15 teenagers feared dead as boat capsizes in Kano

The city of Kano was thrown into mourning on Tuesday following the death of 15 teenagers in a boat mishap at Jobawa village, Garin Mallam Local Government Area of the state.

The children, who were mostly girls between the ages of 8 and 14, were said to be on a trading mission when their ferry-boat had an encounter with storm and capsized.

It was gathered that the young girls boarded the boat to cross the river from a suburb called Lanjan to the Jobawa village, to supply cassava for sale at Garin Mallam town.

A Community leader at Jobawa village, who identified himself as Utubatu Yaro, told newsmen that the incident occurred Monday evening when a violent rainstorm shook the boat and forced it to capsize with the teenage girls on board.

Utubatu Yard explained that “they normally come here to supply cassava for sale around Garin Mallam town”, adding that “they don’t normally stay up to evening time, but because God has destined the incident, they were here until Magrib (evening prayer).

He added that “there was a violent rainstorm on their departure, and I suspect it was the excessive rain that fell into the boat as well as the storm that overturned the boat.

Yaro disclosed that “we have been able to find the bodies of nine of them, and we are searching for the bodies of the remaining”.

The acting Police Public Relations officer, DSP Mustapha Abubakar confirmed that 15 girls were involved in the boat mishap, adding that five had been rescued, while ten were still missing.

Tuesday 14 October 2014

http://dailypost.ng/2014/10/14/15-teenagers-feared-dead-boat-capsizes-kano/

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MH17 victims’ belongings recovered from Ukraine crash site

Four Dutch experts and local emergency services made a start on Monday recovering personal belongings from the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in east Ukraine, carting away boxes of personal possessions despite fighting nearby.

But the leader of the Dutch team co-ordinating the repatriation mission said the aim was still to get a Dutch team on site to comb the crash area, despite the fighting between government troops and separatist rebels.

“The State Emergency Services managed to recover many personal belongings, nine boxes of a cubic metre each, from the crash site,” Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg, head of the Dutch repatriation mission, said in an interview on Dutch television.

“(There was) jewellery, watches, credit cards, a driving licence, a passport, an iPad, photos - things that really should be with relatives,” he added.

But, he conceded, a Dutch team might not be able to get to the site until spring because the cold weather makes it inaccessible.

“We want to go back to the site. If it's not before the winter, then it's after the winter,” he said.

The experts said they were on hand to advise the local Emergencies Ministry team combing the wreckage in the fields where the Boeing 777 was brought down on July 17, killing all 298 passengers and crew, a Reuters correspondent on the scene said.

Two-thirds of the victims were Dutch nationals and the Dutch Safety Board is leading the investigation.

A short but intense exchange of artillery fire played out near the grassy fields where the team collected items such as books, toothpaste, playing cards, a plastic watch and a stick of antiperspirant. Many items were too charred to identify.

Black smoke rose in the distance less than 5km from the site, despite a ceasefire agreed on September 5 between Ukrainian troops and the pro-Russian separatists they are fighting.

Aalbersberg said the team was able to visit two of the three villages where the plane's wreckage was strewn.

Although ceasefire violations have been sporadic around strategically important locations in east Ukraine, they have led to a decrease in fighting.

Emergency Ministry officials loaded the recovered items on a small cargo truck to be transported from the fields near the village of Hrabove and returned to the victims' families.

Armed pro-Russian rebels stood around the site while workers from the European rights and security watchdog OSCE monitored the recovery process.

The Dutch forensics teams in the Netherlands have identified 272 victims of the crash but additional remains are still believed to be in the area.

Aalbersberg said local emergency services had done a good job recovering passengers' bodies in the days after the crash, despite initial reports of looting.

“These emergency services were different from the large group of people who were there in the first days after the crash. These people did a great job (collecting bodies), also by our standards.”

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Friday he was furious that Dutch investigators had been unable to finish work in the area because of fighting between the separatists and government forces.

Separatists of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic fighting to split east Ukraine from Kiev on Monday said 36 civilians, including one child, were killed in shelling of the territory under their control last week.

More than 3 500 people have been killed in the conflict.

The aircraft, which was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, is widely believed to have been hit by a surface-to-air missile fired from separatist-held territory. Kiev blames the incident on the rebels and accuses Moscow of arming them. The rebels and Moscow deny the accusations.

Tuesday 14 October 2014

http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/mh17-victims-belongings-recovered-1.1764586

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Helicopter carrying 12 goes missing in Russia

A Mi-8 helicopter with 12 people aboard disappeared in Russia's Tuva republic in southern Siberia, regional transport prosecutor's office said Friday.

"The helicopter disappeared 220 km east of (the republic's capital) Kyzyl," the Interfax news agency quoted the prosecutor's spokesperson Oxana Gorbunova as saying.

Radio contact with the helicopter was lost when it was on the way between Sorug and Kyzyl. And a rescue team has been sent to that area by another Mi-8, Gorbunova said.

There are seven passengers, three crew members and two technicians on board. According to sources from local law enforcement agencies, the helicopter belongs to Tuva Airlines and was leased for private purpose.

No information has been updated till now about the fate of the Mi-8 or the people aboard.

