Monday 30 June 2014

Many missing as Apete makeshift bridge collapses


Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, experienced downpour at the weekend, culminating in a massive flooding, which killed no fewer than 15 persons in different parts of the ancient city.

The incident, which was similar to what the city experienced on August 26, 2011, also led to the destruction of homes and landed properties worth millions of naira.

THISDAY learnt that about 10 lives were lost at Apete due to the sudden collapse of make-shift bridge, which the people in the area had been using since the collapse of the main bridge on August 26, 2011.

It was also gathered that five other persons including three children of the same parents were found under the ruble of a Cherubim & Seraphim church, which the flood brought down when the Olodo River overflowed its bank.

As a result of the deaths recorded at the Apete Bridge, a group of irate young men yesterday stormed the workstation of the contractor currently reconstructing the Ijokodo-Apete road and the bridge linking the two communities in anger.

Consequently, the aggrieved youths destroyed equipment and property at the contractor’s station worth millions of naira.

Recounting the scale of damage incurred due to the incident, an Olodo resident, Mr. Fatai Osuolale, told THISDAY that a white garment church and some structures built few metres away from the river bank were submerged.

Osuolale said the river overflowed its bank and flooded houses around the bank, thus leading to the loss of property and five lives including three children of the same parents said to be under spiritual refuge in the church. He explained that the river “is named Egberi and its source is traced to Osun river. Inside the river, people regularly perform spiritual bath while others come to wash clothes, okada and other things.”

Osuolale said residents and good Samaritans “are still searching for the bodies of the victims. Only one has been found so far while a Nissan Micra swept off by the flood around Odan Village has been recovered from the river.”

On Apete’s incident, THISDAY learnt that the victims were part of the residents that fell from the makeshift bridge shortly after the rain. But an eyewitness said he was part of the team that rescued some people who fell into the river from the bridge.

The eyewitness said the makeshift bridge “has become extremely weak and a no-go- area for residents of the community because its base has been swept off.

“When the rain which started around 4.00 pm stopped, some of the residents decided to make use of the makeshift bridge and in the process fell into the river and were swept away.

“We heard the cry of people who fell into the river around 6:30 p.m. I decided to join the rescue team. We eventually succeeded in rescuing about six people while not less than 10 others were killed as a result.”

Consequently, the aggrieved youths in Apete and its environs protested the death of 10 persons who drowned on Saturday evening after a makeshift bridge collapsed.

The youths, violently, stormed the contractor’s workstation, therefore destroying caterpillars, office equipment and other property belonging to the company.

While the angry youths also broke into the work station and offices within, hundreds of residents in the area were waiting at the river bank for rescue operation to commence.

Some of the residents were pelting stones and other objects at a team of security personnel who stood at the Ijokodo end of the road to maintain order.

One of the security men, Mr. Bassey Etum employed by the construction company said he had to run for his life alongside five other colleagues when the irate youths earlier came on Saturday night.

Etum said: “After the river had overflowed its banks, residents at the community said people drowned because of the bridge that collapsed. They vented their anger on the company and destroyed our machines and equipment.

“They stole computers and other office equipment too. There were six security men here when they came Saturday night. They wanted to lynch us so we ran into a nearby forest. When we returned around 11 p.m., nothing was left untouched; the whole place had been vandalised.”

Monday 30 June 2014

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/flood-ravages-ibadan-again-claims-15-lives/182246/

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Forensic lab takes blood samples of Beas river tragedy victims


The AP Forensic Science Laboratory has taken the blood samples of the parents of Himachal Pradesh Beas River tragedy victims.

Experts are making DNA profiles to match them with that of the bodies retrieved from the Beas River. APFSL director A. Sharada said, “Out of the 24 students of VNR Vignan Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology missing six bodies are yet to be recovered from the water. 20 days have passed. So the bodies will be putrefied and distorted beyond recognition. In such cases DNA fingerprinting is a must.” So the APFSL has called in the parents of the students for collecting the samples. So far the parents of four students visited APFSL and had given blood samples.

“We started making DNA profiles. DNA experts at the Simla lab will collect the body parts of the students as and when they are recovered from the river. They will make the DNA profiles and match them with that of those sent by us. Then the identification will be quick,” said Sharada.

Monday 30 June 2014

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/140630/nation-current-affairs/article/forensic-lab-takes-blood-samples-beas-river-tragedy-victims

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At least 30 dead in migrant boat accident off Italian coast


The Italian navy has found about 30 bodies in a fishing boat carrying hundreds of migrants between Sicily and the North African coast.

The migrants who died appeared to have been asphyxiated.

The discovery was made when rescuers boarded the vessel to evacuate a number of people said to be in distress, two of them pregnant women.

The navy says that over the weekend it rescued more than 5,000 migrants trying to cross from North Africa.

The figure was released soon after news emerged of the discovery of the bodies.

The navy said that those who died were crammed into a compartment below decks.

The fishing boat was carrying about 600 migrants and is now being towed to the town of Pozzallo, southern Sicily.

Correspondents say that it is not clear whether the boat was sinking when it was intercepted.

The BBC's Alan Johnston in Rome says the latest discovery will again focus attention on the dangers faced by those who are so desperate to reach Europe they choose to make the journey aboard hopelessly overcrowded and unseaworthy vessels.

The Italian authorities say more than 60,000 migrants have already landed in southern Italy this year, and that the record of 63,000 set in 2011 is likely to be broken.

Most are from Africa or the Middle East and pay large sums to people smugglers in Libya who transport them in unsafe fishing vessels.

Officials say one reason for the rise in numbers is because of Libya's continuing political instability.

Italy - which bears the brunt of migrants making the perilous crossing - has repeatedly appealed for help from the EU to tackle the problem.



Earlier this month, at least 39 people drowned off Libya after an overloaded, inflatable boat capsized while trying to cross to the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Last October, 360 people died when a boat sank off Lampedusa.

The navy said it rescued some 1,577 migrants over the weekend, adding to the nearly 60,000 who have made their way to Italy since the beginning of the year.

That is compared to 42,000 in all of 2013.

Monday 30 June 2014

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-28082969

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Sunday 29 June 2014

The secret scars of Erebus


There aren't words for the cold. It's a cold that penetrates through layers and layers of clothes, that freezes your boots and hurts your lungs when you breathe. Nor are there words for the silence, the utter vacuum of sound that envelops you when you first set foot on the ice-covered expanse of Antarctica.

These sensory assaults greeted a small group of New Zealand police officers on arrival at the white continent in late 1979. They'd found themselves in the harshest place on earth - an alien landscape where storms whip up from nowhere and leave you praying for your life, where crevasses open up and threaten to swallow you.

But as harsh and unrelenting as Antarctica is, these natural ravages were a mere fraction of a horrifying whole. The 11 police officers were there to a do a particular task - retrieve the bodies of passengers lost to the snow of Mt Erebus.

Stuart Leighton was the youngest. At 22, he had just a couple of years under his belt, graduating in 1976, and serving at Lower Hutt Police Station.

He had joined the new Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) Squad in 1978, thinking it would be useful if there were ever an earthquake in Wellington.

Like most New Zealanders, Leighton found out about the Erebus crash when it was announced on television on the evening of November 28. And while he shared the horror that the whole country was feeling, unlike other New Zealanders he knew he might soon have a much more personal experience of the disaster.

"There were four of us in my team," he says. "We recovered 94 bodies between us. I can't tell you the worst of what we saw. It would be unprintable."

Leighton is now 57. He lives in North Canterbury with his wife Claire and is the operations manager for the police's southern communications centre. It has taken him decades to work through what happened on that mountain.

For a young man, an event of such magnitude was bound to have a profound impact. He was put on a plane, flown to a foreign world, and confronted with unimaginable horror: aching cold and terrible sights and smells that still trigger horrific memories.

And what he saw stayed with him for years, long after he returned from the crash site. "I can sum up returning home from Erebus in two words: 'Very difficult'."

The late 1970s was a different era. A young policeman was expected to deal with such carnage - the Kiwi "she'll be right" attitude was the order of the day. Support following the operation was minimal, to say the least.

He and other officers were sent for a psychological assessment within a week of their return. Another one followed six months later. But he was pretty much left to fend for himself. And for years he lived alone with the horror of the event.

It all came to the fore around 15 years ago when he was asked to contribute to another documentary. The trauma caused by having to recollect his time on Erebus was profound. "I had a meltdown."

But this was the catalyst for his seeking and receiving counselling vital to his recovery. "It's been a very long journey," he says.

In Greek mythology, Erebus was the personification of darkness. And when Air New Zealand Flight TE901 flew into the side of Erebus, the crash on this dark mountain inflicted a permanent scar on our nation's consciousness.

The subsequent investigation and Royal Commission of Inquiry revealed a tangled web of obfuscation unlike anything seen before in New Zealand.

Justice Peter Mahon, who performed the inquiry, summed it up: Air New Zealand had been involved in "an orchestrated litany of lies" to cover up the truth of that horrible day. However, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in 1983 found he had acted in breach of natural justice with his conclusion that Air New Zealand had been involved in a conspiracy.

The Erebus disaster affected lives throughout New Zealand and the wider world. Many lost friends and family, including the uncle of documentary director and producer Charlotte Purdy, Gordon Brooks.

