Heavy rains and landslides in Bangladesh kill 90

Heavy rains causing multiple landslides over the past three days have killed at least 90 people in south-east Bangladesh, officials say.

Officials are describing it as the worst monsoon rainfall in years in the Chittagong region. Chittagong is the second largest city of Bangladesh.

At least 150,000 people have also been stranded by the floods, officials say. Rescue operations are continuing but rain is hampering efforts.

Flights to Chittagong airport have been cancelled.

Most rail links have also been suspended after a railway bridge collapsed. Days of heavy rain have caused mud banks to collapse, burying houses and blocking roads.

Those killed were drowned in flash floods, hit by landslides, struck by lightning or buried by wall collapses.

Many homeless people live at the foot of the hills or close to them despite warnings from the authorities about the danger of landslides.

Chittagong port received 40cm (15.75in) of rain in a single 12-hour period on Tuesday.

The BBC's Anbarasan Ethirajan in Dhaka says that dozens of people are still missing and the death toll is expected to increase.

Our correspondent says that the downpours have flooded vast areas of the city, displacing thousands of people. "We are having the worst rainfall in many years," said Jainul Bari, district commissioner for Cox's Bazar, one of the affected areas.

Volunteers using loudspeakers warned people about the danger of heavy rainfall and landslides in Cox's Bazar, officials say, but local people and rescuers were still left helpless when floodwater suddenly inundated dozens of villages and severely disrupted communications.

 In neighbouring Bandarban district, bodies have been recovered from multiple landslide sites, local officials have said.

Bandarban police chief Saiful Ahmed told the AFP news agency that most of the victims were asleep when huge waves of mud and debris buried them alive. "One family has lost 12 members," Mr Ahmed said.

Other officials have said that they are expecting more heavy rain in the next few days. Security forces have been deployed to help the search and rescue effort.

Chittagong has been hit repeatedly by monsoon rain and landslides in recent years.

As a result, the government has tried to tighten rules on where development can take place but with little success.

Thursday 28 June 2012

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18605765

continue reading

Mass funeral proposed for bus crash victims

SEVENTEEN of the 19 people killed during the horrific bus crash in Meyerton on Monday have been positively identified and will be buried in a mass funeral next week.

All were positively identified as their bereaved family members trickled into the Diepkloof mortuary throughout most of Tuesday and yesterday.

Two bodies still remain unidentified.

The Putco bus driven by Khabi, was carrying 74 passengers and travelling from Sebokeng towards Meyerton on the R59 when it crashed. The 55 other passengers were seriously injured.

Thirteen of the injured victims were taken to Sebokeng Hospital, where three patients are in critical condition and in ICU and high care, and another seven patients are in stable condition.

One was discharged and the remaining two were transferred to other hospitals.

Two of the accident victims were airlifted to Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, where one is still in ICU and the other is in a stable condition. “What happened on Monday is a tragedy and our sympathies and prayers are with the families who lost their loved ones at this difficult time,” Gauteng MEC for Health Ntombi Mekgwe said yesterday.

A mass memorial service was proposed during a meeting held yesterday by the office of the mayor of the Sedibeng District Municipality, Mahole Simon Mofokeng.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the Sedibeng District Municipality, the Emfuleni Municipality, the Gauteng Department of Transport, the Road Accident Fund and Putco.

The service has been proposed for July 4 from 11am until 1pm at the Mphatlalatsane Sports Complex in Sebokeng.

The proposed mass funeral is set to be held on July 7 at 8am. ”On behalf of the people of Sedibeng, I once again convey and express my deepest condolences and sympathy to the bereaved families and friends of the passengers who passed on (died) during this accident,” said Mofokeng. “I would also like to wish the injured passengers a speedy recovery.”

The police are investigating a case of culpable homicide.

Thursday 28 June 2012

http://www.iol.co.za/the-star/mass-funeral-proposed-for-bus-crash-victims-1.1329578#.T-waNXj82W8

continue reading

Four dead and 130 rescued as asylum seeker boat capsizes off Australian island

Four people are believed to have died and 130 others were rescued after a crowded boat carrying asylum seekers to Australia capsized and sank today, less than a week after more than 90 people drowned on a similar journey.

The incident, which occurred midway between Australia's Christmas Island and the main Indonesian island of Java, has renewed Australian government efforts to deter a growing stream of boat arrivals by legislating to deport them to other Southeast Asian or Pacific countries.

An air and sea search for survivors ended late today when the Australian Maritime Safety Authority determined that no one beyond the 130 rescued had survived the sinking of the wooden Indonesian fishing boat. Only one body had been recovered.

"Based on information from the survivors, including crew members, it is now believed that there were 134 people on board and that three people went down with the vessel," the authority said in a statement.

Three merchant ships, two Australian warships and an Australian air force plane that can drop life rafts to the sea responded to the capsizing. The search area was 200 kilometers (120 miles) north of Christmas Island and 185 kilometers (115 miles) south of Java. 


The boat capsized in Indonesia's search and rescue zone but Australian authorities raised the alarm after the crew made a satellite phone call to Australian police. 


The first merchant ship reached the scene more than four hours later, officials said. Last Thursday, 110 people were rescued when a boat carrying more than 200 mostly Afghan asylum seekers capsized just 24 kilometers (15 miles) from the latest tragedy. 


