AirAsia Flight 8501: Indonesian divers retrieve 6 more bodies

Indonesian divers discovered six more bodies Tuesday from the wreckage of the crashed AirAsia plane, bringing to 90 the total number bodies retrieved from the jetliner.

AirAsia Flight 8501 crashed into the Java Sea on Dec. 28 with 162 people on board while flying from Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, to Singapore.

The National Search and Rescue Agency and traditional divers are continuing the search after the Indonesian navy halted its own efforts last week due to the difficulty of lifting the fuselage from the water.

Agency spokesman Jusuf Latif said the discoveries brought to 90 the total bodies retrieved from the crash.

Some of the bodies were found floating off Sulawesi island, about 620 miles east of the crash scene one month after the crash.

Authorities believe many of the other bodies are still inside the fuselage and other big pieces of wreckage in the area, including the cockpit, which may contain the bodies of the pilot and co-pilot. Authorities have reported the cockpit wreckage to be about 500 meters (yards) from the main body of the Airbus A320.

Suryadi Bambang Supriyadi, the operation chief of the rescue agency, said 13 bodies were discovered by traditional divers on Monday and Tuesday from inside and around the fuselage which is at a depth of 100 feet on the seafloor.

Wednesday 4 February 2015

http://www.observer-reporter.com/article/20150203/NEWS06/150209832

continue reading

Taiwan plane crash: TransAsia Airways Flight hoisted from river; 26 confirmed dead

Rescuers used a crane to hoist the fuselage of a wrecked TransAsia Airways plane from a shallow river in Taiwan’s capital late on Wednesday as they searched into the night for 17 people missing in a crash that killed at least 26 others.

Flight 235 with 58 people aboard, most of them travellers from China, banked sharply on its side shortly after takeoff from Taipei, clipped a highway bridge and then careened into the Keelung River.

Rescuers in rubber rafts pulled 15 people alive from the wreckage during daylight. After dark, they brought in the crane, and the death toll was expected to rise once crews were able to search through submerged portions of the fuselage, which came to rest a few dozen meters (yards) from the shore.

Dramatic video clips apparently taken from cars were posted online and aired by broadcasters, showing the ATR 72 propjet as it pivoted onto its side while zooming toward a traffic bridge over the river.

In one of them, the plane rapidly fills the frame as its now-vertical wing scrapes over the road, hitting a vehicle before heading into the river.

Speculation cited in local media said the crew may have turned sharply to follow the line of the river to avoid crashing into a high-rise residential area, but Taiwan’s aviation authority said it had no evidence of that.

Taiwanese broadcasters repeatedly played a recording of the plane’s final contact with the control tower in which the crew called out “Mayday” three times.



The recording offered no direct clues as to why the plane was in distress.

Wednesday’s flight had taken off at 11:53 am from Taipei’s downtown Sungshan Airport en route to the outlying Taiwanese-controlled Kinmen islands.

The crew issued the mayday call shortly after takeoff, Taiwanese civil aviation authorities said.

TransAsia director Peter Chen said contact with the plane was lost four minutes after takeoff. He said weather conditions were suitable for flying and the cause of the accident was unknown.

“Actually this aircraft in the accident was the newest model. It hadn’t been used for even a year,” he told a news conference. Thirty-one passengers were from China, Taiwan’s tourism bureau said. Kinmen’s airport is a common link between Taipei and China’s Fujian province.

Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration said 26 people were confirmed dead, 15 were rescued with injuries and 17 were still missing. It said two people on the ground were hurt.

It was the airline's second French-Italian-built ATR 72 to crash in the past year.

Wu Jun-hong, a Taipei Fire Department official who was coordinating the rescue, said the missing people were either still in the fuselage or had perhaps been pulled down the river.

"At the moment, things don't look too optimistic," Wu told reporters at the scene. "Those in the front of the plane are likely to have lost their lives."

Rescuers could be seen pulling luggage from an open plane door to clear the fuselage. Ten inflatable dinghies also searched for the missing.

As a drizzle fell around nightfall, military crews took portable bridges to the scene, where rescue workers were building docks for easier access to the wreckage. About 300 rescue personnel and members of the media stood along the banks of the narrow river.

Part of the freeway above it was littered with debris and was closed after the crash.

Relatives of the victims had not reached the scene by dusk Wednesday but some were expected to arrive Thursday, including some flying from Beijing.

The plane's wing hit a taxi on the freeway, and the driver and a passenger were injured, Chen said.

Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense said it had sent 165 people and eight boats to the riverside rescue scene, joining fire department rescue crews.

Another ATR 72 operated by the same Taipei-based airline crashed in the outlying Taiwan-controlled islands of Penghu last July 23, killing 48 at the end of a typhoon for reasons that are still under investigation.

ATR, a French-Italian consortium based in Toulouse, France, said it was sending a team to Taiwan to help in the investigation.

The ATR 72-600 that crashed Wednesday is manufacturer's best plane model, and the pilot had 4,900 hours of flying experience, said Lin Chih-ming of the Civil Aeronautics Administration.

Greg Waldron, Asia managing editor at Flightglobal magazine in Singapore, said the ATR 72-600 is the latest iteration of one of the most popular turboprop planes in the world, particularly favored for regional short-hop flights in Asia.