Friday 10 October 2014

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=246013

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Government to declare Air Algerie plane deaths without bodies

The Lebanese government is planning to use French police reports rather than actual human remains to recognize the deaths of some 19 Lebanese nationals who died in a plane crash in Africa earlier this year, according to an official press briefing Thursday. The announcement has sparked intense debate among the Lebanese families of the victims from the July 24 Air Algerie plane crash in Mali, with some insisting on the recovery of remains before an official death declaration is made and others calling on the government to announce a long-awaited official day of mourning to provide some closure to those grieving the tragedy.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam is still discussing the issue with Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi and an official declaration of death is pending a judicial decision, Haitham Jomaa, the director-general of the Department of Emigrants at the Foreign Ministry, said at Thursday’s briefing, which was attended by many of the victims’ families.

However, it appears that the current course of action is to officially declare the deaths after France has passed on its report on the crash, which killed all 116 people on board.

“With regard to validating the deaths, we will seek permission from the French judiciary to use the French police report and deliver it to the Lebanese judiciary,” Secretary-General of the Higher Relief Committee Maj. Gen. Mohammad Khair said at the briefing. “We have agreed with Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi that this report will be used to validate the deaths.”

The news prompted an outcry among some of those present.

“I can’t declare my brother dead before his remains come back to me,” Fadia Rustom, whose twin brother Fadi Rustom was onboard the plane, told The Daily Star. “I can barely believe it myself and I won’t believe it until something of his is returned.”

Rustom said she opposed any governmental recognition of the death before either his remains or his belongings are retrieved.

But others expressed doubts over whether that condition could ever be fulfilled.

“What if they can’t retrieve any of his remains?” asked Loraine al-Hajj, wife of fellow crash victim Joseph al-Hajj. “What would we do then?”

“Not all the families want to wait for the remains of the loved ones before an official declaration is issued,” added Faisal al-Akhdar, who has stuck a poster on the window of his car describing his son Mohammad al-Akhdar’s “martyrdom at the hands of emigration.”

“We just want to end this misery,” he said.

France announced three days of mourning two days after flight AH5017 was known to have crashed, and many here have been clamoring for Lebanese officials to announce the same, something that has been delayed by the lack of official recognition of the deaths.

The reason behind this lies in the slow process of identifying those on board. Not a single whole body was recovered from the crash, Jomaa said. Instead, forensic experts in Paris – where everything found from the crash was taken – are working with 1,161 pieces of human remains that had been heavily degraded in the fire that occurred when the plane hit the ground at high speed.

The results are expected by mid-January, Jomaa said.

The director-general said that some personal belongings have been collected and “after DNA tests are conducted the families will be invited to the crash site to retrieve them.”

Mystery has surrounded the exact cause of the crash, which occurred after the plane changed course to avoid a storm.

However, Jomaa refuted reports that poor weather was behind the incident, saying harsh weather conditions were routine throughout the year. “The cabin crew was well equipped and fully aware of the climate before flying.”

Citing investigation reports, he said that at 1:45 p.m. the plane’s engine began to slow down, the automation handle faltered and the entire autopilot system crashed. The technical failure led the plane to immediately plummet to the ground.

“Investigations are currently looking into the cause behind the motor’s deceleration, as well as the autopilot failure,” Jomaa said, adding that officials would be considering the possibility of a failed hijack attempt.

Friday 10 October 2014

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2014/Oct-10/273553-government-to-declare-air-algerie-deaths-without-bodies.ashx

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Forensic experts identify 10 more victims of MH17 crash

Forensic experts in the Netherlands have this week identified another 10 victims of downed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, pushing the total number of victims identified so far to 272, the Dutch government said on Friday, nearly three months after the crash.

The Dutch Justice and Security Ministry said the remains of 10 additional victims had been identified since the previous update on October 3. It said seven of the newly-identified victims were Dutch nationals while the remaining three had a foreign nationality. Relatives of those victims have already been notified.

In total, forensic experts have now identified 175 Dutch victims, including one Dutch national who also had a British passport, and 97 persons who had a foreign nationality. The nationalities of the foreign victims are not precisely known because the Dutch government previously agreed to withhold the breakdown of foreign nationalities.

"At the request of the embassies of the countries involved, the specific nationalities of victims who are not Dutch will not be released," the ministry said in a statement. "A team of experts is working hard to identify the victims but, as emphasized earlier, it can still take months before each victim has been identified. The media will be notified regularly about the status of this process."

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said one Malaysian victim was among those identified this week, raising the number of Malaysian nationals identified so far to 43. Neil Hulbert, a spokesman for Britain's Foreign Office, said 7 out of 10 British nationals had been positively identified as of September 26.

Australia, for its part, has declined to provide a figure but said "substantial progress" had been made to identify Australian victims. Konrad Lax, a spokesman for Germany's Foreign Office, said the German government could not comment on the identification process, but the Dutch government previously confirmed that at least one German citizen had been identified.

The remains of one victim from Canada and two from Belgium have also been identified.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crashed near the city of Torez in eastern Ukraine on July 17, killing all 298 passengers and crew in the world's deadliest aviation disaster since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. It is believed the aircraft was downed by a surface-to-air missile which was fired from separatist-controlled territory, but separatists there have denied being responsible.

A preliminary report by the Dutch Safety Board said that puncture holes in the aircraft's wreckage suggested that small objects penetrated the aircraft in both the cockpit and forward sections. Holes were also found on the cockpit floor. Through analysis, the damage to the body of the aircraft is consistent with "high-energy objects" piercing the aircraft from the outside, they said.

Forensic experts have so far been unable to recover all bodies from the site of the crash due to ongoing fighting in the area. A total of 228 coffins have been flown back to the Netherlands for identification, but some of the coffins contained only partial remains, and it is unclear how many bodies remain unaccounted for.

Friday 10 October 2014

http://wireupdate.com/forensic-experts-identify-10-more-victims-of-mh17-crash.html

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America's worst worksite disasters

When measured in lives lost during concentrated periods of time, these accidents are the worst ones in America.

