Lakefront Airport with what was found, including the remains of 32 bodies.

"The last thing we picked up was a child's red coat," Lt. Dennis G. McDaniel told The Times-Picayune on Feb. 26. "Just a short distance away we spotted the doll. We headed for the doll but the fuel was getting low. So we left it floating there in the water."

Grieving for 50 years

The plane could carry 126 passengers but on that night was only ferrying 51 and a crew of seven. Among the lost was 21-year-old Barbara Delane Norman, of Atlanta, who had rebelled against Eastern Air Lines' policy of not allowing married stewardesses; on the day of her death, she had been married for three days.

She was on board to serve Marie-Helene LeFaucheux, 59, another pioneering woman. The French delegate to the United Nations during World War II, LeFaucheux had fought the Nazis in the French resistance effort - work that earned her France's Legion of Honor award and a spot on the U.N. Commission for Human Rights. She was one of the 15 founding members of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women.

Alongside LeFaucheux was Kenneth Spencer, 51, a well-known concert singer who had been en route to perform in New York before a delegation of the NAACP. Born in Los Angeles, Spencer had forged his career in Hollywood to land a role in the 1946 Broadway revival of "Show Boat." Onstage, he played "Joe," the riverboat worker whose deep bass leads into the musical's most lasting ballad: "Ol' Man River."

Also on board were five victims from New Orleans -- a 23-year-old graduate of Newcomb College, flying back to New York for work at a bank; a 66-year-old engineer who left behind a family in Harahan on the eve of his retirement; a 38-year-old freight executive from Chalmette; and a 50-year-old man who died on the way to his mother's funeral.

The fifth local victim was Patrick Kane, an engineer and the father of a junior in high school. Asleep on the night of Feb. 25, Patrick Kane II recalled that his mother woke him, to say, "Dad's plane is missing."

In the days, months, and years afterward, the tragedy has touched Kane's life. "It's been over 18,000 days since that night, and I think of him pretty often," Kane said. "I guess there's no good time to lose a father, but I think at that age - when you're in sort of a transition from a teenager into a college student, and then a career -- I guess it, really -- it changed my perspective."

The mechanical failure & the mythology of the mystery

When it went down, Flight 304 was puddle-jumping from Mexico City, to New Orleans, to Atlanta, to Washington D.C., to New York.

The cause of the crash was a single mechanical part, which had been removed 15 times from various Eastern aircraft for problems, before being installed into the plane carrying Flight 304, said David Lee Russell, author of "Eastern Air Lines: A History." It was scheduled for maintenance at Kennedy airport -- the plane's final scheduled stop. The problem part was a flap mechanism -- a "pitch trim compensator" -- that could be raised or lowered to control a plane's speed. The investigation found that the flap was in the wrong position as the aircraft gained height, and the crew was unable to scramble to push it into the correct position. Rising winds might have made the issue worse. At around 1,500 feet over Lake Pontchartrain, the crew lost control of the airplane, Caire said.

Due to the accident, the pitch trim compensator on all DC-8s were investigated, Caire recalled. The issue did not hamper the DC-8's reputation as a reliable plane, he said, and even today DC-8s are used as cargo carriers.

But in the history of Eastern Air Lines, the flight marked a turning point, Russell said. In the wake of the crash, the company's new vice president of maintenance overhauled the entire program, hiring 300 new mechanics and leasing reserve aircrafts - so that an airplane that needed it could be repaired at leisure without threatening to cancel flights, Russell explained.

"For Eastern Air Lines, it was an indictment of the mechanical program," Russell said.

Though the April 14, 1964 issue of The Times-Picayune published an editorial, in which, "No intimation has been given that the disintegration owes itself to anything other than force of impact in water and soil," the article also mused on the incident as "a designated mystery." The only answers to the crash, really, the editorial opined, existed in "the lake's secrets."

Those secrets might have been revealed by the flight's recorder, which was partially recovered. Unfortunately, the recovered portion was blank, chief information officer for Eastern Airlines Jack Yohe told The Times-Picayune.

To investigate the crash, the FBI stepped in - joining the Coast Guard, a staff from Eastern Air Lines, and a 14-man investigation team from the Civil Aeronautics Board. An FBI spokesman told The Times-Picayune that the bureau sought "to develop any information indicating a possible violation of federal law."

Less than four months after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the lack of debris found, the missing recorder, and the FBI's strong arm seemed to mirror a lack of autopsy evidence surrounding death of a president, recalled James W. Bailey, who investigated the crash as part of an art piece, spurred by the ghost stories his mother-in-law would tell around the table of the "missing plane" to shock guests.

After hearing the story "more than once," Bailey said, he sought to investigate the crash in his own way, only to draw connections to how New Orleans had dealt with the assassination of Kennedy. He said that around the crash, one could point to connections that appeared to go very deep, in the same way District Attorney Jim Garrison had sought to find connections between Lee Harvey Oswald and other New Orleanians. "This crash took place shortly after the Kennedy assassination, which of course was huge news in new Orleans," Bailey said. "I started seeing connections there. Not factual. But mythological connections."

As Bailey started asking New Orleanians about the crash, he said he heard the same story over and over: that the plane had crashed, and never been found. "All of them had the impression it had never been found when in fact, they did find it," Bailey said. "It's a very popular myth in New Orleans. This myth got generated that nothing was ever found."

"When you get down to it, an airline crash is a very factual investigation," Bailey said. "This is a kind of controversial statement, but my experience living in New Orleans is that New Orleanians treasure mythologies."

To Caire, the aviation historian, conspiracy theories on the flight's disappearance are "all baloney sausage," he said. "It had a mechanical failure, it hit the water, it disintegrated, and a lot of people lost their lives."

The crash lingers today

Though Eastern filed for bankruptcy in 1989, it is now seeing a rebirth. In January, a group that had purchased the rights to the Eastern name announced plans to revive the company, to be based out of Miami.

On Airline Drive in Metairie, Eastern Airlines still exists in a static form. At the Garden of Memories, a plaque surrounded by a hedgerow lists the names of the 32 victims whose remains were never identified.

"Every now and then we'll have a family member here who says, 'I remember that plane crash,'" said Marion Lyons, the sales manager of Garden of Memories. In the last decade, however, visits have fallen off, Lyons said. "I hate to say it like this but people just kind of lost interest."

Several years ago, Caire recalled being contacted by the daughter of a man who was killed on board, when she was only an infant. "I was personally so touched," he said.

Bailey, the artist, became fascinated enough with the crash to pull files from the New Orleans Public Library, where he found a trove of letters written by the families of victims, asking for their loved ones' remains. Bailey wrote back to the return addresses, sending along a book he compiled of pasted evidence he had found in the archive and interviews with major characters associated with the investigation.