It has a generally good reputation for safety and reliability and is known among airlines for being cheap and efficient to operate.

While it's too early to say what caused the crash, engine trouble or weight shifting were unlikely to be causes, Waldron said. Other possible factors include pilot error, weather or freak incidents such as bird strikes.

"It's too early now to speculate on whether it was an issue with the aircraft or crew," Waldron said.

The accessibility of the crash site should allow for a swift investigation, and an initial report should be available within about a month, Waldron said.

Wednesday 4 February 2015

http://www.financialexpress.com/article/miscellaneous/transasia-airways-flight-235-crashed-taiwan-plane-hoisted-from-river-26-confirmed-dead/39044/

http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/taiwan-plane-plunges-into-river-22-feared-dead-21-still-missing/article1-1313592.aspx

continue reading

1,299 unidentified bodies found in Punjab in two years

Punjab police informed the Supreme Court on Tuesday that 1,299 unidentified dead bodies were found in the province over the last two years.

Advocate General Punjab Razaq A Mirza submitted Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in the SC regarding the registration and tracking of unidentified dead bodies.

He also submitted the inspector general Punjab’s report, which stated that 1,299 unidentified dead bodies were received in 2013 and 2014. Of these, 1,248 dead bodies were handed over for burial, adding that the remaining 51 bodies were handed over to anatomy department.

The report further states that if a body is unidentified, the officer making the investigation shall record a careful description of it, giving all marks, peculiarities, deformities and distinctive features of it and also take the figure impression of it in addition to taking all the reasonable steps to secure identification.

He shall publish a description in the Criminal Intelligent Gazette where such action appears desirable, it said. According to the SOP, the data of unidentified dead bodies will be gathered by the SHO concerned and uploaded on the web within 24 hours of the information received with consultation of the medical superintendent.

Meanwhile, Punjab health department has also stated in its report that in accordance with the rules and regulations, the investigation officer (IO) will bring the dead bodies to the hospital for the postmortem examination.

The report states that IO will hand over the dead body to the head of Anatomy department if not identified.

Meanwhile, the top court has expressed unhappiness over Sindh and K-P governments for not submitting procedure regarding the registration of unidentified dead bodies.

In response, law officers representing the two provinces requested the court to give them 20 more days to submit their respective replies over the procedure.

Wednesday 4 February 2015

http://tribune.com.pk/story/832575/1299-unidentified-bodies-found-in-punjab-in-two-years/

continue reading

Seven killed as New York train hits vehicle

A commuter train has hit a vehicle at a level crossing north of New York City, killing at least seven people and injuring 12, officials say.

The train, with about 800 passengers on board, hit the Jeep Cherokee near Valhalla - about 20 miles (32km) from New York - on Tuesday evening.

The vehicle's female driver was killed, along with six people on the train, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said.

The car and front carriage of the train caught fire following the crash.

The packed commuter train had left Grand Central Station in New York City and was heading to Wassaic in south-east New York State.

The crossing gates at the railroad had come down on top of the vehicle, which had stopped on the tracks, Metro-North Railroad spokesman Aaron Donovan said.

The driver got out to look at the damage, and then got back into the car to drive forward before it was hit by the train. It pushed the vehicle more than 120m (400ft).

It is not yet clear why the vehicle stalled on the tracks.

As a result of the collision the electrified third rail of the track came through the front carriage of the train.

Passengers had to escape from the rear of the train.

Mr Cuomo, who visited the site of the crash, said he witnessed "a truly ugly and brutal sight".

He added: "When you look at the damage done, it's actually amazing that not more people were hurt."

Hundreds were taken to a local rock climbing gym following the crash.

Parts of the railroad remain closed on Wednesday.

Metro-North is the second-busiest railroad in the US, serving about 280,000 passengers a day in New York and Connecticut.

Last year, the National Transportation Safety Board issued rulings on five accidents that occurred on the railroad in 2013 and 2014, criticising Metro-North while also finding conditions had improved.

Wednesday 4 February 2015

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-31124170

continue reading

Mozambique: Flood Death Toll Reaches 150

The number of deaths from the storms and floods in central and northern Mozambique so far this year has reached 150, according to Casimiro Abreu, deputy director of the country's relief agency, the National Disasters Management Institute (INGC).

The previous figure for fatalities, released a week ago, was 117. Abreu warned that the death toll could rise in the coming days, since more lifeless bodies are being discovered as the flood waters recede.

Abreu was speaking on Monday at a ceremony where the INC received a donation from the Japanese embassy.

He said that the province worst hit was Zambezia where so far 68 bodies have been recovered. Abreu put the number of people affected by the floods at about 150,000.

The Japanese donation consisted of tents and tarpaulins valued at 130,000 US dollars. The ambassador, Akira Mizutani declared “the Japanese government took prompt and immediate action, and decided to donate emergency humanitarian assistance to the Mozambican people”.

He hoped these goods would complement the efforts of the Mozambican government to mitigate the effects of the disasters which have struck the central and northern provinces.

Abreu thanked the ambassador for the gift. “The Japanese have always been our partners in various sectors of activity, and particularly in disaster management”, he said.

The representative in Mozambique of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Katsuyoshi Sudo, said that Japan has experienced similar situations and is well aware of the pain and suffering caused by natural disasters.

