Monday 19 May 2014

At least 23 dead, 18 injured in Brazil bus accident


A bus accident on a federal highway in the city of Caninde, in the northeastern Brazilian state of Ceara, left 23 people dead and 18 injured, authorities said.

The injured, most of whom were seriously hurt, were evacuated to two nearby hospitals, spokespeople with the Federal Highway Police told Efe.

Every one of the 41 occupants of the vehicle – 39 passengers, the driver and another employee of the Princesa do Inhamuns bus company, was hurt or killed in the crash.

The bus overturned as it was trying to avoid hitting a motorcycle that had quickly passed it but then suddenly applied the brakes, the driver – who was only slightly injured – told police.

The accident occurred about 8:45 a.m. (1145 GMT) at Kilometer 303 on the BR-020 federal highway, some 120 kilometers (74 miles) south of Fortaleza, the capital of Ceara.

The bus was making its regular run between the town of Boa Viagem, which it had left at 7 a.m. (1000 GMT) and Fortaleza, where it had been scheduled to arrive at 11:20 a.m. (1420 GMT).

The driver, whom authorities did not identify, was given a breathalyzer test, which came back negative for alcohol.

The removal of the bodies from the accident scene was delayed due to the lack of enough mortuary vehicles, the Highway Police said in a communique.

Monday 19 May 2014

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=2228449&CategoryId=14090

continue reading

At least 26 children killed in Colombia bus fire


At least 26 people, most believed to be children, were killed in northern Colombia when the bus they were travelling in caught fire. The accident happened on Sunday near the town of Fundacion near the Carribean coast in Colombia's Magdalena department, authorities said.

According to the mayor of the town of Fundacion, Luz Stella Daran, 40 to 50 children had been travelling on the bus. The burned bodies of 26 children had been recovered. Around 14 other children were injured and are being treated at nearby hospitals. There are worries that the death toll could rise, Magdalena police chief Adan Leon is reported to have told the local radio station.

It is not yet clear how the fire started, but the authorities will be conducting further investigations to determine the causes of the tragedy.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos expressed his condolences about the bus tragedy on his Twitter account right after the accident, when the death told stood at 15. "We deeply regret the accident occurred in Fundacion, Magdalena, where at least 15 people have been killed according to the latest information," the head of state posted on the social network.

Meanwhile, Bogota's daily El Tiempo said 31 children have been killed in the accident, but this number has not been officially confirmed.

Monday 19 May 2014

http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report-at-least-26-children-killed-in-colombia-bus-fire-1989634

continue reading

Glacier giving up remains of 1952 Air Force plane crash


The Colony Glacier in Alaska is giving up the dead it has held in a frozen grave for 62 years.

Little by little, the monster slab of ice is grinding out the remnants of an Air Force C-124A Globemaster, a military transport airplane that was Korea-bound on Nov. 22, 1952, when it crashed into the side of Mount Gannett, about 40 miles east of Anchorage.

The wreckage, along with the remains of 52 servicemen, slid into the glacier next to the mountain. Recovery efforts never got into high gear because of a rugged winter that year. It wasn’t long before the glacier claimed the aircraft and its passengers.

Two years ago, the glacier began churning up pieces of the wreckage — 12 miles from the crash site — and the debris was spotted by the crew of an Alaska National Guard Black Hawk helicopter on a training mission.

Now the military has collected some human remains and matched DNA samples with descendants of the killed servicemen. In late April, more than six decades after the crash, the government began sending families notifications of the positive identifications. Long overdue funeral services are being planned.

And yet, Tonja Anderson-Dell, 43, of Tampa, waits. She spearheaded online a social media charge to find and recover the remains and wreckage on behalf of the relatives of the servicemen on that plane. Her grandfather, Isaac Anderson, then 21 and in the Air Force for less than two years, was among the passengers who perished in the crash. He left behind a 20-year-old wife, Dorothy, and an 18-month old son, Isaac Jr., Anderson-Dell’s father.

Though she’s made connections with most of the families of those soldiers, and she’s happy for their closure in this matter, Anderson-Dell is anguished that her grandfather’s remains have not yet been found.

“Oh, yes,” she said. “It’s overwhelming. I’m praying for that day right now. But I’m still focused on a lot of the families. Many have asked me to attend funeral services for their relatives.”

In the beginning, Anderson-Dell thought she was the only relative asking about the plane. She built a Facebook page and began contacting families of other victims. Together, they kept track of progress.

