PH miner saved 'thanks to animal sacrifice'

A MINER in the Philippines who was trapped underground for a week after several attempts to rescue him failed was finally pulled to safety on Friday, an official said, following a traditional animal sacrifice.

Felipe Pilmaco, a small-scale miner in the mountainous Benguet region, was trapped when the narrow tunnel he excavated collapsed on him, said Supt. Mario Mayam-es, regional police official.

He survived on supplies passed through a metal pipe and communicated using a mobile phone that was sent to him, but when rescuers tried to dig him out more dirt would fall and block the tunnel, said Mayam-es.

Finally, the rescuers performed a ritual sacrifice of a black pig to the local tribal mountain god, 'Kabunian' and were able to save Pilmaco.

Doctors said the miner, who celebrated his 33rd birthday underground on Tuesday, was suffering abrasions and some infections but was otherwise alright.

Gov. Nestor Fongwan of Benguet, who oversaw the rescue efforts, hailed the recovery of Pilmaco but also said he would call an investigation into illegal small-scale mining in the area.

Numerous small-scale miners in the northern Philippines have been digging in search of gold for years, despite the risk of cave-ins and flooding.

Friday 10 August 2012

http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/news/breaking-news/28699-ph-miner-saved-thanks-to-animal-sacrifice

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Two dead and others missing after three Ugandan helicopters crash into Kenya's highest mountain in bad weather

Two people have been killed and at least seven others remain missing after three Ugandan helicopter gunships crashed into Kenya's highest mountain in bad weather.

The Russian-built Mi-24 'Hind' helicopters were travelling to Somalia to help fight al-Qaida-linked militants when they crashed on Sunday.

Rescue workers today recovered two dead bodies and continue to search for at least seven soldiers and airmen around the crash sites in the rugged landscape of Mount Kenya.

Simon Gitau, deputy warden of Mt. Kenya National Park, said rescue workers saw two bodies outside of one helicopter that crashed and burned. He said he did not know if other bodies were inside the wreckage.

'We did not search through the wreckage because it was still burning and smoldering,' Gitau said.

Five personnel were rescued from a second crash site discovered on Tuesday, Gitau said.

A third Ugandan military helicopter that crashed was found on Monday and the occupants rescued.

No one was killed in that crash that wrecked the aircraft beyond repair and only one injury was reported.

Search-and-rescue teams reached one of the crash sites Tuesday at around 12,000 feet up Mount Kenya, said Brigadier Francis Ogolla, the commander of Kenya's Laikipia Air Base near Mount Kenya. He told a press conference that the other helicopter was spotted from the air at the edge of a cliff.

Ogolla said the helicopters had taken off in formation from Laikipia Air Base at around 4:50 p.m. on Sunday en route to the northern Kenya town of Garissa, where the helicopters were to refuel before proceeding to Somalia.

One hour later only one helicopter landed in Garissa and the pilot said he had lost communication with the other three, Ogolla said.

Weather around Mount Kenya- Africa's second tallest peak at 5,199 meters (17,057 feet) - can be erratic. Heavy clouds and wind would be common this time of year, with precipitation coming in the form of rain or snow.

The three helicopters that crashed were Mi-24 gunships. The fourth helicopter that landed safely was an Mi-17.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni ordered an investigation to be led by his brother - a retired army general - in a sign of how serious Ugandan authorities are taking the loss of lives.

Neither Kenyan nor Ugandan authorities could yet say why three of four military helicopters making the trip crashed. Ugandan officials said preliminary information indicated that bad weather was responsible.

Mount Kenya - Africa's second-highest peak - has been shrouded in clouds even as rescuers tried to locate the wreckage from Sunday's crashes.

One point to be investigated will be whether the pilots took the wrong flight path. Concerns were raised in Uganda that the well-trained crew flew too close to Mount Kenya. A Ugandan official insisted that there was nothing wrong with the helicopters.

'They were inspected... and found to be airworthy,' Jeje Odongo, Uganda's deputy minister of defense, said of the Russian Mi-24 helicopters.

Odongo said that all the crew had been trained by the U.N. and that 'they all passed the competence tests' before flying out of Uganda.

Odongo said the trip to Somalia had been planned three months in advance and that the aircraft have been used over the years for missions, including the hunt for the notorious rebel leader Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army.

The unexplained crashes will set back efforts by a multinational African force to battle Islamist militant group, al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaida.

The U.N. Security Council in February approved funds for nine transport helicopters and three attack helicopters to be used by African Union forces in Somalia. The AU troops have been fighting al-Shabab for years without the use of helicopters. The Ugandan military forms the bulk of the African Union forces in Somalia.

Ugandan and Burundian forces pushed al-Shabab out of Mogadishu about a year ago. Helicopters will further aid their counterinsurgency efforts.

Kenya and Burundi have also dispatched to troops to fight al-Shabab, which neighboring countries view as a regional threat.

The Islamist militants are now concentrated in the southern coast town of Kismayo, which is likely to be the next scene of serious fighting.

Somalia has not had a stable government since 1991, when longtime dictator Siad Barre was ousted by warlords who then turned on each other.

Tuesday 14 August 2012

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2188291/Ugandan-helicopter-crash-Two-dead-missing-helicopters-crash-Kenyas-highest-mountain.html#ixzz23bQ9XJ4l

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More Iran quake survivors found - days after officials called a halt to rescue operations.

Two people on Tuesday were pulled alive from the rubble of weekend quakes that destroyed villages in Iran's northwest, state media reported - days after officials called a halt to rescue operations.

The two were plucked from the smashed remains of their home after being detected by search dogs, IRIB state television and the official IRNA news agency reported, citing regional emergency service workers.

IRNA said the pair, both in good health, were saved in a village near the town of Varzaqan, northeast of the city of Tabriz.

The hamlet was one of hundreds decimated by Saturday's twin quakes measuring 6.4 and 6.3 on the moment magnitude scale that killed 306 people and injured 3000 others, according to an official toll.

The pair were rescued two days after Iranian Interior Minister Moustafa Mohammad-Najjar and his aide in charge of disaster management, Hossein Ghadami, declared a halt to rescue operations.

The officials had said there were no more survivors to be found.

Separately, the Fars news agency reported that an unspecified number of bodies were recovered on Tuesday, including that of a 27-year-old woman in the village.

Some officials and members of the Iranian public have criticised the official reaction to the earthquake, while others praised the rapid response of emergency services.

Iran's Red Crescent notably said it had refused offers of help from countries including Germany, Armenia, Turkey and Taiwan.

But Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi contradicted that on Monday by saying that, "under the current circumstances, (Iran) is now prepared to accept help from other countries for quake victims," IRNA reported.

The United States said it had also offered assistance but had received no reply from Iran, with which it has no direct diplomatic ties.