Wednesday 4 February 2015

http://allafrica.com/stories/201502031809.html

continue reading

TransAsia crash: At least twelve dead as plane crashes into Taiwan river

At least 12 people have died after a TransAsia Airways plane clipped a bridge and crashed into a river near the Taiwanese capital of Taipei.

Fifty-eight people were onboard the domestic flight. The fuselage is now half-submerged in the Keelung River and lying on its side.

Rescuers on boats have cut it open to gain access to people trapped inside.

Officials say 16 people have suffered injuries, with some taken to hospital. Thirty people remain unaccounted for.

The ATR-72 turbo-prop plane had just taken off from Taipei Songshan Airport and was heading to the outlying Kinmen islands, just off the coast of the south-eastern Chinese city of Xiamen, CNA said.

Flight controllers lost contact with the plane at 10:55 local time (02:55 GMT).



Footage of the plane filmed from inside passing cars showed it banking sharply, hitting a taxi and clipping the bridge before crashing into the river.

Television images showed rescuers standing on large sections of broken wreckage trying to pull passengers out of the plane with ropes.

Those that were rescued were helped into dinghies and taken to shore, including a small boy.

Some were then placed on stretchers and taken to hospital. But officials said some passengers were still trapped inside the wreckage which appeared to be upside down and broken into many parts in the river.



"We're asking the public works department for heavy cranes to be deployed, in the hopes that the body of the plane can be lifted up," said Wu Jun-Hong, assistant director of Taipei's fire department.

"At the moment, we think a lot of the trapped people are in the head of the plane.

Out of the 58 people on board 53 are believed to be passengers and five are crew. Thirty-one of the passengers are tourists from mainland China.

The BBC's Cindy Sui in Taipei says the Chinese tourists could have been on their way home as many people come to Taiwan through Kinmen island.

The chief executive of TransAsia, Chen Xinde, offered a "deep apology" to passengers and crew on board in a televised news conference, Reuters news agency reported.

TransAsia Airways

Founded in 1951 as Taiwan's first private civilian-operated domestic airline, later expanded to overseas routes.

One of the region's smaller carriers though has rapidly expanded in recent years.

Has about 20 planes in its fleet - a mix of Airbus and dual-propeller ATR planes.

Gained popularity due to its low-cost tickets.

Flies many routes between Taiwan and mainland China, and to other parts of South East Asia.

In July 2014, 48 people died when a TransAsia Airways plane crashed amid stormy weather in Taiwan's Penghu archipelago.

Wednesday 4 February 2015

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31125052

continue reading

Body found on board Norman Atlantic ferry

Another burnt body has been found on board the wreck of the Norman Atlantic, bringing to ten the number of passengers who died when the Italian ferry which caught fire in December.

The body was found in the cabin of a lorry, the first missing person to be discovered since the deadly fire on December 28th, Rai News reported.

The discovery was made during an inspection of the wreck in Bari, where the Norman Atlantic was towed after first being brought to Brindisi. The body has since been taken to be examined by coroners, in the hope of identifying the victim.

Ten passengers are now known to have died in the ferry disaster, with the bodies of nine people recovered from the sea immediately after the accident. An additional two seamen died during the rescue operation.

There are still 18 people missing based on the passenger list, La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno reported.

Passengers may have become trapped in their vehicles as the fire spread, while there are also fears that stowaways may have died in the accident.

Tuesday 3 January 2014

http://www.thelocal.it/20150203/body-found-on-board-norman-atlantic-ferry

continue reading

Synagogue building collapse: S.Africa to repatriate last of Nigerian church victims

South Africa said Monday it will this week bring back the remaining bodies of its nationals killed in the Nigerian Synagogue Church guesthouse collapse four months ago.

Minister in the presidency Jeff Radebe told reporters that a South African airforce C130 aircraft would be dispatched to Lagos Monday “to bring the mortal remains of those that have been positively identified.”

Of the 81 bodies, 70 were repatriated in November, two months after a multi-storey building collapsed at the Lagos church of the influential Nigerian preacher TB Joshua.

The outstanding 11 were still undergoing DNA identification.

“Our repatriation team is departing this afternoon for Lagos,” said Radebe, and “when they land, we will know precisely how many South Africans will be repatriated.”

Nigerian authorities have been driving the testing and verification process.

A delayed rescue operation, “climatic conditions” and the sheer number of victims that had to be identified were responsible for the prolonged wait for the bodies, said Radebe.

The disaster killed 116 people in all, including Nigerians and other foreign nationals.

Tuesday 3 January 2015

http://thenewsnigeria.com.ng/2015/02/02/synagogue-building-collapse-south-africa-takes-home-final-11-bodies/

continue reading

AirAsia flight QZ8501: Indonesian search crews find seven bodies near plane wreckage

Indonesian divers have found another seven victims of the AirAsia plane crash, taking to 84 the number of bodies retrieved since the accident in late December.

Two bodies were found inside the fuselage of the plane on Monday, while another four were located near the wreckage on the bottom of the Java Sea, AirAsia said in a statement.

Another body was located on Sunday as Indonesia's national search and rescue agency BASARNAS resumed operations.