In September 2012, she went to the site where the wreckage emerged and met with the crew who first spotted the aircraft and looked over the containers of recovered aircraft parts.

There was a bin of personal artifacts, including dog tags, Social Security cards and wallets with money still in them. “I got a chance to hold some of the pieces taken from the crash site,” she said.

The military even sent some small pieces of the aircraft to families as keepsakes, including Anderson-Dell, who said her piece of the Globemaster still smelled of diesel fuel after 60-plus years under ice.

She’s been on this mission for a decade and a half, starting out petitioning the military for a flag to be presented to her grandmother. The flag eventually was awarded to the family, but her grandmother died shortly before the ceremony, held at MacDill Air Force Base.

Over the past two years, recovery crews made trips to the crash site whenever pieces of wreckage surfaced and collected whatever they saw. Remains of 19 servicemen were found; DNA tests were conducted. A few weeks ago, the military sent notifications to those families in which remains of their ancestor had been positively identified.

“We are all quite shocked at how emotional it really is,” said Kathy Evans Naughton of Fort Lauderdale, whose uncle, Thomas Lyons, died on that flight. Her family got word two weeks ago that his remains had been identified.

“The picture in our house,” she said, “just became a young boy again.”

Growing up, she said, there were photographs in the house of Lyons in his military uniform.

“We knew there was a plane crash and there were letters to my grandmother from the military,” she said. “We knew all that stuff was in her hope chest.”

Her family submitted a DNA sample a couple of years ago but didn’t think her uncle’s remains would ever be recovered.

“We were not very hopeful it ever would happen, but then the military called out of the blue,” she said.

Though her grandmother lived to be 101, she died three months before they found the plane, Naughton said.

Next week, the family is expecting a knock on the door. Thomas Lyons’ personal effects will be hand-delivered. They include a wallet with everything in it and a notebook.

In a couple of months’ time, Naughton said, a military funeral service will take place in Lake Worth.

“I’m extremely relieved, but it’s bittersweet for my mom (Lyons’ sister),” she said. “She was 14 when he died. He was 19. She’s now reliving the whole experience.”

The job of gathering DNA samples from surviving family members and matching those samples with remains found at the crash site lies with the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, which conducts searches all over the world for missing or unaccounted for servicemen and women.

Lee Tucker, the command’s spokesman, said remains of the 19 bodies were taken to the Hawaii headquarters and tested.

He said search teams have made and will continue to make trips to the glacier when new bits of wreckage surface.

“We went there for an excavation the first year and recovered everything we could from the ice,” he said. “Then, fast forward 11 months later, and there’s more. We sent a team again. And we’re in preparation right now to send a recovery team out there again.”

Tucker said because the remains were under ice for 60 years, they are well preserved. “It definitely helps,” he said. “It makes it favorable for us to do quality testing.”

Last year, Anderson-Dell submitted paperwork with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources to name the unnamed Mount Gannett peak where the plane crashed Globemaster Peak. The proposal successfully made its way through the appropriate state agencies and has been approved by the U.S. Geological Survey.

“The naming of this peak means a lot to me because there is a great possibility that not all our loved ones will return home (my grandfather included),” Anderson-Dell wrote on the website letting the surviving families know about her efforts. “To know that Globemaster Peak will now be forever changed in honor of our 52 servicemen is priceless.”

“I started off just trying to get a flag for my grandmother,” she said in a telephone interview this week, “and now, I’m ending up with the naming of a peak.”

Monday 19 May 2014

http://www.stripes.com/news/us/glacier-giving-up-remains-of-1952-air-force-plane-crash-1.283712

continue reading

Another body recovered from Meghna launch capsize


Another dead body was recovered from the Meghna River on Sunday, four days after passenger vessel MV Miraj-4 sank at Munshiganj’s Gazaria.

Gazaria UNO ATM Mahbub Karim in the evening said the body of a male passenger was found floating on the river nearly one kilometre south of the scene of accident.

The man was yet to be identified, he added. The latest recovery has taken the death toll to 56.

The local administration is still contuining search for the rest of the passengers missing.

The inquiry team, which visited the spot on Sunday, said the substitute master of the launch was at the helm when it capsized Thursday evening with over 200 passengers on board.

It was caught in a storm near Gazaria’s Doulatpur.

The chief master was on leave, said AFM Sirajul Islam, Chief Engineer at Department of Shipping and head of the investigation committee.

The stand-in master has also died in the accident.