Only 17 bodies were recovered. The survivors' refugee applications were being assessed at Christmas Island, where Australia runs an immigration detention center. 


Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare said the survivors of today's incident would be delivered to Christmas Island early tomorrow. 


Australia is a common destination for boats carrying asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Iraq, Sri Lanka and other poor or war-torn countries. 


In December 2010, an estimated 48 people died when an asylum seeker boat broke up against Christmas Island's rocky coast. 


Last December, about 200 asylum seekers were feared drowned after their overcrowded ship bound for Australia sank off Java. 


Other boats are suspected to have sunk unnoticed with the loss of all lives. 


Wednesday 27 June 2012 


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/four-dead-and-130-rescued-as-asylum-seeker-boat-capsizes-off-australian-island-7893352.html

continue reading

Dana air crash: Victims’ families plan burial rites

Notwithstanding on-going DNA tests being conducted on victims of Sunday June 3rd Dana plane crash, some families of the deceased have decided to go ahead with burial rites for their loved ones with or without their bodies.

Some of these families, who would rather not have their names in print, told National Mirror that going ahead with the burial rites even in the absence of the bodies would enable them put the ugly incident and subsequent pains behind and move on with life.

It will be recalled that a week after the crash, the Lagos State Government withheld the bodies on the grounds that DNA tests should be conducted on them for identification purposes in order to avoid giving bodies to wrong families which will subsequently brew controversies.

Until the decision was taken, there were controversies and confrontations among some family members over the rightful owners of the victims’ bodies, which led to an embittered relative attacking some officials of the Lagos State Univer-sity Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) morgue with a machete.

Meanwhile, the management of Dana Airline said yesterday that investigation into the cause of the accident is still ongoing, even as it promised to continue to offer assis-tance to the investigating authorities.

Wednesday 27 June 2012

http://nationalmirroronline.net/news/43542.html

continue reading

Anxious relatives are trying to contact Australian authorities

TEENAGE boys desperate to escape persecution in Afghanistan and Pakistan probably made up most of the 90-plus asylum-seekers who drowned off Christmas Island last week, it emerged yesterday, as police moved to identify at least three of the 17 bodies recovered.

Anxious relatives overseas are trying to contact Australian authorities for information on whether their loved ones are alive.

Afghan man Raiz Hussain told The Australian from his home in the United Arab Emirates he feared his brother Asad, 25, was on the boat and might be dead.

Mr Hussain said his brother had been in Indonesia for 18 months and wanted to get on a boat to Australia; he had been unable to contact him since the disaster. "Sometimes he was calling me from Indonesia and told us he wanted to go to Australia, and now his phone is switched off. I'm worried he was on this ship," he said. "When the boat was destroyed, his phone was switched off."

The most influential people in Sport He said he and his brother were from Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border, and the threat from the Taliban made life dangerous and had forced them to leave.

On Monday, Pakistani Muhammad Essa contacted The Australian concerned about his 36-year-old brother Jabir Hussain. Australian Hazara Federation spokesman Hassan Ghulam said four other families worried about Hazaras from Afghanistan and Pakistan had contacted him through friends in Australia.

 He said one youth believed to be missing was 15 or 16 and he had heard through Brisbane's Hazara community that many more teenage boys were on board the boat and unaccounted for.

The boat was carrying about 200 people; only 110 survived.

West Australian police inspector Neville Dockery, who is leading the coronial investigation into the tragedy, said three of the bodies recovered were likely to be able to be visually identified.

About 20 officers were continuing with the victim identification process and interviewing survivors yesterday. News of the tragedy has swept through the island's detention centres.

One Iranian woman in the island's family camp told The Australian she and fellow detainees were very upset. "We're so sad, we don't know who they are," said the 28-year-old woman, who did not want to be named. "We're very worried it might be our friends, we're very worried about them and about everyone who comes this way."

The woman said she had made the journey to Australia from Indonesia with her brother and they had spent three frightening days at sea. "This is very dangerous. We were very scared," she said through the detention fence.

Two of four injured survivors were released from Royal Perth Hospital yesterday after being flown off Christmas Island on Friday and Saturday.

Wednesday 27 June 2012

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/immigration/anxious-relatives-are-trying-to-contact-australian-authorities/story-fn9hm1gu-1226409549950

continue reading

Putco crash - 11 bus victims identified

At least 11 of the 19 people, who died in the Putco horror smash on Monday, have been identified.

Relatives of the deceased yesterday identified some of the bodies that were being kept at the Diepkloof mortuary, Soweto.

 Emotions ran high at mortuary as distraught relatives went through the gut-wrenching process of looking at the bodies.

Johannes Dumba, who lost his wife Gladys Maphisa in the crash said he still could not accept that it was his wife who was lying in the mortuary. “I feel hopeless, I feel helpless, my body is weak. When I called her on Monday and she did not answer the phone I knew something was wrong. “I went to Sebokeng hospital and then to Natalspruit (in Katlehong) and to Baragwanath hospital but I could not find her,” said Dumba.

He and his wife had been married for more than 20 years and they have four children and three grandchildren. Another mourner, Linda Thibetsane, 31, had come to look for his mother, Jane Thibatsane.

Sadly, he found her body in the mortuary among many others. Thibatsane said he last saw his mother last week when she came to nurse his sick child. “She was a pillar of strength, she brought me and my cousins up,” he lamented. Thibatsane said his mother was supposed to be starting a new job yesterday after being unemployed for a long time.