Divers had taken a two-day break after searching at sea for weeks in poor weather conditions.

"To date, BASARNAS has confirmed to have recovered a total of 84 remains of which 64 remains have been identified by [the Disaster Victim Identification Police Department Republic of Indonesia], 13 remains are still being identified and seven remains have yet to arrive at Bhayangkara Hospital, Surabaya," the statement said.

The mission is continuing to search for the bodies of the remaining 78 people aboard flight QZ8501, which went down in stormy weather during what was supposed to be a short trip from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.

The search and rescue operation using vessels, sea riders and inflatable boats is focused on the area around the Karimata Strait and the Java Sea.

"[Search and rescue] vessels and sea divers were deployed in order to locate more passengers and plane debris around the area," AirAsia said in the statement.

The Indonesian military, which has provided the bulk of personnel and equipment for the operation, withdrew from the search last week.

Civilian search and rescue agency BASARNAS is expected to re-evaluate whether to continue their search mission over the coming days.

The agency said the main aim of the operation was to find more bodies, not to lift the plane's fuselage, which has split in two.

Tuesday 3 January 2015

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-03/airasia-flight-qz8501-search-crews-find-seven-victims/6064548

continue reading

10 workers die as effluent tank explodes in Ranipet

It was something that the Fire and Rescue Services personnel of Vellore district have not witnessed earlier. In the early hours of Saturday, they waded through a path filled with effluents up to their knees to rescue persons trapped in the wall collapse of a Secured Landfill Facility at Ranipet.

Nine members of the Fire Services Station at Ranipet SIPCOT rushed to the SIDCO Industrial Estate, after receiving a call at 1.30 a.m. about the incident. Another 14 to 15 members from the nearby fire stations of Ranipet and Arcot joined them in the operation.

“The odour emanating from the slush made it difficult for us. We somehow managed, as it was an open area. We wore masks due to the presence of chemical agents in the slush and wore gum boots as we had to walk through the slush all the way to the spot,” said G. Thandavan, Station Fire Officer, Ranipet SIPCOT station. Lack of lighting added to their difficulties. “It was like a tsunami. The bodies were literally buried under the slush and it made searching hard. We had to watch every step we took and moved slowly,” he added.

The site is nearly two kilometres away from the Ranipet SIPCOT fire station, said a member of the rescue team. The rescue team personnel said that they had never encountered such a massive industrial accident in Vellore before. “There was knee-deep slush deposited in the area. Our legs started to itch. We recovered all the bodies by morning but stayed on till afternoon to see if our help was needed,” a team member said.

Meenakshi Vijayakumar, deputy director of Fire Services, North Western Region, Vellore, and S. Murugesan, district officer, Fire and Rescue Services, Vellore, advised the team on rescue operations.

Mr. Thandavan said they recovered 10 bodies and rescued one person from the site. “The rescued person, Ravi, had managed to climb up to the top of a building. He was caught there for seven hours and we brought him down using a ladder,” he added.

The SLF was being used to stock liquid effluent of 86 tanneries and leather factories. Two tanks, each with 1,000 cubic metres capacity, were used for the purpose, though only one had permission to hold the effluent stock. The one that exploded did not have the requisite permission.

On information, Fire and Rescue Service personnel rushed to the spot. After much struggle, they recovered the bodies and sent them to the Government Vellore Medical College and Hospital for autopsy. Later, nine bodies were sent to Chennai from where they will be sent to their hometowns in West Bengal by train.

Monday 2 February 2015

http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/tamil_nadu/10-Workers-Die-as-Effluent-Tank-Explodes-in-Ranipet/2015/02/01/article2646963.ece

continue reading

Fire at Bangladesh plastics factory kills at least 13

At least 13 people were killed and more than a dozen injured on Saturday when a fire broke out in a plastic factory in Bangladesh’s capital, emergency service officials said.

Police and fire officers believe the blaze started when gas cylinders exploded in the factory’s boiler room, then raced through the four-storey Nasim Plastic factory in minutes.

“We’ve recovered 13 bodies,” local police chief Mohammad Jashimuddin told AFP, adding the fire was brought under control in around two hours and that the factory floors had been thoroughly searched. “Three people were critically burnt and they were shifted to a hospital,” he added.

A fire official said those who died were plastic factory workers who were burnt or suffocated after they were trapped on the upper floors. Factory worker Mohammad Khokon said 150-200 people usually work in the building, but the number on site was less than that because it was a weekend.

Dozens of friends and relatives of the missing workers crowded the factory site in Dhaka’s northern Mirpur suburb as fire fighters sifted through the charred remains of the building.

Relatives of eleven fire victims, who died in Saturday’s inferno at a Styrofoam package factory –APCCO Bangladesh Ltd – at Mirpur 1 in the capital, identified their charred bodies yesterday.

The remaining two bodies were beyond recognition as they were burnt badly. The Dhaka Medical College authorities have decided to run a DNA test to ascertain their identities.

After the bodies were taken to the DMCH following the incident on Saturday night relatives thronged the premises to identify the bodies.

As most of the bodies were charred their relatives had to identify the bodies by their dresses, old spots, ornaments and birthmarks.

But the members of two families claimed one of the unidentified bodies as Zahirul and Afzal respectively prompting the authorities to carry out a DNA test.

