Italian quake toll rises to 17, last victim found

MIRANDOLA, Italy - Italian rescue workers removed the last earthquake victim from the rubble Wednesday, bringing the death toll to 17 as the government approved measures to rebuild the quake-hit area so crucial to Italy's economic health.

The magnitude 5.8 temblor north of Bologna on Tuesday felled old buildings and new factories and warehouses alike, many of them already weakened by a stronger quake May 20 that measured 6.0 and killed seven people.

In both quakes, the death toll was disproportionately workers toiling in factories, leading to some questions about Italy's building codes or possible corruption. "I remember with sorrow the deaths in Emilia, who died while working, mostly workers but also entrepreneurs," Interior Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri said in Rome.

Premier Mario Monti has promised the government would do whatever is necessary to rebuild the region.

On Wednesday, the government approved measures, including raising the price of gas by .02 cents a liter, to begin the reconstruction of homes, businesses and historic structures, including many churches, in the stricken area.

 Crews on Wednesday pulled the last body from the rubble of a factory in the town of Medolla. Three others also died in the structure.

Civil Protection authorities in Rome say no one else is known to be missing. The quake, which also injured some 350 people, dealt another blow to one of the country's most productive regions at a time when Italy is struggling to restart its anemic economy amid Europe's debt crisis.

Italy's economic growth has been stagnant for at least a decade and the economy is forecast to contract by 1.2 percent this year.

 The area encompassing the northern cities of Modena, Mantua and Bologna is prized for its super car production, churning out Ferraris, Maseratis and Lamborghinis; its world-famous Parmesan cheese, and less well-known but critical to the economy - its machinery companies. The ground continued to shake through the night, rattling the nerves of residents.

Many spent the night in tent camps or their cars, too afraid to sleep at home. In the tent camp, residents had basic needs met but carried profound scars. "I had a psychological breakdown," said Annalisa Caiazzo, 34, from Mirandola near Modena as she began her day in a makeshift tent camp. "After so many aftershocks, I did not expect that everything would have restarted again. We are all collapsed."

 Civil protection coordinator Carmine Lizza said counselors were on hand to help rattled residents who have lived through two terrifying quakes in two weeks in an area not considered particularly quake-prone. "They will need weeks to recover, because the earthquake is a deep wound," Lizza said.

Wednesday, 30 May 2012

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20120530/API/1205300617?p=2&tc=pg

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At least ten killed in 5.8-magnitude earthquake in Italy

MILAN, Italy -- An earthquake struck northern Italy on Tuesday, killing at least 10 people, damaging buildings and spreading panic among thousands of residents still living in tents after a tremor shook the region just over a week ago, destroying their homes. Officials and a source from the Italian Red Cross said several people were trapped under the rubble of houses and warehouses in the Emilia-Romagna region. Police said 10 people were confirmed dead but the toll was likely to rise. The United States Geological Survey said the 5.8-magnitude quake, which struck at 9:00 a.m. local time (3 a.m. ET), was centered 25 miles northwest of Bologna and was felt across much of northern and central Italy. "The situation is very serious, some people are stuck under the rubble," Alberto Silvestri, the mayor of San Felice sul Panaro, one of the towns near the epicenter, told SkyTG24. Prime Minister Mario Monti said: "I want to assure everyone that the state will do all that it must do, all that is possible to do, as fast as it can to guarantee the return to normality in a region so special, so important, so productive for Italy." Italian media also said a tower in San Felice sul Panarohad collapsed. The quake hit the same region where a stronger temblor measuring 6.0 on May 20 killed seven people, most when factories working overnight collapsed. That quake destroyed hundreds of buildings, including ancient churches and castles, and forced more than 7,000 people to sleep outdoors in tents. It also hit production of some of the area's most internationally famous produce, including Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. Farmers estimated the damage to agriculture in one of Italy's most fertile zones at more than 200 million euros. People trapped under rubble On Tuesday, officials said operations to rescue people from the rubble had been hampered by disruption to the mobile phone network. "The town has been largely damaged. There are people under the rubble, we don't know how many," a police officer from Cavezzo told Reuters. Train services around Bologna, near Modena, were disrupted, media said, and schools and other public buildings had been evacuated as far south as Florence. "We felt a very strong tremor," said Raffaella Besola, a resident of Bologna. Television footage on ITV News showed evacuees from the previous quake peering out of shaking tents in disbelief. 29 May 2012 http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/29/11931934-at-least-ten-killed-in-58-magnitude-earthquake-in-italy?lite

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Three More Body Parts of Sukhoi Victims Found