April 16, 1947: Texas City, Texas, dockside explosion takes close to 600 lives

One of the largest non-nuclear explosions in American history, this accident began early in the day when a fire broke out on the French-registered ship, the SS Grandcamp, detonating the docked ship's cargo – approximately 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate.

Its cargo exploded, starting a chain reaction of fires and explosions in other ships and nearby oil-storage facilities and killing at least 581 people, including all but one member of the Texas City Fire Department. Not all the bodies were recovered, rendering an accurate fatality count impossible.

Sept. 11, 2001: The World Trade Center towers collapse, burying 403 public safety workers

Terrorists attacking the World Trade Center killed 2,973 persons, including 403 New York City public safety responders. While the deaths could be construed as occupational, the deaths of public safety workers were most definitely arising out of and in the course of employment. Their deaths were all the more painful given that New York City was put on notice during a 1993 bomb attack that its fire and police departments were dangerously unable to communicate easily, but they had failed to remedy the problem.

1927: Hawks Nest, West Virginia, tunnel leads to hundreds of deaths from dust

As part of a dam project, a tunnel was constructed to handle the flow of a diverted river. Construction on the three-mile tunnel began in 1927, employing largely black workers, who were not provided protective equipment to guard against dust. Many contracted silicosis-related diseases and soon died. The minimum death count was 201, but total estimates exceeded 476.

Dec. 6, 1907: Fairmont Coal Company mine explosion in Monongah, West Virginia, takes 362 lives

The nation’s worst mining disaster killed 362 miners at the Consolidation Coal Company mine. Mining has remained for decades the most likely location of multiple workplace deaths from single incidents. The Sago Mine collapse on Jan. 2, 2006, in Sago, West Virginia, killed 12 workers. The worst mine disaster in the past 40 years occurred on April 5, 2010, at the Upper Big Branch underground mine in Montcoal, West Virginia, killing 29 of the 31 miners who were underground at the time.

Feb. 2, 1982: Offshore oil rig founders, causing 84 deaths

The Mobil-operated Ocean Ranger rig, 166 miles east of Newfoundland, failed, and the entire crew sought to escape by life rafts. Nobody was wearing protective suits, which have since become standard equipment on rigs and watercraft, and they all perished. When the Gulf of Mexico-based Deep Water Horizon rig blew up on April 20, 2010, 11 workers died.

Lesser but not forgotten tragedies include:

- The Willow Creek Power Plant in St. Marys, West Virginia, the largest vertical construction disaster, killed 45 workers in 1978 when scaffolding collapsed.
- The Texas City British Petroleum refinery explosion in 2005, which took 17 lives.
- The Imperial Sugar explosion in Port Wentworth, Georgia, killed 13 in 2008.
- A train collision in Granite, South Carolina, ripped open a Norfolk and Southern Railroad tank car containing chlorine, killing nine workers, in 2005.
- A South Canyon wildfire near Glenwood Springs, Colorado, killed 14 firefighters in 1994, prompting a major overhaul of emergency response guidelines through America.
- A small passenger plane crash in 2005, caused by a plane stalling on its approach to the Pueblo, Colorado, airport, killing eight passengers on a corporate visit and crew.
- A fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas, in 2014, killing 15 people, some of whom were workers.
Thursday 9 October 2014

https://ww3.workcompcentral.com/columns/show/id/cba986a82f9dce28908798f0930327b4564c21ab

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Several dead as wedding boat sinks near Bali

Nineteen people have been confirmed dead after a boat carrying 49 people, including a groom and his wedding guests, sunk on its way to the Indonesian island of Bali earlier this week.

Rescuers found two bodies on Thursday, taking the death toll to 19, including three children, said Asnawi, the head of the search operation who goes by one name.

Eight people were rescued on Wednesday when they were spotted by fishermen floating in the water 3km from Pulau Raas, off the eastern tip of main Java island.

Asnawi said 22 people remain missing, all the passengers were believed to be Indonesian.

The groom was on his way to get married on Monday evening, while his wife waited for him and the guests to arrive at her home village on Bali.

"The wedding ceremony was supposed to start in the evening," said Ainur Rasyid, who lives near the groom on the small island of Pulau Raas.

The parents of the groom, called Ahmad Yani, and other relatives were also on the boat heading to the wedding, he said.

The boat was supposed to arrive on Monday afternoon, but began taking on water and sank after its engine failed according to officials.

Poor safety record

Indonesia relies heavily on boats for transportation to and from more than 17,000 islands, but has a poor maritime safety record.

Boats are often overcrowded and not properly equipped with enough life jackets and life boats.

In August, a tour boat carrying 25 people sank as it made its way from the island of Lombok near Bali to Komodo Island, a popular tourist destination.

Most of the passengers, who were mainly European tourists, survived.

Some had to swim a great distance to a volcanic island and stayed alive until being rescued by drinking their own urine and eating leaves. Two Spanish men were never found.

Thursday 9 October 2014

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2014/10/several-dead-as-wedding-boat-sinks-near-bali-201410951750418857.html

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More than 100 illegal migrants missing after Libya shipwreck

More than 100 illegal migrants were missing after their vessel sank off Libya's coast en route across the Mediterranean, with dozens of bodies already washed up on the shore, local Libyan authorities said on Monday.

The vessel went down over the weekend near the town of Zuawrah, west of Tripoli. Around 70 migrants, mostly from Syria and sub-Saharan Africa, had been rescued and around 30 bodies had been recovered, authorities said.