Two families came out of the mortuary with deeper sadness on their faces as they could not find their loved ones there. But Victoria Sicina found her friend Vicky Banya, 59, among the dead. Sicina said she decided to look for her friend, who had no family in Johanesburg. “When her lights did not come on last night I became worried. I could not even sleep. “I am sad that after looking so hard I found her here but at least I can have closure,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Putco bus company yesterday said its own investigations into the crash were under way, but it insisted the bus was roadworthy.

Raphiri Matsaneng, Putco spokesperson said: “It is believed the driver came across a service delivery protest and opted for an alternative route. The driver was speeding trying to make up time but unfortunately he met with a horrific accident.” Matsaneng said the investigations are underway to determine the exact cause of the crash.

He claimed Putco tests its buses twice a year, which is more than what is required by the department of transport. “We have 1200 buses in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Gauteng and 3000 drivers who undergo intense training for six months before they get employed. “Even when the drivers go on leave when they come back they are required to undergo training again,” said Matsaneng.

Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven called for “a thorough investigation by the transport department”. “We need to establish among other things whether the bus was roadworthy or overloaded. “This disaster underlines yet again the need for a safe, efficient and affordable public transport system,” said Craven.

Transport Minister Ben Martins has instructed transport authorities to get to the bottom of the cause of the bus crash. “There are no words to describe the shock with which we received the reports of this tragic end to lives. We wish to convey our sincere condolences to the families of passengers who lost their lives, and wish survivors a speedy recovery,” said Martins.

Putco accidents

December 2000: 13 people were left dead near Pretoria on the infamous Moloto Road. The accident also left 27 people injured.The accident occurred when a Putco bus collided with a minibus taxi near Kameeldrift. Investigations revealed that the bus driver lost control of the vehicle when he overtook the minibus taxi and collided with another Putco bus in rainy conditions.

April 2006: 113 people were injured in a four-bus pile-up north of Pretoria. The accident happened at the Putco depot where three buses had stopped when the fourth one hit another bus from behind, creating a domino effect of crashes.

November 2011: Nine ZCC members travelling in a Putco bus from church prayer meeting in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe died when their bus was involved in an accident on the N1 between Botlokwa and Polokwane. Most victims were travelling to their homes in KZN. In another accident on the same day, a Putco bus carrying members of ZCC from Tembisa in Gauteng collided with a Nissan Sentra sedan. The driver of the car died on the spot while the bus driver and his passengers escaped unharmed. It was alleged the driver of the bus was driving in the wrong lane.

March 2012: Two people died when a Putco bus bus drove into an RDP house in Bramfischerville, Soweto. The dead couple were sleeping at the time. About 44 passengers were hospitalised.

June 2012: 19 people died while 52 were injured in a horrific bus accident. The bus was travelling from Sebokeng when it plummeted off a bridge in Meyerton in the Vaal area. The driver had apparently lost control of the vehicle.

Wednesday 27 June 2012

http://www.thenewage.co.za/54594-1007-53-11_bus_victims_identified

continue reading

Uganda abandons landslide rescue bid for buried

Rescue workers in Uganda have abandoned efforts to find an estimated 70 people believed to be buried in a landslide.

Eighteen people have been confirmed dead after three villages were swept away on the slopes of Mount Elgon.

Uganda's Red Cross told the BBC efforts were now concentrating on looking after the injured and displaced.

In March 2010, thousands were forced to flee after after a landslide killed more than 350 people in Uganda's eastern Bududa district.

'Many cracks'
Ken Kiggundu, director of disaster management for Uganda's Red Cross, told the BBC that 72 people were still missing.

He added that 480 had been displaced and were now living with relatives and friends following Monday's landslide, which occurred after a number of days of heavy rain. "At 2pm, the ground trembled, followed by heavy rumbling of soil and stones which covered our home," Rachael Namwono, a villager in Bududa district, told Uganda's private Monitor newspaper.

The Red Cross's Michael Nataka told the Reuters news agency that there was a need to force people to move from the mountain sides as they tended not to heed the advice that the area was dangerous. "The Mount Elgon area has had so many places with cracks, so each time there is rainfall for a while, this water just seeps into these cracks and then eventually the landslide happens," Mr Nataka said.

"There is need for some level of enforcement." Steven Malinga, Uganda's minister for disaster relief, said moving people to safer areas was a priority, but many people refused to move as the villages near Mount Elgon had fertile ground and fewer instances of malaria. "Eventually we have to pass a law to move people from the top and the sides of the mountain, and find alternative communities where we can relocate them," the minister told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

He urged people to move to camps lower down the mountain, where they would be given food, containers for water and utensils.

Last August, at least 24 people were killed when mud washed away homes in the Bulambuli district of eastern Uganda. 

Wednesday 27 June 2012

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18592927

continue reading

Ten killed in Nepal van plunge

At least 10 people were killed and another six injured when a passenger van crashed off a mountain road in north-western Nepal today, a police official said.

Bharat Bohara said the driver lost control and the van plunged about 330ft (100m) some 300 miles (480km) north-west of the capital, Katmandu.

He said the injured were taken to hospital, where two of them are in a critical condition. Few other details were available.

Most of Nepal is covered by mountains where roads are generally poorly maintained as are the vehicles using them.