When Purdy's cousin Virginia attended a memorial service for the 30th anniversary of the tragedy, Greg Gilpin, another of the police officers sent to Erebus, spoke about the recovery effort. ­Virginia was so moved - much of what was said was new to her and to other relatives at the service - that she suggested Purdy look at turning the stories into a documentary.

Purdy agreed the recovery story needed to be told. She began to contact the men involved in "Operation Overdue", men still traumatised by their memories, and asked if they would share their stories on screen.

The resulting documentary, Erebus: Operation Overdue, opened the Documentary Edge Festival in Auckland in May. It transfixed audiences and won Best New Zealand Feature, Best Directing, Best Editing and Best Cinematography at the festival.

Leighton was resistant when Purdy approached him in 2011 about the documentary. Erebus "never goes away", he says, and as one of the only remaining active policemen who worked on the crash site, calls from journalists were common.

"But she was persistent," he says. "And what made a difference was that a family member had been on the plane. But I really had to think my way carefully through the whole thing."

Leighton hopes sharing his experiences publicly will make people think about those who have to deal with death on a regular basis.

"Of course, it's incredibly important to think first about the ­victims and their families. "But I would be happy if the documentary helps people to spare a thought for the emergency services people and their families who have to clean up after such tragedies."

Leighton has dealt with his fair share of snow in North Canterbury. But he has never been back on a mountain. "Erebus was my first experience of snow and I'd never been on a mountain before. The experience I had there really imprinted on me. I associate mountains with what happened on Erebus, so I avoid them."

But he would like to go back to the disaster site one day. "It will probably never happen, but it would help me greatly if I revisited the place. I understand why old soldiers want to go back to the battlefields. It would be a final step in the healing process."

Greg Gilpin, then a sergeant, attended a training day for DVI Squad, as did Leighton, at National Police Headquarters the day TE901 went down.

The timing was particularly cruel. "There was a feeling coming through, even during that training, whether we would ever use it. Little did we know it was going to occur that very day."

Gilpin had been with the police for 14 years. The then-33-year-old had been involved in other tragedies, including the Wahine sinking in 1968. He was stationed at Taranaki St Police Station in Central Wellington.

He is now 67 and lives in Manukau with his wife Vivienne. When he retired in 2011 he was the country's longest-serving police officer.

Like Leighton, he heard confirmation of the plane crash on the news. He had also never been on snow or ice but had a sense he might be called to help. The call came at 3am the next day and he was told he was on standby for the recovery operation.

Later that day he packed his warmest clothes and said goodbye to Vivienne and their three young children. He was genuinely concerned he might never see them again.

The first few days after arrival at Scott Base were taken up with negotiating the recovery mission. The DVI Squad was then trained in survival training on Ross Island. This proved invaluable - the team faced harsh weather, opening crevasses and ­extreme cold.

On December 1, Gilpin was appointed co-ordinator of the recovery teams on site by Operation Overdue Inspector overseer Robert Mitchell.

And on December 3, Gilpin and Leighton were sent to the crash site. They were joined by Mitchell, who returned to base later that day.

The landing on the mountain was hair-raising. "It took a while for the pilot to find anywhere to drop us off. And as there wasn't a helicopter pad at the crash site we had to jump from the helicopter.

"We couldn't see anything because of the snow being whipped up by the rotor blades. We jumped a few metres, but it felt much higher. I'll always remember that drop." But the initial sight of the crash site was even more jarring.

Gilpin had experience with death. "I knew I could cope with the bodies," he says. But the huge site, littered with fluttering green and red flags (green to indicate bodies or body parts, red for crevasses) was outside his experience or imagination.

"It was the sheer numbers that got me. There was such an overwhelming sense of sadness. It still has a huge effect on me."

The painstaking recovery process was physically and mentally harrowing. The police, aided by US navy photographers and mountaineers, performed their jobs with the highest level of professionalism and bravery, in the most trying of conditions.

But their efforts were largely unacknowledged on their return - and it took 27 years for that to come.

"There was no real recognition for what we did," says Gilpin.

"The job was done and that was it. It was a sign of the times I guess, but it really hurt." But he says the support of his family, friends and neighbours was wonderful. "My wife Vivienne in particular was a huge support. She'll tell you that I changed after I came back. But she helped me through it."

The missing evidence

The members of Operation Overdue were charged with the recovery of bodies as well as retrieving the passengers' possessions. And during this time policeman Stuart Leighton turned up a piece of evidence that could have proved pivotal to the subsequent enquiry.

It was a ring binder that belonged to flight Captain Jim Collins. The ring binder contained pages with hand-written technical writing and numbers that appeared to relate to the flying of the aircraft.

"When it was given to me, I realised that this could be very important," says former Inspector Greg Gilpin. "I saw the first five to seven pages of it. I made sure I sealed it properly with two plastic bags and it was transported by helicopter to McMurdo."

The day-to-day recovery process meant Gilpin didn't have much time to consider what happened to the ring binder. "I treated it as briefed by the air accident investigator," he said. "I really thought everyone would be working towards the same cause, to determine what had occurred."

It was only later that Gilpin became aware of the ring binder again. In a documentary on the Commission of Inquiry, Justice Peter Mahon, who led the commission, is shown rubbing the ring binder on his face, and asking a witness where he thought the pages could have gone.

Gilpin felt a jolt of horror when he realised what he was seeing. "We had seen those pages. The witness suggested the pages had been removed because they were soiled, but that was not true. I regret not holding on to the ring binder, as it turned out the contents would have been important evidence."

Justice Mahon later determined the ring binder would have contained the incorrect co-ordinates that led to the crash.

Captain Collins was initially blamed for the crash. After the crash, the ring binder was returned to his wife, Maria, with its pages missing. In 2007, she laid a complaint with the police over the removal of the pages from the ring binder.

The police investigation found there was little possibility of identifying any criminal offending relating to the pages' removal and to this date there has been no satisfactory explanation for the disappearance of those pages.

"My feelings have been well documented, but I'm adamant that the ring binder's pages were intact and undamaged when we found it," says Gilpin.

Sunday 29 June 2014

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11284082

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Chennai building collapse: 11 bodies recovered so far


Eleven bodies have been recovered so far as massive rescue operations continued at the building collapse site at Mugalivakkam near Porur here even as police said they have arrested five persons in connection with the tragedy.

Several persons are still believed to be trapped under the debris and hundreds of personnel are engaged in clearing the rubble as part of the rescue effort.

Two alleged owners of the building were arrested this morning along with two engineers as police rounded up five persons in connection with the incident and booked them under various sections of IPC.

"The Chennai Police Commissioner has already visited the spot. Five persons have been secured and inquiry is on into the incident," Director General of Police K Ramanujam told reporters here after visiting the spot.

Two women, identified as Sujata and Krishnaveni, were this morning pulled out from under the debris, taking the number of those rescued to 30 so far, police said.

Over 100 personnel from Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Services along with 120 others from National Disaster Reponse Force (NDRF) are taking part in rescue operations at the site of the tragedy, which is being described as the largest building accident in the recent past in Chennai.

"Rescue operations are on in full swing. Our priority is to locate survivors. We are using modern cameras to locate them and are watching closely for any voices from within the debris," said NDRF DIG SP Selvan. Sniffer dogs, too, have been brought in to locate persons trapped in the rubble.

Officials are speaking to those who have been rescued to gather information about the number of people who were in the building when the mishap struck at around 5.00 pm yesterday. "Twenty-two fire tenders from Chennai and neighbouring districts like Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur, Vellore as also from Tiruchirappalli have been kept ready near the site along with over 50 ambulances. Construction equipment and JCB vehicles have been rushed to the spot and have been taking part in rescue efforts since last evening," said Kancheepuram District Collector, Baskaran.

Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has announced a solatium of Rs2 lakh each for the families of the deceased while Rs 50,000 has been extended to those who have been injured in the building collapse.

Roads near the building collapse site have been cleared to allow smooth conduct of rescue operations while Jayalalithaa has directed the Kancheepuram district administration to ensure medical treatment for the injured and also arrange for their safe journey back home at the government's expense.

Many of those feared trapped under the debris are believed to hail from Andhra Pradesh.

Minister of State for Heavy Industries Pon Radhakrishnan, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) leader Vaiko and Makkal Manadu Katchi ​(MMK) chief MH Jawahirullah, who visited the site this morning, called for those responsible behind the incident to be brought to book.

DMDK leader Vijayakant, meanwhile, issued a statement condemning the incident and sought action against those responsible.

Sunday 29 June 2014

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-chennaibuildingcollapse-11-bodies-recovered-so-far-5-people-arrested-for-involvement-1998495

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Saturday 28 June 2014

GAIL accident: Blast kills 15 in Andhra,


At least 15 people were burnt to death and about 30 others injured in a huge blast and fire that took place at a gas pipeline belonging to the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) in East Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh, on Friday morning.

According to Andhra Pradesh Police, lighting of a stove by a tea vendor might have sparked today's fire in the GAIL pipeline after leaked gas from the line enveloped the area.