"I heard back from three of them," Bailey said, of the families he sent it to. "They sent thank you letters."

Patrick Kane II has moved on from the tragedy, though it also has shaped his life. He said his father always had plans for the two of them to go into business together. And now Kane II works in Lafayette at a machine tool distributor alongside his own son, Patrick Kane III.

"That part of my dream - being in business with him - I've followed in those footsteps," said Kane, now 66. "In fact, my son is buying me out."

Tuesday 25 February 2014

http://www.nola.com/traffic/index.ssf/2014/02/50_years_after_the_plane_that.html

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Uttarakhand flash floods: A tragedy twice over for Delhi victims' families


For families of those killed in last year's devastating flash floods in Uttarakhand, it's a double whammy.

First, many of them were not even able to trace the bodies of their near and dear ones, swept away by the killer floods in the Himalayan state in June last year.

And now, eight months later, they have to face a cumbersome process to get compensation as promised by the government, thanks to bureaucratic red-tapism.

On June 16 and 17 last year, the flash floods had devastated the fabled Kedarnath valley, sweeping away village after village and leaving over 4000 dead or missing (persons whose bodies have not been recovered are presumed dead but still officially listed as missing).

Around 237 persons from Delhi were said to have died in the tragedy and bodies of most of them were swept away by the swirling waters, resulting from a cloud burst in the upper reaches of Uttarakhand.

After the mandatory 90 days, the Uttarakhand government notified a list of 143 persons as untraceable and issued death certificates to them by November 2013.

Immediately after the list was notified, the Uttarakhand government also transferred Rs. 5.50 crore to be paid as compensation to the families of those who were killed or went missing.

The responsibility of disbursing the money was given to the Delhi government.

On its part, the Delhi government issued detailed guidelines for verification of the persons, whose death certificates were issued by the Uttarakhand government, before releasing the money.

It notified the sub-divisional officers (tehsildars) for verification of the claims and ensuring proper documentation before release of the money.

According to the guidelines, the officer will have to ensure that the first information report (FIR) about the missing person was filed before June 30, 2013. Also the claims made by the person have to be verified with the database maintained by the district disaster management authority.

Also, if the FIR had been filed beyond this the time limit (June 30), the reasons for approaching the police late should be inquired.

The officer was also asked to inquire whether the victim had traveled to Uttarakhand and the person was missing since he or she left for the Himalayan state.

The directives were issued to the officers by the Delhi government in January, after Arvind Kejriwal took over as Delhi chief minister.

"Despite the guidelines and issuance of death certificates by the Uttarakhand government, most of the families have not received any money from the government. We raised the issue when our party was in the government. But it did not had any impact on the bureaucracy," said Rajesh Garg, an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislator.

Some family-members of the victims have been running from pillar to post to get the compensation.

"My father was the only bread-earner of the family. The compensation will help me to set up a small business to provide livelihood for my family," said Rajesh Pandey, whose father was one of the persons who has been confirmed as missing by the Uttarakhand government.

The family-members have objected to the Delhi government's cumbersome verification process saying that the Uttarakhand government has already provided photographs of the victims after conducting necessary verification.

"I don't understand why the government wants us to undergo the painful and tedious process again," a person, not willing to be quoted and have lost his mother in the tragedy, said.

A Delhi government official, however, said that directions have been issued to speed up the verification process and disburse compensation as quickly as possible.

Tuesday 25 February 2014

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/northindiarainfury2013/uttarakhand-flash-floods-a-tragedy-twice-over-for-delhi-victims-families/article1-1188117.aspx

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8 dead, 30 injured as suspension bridge collapses in Vietnam


At least eight people died and more than 30 others were injured when a suspension bridge collapsed over a dry stream in the northwestern province of Lai Chau Monday.

The accident happened at around 8:30 a.m. as a group of local residents walked across the Chu Va 6 Bridge to bring the coffin of a local official to a graveyard in Chu Va Village, Son Binh Commune.

The group had walked 15 meters on the bridge when it suddenly collapsed.

They reportedly fell 9 meters into a ravine full of large, sharp rocks. Eight people died on the spot.

More than 30 people were injured. They were rushed to the hospital by nearby residents.

The 54-meter-long Chu Va 6 Bridge opened to traffic more than one year ago.

The cause of the accident is currently under investigation.

Tuesday 25 February 2014

http://www.thanhniennews.com/society/8-dead-30-injured-as-suspension-bridge-collapses-in-vietnam-24170.html

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Monday 24 February 2014

The Mass Graves of Bor, South Sudan


A handful of volunteers in almost deserted Bor, capital of South Sudan's Jonglei State, remove dead bodies from homes, put them in body bags donated by the International Committee of the Red Cross, and place them in mass graves.

Since the emergence of an armed rebellion in mid-December, government troops have lost and won control of the town several times. On 23 February, the army said it had repelled further attempts to take Bor.

"Maybe 60 percent of Bor has been cleared," said Jonglei's acting governor Aquilla Lam, returning from the burial of 134 people the same morning.

John Prendergast, director of the anti-genocide Enough Project, said he visited three other mass graves the week before IRIN's visit, where "hundreds of people have been buried...

"Every day, dozens of new corpses are discovered in abandoned homes. The body bags prepared by medical workers appear along the roads with relentless regularity."

Some white body bags still lie along the main routes.

"Because most of the town has been abandoned, there is no way to know how many dead are still to be counted," Prendergast added.

Hundreds are awaiting burial at a site where diggers from the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) are clearing more space in a field that used to serve as a cemetery for a few dozen people who died of diseases.

Crumpled sheets of metal and piles of litter are all that remain of the market in Bor; burnt huts - some said to contain the bodies of their owners - line pockmarked dirt roads.

Estimates for the numbers killed across South Sudan since mid-December vary widely: in January, the International Crisis Group suggested 10,000; some diplomats put the toll at ten times that figure.

Fleeing aid and church workers talk of devastation in towns such as Bentiu and Malakal in South Sudan's oil producing states of Unity and Upper Nile where rebels have massed and are still attacking.

Access to bodies difficult

Thousands are thought to have been killed in Bor and surrounding areas, but access to the bodies is almost impossible in five of Jonglei's 11 counties where rebels are still operating.

"We have people going house to house to house looking [for bodies], but we don't have any vehicles," said acting governor Lam.

He is reluctant to give a figure but thinks that "it's over 1,000 people" killed in Bor centre alone. He said that some of the Nuer White Army fighters that attacked Bor were as young as 10 or 12 and "armed only with spears". Many were gunned down as government and Ugandan troops tried to protect the town.

Around 74,000 people - mostly from Bor and surrounding counties - fled to Minkamen in neighbouring Lakes State. Some escaped the gunmen by paying boatmen to whisk them to safety. Others simply plunged into the crocodile-infested Nile.