The National Search and Rescue Agency said on Tuesday that a group of 13 local people found three additional body parts from the victim’s of the Sukhoi Superjet crash on May 20. “Only three body parts were found and it is normal in the search process,” Gagah Prakoso, spokesman of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) told the Jakarta Globe. “I don’t think it is a big deal that should be blown up. Have pity on the family. If we find a hand, does the family have to reopen the coffin?” Locals alleged they found an entire body, not just body parts. A local, Junaidi, told Antara that they found a body 500-700 meters from the crash point and they also found an identity card of a Russian citizen nearby. The National Search and Rescue Agency on May 21 decided to terminate the search and evacuation process of the victims, claiming that the Disaster Victim Identification Team from the National Police had identified all 45 victims from the Sukhoi accident. However, on Monday Sukabumi police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. M. Firman said he had received a report from local people that some body parts including a thigh, part of a chest and a hand were found near the crash point. Gagah on Monday denied the finding. “They do not belong to bodies of Sukhoi’s victims,” Gagah said as quoted by Vivanews on Monday. He reversed his stance on Tuesday. Following the finding, 29 personnel from the Indonesian military, national police, outdoor organization Wanadri, Forest Police and local people teamed up on Tuesday morning and started searching and evacuating the body parts that were scattered on the mountain. “Search and evacuation of Sukhoi victims was led by Sukabumi military commander Capt. Sanusi with 29 personnel,” Bogor military commander Col. AM Putranto said. The team is headed to the location where local people from the Cicurug district found the body parts and belongings of the victims. Putranto said he expected the evacuation could be done in a day and that all the body parts could be evacuated at the latest by 4 p.m. today. “The bodies will be taken to Kramat Jati police hospital using the ambulance,” Putranto said. “Seven body bags and two ambulances have been prepared to evacuate and carry the remains left at the crash point of the airplane.” Revising his statement on Monday, Gagah explained that there was heavy rain recently that unearthed the body parts that had been buried and could not be found earlier. He said the small Basarnas expert team was still sweeping the area trying to find the flight data recorder and any other body parts or belongings that may have been unearthed. “Some body parts were unearthed due to soil erosion after heavy rains,” Gagah said. “But the body parts do belong to the existing 45 victims, not to another victim.” Gagah said Basarnas terminated the search on May 21 because the agency was limited by time in searching for the bodies. “Though we’re no longer searching for the victims on a massive scale, we still have a small team sweeping the area and looking for the flight data recorder,” he said. Locals also found identity cards, social security cards, insurance cards, ATM cards, vehicle registration certificates and several name cards belonging to Edi Satrio, Herman Suladji and Desiyanti Amalia. Edi and Herman were on the list of 45 victims. Desiyanti’s name was not on the victim list, so it remains unclear why her identity card was found at the crash scene. The Sukhoi Superjet crashed on May 9. 29 May 2012 http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/three-more-body-parts-of-sukhoi-victims-found/520776

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Qatar Villaggio mall nursery fire kills 19 people

THE New Zealand children killed in a fire in a nursery in a Doha shopping mall are two-year-old triplets. Firefighters didn't know where the nursery was which caught fire in Qatar, says a New Zealander who was at the scene where three New Zealand children are believed to have been among 19 killed overnight . New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has confirmed that two-year-old triplets were killed in the fire. Seven girls, six boys, four teachers and two firefighters were believed to have died from smoke inhalation. Former New Zealand journalist Tarek Bazley was in the Doha mall when the fire broke out, saying he heard a benign alarm which sounded like a repeating doorbell, but he was told by an attendant that "it's usually a false alarm". "About 10 minutes later someone else, a member of the public, raced through this area and said 'everybody out, you've got to get out now, the other half of the mall is on fire'." Mr Bazley understood there was no way to escape for those in the nursery as both entrances to the Gympanzee were blocked by smoke, and those that were rescued escaped through a hole in the roof cut by firefighters. "The Ministry for the Interior, which runs the Civil Defence and the Fire Brigade, said they didn't know where that nursery was. They had no plan of the mall," he said. "In my estimation that's the first thing any fire brigade should know." It was reported some sprinklers and fire alarms either did not work or did not operate properly. Reports from the Doha News and Al Jazeera suggest that there were also children from Spain, France, Japan, South Africa and the Philippines killed, along with three Filipino teachers and one teacher from Africa. Unconfirmed reports said two managers were arrested and may face charges in court, Doha News reported. A New Zealand teacher living in Doha told NZ Newswire there were a number of Kiwis living in the country and he understood the family lived at a compound with other New Zealanders. "It won't be a happy day at school tomorrow," he said. Temperatures in Doha were around 40C at the time of the fire around midday local time. A website for the nursery said it catered for children aged between 12 months and four years and it had a waiting list for places. The Villaggio opened in 2006 and is one of Qatar's most popular shopping and amusement destinations. Monday 28 May 2012 Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world/qatar-villaggio-mall-nursery-fire-kills-19-people/story-e6frfkyi-1226370848953#ixzz1wFJXP5pE