As per initial information, there was a major gas leakage from the pipeline at around 4:30 am at Nagaram village in Mamidikuduru Mandal of the district which spread to nearby areas and lighting of a stove at a tea shop triggered the fire and a blast, IGP North Coastal Zone Atul Singh said.

However, he said only after a detailed inquiry the exact cause of the incident will be known.

The dead include three women and three children. The death toll may rise as the condition of 15 of the injured is said to be critical. According to an official of the East Godavari district, the administration recovered 13 bodies from the accident site while another death was reported from the hospital where the injured are being treated.

Talking to reporters, state Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu said that 14 people were killed and many others were injured when the fire broke out at around 5:45 am.

The minister added: "The fire caused massive losses. Coconut trees and other crops in over 10 acres were reduced to ashes."

Issuing a statement, GAIL chairman Tripathi said the fire occurred in an 18-inch pipeline of state-owned Gas Authority of India Limited near Tatipaka refinery of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

"The reasons for the accident are not known yet. We are currently focused on rescue and relief operations," he said earlier in the day.

State-controlled energy firm ONGC has shut two gas fields in Andhra Pradesh in the wake of the incident.

"Fields connected to the pipeline have been shut as the pipeline is closed because of the fire," a news agency quoted NK Verma, the Board Director (Exploration), as saying. It was not immediately clear how much production was affected.

The huge flames leaping out of the pipeline damaged houses and shops near the blast site. The villagers ran out of their houses in panic as the fire accompanied by loud blasts engulfed a large area.

Local police officials said fire tenders brought the blaze under control.

The Andhra Pradesh CM has directed Deputy Chief Minister N Chinna Rajappa to rush to the blast site to monitor rescue and relief operations. Rajappa, who is also the home minister, asked district officials to take all measures to provide relief to the injured.

YSR Congress party chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy expressed shock and grief over the accident. He demanded best medicare to the injured and a probe into the incident.

Residents of Nagaram village said they heard a deafening sound and soon after a huge ball of fire engulfed the area.

The locals recalled the massive fire in a gas well at Pasarlapudi village in East Godavari district in mid-1990s which could not be put out for nearly two months.

Saturday 28 June 2014

http://zeenews.india.com/news/andhra-pradesh/gail-accident-blast-kills-15-in-andhra-rs-25-lakh-ex-gratia-announced_943093.html

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Forensics hope over Troubles cases


A Belfast coroner is to meet with forensic experts and pathologists to establish if modern day techniques can shed new light on evidence from historic Troubles killings.

Jim Kitson will have discussions with representatives from the State Pathology Department and Forensic Science NI in the coming weeks.

"I want to see what is feasible," he told a preliminary inquest hearing in Belfast.

Mr Kitson said he would assess the potential of reviewing forensic and pathology evidence in a number of so-called legacy inquests he is presiding over.

He outlined details of the scheduled meetings at the hearing in Belfast into the deaths of IRA men Michael "Peter" Ryan, 37, Anthony Doris, 21, and Laurence McNally, 38, who were gunned down in an SAS ambush in Coagh, Co Tyrone in June 1991.

The coroner has already indicated he is going to explore the possibility of a review of pathology evidence in a new inquest into the deaths of 10 people shot by British paratroopers in Ballymurphy in west Belfast in 1971.

Mr Kitson acknowledged both the "time and resource" capacity of the pathologists and forensic experts would be a factor in how much work could be carried out.

Earlier this year Mr Ryan's mother Kathleen was one of six people awarded £7,500 compensation by a High Court judge in Belfast after the police, Coroners Service and a number of other state bodies conceded that delays in six long-standing inquests amounted to a breach of human rights.

Mr Kitson today confirmed that the inquest's scheduled September start date was now "unworkable" due to a number of outstanding issues.

Among matters still to be resolved are the scope of the probe; disclosure of Ministry of Defence personnel files on soldiers involved in the incident; and potential applications for Public Interest Immunity (PII) on certain material deemed by the police and MoD to touch on national security concerns.

While ruling out September, the coroner expressed hope the inquest could be listed without excessive further delay as many matters were set to be resolved over the court's summer recess.

Saturday 28 June 2014

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/forensics-hope-over-troubles-cases-30390103.html

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Friday 27 June 2014

Changing Smell of Corpses Measures Time of Death


Not many of us like to consider the complex chemical processes that begin after we die. But new research into the chemical odors released by decomposing bodies is providing forensic scientists with a powerful tool to determine how long a person has been dead, a term known as post-mortem interval (PMI). Understanding this ‘smell of death’ also helps scientists understand how sniffer dogs discover buried disaster victims and locate clandestine graves.

An international research team used two-dimensional gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry to characterise the odours that create this smell of death: volatile organic compounds (VOCs). By measuring the VOCs released from pig carcasses the team identified a cocktail of several different families of molecules, including carboxylic acids, aromatics, sulfurs, alcohols, nitro compounds, as well as aldehydes and ketones. The combination and quantities of these VOCs change as a function of time as a cadaver goes through different stages of decomposition.

Author Jean-Franรงois Focant from the University of Liege, Belgium, tells Chemistry World: ‘The use of state-of-the-art multi-dimensional techniques has allowed us to drastically improve our understanding of the VOC mixtures released during cadaveric decomposition. An odour fingerprint can be created for each stage of decomposition and possibly be used as an additional tool to estimate the PMI.’

Current PMI estimation is limited to assessing things like body cooling, how advanced decomposition is and the size of insects that have colonised the body. However, these do not always give an accurate answer. ‘Charting the changes to VOCs won’t provide a 100% reliable way of estimating PMI but it might improve the situation enormously,’ explains Anna Williams, a forensic anthropologist at the University of Huddersfield, UK.

The research could also help with the training of ‘human remains detection canines’. ‘We know very little about what compounds or combinations of compounds are recognised by sniffer dogs,’ says Williams. ‘Understanding this helps to improve their work in the field and with training aids. However, research on pigs as analogues for humans is compromised from the start. A human taphonomy facility (where the decomposition of human remains are studied) would boost forensic research.’

The development of a VOC profile for decomposing bodies should help scientists working to create an electronic nose, which are hardier than dogs and do not need costly training and upkeep. Sniffer dogs are more adaptable than their e-nose counterparts, however, and by entering dangerous places alone they help to keep their handlers safe. ‘Several groups are working on e-noses at the moment,’ Focant says, ‘but we are not sure if this technology will ever make sniffer dogs obsolete.’

Friday 27 June 2014

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/changing-smell-of-corpses-measures-time-of-death/

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Two more bodies found, five students still missing : Beas tragedy


Two more bodies of students from an engineering college in Hyderabad were recovered in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of bodies retrieved to 19, the police said on Thursday.

Five students and one tour operator are still missing and the search operation continued for the 18th day.

The bodies were identified as those of Nerudu Jagdish Mudiraj and P. Ridhima.

Both the bodies, in swollen conditions, were seen floating near the Pandoh dam, almost 15 km downstream from the accident spot, the police said.

While Mudiraj’s body was recovered on Thursday, Ridhima’s body was found on Wednesday.

Twenty-four students from the V.N.R. Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology were swept away on June 8 after water was released into the river without warning from nearby 126 MW Larji hydro power project.

The focus of the search operation is on the 15 km long downstream stretch of the river from the Larji project dam to the Pandoh dam.

Friday 27 June 2014

http://www.himvani.com/news/2014/06/27/two-more-bodies-found-five-students-still-missing-beas-tragedy/26072

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Sunday 22 June 2014

Mass graves with remains of migrants uncovered in Texas


The most perilous part of the journey for many migrants seeking to enter the United States from central America comes not when they are on their way to the Texas border, but once they have passed it.

Falfurrias, with a population about 5,000, is 75 miles north of the border along Interstate 69-C, the main gateway to central Texas. Situated amid ranch land and an hour’s drive from the nearest big city, it might be a relatively uneventful place – were it not for its detention centre and the immigration checkpoint about 15 miles south.

Smugglers drive the immigrants near the checkpoint then let them out, to find their way around it on foot through a thorny terrain of private ranches in temperatures that often exceed 100F in summer. Some get lost and fall ill and here their journeys end, dying somewhere in the mostly-shadeless expanse of nearly 1,000 square miles that makes up Brooks County.

Despite a dramatic rise in the number of unaccompanied children trying to cross the Rio Grande river into Texas, the overall number of US border patrol apprehensions – one indicator of the flow of illegal immigration – is vastly down compared with the figures from a decade ago.

But the number of migrants found dead on ranches north of the Texas border appears to have risen in recent years. Last year 87 bodies were discovered, and 129 in 2012. Many are still unidentified.

This month, for the second successive year, scientists and students from Baylor University and the University of Indianapolis spent days exhuming the remains of unidentified migrants from a cemetery in Falfurrias. They found mass graves with remains in rubbish bags, shopping bags, or even not in containers at all, according to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.

In one case, a single body bag contained the bones of three people.

“To me it’s just as shocking as the mass grave that you would picture in your head, and it’s just as disrespectful,” Dr Krista Latham, a forensic anthropologist at the University of Indianapolis, told the Caller-Times.