"The ship has sunk two days ago, and according to the survivors there were more than 250 illegal immigrants on the ship, most of them from Syria or sub-Sahara," an official at the press center for the local town government said.

There was no immediate reaction from the Libyan government.

Libya, whose fragile government has been unable to impose its authority on large parts of the country, has become an increasingly common takeoff point for illegal migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

The United Nations said in August that nearly 2,000 people fleeing Africa and the Middle East have drowned in the Mediterranean this year, most of them in the past three months as they tried to reach Europe from Libya.

Tuesday 7 October 2014

http://www.trust.org/item/20141006173620-k8y1m/

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Japan volcano toll reaches 52, 12 still missing

Rescue workers today found two bodies in the ash on a volcano in central Japan, where at least 12 hikers are still unaccounted for following an eruption known to have killed 51 others.

One body was air-lifted by military helicopter, according to a crisis-management official at the Nagano prefectural government.

Public broadcaster NHK said another had been found, but there were no details on how far the recovery had got.

It is unknown whether the bodies are those of some of the 12 people unaccounted for.

A search operation involving some 1,000 police, troops and firefighters resumed early Tuesday after a two-day hiatus because of atrocious weather.

Aerial footage showed rescuers walking with difficulty through a knee-deep clay-like mixture of ash and water.

The 3,067 metre (10,121 feet) Mount Ontake erupted without warning on September 27, while it was packed with hikers.

Autopsies have revealed that walkers, many of whom had been enjoying lunch at the peak in the autumn sunshine, died largely from injuries caused by stones hurled out in the initial explosive eruption.

Tuesday 7 October 2014

http://www.outlookindia.com/news/article/Japan-Volcano-Toll-Reaches-52-12-Still-Missing/862914

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Lightning strike kills 11 in Colombia

A lightning strike killed 11 members of an indigenous tribe in northern Colombia Monday after an electrical storm broke out during an early morning ritual.

Helicopters airlifted 13 injured people to hospitals for treatment, Gen. German Saavedra told reporters.

The lightning struck around 3 a.m. Monday during a ritual of the Wiwa community's government in the remote Sierra Nevada mountains, CNN affiliate Caracol TV reported.

Bernardo Gil Moscote, a member of the community, told Colombia's El Tiempo newspaper that villagers were gathered in a ceremonial hut to discuss problems the community was facing. He had stepped out to get a drink when he heard crashing thunder that shook the mountains.

"When I got back, the hut was on fire," he told the newspaper, "and you only heard men screaming."

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos tweeted his condolences and said military and police helicopters were evacuating the victims.

"I know that this is normal, that it is something that comes from nature, but nothing like this has ever happened there," said Marta Cecilia Gil, who tearfully told Caracol her brother and brother-in-law died in the lightning strike.

The region is home to several indigenous communities.

Tuesday 7 October 2014

http://www.news8000.com/news/lightning-strike-kills-11-in-colombia/28981564

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18 die in Indonesia illegal gold mine collapse

Eighteen people, including two women, died after an illegal gold mine collapsed in West Kalimantan in Indonesia.

The accident occurred at around 14:00 p.m. local time Saturday (0700 GMT) at Bengkayang district, when the 18 people were working underground, Ali Mahfud, an official at the national disaster management and mitigation agency, told.

National Army personnel were deployed to the scene after the accident, but help came too late to save the victims due to the remote location of the gold mine.

The bodies of the deceased were recovered late Saturday night.

Illegal gold mining has surged in Indonesia and accidents and fatalities are common.

Indonesian police and government officials are now trying to determine what caused the landslides that caused the mine to collapse.

In July of this year, a landslide killed nine men at an illegal gold mine in the Papua province.

Small-scale and illegal mining is a flash point for conflicts and accidents in Indonesia, where mineral resources are often situated in remote and protected forest areas that are difficult for the government to regulate.

The collapse occurred on Saturday at 11 a.m. but the rescue agency was not notified until evening, Leonardus Sabar Umbara, officer in charge at the West Kalimantan rescue headquarters in Pontianak, told Reuters.

A rescue team reached the site late on Saturday and found 18 victims, 16 men and two women. Fifteen have been identified. "Local people are reluctant to report incidents like this as many of them are engaged in illegal mining," Umbara said.

People in the area were not sure how many other miners may have been trapped, but television station Metro TV said there were up to 500 workers at the site on Saturday.

A similar collapse in the same area killed nine people several years ago, Umbara said.

Monday 06 October 2014

http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/content/en/mineweb-gold-news?oid=255435&sn=Detail

http://www.ibtimes.com/least-18-dead-illegal-gold-mine-collapses-indonesia-many-feared-trapped-1699506

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25 killed, 40 injured in Doti bus accident

At least twenty five people have been killed and forty others injured when a passenger bus heading to Dhangadi from Doti met with an accident near Chatiwan in the district on Monday.

The ill-fated bus (Na 3 Kha 5707) plummeted some 300 meters down the road. Six amongst the deceased are female while six others are minors. 22 of the injured are said to be in critical situation.

Assistant Sub Inspector Dan Bahadur Karki, who reached the incident site after the accident, informed that 30 passengers have been rescued and sent to Dhangadi for treatment. More than 80 people were on board the passenger bus.

According to police, bodies of 13 people have been identified.

Police speculate that death toll from the accident could rise. According to the station manager at local Attariya-based Godawari FM Station, no any ambulance has reached the accident site.

The accident site is 50 kilometers north from Attariya in Dhangadi.