Tuesday 14 August 2012.

http://news.iafrica.com/worldnews/811007.html

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Sudanese authorities on high-alert after floods “killed 32 people”

The Sudanese ministry of interior has declared a state of national emergency in order to confront a wave of floods that already led to the death of 32 people and displacement of thousands, according to official figures.

The minister of interior, Ibrahim Hamid, revealed while addressing the national council for civil defense in the capital Khartoum on Saturday that floods caused by heavy rainfall in different parts of the country have so far led to the death of 32 people, 35332 animals, injury of 35 people, total destruction of 4722 houses, partial destruction of 10317 houses, 854 public facilities and172 warehouses. He also revealed that 15 villages along Atbara River had been destroyed by the rains.

Mahmoud said his ministry was declaring a state of national emergency to move the affected populations to safe areas and provide them with food and health assistance.

Furthmore, local authorities in the eastern state of Kasalla announced on Sunday said that 35,000 people had been displaced after floods destroyed more than 3300 houses. The government of Kasalla appealed for assistance to help more than 10,000 families affected by the floods.

Kasalla’s deputy governor, Magzoub Abu Musa, told the Sudanese Media Center (SMC) that the health situation in the affected villages was stable but there is a need for more health and sanitation assistance. He added that the authorities are trying to contain health conditions through allocation of health teams to every village and provision of drinking water and shelters.

However, he admitted that the scale of the crisis is bigger than the state’s capabilities, urging the federal government and philanthropists to aid the affected village.

The UN also confirmed on Sunday that more than a 1000 families were affected by the floods in eastern Sudan. Likewise, in the western region of Darfur, the UNHCR said that no less than 14,000 people have been affected by the floods.

Meanwhile, weather-forecasting authorities have warned that the situation is set to get worse in light of indications that the rates of rainfall are estimated to increase towards mid-August.

According to Abdullah Khiar, the head of the weather forecast corporation, current readings show that mid-August will witness rates of rainfall exceeding those witnessed in the last thirty years.

Heavy rains already drove the levels of the Nile River to unprecedented levels, the ministry of water resources announced on Sunday, warning citizens to take the necessary precautions to save lives and properties.

Monday 13 August 2012

http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article43559

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Nigeria: Scores Missing, 28 Killed As Floods Ravage Plateau Again

No fewer than 28 persons have been killed, while scores of others are still missing in a renewed flood rage in nearly all the villages of the southern zone of Plateau State at the weekend.

More corpses are still been picked in villages around the affected areas.

Also about a hundred communities and over a thousand houses are said to have been affected by the flooding.

Also, hundreds of houses and bridges linking the area with Lafia, capital of Nasarawa State and Taraba state were summarily sweep away by the flood waters.

A residence of Langtang, an affected area, Mr Nandom said "iced blocks were literarily falling on their roofs all through early hours of Sunday," before their homes and farmlands were washed away.

The transition committee chairman of Shendam Local Government, an affected area, Kemi Nshe told Newsmen that two hundred hectares of farm land was also washed away by the flooding in his local government council alone.

Muslims in the state this time have extended invitation to their Christian counterparts to join them at the Central Mosque to feast during the sallah, as a mark of reconciliation.

Tuesday 14 August 2012

http://allafrica.com/stories/201208131343.html

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Haryana needs to check bodies in Bawana canal: Delhi cops

New Delhi Unidentified corpses, some so highly decomposed that they were reduced to skeletons, floating in Bawana canal from the upstream states have become a “huge headache” for Delhi Police.

The canal flows into the city through Haryana and it is the primary source for the Haiderpur treatment plant that supplies drinking water to Delhi.

“This year, 22 bodies have been fished out from the Bawana canal. Of them, only two could be identified. These belonged to persons from border areas in Delhi. More than 90 per cent of the bodies flow in from Haryana,” a police officer said.

“Most of the corpses have been in water for so long that these were reduced to skeletons. In such cases, identification is impossible,” the officer said.

DCP (Outer) B S Jaiswal said: “The human body begins to bloat in water and decomposes within hours of death. Imagine the level of decomposition that would happen to a corpse floating in the canal for 10 days.”

“When you fish out such highly-decomposed corpses, it becomes a humongous task to ascertain the cause of death...whether it was murder or accident. The injury marks and other preliminary indicators are all gone,” he said.

The Delhi Police has blamed its Haryana counterpart for letting the bodies float in the canal. At an inter-state coordination meeting on July 27, it suggested that Haryana should put grills or nets in each of its districts through which the canal passes.

“The bodies would get caught in the grills. This way, a lot of bodies can be taken out of water at a much earlier stage and identified,” a police officer said.

“Sometimes relatives of missing persons call us from as far as Panipat and Karnal. They ask us to perform DNA tests on corpses retrieved from the canal. They suspect that one of the bodies might turn out to be a lost relative” the officer said.

Sources said the three police stations in Delhi-Bawana, Shahbad Dairy and KN Katju Marg have their task cut out until Haryana makes arrangements to check the rising number of corpses floating in the canal.

“The Haryana Police promised to take action every time we discussed the matter. In reality, nothing has been done. Since Haryana is an upstream state, it can let the unidentified bodies pass through their territory so that these land in our area of jurisdiction. These become our headache then,” a Delhi Police officer alleged.

Before entering Delhi, the canal passes through Haryana’s Sonepat district. “It is not right to say that bodies are dumped only in Haryana. They float from Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. Since there is no grill in the canal, it is hard to guess how many bodies are dumped into it,” Superintendent of Police, (Rohtak Range) Arun Singh said.

Monday 13 August 2012

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/haryana-needs-to-check-bodies-in-bawana-canal-delhi-cops/987519/

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52 killed and 46 injured in horror Indian crash as bus plunges 300ft into gorge after tyre bursts

At least 52 people have died after a crowded bus plunged more than 100m into a deep gorge in northern India, police said.

The driver lost control of the vehicle, which was carrying passengers on its roof, at a sharp bend on a mountain road in the state of Himachal Pradesh, 385 miles north of New Delhi, said police officer Raj Kumar. The bus then fell into a gorge.

The driver lost control when a tyre burst at a sharp bend on a mountain road in the state of Himachal Pradesh, 335 miles north of New Delhi.

Many passengers riding on the roof of the 42-seat bus were killed in the carnage. Among the victims were 18 women.

Forty-six other people injured in the accident were taken to hospital, three of whom were in a critical condition.

The bus had seats for 60 people and was so overcrowded that some people were riding on its roof. Kumar said the rescue operation was continuing and that the death toll of 52 could rise.

Tragedy struck at 9am local time as the privately-owned bus travelled from Chamba - a remote mountainous district where there are many road accidents - to Dulera.

Sunil Chaudhury, administrator of Himachal Pradesh’s Chamba district, said all victims’ bodies had been recovered but the relief and rescue operation was going on.