Eddie Canales, an activist with the South Texas Human Rights Center, believes the deaths are in part a consequence of the US government’s push to tighten up the border, which he says has led migrants to attempt riskier paths in their efforts to evade detection and encouraged them to pay smugglers who often have links to criminal gangs.

Canales is working with local ranchers to place 20 water stations in about a dozen locations, hoping migrants will come across them and be able to avoid the deadly consequences of severe dehydration.

“More people are getting lost,” he told the Guardian. “Migration is down but the deaths are increasing.

“Because of the policy to apprehend as many as you can, you’re forcing people to cross into areas that are very dangerous … we’re letting migrants support the cartel business of smuggling.”

Sunday 22 June 2014

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/21/texas-mass-graves-undocumented-migrants-uncovered

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Boat mishap: 14 bodies claimed, 10 bodies to be sent to Indonesia on Sunday


Nine of the 14 bodies involved in the recent boat mishap off Banting have been claimed by relatives and will be transported back to Indonesia after getting a confirmation from an Indonesian Embassy representative, at 10.40am today.

Kuala Langat district police chief, Superintendent Azman Abdul Razak, said the bodies will be transported back to Indonesia through cargo, at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at Sepang, starting tomorrow.

He said, both trips would be borne by the Indonesian government and will arrive in Aceh.

"The victims' family and friends have already identified them. The cost and anything related to the flight will be arranged by the Indonesian government.

"As requested by the Aceh Governor, a Muslim funeral service company will handle the arrangements of sending the bodies back to Aceh. Nine out of the 14 bodies will be sent tomorrow,” he told reporters today.

All nine bodies will be flown via two flights from Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Delivery of the bodies will be made after the police forensic team and the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Klang Hospital have completed their autopsies and issued a death certificate.

Meanwhile, Supt Azman said another relative came forward on Saturday to identify and claim the body of another victim at the hospital.

The body will be sent home after all the documentation is complete.

In the meantime, the operation to recover the capsized boat at Sungai Air Hitam this morning has been postponed due to safety reasons.

"A special meeting will be conducted and will be chaired by the authorities to identify the process of how to recover the boat without affecting the investigation in determining the motive and cause of the mishap on June 17,” he said.

The location of the capsized boat has been identified and handed over to the police forensic unit for further action.

Sunday 22 June 2014

http://english.astroawani.com/news/show/boat-mishap-14-bodies-claimed-10-bodies-to-be-sent-to-indonesia-on-sunday-38141

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Eight of 31 bodies from Mexico mass grave identified


Forensic experts have identified eight of the 31 bodies found this week in a clandestine grave in the southern part of the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, Mexican authorities said.

Those eight people were area residents who had been reported missing.

The grave was discovered Tuesday at the El Diamante ranch in the Tres Valles region, which is on the border with Oaxaca state.

All of the bodies recovered from the grave were taken to the central forensic lab of the Veracruz state attorney general’s office, officials said.

Personnel at the lab are using dental records and DNA to identify the other 23 victims. Authorities in neighbouring Oaxaca are collaborating in that effort.

Thousands of migrants headed for the US pass through Veracruz each year, and drug traffickers use smuggling routes in the state to move narcotics into Mexico’s northern neighbour.

The federal government expanded its presence in neighbouring Tamaulipas state in May to fight the Los Zetas and Gulf drug cartels, which have unleashed a wave of violence in the region.

Veracruz’s government has stepped up patrols along the border to prevent the cartels from moving into its territory.

The state government has been working with the army and marines to hunt down the members of criminal organisations, especially those involved in kidnappings, this year.

Veracruz, Mexico’s third most populous state, has been plagued by a turf war between rival drug cartels that has sent the murder rate skyrocketing in the past few years.

The Gulf, Los Zetas and Jalisco Nueva Generacion cartels, as well as breakaway members of the once-powerful Familia Michoacana organization, are fueling the violence in the state.

The port city of Veracruz will be the site of the 24th Ibero-American Summit of heads of state and government and will host the 22nd Central American and Caribbean Games later this year.

Sunday 22 June 2014

http://www.mizonews.net/world/eight-of-31-bodies-from-mexico-mass-grave-identified/

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At least 26 dead as storms hit Southern China


At least 26 people died, three were missing and some 337,000 were evacuated as summer storms brought torrential rain and flash floods to much of southern China, the government said on Sunday.

The National Meteorological Centre forecast more heavy rain in large areas of southern China on Sunday and Monday.

Seven people have died in central China's Hunan Province, five in the eastern province of Jiangxi and two in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, south of the country.

Hunan provincial civil affairs bureau confirmed that four people are missing.

In Hunan, torrential rainstorms swept across ten cities and 47 counties. About 2.08 million people in the province were affected and 171,000 have been relocated.

The rainstorms also caused severe damage to 9,700 houses and 122,700 hectares of crops. So far direct economic losses have amounted to 1.57 billion yuan (251.2 million U.S. dollars) in the province.

Highways and railways were forced to shut because of landslides on Friday. Services all resumed by Saturday morning.

In Jiangxi, four of the five deaths in the province were caused by the collapse of a school building triggered by a landslide.

Jiangxi's local bureau of civil affairs reported that about 789,000 people were affected and 123,000 have been relocated as of 10 a.m. on Saturday. Downpours have swept the province since Wednesday.

The rainstorms in Jiangxi, which have caused the collapse of or substantial damage to 4,000 houses and affected 63,100 hectares of crops, have led to direct economic losses of 530 million yuan (84.85 million U.S. dollars).

Water levels of rivers and reservoirs are above warning levels in Jiangxi and local governments have been told to fully prepare for floods.

In Guangxi, besides the two deaths, more than 118,700 people were affected and 2,341 have been relocated as of 3 p.m. on Saturday, according to the regional civil affairs department.

Heavy downpours have been wreaking havoc in east and south China during the past week, forcing authorities to initiate a grade IV emergency response on Saturday.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs and the China National Commission for Disaster Reduction have dispatched emergency response teams to the regions.

Relief materials, including tents and cotton blankets, have been sent to disaster-hit regions.

A grade IV response, the lowest in the country's emergency response system, means a 24-hour alert, daily damage reports, and dispatching money and relief materials within 48 hours.

Several dozen people perished in weather-related deaths in the region earlier this month.

Sunday 22 June 2014

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2014-06/21/c_133426105.htm

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Police scientist wins £500k payout after developing post-traumatic stress disorder from handling bodies in the wake of the Asian tsunami


A police scientist has been awarded almost half a million pounds in compensation after he was left distressed by handling dead bodies after the Asian tsunami a decade ago.

The forensics expert helped identify some of the 230,000 victims of the disaster that engulfed Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand in 2004.

He developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after returning to the UK.

He felt let down by the police quango that employed him for not providing him with counselling after his harrowing experience.

The man, who has not been named, has been on sick leave for much of the intervening decade while pursuing his compensation claim.

Now he has received a total of £464,000 as part of a deal that will end his employment contract with the police professional body, now known as the College of Policing.

The compensation payment, one of the biggest made to a police worker, was so large that it had to be listed in the Home Office’s annual accounts, published last week.

In the section on losses and special payments, it stated: ‘A compensation payment of £464,000 was paid by the College of Policing in respect of an employee who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.’

The College of Policing, which replaced the man’s former employers, Centrex and the National Policing Improvement Agency, said: ‘In 2005, the Home Office put together a deployment of policing experts to help in the response to the Sri Lankan tsunami.

‘Following a review of the 2005 deployment the College of Policing recognises that there were matters Centrex could have dealt with better, including post-incident support.’

The forensics expert was one of about 60 police officers and civilian staff from the UK who helped out in the aftermath of the earthquake in the Indian Ocean. It is estimated that more than 230,000 people were killed in the Boxing Day disaster.

Sunday 14 June 2014

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2664703/Police-scientist-wins-500k-payout-developing-post-traumatic-stress-disorder-handling-bodies-wake-Asian-tsunami.html

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14 dead in Bulgaria flash floods as rescuers search for missing


Flash floods in Bulgaria have killed at least 14 people, including two children, with others missing after torrential rains lashed the east of the country, authorities said Friday.

The worst hit was the Asparuhovo neighborhood of the Black Sea port city of Varna, where at least 11 people including two children perished, local authorities said.

A 7-year-old child, who said he was with his sister and grandmother when the disaster hit, was rescued and taken to hospital.

Three more victims drowned in the nearby northeastern town of Dobrich and 150 people were evacuated from the lowest part of the town where the water level remained waist-high on Friday evening, an AFP photographer said.

A total of 1,200 tourists, including Germans, Russians and Britons, were evacuated — some via helicopters — from the nearby resort of Albena, resort chief Krasimir Stanev said.

Many Ukrainian children meanwhile remained blocked in their hotel in the village of Kranevo.

Dozens of smashed and piled up cars and uprooted trees littered the narrow mud-splattered streets of the worst-hit Varna neighborhood of Asparuhovo on Friday, leaving parts of the area still impassable.

The normally picturesque hillside quarter was submerged after torrential rain pounded the region on Thursday evening, clogging garbage-filled drainage canals and turning the steep streets into raging torrents.

Many rickety houses were totally destroyed by the water and authorities were unable to say whether their owners had survived even if they found no new victims buried under the ruins.