A heart-rending situation descended on the morgue premises when the relatives identified the bodies. Later they were handed over to them after verifications.

Safety conditions at Bangladeshi factories have come under international scrutiny in recent years. A fire at a garment factory killed 112 workers in 2012, and in 2013 more than 1,100 people died in the collapse of a building housing five garment factories. That led a group of mostly European fashion brands to fund safety inspections in garment factories that began last year.

Monday 2 February 2015

http://www.nagalandpost.com/ChannelNews/International/InternationalNews.aspx?news=TkVXUzEwMDA3NDY4Mw%3D%3D

continue reading

Flight QZ8501: Indonesian rescuers resume search for remaining 86 victims

Indonesian rescuers yesterday resumed their search for 86 victims still missing from the AirAsia plane that crashed on Dec 28 with 162 people on board, an official said.

National search and rescue agency chief Bambang Soelistyo last week said search and rescue teams were being given two days’ break after weeks searching in inhospitable conditions.

Sixty-eight divers from the national search and rescue agency as well as others from companies and clubs would focus on scouring the fuselage of Flight QZ8501 and the seabed for remaining bodies, he said.

So far, 76 bodies have been recovered after the plane went down in the Java Sea in stormy weather during what was supposed to be a short trip from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.

“Search operations have resumed. Our focus today (yesterday) is to find bodies that could be trapped in the fuselage, or buried in mud,” S.B. Supriyadi, a search and rescue agency official who has been coordinating the hunt, told AFP.

“The weather is good, and the waves were only a metre high,” he said, adding that six boats were in the search area.”

The search mission has been expanded to the island of Sulawesi after fishermen found bodies with identity documents matching the passengers on the ill-fated flight.

The Indonesian military, which has provided the bulk of personnel and equipment for the operation, withdrew from the search Tuesday. But Supriyadi said the current group also comprised of competent divers.

“Skills-wise, they are as good as those from the military as they have experience helping to evacuate sunken boats before,” he added.



“We hope we can still find the remaining bodies,” he said.

Monday 2 January 2015

http://www.theborneopost.com/2015/02/02/indonesian-rescuers-resume-search-for-86-still-missing/

continue reading

Commission: Mexico has 'serious problem' with disappearances

Mexico has a "serious problem" with disappearances and lacks a comprehensive national list of the missing to effectively deal with the problem, according to a report the country's National Human Rights Commission will present Monday to the U.N.Commission chairman Luis Raul Gonzalez Perez will ask the United Nations Committee On Enforced Disappearances in Geneva to make several recommendations to Mexico's government on the issue, said the document, which The Associated Press was allowed to see.

According to the latest official figures, there are 23,271 people missing or not located in Mexico, of which 621 are being sought by the federal Attorney General's Office's Search Unit.

The numbers were provided by the office's general prosecutor for human rights, Eliana Garcia, on Jan. 19 to a forum in the Chamber of Deputies.

But in its report, the human rights commission says there are no clear criteria for establishing how many people are missing and stresses that the "impunity" surrounding forced disappearances in the 1970s and 1980s created the conditions for the crime to continue being committed today, as can be seen with the 43 students who disappeared in September in southern Guerrero state.

Gonzalez Perez said officials needs to systemize and debug various existing databases because there is no "effective, comprehensive and transparent national" registry that would allow officials to know the real number of people who have disappeared in Mexico.

The commission will ask that authorities in Mexico continue the search for clandestine graves, identify the bodies found in them and create a unified system for building a reliable national list of the disappeared with a genetic registry.

It will also call on lawmakers to complete pending legislation related to the National Registry of the Disappeared or Missing Persons and the law on forced disappearances.

The government of President Enrique Pena Nieto promised that on taking office it would release verifiable figures on the number of the disappeared in Mexico. In August 2014, it published a list of 22,322 persons missing since 2006.

A total of 9,790 of them had disappeared since the beginning of his presidency on Dec. 1, 2012.Eliana Garcia, speaking to lawmakers in January, gave the new official figure with roughly 1,000 more missing without explanation.

But a legislative press release that day said the new registry of the missing dates back to 2003.

The attorney general and six of Mexico's 32 regions have begun working on a unified database, but the process is slow.

For example, as of last September, Mexico City's Federal District, one of the most capable regions, had only entered data for 20 of the 13,000 unidentified bodies it has in its files.

Relatives of the missing, including family of the 43 students from the Ayotzinapa rural teachers college, have traveled to Geneva to share their experiences with the U.N. committee.

The relatives have questioned the government's conclusion that the students were killed and incinerated after being seized by police in a city controlled by a drug cartel.

Monday 2 January 2015

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2015/02/01/3618690/commission-mexico-has-serious.html

continue reading

NamUs helps give a name to the nameless dead and missing

Since its inception in 2007, NamUs has given peace of mind to hundreds of families searching for missing loved ones and closure to law enforcement officials trying to identify bodies.

The number of missing and unidentified people is “really staggering,” said Arthur Eisenberg, director of the UNT Center for Human Identification. NamUs, which is funded by the National Institute of Justice, has been housed at the UNT Health Science Center since 2011 after moving from Florida.