A mass grave has been dug by the UN at the St Andrew's Episcopal Church in Bor, where 22 people are buried, including 14 women who were shot dead, or dragged out, raped and had their throats slit.

Meanwhile, food is a major concern.

Standing by his shop that is now just a shell covered in a thin white dusting of flour - the only reminder of the 6,000 stolen bags - businessman Ayuen Guen is worried that people trickling back will have nothing to eat.

"There is no food items, there is nothing." Guen would like to import more food from Uganda, but with banks destroyed and the government in war mode, he cannot change his South Sudanese pounds into dollars to buy anything.

He only knows that he lost an uncle in the fighting and is concerned that he cannot reach his brothers and many friends.

"A lot of people - I'm calling them, and the number is not going through... This place was all just bodies when I came here... In all the town, street children who were in the market - all these people, innocent people - they killed them. Even the mad people."

Monday 24 February 2014

http://allafrica.com/stories/201402242574.html

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Dominican official: Bodies of 3 more Haitians found where boat capsized; death toll at 8


The bodies of three more Haitians have been recovered by authorities in the Dominican Republic, raising the death toll to eight from a capsizing of a smuggler's boat last week.

Local civil defense chief Leoncio Calderon Castillo says searchers found the bodies of two Haitian men washed up on a beach Sunday. Another migrant's body was found in nearby waters where the 25-foot (7-meter) boat capsized.

Last week, a dozen Haitian migrants who took the risky sea journey looking for a better life were rescued by the Dominican navy.

The rescued migrants told authorities the boat departed early Thursday for the U.S. island of Puerto Rico and overturned a few miles (kilometers) from shore. Smugglers had stolen the boat from a tourism business.

Monday 24 February 2014

http://www.local10.com/news/Capsizing-death-toll-rises-to-8-Haitians/24637276

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Families of MIA soldiers hope for excavation at Vietnam war site in Koh Tang


Potential evidence related to Americans still missing after the final battle of the Vietnam War may lead to extensive excavation efforts on an island off the coast of Cambodia, giving renewed hope to the families of the missing.

A seven-member team of investigators from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting command spent a week investigating two sites on Koh Tang island, where the heaviest fighting took place during the May 15, 1975, battle, Stars and Stripes reports.

JPAC officials last month did not provide specifics about the sites or exactly what was found, but were able to provide enough evidence to bring one of the sites before a JPAC body that decides whether to allocate funding for an excavation.

Only solid cases with evidence of Americans' remains are brought before the board, and family members of the missing soldiers say this may be the chance for their loved ones' remains to come home.

Daphne Loney, whose brother Marine Lance Cpl. Ashton Loney was killed in an ambush during the battle, said she hopes it's a possibility his remains will be found.

"My brother was very dear to my heart," she told Stars and Stripes. "I thought no one really cared about Ashton . . . I want his bones to come back to American soil. It was the country he fought for."

While investigating the island in September, the JPAC team inspected a site on its east beach and another on its west beach, said Army Maj. Jamie Dobson. In addition, the officials interviewed witnesses from the battle.

The JPAC excavation decision board will get the information and use it to determine if an excavation is warranted.

But even if the excavation is approved, it may take some time before digging begins. Such sites can stay on the approved list for years, families of the missing have complained, and Dobson did not say when the board would convene to hear the case or start the excavation.

There may not be much time, though. Developers plan to turn the island into a resort, although it's not clear now how the construction plans could affect JPAC's decision.

The battle, referred to as the "Mayaguez Incident," killed 15 service members. Another 23 Air Force personnel died in a support force crash in Thailand, and three Marines were left behind on the island and killed by their captors. The bodies of Loney, Air Force Staff Sgt. Elwood Rumbaugh, who was lost at sea; and the three Marines left behind — Pfc. Gary Hall, Lance Cpl. Joseph Hargrove, and Pvt. Danny Marshall — are the only remains that have not been found.

In 2012, Em Son, the Khmer Rouge commander of the island during the battle, told Stars and Stripes that he discovered Loney's body wrapped in a poncho and left on the beach, and he had him buried nearby.

But there are some who doubt Son, because he was arrested by a Cambodian tribunal looking into Khmer Rouge atrocities.

Son told Stars and Stripes he executed Hargrove and saw him, Hall, Marshall, and Loney be buried. However, Son has not disclosed their potential burial sites, said JPAC, although he insists that he has shown investigators the sites and American remains were found.

There remain questions about JPAC's investigations, as well. Stars and Stripes reported receiving documents that include accusations that JPAC did not fully record their work on the island.

But remains were found on the island during another investigation, held in 2008, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs Charles Ray said last month the remains were "probably Caucasian."

Monday 24 February 2014

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Vietnam-Cambodia-MIA-war/2014/02/24/id/554412

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11 Killed in Indonesia Landslides


Two people are still missing after the landslides hit three locations in the provincial capital of Jayapura, according to Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, AFP reported.

More than 50 houses have been damaged in the landslides and flooding due to incessant rains that began Saturday night. Rains caused three rivers in the city to overflow.

Monday 24 February 2014

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13921205000581

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Sunday 23 February 2014

Black boxes found from Libyan plane crash in Tunisia


Tunisian searchers have found and handed over to Tripoli the black boxes from a Libyan military plane that crashed Friday, killing 11 including a top former jihadist, the government said.

"The transport ministry announces that the two black boxes from the Libyan military aircraft that crashed yesterday in the Grombalia region have been found," a statement on Saturday said.

The ministry said in a second statement Tunisian authorities had handed over the black boxes to Tripoli to help them investigate why the military hospital plane had crashed.

The aircraft came down at about 1:30 am (0030 GMT) on Friday in a field on the edge of Nianou village, around 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the capital Tunis.

It had been transporting Meftah al-Mabrouk Issa al-Dhawadi to Tunis from a military airfield near Tripoli for medical treatment, the Libyan government said in a statement.

Sofiene Bejaoui, an air traffic control official at Tunis-Carthage airport, where the plane had been heading, said on Friday "the pilot's last message was: 'engine on fire'".

All 11 on board were killed. In addition to Dhawadi and another unidentified patient, the dead were three medics and a crew of six.

The transport ministry also said on Saturday that the bodies of those killed in the crash would be handed back to Tripoli after DNA identification was completed, set to take place on Sunday.

Dhawadi was a leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) -- a now disbanded movement with alleged links to al-Qaida which joined the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that overthrew dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Several members of the group served in the transitional government of Abdelrahim al-Kib, which held power for a year from November 2011.

Dhawadi was undersecretary at the ministry of martyrs and missing persons.

The aircraft that crashed was a Libyan air force Russian-made Antonov-26, a twin-engine turboprob.