Four teams of doctors were working at the crash site and postmortems were being conducted at the scene.

Police figures show India has the world's highest road-death toll, with more than 110,000 people dying each year in accidents commonly caused by overcrowding, speeding and poor vehicle and road maintenance.

Monday 13 august 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/11/india-bus-crash?newsfeed=true

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Hospitals struggle to cope as earthquakes kill 306 in Iran

Overcrowded hospitals in north-west Iran struggled to cope with thousands of earthquake victims yesterday as rescuers raced to reach remote villages after two powerful quakes killed at least 306 people.

There were long queues of survivors waiting to be treated after Saturday's 6.4 and 6.3 quakes near Tabriz and Ahar, Iranian media reported.

Aidin, a Tabriz resident, said he went to give blood at a local hospital on Saturday and saw staff struggling to cope with the influx of patients.

Heath Minister Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi told a session of parliament today that the number jumped by about 50 after victims died in hospital. More than 3,000 people were injured in the earthquakes.

Casualty figures are expected to rise, as some of the injured were in a critical condition while hundreds were trapped under rubble. Many villages are hard to reach by road, which has also hindered rescue efforts.

Scores of aftershocks have hit Iran's mountainous north-east since the 6.4 and 6.3 magnitude quakes hit the region, where some 300,000 people live near the borders with Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Thousands of people have moved into makeshift camps or slept in streets after the quakes, in fear of more aftershocks, which numbered 55 by last night. "I saw some people whose home was destroyed, and all of their livestock killed," said Tahir Sadati, a local photographer. "People need help, they need warm clothes, more tents, blankets and bread."

The most casualties were in the villages near Ahar, Varzaghan and Harees, close to the city of Tabriz, Iranian media reported.

Iran is located on seismic fault lines and is prone to earthquakes.

In 2003, some 26,000 people were killed by a 6.6 magnitude quake that flattened the historic south-eastern city of Bam.

Monday 13 august 2012

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/hospitals-struggle-to-cope-as-earthquakes-kill-250-in-iran-8037172.html

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Dana plane crash: Families bury human parts

Some families have been burying just body parts of the victims because of the fatality of the plane crash that made some victims lose several parts of their bodies in the accident.That explains why most of the victims’ corpses are not laid in state before burial because what is inside the coffin is just dismembered body, a human leg, head, hand or other parts of the body.

However, Chief Medical Director (CMD) of Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Prof. David Wale Oke, said that it is far better than mass burial and it is what is practised in advanced countries when such fatal accidents happen.

He told Saturday Sun exclusively that the handling of the victims of Dana plane crash would be compiled into a report and presented in an international forum to show Nigeria’s advancement in managing such crises like plane crash.

He also said that in a meeting between Lagos State government and the victims’ families, it was agreed that the victims be buried separately as against mass burial, which is outdated in modern societies. He recalled a mass burial of victims of a plane crash done at Ejigbo, a suburb of Lagos State, where some relations of the crash victims can not visit easily because of distance. He commended Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola for taking the bold step to carry out the forensic analyses of the victims to ensure that each family buries its dead and that each victim has a personal grave side.

Prof. Oke noted that the antecedent set by Lagos State in handling the Dana plane crash victims will serve as a pathfinder in case of future occurrences in the country. “This is because the experts that handled the Dana Plane crash victims are here in LASUTH, are Nigerians and with the experience they have gathered, can handle similar accidents if called upon.” LASUTH CMD further explained that the delay in collection of the bodies of the Dana plane crash is partly because some families have the next-of-kin of the victims outside the country.

He also officially apologised on behalf of the hospital for the beating of a journalist, Mr. Benedict Uwalaka at LASUTH mortuary on Thursday. Normal corpses claim processes are ongoing as the relatives turn out in their numbers to finish the process of getting their corpses released after which they would place them back in the morgue to pick them at their convenience. Meanwhile, the journalist has been discharged from LASUTH and gone home, while he was advised to come for regular check-up because of the injuries he sustained.

Saturday 11 August 2012

http://sunnewsonline.com/new/national/dana-plane-crash-families-bury-human-parts/

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Emotions run deep at mass grave

Lat Ngi struggled to explain to her daughter the significance of what she was holding.

“This is your grandfather,” she told the little girl, holding a 15-centimetre jaw bone segment out to the incredulous child.

“I know it is my father’s bone, because he had platinum covering his three teeth here,” the 40-year-old said, pointing to three decayed teeth pockets along the jaw. “I knew he was brought here, but I never imagined I would actually find him – I can’t find the words to say.”

Ngi, who now lives in Thailand’s Pattaya state, rushed to arrive at the site for yesterday’s ceremony for the spirits of the dead as soon as she heard the news about the recent unearthing of the Khmer Rouge-era execution pit.

A small crowd gathered around Ngi to confirm her remarkable discovery, some in awe, others in anguish.

For many, the uncovering of a mass grave in Kralanh district’s [Du Dantrei village] had inspired a measure of desperate hope to find the final remains of relatives who were executed or disappeared under the Khmer Rouge regime.

More than 300 villagers gathered at the now-halted soil excavation site to participate in the ceremony yesterday.

While monks led villagers in the blessing ritual, a small group of despairing Khmer Rouge survivors broke away to place a makeshift altar adorned with candles, a fresh pig’s head and fruit at the base of the pit where human remains, including children’s bones and 20 skulls, were dug up last weekend.

Sitting by the altar, first one, and then several more villagers began scratching at the ground with their bare hands. An older villager descended into the pit with a stick to break through the earth. In less than five minutes, the group had filled two large silver offering platters with bones, and Ngi had found her father.

However, not everyone was as fortunate as Ngi.

Vorn Mol, 57, recounted through a stream of tears that not only had she lost both her parents at this site, she had lost all four of her children, and had no way of being sure she could ever recover their exact remains.

“I don’t know what difficulty they went through before they died,” Mol, crouched in prayer, said. “I come here to dedicate to their spirits so that they will never see again what they got in this life.”

With a shaved head and cataracts creeping across her irises, Mol was vehement in stressing her wish that all remains in the area were exhumed and taken to a stupa for proper burial.

“I don’t want them buried in the mud like that,” she said. “I want to see all the skulls together in one stupa and to keep it as evidence.

“I want to request the Khmer Rouge court to find justice for these victims, and make all of the people responsible for their actions.”

According to Thuy Sam Oeut, 55, who was held at the nearby prison in a 30-person work group breaking stones, cadre conducted the executions early in the morning.

“Between 4am and 5am, I saw that they took young people and old people to this area,” Sam Oeut said. “The man who is in charge of this [….] I don’t know where he went after the regime failed.”

Many of the villagers claimed that from 1979 to early 1980, Vietnamese forces wiped out many of the former controlling Khmer Rouge cadre in the area.