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Burial ceremony honours mystery victim of crashed nuclear bomber

The remains of an American airman found 60 years ago in Canada have finally been laid to rest — along with one of the Cold War’s most enduring mysteries: the identity of the only recovered victim from the so-called “Broken Arrow” incident of February 1950, when a crippled U.S. bomber dropped an atomic bomb into the Pacific Ocean before crashing into a British Columbia mountaintop. In a poignant Memorial Day ceremony on Friday at cemetery in San Francisco, a few small bones from the body of U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Elbert W. Pollard were interred in the presence of his daughter, 64-year-old Betty Wheeler. She had learned just a few months ago, thanks to advanced DNA testing, that a man’s foot and parachute plucked from coastal waters by a B.C. fisherman in 1952 belonged to her father. Pollard, a decorated veteran of the Second World War and a U.S. Air Force gunner at the height of the Cold War, was one of 17 airmen involved in a simulated Soviet attack on San Francisco on Feb. 13, 1950. But their mammoth B-36 bomber — carrying an Mk-4 nuclear bomb en route to California from an airbase in Alaska — was disabled by an ice buildup in stormy weather approaching B.C.’s Queen Charlotte Islands. The bomb — which contained five tonnes of conventional explosives and some unenriched uranium, but not the plutonium core of a fully-armed nuclear device — was dropped and exploded over the ocean before the crew bailed out of the failing aircraft. It eventually crashed into Mount Kologet near Stewart, B.C., about 500 kilometres north of Vancouver near the southern tip of the Alaskan panhandle. The crash site, now protected by the Canadian government because of its significance in Cold War history, has given rise over the decades to both scholarly research and wild conspiracy theories about the possibility of a lost A-bomb on Canadian soil. Canadian Cold War historian John Clearwater, who curated the 2007 “Lost Nuke” exhibit about the incident at the Western Canada Aviation Museum in Winnipeg, said at the time that the B-36 crash “was a crucial event, both for understanding the nuclear age and Canada’s role in it.” The accident and the myths it gave rise to highlighted “the paranoia and secrecy that surrounded everything to do with atomic bombs,” he said. Twelve of the men from the doomed B-36 parachuted to safety and were later rescued by a fishing boat and a Royal Canadian Navy warship. But five others, including Pollard, were lost and presumed drowned or killed in difficult landings along the remote and rugged B.C. shore. In 1952, a fisherman in waters off the Queen Charlottes snagged a parachute and military-issued boot containing a man’s left foot. It was repatriated to the U.S. and — though not linked to a specific individual — was buried at a military cemetery in St. Louis in a ceremony commemorating Pollard and the four other airmen killed in the 1950 crash. In 2001, after a request by family members of one of the five victims — Lt. Holiel Ascol — the foot bones were exhumed and scientifically sampled to try to determine which of the men they belonged to. Those DNA tests proved inconclusive, but more advanced experiments conducted recently identified Pollard as the man whose boot and parachute were pulled from B.C.’s Hecate Strait in 1952. “I feel such joy that I am being given my father,” Wheeler said last week to a newspaper in Texas, where the B-36 had been scheduled to land after its planned mock attack on San Francisco in 1950. Wheeler, who lives near Sacramento, Calif., attended Friday’s burial of her father’s remains — with full military honours — at the U.S. national cemetery in the Presidio, a historic San Francisco military compound within sight of the Golden Gate Bridge. “I feel some kind of reverence and a strong desire to honour him,” Wheeler told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in advance of the ceremony. “I chose the Presidio because it’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. With all my father went through and all the places his bones have travelled, I wanted him to finally be in a place of beauty.” Monday 28 May 2012 http://www.canada.com/news/Burial%20ceremony%20honours%20mystery%20victim%20of%20crashed%20nuclear%20bomber/6687220/story.html

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27 killed in accident on Mumbai-Pune expressway

Twenty-seven members of a marriage party, including four children, were killed and 26 others injured when a speeding auto rammed in a stationary bus at Khalapur on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. The incident took place in the wee hours around 1 am when the tyres of one of the mini-buses carrying a marriage party got punctured on the highway and was parked on the roadside while another bus was stationed just behind the vehicle, helping it out with the repairs, they said. The mishap occurred when a high-speeding auto lost control and rammed into the second mini bus from the rear, crushing people seated on the road between both the vehicles, police said. The deceased including women and children were returning to Pune after attending a wedding at suburban Ghatkopar in Mumbai, they said. The injured have been admitted to MGM hospital at Panvel and Pune's Sassoon hospital, where three victims were pronounced dead on arrival, police said. The deceased have not been identified yet. The auto driver has been detained at Khalapur in Raigad district, they added.