Sunday 23 February 2014

http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/119776-black-boxes-found-from-libyan-plane-crash-in-tunisia

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The missing Israelis who never return


A retired member of the Israel Police elite anti-terror squad called the national emergency number around two years ago, to report a barefoot young man wandering around a highway. The officer was the last known person to see Shlomi Ariel alive. Ariel, 32, from the central-Israel town of Yehud, had left home early that morning in what his family described as a psychotic state. He walked a few kilometers, to a quarry near Shoham and Rosh Ha’ayin, and was never seen again.

The former officer’s report did not reach his family for 48 hours. During this time, they had mobilized a small army of people to search for him, and did everything they could – but as it turned out, they were looking in the wrong areas.

Around 500 Israeli families have similar stories. Unlike most of them, Ariel’s family had significant resources at its disposal. His sister Sima describes a wide-scale operation, made possible mainly due to connections and media support, involving people on horseback, trained dogs, jeeps and even a helicopter. They searched everywhere and checked every security camera in the area.

Unlike most of the families we interviewed, she praised the police, who went into action 48 hours after Ariel was reported missing. But even though the local police chief maintained close contact with the family and even took part in the search, experts in finding missing persons said that in addition to the delay of the police in responding to the missing-person report, the means they employed in the search were meager and unprofessional. Most of the other families can identify with that component of their ordeal.

Every year between 20 and 30 people in Israel are added to the list of people who have gone missing and have not been found. Some are young people with mental health issues, others are individuals “known to the police.” There are foreign tourists, people looking to disappear and make a new life for themselves, and some who were on their way home and never arrived. But for all of their families, their disappearance is an unsolved mystery that continues to haunt them.

A recent State Comptroller’s report and a Knesset committee debate last week revealed the extent of the phenomenon. Every year the police process around 5,000 reports on missing persons. About 99.99 percent of these cases are closed very quickly, usually when the missing person shows up at home. The rest join the list of the permanently missing.

According to last year’s State Comptroller’s report, at the time of publication there were 508 missing persons and 481 unidentified bodies. A joint project of the police and the Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine to identify the unidentified bodies and locate the missing resulted in the identification of 38 bodies between 2010 and August 2012.

At a meeting of the State Control Committee last week, chairman MK Amnon Cohen and others criticized the incomplete nature of the database of the missing persons and the unidentified bodies, which the report said often lacked DNA samples, fingerprints and photographs. While the comptroller’s report focuses mostly on the establishment of a genetic database, which was initiated three years ago by the police and Abu Kabir, and its funding, Cohen focused on the families who still hoped to find their loved ones alive. He said the police were insufficiently responsive and that the success of the search seemed to depend entirely on the good will of the local station chief.

The latter, at least, is largely true.

A senior police officer who was interviewed for this report on the condition of anonymity said he wanted to dispel the myth that the police only go into action after 24 hours have passed. Every case is examined and no one has instructions to wait 24 hours, he said. There are regulations defining cases that must be addressed immediately, including children under age 12, anyone over 70, sick or disabled people who need treatment or hospitalization, the mentally ill, members of the security forces and “any person whose life is at risk.”

In all other circumstances, the officer receiving the missing persons report must decide within 48 hours how to proceed.

A number of nonprofit organizations and private investigators have stepped in to fill the vacuum left by the police, as the families see it. Yekutiel “Mike” Ben Yaakov, a volunteer who heads a canine search unit, is one of the best known. He has plenty to say about the police’s handling of such cases and the lack of means available to police investigators. Ben Yaakov told the State Control Committee that the police respond with “extreme delay” to missing persons reports, and as a result waste valuable time. He spoke about the unprofessional use of dogs for tracking, a delay in using cellphone tracking and the ignoring of evidence such as footprints or indications from the dogs.

Last year Ben Yaakov’s team handled 20 cases, Some of the missing were found alive, others were found dead and the rest are still a mystery. In most cases the frustrated families turn to Ben Yaakov too late.

Maj. Gen. Menachem Yitzhaki, the head of the police investigations and intelligence branch, denied the accusations and told the committee of a case in which 1,000 police and volunteers searched Jerusalem’s Ramot Forest for a missing girl. There is an orderly process and it is conducted quickly, he said. He agreed the police need additional technical equipment, but said this is expensive. He noted that the police lack direct access to the army’s genetic database, adding that legislation for this was in the works.

If the person is not found or an unidentified body is not identified after five years, the case is archived. Regulations stipulate that after 50 years the file is to be removed. But no missing persons file has ever been closed in such a fashion in Israel, although the police admit that not everyone can be found, especially someone who doesn’t want to be found.

Sunday 23 February 2014

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.575812

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Ghosts of Srebrenica


The call had come from the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP). We have found and identified Ekrem, one of your brothers, the caller told the Bosnian Muslim woman, before delicately explaining that unfortunately they had not been able to find the dead man's head among his remains.

Eight years earlier during the Bosnian War, Ekrem, along with another brother Mustafa, Kada's husband Sejad and her son Samir were among the 8000 men and boys rounded up and killed at Srebrenica, the worst atrocity on European soil since the Second World War.

It was in July 1995 that Serbian forces commanded by General Ratko Mladic and his paramilitary units systematically massacred the menfolk of Srebrenica. Most were killed with bullets or grenades in fields, warehouses, and football pitches. Their bodies, many dismembered and mutilated, were piled into mass graves and almost 20 years later are still being uncovered.

Last week, at the Potocari Memorial Centre that houses the huge cemetery for the victims of Srebrenica, I listened as Kada recounted horrific memories of those dark days in July 1995.

"I know that Samir, along with other boys, was tied and probably kept waiting a long time to be killed," said Kada. "It was a very hot day - so hot that some of the Serb soldiers couldn't keep up with the pace of the shooting," Kada continued, standing among the rows of white headstones four of which belong to the men of her family.

"As the boys waited to be shot one Serb woman seeing they were so thirsty stepped forward to offer them some yoghurt, but was prevented by a Serb soldier who then also pushed her into the line to be killed simply for offering a drink." Looking out over the rows of headstones, the scale of the Srebrenica massacre moves from being a cold statistic to reveal its human proportions.

As a journalist who covered the war in the former Yugoslavia, I am returning now as part of a Scottish delegation representing the UK charity initiative, Remembering Srebrenica, whose aim is to raise awareness of the massacre and learn from the genocide to help work towards a rejection of the racism, hatred and extremism that underpinned it.

Headed by Angus Robertson, the leader of the SNP's Westminster group, other delegates include the Reverend Lorna Hood, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and its head of communications, Seonag MacKinnon, Ann McKechin, MP for Glasgow North, and Sergeant David Hamilton, who, prior to his time as chairman of the Scottish Police Federation (North Area), helped drive truckloads of humanitarian supplies during the Bosnian War for the charity Edinburgh Direct Aid.