Tuesday 26 June 2012

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/06/26/10-killed-nepal-van-accident.html

continue reading

Uganda Begins Search for Landslide Victims

Uganda has sent a rescue team to eastern Bududa district where more than a 100 people may have been killed Monday by a landslide caused by heavy rainfall.

It is believed as many as three villages might have been buried.

A member of parliament from the region was quoted as saying that most people were likely indoors when huge blocks of mud and rocks started to roll down hills, toppling homes and burying an unspecified number of people alive.

Red Cross spokeswoman Catherine Ntabadde said: "From the latest reports we have we can only confirm 18 dead but assessment of the devastation around the area is continuing."

The Uganda Red Cross said it had sent a team of volunteers to assess the situation. Local authorities have said there could be about 80 people living in each village.

Ntabadde said nine people had been injured and 15 houses buried in the mudslide, while 29 houses were at risk and needed to be urgently relocated.

 Issa Aliga, a reporter with the Uganda Daily Monitor newspaper, said the landslide is the second in the region in two years. “This is the second time it is happening in this area. Late last year, it happened in this same area and many people died,” he said.

Landslides caused by heavy rains are frequent in eastern Uganda, where at least 23 people were killed last year after mounds of mud buried their homes. Scores of people were buried alive in a similar disaster in March 2010.

Member of Parliament David Wakikona said three villages had been flattened in Bumwalukani parish on the slopes of Mount Elgon "and the initial reports I have is that more than 100 have been buried. "The areas around Bududa district have been experiencing heavy rains for days now," he said. "I am told the landslides started around midday today and that they're still going on and some villagers who survived the early slides are fleeing."

Aliga said the government is working with the Uganda Red Cross to recover the bodies of those believed to be buried in the debris.

He said the local people of the region, known as the Gissu, had refused to be relocated after the first landslide because the new land where the government had wanted to relocate them was not suitable for their way of life. “The people in this area, they say that they have been staying in this area for a long time, and they refused to go by the government’s idea because the people here are cultivators, and they grow coffee.

 But, in the areas where the government wanted to relocate them is a cattle area where people practice pasturing,” Aliga said.

Wakikona, was quoted as saying that about 300 people lived in the affected villages.

The Uganda Red Cross said it had sent a team of volunteers to assess the situation.

Local authorities have said there could be about 80 people living in each village.

Ntabadde said nine people had been injured and 15 houses buried in the mudslide, while 29 houses were at risk and needed to be urgently relocated.

Rain has fallen regularly on parts of Uganda over much of the past two months, even though this is usually a dry period between the rainy seasons.

Wakikona said army rescue teams would play a lead role in moving the soil during the rescue operation.

Tuesday 26 June 2012

http://www.voanews.com/content/uganda-to-begin-search-for-victims-and-possible-landslide-survivors/1249174.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/25/us-uganda-landlside-idUSBRE85O0MZ20120625

continue reading

Uganda landslides destroy three villages

Massive landslides induced by torrential rains destroyed three villages in the mountainous district of Bududa in eastern Uganda, killing scores of people but possibly hundreds, officials said today.

Disaster Preparedness Minister Stephen Mallinga said it was still too early to say how many had been killed in today's landslides, but officials from Bududa said the final death toll would likely be in the hundreds. "We are sending a rescue team down there," Mallinga said. "It's very difficult to estimate how many have been killed, but two villages are affected, and maybe more."

Witnesses said the landslides were unexpected, happening several hours after a torrential overnight downpour that at first seemed to have done little damage.

David Wakikona, a lawmaker from the region, said most people were likely indoors when huge blocks of mud and rocks started to roll down hills, toppling homes, killing livestock and burying people alive. "We don't yet understand how this all happened, but it's terrible," Wakikona said. "Three villages have been buried."

According to Wakikona, at least 300 people lived in the affected villages.

Officials said rescue teams from the Ugandan army would play a lead role in moving the soil as the search for possible survivors begins.

The Uganda Red Cross said two villages had been destroyed and that at least 15 houses had been buried in the landslides.

It may take time before the full death toll from such disasters is known, as often it requires rescuers working with hoes and shovels to dig through the mud and find bodies trapped underneath.

Landslides are a common occurrence in the hilly parts of eastern Uganda, and they have been especially lethal over the years in those villages where the land is denuded of vegetation cover.

In 2010 massive landslides in Bududa killed about 100 people, destroying everything from the village market to a church.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who visited the scene, said at the time that the landslides were divine retribution for the people's failure to give to the land what they take from it. T

The villages are usually heavily populated, and often they live on land bare of trees.

There has been fierce resistance to a government effort to relocate the most vulnerable people in Bududa and neighboring districts, with some activists there saying it would be even more disastrous to abandon their ancestral homes.

Even those who were relocated to a camp for refugees after the 2010 landslides secretly returned to Bududa, said Mallinga, the disaster preparedness minister. "There's a degree of unwillingness to leave," Mallinga said.

Monday 25 June 2012 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/uganda-landslides-destroy-three-villages-7881003.html

continue reading

Iraq faces painful legacy of mass graves

Iraq wants to put the legacy of murderous dictator Saddam Hussein behind it, but faces a huge need for specialists to excavate mass graves thought to contain at least half a million unidentified victims.

The stakes are high for Iraq, a country seeking reconciliation with itself, where countless families lost all trace of their relatives during the dictator's 1979-2003 rule or the terrible internecine violence in the years after his overthrow.