Electricity was partially restored on Friday except in the worst-affected parts where authorities refrained from switching it on due to safety concerns. Also, bad tap water quality made it unsafe for drinking.

Navy divers continued to search a canal linking Lake Varna to the Black Sea, where all the floodwater drained away, dragging with it cars, furniture, garbage and uprooted trees. Two bodies were recovered from the waters.

Soldiers and 40 prisoners helped to evacuate people throughout the day and clean up the piles of mud and garbage from the streets of Asparuhovo.

Rescue efforts have been hindered as heavy rains and hail storms continued to lash Bulgaria throughout Friday and more floods, even if not as bad, were reported in eastern and central Bulgaria.

Along with Varna and Dobrich, the central city of Veliko Turnovo also declared a state of emergency on Friday.

Forecasters said the situation was set to improve in the coming days, even if they did not exclude more rain.

Sunday 22 June 2014

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/international/europe/2014/06/22/410675/14-dead.htm

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Saturday 21 June 2014

14 killed in flash floods, landslips


At least 14 people have been killed in two separate incidents of landslide in Gulmi and Pyuthan districts.

Nine members of a family including five children died after their house was swept away by landslides triggered by prolonged rainfall at Anglung-8, Gulmi, on Thursday night.

Police identified the dead as Bhavilal Kunwar, his wife Cheti Kunwar, daughter Juthi Bista, daughter-in-law Sita Kunwar, grandson Chetman and granddaughters Bipana, Bindu, Harikala and Hima. They were buried under the debris of mud and boulders. Police Inspector Rajendra Prasad Shrestha said further details of the incident are awaited.

The disaster site is 54 kilometres from district headquarters Tamghas. The District Administration Office provided Rs 20,000 to the family of each deceased while the District Development Committee gave Rs 10,000.

In Pyuthan, four people, including two minors, died and one went missing on Thursday night when three houses and huts were swept by landslides at Khung VDC Wards No 7 and 8.

Floods swept away three houses and seven cowsheds belonging to Prem Bahadur Giri, Deva Bhandari, Dom Bahadur Giri in the remote VDC. Deva and Dom Bahadur died in the incident. Prem Bahadur’s son Ayush, 2, and 10-month-old daughter Ayusha were also killed. Mana, Prem’s 21-year-old wife was seriously injured. Another person identified as Raju Kunwar, 26, of Khung-7 is missing.

Chief District Officer Ram Bahadur Kurumbang said the rescue team is effortful to recover the bodies. The fatalities are believed to be high as the disaster struck at night.

Saturday 21 June 2014

http://www.ekantipur.com/2014/06/21/fullnews/14-killed-in-flash-floods-landslips/391118.html

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Friday 20 June 2014

Beas tragedy: 3 more bodies of students found


Three more bodies of engineering students from Hyderabad were recovered from the Beas on Thursday, bringing the total number of bodies recovered to 12. Twelve students and a co-tour guide are still missing and operation is on to search the bodies.

A body, identified as that of M Siva Prakash Verma, was found floating in the Beas at 12.35am. The other two bodies — identified as of Macharla Akhil and Ashish Mantha - one was found at Deod, 3km upstream of Pandoh dam, and another was floating in the dam, officials said.

As the students' parents, who had been camping at Pandoh since June 9, have already left for Hyderabad, Himachal government will send the bodies to their native places for cremation.

Mandi deputy commissioner Devesh Kumar said jawans of armed forces and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) are continuing with the search operation. A police official said the bodies had bloated and surfaced on their own. Teams engaged in search operation are searching for the bodies between accident site of Shalanala and Pandoh dam. After high-tech sonar system failed to detect the bodies underwater, teams have decided to wait and let the bodies come on the surface automatically.

Officials said there was a strong possibility of more bodies surfacing in the few next days. As many as 24 students and a co-tour guide were swept away in the Beas when water was released from Larji hydroelectric project without proper warning on June 8.

Friday 20 June 2014

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Beas-tragedy-3-more-bodies-of-students-found/articleshow/36844712.cms

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Mexican officials identify eight bodies from mass grave near Gulf Coast


Aided by people searching for missing relatives, Mexican officials identified on Thursday eight of 31 bodies pulled this week from a clandestine grave uncovered near Mexico´s Gulf Coast.

Mexican marines found the grave Monday on a ranch in Cosamaloapan township in the state of Veracruz. The grave is on a property formerly owned by the late mayor of a nearby town in a region dominated by Mexico's Los Zetas gang.

State officials say some of the bodies had been buried for at least six months. The investigation indicated the victims could be from surrounding communities, the officials said.

The discovery of such graves has punctuated eight years of criminal warfare in Mexico that has killed or left missing some 100,000 people. More than 340 bodies were dug from graves in the backyards of middle class homes in the state capital of western Durango two years ago. In 2011, nearly 200 bodies were recovered from pits in the town of San Fernando, about 90 miles below the South Texas border.

Officials pulled at least 70 bodies from another grave discovered last November near Lake Chapala, a resort area popular with U.S. and Canadian retirees outside the western city of Guadalajara.

This week's discovery lies not far from the oil fields of Veracruz and the neighboring Tabasco state, which Mexican officials hope will be developed by private foreign and Mexican firms. A rail line, over which train-hopping Central American migrants ride en route to the U.S., cuts through the area.

Mexican federal officials say drug-related murders have decreased by some 15% this year, compared with 2013. But critics contend warring drug-cartel rivals seem be opting to hide their victims by burying them secretly or dissolving them in acid.

Friday 20 June 2014

http://online.wsj.com/articles/mexican-officials-identify-eight-bodies-from-mass-grave-near-gulf-coast-1403215623

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14 Bodies Recovered, 63 Rescued, 20 Still Missing In Boat Incident


Fourteen people were drowned in the Sg Air Hitam boat tragedy so far, with the latest casualty a man whose body was fished out near the coast of Westport Klang at 6.30pm.

Kuala Langat OCPD Supt Azman Abdul Razak said the SAR team today recover five bodies, while a couple were rescued.

"The victims were found near the coast of Pantai Morib, Pulau Carey and Pantai Sungai Hitam.

"Out of the 14, 11 were male. So far, we have rescued 63 people, including 12 women.

"We believe that there are still 20 victims missing," he said at the Kuala Langat SAR operation centre.

Azman added that the police have yet to pronounce the missing Indonesians dead as there was still a high chance they could be alive.

The SAR effort was a collaboration between the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA), Fire and Rescue Department, marine police and Civil Defence Department.

"We have divided the search areas into five zones covering over 25 nautical miles. We may extend the search areas from time to time.

"The search will continue and our core search areas are near the coastal areas," he said.

Azman said no one has come forward to claim the bodies.

He also denied that the capsized boat was carrying smuggled items such as firearms and diesel.

"We have deployed our K-9 unit but so far have yet to find evidence of smuggling. But we know the path is one of the 10 routes frequently used by smugglers and illegal immigrants.”

On Wednesday midnight, a boat carrying 97 Indonesian nationals capsized near Sungai Air Hitam, Kuala Langat.

The boat was believed to be headed to Aceh, Indonesia.

Another boat incident involving 27 Indonesians occured in Sepang earlier today. It was travelling to Tanjung Balai when the incident happened.

Friday 20 June 2014

http://www.malaysiandigest.com/news/505782-14-bodies-recovered-63-rescued-20-still-missing-in-boat-incident.html

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Thursday 19 June 2014

India: DNA profiling for armed forces by 2020


The Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) has set 2020 as the deadline for completing its ambitious project of DNA profiling and creation of a repository of all Indian armed forces personnel.

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of living organisms. DNA profiling is accepted as the most-advanced and reliable method of establishing identity of living individuals as well as dead bodies and body remnants.

Knowing the identity of each soldier, especially those deployed in the forward and high-risk areas, is critical in case of deaths in the battlefield or in action. The profiling helps to identify the remains of the soldier.

"So far, we have completed 10% of the project work ever since the new DNA-profiling lab went functional last year in the department of forensic sciences here," AFMC director and commandant Vice Admiral Sushil Kumar said on Wednesday.

Deputy commandant and dean Maj Gen Velu Nair said, "The immediate focus is on the high-risk group such as air force pilots, submariners, naval divers, navy pilots, soldiers posted in high altitudes and glaciers and those in counter-insurgency operations. We have completed profiling of the air force pilots and are now moving in a phased manner to others in the high risk group. The project will eventually cover all personnel from army, air force and navy."

"We had to train our staff at the National Forensic Laboratory in Hyderabad and all our collected samples are going to labs in Spain for validation and verification. This is a time-consuming process but, validation is vital as we can't afford any mistakes in profiling of our armed forces personnel. So far, all our samples and findings have proved correct," said Nair.

On the ongoing research related impact of environment on the health of soldiers in high altitudes and the glaciers, he said, "The project is in the last stage and we will publish the results in a medical science journal of international repute in a year's time. Prima facie our studies, over the last two-and-a-half-year, has shown that environment directly is the trigger in 75% cases of health problems suffered by the soldiers."

"We are looking into the genetic and the ethnic part by analyzing our findings to know why it occurs. Also, the idea is to prepare a road map for the army commanders to take a call on reinduction of personnel in the glaciers after a specific period and how much do we compensate them medically," said Nair.