During our time in Bosnia, we were to hear from fellow Scots who have played a significant role in solving what has been described as the "world's greatest forensic puzzle" - the exhumation and identification of the remains of the tens of thousands who were victims of ethnic cleansing and genocide in the former Yugoslavia.

Like countless more relatives of the victims of Srebrenica, Kada Hotic owes an immense debt of gratitude to the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP). Along with other members of the Mothers of Srebrenica who we were to meet at Potocari Memorial Centre, Kada Hotic even went as far as to say that ICMP director general Kathryne Bomberger was worthy of nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Bomberger's husband, Adam Boys, a Scot, originally from Glasgow and now director of international programmes at ICMP, has lived in Bosnia for going on 20 years, during which time he has seen the organisation rise to become a global leader in dealing with missing persons.

"We currently operate the world's largest DNA human identification facility," says Boys, who went on to explain how ICMP employs archaeology, anthropology and pathology to identify human remains in places like Srebrenica.

Since it was established in 1996 ICMP has taken 71,195 blood samples from the families of the missing. Matching blood and bone samples has become the only accurate way to identify the thousands of Bosnian bodies recovered from mass graves. This is no easy task when one considers that at the end of the Balkan wars as many as 40,000 people were estimated to have disappeared. At Srebrenica alone 91 mass grave-sites have been uncovered while the remains of many victims are also found in "surface sites" and in caves and rivers.

Making the job of the ICMP teams even more difficult is the incredible extent to which the perpetrators of the atrocities have tried to hide the evidence of their crimes. "We uncovered the remains of one man in four different grave sites, 50 kilometres apart, and had to carry out 13 separate DNA test to identify him," recalls Boys.

Given that many of the findings by ICMP are presented as evidence in war crimes cases and trials, great emphasis by the organisation is put on how such a complex scientific process has to work alongside a rule-of-law approach.

"The families are also the victims of the crime," insists Boys. "They have to be sure that their genetic data will be protected, that it will only be used for the purpose of identification, and that it will not be shared unless they give their permission."

Dr John Clark, a forensic pathologist for 30 years formerly based at the University of Glasgow, is also one of the ICMP team and has been the chief pathologist for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on numerous occasion during its operations in Bosnia.

At the ICMP Podrinje Identification Centre in the town of Tuzla, Dr Clark lifts a few human bones from one of the tables and explains in this instance what he believes happened to the victim.

"This is a bullet hole here in the pelvis which then probably moved around, causing wider damage", he says, fitting the bones together like a macabre jigsaw puzzle.

Currently, Clark is working in the Prijedor area of Bosnia where yet more mass grave-sites have been discovered. On eight occasions he has testified at the ICTY in various war crimes trials and twice in the Bosnian State Court.

Standing alongside Clark as he spoke was ICMP's Senior Forensic Pathologist at the Podrinje Identification Centre, Dragana Vucetic. A Serb from Belgrade, she is now 34 years old and says she was too young back during the war years to remember much about it.

I ask whether being a Serb has posed any problems for her, given that Serb soldiers and paramilitaries were responsible for most of the victims whose remains she deals with. "I came here as an anthropologist, not as a Serb," she replies, adding that she was at first greatly affected by what she had to deal with, having come straight out of university.

Fascinating and remarkable as the forensic science behind ICMP's work is, its specialists never forget that, ultimately, the stories they are uncovering are about lives lost and its emotional impact on those left with the legacy of war-time atrocities. Adam Boys is the first to admit admiration for the way the Mothers of Srebrenica like Kada Hotic have stayed committed to highlighting the horrors of what went on, something that becomes apparent as I talk with Kada among the grave-stones of her male relatives at the Potocari Memorial Centre.

"When I gave birth to my son, I was the happiest woman alive and now I think of him thirsty and afraid having to wait in line that day to be killed," Kada reflects, before telling me of another atrocity she herself witnessed at Srebrenica after the women were separated from their menfolk.

"As we waited for the buses that would take us away from the men, one woman gave birth on the ground right before my eyes," she begins her story.

"The baby just born not even a name and a Serb soldier came over and crushed it under his boot ... What can I say - genocide." Having witnessed such things and herself having suffered so much loss, grief, and pain I wondered if she could ever forgive those who had done such barbaric things. "To begin with, the perpetrators have not accepted or recognised their crime," she tells me with a shrug of her shoulders.

She adds: "I am not the owner of the lives of my husband, son and brothers, I have no right to forgive for their suffering. In many ways I feel sorry for those who did this and that they became like animals."

Today, Kada, at 69, suffers from rheumatoid arthritis but this has not prevented her and the other Mothers of Srebrenica from being as determined as ever to ensure justice is done and that the world should never forget the torture, brutality and killing during those days of the massacre.

Today, Kada and the others continue to battle with the Serb authorities in their efforts to have the old battery factory and other buildings adjacent to the cemetery made into a museum to commemorate the victims and highlight the issue of genocide. It was in these buildings that Dutch UN peacekeepers tasked with safekeeping the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica were stationed. To this day many here in Bosnia and around the world still hold the Dutch troops responsible for failing to intervene and protect the innocent civilians of Srebrenica. "If our loved ones could not live here alive, they can live here dead," insists Kada.

Having rebuilt her family home in Srebrenica, Kada says she continues to live in the area because of her "bloodymindedness" and determination to keep telling the world and those that visit about the uncomfortable reality of what Srebrenica represents.

As I accompany her from the grassy area of the cemetery that day, she asks me to ensure that I walk only along the base of the graves and not across the head as this would be disrespectful.

Passing each gravestone, she gently caresses the marble tops, stopping once to hug the stone above the grave of her son, Samir, as if it were the boy himself still here and alive.

It is a touching and poignant moment that I will always remember, just as all of us in the same way should never forget the evil that gripped Srebrencia those few short years ago.

Sunday 23 February 2014

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/ghosts-of-srebrenica.23509441

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Saturday 22 February 2014

Police confirm 12 dead in Mazabuka road accident


12 people have died while 23 others sustained injuries after an accident which happened around 02:45 hours on 21st February 2014 near Frogmall located about 15Km from Mazabuka. Out of the 12, one died on the way to the University Teaching Hospital.

The accident happened when the driver of the South African Front Liner truck Reg. No. WXV 588GB and WXZ 598 T failed to keep to his lane as he was trying to avoid hitting into a cyclist.

The truck in the process collided with an on-coming Marcopolo bus Reg. No. AJB 1652. Both drivers of the motor vehicles died on the spot. The bus was coming from Namwala to Lusaka.

Some of the injured have been rushed to UTH while others are in Mazabuka District Hospital.