Families have not been able to come to terms with the loss, as they have never found the bodies of their loved ones or learned the circumstances of their deaths.

But the process of excavating the mass graves and identifying the victims, which could take decades because of its scope and difficult terrain that includes landmines and unexploded ordinance, requires a highly skilled workforce that does not exist in Iraq.

The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), created on the initiative of former US president Bill Clinton and financed by Western states, has since 2008 held courses for employees of the Forensic Institute and the ministry of human rights aimed at addressing the shortfall.

Plastic skeletons The courses, offered in Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan region in north Iraq, include plastic skeletons buried in the garden of the hospital where they are held. "We try to make the scenario as realistic as possible," said James Fenn, the coordinator of the programme, pointing to 20 participants who were carefully digging in the soil.

Gradually, the outlines of a dozen "bodies" emerge, some with their hands and feet bound, or showing signs of trauma.

The team makes a thorough record of the "grave", making drawings on graph paper and lists of bones and evidence discovered. The approach is very scientific and rigorous. "We have learned to use a trowel and to dig without using machines like bulldozers, as they cause damage and may erase lots of evidence," said Salah Hussein, one of the trainees.

One of his colleagues, Thamer Hassan, has a brother who has been missing since 1987. "Maybe he is in one of the graves," Hassan said, adding that despite this, his motivation was his "duty" as an employee of the ministry of human rights.

Once they have been exhumed, the bones are given to another team from the Forensic Institute in Baghdad, who are charged with examining them.

The trainees examine the bones on a table, trying to determine how many people they might have belonged to, their age and their sex -- and listing the details with care. "It's important for the families," said Dr Dunia Abboud, a 26-year-old dentist. "A lot of families lost a member and don't know what happened to them." "We try to help them," Abboud said. "This helps to do justice."

At least 270 mass graves Some 170 people have been trained since 2008, but the need is huge, said Johnathan McCaskill, the head of Iraq programmes for ICMP.

 The Iraqi government is working under the assumption that there are 500,000 missing people, but some estimates put the number of missing from repression under Saddam's rule, especially against the Kurds and Shiites in the 1980s and 1990s, at more than one million. "The information we started up with was that there are at least 270 different mass graves in the country," McCaskill said.

 Most of Iraq's mass graves date from the time of Saddam's rule, he said, but it is possible that there are some from the bloody sectarian fighting that came in the years after his overthrow, in which tens of thousands of people were killed.

McCaskill said that after Saddam's fall in 2003, some people began to dig on their own, looking for relatives, though this has since been prohibited by law.

The ICMP is also working with the Iraqi government on a DNA identification programme with much more reliable technology. But it is complex and expensive.

Samples are currently analysed at the ICMP headquarters in Sarajevo.

 Meanwhile, the training will continue for at least two years.

But is a course enough to prepare someone for something so disturbing? Thamer Hassan thinks so, saying: "I am ready to work in real graves."

For more information see: http://en.tengrinews.kz/article/125/ Use of the Tengrinews English materials must be accompanied by a hyperlink to en.Tengrinews.kz

Monday 25 June 2012

continue reading

Heavy Rains Kill at Least 16 in China

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese state media say torrential rains have killed at least 16 people and affected 1 1/2 million people in southern and northern parts of the country.

 The official Xinhua News Agency said Monday that the heavy rains over the past three days had affected 450,000 people and wiped out crops in the southern Guangxi region.

Another more than 730,000 people were affected in the southern province of Jiangxi, and 312,000 were affected in the adjacent manufacturing powerhouse province of Guangdong.

Xinhua quoted a local government official as saying the direct economic losses so far were $20.3 million, and that water levels in 10 reservoirs and several major rivers had risen above warning levels.

Xinhua said rainstorm-triggered floods have also hit areas of Inner Mongolia in the north of China.

Monday 25 June 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/06/24/world/asia/ap-as-china-rain-storm.html?_r=1

continue reading

Identification of boat victims 'long and complex'

Police say the grim task of identifying victims of the Christmas Island boat tragedy will be long and complex. Twenty officers have been sent from Perth to assist with the coronial investigation.

Seventeen bodies have been recovered and are being stored in a makeshift morgue on the island while about 70 people remain unaccounted for.

WA Police are identifying the dead on behalf of the coroner and Deputy Commissioner Chris Dawson says it is likely to take at least two weeks. "Dealing with tragedy and a major loss of life is not easy for any individual to deal with," he said. "What I can say is that the agencies are working very closely together and West Australian police are just part of a national effort that's taking place."

 A total of 110 asylum seekers were rescued and transferred to a high security detention facility on the island.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority says all of the survivors were rescued on the night of the disaster and the majority were already wearing life jackets when the merchant vessels and navy ships arrived.

AMSA has since been revealed there were unused life jackets seen floating in the water, meaning more asylum seekers could have survived the tragedy.

Mr Dawson says police are interviewing the survivors. "Part of the investigation requires the use of interpreters and interviewing those 110 survivors," he said. "That again is a very long but necessary process to make sure that the state coroner is fully informed as to the circumstances as to how people lost their lives."

Monday 25 June 2012

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/australian-news/14033958/identification-of-boat-victims-long-and-complex/

continue reading

Mexico ravine bus crash kills 26

At least 26 people were killed in Mexico on Sunday after the bus they were traveling in turned over on a wet road in the southwestern state of Guerrero, a Red Cross official said.