Earlier, 55 bodies were recovered and handed over to their families.

But families of those missing are waiting at the bank of Meghna to find their loved ones even after four days.

However, Munshiganj Superintendent of Police Md Jakir Hossain Majumder said no case was filed over the accident, though it was an offence under the criminal law.

But no passengers or their relatives or BIWTA had lodged any case until now.

Majumder said they would wait another day and if no one filed a complaint, police would lodge a case at Gazaria, he added.

Monday 19 May 2014

http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2014/05/19/another-body-recovered-from-meghna-launch-capsize

continue reading

Bodies to be exhumed from Kitengela mass grave

Government pathologist Johanson Oduor says bodies and body parts from two mass graves discovered in Kitengela on Friday, will be exhumed today, Monday morning.

There are fears that more bodies could be found buried in the mass grave.

Up until now, the bodies lying in the mass graves have not been identified yet. According to the county commissioner, about five families have come forward to report missing persons.

Kajiado county commissioner Albert Kobia has revealed that the bizarre murders resulted from an ongoing land dispute at Noon-Kopir area.

Kobia is blaming illegal land brokers for defrauding people into purchasing land in the area, leading to such deadly rows.

The 5,000 acres of land and another 10,000 within Kitengela Township are at the centre of deadly retaliatory attacks.

The land is said to belong to a cement manufacturing company.

The county commissioner has criticized the management of the factory for allegedly contributing to the crisis due to their inaction.

The county authorities have vowed to bring to book all the cartels in Kajiado County, who are illegally dealing in land and are being blamed for the mystery killings.

Monday 19 May 2014

http://www.citizennews.co.ke/news/2012/local/item/19377-bodies-to-be-exhumed-from-kitengela-mass-grave

continue reading

Death toll rises as worst floods in over a century hit Balkans

More than two dozen people are feared dead in Bosnia-Hercegovina and Serbia after the worst floods in more than a century.

Tens of thousands have fled their homes as several months of rain fell in a few days and rivers burst their banks. Landslides have buried houses.

In one Bosnian town alone, Doboj, the mayor said more than 20 bodies had been taken to the mortuary.

In Serbia, an outer suburb of the capital Belgrade has been inundated.

"More than 20 corpses have so far been brought to the city's morgue," the mayor of Doboj, in the north-east, was quoted as saying.

The republic's police chief, Gojko Vasic, said the situation had been particularly difficult in Doboj "because the flood waters acted as a tsunami, three to four metres high. No-one could have resisted."

Observed from the air, almost a third of Bosnia, mostly its north-east corner, resembled a huge muddy lake, with houses, roads and rail lines submerged, the Associated Press reports.

According to a spokesman for Bosnia's Security Ministry, about a million people - more than a quarter of the country's population - live in the affected area.

One of the worst-hit areas in Bosnia is the eastern town of Bijeljina where rescue teams are trying to transport 10,000 people to safety.

Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic told reporters the first bodies had been recovered in Obrenovac, the worst-hit area to the south-west of the capital, and he feared more would be found.

But he said the number of deaths would not be made public until the waters had receded.

In Bosnia, a third of the country is under water, mostly in northern and eastern areas. A quarter of the four million population live in the affected areas.

At least 19 people have died in the flooding, which has also led to the displacement of landmines.

Heavy landslides have moved landmines and minefields from the 1992-95 war and warning signs at some 9,000 spots.

It is estimated that some 120,000 landmines remain in Bosnia.

About 600 people have been killed by mines in the country since 1995.

Sarajevo Mine Action Centre official Sasa Obradovic said: "Besides the mines, a lot of weapons were thrown into the rivers, lying idle for almost 20 years."

Croatia is also fighting to cope with the effects of the flooding, with two confirmed deaths and earth walls being built along the Sava and Danube rivers.

In Serbia, 12 bodies were recovered in the flooded town of Obrenovac, about 20 miles south-west of the capital, Belgrade.

"What happened to us happens once in a thousand years," Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said at a press conference yesterday.

"We have managed to avoid the worst catastrophe thanks to good organisation.

"The end is not close, but today is much better than yesterday."

The countries stand along the Sava river. Its swollen tributaries made bridges disappear in minutes, while roads and railways were cut within hours. The tops of traffic signs were just visible yesterday under three or four metres of water.

Monday 19 May 2014

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/death-toll-rises-as-worst-floods-in-over-a-century-hit-balkans-1.1800380

continue reading