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Argentina identifies Dirty War victim from 1976

Argentine forensic experts have identified the remains of a body that washed ashore in Uruguay in 1976. DNA tests showed that the remains were of Roque Orlando Montenegro, who disappeared a month before the Argentine military took power. Evidence suggests he was on a death flight, in which political opponents were thrown alive into the sea. Mr Montenegro's daughter, Victoria, was brought up by an army couple and only discovered her own identity in 2000. She fought back tears as she announced that her father had been identified thanks to the "unwavering work" of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team. "We have recovered my father's remains, Roque Orlando Montenegro, known as Toti, who was only 20 years old when he disappeared," she said. Her parents were left-wing militants from the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP). In February 1976, a month before the military coup, the Montenegros, including Victoria who was just a few days old, were kidnapped and disappeared. She was raised by an army colonel's family. Twenty-four years later, using DNA tests arranged by the human rights movement Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Ms Montenegro found out about her real identity. Her DNA sample helped the forensic anthropologists to establish that an unnamed body discovered in a cemetery in Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay was that of her father. The remains of her mother, Hilda Ramona Torres, have never been found. Human rights groups estimate that up to 30,000 people were killed or disappeared in Argentina's "dirty war" from 1976 to 1982. The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, whose own children were disappeared, have identified dozens of sons and daughters of victims of the military repression. But some adopted children have said they would rather not know their origins, especially if the information implicates their adoptive parents in illegal acts. Friday 24 May 2012 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-18187255

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Sukhoi victims’ identification concluded: Police

The National Police’s Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) unit has concluded the identification process of the 45 people onboard the ill-fated Sukhoi Superjet 100. All of the remains have been identified. “The identification process has been concluded,” National Police medical unit chief Brig. Gen. Musadeq Ishak told a press conference on Sunday. He said that the team needed more time to reconcile the remains before handing them over to the families. “We will notify the victims’ families and they can see the remains on Tuesday at the Soekanto Police Hospital before we close the caskets. They can retrieve them on Wednesday at the Halim Perdanakusuma Airbase,” he said. Musadeq said the DVI team had used various methods during the process, including fingerprint identifications, forensic pathology, forensic anthropology and odontology. According to the team, of 45 victims, 31 were men and 14 were women. There were 35 Indonesian nationals among the identified victims. The Russian-made aircraft slammed into Mt. Salak in Bogor, West Java, on May 9 while flying an exhibition flight. 20 May 2012 http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/05/20/sukhoi-victims-identification-concluded-police.html

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Italy Earthquake: Finale Emilia Quake Near Bologna Kills At Least 4

SANT'AGOSTINO DI FERRARA, Italy — A strong earthquake shook northeast Italy early Sunday, killing four people, tearing off chunks of church facades and sending panicked residents into the streets. Aftershocks wreaked more havoc in the region, including knocking down a clock tower and injuring a firefighter. The magnitude-6.0 quake struck at 4:04 a.m., with its epicenter about 35 kilometers (22 miles) north of Bologna at a relatively shallow depth of 5 kilometers (3.2 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey said. Civil defense agency official Adriano Gumina described it as the worst quake to hit the region since the 1300s. The four people killed were factory workers on the overnight shift when their buildings, in three separate locations, collapsed, agency chief Franco Gabrielli said, In addition, he said, two women died – apparently of heart attacks that may have been sparked by fear. Sky TG24 TV reported one of them was about 100 years old. Dozens of people were believed to be injured. Two of the dead were workers at a ceramics factory in the town of Sant'Agostino di Ferrara. Their cavernous building turned into a pile of rubble, leaving twisted metal supports jutting out at odd angles and the roof mangled. "This is immense damage, but the worst part is we lost two people," fellow worker Stefano Zeni said. News reports said one of the dead had worked the shift of an ill colleague. Elsewhere in the town, another worker was found dead under factory rubble. In the town of Ponte Rodoni di Bondeno, a worker also died as his factory collapsed, news reports said, citing emergency workers. Nearly 12 hours after the quake, a sharp aftershock alarmed the residents of Sant'Agostino di Ferrara and knocked off part of a wall of city hall. The building already had been pummeled by the pre-dawn quake, which left a gaping hole on one side of it. The same aftershock knocked down the clock tower in the town of Finale Emilia, injuring a firefighter. Images from Sky TG24 showed the firefighter lying in the street near the rubble. The national geophysics institute assigned an initial magnitude of 5.1 to the aftershock. The quake Sunday came as Italy was still reeling from Saturday's bombing that killed one person at a school in the country's south. Pope Benedict XVI, in his traditional Sunday appearance from his studio window overlooking St. Peter's Square, said he was `'spiritually close" to those affected by the quake, and asked people to join him in prayers for the dead and injured. Emilio Bianco, receptionist at Modena's Canalgrande hotel – housed in an ornate 18th century palazzo – said the quake "was a strong one, and it lasted quite a long time." The hotel suffered no damage and Modena itself was spared, but guests spilled into the streets as soon as the quake hit, he said. The fear was palpable in Sant'Agostino. Resident Alberto Fiorini said there was `'pandemonium" during the night. 'I took shelter under the bed and I prayed," he told Associated Press. His house was not damaged, he said. Many people were still awake at 4 a.m. and milling about town since stores and restaurants were open all night. The epicenter was between the towns of Finale Emilia, San Felice sul Panaro and Sermide, but the quake was felt as far away as Tuscany and northern Alto Adige. One woman in Finale Emilia told Sky a child had been trapped in her bedroom by falling rubble for two hours before she was rescued. The initial quake was followed around an hour later by a 5.1-magnitude temblor, USGS said. And it was preceded by a 4.1-temblor. In 2009, a temblor killed more than 300 people in the central city of L'Aquila, where the historic center is still largely uninhabited and in ruins. Sunday 20 May 2012 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/20/italy-earthquake-finale-emilia-bologna_n_1530822.html