A total of 750 troops were taken from Jammu to higher altitudes above 9,000 ft to go through stages of acclimatization. "In Ladakh region, we actually have been going every quarterly, so far we have made six to seven trips and have checked them out physically and in the labs i.e. testing blood samples at macro and micro (molecular) levels. Later, all 750 troops go turn by turn to the glaciers for 90-day stay and on their return we screen them to look for blood changes. Thereafter, we follow them up for a year to see if they may have got mild blood pressure or a clot in the vein. These are known facts but what we don't know is why it occurs," said Nair.

Profiling Facts

The project, covering over 1.13 million soldiers from Indian Army, will include Indian air force and navy personnel too as per risk and priority factors.

A DNA profiling centre and repository, costing Rs 2.5 crore, was inaugurated at AFMC, Pune in February 2012. The repository has the facility to store blood samples for up to 21 years.

Pilot exercise involving blood samples of 100 soldiers started in November 2012 for standardizing DNA profiling systems.

Full-scale operations were stuck in the medico-legal question of whether DNA profiling will be accepted as evidence in the court of law.

Sanctions from Union ministries of law and health, recognising the authenticity of the DNA extraction and tissue-typing process were then awaited.

New centre finally went functional last year.

Defence Research and Development Organisation has provided expert scientist for the profiling centre.

Thursday 19 June 2014

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/DNA-profiling-for-armed-forces-by-2020/articleshow/36781662.cms

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Manali tragedy: One more body of a student recovered, 16 still missing


One more body of a student was recovered from Beas river on Wednesday eleven days after 25 persons, including 24 students from a Hyderabad engineering college, were swept away in the river.

Nine bodies have been recovered so far and fifteen students, including three girls and co-tour leader Prahlad, are still missing.

The swollen body floating in the river was spotted by rescue team members, who fished it out of the river.

"The swollen body surfaced near the Pandoh dam, about 12 km downstream Beas from the accident spot," Jaideep Singh, commanding officer of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), said.

"More bodies, which are in the process of bloating are likely to surface in next two or three days," he said.

Massive search operations, aided by advanced technology, were launched to locate 24 B. Tech students of VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology, Hyderabad, and a tour leader, who were washed away in Beas river on June 8 after sudden release of water from the reservoir of the Larji hydro-power project near Thalot.

Singh said one more body was recovered from the river on Wednesday, but it was not of any of the missing Hyderabad engineering students.

The rescue operations would continue to recover the remaining bodies, he added.

About 600 rescue personnel of NDRF, Army, Police, ITBP and 50 expert divers were engaged in the search along 15-km stretch of Beas river from Thalot to Pandoh Dam.

Thursday 19 June 2014

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/manali-tragedy-one-more-body-of-a-student-recovered-16-still-missing/480213-3-254.html

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Nine bodies found, 27 still missing in Carey Island boat tragedy


A search and rescue team recovered nine bodies that were believed to have drowned while another 27 are still missing when a boat carrying 97 passengers, believed to be Indonesians, capsized about two nautical miles from Sungai Air Hitam, near Carey Island, here.

As of 7pm, 61 passengers have been rescued.

Selangor Fire and Rescue Department assistant director of operations Sani Harul said the nine bodies comprised seven men and two women.

"Their bodies were found floating near the shores while 61 others were rescued. The search and rescue operation will continue, since another 27 have not been accounted for.

"The number may be more or less because there is no record of those on the boat," he told reporters here today adding that the search area had been extended to about five kilometres from the shores of Pantai Sungai Air Hitam.

"The search and rescue operation will continue throughout the night if the weather permits," he said.

Sani said 160 personnel, a helicopter from the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) and another from the Royal Malaysian Police were involved in the search and rescue operation.

"The search and rescue operation also involves seven fishing boats, five from MMEA, three from the Malaysian Civil Defence Department, three from the Fire and Rescue Department and one from the Marine Police," he said.

The boat carrying 97 passengers was believed to have left the Sungai Judah jetty in Carey Island at about 11pm and capsized about an hour later.

MERS 999 received a distress call at 12.20am and by 3.20am, the Customs at the Jetty Restoran Viking, Jugra found 31 victims and taken in for investigations.

At 10.30am, another 30 were found at Ladang West, Carey Island while the first body was spotted near a dredging vessel in Sungai Langat at 10.55am before another two bodies were found at 2.15pm near Tanjung Rhu and Carey Island.

At 3pm, the fourth body was found in the Carey Island waters while two more bodies were found 10 minutes later near Air Hitam and two hours later another body was found in Tanjung Rhu waters.

Sani said at 6pm another body was found in Tanjung Rhu while the ninth body was found at 6.20pm at Pantai Bangkong, Carey Island.

Meanwhile, Selangor Police Chief Datuk Abdul Samah Mat said the boat capsized because it was overloaded.

"The boat which can only ferry 40 passengers had cramped in 97 passengers and headed to Tanjung Balai, Sumatera," he said.

Police will carry out a thorough investigation because it involved elements of human trafficking, he said.

Thursday 19 June 2014

http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v7/ge/newsgeneral.php?id=1047511

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Mass grave containing 28 bodies discovered in eastern Mexico


At least 28 bodies have been recovered from a mass grave in Veracruz, an eastern Mexican state plagued by attacks on migrants and drug cartel violence.

The state government said officials had found the grave on a ranch outside the town of Tres Valles. It said investigators were still excavating the grave, but did not release any more details. A local newspaper reported that marines had found the bodies after spotting vultures on a dirt road.

The area was being guarded by federal and state police forces, while people with missing relatives or friends began arriving at the offices of state authorities in Tres Valles to see if their loved ones were among the victims. Investigators were looking for more bodies on the ranch, which is known as El Diamante.

On Monday, authorities found seven bodies in a grave in the nearby town of Cosamaloapan. Authorities said the victims were all members of one family from Tres Valles.

The Gulf Coast state of Veracruz has suffered years of fighting between the Zetas drug cartel and its rivals. It is also crossed by tens of thousands of Central American migrants heading towards the US each year.

Officials have discovered a series of mass graves around Mexico in recent years, several filled with the bodies of migrants killed by the gangs that control profitable migrant-smuggling routes.

One of the largest single mass graves was discovered in 2010 in Tamaulipas state. It contained the bodies of 72 migrants, who authorities said had been killed by members of the Zetas, angry that the victims had declined to work for the cartel.

Thursday 19 June 2014

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/19/mass-grave-discovered-eastern-mexico-veracruz

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US army recovers bodies of 1952 crash victims


The remains of about a third of the service members who died when their military transport plane crashed into an Alaska mountain and then was buried for decades in glacier ice have been identified, military officials said Wednesday.

The Department of Defense released the identities of 17 people onboard the C-124 Globemaster, which crashed in 1952, and said the remains will be returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

The first burial is believed to be planned for Saturday in Caney, Kansas, for Army Pvt. Leonard A. Kittle, said Tonja Anderson-Dell, a Tampa, Florida, woman who has researched the crash for years.

Her interest was stoked about the crash when her grandmother, now deceased, told her details of her grandfather, Isaac Anderson, 21, who died when the plane hit the mountain on Nov. 22, 1952. Anderson-Dell also maintains a Facebook page about the crash and recovery efforts.

The identifications were bittersweet for her because her grandfather wasn't among them.

"He wasn't part of the ones that will be coming home," she told The Associated Press by telephone Wednesday. "However, I am still happy for the families that are bringing their servicemen home."

The plane from McChord Air Force Base, Washington, was headed to Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage when it went down with 52 crew members and passengers aboard.

Efforts to reach the crash site immediately after the crash were halted by bad weather. Days later, a member of the Fairbanks Civil Air Patrol, along with a member of the 10th Air Rescue Squadron, landed at a glacier and positively identified the wreckage as the Globemaster.

"In late November and early December 1952, search parties were unable to locate and recover any of the service members," the Department of Defense said in a statement.

The civil air patrol member was Terris Moore, president of the University of Alaska. He later told reporters the plane "obviously was flying at full speed" when it hit Mount Gannett, sliding down the snow-covered cliffs, exploding and disintegrating over 2 or 3 acres, according to an Associated Press story from the time.

The heavy transport plane with 41 passengers and 11 crew members became buried in snow and likely churned beneath the surface of the glacier for decades. The Alaska National Guard discovered the wreckage in June 2012 on Colony Glacier, about 40 miles east of Anchorage.

An eight-man Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command recovered materials such as a life-support system from the wreckage and possible bones from the glacier two summers ago, and took the evidence to the command's lab in Hawaii for analysis. Last year, additional artifacts were visible.

Military officials said in a release that the remaining 35 service members have not yet been recovered from the wreckage, and the site will be monitored for possible future recovery efforts. Further details were not immediately available from a military spokeswoman who didn't return a message to The Associated Press.

Anderson-Dell said it is her understanding the military will continue to fly over the area to see if the glacier has given up any additional material from the wreckage.

Thursday 19 June 2014

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/military-identifies-17-killed-in-1952-alaska-crash/

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Wednesday 18 June 2014

18 bodies retrieved from Tokroanu boat disaster


total of 18 bodies have been retrieved from the Volta Lake following a boat accident that occurred near Tokroanu in the Krachi-East district last Saturday.