Monday 06 October 2014

http://www.ekantipur.com/2014/10/06/headlines/25-killed-40-injured-in-Doti-bus-accident-Update/395990/

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Italy marks year after deadly Lampedusa migrant disaster

Italy marked the first anniversary Friday of its "Mare Nostrum" operation with no let-up in its rescue of migrants making the perilous Mediterranean crossing, saying its navy had scooped 2,000 more from the sea in just two days. The recent rescues took place off Italy's tiny island of Lampedusa, where 366 people perished on October 3 last year when their fishing boat, overflowing with refugees from east Africa, caught fire and capsized.

That tragedy, described as a wake-up call for Europe, prompted Italy to launch its rapid-reaction search-and-rescue mission, which since has led to the rescue of 144,000 people - some 400 per day.

At an official ceremony on Lampedusa, Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini said remembering the tragedy aboard the Libyan boat a year early was a "political, moral and institutional duty".

Along the jetty where the shipwreck victims' bodies were laid out in line last year, local students and survivors had placed concrete cubes with messages marking the anniversary.

Cardinal Antonio Maria Veglio called on other European countries to do more to help Italy and Malta manage the unending influx of desperate migrants, most from the Middle East and Africa, risking their lives en route to the West.

Other EU states must "take into account the reality of forced migration so that no initial host country is left alone", he said.

Thus far EU partners have been hesitant about sharing the financial burden of patrolling Italy's lengthy coastline - estimated at between six and nine million euros a month ($7.5-11.5 million) - and Italy has said it will end Mare Nostrum patrols from November 1.

It is due to be replaced with a new operation, "Triton", and run by the European borders agency Frontex, but aid groups and rescue specialists suggest it will provide nothing like the cover that the Italian navy does.

Mogherini, due to take up the post of the European Union's foreign policy chief, said the EU goals would be to focus on "continuing to save lives, whether through Mare Nostrum or Triton, to efficiently manage (migrant) arrivals and to open legal paths" to immigration.

She said the issue would be covered in a meeting of EU foreign and interior ministers on November 27 in Rome.

Sunday 05 October 2014

http://www.brecorder.com/general-news/172/1230436/

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Lagos church collapse: identification process continuing

The bodies of about 80 South Africans killed when a church building collapsed in Lagos more than three weeks ago are decomposing in inadequate Nigerian mortuaries while officials there frustrate the South African government’s efforts to accelerate the identification of the remains.

The Sunday Independent understands that in some mortuaries the bodies are being kept cool only by fans, with no refrigeration.

The Nigerian government has denied this, insisting it has adequate mortuary facilities to properly handle the 116 people who died as a result of a guest house collapsing in the grounds of The Synagogue, Church of All Nations in Lagos on September 12.

But a statement issued by the South African government on September 28 hinted at the state of the bodies: “Part of what was communicated to the families is that, due to the scale of the disaster, passage of time and climatic conditions, most of the mortal remains are not in a good state.

“Out of concern for potential secondary trauma to the families as well as public health considerations, government discourages all families from viewing the mortal remains.”

The agonising wait for the South African families will not be over any time soon.

According to a government official who did not want to be named, the delays have been caused by the political haggling between South Africa and Nigeria.

The official said the Nigerian government has been refusing to have DNA analysis conducted in South Africa “even though they don’t have the expertise, facilities and skills”.

The Sunday Independent understands that the Nigerian government has finally agreed to have the DNA analysis done in Cape Town.

“The truth is the bodies won’t be coming home any time soon. Imagine the agony of the families of the people who have been waiting for several weeks to find out if their loved ones have died. They have to assume they are dead until the DNA tests’ results have been concluded.”

Family members waiting for the bodies in South Africa are growing increasingly angry at the delay.

This weekend some of them had to postpone funerals because the bodies did not arrive and there is still no indication when they will arrive.

Though African custom dictates that relatives should view the bodies before burial, the South African government has indicated all the coffins will be sealed in Lagos before the bodies are returned together because of the state they are in.

“We are now confronted with a unique set of circumstances that make it extremely challenging for us to observe this respected custom of our people,” it said.

The death toll rose by one – to 116 – this week when one of the Nigerian survivors died in hospital.

Although the South African government originally announced that 84 of those were South Africans, it disclosed last Sunday that three were from Zimbabwe and one from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Nigerian government has aggravated the delay in returning the bodies by refusing to allow the South African government to participate in the post-mortems or to do the DNA analysis to identify them, sources said.

Because of the state of the bodies, just over 40 of the South African bodies could be identified by fingerprints.

The rest now have to be identified by DNA.

But the Nigerian government would not allow the South African pathologists and forensic experts who travelled to Lagos to take DNA samples from the bodies, insisting on doing that itself.

And it would not allow them to do the matching of the DNA samples with the DNA of the relatives of the dead.

It insisted on commissioning a private company in South Africa to do the DNA matching in South Africa, sources said.

“They said the South African government was ‘conflicted’,” one source said.

“They seemed to think the government would tamper with the evidence. Why would the government tamper with the evidence?”

On Friday, the South African inter-ministerial task team set up to deal with the disaster announced that the Nigerian authorities had completed the post-mortems and had finalised the collection of DNA samples from the bodies.

Nigeria was also “currently finalising the administrative processes to transport the exhibits to a forensic laboratory for comparison purposes. The fingerprint verification process is still under way”.

The government statement said that South Africa’s Consul-General in Lagos, Sam Monaisa, met Nigeria’s High Commissioner to South Africa, Sunday Yusuf, on Thursday “to thank the Nigerian government for their co-operation during the repatriation of the injured”.