Documentation Center of Cambodia director Youk Chhang told the Post on Monday that his researchers had known about the site since 1998 and had hoped it would be used for evidence at the court trying senior leaders and those most responsible for crimes during the Democratic Kampuchea period.

However, none of the villagers speaking with the Post yesterday recalled seeing or hearing of any tribunal investigators coming to the area.

Deputy village chief Moek Samkhan said he had paid a group of villagers five cans of rice per day in 1980 to excavate as many bones as they could find from the nearby furnace pit.

Rice husk and, during 1977 to 1979, humans – alive and dead – were incinerated in the pit to make fertiliser.

A thick blanket of gritty, black debris covers what remains of the 15-by-25-metre furnace pit and its surrounding area.

“We did this in 1980, and it took about one month to collect all the bones we could,” Samhan said. Those bones are now kept in cubic-metre cement containers in the shell of the former prison office on Trung Bat mountain, about 500 metres from the site of the latest discovery.

The unkempt structure is covered in graffiti and some of the cement cases are cracked and broken away, exposing the fragments of rock and bone within.

“We knew what happened there [at the furnace and prison], but we did not know there was more here too,” he said, adding he would work to fulfil the villagers’ wish that a memorial stupa be built in the area.

A stupa is pertinent, because memories will likely die with survivors, 83-year-old Kan Kimly said, her eyes blinking back tears as she spoke.

“I try to tell my grandchildren the stories, but they don’t believe,” she said, struggling to smile. “How can you believe what happened?

Saturday 11 August 2012

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012081057922/National-news/emotions-run-deep-at-siem-reaps-killing-field.html

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Drunk Driving, Overloading Behind Meghalaya Bus Crash; Villagers Loot Victims

Initial investigations have revealed that drunken driving and overloading led to the road accident that left 30 people dead and 26 injured at Tongseng village in East Jaintia Hills district on Wednesday. Thirty persons, including women and children died while 26 were critically injured when the Tripura-bound bus fell into a deep gorge along the NH 44 early morning on Wednesday. According to Abhishek Chandra, the District Magistrate of Unakoti, “the driver who is presently undergoing treatment at Silchar Medical College Hospital, was completely drunk at the time of the mishap. The main driver died in the accident. According to sources, the ticket counter in Guwahati had issued only 36 tickets but at the time mishap 56 passengers were travelling in the ill-fated bus. Meanwhile, out of the 30 passengers who died in the bus accident only 15 were identified on Thursday. “Officials from Tripura who were camping in the district headquarter have identified as many as 15 of those who died either on the spot or succumbed to their injuries,” East Jaintia Hills Deputy Commissioner Abhishek Bhagotia said.

The district administration has set up a control room in Jowai where people can contact either through e-mail (syiem123@gmail.com) or through telephone 0365-2220711 and mobile +91 94361-06342. Officials have ruled out any fresh casualty on Thursday. Meanwhile, nine bodies were taken to Tripura. Two bodies were taken to Guwahati airport. Both were employees of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna (RSBY). The District Magistrate of Unakoti (Tripura) Abhishek Chandra, who arrived in Khliehriat on Wednesday, made all necessary arrangements for taking the bodies of the deceased to their native places. Expenditure involved in transportation of deceased including those from West Bengal and Bihar is borne by the Government of Tripura.

Villagers Loot Victims

When mourners were grieving over their loved ones who perished in Wednesday’s bus accident at Tongseng village, the villagers, who came out to offer their helping hand in rescue operations were actually busy looting the belongings of the passengers of the ill-fated vehicle. “I am not happy with what had happened,” the District Magistrate of Unakoti District, Abhishek Chandra said on Thursday. “We could not recover even a single mobile phone. We suspect all costly belonging including cash were stolen”, said Chandra.

Local people, who were engaged in rescue operations, charged Rs 5,000 per body, a senior police official said adding Rs 2,500 was demanded per coffin. For dropping bodies, demands by vehicle owners ranged between Rs. 10, 000 to Rs. 12, 000. “It seems every one is taking advantage of the situation”, said a senior government official.

Friday 10 August 2012

http://www.northeasttoday.in/our-states/meghalaya/drunk-driving-overloading-behind-meghalaya-bus-crash-villagers-loot-victims/

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Lagos begins release of bodies of Dana crash victims today

THE Lagos State government will this morning start the release of 132 bodies of Dana plane crash victims.

The charred bodies are to be given in batches and in alphabetical order from today till Saturday to the families. The identities of the bodies scheduled for release have been pasted at the information centre of the Dana Air Crises Centre at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, (LASUTH), Ikeja.

Families and friends of the victims and representatives of the state government at a meeting yesterday in LASUTH heard that 132 bodies had been fully identified through their DNA samples tested abroad while 16 others have not.

The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, told The Guardian that the bodies would be released in batches to reduce chaos, “as there are other documents that they are going to fill for legal reasons.”

“These include the issue of next of kin, who authorises releases and the processes of release. We are releasing another 132 bodies now that are fully identified,” Idris said.

Members of the 200 families and friends that attended the meeting were still in mourning mood. Some of them expressed displeasure against state officials, whom they blamed for keeping bodies of the deceased for more than two months after the disaster.

Following the June 3, 2012 plane crash in Iju, Lagos, about 45 bodies were identifiable, 97 burnt beyond recognition and six bags containing body parts were gathered, requiring DNA test overseas.

On why some of the 45 identifiable bodies would not be released, Idris said it was to ensure that they were given to the right families. He noted that there were cases where two families had come forward for the same body.

“Some of the identifiable bodies were wrongly tagged at the crash site, while some tags fell off in the course of taking them to the morgue. So, what we are doing is to reduce the pains that the bereaved families are going through. We gain nothing by keeping the bodies,” he said.

Pathologist and Chief Examiner in the inquest, Prof. John Obafunwa, said the DNA test recorded 88 per cent success rate and the process is still continuing to identify the remaining 16 bodies.

The state government also disclosed that arrangement for the bodies of foreigners on-board the ill-fated plane, would be worked with the relevant embassies.

Information from the Ministry of Justice showed that processes for the issuance of death certificates would begin on Monday. Meanwhile, an Assistant General Manager of Airports Rescue and Fire Fighting Services, Mr. John Ekpe, at the ongoing hearing of Coroner Inquest into the crash, told the court yesterday that they could not access the actual site of the incident immediately because of the crowd.

Ekpe told Magistrate Oyetade Komolafe they had an emergency plan and disaster emergency team but the search and rescue functions outside the airport falls on the National Emergency Agency.

In his testimony before the court, he said the rescue team was at the crash site with two fire trucks and a water tanker before any other agency, but could not access the actual site of the incident because of the crowd.

Another witness, Sanni Enessi, the Chief Fire Fighter Station Commander of the airport, said the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria has a checklist of agencies it calls for emergency plan.