Ten bodies were retrieved on Saturday, June 14 whilst eight of them were retrieved on Monday, June 16.

Twenty-three of the passengers on board were rescued with nine bodies still missing and yet to be found in the lake.

According to the Krachi-East District Commander of the Ghana Police Service, Superintendent Jordan Quaye, 10 bodies were retrieved on Saturday, June 14, with eight retrieved on Monday, June 16.

He disclosed that 19 adults and four children were rescued after the disaster struck last Saturday.

The dead bodies have been deposited at the Worawora Evangelical Presbyterian hospital.

A total number of 50, comprising 30 adults and 20 children were on board when the boat struck a tree stump and capsized.

They were said to be travelling from Ayafi-Battor to Kissiekope near Tokroanu when the accident occurred.

Wednesday 18 June 2014

http://www.gbcghana.com/1.1761114

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8 people dead, 28 missing as boat carrying Indonesians sinks off Malaysia; 61 survivors found


An overcrowded wooden boat carrying Indonesians home in a storm sank in choppy seas off Malaysia's west coast early Wednesday, leaving 28 people missing and eight dead, Malaysian officials said. At least 61 people survived.

The boat capsized shortly after midnight about 2 nautical miles (3.7 kilometres) from shore on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur while trying to leave Malaysia illegally for Aceh province in Indonesia, maritime agency official Mohamad Hambali Yaakup said.

Tens of thousands of Indonesians work without legal permits in plantations and other industries in Malaysia, and they travel between the countries by crossing the narrow Strait of Malacca, often in poorly equipped boats.

The passengers in the boat that sank were believed to be heading home before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Hambali said survivors were rescued at sea and found on land after swimming to safety; they included 12 women and a child. Those dead were a woman and seven men, he added.

The survivors were being questioned by police and immigration authorities, and Indonesian embassy officials were also on the scene. A rescue department photo showed about two dozen survivors, who had little belongings with them, sitting outside a building.

Hambali said a ship and several boats with search lights will continue to search for further survivors throughout the night. A helicopter, which earlier scoured the sea, will stop for the night and resume searching Thursday, he said.

Rescuers were seen recovering a body from sea, laying the dead onto a boat desk and carrying a body on land in Pantai Kelanang, near the sinking.

Police Superintendent Azman Abdul Razak said 100 personnel were involved in the rescue effort.

Hambali said authorities are still investigating why the boat sank but rough seas and an overloaded boat could have been factors. It could also have hit an object as some survivors claimed the boat was leaking, he said. Police told local media the boat capsized during a storm.

He said chances of survival for more than 24 hours without a life vest were very slim.

The boat's capacity was 50-60 people, but it was believed to be carrying 97. Hambali said some survivors may have swum to shore and gone into hiding.

Such incidents are common in Malaysia, which has up to 2 million Indonesian migrants. Many sneak into neighbouring Malaysia for menial work such as plantation or construction workers and return home on boats believed to be old and unsafe.

Wednesday 18 June 2014

http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/news/world_news/article_9e004efe-da5c-52f9-b4a1-18048f8cd522.html

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Monday 16 June 2014

At least 20 die in bus accident in Venezuela


At least 20 people were killed and 10 others injured Monday when a bus ran off the road and struck a tree in the central state of Miranda, Venezuelan authorities said.

"Up to now we have the unfortunate number of 20 people killed and 10 people injured - we're waiting for the list identifying these people," the emergency management services director of Miranda, Victor Lira, said on Union Radio.

Lira said the accident occurred around 4:30 a.m. when the driver of the bus coming from the western city of Barquisimeto lost control and "hit the highway's dividing strip and then collided with a fixed object, a tree," for causes as yet unknown.

He said that fire rescue personnel worked from the early hours of the morning at the scene of the accident, located according to media accounts on the expressway between Caracas and Valencia, to free a number of people who were trapped in the wreckage.

Traffic remained blocked for several hours on the expressway, Venezuela's main east-west route.

This was one of the worst accidents to occur in Venezuela, where a number of collisions with multiple fatalities have taken place in recent years.

In July 2013, 16 people died and 33 were injured when a truck and a bus crashed in the central state of Guarico, while in April 2012 a collision of buses near the eastern city of Barcelona left 14 dead and 22 injured.

Monday 16 June 2014

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2014/06/16/at-least-20-die-in-bus-accident-in-venezuela/

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11 tourists killed, 45 injured in Himachal bus accident


At least 11 tourists were killed and 45 others injured when a private bus skidded off the road and rolled down a gorge in Himachal Pradesh’s Sirmaur district Monday evening, police said.

A majority of the tourists were from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

Officials said the toll could increase as some more passengers might be trapped in the bus wreckage.

The bus carried around 60 tourists and was on its way from Renuka to Paonta Sahib in the hill state.

It met with the accident near Madhara Ghat, some 15 km from Renuka and 50 km from district headquarters Nahan, Assistant Superintendent of Police B.S. Thakur told IANS.

The cause of the accident is yet to be ascertained, he said over phone from the spot.

The injured were admitted to government hospitals in Nahan, Paonta Sahib and Dadhau.

Witnesses said police had a tough time extricating the bodies from the mangled steel of the bus.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh expressed shock and grief over the accident and directed the district administration to take all possible measures to rescue the victims and provide them adequate relief.

Monday 16 June 2014

http://odishasuntimes.com/63601/11-tourists-killed-45-injured-himachal-bus-accident/

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17 more skeletons found near Kedarnath valley

A special task force (STF), comprising 22 members, recovered 17 more skeletons from the Jungle Chatti and Rambara forest areas near the Kedarnath valley in Rudrapryag district on Sunday, just four days after 17 were recovered.

The team, led by DIG G S Martolia and Ajay Kotiyal from the Uttarkashi-based Nehru Mountaineering Institute, recovered nine skeletons from the Jungle Chatti area and eight from the Rambara area. They are believed to be of people who panicked and ran to higher regions for refuge during the flash floods in June last year.

The intensive combing operation was launched on Wednesday.

Members of the STF told TOI since the exact number of those who went missing and were killed during the disaster could not be ascertained, the possibility of recovering even more skeletons from the forest areas between Gaurikund to Kedarnath cannot be ruled out. "Our combing operation is on and will continue till all skeletons are found," said DIG G S Martolia.

An STF officer added that the skeletons were cremated after their teeth were sent to the Dehradun forensic laboratory for DNA and other related tests to ascertain their identities.

Meanwhile, the Congress-led Harish Rawat government in the state has constituted an 18-member combined task force, headed by IPS officer Sanjay Gunjyal, to intensify efforts through a 20-day long search operation for more skeletons in the region. "This new task force will help recover more skeletons from the region within the next couple of days," said chief secretary Subhash Kumar.

A combined search team had recovered about 350 rotten bodies from places in high altitudes two months after the catastrophe in the Kedarnath valley in mid-June last year. The bodies were cremated post DNA tests.

Monday 16 June 2014

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/17-more-skeletons-found-near-Kedarnath-valley/articleshow/36619114.cms

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The many would-be immigrants missing in the Mediterranean Sea


Every year tens of thousands of people leave poor, war-torn countries to seek better fortunes in Europe. Many risk dangerous sea voyages for the chance to improve their lives, but a huge percentage die as a result.

The number of fatalities is horrific enough, but what’s even worse is that their bodies are often not recovered.

Some who are trying to reach Europe from Africa, the Middle East or Asia do so by land via Turkey, but the majority braves the waters, often with deadly consequences.

Between 2000 and 2013, an estimated 23,000 men, women and children died trying to reach the continent. Most were drowning victims.

That number of fatalities is horrific enough, but what’s even worse is that their bodies are often not recovered, their deaths go undocumented and their families are never notified.

Journalists and activists alarmed by the trend formed a team to conduct the broadest study to date on migration deaths, gathering data and cross-referencing public and non-governmental records. The result? “The Migrant Files,” an interactive online database and map that detail Europe-bound migrant deaths.

And the trend is growing more deadly each year. According to Danielle Grasso, who worked on “The Migrant Files,” one out of every 200 people who tried reaching Greece and Turkey by boat in 2010 died — and by 2012, the number had jumped to one out of every 30 people. Stronger anti-immigration policies in Europe, coupled with tighter land border controls between Greece and Turkey, have helped boost the popularity of these dangerous sea routes.

Despite the high human cost, this issue only grabs headlines if a large boat sinks as it did last October, when 360 would-be emigrants perished off the coast of Lampedusa, Italy’s southernmost territory.

The waters surrounding this small island have seen nearly 4,500 hundred deaths since 2000. Locals are making great efforts to help the thousands who do make it to shore — so much so that Lampedusa was a 2014 Nobel Peace Price nominee for “showing a unique ability to express empathy and solidarity.”

Following the October tragedy, the EU vowed to take action. “The European Union cannot accept that thousands of people die at its borders,” said Josรฉ Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission.

Two months later, the EU launched EUROSUR, a new approach to patrolling Europe’s external borders, focused on intelligence gathering and faster information exchange between agencies, that aims to stem the tide of illegal immigrants while “reducing the death toll by rescuing more lives at sea.”