The bodies of the deceased are lying in Mazabuka District Hospital mortuary.

Saturday 22 February 2014

http://zambiareports.com/2014/02/21/police-confirm-12-dead-mazabuka-road-carnage/

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Christchurch marks three years since devastating earthquake


Christchurch has remembered those who died on the third anniversary of the devastating 2011 earthquake.

Thousands of people gathered for the civic memorial service on the archery lawn at the Botanical Gardens to observe two minutes' silence at 12:51pm, the time when the 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck the city on 22 February 2011.

The reading of the names of the 185 victims from around the world wrapped up the hour-long service.

In her address, mayor Lianne Dalziel said the day was a time to remember the loss of life and devastation that occurred, and to look with hope and determination towards the future.

Ms Dalziel said the gradual realisation the city would never go back to the way things were could be much harder for some than others.

She paid tribute to the ordinary people who became rescuers and heroes in the aftermath of the earthquake and the selfless acts of courage that were repeated many times over that day and night.

Ms Dalziel said family members of those who died asked her to share that the best way to honour them was to learn lessons from what happened and use the rebuild to make Christchurch a better and safer place.

Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee read a message to the people of Christchurch from Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, who visited shortly after the earthquake.

The Prince said it seemed unbelievable that such a beautiful and historic city could receive such a blow.

Mr Brownlee said the Prince and the Duchess of Cambridge were looking forward to revisiting the city this year, to see its progress and the unquenchable spirit of the people.

Wreaths were laid by members of key emergency and support services, as well as dignitaries including Japanese foreign affairs vice-minister Norie Mitsuya.

As with services held on each of the past two years, relatives of victims, along with seriously injured survivors, were allocated priority seating.

Elsewhere, the Rebuild Christchurch organisation placed flowers in the hundreds of thousands of road cones lining city streets.

And in the River of Flowers initiative Cantabrians were invited to lay flowers along the Avon, Heathcote and Liffey rivers and at 12 sites in the city.

Christchurch City Council has also beautified the CTV site, where 115 people died.

Saturday 22 February 2014

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/236964/christchurch-remembers-2011-quake

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Libyan military plane crash - Search for black box going on



Defence Ministry Spokesman Taoufik Rahmouni told TAP news agency on Friday morning that the Air Force is carrying on, in collaboration with the Civil Aviation Authority, its search for the black box to know the reasons of the Libyan military rescue plane crash in the early hours of Friday in Nianou (province of Grombalia/governorate of Nabeul) that killed all the 11 passengers.

Rahmouni added that " only the Libyan side is entitled to check the identities of the victims".

The bodies of the 11 passengers have been taken to Tunis Charles Nicolle Hospital for autopsy and to determine the identity of the victims through DNA tests.

Saturday 22 February 2014

http://allafrica.com/stories/201402210886.html

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Friday 21 February 2014

Haitian migrants' boat capsizes off Dominican Republic, 12 still missing


A boat carrying about 25 Haitian migrants capsized Thursday off the southeast tip of the Dominican Republic, killing at least three.

Authorities recovered three bodies and rescued another 10 passengers, while naval units continue to search for more victims.

Juan Pablo Sandoval, a spokesman for the Dominican Navy, said all three fatalities were Haitian women, and among the survivors were six men and four women, one of them pregnant. All were taken to a hospital in Higuey, 161 km east of the capital Santo Domingo.

The migrants "were apparently brought to the country (the Dominican Republic) directly from Haiti, as none of those rescued live speak a word of Spanish," Sandoval told local reporters.

The accident occurred early Thursday some 3.2 kilometers off the coast of Bavaro in La Altagracia province, 207 km east of Santo Domingo, area residents said.

The 20 to 25 migrants had departed earlier in the morning aboard a boat believed to have been stolen from a hotel in an attempt to reach Puerto Rico in the eastern Caribbean Sea.

According to the Dominican Army, so far this year, 137 Haitian migrants have been detained while trying to reach Puerto Rico.

Each year, hundreds of migrants from Haiti and other countries in the region try to reach Puerto Rico by crossing the 130-km canal that separates that country from the Dominican Republic.

Friday 21 February 2014

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=201968

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Authorities turn to mitochondrial DNA tests to identify 3/11 victims


Japanese authorities who are still trying to identify the remains of victims of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami say they are having greater success testing mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) compared to conventional testing methods.

Since last year, seven bodies whose identifications were requested by the Miyagi prefectural police were identified by the National Research Institute of Police Science in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, using the technique. The research institute is affiliated with the National Police Agency.

Mitochondrial DNA is passed down from mother to child unchanged, making it possible to identify an individual with near certainty and match them with relatives. Normal DNA testing becomes increasingly inefficient the more time has passed since cell death.

Emi Sato, 42, a nursery school teacher in the Shizugawa district of Minami-Sanriku, Miyagi Prefecture, whose uncle’s body was identified using the mtDNA identification method in October, praised the procedure.

“I am relieved now that my uncle has finally returned to me," she said. "I appreciate the professional analysis used to identify him.”

The institute’s Fourth Biology Section tested DNA samples provided by the Miyagi prefectural police by dissolving them in a special chemical to extract a victim’s mitochondria from cells.

The researchers then take about a week to examine the DNA and sequence it.

Regular DNA testing analyzes DNA contained within the nucleus of a cell. But the DNA, which is vulnerable to ultraviolet radiation and bacteria, is often too degraded in bodies that have drifted at sea for some time to be of use.

Mitochondrion, on the other hand, is found in large numbers. Anywhere from dozens to tens of thousands of mitochondria are present in a single cell. That raises the chances of extracting usable DNA, according to the institution.

The institute started conducting mtDNA identification in 1996. It now receives about 60 requests for the procedure annually, a three-fold increase compared to pre-3/11 levels.

It takes researchers up to a month to complete the examination of a sample if it is in poor condition.

“We hope to review our tools and drugs to enable quicker and more accurate identification and better prepare for the next disaster,” said Kazumasa Sekiguchi, head of the Fourth Biology Section.

The remains of 99 victims of the disaster in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures, as of Feb. 20, are still unidentified.

Friday 21 February 2014

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201402210065

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Libya military plane crashes in Tunisia, 11 dead


A Libyan army medical plane crashed south of Tunis early on Friday, killing all 11 people on board, Tunisian emergency services said.

"The plane crashed at 1:30 am (0030 GMT)... with 11 people on board -- three doctors, two patients and six crew members," spokesman Mongi El Kadhi said.He said there were no survivors from the accident in the Grombalia area, 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the capital.

The plane went down in a sparsely inhabited farming area in the Grombalia region some 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of Tunis, the capital, and burst into flames. Army units and civil protection services rushed to the scene to put out the fire and extract bodies.