At least seven people were injured and believed to be in a serious condition, the official said. "In the area where it happened it's raining very hard," he added.

The official said most of the people inside the passenger bus were wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the logo of Mexico's Labor Party (PT), a small grouping in Congress supporting leftist presidential hopeful Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

A state government press release said the vehicle was headed to the town of Buenavisa de Cuellar, 83 miles (134 kilometers) from the capital of Chilpancingo del Bravo.

The statement said the bus’ brakes gave out, causing it to skid off the road shortly after noon on Sunday. The bus was carrying people to a political rally.

Other emergency crews were dispatched to where the accident took place about 2-1/2 hours drive southwest of Mexico City.

Guerrero state police department had no immediate comment. Mexico holds a presidential election on July 1. Bus crashes and other road accidents are common on Mexico's main roads, causing hundreds of deaths a year.

In April, at least 43 people were killed when a cargo truck crashed into a bus on a highway in the Gulf state of Veracruz, in one of the worst accidents the country has suffered in recent times.

Monday 25 June 2012

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-18575695

continue reading

Eight killed, 44 injured in Croatia bus crash

A Czech bus carrying about 50 passengers crashed near a tunnel in Croatia early Saturday, killing eight people and injuring at least 44, the national rescue services said.

"A bus with Czech licence plates drove through a safety barrier and turned over" near a tunnel in Sveti Rok, some 230 kilometres (138 miles) south of Zagreb, the National Protection and Rescue Directorate said.

The accident occurred around 4:00 am (0200 GMT) on the road to the Adriatic city of Split, a popular tourist destination.

The injured were taken to a hospital in nearby Gospic, while victims with serious injuries were being transferred by a military helicopter to the capital Zagreb, the rescuers said.

Local media said the bus hit the barrier, turned over and smashed into a concrete fence opposite. There were 50 passengers, police spokeswoman Kristina Maodus told Nova TV.

All of them were Czech nationals, the channel said, quoting unconfirmed reports. 

Saturday 23 June 2012

 http://www.nation.co.ke/News/world/Seven+killed++44+injured+in+Croatia+bus+crash/-/1068/1433984/-/kwdmlnz/-/index.html

continue reading

Death toll rises as survival hopes fade

Rescuers have found two more bodies from a capsized asylum seeker boat, bringing the death toll to five. But ninety passengers from the overcrowded boat are still unaccounted for.

One hundred and nine people have been rescued since the crowded vessel capsized on Thursday afternoon about halfway between the Indonesian island of Java and Christmas Island.

Authorities says it is unlikely more survivors will be found.

Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said today poor weather was hampering the search, which resumed at first light. Australian Maritime Safety Authority representative Jo Meehan said three aircraft and one boat continued the search for survivors overnight but no bodies or survivors were found.

At about 7am today, another three aircraft and extra boats joined the search. Ms Meehan said while they were “still in that period of survivability“, the likelihood of people being found alive will diminish by the afternoon. “We are operating under conditions that include the water temperature, the weather, the fact that we now there were life jackets on board, rafts and debris,” Ms Meehan said. “At the moment we are operating on the basis that they will be able to survive for two days.”

It was likely the rescue would turn to a recovery operation in the early evening, she said.

Twenty WA Police Officers have been deployed to Christmas Island where 109 rescued passengers of the 200 males from the stricken vessel have been taken.

Acting Superintendent Neville Dockery said today the a mix of experienced investigators and forensic DVI officers were heading to the area where they would work with partner agencies including the Australian Federal Police. “Our role, from the West Australian police side, is mainly to investigate this tragedy on behalf of the coroner,” Supt. Dockery said. “It is a terrible tragedy and unfortunately we believe that there are still many people that are missing at sea, but we are very experienced in each roles and some of the people that I’m bringing with me we’ve deployed to horrendous bushfires, we’ve deployed to Bali and some of them have actually attended Christmas Island on previous occasions.”

Supt. Dockery said it is not known when the officers will return to Perth. Rescuers have told how they plucked desperate asylum seekers from wild seas that claimed the lives of dozens of boat people attempting to reach Australia for a new life.

The captains of two merchant ships that dashed to answer mayday calls from the overcrowded asylum seeker boat told The Weekend West of their crews' bravery in dangerous waters on Thursday evening.

The search for survivors will continue into this afternoon but authorities held little hope last night of rescuing anyone else. 

No survivors were found yesterday but many of the 109 asylum seekers saved, including a 13-year-old boy, arrived at Christmas Island in the morning.

Officials have identified five unaccompanied minors among the group. Only the bodies of three men were recovered but up to 100 people are feared to have drowned when the boat capsized about 185km north-west of Christmas Island in international waters halfway between the island and Indonesia.

Survivors being brought into Flying Fish Cove last night. Picture: Lincoln Baker/The West Australian The boat had about 200 male passengers, most of whom were believed to be Afghans but some survivors told rescuers they were from Pakistan.

 Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare said the water temperature was about 29C so experts believed people could survive in the water wearing a lifejacket or clinging to debris for 36 hours. 


 But that survival window expired overnight. "They've seen more debris, they've seen lifejackets and unfortunately seen more dead bodies and we need to brace ourselves for more bad news," Mr Clare said. 

Several merchant vessels helped navy patrol boats HMAS Larrakia and HMAS Wollongong during the rescue, including the Esperance-bound Cape Oceania.