About 90,000 missing person cases are active in the U.S. every day; there are an estimated 40,000 unidentified remains nationwide.

NamUs staffers, who work with heartbreaking report after heartbreaking report of the missing and the dead, call it a “silent mass disaster.”

They address that disaster by operating several public databases - of unidentified bodies, missing people and “unclaimed persons,” those whose bodies have been identified but next of kin is unknown.

Though the task is huge, the NamUs staff is small - about 20 people scattered across the country. But they’re a dedicated group, including fingerprint analysts, DNA analysts and forensic dentists.

“We eat and live and breathe to try to make these identifications,” Eisenberg said, citing the pain of bewildered families. He said that if any of his family members “disappeared for more than a minute, I’d be a basket case.”

“You have to believe in it,” Eisenberg said. “You have to have the passion. And I think most of us here have the passion.”

Whether staffers find what happened to the missing or identify an anonymous body, “there’s not a day that one of us doesn’t have a tear in his eye.”

Part of what makes NamUs unique is that most of the voluminous data collected from coroners, medical examiners, police agencies and families - ranging from photos of clothing to descriptions of tattoos - is not restricted to law enforcement personnel. Anyone can go on the website and search the information.

Stephanie Clack of Missouri did - and found her sister’s body in 2009.

She’d been searching for Paula Davis since she disappeared 22 years earlier. “Within 20-30 minutes, I found her,” Clack said.

Clack was 14 years old and Paula was 21 the last time they saw each other over a pizza in 1987.

They talked about buying tickets for an upcoming concert, but Paula never returned to her apartment that night.

Though she had struggled with drugs, Paula had a job and a child, and “she never took off without calling,” Clack said.

Her relatives filed a missing persons report with police. Then they waited.

Through the years they checked to see if her Social Security number or driver’s license had been used.

“Back then’ there really wasn’t other ways to look,” Clack said.

When Clack heard about NamUs in 2009, she immediately searched the website.

A couple of general searches didn’t turn up a match, so Clack looked for tattoos. When she found a body in Ohio, marked with tattoos of a rose and a unicorn, she knew it was Paula.

Paula had been strangled shortly after she disappeared, Clack learned.

The crime was never solved. But Paula’s family was at least able to bring her remains home.

NamUs “gave me back what I need,” Clack said, “which was my sister.”

Before she was identified, Paula was buried as an unknown Jane Doe. In 1987, authorities usually wrote down a description of an unidentified body, took fingerprints if possible, and filed the report in a drawer where it was often forgotten.

If the body was found in a county or state different from where the missing person was reported, the two reports were unlikely to be matched.

But as computer technology evolved, and unidentified bodies stacked up in morgues and graveyards, coroners and medical examiners pushed for a system to spread the word about unidentified remains, said B.J. Spamer, director of the training and analysis division at NamUs.

“These are the agencies that are tasked with identifying remains,” she said. “Up until the unidentified NamUs database went live, they didn’t have any tools to help them resolve their case.”

The unidentified bodies data was posted in 2007; the next year, the missing persons database was added. In 2009, programming made it possible to search the databases against each other, Spamer said.

Since the program was launched, about 8,000 missing person cases reported to NamUs and about 1,500 unidentified remains have been resolved.

Those are just a fraction of the missing and unidentified cases nationwide because many old cases have not been submitted. Law enforcement agencies are not required to report cases to NamUs.

“But the benefits of NamUs are such that it’s really not a hard sell,” Spamer said. NamUs offers free resources such as DNA, dental and fingerprint analysis.

Gay Johnson, investigator with the Hood County sheriff, regularly submits information to NamUs. She’s currently working with the agency to identify a missing person who may have jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge in California.

Johnson shipped the fingerprints from the missing person to NamUs and arranged for DNA samples from a relative in another state to be sent to the agency. If the body is found, she hopes a match will be made.

Law enforcement personnel are not the only source of information for NamUs. The public also can submit a report over the phone or online.

Information from the public is verified with local law enforcement before it is posted.

“They go through that verification process primarily to protect the privacy of the people being reported,” Spamer said.

For instance, some “missing” people, such as a spouse fleeing an abuser, may not want to be located.

NamUs is not a missing persons locator service, Spamer said. Some callers wanting to file a report have simply lost contact with their relative. “‘I haven’t seen my brother in 30 years - I’d like to get in touch with him again’ is not the purpose of NamUs.”

Most of the time, “we’re looking for missing person cases where we think there’s foul play,” Spamer said.

Fingerprint specialist Bill Bailey, who recently helped identify a body unknown since 1992, said NamUs allows families to put questions about their loved ones to rest.

“You never put closure to death, never,” said Bailey who worked in the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office before joining NamUs. “You might be able to move on, but it’s never closed.”

“But at least,” he said, “there’s answers.”

Monday 2 February 2015

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/2/namus-helps-give-a-name-to-the-nameless-dead-and-m/

continue reading

Kathore Link Road accident: 25 bodies handed over to heirs after DNA identification

The bodies of 20 victims of the Kathore Link Road accident were handed over to their families on Thursday, after their identification through the DNA tests.

As many as 62 people were burned alive when the Shikarpur-bound Geo al-Shoaib Coach collided with a tanker on January 11. The victims had been burned beyond recognition.