"The whole plane was completely burnt out. The emergency services went to the crash site and recovered the charred bodies."

Shortly before the plane disappeared from radar screens, the pilot radioed the control tower at Tunis airport to say an engine had failed, emergency services said at the crash site.

The aircraft crashed in a field on the edge of the village of Nianou but managed to avoid any houses, the journalist reported. The Libyan flag was still visible on the tailplane amid the wreckage. "The plane crashed at 1:30 am (0030 GMT)... with 11 people on board -- three doctors, two patients and six crew members," emergency services spokesman Mongi El Kadhi said.

"The whole plane was completely burnt out. The emergency services went to the crash site and recovered the charred bodies."

There was no immediate word on the identities of the two patients on board or why they were being flown to Tunis-Carthage international airport from a military airfield near Tripoli.

Tunis air traffic control official Sofiene Bejaoui said the aircraft was a Soviet-designed twin-propeller Antonov-26.

"According to the air traffic controller who spoke to him last, the pilot's final message was 'Engine on fire'," he said.

"The plane is a Libyan air force Antonov-26, registration number Five Alpha Delta Oscar Whiskey," Bejaoui said.

Nearly 1,400 of the military transport aircraft were built between 1969 and 1986, 420 of them for export, according to the manufacturer's website.

At daybreak, teams began searching for the aircraft's black box flight recorders in a bid to establish the cause of the apparent engine failure.

Friday 21 February 2014

http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_02_21/Libya-military-plane-crashes-in-Tunisia-11-dead-7616/

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Thursday 20 February 2014

30 more Typhoon victims recovered in Tacloban in two weeks


More than three months have passed since Yolanda devastated the city but authorities continued to recover more dead bodies from different areas in Tacloban.

In the recently concluded Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (RDRRMC) Meeting held at Leyte Sports Development Center, in this city, Task Force Cadaver headed by Senior Superintendent Pablito Cordera of the Bureau of Fire Protection in the region has reported that 30 dead bodies were recovered by the team from February 4 until February 17, 2014 in different places in the city.

Most of the cadavers were retrieved in San Jose District, one of the coastal barangays hardly hit by the storm surges.

Eleven(11) of the cadavers were found on February 4. 2014, One(1) in February 6, Two (2) in February 8, five(5) in February 11, three(3) in February 13 and eight(8) were retrieved in february 17. All of these were brought to the grave site at Holy Cross Cemetery.

This brings to a total of 2, 622 cadavers recovered by the task force since November 16, 2013 until February 18, this year.

The task force cadaver comprises personnel from the Philippine National Police, National Bureau of Investigation, City Government of Tacloban, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Department of Health and the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) which is the lead agency.

Thursday 20 February 2014

http://news.pia.gov.ph/index.php?article=2681392712124

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Train fire: 2 bodies yet to be identified


More then a month after a fire broke out in the Dehradun Express, which killed nine commuters near Dahanu station on January 8, family members of two missing passengers are still waiting for results of DNA tests so that the remains of two bodies lying unclaimed can be identified. Though the bodies are still to be identified through DNA, circumstances made relatives of two missing passengers believe that they are Sakina Shabbir R.C. Wala (57) and Zamir Ahmed (60) who were travelling in the ill-fated bogie.

Senior police inspector Pramod Dawde of Palghar government railway police (GRP) confirmed that the first DNA test performed on charred bones was inconclusive and bones of some other parts of bodies were again sent to the Kalina FSL. “We could only find charred bones in the coach, and two persons are still missing, but we cannot come to any conclusion till the DNA reports is made available,” he said. He added that investigation is still underway and the cause of fire is yet to be ascertained.

On the other hand, Sakina’s nephew Murtuza R.C. Wala, who was travelling with her, said, “If we get any news about any missing lady being found somewhere, we crosscheck it, but till now, we have not found her. Since remains of only two bodies recovered in the coach are lying in JJ Hospital, and only two families have come forward to claim them, we strongly believe that they are the bodies of the two missing persons only.”

Mohammed Shamshad, son-in-law of Zamir Ahmed (60) said, “We are not getting any satisfactory answers from investigating agency, but we have come to know that remains of two bodies were again sent for forensic tests as the first test did not yield any result. Though we will keep hope till DNA test proves otherwise, since only two persons are still missing, we have strong reasons to believe that we have lost our beloved father. Now, we are waiting to get the remains to perform his last rituals.”

Thursday 20 February 2014

http://www.asianage.com/mumbai/train-fire-2-bodies-yet-be-identified-786

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GPS-tracked pig carcass to help RCMP find bodies in river


Where do bodies that fall in the South Saskatchewan River go?

Saskatoon RCMP believe a pig carcass will help solve that mystery.

Cpl. Tyler Hadland with the Historical Case Unit said, since the early 1980s, six bodies believed to have fallen into the river have never been found.

Cpl. Tyler Hadland, right, and another officer prepare to drop a pig carcass into the South Saskatchewan River Wednesday. “The Saskatoon Historical Case Unit has been annually searching the river by plane and by boat for the past number of years, so it’s quite a mystery as to where these bodies end up,” Hadland said.

Police dropped a pig with an attached GPS tracking device and radio transmission device into the river at the Saskatoon Canoe Club around 11 a.m. Wednesday. They hope to see how far and how quickly a body could travel in the river, and where a body would end up.

"With the GPS we’re able to access a website that will show tracking every 30 minutes, as long as it’s reaching a signal,” Hadland said.

The radio device on the pig sends out transmissions to temporary towers in place along the South Saskatchewan River to track the pig’s movements.

Hadland said understanding these movements could change how river searches and missing persons investigations are done. "As we collect more data with the flow rates on the river, we can correlate that to when we know a person went in. That could change everything.”

The research project was launched in September of 2013. RCMP dropped a pig into the North Saskatchewan River near North Battleford. The pig travelled 20 kilometers in a week’s time and ended up on a sandbar.

Police saw with the September launch that a body can travel up to six or seven kilometres per hour. Since there are many variables, such as water levels, flows and weather conditions in both the North and South Saskatchewan rivers, the RCMP plan to conduct the project a number of times.

The police said they chose Saskatoon as the next location for a launch partly because of a recent missing person case. Gregory “Myles” Macintosh went missing Feb. 1 from his stag party and his family believes he fell into the river near the Sid Buckwold Bridge.

Thursday 20 February 2014

http://saskatoon.ctvnews.ca/pig-carcass-dumped-into-river-rcmp-track-missing-bodies-potential-paths-1.1694839

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Wednesday 19 February 2014

Boulder County Coroner shares lessons learned at mortuary fire


The arson fire that destroyed Howe Mortuary last year remains unsolved, but the Boulder County Coroner said last week that the unusual crime was a lesson for her office that she is sharing with other coroners.