The inquest continues tomorrow with Federal Road Safety Commission, Total Oil, Forte Oil and two other witnesses for appearance.

Friday 10 August

http://ngrguardiannews.com/index.php?option=com_content&id=95013%3Alagos-begins-release-of-bodies-of-dana-crash-victims-today&Itemid=559

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Dana crash: DNA results out, 132 bodies for collection

Two months after Dana plane crashed in Lagos, killing all 153 passengers on board, the Lagos State Government yesterday said that 132 bodies of the victims were ready for collection by their relatives from today. 16 others are still being processed.

This followed the conclusion of the Deoxyribonucleic Acid results, otherwise known as DNA, in the United Kingdom.

Speaking during a meeting with the affected families at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, Ikeja, yesterday, Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, disclosed that the results were out.

Some of the medical personnel who carried out the tests were also present at the meeting, while the families of the victims had been appropriately notified which day of the week their representatives would come for the corpse.

Idris said that the state government would be releasing the 132 identifiable bodies to relatives of the victims in batches of 20 to authorised claimants from today.

He said the bodies would be released in alphabetical order and the names of the victims that had been identified would be pasted at the Lekan Ogunshola Memorial Morgue, adding that relatives should come with appropriate documents to claim the bodies.

Idris said: “We have got some of the results of the DNA analysis from the UK.

“The experts have released the results and we felt it necessary to brief the families of the victims on the processes and documentation needed to claim the bodies.

“We will release the bodies in batches of 20 in alphabetical order daily from Thursday to reduce the chaos and to resolve some legal processes needed to claim the bodies.”

LASUTH Chief Pathologist and Chief Medical Examiner, Prof. John Obafunwa, said that 16 other bodies were still being processed.

Obafunwa said that the corpses would only be released to their next of kin after the presentation of necessary documents.

He listed the order of priority for the next of kin as spouses, children, parents siblings, half- brothers and sisters, grandparents, nephews and nieces.

“The next of kin is in this order and they have to present legal documents before the bodies would be released to them.

“But, in the case where the next of kin is not available, he or she has to authorise someone else to collect the body with appropriate identification.

“The authorised person has to come with the driver’s licence, national identity card, international passport and letter of authorisation by the next of kin,” he said.

Already, service of songs had been held for some of the victims of the plane crash.

It will be recalled that one week after the crash, the Lagos State government withheld the corpses on the grounds that DNA tests must be conducted on them for identification purposes to avoid giving bodies to wrong families.

This action brewed controversies. Concerned relations were told to wait until the results were released before coming for collection of bodies.

One of the major reasons the state government took the decision was as a result of controversies and physical confrontations among some family members over the rightful owners of some bodies.

This consequently led to a build-up of tension at LASUTH mortuary, which later got to a peak when an angry relative attacked morgue officials with a cutlass following the state government’s refusal to release the bodies already identified by family members.

The assault was interrupted by a special squad of the Rapid Respond Squad, RRS, of the police. As the police held the angry relative, he was shouting, “You people can eat my brother’s body if you want, since you don’t want to release him to us.”

The police had to station a team of RRS to man the mortuary 24 hours because of these unpleasant developments at the mortuary. Meanwhile, a Lagos State Coroner’s court conducting inquest into June 3 Dana plane crash was yesterday told the challenges some rescue agencies faced in responding to the disaster.

Testifying at the resumed inquest proceedings yesterday, an Assistant General Manager, Airports Rescue and Fire Fighting Services, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Mr.John Ekpe, told the coroner, Mr. Alexander Komolafe, that there was no emergency agency that had all the equipment required to save the lives of victims.

The witness said the FAAN rescue team was at the crash site early enough with two fire trucks and a water tanker ahead of other agencies but could not access the actual site of the incident because of the crowd.

Ekpe said by the time his team could accessed the site, “our team recovered dead bodies from the nose of the plane, which was not completely burnt, while Julius Berger was called to evacuate the affected buildings and wreckages with their heavy equipment.’’

Ekpe also told the coroner that FAAN had an emergency plan and disaster emergency team but the search and rescue functions outside the airport falls on the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA.

Another witness, a Chief Fire Fighter Station Commander /Head of Department of the Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting Services of FAAN, Mr. Sanni Enessi, said that the authority had a checklist of agencies it often call for emergency plan.

Cross-examined by lawyers at the proceedings, Enessi explained that there was no source of water supply near the crash site, adding that the Water Corporation was far away from the scene, hence that the team had to go back to the airport to collect water.

The fire chief said the challenges the team faced on its way was that the road was too narrow and bad, and the surging crowd inhibited the emergency operations. Enessi added that the number of police drafted to the scene was not adequate initially but later more men arrived.

The coroner adjourned the inquest proceedings till tomorrow when the officials of the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, Total Oil, Forte Oil and two other witnesses are expected to appear

Thursday 9 August 2012

http://nationalmirroronline.net/news/47950.html

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Relatives pray at Khmer Rouge mass grave

More than 200 villagers gathered in Siem Reap’s Kralanh district yesterday to pray and seek solice for relatives executed during the Khmer Rouge regime after their remains were found over the weekend at the southern base of Trung Bat mountain.

Do Dantrey village deputy chief Muth Samkhan told the Post by telephone that cars and motorbikes came to the village in droves yesterday to light incense and pray for the dead.

“Before, we just know that here is a former Khmer Rouge’s prison. We didn’t know they killed a lot of people and buried them underground. We have so much pity, and many cried when they prayed,” Samkhan said.

The village chief added that some villagers from farther afield who had heard the news of the gruesome discovery journeyed to the village to find out if the remains of their missing relatives were there.

Authorities yesterday continued to embargo any more groundwork in the area until experts could arrive to examine the one-time graveyard, now a commercial soil excavation site.

More than 100 people have attended a Buddhist ceremony in rural Cambodia at the site of a freshly uncovered Khmer Rouge mass grave.

Buddhist monks led prayers and people came with offerings of food and drinks Thursday, five days after about 20 skulls and bone fragments were unearthed at the site of a former Khmer Rouge prison.

Village chief Chheng Theng said the offerings were meant to give sustenance to the souls of the dead "because we know they died hungry."

Siev Bun Sorn, 54, whose nine family members were killed in Trung Bat mountain prison, said that he was shocked and pitied his family, whom Pol Pot’s men murdered at the site.

“My anger disappeared for years, but when I saw the bones, I got angry immediately but could not let alone the thought of how much he had suffered,” Bun Sorn said, adding he had only escaped a similar fate by being transferred to a work movement unit.

He said he would be joining other mourners in a traditional Khmer ceremony once authorities allowed the public into the area.

“I am not sure I can find any bodies of my family members, because it was many years ago and they were buried in only one hole,” he said.

Vann Bunna, director of Siem Reap’s Department of Cult and Religion, said that his officials would begin research today to report to the province about the status of the bones and where they should be kept.