The cargo ship's master, Xu Liansheng, said that by the time he reached the scene four hours after the mayday call, many people were already in lifeboats. "We just saw empty lifejackets," he said.

His crew's rescue boat spent 90 minutes trawling the rough seas and managed to pull four people out of the water.

Capt. Xu said the four survivors were in good health with the only injury a cut finger. They were dropped at Christmas Island at 7.30am yesterday.

Each man told the captain he was Pakistani and they gave their names and ages as Asghar, 35, Musadig, 33, Sayed, 25 and Najmul, 22.

He said they pleaded to be taken to Australia and did not want to be returned to Indonesia. "They were a little bit scared. We gave them some Chinese food and water," Capt. Xu said.

The crew of another merchant ship, the JPO Vulpecula, saved 27 people. "They were OK.

We had two injuries and we handed them over to Christmas Island," Capt. E. Bilango said. "I didn't see many bodies in the water but I saw some lifejackets without people in them."

Refugee groups questioned why authorities failed to respond sooner after it was revealed the boat made a distress call on Tuesday night.

Mr Clare said the Australian Maritime Safety Authority had directed the boat to return to Indonesia after the call.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said yesterday was not the day for politics but crossbench MPs Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor urged them to negotiate a compromise to restore offshore processing.

Angry WA Liberal MP Mal Washer said the tragedy made him feel "ashamed" to be part of a Parliament that could not find a bipartisan solution. "Every option needs to be on the table," Dr Washer said. "Let's get some humanity back and let's get bipartisanship back. "I'm a doc. This is a tragedy and we believe in prevention. "We're not clowns. Let's grow up and do something to stop this."

Dr Washer said that if the compromise was processing asylum seekers on both Nauru and Malaysia, "let's do both". Transport Minister Anthony Albanese also pushed for a speedy resolution on asylum-seeker policy. “I note Dr Washer’s genuine comments,” he said. “And I think certainly I am of the view, and the Government is of the view, that we want to work together across the parliament to secure an outcome that reduces the possibility of a tragedy like this being repeated.”

Three survivors were airlifted to Royal Perth Hospital under police guard and three are getting medical treatment at the Christmas Island hospital. A small number of WA police and emergency services workers had joined the rescue effort, Colin Barnett said.

The Premier said WA was likely to hold a coronial inquest. "It's extremely dangerous, an extremely hazardous undertaking and a human tragedy of great scale," he said.

Up to 20 WA police disaster victim identification specialists are expected to go to Christmas Island today.

Saturday 23 June 2012 


http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wa/14018695/seamen-tell-of-perilous-rescue-in-wild-seas/

continue reading

Fourth year anniversary of the sinking of the Princess of the Stars

Persida Acosta, chief of the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO), said Judge Peras is set to conduct an occular inspection in Romblon where the ship sank at th height of typhoon Frank in June 21, 2008.

Acosta said government lawyers assisting families of victims to identify remains and seek damages, as well as the PAO “pray to the courts and high heavens that the courts in Cebu and Manila expedite the resolution of the damages suit.”

Around 560 cadavers were recovered from the sunken ship.

Acosta told Cebu Daily News the PAO Forensic Laboratory identified 11 skeletal remains taken from the ship. Of the number, seven were turned over to their families.

Acosta said PAO recently identified the remains of 42-year-old Joselito Aballe, whose remains were turned over in a simple ceremony to the daughters of Joselito in Cebu City. Acosta said the PAO Forensic Team will proceed to Sibuyan Island to process, analyze and identify the recovered body.

Efforts of the laboratory are focused on the biological profiling of the skeletal remains recovered from the sunken M/V Princess of the Stars.

Through the efforts of the PAO Forensic Team, the Philippine Coast Guard and the private salvor, the skeletal remains in the laboratory have reached more than 140, Acosta said.

She said PAO needs access to the victims’ ante mortem data which is under the custody of Dr. Renato Bautista, head of the Disaster Victim Identification team of the National Bureau of Investigation which did extensive work in Cebu with the Interpol to identify cadavers brought here.

Judge Peras earlier ordered the arrest of Baustista for his failure to heed the court order to turn over documents needed by PAO. But Acosta said Dr. Baustista continues to defy the court order.

Bautista, in an earlier interview, denied that he was withholding the documents and said he was willing to give them to the PAO but said the victims’ data remain “confidential” as agreed upon by the NBI and Interpol.

PAO has been seeking the transfer of the documents from the NBI to help identify the human remains that will undergo an anthropological examination by a University of the Philippines based forensics group.

Retired ship captain Amado Romillo, an expert witness presented by the prosecution, insists that MV Princess of the Stars took an “extremely dangerous” route from the Manila port to Cebu City at the height of typhoon Frank in 2008. Instead of passing through the west side of Mindoro, Romillo said the sunken ship made its regular route where the eye of the typhoon was situated when it sank on June 21, 2008.

Acosta said the skipper’s testimonies proved that there was negligence on the part of ship officials who decided to travel despite an impending typhoon. Using a nautical chart or map, Romillo explained to the court the route of the MV Princess of the Stars when it left the Manila North Harbor on June 20, 2008.

The MV Princess of the Stars capsized off Romblon enroute to Cebu City with 820 people on board. Only 32 survived.