Boulder County Coroner Emma Hall and her staff were not called to the scene of the fire May 28. No one was killed in the intentionally set blaze that destroyed a long-standing Longmont business, but the nature of the mortuary's work meant that seven deceased people were inside at the time of the destructive fire.

Hall, who said she was contacted by the funeral home the morning of the fire with a request for body bags, said she and her staff decided to head to the scene to make sure that all of the bodies found inside the building were those that were there prior to the fire and to help the mortuary definitively identify the remains for the families before final arrangements were made.

She said that while it may seem gruesome, a fire at a mortuary could be used as an attempt to cover up another crime, like a homicide. She was also concerned because initial information indicated between five and seven bodies inside.

"It was kind of a new situation for everyone," Hall said of her decision to respond to the scene without an official summons from the police or fire departments. "They were confused as to why we were there."

Jeff Howe, owner of the mortuary, said one of his staff called Hall at 5:45 the morning of the fire. He was surprised to see her when she showed up that morning.

"It does make sense, and I never thought to make sure she was included," he said. "It felt good that we had the support."

The fire destroyed one room and a cooler where three bodies were stored, while there others in a prep room sustained some damage from the fire and firefighting efforts. A seventh body in a casket was taken quickly to another funeral home for a funeral later the same day, Hall said. She added that the funeral home recorded the locations of each body, but her office is able to confirm identities using fingerprints and DNA.

Howe said that the mortuary takes measures to make sure identities are well secured to those in their care. He said those identifiers survived the fire but could have easily been compromised, so the assistance after the blaze was helpful.

Lt. David Marshall of the Longmont Fire Department said fighting the blaze was standard for the firefighters, although it was a notably large incident. He said it was clear from locations the bodies were found that they were likely in the mortuary prior to the fire, which started in a trash receptacle next to the building and jumped to the mortuary. He said the investigation is complete and investigators identified "persons of interest," although not no one has been arrested for the arson.

"As far as the investigation goes, it was the first mortuary fire I had investigated," he said, adding that he isn't sure why neither the police nor fire department thought about calling the coroner.

Howe said he is a little frustrated that the person who started the fire has not surfaced, but he is not concerned about being targeted. He said he suspects that an arsonist who had been setting fires in trash receptacles likely set the fire next to Howe without intending it to spread to the building.

"We, like the fire department, didn't believe it was pointed at us," she said.

Hall said she struggled when she heard of the fire about whether her office would have jurisdiction since there were no new reported deaths. But, she said, due to the outside possibility of a crime she decided to head to the scene to help.

"It was a great exercise for us because it gave us a good idea of what handling a mass fatality would be like," she said, noting that some of her investigators were dispatched to other deaths around the county at the same time, which tested the office's resources.

She said investigators notified coroners in Weld, Jefferson and Larimer counties because those offices each had certified the deaths of one of the people inside Howe at the time. Her office had certified another prior to the fire, and three weren't even reported to coroner's offices because the people had passed away while under the supervision of a doctor at a hospital. Those deaths do not need to be reported to the county coroner.

"I was even surprising to me that there were four different counties (represented)," she said.

She said she believes the fire gave all agencies involved an opportunity to shore up relationships. Because of the jurisdictional questions faced, she said, she presented the case to the Colorado Coroner's Association and discussed some of the problems she faced prior to arriving.

Marshall said he is interested in the coroner's case review, which he hasn't seen.

"We're always looking for ways to improve the way we do our job," he said.

Wednesday 19 February 2014

http://www.firehouse.com/news/11313844/colo-coroner-goes-to-mortuary-fire-uninvited

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Nepal gov't hands over 13 bodies of passengers killed in plane crash

The Nepal government on Tuesday afternoon handed over dead bodies of 13 passengers who were killed in Sunday's plane crash to the respective family members, officials said.

Officials from Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) said the dead bodies of five passengers, however, could not be handed over because the family members of the deceased could not manage to come to receive the remains.

In a tragic incident, a twin otter owned by NAC had been found crashed in Nepal's hilly region on Monday, some 20 hours after it had gone missing.

"We have handed over bodies of 13 passengers including those of three crew members to their family members," Ram Hari Sharma, NAC spokesperson, told Xinhua. "Some of bodies have been taken directly to Pashupathi crematorium for final rites."

He said as the family members of four passengers are from Jumla, some 353 kilometers west of Nepal's capital, and could not come to Kathmandu immediately to receive the bodies, "We will hand over the bodies to them tomorrow once they come to claim for the bodies. "

In the case of the dead body of a Danish citizen, IM Matheisen, officials said his wife asked them to keep the body at hospital for some days until she come to Nepal from Denmark.

"Following the request of his wife, we have managed to keep the body at the hospital," Raju Lal Shrestha, director at NEA, told Xinhua by phone from Kathmandu's Teaching Hospital where the post mortem upon the dead bodies had been carried out. After tedious efforts and much delay, the government officials and security personnel had finally airlifted the dead bodies of all passengers to Kathmandu on Monday afternoon from the crash site and had been taken to the hospital for autopsy. The government has also formed a four-member probe committee to investigate upon the cause behind Sunday's twin otter crash in the remote Himalayan country. Officials at the NAC said once the probe report is out, the government will distribute compensation to the families of the deceased.

Wednesday 19 February 2014

http://en.cihan.com.tr/news/Nepal-gov-t-hands-over-13-bodies-of-passengers-killed-in-plane-crash_1478-CHMTM1MTQ3OC80

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Tuesday 18 February 2014

Cannibal restaurant 'with roasted human heads on the menu' shut down by police


Police arrested 11 people and closed a restaurant after two human heads wrapped in cellophane were discovered at a hotel restaurant that had been serving human flesh.

A tip-off led police to the macabre discovery in Anambra, Nigeria, with 11 people being arrested and AK-47 guns and other weapons being seized.

Human flesh was apparently being sold as an expensive treat at the restaurant, with authorities saying that roasted human head was even on the menu.

"I went to the hotel early this year, after eating, I was told that a lump of meat was being sold at N700, I was surprised," a pastor who had visited the eatery said.

"So I did not know it was human meat that I ate at such expensive price.

"What is this country turning into? Can you imagine people selling human flesh as meat," he added. "Seriously I’m beginning to fear people in this part of the world. "

Another local added to the Osun Defender newspaper: "I always noticed funny movements in and out of the hotel; dirty people with dirty characters always come into the hotel.

"So, I was not surprised when the police made this discovery in the early hours of yesterday."

The tabloid reported that two army caps, 40 rounds of live ammunition and 'so many cell phones' were also discovered by authorities.

Tuesday 18 February 2014

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/cannibal-restaurant-with-roasted-human-heads-on-the-menu-shut-down-by-police-9123693.html

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