Thursday 9 August 2012

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012080857872/National-news/relatives-pray-at-khmer-rouge-mass-grave.html

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Unearthing Remains in Potter's Field to Give Names Back to the Nameless

On a winter’s night in early 2004, after a late visit at his parents’ house near Cleveland, Javier Reveron called his mother to let her know he had driven home safely. Then he vanished.

Javier Reveron, who went missing in 2004, shown with his mother, Judy, in 2000. He is among those whose bodies have been identified using expertise gained from a decade of using DNA to identify victims of the World Trade Center attack.

Evidence would point to New York. A plane ticket was bought and used. A car parked near La Guardia Airport was broken into, and some of Mr. Reveron’s belongings were found: his wallet, a driver’s license, business cards and a banana peel. There would be sightings, most likely false, in places like Queens and Ohio. Then the trail went dry.

But about six years after his disappearance, the New York City medical examiner’s office discovered what became of Mr. Reveron.

The office is undertaking an ambitious effort to identify the nameless dead in the city’s potter’s field, seeking to capitalize on the expertise that it gained over the last decade identifying remains from the World Trade Center attack.

Through old-time detective work and newer DNA technology, the office established that Mr. Reveron, 27, had drowned not long after arriving in New York in early 2004, and that his body was buried on Hart Island, home to the potter’s field, the graveyard of the poor, unclaimed and, in rare cases, the unidentified.

Some 980 bodies have been found in the city, or its waterways, since 1990 whose identities have never been determined. After a month or more in one of the city’s morgues, the unidentified victims are generally sent to be buried in the same trench graves on Hart Island as the indigents.

But now, as the medical examiner’s office conducts a systematic review of its old cases, the office is not only reopening dormant case files; it is also opening old graves.

Since 2010, the city has exhumed 54 bodies from the potter’s field for further study. So far, the effort has led to about 50 identifications, mostly through DNA evidence.

In the case of Mr. Reveron, his parents, Rigoberto and Judith, came to New York to try to find their son. They handed out fliers and visited store owners who thought they may have seen him. When friends visited New York, the Reverons would give them more fliers to distribute.

“All to no avail,” Rigoberto Reveron said via telephone from his home in Lorain, Ohio. “We didn’t know he had already been buried.”

In March 2010, Mr. Reveron filled out an electronic form concerning missing and unidentified people. Within a few days, he got a call from Ben Figura, the director of identification at the medical examiner’s office, who said, “I personally want to get involved and help you find him.”

The medical examiner’s office got critical biographical information about Mr. Reveron’s son: He was a high school and college wrestler who after college was found to be bipolar. He had an appendectomy, had donated a kidney to his older brother and had the scars from both operations.

That information, Mr. Reveron said, matched “a John Doe buried on Hart Island.” The match was then confirmed by DNA, using an autopsy sample and DNA taken from the parents.

“In April 6, 2010, our chief of police and pastor of our church came looking for my wife and I to tell us a positive match had been made,” Mr. Reveron said. “Six years later.”

The medical examiner’s office declined to discuss any case in which an identification had been made, citing privacy concerns. But the cases, according to a person familiar with the identification process, have also included Sean Wheeler, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who disappeared in late 2003 after a car accident on the Henry Hudson Parkway. His body was found about three months later, floating in the Hudson River by a ferry captain, but it was not until 2010 that a match was made.

Mr. Wheeler’s relatives said they had been in touch with the medical examiner’s office in early 2004, so it was somewhat frustrating to have had to wait so long for an affirmative match. The confirmation of Mr. Wheeler’s death “was very depressing,” an aunt, Kimberly Wheeler, of Independence, Mo., said. “It shouldn’t have taken so long if they’d put any effort into it.”

Another aunt, Carol Wheeler, said that the initial match was based on his appearance, height and weight, and a distinctive fraternity brand on Mr. Wheeler’s arm, and that it was confirmed by DNA testing of his aunts and uncles. “We came to the conclusion that New York was a big city and a lot of people go missing,” she said. “As time went on, you know, it became a cold case.”

Not all of these nameless dead perished unnoticed. The unknown cases include several Chinese immigrants who drowned after the Golden Venture ran aground off Queens in 1993. The episode drew extensive news coverage and shed light on the brutal conditions and deprivations that some Asian immigrants endured to make it to New York.

Another old case that has attracted the attention of the medical examiner’s office is that of “Baby Hope.”

The young girl, about 5 years old, has been known as Baby Hope since shortly after her body was discovered packed into a picnic cooler off the Henry Hudson Parkway in 1991.

As the subject of an active homicide investigation, her body was exhumed in 2007 from St. Raymond’s Cemetery in the Bronx even before the medical examiner’s office had begun looking into all of its old unknown cases. But at the time, biologists were unable to extract any DNA because her bones were in such poor condition.

“She had been in a cooler in the sun, and her bones were very brittle,” said Sheila Estacio Dennis, an assistant director in the medical examiner’s department of forensic biology.

By 2011, because of advances in the medical examiner’s office in the DNA extraction process, Ms. Dennis said, the office was able to obtain a full DNA profile. It did not yield a match to existing DNA databases from convicted felons or from active missing person cases in which samples had been collected.

Investigators believe that her parents, or one of them, most likely murdered her, as no one has come forward to identify the girl as his or her child.

In reviewing hundreds of old cases, the medical examiner’s office has in effect been conducting a census of “the unknowns,” as Mr. Figura calls them.

The deceased are overwhelmingly male, typically white and often homeless. They are usually found in Manhattan. The sidewalk is a common deathbed, as are subway platforms, where 106 of the unknowns — or 11 percent — were found.

Some 15 percent are presumed homicide victims. About 22 percent of the unknowns are pulled from the water, and investigators presume that many are suicides.

In most of the older cases, the medical examiner’s office typically keeps a tissue sample from the autopsy, which has been used to extract DNA samples in numerous instances over the last three years. In cases without an autopsy sample, the medical examiner’s office has sought to exhume the body.

Fingerprints have also led to identifications in a few cases, as improvements have been made in the sensitivity of the software that compares uploaded prints to various databases. Simply running the prints again years later has resulted in several identifications, Mr. Figura said.

Central to the medical examiner’s efforts is a public database, called Namus, containing information on 7,645 missing person cases and the remains of 8,516 unidentified victims. The database has helped investigators, the relatives of missing persons and even amateur sleuths try to establish matches between the known missing persons cases and the unidentified.

Mr. Reveron’s father, an usher for the Cleveland Indians and a former city councilman in Lorain, followed Mr. Figura’s instructions to use Namus to give a fuller profile of his missing son.

When the identification was confirmed, the Reverons requested that their son’s remains be returned. They learned that Javier’s body had been disinterred before, when investigators suspected that he might have been a match with someone else. When the match came up negative, his body was reburied on Hart Island.