According to sources, the identification of 25 victims was successfully completed, however, only 20 of the victims’ heirs showed up at the Edhi morgue to receive them.

Sources said that the samples taken for the DNA were not sent to the National Forensic Science Agency as it delays the process. “The samples were sent to a private laboratory in Islamabad and the provincial government bore the expenses,” claimed a health official.

The provincial authorities, meanwhile, came under the flak once again as they had not made any arrangements for the bodies to be transported with the families. Only after media personnel started reporting the mismanagement, did the provincial government send officials to the spot.

Friday 30 January 2015

http://tribune.com.pk/story/829850/25-bodies-handed-over-to-heirs-after-dna-identification/

continue reading

Cops to electronically screen photos of unclaimed bodies

In order to help identify unclaimed bodies, the North region of the Mumbai police, extending from Goregaon to Dahisar, is planning to electronically display photographs of unidentified bodies in public. The drive, according to the officials, is to curtail the increasing number of unclaimed bodies the department is faced with every year.A few weeks ago, the North region of the police had launched a public awareness vehicle to spread awareness among the people about several criminal activities happening in the neighbourhood. The vehicle, a towing vehicle converted into an awareness vehicle is fitted with projector screen that has replaced cranes and comes with a microphone and other necessary electronic equipments.

In order to help identify unclaimed bodies, the North region of the Mumbai police, extending from Goregaon to Dahisar, is planning to electronically display photographs of unidentified bodies in public. The drive, according to the officials, is to curtail the increasing number of unclaimed bodies the department is faced with every year.A few weeks ago, the North region of the police had launched a public awareness vehicle to spread awareness among the people about several criminal activities happening in the neighbourhood. The vehicle, a towing vehicle converted into an awareness vehicle is fitted with projector screen that has replaced cranes and comes with a microphone and other necessary electronic equipments.

A source from the department said that starting next week, the officers plan to screen the photographs of the bodies along with photographs of the belongings through the projector in busy roads, market places and railway stations.

One of the senior inspectors of the region said, "We have received intimation about this from the regional office. They have asked for photographs from all the 17 police stations in the region. We are sending the photos with description of every incident."

Sources from the department said the drive, which will be launched next week, will have the photographs displayed electronically as a slide show, accompanied by the necessary description of the deceased, and the time and spot the body was found at. Another source from the North regional office said, "We will also have somebody announcing the description. The idea is to get people to identify the bodies so they are claimed. All the bodies were found in 2014."

He added that so far 100 photographs have been received by the regional office and about 100 more are awaited. He added that gory pictures of bodies will be filtered as much as possible as the viewing will be in public spaces.Another senior official from the northern region, however, said that since some of the photographs may put off the citizens, cops plan to display pictures of only those who have died of cancer. "We will be displaying only a few graphic pictures whereby the person has died of cancer due to consumption of tobacco products. This is to bring awareness among the masses about ill effects of tobacco," he added.The vehicle is currently being used by the North region police to spread awareness about drug abuse, road safety, street crime and so on.

Friday 30 January 2015

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-cops-to-electronically-screen-photos-of-unclaimed-bodies-2056650

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-dna-exclusive-slide-show-of-dead-bodies-coming-soon-on-a-street-near-you-2056684

continue reading

38 illegal migrants feared dead as trawler capsizes

At least 38 people are feared dead after an overcrowded fishing trawler, carrying Malaysia-bound illegal migrants, capsized in the Kutubdia channel of the Bay of Bengal in the early hours yesterday.

Rescuers managed to bring ashore 42 people alive including six suspected human traffickers, while later in the day the sunken vessel was also located and dragged towards the shores of Kutubdia island.

Although it is common for a large number of people to seek illegal passage to Malaysia through marine routes from Chittagong every year, such large scale accidents at sea are uncommon in the bay.

Quoting rescued victims, Kutubdia police station Officer-in-Charge Ongshuth Whoyai said the 30-feet long Malaysia-bound trawler, FV Idris, capsized at the southwestern part of Kutubdia channel with about 80 people on board at around 5am.

Receiving the information, Coast Guard ships Towhid and Tanvir along with four metal shark boats, and Bangladesh Navy ships Oporajeyo and Otondro rushed to the spot and rescued 31 people including four suspected traffickers, said Bangladesh Coast Guard (East) Zonal Commander Captain Shahidul Islam.

Meanwhile, Maheshkhali police rescued 11 more people including two suspected traffickers from Matarbari channel, said Maheshkhali OC Alamgir Hossain.

As of filing this report at 9pm, rescue efforts were still going on at the site of the trawler capsize, while the Coast Guard said they would continue searching for survivors throughout the night.

Six of the rescued migrants were admitted to the Kutubdia Upazila Health Complex in critical conditions, said Kutubdia Upazila Health Officer Dr Mohammad Sahabuddin; but he assured that they were now out of danger.

The rescue teams also traced the trawler at around 3pm and brought it near the shore of Kutubdia island an hour later.

According to the rescued victims, who were mostly from Jessore, Bogra, Madaripur, Narayanganj and other northern districts, the FV Idris was not the initial vessel used in their illegal journey to Malaysia.