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Search for Sukhoi Victims Ended After 10 Days

Search efforts for the victims of the crashed Sukhoi Superjet 100 were officially brought to a close on Friday, 10 days after the plane carrying 45 people collided with Mount Salak in West Java. The decision was marked with a small ceremony at the evacuation command post in Cijeruk, Bogor, led by a military coordinator of the team, Putranto. “In accordance with the National Search and Rescue Agency’s [Basarnas] decision, evacuation operations are officially ended. We will, however, continue to comb the [crash] site to search for some materials of the plane,” Putranto told journalists after the ceremony, which included joint prayer for the dead victims. The dispersed joint search team consisted of hundreds of personnel from Basarnas, the Indonesian Military (TNI) and police, as well as some volunteers and a team from Russia. The effort to find some of the materials from the crashed plane, which already turned up the cockpit voice recorder, one of two "black boxes" on the plane, will continue with 45 personnel, the same number of people that died in the accident. The team will include members of the Army’s special forces (Kopassus). “We will coordinate with the police and the Russian SAR [search and rescue] team,” Putranto said. While Basarnas led the larger team that was looking for the victims of the crash, the new, smaller team will be headed by the Bogor command of the TNI and will officially start its work on Saturday, Putranto said. As of Friday, the Basarnas-led team had sent 37 bodybags believed to contain the remains of all 45 of the passengers to the National Police Hospital in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta, to undergo identification processes. Police announced earlier on Friday that they had so far managed to identify 15 of the victims — 13 Indonesians and two foreigners. There were 10 men and five women. I Ketut Parwa, the Basarnas official who led the first team, said there were probably more remains buried beneath the wreckage. “But it’s already the 10th day,” he said. “It will be very difficult to find and evacuate those remains.” Saturday 19 May 2012 http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/search-for-sukhoi-victims-ended-after-10-days/518673

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Indonesia needs finger print database

JAKARTA - It is time for Indonesia to have finger print database as it has many functions. For example, the database could also ease the identification of disaster victims of Sukhoi Superjet 100 crash, the Executive Director of Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) of Sukhoi SJ 100, Dr Anton Castilani, said on Saturday. DVI team is still having a hard time on identifying the data of the victims through the finger prints despite the ante mortem data is completely gathered. The obstacle is that the ante mortem data given by the family is different with the body parts found by the evacuation team. "The family sent us the certificate containing three finger prints from left hand, but unfortunately we found the right one. It does not match," Anton gave an example. DVI team, he added, successfully identified 15 victims. Yet, none of the identification uses the finger prints. "It is conducted by using their DNA," he explained. Saturday 19 May 2012 http://en.republika.co.id/berita/en/national-politics/12/05/19/m49np1-indonesia-needs-finger-print-database

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Tunnel Blast Kills 19 at Chinese Construction Site

A blast in a tunnel killed 19 workers at a central Chinese highway construction site on Saturday, authorities said. The explosion in Hunan province also injured one person, said two officials from the provincial work safety bureau who would only give their surnames, Li and Yang, a practice that is common among Chinese government employees. The blast occurred when a vehicle was unloading explosives in the tunnel of the highway that is being built between Yanling and Rucheng in Hunan province, the official Xinhua news agency said. A total of 24 people were working at the tunnel when the blast occurred. Four were pulled out, including one in critical conditions, the Hunan provincial transport department said in a statement. Accidents and explosions are common in China due to weak safety standards and lax building practices. In November, a massive explosion near an expressway ramp in southwestern China killed at least seven people and injured about 200. That blast was caused by three explosives-laden vehicles that caught fire, also destroying a garage and a food warehouse. Saturday 19 May 2012 http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/tunnel-blast-kills-19-chinese-construction-site-16384577#.T7ejDXj82W8