The Reverons decided to cremate the remains in New York, and then took the ashes back to Ohio. On June 19, 2010, the Reverons gave their son “a Catholic Mass and a proper Christian burial,” Mr. Reveron said.

He said the family was grateful to Mr. Figura, saying that without his “personal involvement, we’d still be searching.”

But, he added, “What happened in six years should’ve only happened in one year.”

Thursday 9 August 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/09/nyregion/medical-examiner-opens-old-cases-and-graves-to-identify-dead.html?pagewanted=all

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DANA crash: 64 days gone, victims’ families bemoan non-release of corpses

As at the early hours of last June 3, when Mr. Femi Shobowale prepared to board the DANA aircraft heading for Lagos from Abuja, the thought never flashed through his mind that that would be actually a journey of no return, let alone getting to his destination.

The charming but resolute man, happened to be a pious Christian of the popular Apostolic Faith Church and what more a son to one of the pioneer member of the church in Nigeria, his untimely departure from the world of the mortals has no doubt dealt a big blow on the Shobowale's Family.

Still grappling with unbelievable and jolting news of his death, recent development has compounded the family's grief, as they still awaits the release of the corpse of their deceased son to allow them give him a befitting burial rite.

They are among relatives of the illfated DANA crash victims, yet to get the lawful compensation from the affected airline..

MEMORIES

The bereaved wife, Mrs. Titilope Shobowale, a young woman, while recounting to National Daily her last conversation with her hubby, said “he called to tell me he was about leaving Abuja and will be in Lagos very soon, that Sunday morning after which he said we should pray together for a safe trip and that was all, I never imagined it was his last prayer. My husband was actually part of those who were not burnt in the crashed aircraft, that informs why they could use his phone to call me and break the news, I was totally devastated. I later sent all the necessary document asked for by the airline operator to facilitate compensation but till this moment nothing of such has been given to us, they did even speak about it. When we got there to ask for his corpse, which due to the fact that he did not get burnt we could easily identified , we were told to wait for six week when the results of a compulsory DNA carried out on the charred bodies will be available before we can get the retrive the corpse of my husband, we learnt this last Sunday that the result of the DNA is available and we would be called upon before this week runs out but till this very moment we have not heard anything, I am thus appealing at this junction that they should, please release my husband dead body for him to be properly buried”.

35 days, after which the Dana Airplane crashed at Iju Ishaga area of Lagos State, in which 153 passengers and six crew members on board were consumed. One of the victims, Femi Shobowale, who would have celebrated his 48th birthday on June 28th if not for the unexpected fate that took him away, until his death he was a staff of Town Crier a company handling the marketing gamut of MTN.

The management of Dana Air has said that initial payments will soon be made to about 57 families of the victims of the Dana plane crash which occurred on June 3, 2012, by the insurers that insured the flight.

However, in a statement issued by the company, only 57 families out of the 120 of the victims involved in the accident have sent in completed forms for compensation. According to the statement, only 57 families out of the 120 of the victims involved in the accident have sent in completed forms for compensation.

Information from the hospital authorities confirmed that six identifiable bodies had so far been released, while seven other bodies ready for collection since the weekend were yet to be claimed as the hospital was waiting for the families to show up just as four more bodies were cleared for collection yesterday.

When our reporter got to the family house of Late Shobowale, at the Apostlic Faith Church hostel in Anthony Village. the family wore mournful looks, it a somber scene no doubt, when she was introduced, they were so pleased and she was offered a seat while they wait for the aged mother of the deceased of 82 years, she couldn't speak out because their eyes were heavy, so the younger son decided to speak with National Daily.

The younger brother ,Mr Joseph Biyi Shobowale comment on his late elder brother, he said this is not his first time of traveling to Abuja for the same assignment, he was a cheerful person, full of live, never a dull moment with him, he was the kind of person that put smiles on people face, whenever they are down. That very Sunday my brother was supposed to come back home to his wife and family, she said he spoke with him like two hours ago, and he said he will be home in one hour time, so two hours passed ,he didn't see the husband ,she then decide to call me to inform me that his husband is not yet back from Abuja, that she heard on radio and television that there was a plane crashed in Agege,she hope and prayed her husband is not among the people ,he then told her not to worry that, he will call him. He then try calling him in the evening of that Sunday, but the phone was switched off and I even slept very well because I don't want to believe that he died, but the next morning being Monday, I was too heavy to get up from bed, I received another call that people should come and identify their love ones that was in the crashed.

Its so unfortunate that he went and did not come back, I think he would have survived the crash, because he has not any injury on his body, even his cloth was still looking neat, when we went to identify him at Luth, we were told that it was only seven bodies that was not burnt and my elder brother was among them, it was like he just comb his hair and stepped out of his house, his phone was switch off, wallet and everything was intact. its was through his phone they use to call us and we have concluded we know why God allow this to happen, there are a lot of people that were not able to identify their person, because they were burnt beyond recognition, but we thank God our case is different. I think what killed my brother was the smoke and the fact that the rescue team could not easily access the spot of the mishap, perchance he would have been one of the lucky survivor had it been that help got there on time.

There was nothing that indicated that was his last moment, because after calling the wife that in one hour time, he should be home, and the last person he called was our cousin he has a business with him on Monday, he told him that he will be leaving Abuja soon, “by tomorrow we are going to get this thing done”. Not until when the wife couldn't reach him, after waiting for several hours, that she later heard about the plane crash and informed accordingly and I confirmed it but prayed that will not our portion. I then called his boss in the office that my brother is not yet back, he later got back to me, after going to inquire at the airport to confirm if he was among the people in the plane crash, that his name was on the manifest, it now dawn on me that I will not see him again. We then went to general hospital, when I saw his lifeless body. Even one of the nurses who known my late elder brother, when she saw the body, she refuse to believe that he was the one, not until when they called the name, she almost fainted, even that Sunday my mother and I were discussing about him, unknowingly that he is gone already and the wife has not been able to sleep since the incident.

The last person Femi called on Sunday,was Olufemi Idowu his cousin who also spoke about him, he was a man of vision, cheerful, hard working, very focus person, We didn't talk about anything serious, its was just about our business, if you see him for the first time, he will treat you like a special person, he has help me a lot, if you have any problem he will encourage you to stay positive that problem will go, because am into visual and audio packaging business .Because of the kind of person his was I decide to work with him, anytime MTN has event he use to call me to come and cover it, everybody thinks I work with MTN whereas I just a audio-visual packaging expert. He is a person that you cannot forget easily, because he makes everybody feel important and bring out the best in you. John Ojo is a family friend, who also spoke about him, he took to the family house and our reporter was told that Femi has been so good to him, they were suppose to travel this coming week to Oyo state concerning “Ajisebioyo” Programme, he has promised to help me make it big this year and even told me to help him get white inner shirt, which I brought six for him. John said he even called him on that Sunday when he was coming back, only to received a call from his office driver telling me that he was in the plane crash that night.