So far, no member state or European body has come up with a way to quantify the exact number of migrants killed in transit.

But there’s a clear tension between the EU’s vow to save lives and its commitment to stop the flow of people. After all, strong border control is partly what pushes migrants to risk their lives at sea in the first place.

So far, no member state or European body has come up with a way to quantify the exact number of migrants killed in transit. Frontex, the European agency in charge of border control, collects statistics on “lives saved” by European rescue missions — but not on lives lost.

Countries of origin are also trying to stop their citizens from embarking on perilous journeys by coordinating with Europe. At a recent EU-Africa summit, European and African leaders drew up a plan to facilitate legal immigration, promote economic development and fight the traffickers.

While both continents do what they can to stem the tide of people setting off on treacherous journeys, thousands of families in countries like Morocco, Syria, Senegal and Nigeria will forever wonder whether their loved ones found better lives in Europe — or died trying.

Monday 16 June 2014

http://www.ozy.com/acumen/the-many-would-be-immigrants-missing-in-the-mediterranean-sea/32039.article

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High-tech equipment fails to locate missing bodies in Beas


The massive search operations to trace bodies of Hyderabad engineering students yielded no result on Sunday, even as high-tech echo sounder device and remote sensing equipments were used to scan the Beas riverbed. The search operation began at 6am.

The rescue teams deployed a sides can SONAR (Sound Navigation and Ranging) to capture the images of the riverbed.

“The device showed good images but no bodies could be located,” said Jaideep Singh, commandant national disaster response force (NDRF), adding, the bodies were probably buried under thick layer of silt.

Lt Comnd of Indian Navy Hydrographers Bhoj Raj and PO Ratheesh scanned a stretch of 10 km from Pandoh Dam to the upstream using the device. The device was able to locate two carcasses but they were of some animals.

The search operation was carried out in two phases, scanning 5 km stretch each time. The rescue teams involving over 600 personnel of NDRF, Shastra Seema Bal (SSB), Indo- Tibet Border Police (ITBP), Navy, Army and state police had recovered eight bodies in the first four days of the search operation.

However, there is no significant headway since then as no bodies have been traced in the last three days. A special search operation to trace the bodies by drying up the Beas, by closing the sluice gates of Larji and Parbati- III power project on Saturday, also proved unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, a seven members team of Banglore- based Geokno India Private Ltd, led by manager Sunder Raj, also joined the search operation and had deployed its underwater light detection and ranging (LiDAR) to trace the bodies.

The team has scanned more than 5-km stretch from Pandoh reservoir to upstream to get the images of the riverbed and the data collected would be analysed later.

At least 25 persons, including students of Hyderabadbased engineering college were swept away in the Beas River at Thalout near Mandi on June 8.

Monday 16 June 2014

http://www.hindustantimes.com/punjab/chandigarh/high-tech-equipment-fails-to-locate-missing-bodies-in-beas/article1-1229924.aspx

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Friday 13 June 2014

Rescuers found bodies of seven miners in Donetsk region, 2 missing


Rescuers have found bodies of seven workers who died in an explosion in a mine near the city of Kirovsk (the Donetsk region), Ukraine’s emergency situations service reported on Friday.

Two miners are missing, the service says. The search and rescue operation is underway.

The explosion occurred at night on June 12 at the depth of 300 meters, where nine miners were working.

A colliery explosion occurred in the town of Kirovskoye, the Donetsk Region of Ukraine, RIA Novosti reports with reference to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.

The agency specifies that nine miners stayed down at the moment of the explosion. Their fate is unknown.

It is reported that the gas-air mixture burst at 3:39 am (4:39 am Moscow time) on 12 June at the depth of 300 metres. No fire outbreak followed.

Operations in the mine have been currently suspended.

Friday 13 June 2014

http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_06_13/Bodies-of-seven-miners-found-in-Donetsk-region-5459/

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12 bodies still missing in S Korea ferry disaster


The rescue team searching for bodies inside South Korea’s sunken ferry has made no progress for finding 12 bodies still trapped within the ship.

Twelve bodies are still missing, out of which four are believed to be trapped in the third and eight in the fourth decks.

The last body was found on Sunday, bringing the number of victims to 292.

Rescue forces, including navy, coast guard and civilian divers, hoped to find the remaining bodies more quickly after removing the debris from the hull.

It is also expected that bad weather and strong underwater currents further impede the search in next days.

The lack of a common understanding among different groups engaged in the search operation has led to the withdrawal of some civilian divers, adding to the concerns of family members of those missing.

"There had been some misunderstanding among different players, but we are trying to close the gap. And all divers are now joining again and doing their best to find the missing," an official said.

The ferry capsized off South Korea’s southern coast while carrying 476 people, out of which 325 were students from a high school in the city of Ansan, just south of the capital, Seoul.

The government has faced widespread disapproval for its handling of the disaster and the rescue effort. Critics say valuable time was wasted during the first emergency call from a passenger to the coast guard office.

Friday 13 June 2014

http://en.apa.az/xeber_12_bodies_still_missing_in_s_korea_ferry_212646.html

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Thursday 12 June 2014

Manali dam disaster: Two more bodies recovered from Beas; 13 students still missing


Two more bodies of engineering students from Hyderabad were retrieved on Thursday from the Beas river in Himachal Pradesh as the search operations gained momentum with 15 Indian Navy divers helping out.

The victims were identified as T Upendra and Gomoor Arvind Kumar by their parents, Superintendent of Police Mandi R S Negi said. The bodies were trapped in rocks and rescue teams had a tough time retrieving them, he said.

With this, the number of bodies recovered during the last four days has risen to eight, while efforts continue to trace the remaining sixteen students and a co-tour leader.

The bodies of five boys and three girls have been recovered so far and 13 boys and three girls are missing.

Meanwhile, 15 divers of the Navy joined the rescue team and an unmanned aerial vehicle has also been deployed to accelerate the search operations.

With the melting of snow in higher hills, the discharge of water in the river has increased and over 550 rescue workers from various agencies under the supervision of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) are already engaged in the massive search operations.

National Disaster Management Authority vice chairman M Shashidhar Reddy, who reached the accident site to oversee the rescue operations, said that two more bodies were recovered from the river today.

"Our divers are facing the problem of poor visibility, the river bed is full of silt and huge boulders and rock are acting as impediments and it is only through 'feel' that the bodies are being recognised," Reddy said.

"The underwater camera did not make much success (due to muddy water) and now we are going to deploy a UAE (unmanned aerial vehicle) that will continuously recce the entire area of operation," he added.

Thursday 12 June 2014

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/manali-tragedy-two-more-bodies-recovered-from-beas-13-students-still-missing/478618-3-254.html

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Wednesday 11 June 2014

Mass grave from Peru's 1980-2000 conflict exhumed


Forensic teams have begun the long-delayed exhumation of members of an Amazon tribe that suffered devastating losses during Peru's 1980-2000 conflict with Shining Path rebels.

The first body, unearthed over the weekend, wore the standard ocher robe of the Ashaninka, said Ivan Rivasplata, leader of the forensic anthropologists from the Peruvian Prosecutor's Office engaged in the mission with army escorts.

He said in Lima that the team hoped to exhume about 130 bodies from five common graves in two communities in the Apurimac, Ene, and Mantaro River valleys, where remnants of the Shining Path continue to exert influence, living off a vibrant cocaine trade.

About 6,000 Ashaninka were killed, 5,000 enslaved, and 10,000 forcibly displaced by the Shining Path during the conflict.

Wednesday 11 June 2014

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/20140611_PERU.html

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Beas river tragedy: Sixth body pulled out, search operation on


Rescuers on Wednesday pulled out the sixth body from the Beas river here, two days after 24 students and a tour operator were swept away in strong currents following release of water from the Larji Dam upstream.

The massive search operation to locate the missing entered into the third day today.

Five bodies had been recovered till yesterday.

Officials said chances of recovering any survivor of the tragedy that struck Sunday evening were bleak.

Jaideep Singh, commanding officer of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), told IANS: "A massive search operation is on the river stretch from the accident spot to the Pandoh dam."

"A team of 84 people, comprising 20 divers of NDRF, were on the job," he said.

The Army has also deployed a team of 18 divers.

Singh said, "It seemed that most of the bodies are either trapped under the boulders or sank in the silt.

"There are few chances of bodies flowing beyond the Pandoh dam. We are regulating the outflow from the dam and expect that the swollen bodies may start surfacing tomorrow (Thursday) or day after (Friday)," he added.

The body of the fifth victim Devashish Bose was flown to Hyderabad Tuesday evening.

More than 60 students and faculty members of the VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology in Hyderabad were on an excursion to Manali.

Some of them were getting themselves photographed on the bank of the river Sunday evening when a wall of water washed them away.

"The river level suddenly increased due to release of water from the Larji hydropower project dam, located near the accident spot, without warning," witnesses said.

The accident spot is located some 200 km from Shimla and on the border of Kullu and Mandi districts.

Wednesday 11 June 2014

http://zeenews.india.com/news/himachal-pradesh/beas-river-tragedy-sixth-body-pulled-out-search-operation-on_938664.html

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