“The meeting also discussed the way forward towards the repatriation of deceased South African citizens.”

Sources said they did not know when the DNA samples would arrive in South Africa and the Nigerian government had not said which company would match the samples with those from relatives.

However, officials said Pretoria was “nursing” the relationship with Nigeria and the statement masked considerable frustration by the South African government at the way Nigeria was so jealously guarding its turf in the process of identifying the bodies.

“Government understands the toll this long period of waiting is taking on the affected families,” the task team statement said.

“We urge families to continue to bear with us. The validation and confirmation process are vital to ensure that families receive the correct remains.

“To minimise financial strain, we urge families to put funeral arrangements on hold until we receive confirmation from the Nigerian authorities on when the repatriation is going to happen.”

It is believed that some families had planned funerals for this weekend, expecting the remains of their relatives would be home.

Government spokeswoman Phumla Williams declined to comment further, referring to statements the government had issued on September 28 and October 3.

In Nigeria, Hakeem Bello, the spokesperson for Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola, said they felt insulted by criticism that they did not have mortuaries to take care of the bodies of the South Africans.

Said Bello: “We recorded a more complex disaster during the Dana air crash in Lagos in 2012 in which 153 persons were burnt beyond recognition. Did we not identify the bodies of the victims?

“In the case of the Synagogue building collapse, the State Health Commissioner even called on relations of victims to come forward and provide tissues and sample evidence for a DNA test. Does that not show a more sophisticated environment?’’

A source at the Lagos State Ministry of Health also insisted the state had enough mortuary space.

“We have 24 general hospitals. The mortuary in (the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital) is a world-standard mortuary.

“We have mortuaries in Gbagada General Hospital, Lagos Island, Lagos Mainland General Hospitals and, in fact, in all the 25 hospitals in the state, and there are also private mortuaries which are all world-standard.’’

He added that whoever had said Lagos did not have enough mortuaries to take care of bodies of the South Africans must be saying this so that the South African government would hasten the removal of the bodies to their country.

Sunday 05 October 2014

http://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/lagos-victims-bodies-are-rotting-1.1760132#.VDEPK_nF8Ro

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Paddington rail disaster remembered 15 years on

Those bereaved by the Paddington train crash have marked the 15th anniversary of the disaster with a ceremony.

They have placed flowers at a memorial site high above the railway line at Ladbroke Grove in west London.

Just before 08:10 BST on 5 October 1999, 31 people died when two trains collided almost head-on.

The subsequent inquiry found the Thames Trains service travelling from Paddington to Bedwyn in Wiltshire had gone through a red signal.

It then crashed into the London-bound high-speed First Great Western train which had left Cheltenham Spa in Gloucestershire at 06:03.

The Thames driver, Michael Hodder, 31, and the other train driver, Brian Cooper, 52, were among those killed as the collision led to a fireball in which coach H was burnt out.

As well as the fatalities, more than 220 people were injured.

Paddington Survivors group chairman Jonathan Duckworth, 56, from Stroud in Gloucestershire, was on the First Great Western train.

Father-of-two Mr Duckworth said: "Luckily, I was only in hospital for around 24 hours but then I suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

"I had to have about 18 months of treatment and was only able after that to take on small, part-time jobs.

"It was six or seven years before I was able to work full-time again."

The Paddington disaster was followed by fatal rail crashes at Hatfield in Hertfordshire in 2000, at Selby in North Yorkshire in 2001 and at Potters Bar in Hertfordshire in 2002.

But in the 12 years since, there has only been one passenger death in a rail accident in Britain - 84-year-old Margaret Masson was killed when a Virgin Trains Pendolino derailed on a faulty set of points at Grayrigg in Cumbria in February 2007.

Michael Roberts, director-general of the Rail Delivery Group, which speaks on behalf of Network Rail and the train operators, said: "We remember those who lost their lives and all those whose lives were changed as a result of the Paddington crash.

"After serious accidents in the early 2000s, changes such as an overhaul of employee training for those doing safety-critical jobs and a better approach to staff working hours have helped improve safety on Britain's railway."

Sunday 05 October 2014

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-29493287

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Japan volcano eruption: Three more bodies found on Mt Ontake, 16 still missing as Typhoon Phanfone approaches

Authorities have found three more bodies on a still-smouldering Japanese volcano after the search was stalled by heavy rain.

Adding to the difficulties facing rescuers, an oncoming typhoon threatens to further hamper the recovery operation.

Local authorities said 16 people were still unaccounted for on Mt Ontake, which erupted a week ago. It was not immediately clear if the three bodies found on Saturday were included in that figure.

The bodies of 47 other victims have already been retrieved from the mountain.

Rescue workers have spoken of up to 50-centimetre thick, sticky ash smothering the slopes, with some of the dead found half-buried, leading to fears others may be entombed.

"Rescuers found a total of three more people in cardiac arrest today, and are now preparing to carry them down," a local police spokesman said.

Only doctors can declare someone officially dead, so first responders typically report that someone's heart has stopped and they are not breathing.

About 930 troops, firefighters and police restarted their search on Saturday morning after heavy rain had suspended their recovery operation since Thursday afternoon.

Television footage showed soldiers in camouflage with gas masks hurriedly getting on a military helicopter departing to the peak, while scores of rescuers were carefully walking up an ash-covered path to the summit.

Rescuers were using hand-held metal detectors and sticking poles into the ground in a bid to find victims possibly buried under the ash.

Mt Ontake was packed with walkers when it burst angrily to life a week ago.