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Abertay University student's system uses digital networks to plot real-world disasters

The way emergency crews search for missing people following a natural disaster could be revolutionised by the work of a Dundee student. David Kane, a computing and networks student at Abertay University, has developed a programme whereby broadband routers are used to detect whether a building is still standing. By ''pinging'' internet addresses in areas affected by disasters such as tsunamis and hurricanes, David's software could provide information to assist rescue teams, detailing the extent of the disaster and the areas worst hit. David, whose work has been exhibited at the university's degree show, said: ''Responding to disasters is immensely difficult and any extra accurate information can make the difference in saving lives. ''I wanted to prove it was possible to use an ordinary piece of technology we all have, a home broadband router, to map natural disasters in real-time.'' Using Google Maps, the system shows live data from ''safe'' areas from which signals have been received from routers. It could be assumed that areas from which no signal is returned have been worse hit, allowing rescue crews to focus their efforts on saving lives there. ''The idea definitely works and I've built it so anyone can take this code and improve it,'' he added. Saturday 19 May 2012 http://www.thecourier.co.uk/Living/Digital/article/22808/abertay-university-student-s-system-uses-digital-networks-to-plot-real-world-disasters.html

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15 victims of Sukhoi crash identified

JAKARTA: Forensic experts from the Indonesian police Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team, Friday, said that they had identified 15 victims of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 which crashed at Gunung Salak, Bogor, last May 9. The victims, 10 men and five women, comprised 13 Indonesians and two of other nationalities. Head of the Indonesian Police Hospital at Keramat Jati here, Brigadier General Agus Prayitno, at a media conference which was broadcast live by several television stations, said the victims were identified through their finger prints, dental records, DNA and personal possessions. However, he said the bodies had yet to be handed over to their next of kin as some of their body parts were still missing. Until today, the hospital had received 30 body bags of the victims’ remains and belongings which were recovered from the site of the crash. The ill-fated aircraft, with 45 passengers on board, was on a demonstration flight on May 9 when it suddenly lost communication with the air control tower. The plane’s wreckage was spotted on Gunung Salak the following day Friday 18 May 2012 Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/05/18/15-victims-of-sukhoi-crash-identified-new/#ixzz1vFfrYGaE

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At least 36 dies in bus accident in Vietnam

Hanoi, Vietnam - At least 36 passengers died when a bus carrying nearly 60 passengers broke the banisters of Serepok Bridge on National Highway 14, which connects Dak Lak and Dak Nong provinces in central Vietnam, and fell into the river on Thursday night, the Vietnam News Agency reported on Friday. According to the initial report, the bus, owned by a transport cooperate in Dak Lak province, some 960 km south of capital Hanoi, was on the way to Ho Chi Minh City. At around 10 p.m., while crossing the Serepok Bridge, the vehicle suddenly crashed into the banister and fell into the river, from the height of 18 meters. Rescue workers and local people were mobilized to save victims. By 3 a.m., rescue works finalized. A total of 34 people were dead on the spot and other two victims died in Dak Lak hospital, according to the report. Friday 18 May 2012 http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/82196/at-least-36-dies-in-bus-accident-in-viet-nahm

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Another mass grave was found today on Balambo Mountain in Halabja

A mass grave was found Wednesday on Balambo Mountain including children and women remains. “The corpses of the mass grave might be victims of the chemical attack in the late 1980s,” Goran Adham Halabja town commissioner told Press. He said that they have indicated the location with the cooperation of Halabja Martyr association and have informed the KRG ministry of Martyr and Anfal affairs to dig up the corpses. “There might be also three other mass graves there,” he added. Halabja is a Kurdish town in Northern Iraq, located about 150 miles (240 km) north-east of Baghdad and 8–10 miles from the Iranian border. The former Baath regime bombarded Halabja with internationally banned chemical weapon in April 1988, killing 5 thousand innocent people and displacing thousands others. Those who were dead were buried nearby Halabja randomly. Wednesday 16 May 2012 http://www.komalnews.net/%28A%28tlc5BDBqzQEkAAAAMGQ3OWQ2Y2QtZmZiOC00Mjc2LTlmYWUtMmY4MDc3YmZiNWVj79RK3hAKpaskK5NhKbv1971f20Q1%29%29/En/Detail.aspx?id=15765&LinkID=88&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