Friday 22 June 2012

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/216895/four-years-after-tragedy-damage-suit-drags-on

continue reading

Indonesia plane crash search called off

Rescuers have ended their search of damaged and burned homes in Jakarta without finding further victims of a military plane crash that killed seven airmen and four people on the ground.

The Fokker F-27 turboprop was on a routine training flight when it crashed into a military housing complex on Thursday about a mile short of the runway where it was trying to land.

Two children aged two and six, their grandmother and their aunt were killed in the crash, along with the plane's pilot, co-pilot and five trainees. "Search and rescue efforts have finished," air force spokesman Colonel Agung Sasongko Jati said on Friday morning. "All the wreckage has been removed and there are no more new victims."

Eleven people were injured in the crash, which sent a huge plume of black smoke billowing into the sky. The aircraft was built in 1958 and has been used by Indonesia's air force for the past 35 years, during which time it had completed 14,900 flight hours.

It was declared airworthy before it took off for its second training flight of the day under clear skies, Jati said. "It seemed that the pilot was trying to land on a nearby paddy field," he said. "But it was not clear whether it was because of an emergency."

He said the plane did not have a black box.

The crash comes after a Russian Sukhoi passenger jet crashed into an Indonesian volcano during a demonstration flight for potential buyers last month, killing all 45 people aboard.

Friday 22 June 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/22/indonesia-plane-crash-search-over?newsfeed=true

continue reading

Search for missing after boat capsizes off Christmas Island

Ships and aircraft scoured the Indian Ocean Friday for survivors after a boat capsized off Australia's remote Christmas Island, with three people confirmed dead and more than 80 missing.

Ships and aircraft scoured the Indian Ocean Friday for survivors after a boat capsized off Australia's remote Christmas Island, with three people confirmed dead and more than 80 missing. So far, 110 people have been rescued from the vessel which was believed to be carrying around 200 asylum-seekers, with authorities saying: "We're still in that critical window where more lives could be saved." "We have 110 survivors and three confirmed dead so far," a spokeswoman from Australia's Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), which is working with Indonesia's search and rescue authority Basarnas, told AFP.

They were taken by ship to Christmas Island, a remote Australian territory in the Indian Ocean where they were given medical checks. "They were rescued wearing life jackets and we are quite confident we will recover more survivors," added the spokeswoman, who said the water temperature was warm.

The ship, en route from Sri Lanka, issued a distress call and capsized 120 nautical miles north of Christmas Island, 2,600 kilometres (1,600 miles) from the Australian mainland on Thursday afternoon.

 Christmas Island administrator Steve Clay told ABC radio that three of the survivors were admitted to hospital on their arrival, but the rest were OK. "They were transferred to the jetty, put into buses and transferred up to the Phosphate Hill immigration facility," he said. "They're getting medical checks up there. They appear calm and they were just sitting quietly."

The capsize is the latest in a series of refugee boat disasters in the Indian Ocean in recent years, as rickety, overloaded vessels packed with desperate migrants sink on their way to Australia.

Four merchant vessels, two Australian Defence Force ships and five aircraft are involved in the search. "We're still in that critical window where more lives could be saved," said Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare. "People can survive out there for up to 36 hours if they have either lifejackets or they have debris to hold onto."

Clare said about 40 survivors were found clinging to the upturned hull of the boat on Thursday afternoon, while others were discovered holding onto debris up to three nautical miles from the scene.

Though they come in relatively small numbers by global standards, asylum seekers are a sensitive political issue in Australia, dominating 2010 elections due to a record 6,555 arrivals.

Direct asylum-seeker journeys from Sri Lanka have historically been rare but navy sources in Colombo have reported a marked increase in Australia-bound people-smuggling operations. Indonesia is a more common transit point for those trying to reach Christmas Island, which is closer to Java than mainland Australia, but many fail to reach their destination.

The UN's refugee agency said it was "deeply concerned" by the incident. "This accident again underscores the dangerous nature of these hazardous journeys, and the desperate and dangerous measures people will resort to when they are fleeing persecution in their home countries," it said in a statement.

In December, a boat carrying around 250 mostly Afghan and Iranian asylum-seekers sank in Indonesian waters on its way to Christmas Island, with only 47 surviving.

Some 50 refugees were killed in a horror shipwreck on the island's cliffs in December 2010. Fifteen were children aged 10 years or younger.

The worst known refugee boat disaster off Australia in recent years was the sinking of the SIEV X in 2001, which killed 353 of the more than 400 asylum-seekers on board.

Friday 22 June 2012

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/299226/australia-fears-refugee-boat-disaster-toll-could-soar

continue reading

Nine perish in bus accident, 6 positively identified

Nine people died and more than 15 others were injured in a traffic accident along the Kwekwe-Gweru highway yesterday morning (Wednesday).

The accident occurred when a ZUPCO bus travelling to Chipinge was sliced open by iron rods that were protruding from a stationary lorry.

The injured were taken to Gweru and Kwekwe hospitals for treatment.

Police said seven people died on the spot while two others were pronounced dead on admission to hospital.

Eighteen other passengers were injured in the accident that occurred around 5:30am near Connemara Open Prison.

The crash brings to 20 the number of people killed in accidents that occurred in the region this week.

Thursday 21 june 2012

http://bulawayo24.com/index-id-news-sc-national-byo-16695-article-Kwekwe-Gweru+highway+accident+-+10+people+die%2C+15+injured.html

continue reading