Local residents, government officials and rescuers standing by near the base of the mountain prayed in silence for one minute at 11:52am local time Saturday, the exact moment when the volcano exploded seven days earlier.

The volcano continues to emit steam and poisonous fumes, making a section near the crater inaccessible.

Meanwhile, a powerful typhoon looming off the Japanese coast looked set to batter the country over the coming days.

Typhoon Phanfone is predicted to slam into Japan with strong winds and high waves this weekend or later, the meteorological agency said.

Packing gusts of up to 252kph, Phanfone is moving northwest in the Pacific to curve toward Japan's southwest at a speed of 15kph.

That could force the recovery to be put off for days, drawing out the ordeal for families of those still missing, who are gathered at the foot of the volcano.

Sunday 05 October 2014

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-04/three-more-bodies-found-after-japan-volcano-eruption/5790844

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Bulgarian explosives plant blast kills 15

Fifteen people have died in a blast at a Bulgarian explosives decommissioning plant, officials say, as workers complained of low pay and poor safety at the facility, which has seen several incidents in recent years.

"Thirteen men and two women perished. The blast was so powerful that it left craters," civil defence force director Nikolay Nikolov said on Thursday.

Three female workers were also injured in the explosion, which rocked the mountainous area around the village of Gorni Lom in northwestern Bulgaria on Wednesday evening, residents told state television.

The women were taken to hospital and were not in critical condition.

Nikolov said "human error" was the most probable cause of the blast, which razed several buildings at the small plant.

The devastation was so complete that "no traces whatsoever of bodies could be seen" at the site, he added, noting that police forensic workers were continuing to search the area.

According to the plant's management, 12 workers and three of the factory chiefs were inside the facility at the time of the blast, which happened as Greek landmines were being taken apart.

Local resident Dimitar Dimitrov, 59, told: "I used to work there and I sneaked inside the area long before the engineers arrived. Everything was razed to the ground."

Among the locals, many of whom lost friends and relatives, the disaster did not come as much of a surprise.

Safety rules were ignored at the plant, outdated machinery was used, and workers were poorly paid, they complained.

Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev did not mince his words on Thursday, saying: "Innocent human lives were lost because of the arrogant breaching of instructions and rules in state institutions governing work with explosives."

The country's main prosecutor has launched an investigation into the accident.

The factory, some 120km (75 miles) north of Sofia, destroys stockpiles of obsolete munitions for the Bulgarian army and Dnes daily newspaper quoted an expert as saying it had been handling explosives from Greece.

Some 10 tonnes of highly explosive chemicals were being stored at the plant.

"The factory has been reduced to ashes," an interior ministry spokesman said.

There were explosions at the factory in 2007 and 2010, in which several people were hurt.

Two units of the plant were flattened in the 2010 blast.

Thursday 2 October 2014

http://news.msn.co.nz/worldnews/8914555/bulgarian-explosives-plant-blast-kills-15

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Experts scour MH17 victims’ injuries, black boxes for clues

Experts will study injury patterns of those on board Flight MH17 along with its two data recorders in an attempt to establish how the plane was brought down over Ukraine, local daily New Straits Times reported today.

Kuala Lumpur Hospital pathology consultant Dr Mohd Shah Mahmood explained that forensic experts will also begin matching the victims’ seating arrangements against the patterns of injuries found on their bodies once all of their identities are determined.

The preliminary examinations of scans taken during the identification process revealed that passengers displayed differing levels of injury depending on their seat location, with wound patterns increasing the further back a passenger was seated.

“There are a lot of theories going around, but since the plane had just begun its flight, the fuel tank would have been full and those sitting near the wings (where the fuel bladders are located) would have sustained more burns compared with the others,” he told New Straits Times in an exclusive interview.

But Dr Shah said investigators were yet to begin establishing a correlation between injuries and seating positions as not all remains have been identified.

The identification work is being conducted by a multinational Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team that includes those from Germany, Belgium, Australia, UK and Malaysia,

Dr Shah earlier said the team had found metal or foreign objects embedded in remains when they were scanning these, and that these would be studied further.

“This is important, as the objects could be evidence that could help in the investigations into the downing of the airplane,” he was quoted saying.

It is believed that MH17 was shot down by a surface-to-air missile while flying over the restive eastern Ukraine region, but the Dutch Safety Board has so far only noted in its preliminary report on September 9 that “a large number of high-energy objects” penetrating the plane had caused it to break up.

In NST’s report today, Dutch Safety Board spokesman Sara Vernooij said further examination of the flight data recorder (FDR) - one of two black boxes recovered from the MH17 crash site - would provide more information about the downing of the plane.

“A more detailed analysis of the data is also needed before we can say what kind of ‘high-energy objects’ had penetrated the aircraft,” she was quoted saying in an exclusive interview with the English-language daily.

The FDR’s data may also narrow down the location where MH17 was hit, and give more information such as the status of the plan’s engines and onboard systems, as well as its altitude and speed, she said.

Department of Civil Aviation director-general Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said he could not conclusively say if the FDR could show the trajectory of the high-speed object that had shot down MH17.

He commented on the scouring mark under the Boeing 777-200 ER’s left wing, saying that whether the black boxes had managed to record the missile impact was subject to several conditions.

“It depends on whether the missile exploded above or below the aircraft, how severe the glancing blow was to the left wing and how it had affected the handling of the airplane,” he was quoted.