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Police identification unit summons Sukhoi victims` family members

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) unit of the police has summoned a number of family members of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 victims to the Said Sukanto National Police Hospital in Kramat Jati, Jakarta, to help in the victim identification process. The unit will attempt to match the family members` DNA data with that of the bodies found at the crash site in Mount Salak, West Java. "The victims` families have been summoned to obtain some fingerprint, DNA and teeth samples, and this process is not yet complete," the chief of the hospital`s medical and health division Mussadeq Ishaq told reporters here on Thursday. According to Mussadeq, the families have been summoned to enrich the incomplete data stored in the DVI unit`s data base. "After this, the DVI team can do its job optimally, with almost 100 percent correct results," he remarked. As of Thursday morning, Mussadeq noted, the unit had received as many as 35 body bags containing the remains of the ill-fated plane crash victims. "We have received a total of 35 body bags - 30 of them contain the victims` body parts, while the other five contain the victims` property," he said. Mussadeq also asked for blessings from all parties so that the Sukhoi Superjet 100 victim identification process could be completed soon. The Sukhoi Superjet 100 jetliner slammed into the dormant volcano at nearly 800 kph (480 mph) during a light rain. Russian and French officials have now joined the investigation into the cause of the disaster. The ill-fated Superjet was carrying representatives from local airlines and journalists on what was supposed to be a 50-minute demonstration flight. Barely 21 minutes after the plane took off from a Jakarta airfield, its Russian pilot and co-pilot asked for permission to drop from 10,000 feet to 6,000 feet; the plane disappeared from the radar immediately afterwards. Thursday 17 May 2012 http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/82183/police-identification-unit-summons-sukhoi-victims-family-members

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Bodies of Sukhoi Victims Kept in Containers - “The capacity of the existing container is not enough, so we bring more.”

The evacuation of the victims of the crashed Russian Sukhoi Superjet-100 through land is still underway. This morning, one body bag arrived at the Sukamto Police Hospital, Kramat Jati, East Jakarta. The body bag arrived at the Police Hospital today was temporarily kept in the mortuary before being stored into a cooling container. A joint forensic team from the Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) and Police's Inafis brought one cooling container used to store the victims’ bodies. Earlier, Director of DVI Indonesia, Chief Commissioner Anton Castilani, said the container is used to prevent the victims’ body parts from decaying. “The capacity of the existing container is not enough, so we bring more,” said Anton. The white container came at 4.30 PM on Tuesday, May 15. The container was brought into the post mortem unit in the forensic building of the hospital with the help of two forklifts. The identification process of the victims’ body parts is still in progress. A total of 30 body bags have been evacuated to Jakarta including five bags which contain the victims’ belongings. The forensic team has recapitulated the post mortem data, namely the DNA, then the DNA samples will be sent to the Police Headquarters’ laboratory for identification and matched with the ante mortem data taken from the victims’ family members. As many as 45 passengers were in the SSJ-100 when it crashed into the cliffs of Mount Salak. Until the seventh day of the evacuation, there has not been any sign of life from the victims. Wednesday 16 May 2012 http://us.en.vivanews.com/news/read/314358-bodies-of-sukhoi-victims-kept-in-containers

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8 000 corpses still unidentified in Mexico