Femi was such a cheerful person, who can never leave one unhappy, if you come in contact with him. He once talks about starting his company by December this year, his wife is pregnant almost

Tuesday 8 august 2012

http://www.nationaldailyngr.com/special-feature/dana-crash-64-days-gone-victims-families-bemoan-non-release-of-corpses

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Flooding eases after killing 23 in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Widespread flooding that killed at least 23 people, battered a million others and paralyzed the Philippine capital briefly eased Wednesday, allowing rescuers on rubber boats to reach a large number of distressed residents still marooned in submerged villages.

Government forecasters said the monsoon rains that overflowed major dams and rivers crisscrossing Manila and surrounding provinces would gradually abate and lead to sunny weather later this week after 12 days of relentless downpours.

The deluge that began late Sunday was the worst since 2009, when hundreds died in rampaging flash floods. "We're still on a rescue mode," said Benito Ramos, who heads the government's main disaster-response agency. "Floods are receding in many areas but people are still trapped on their roofs." Ramos said the massive flooding turned half of Manila into "a water world" on Monday evening and into Tuesday.

At least 23 died, including nine in a landslide in a hillside slum in suburban Quezon City and several others who drowned in outlying provinces.

More than 1.2 million people were affected by the deluge, including 783,000 who fled from their inundated homes.

With the receding floodwaters, some of the displaced have started returning to their homes but others stayed put despite the hard conditions in emergency shelters as rain clouds again darkened the sky Wednesday afternoon.

Carmen Empesao said she panicked and left with her three grandchildren when waist-deep floodwaters swamped her home in the hard-hit city of Marikina. "We fled without any food and the clothes we managed to grab were wet and cannot be worn," Empesao, 60, told The Associated Press in an evacuation center teeming with 3,000 displaced.

Rescue efforts shifted into high gear Wednesday, with more than 130 emergency crewmen from two provinces reaching the capital city of 12 million people to help their overwhelmed teams, including police and soldiers.

Rescuers used rubber boats and ropes to navigate flooded streets where many people climbed on rooftops to escape neck-deep waters.

Food and drinking water were in short supply because of impassable roads. President Benigno Aquino III distributed food packs in flood-hit communities south of Manila. Ramos said he was overwhelmed by the extent of the flooding when he flew aboard a helicopter with Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin for an inspection Wednesday, although he added that water in many areas was beginning to recede. "In some areas, I could not tell the sea from the flooded villages," he told The AP.

Manila was drenched with more than half of a month's worth of rain in just 24 hours starting Monday. A typhoon in eastern China that has helped intensify the southwest monsoon in the Philippines blew further into the Chinese mainland, prompting Filipino forecasters to predict better weather the rest of the week. "We may see the sun tomorrow," government forecaster Glaiza Escullar said. She added that heavy but brief downpours may still sporadically drench the coastal capital.

Although heavy rains may ease, she warned that up to three storms or typhoons were expected to lash the country this month.

At the height of the flooding, many residents called radio and TV stations desperately asking to be rescued. TV footage showed rescuers dangling on ropes to bring children and other residents to safety from a rooftop.

Vehicles and even heavy trucks struggled to navigate water-clogged roads, where hundreds of thousands of commuters were stranded.

The government suspended work and classes Tuesday but most offices opened Wednesday. Traffic was still light as workers began clearing roads of debris, trash and fallen trees.

In 2009, massive flooding spawned by a typhoon devastated Manila and surrounding areas, killing hundreds.

Wednesday 8 August 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/10379699

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Meghalaya bus accident kills 31

SHILLONG: Thirty-one people were killed and 27 injured when a bus proceeding from Assam to Tripura rolled down a hill in Meghalaya early Wednesday, police said.

Two women were among those killed when the bus rolled down a 100 metre deep gorge in Tongseng, East Jaintia Hills district police chief M K Dkhar told IANS.

Tongseng is about 150 km east of Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya. The privately-owned night bus was on its way from Guwahati in Assam to Tripura capital Agartala.

Of the injured, Dkhar said seven were rushed to Silchar Medical College in southern Assam and the rest in nearby hospitals in the district. "The rescue operations are over and investigation has begun to ascertain the cause of the accident," the officer said.

A Tripura official told IANS in Agartala that 27 people died on the spot.

The driver of the bus, who also died, lost control of the bus when he was taking a turn in the terrain cramped Assam-Agartala highway.

Tripura transport minister Manik Dey told IANS that a state government team had left for the site. He said the place where the disaster site was "extremely accident prone". "Every year a number of accidents have occurred in the area. killing many people."

India has the highest annual road death toll in the world with more than 110,000 people dying each year in accidents caused by speeding, careless driving and poor roads.

Wednesday 8 August 2012

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Meghalaya-bus-accident-kills-31/articleshow/15403915.cms

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Senegal road accident leaves 22 dead

DAKAR — At least 22 people were killed in a collision between a bus and a truck in the centre of Senegal on Tuesday morning, the fire department said. "

It was a collision between a 35-seat bus and a truck transporting charcoal above the village of Sikilo.

The preliminary toll is 22 dead and one injured," an official from the fire department told AFP.

Tuesday 7 August 2012

http://gulftoday.ae/portal/1171cde5-215a-412a-ab95-4c69ccac8f7e.aspx

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Khmer Rouge mass grave uncovered in Cambodia

Workers found the skeletal remains of at least 17 people last week when they used an excavator to dig up soil for commercial use in Kralanh district, said Siem Reap province deputy military police chief Nhim Seila.

"Some of the skulls were found blindfolded and the hands and feet were tied up with shoelaces," Nhim said, adding that many of the skulls appeared to have suffered heavy blows. "According to locals, this was a place where the Khmer Rouge killed people every day during the regime.

I think there are hundreds of skeletons in the grave," Nhim said. Military police have closed off the site for inspection.

The Cambodian countryside is littered with thousands of mass graves from the Khmer Rouge regime's reign of terror in the late 1970s when up to two million people died from starvation, overwork, torture or execution.

The Documentation Centre of Cambodia, which researches the atrocities, identified the area in Kralanh as a "Killing Field" in 1998 and estimated some 35,000 bodies are buried there, its director Youk Chhang told AFP.

He said he hoped Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court, which is currently trying the three top surviving Khmer Rouge leaders, would examine the site for potential evidence of crimes committed by the regime.

"The bones cannot find peace until the truth they hold in themselves has been revealed," he said. It is not uncommon for Cambodians to uncover Khmer Rouge graves and monks and villagers usually take the bones to a local pagoda or cremate them, Youk added.

Tuesday 7 August 2012

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/cambodia/9455336/Khmer-Rouge-mass-grave-uncovered-in-Cambodia.html

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