Thursday 2 October 2014

http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/experts-scour-mh17-victims-injuries-black-boxes-for-clues

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Ten migrants dead, dozens missing in shipwreck off Libya

At least 10 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa drowned Thursday and dozens more were missing after their boat sank in the Mediterranean offshore Libya, the coast guard said.

Between 80 and 90 people were rescued after the boat went down in waters east of Tripoli, a coast guard officer said, adding that survivors said there had been up to 180 people on board.

Among those saved were two women, according to the officer, who said the boat capsized three nautical miles off Guarabouli, which is 60 kilometres (36 miles) from the capital.

Thursday's tragedy was the second this week involving Africans trying to make their way to a new life in Europe and comes a year after 360 people perished in a sinking, burning ship off the Italian island of Lampedusa.

On Wednesday, Spanish coastguards pulled the bodies of two Africans from the sea off Morocco and six others were missing after a dinghy carrying them sank.

For years, Libya has been a major embarkation point for hundreds of thousands of refugees, mostly Africans, heading for Europe.

They risk their lives on often unseaworthy craft trying to make it to Malta or to Lampedusa, south of Sicily, and hundreds are lost each year. By far the worst tragedy took place last month, when about 500 people drowned off Malta after traffickers rammed and sank their boat after they refused to transfer to a smaller vessel.

The implosion of Libya, civil war in Syria and renewed Israeli-Palestinian hostilities have helped push the flow of would-be refugees seeking sanctuary in Europe to unprecedented levels.

More than 3,000 migrants have died trying to cross the Mediterranean so far this year, more than double the previous peak in 2011, the International Organisation for Migration said Monday.

Thursday 2 October 2014

https://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/ten-migrants-dead-dozens-missing-shipwreck-off-libya-141107106.html

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Why is the hunt for bodies on Japanese volcano Mount Ontake proving so difficult?

A combination of difficult terrain, poor weather, toxic gas leaks, the possibility of new eruptions and volcanic ash that is in places knee-deep have turned what should have been a straightforward recovery operation on Japan's Mount Ontake into a drawn-out slog.

Teams drawn from the military, the police, the fire service and local mountain rescue groups once again began scaling the 10,000-foot peak before dawn on Thursday, but they were forced to call off the search shortly before midday as the weather deteriorated.

Experts were particularly concerned that the heavy rainfall would destabilise the thousands of tons of ash that have been ejected from the volcano and settled on its upper slopes.

With more than half-an-inch of rain falling per hour as a typhoon approaches from the south, the waterlogged ash could slide and bury the search teams.

The forecast for Friday and into the weekend is for more rain, which will make recovery efforts on Japan's 14th highest mountain more perilous. Avalanches of ash are just one concern hampering a recovery mission that is low-tech and labour-intensive.

"They're a long way above sea level there, the slopes on all sides are steep and the rescue teams are finding it difficult to move around in that environment," said Professor Shigeo Aramaki, an authority on volcanoes formerly at The University of Tokyo and still works as an adviser to the government.

"As well as the weather, they have detected high levels of poisonous gases in the areas that they need to keep searching and there are repeated volcanic tremors," he told The Telegraph. "And when they are getting those sorts of signs, they simply have to halt the rescue effort."

The death toll presently stands at 47, making the eruption of Mount Ontake Japan's worst volcano disaster since the 1926 eruption of a volcano on Hokkaido, in which 144 people died. Authorities warn, however, that they still have no clear idea of the number of climbers who are still missing.



Hikers are not required to notify local authorities whenever they wish to climb a mountain, a pastime that is particularly popular at this time of the year in Japan, when the autumn foliage is spectacular.

Underlining the scale of the problem, the fire department in the town of Kisofukushima on Tuesday said that 79 people were still missing, although it cut that figure to 71 just a few hours later. The prefectural government subsequently claimed the fire department's announcement was premature, Kyodo News reported, and said in a statement that authorities are still trying to get an exact figure for the missing.

Dozens of relatives of the missing are still waiting for news of their loved-ones at the town hall in Kisofukushima, with many expressing anger at the slow pace of the recovery effort and the lack of news.

The families complained that they were learning more from the television reports than from local authorities.

The first funerals began on Thursday for hikers recovered from the mountain and identified by their families.

Those hit by the rocks and debris had multiple cuts and fractures, particularly in the head and the back, as well as the legs, a prefectural police official said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy. Nagano police had earlier said the victims died of “disaster,” without specifying the cause.

Most of the bodies were found near Mount Ontake’s summit, where many climbers were resting or having lunch. Some bodies were retrieved from a trail at a slightly lower elevation.



Experts say hikers near the summit might have been hit by rocks flying as fast as 300 kilometres per hour. Most of the ash fell in the first hour of the explosion, according to the University of Tokyo’s Earthquake Research Institute.

Survivors said they fled for their lives as rocks and debris rained down on them while they struggled with hot air and ash hitting their face.

Medical experts who have examined some of the nearly 70 injured have said most had bruises, cuts and bone fractures on their back, an apparent sign they were hit by rocks flying out of the volcano. Some of the injured reportedly had damage to their lungs and other organs due to the impact of rocks hitting them.

The eruption at Mount Ontake, located in central Japan, caught hikers by surprise. Seismologists have said that increased seismic activity had been detected at Ontake, one of 47 active volcanoes in Japan that are under 24-hour monitoring, but that nothing signalled such a big eruption.

Thursday 2 October 2014

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/11135415/Why-is-the-hunt-for-bodies-on-Japanese-volcano-Mount-Ontake-proving-so-difficult.html

http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/10/02/flying-rocks-responsible-for-nearly-all-47-deaths-on-japanese-volcano-police-say/

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