Even if someone had not chopped the heads, hands and feet off the victims first, the chances of investigators identifying the 49 bodies dumped on a road in northern Mexico this weekend would have been far from certain. More than 8 000 corpses left across Mexico since 2006 have not been identified, according to the National Human Rights Commission, a government-run body. At the same time, more than 5 000 people who have disappeared during the drug violence sweeping the country have never been tracked down, according to the commission. The failure to find and identify victims of massacres and murders has spurred criticism of the war on drug gangs waged by President Felipe Calderon since he took office in late 2006. The thousands of grieving families searching for lost loved-ones are also likely to haunt Calderon's successor, who will be chosen in presidential elections on July 1. “When you can't find your family member it completely destroys you,” said Irma Hidalgo, whose 18-year old son was dragged from her home in Monterrey in 2011. “We just want to know if he is alive - or if not, then lay him to rest.” Hidalgo immediately called the Monterrey morgue following the discovery of the pile of dead outside the city on Sunday, but police told her not to come in because they said the bodies were so badly mutilated they were only identifiable with DNA. She has already given her DNA samples to state and federal police and is assured they will be compared with the victims. The sheer scale of the carnage makes it difficult for authorities to handle the murder cases. The latest violence has pushed the total number of drug-related deaths to around 55 000 since Calderon assumed power in December 2006. Emergency teams have had to confront mass graves with more than 200 corpses, dozens of bodies thrown into mine shafts and massacres such as the 49 headless corpses left on a road about 29km east of this industrial city. State-employed forensic scientists complain it is an almost insurmountable task. “I used to just deal with traffic deaths and the odd crime of passion. I never thought I would see this kind of devastation in my country,” said a forensic scientist in Monterrey, who asked his name not be used. “I had a day recently when I had to look at five bodies that had been shot in one street, then three in another and then five corpses that had been cut up.” “At first you feel sick when you have to take evidence from bodies that have been decapitated and mutilated. But then you get used it and you don't feel anything,” he said. It has also been a challenge to store so many corpses. Following the killings on Sunday, forensics vehicles needed to make several trips to take all of the 49 cadavers back to a morgue located in a public hospital in Monterrey. Hospital officials said they just managed to fit the corpses in their fridges. In other cases, such as when mass graves were found by the nearby town of San Fernando in 2011, the government had to send refrigerated trucks to store all the victims. Calderon defends his offensive by saying his government has made record seizures of marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine, and arrested or shot dead dozens of major traffickers. “There are people who criticise my government for fighting criminals, but what do they want? To invite (criminals) for a cup of coffee?” Calderon asked as he inaugurated a hospital in Mexico State recently. “If someone doesn't want to fight criminals, they shouldn't be in government.” But critics point out that even as soldiers and police round up drug smugglers, they fail to solve most murders. Fewer than 20 percent of homicides in the last two years have led to arrests and convictions, according to police and court statistics. With such a backlog, cases of disappearances are given even less priority, family members complain. Jorge Varestegui has been searching for almost two years for his brother and nephew, who were taken by armed men at a road block near his town of Parras in northeast Mexico. “Police don't take the cases of disappearances seriously. They say the person probably ran away or something, even when you bring evidence to show they were kidnapped,” he said. With so many crimes unsolved, police cannot identify if many of the victims were actually criminals killed over the fight to smuggle drugs or simply civilians caught up in the bloodshed. “The government gives a simplistic explanation that this is just criminals killing criminals. But how do they know, if they don't solve the crimes?” asked Indira Kempiris, a human rights activist in Monterrey. “Many of the victims are from the most vulnerable sections of society with no means to seek justice.” A day after the 49 bodies were dumped, police said they had not yet identified any victims nor had reports of a mass disappearance lately, signaling the victims may have been foreign migrants passing through Mexico to the United States. Graffiti at the crime scene bore the letter “Z”, a symbol for the Zetas drug cartel, known to dominate the area. As well as from drugs, the Zetas make money from human trafficking and extorting migrants, and have murdered many who fail to pay them. In 2009, the Zetas were blamed for a massacre of 72 foreign migrants, again in San Fernando. With many families of victims living in poor communities in Central and South America, it is even harder to identify them. Many of them are undocumented migrants, further complicating their identification. The continued failure to put names on so many victims leads to a vicious circle, in which gangs are encouraged to think that they can get away with murder, said Victor Clark-Alfaro, director of the Bi-national Centre for Human Rights in Tijuana. “Over the years, the state has accumulated a huge sack of dead people on its back without resolving the cases or punishing those responsible for them,” he said. - Reuters Tuesday, 15 May 2012 http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/8-000-corpses-still-unidentified-in-mexico-1.1296689

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Russia’s top DNA profiler to assist Sukhoi’s victims’ identification

Russia’s leading DNA expert, Pavel Ivanov, is slated to arrive in Jakarta on Tuesday to help the National Police’s Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) unit in identifying the victims of Russian-made Sukhoi Superjet 100 that crashed on Mt. Salak, West Java last week. An official from Raden Said Sukanto National Police Hospital in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta, said late on Sunday that Ivanov would help analyze the remains of the ill-fated aircraft’s victims. “Ivanov will help the DVI unit to identify the victims through DNA profiling,” said the hospital’s medical and health division chief, Mussadeq Ishaq, as quoted by tribunnews.com. Ivanov is a Russian geneticist from the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, and is one of the experts who investigated the remains of Russia’s slain royal family Romanov through DNA analysis. According to Mussadeq, Indonesia’s forensic teams hoped that the helping hands from the Russian teams would make the identification process easier. Separately, Russian forensic expert Andrey Kovalev said that the Russians would conduct their jobs in accordance with Interpol standards. Previously, officials prepared six teams comprising 60 experts in forensic medicine, fingerprint identification, and DNA analysis to identify victims’ remains. The team consists of experts from Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta, Airlangga University in Surabaya, East Java, and the University of Indonesia in Jakarta. As of Sunday morning the hospital had received 18 body bags that were sent directly to forensics teams for identification. (asa) Mon, 05/14/2012 http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/05/14/russia-s-top-dna-profiler-assist-sukhoi-s-victims-identification.html

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