At first, the traffickers reportedly had around 50 people climb into a different larger vessel at Chittagong’s Majhirghat and started their journey at 11pm on Wednesday. Around 30 more people were picked up from Chittagong’s Banshkhali and Cox’s Bazar’s Pekua, before the vessel arrived at Kutubdia channel at dawn.

Later, all the illegal migrants were crammed into FV Idris, which soon began to sway heavily because of the rough waves and eventually started to sink.

“After swimming for about four hours, Coast Guard personnel rescued us,” said 30-year old Abul Kalam, one of those rescued from the scene.

Another of the rescued, 27-year-old Mohammad Shahadat, said he gave traffickers around Tk1 lakh for going to Malaysia and to secure a job there.

“We were kept in a congested place in the trawler [by the traffickers] and suffered from a shortage of drinking water,” he said.

Police sources at Kutubdia and Maheshkhali said the suspected traffickers who were rescued from the water are Obaidul Haq, Nur Mohammad, Mohammad Ismail Mohammad Yiasin, Tayeb Hossain and Mohammad Rasel.

However, the suspects claimed to be innocent victims who only wanted to go to Malaysia like the others. Two of the suspects – Tayeb and Rasel – said they were cooks in the trawler and helped the boatmen sail.

8 bodies recovered

The bodies of eight fortune seekers, who went missing after an overcrowded fishing trawler, carrying Malaysia-bound illegal migrants, capsized in the Bay of Bengal on Thursday, have been recovered on Friday.

Kutubdia police station Officer-in-Charge Onshu Thoay told the Dhaka Tribune that a joint team of Navy, Coast Guard and local rescuers recovered the bodies around 12 noon.

Coast Guard Public Relation Officer Lt Commander M Rajibul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune: "We have pulled the bodies out after searching the rescued trawler and the areas around the point where the trawler sank. Five bodies were inside the trawler while three were in the Bay water."

Trafficking through sea routes

According to a report by the police headquarters’ Anti-Human Trafficking Special Committee, a total 3,793 people were rescued from Cox’s Bazar and Chittagong over the last five years, while around 15,000-20,000 people were trafficked to Thailand and Malaysia in the past decade alone.

The report also found that human traffickers were most active in 60 points of coastal areas under Patuakhali, Barguna, Satkhira, Jhalakati, Khulna, Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar, while their agents were influential in 41 districts.

The committee also observed that human trafficking tendency reached the peak during November to April as the sea was more calm in this period.

In a major operation on November 17, 2013, the Bangladesh Navy captured a 25-metre long Myanmar-flag-bearing fishing trawler from the Bay of Bengal, which was being used to illegally send 625 people to Malaysia.

Friday 30 January 2015

http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2015/jan/30/38-illegal-migrants-feared-dead-trawler-capsizes

http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2015/jan/30/8-bodies-recovered-bay

continue reading

Malaysia declares MH370 disappearance an ‘accident’, paves way for compensation payments

Malaysia declared yesterday the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 an accident, clearing the way for the airline to pay compensation to victims’ relatives while the search for the plane goes on. The Boeing 777 aircraft disappeared on March 8 last year, carrying 239 passengers and crew shortly after taking off from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, bound for Beijing.

Months of searches have failed to turn up any trace. “We officially declare Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 an accident and that all 239 of the passengers and crew onboard MH370 are presumed to have lost their lives,” Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) director-general Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said in a statement. The announcement is in accordance with standards of annexes 12 and 13 in the International Civil Aviation, said Azharuddin.

It will allow families of the passengers to obtain assistance through compensation, he said. Malaysia Airlines was ready to proceed immediately with the compensation process to the next-of-kin of the passengers on the flight, he said. China called on Malaysia to compensate families. “We call on the Malaysian side to honor the promise made when they declared the flight to have been lost and earnestly fulfill their compensation responsibilities,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a statement. Most of the passengers on the plane were from China. International investigators are looking into why the Boeing jet veered thousands of miles off course from its scheduled route before eventually plunging into the Indian Ocean.

The search in the Indian Ocean is still going on and Malaysia is also conducting a criminal investigation, Azharuddin said. “Both investigations are limited by the lack of physical evidence at this time, particularly the flight recorders,” he said. “Therefore, at this juncture, there is no evidence to substantiate any speculations as to the cause of the accident.” The DCA plans to release an interim report on the investigation into the missing jetliner on March 7, a day before the first anniversary of the disappearance, a minister said on Wednesday. “This declaration is by no means the end,” said Azharuddin, adding that it will continue with the search for the missing plane with assistance from China and Australia.

Normal religious rites for MH370 Buddhist and Hindu passengers

Buddhists usually will observe the normal religious rites for those who have died even though their bodies are not found or that they died in a mysterious manner.

The Buddhist Chief High Priest of Malaysia, Datuk K. Sri Dhammaratana said Buddhism did not give much priority on burials or cremations.

“The Buddhist burial ceremony is actually simple, but full of dignity and customs and Buddha too did not believe that the conscience or mental power of those who have died do not have any links with the body or ashes which have been left behind.

“Buddha believed that when someone dies, there will be a reincarnation in another place depending on his good deeds or otherwise,” he said when contacted by Bernama here yesterday.

He was asked to comment on the religious rites of Buddhists who were on board the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370 following the announcement by the director-general of the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman that the aircraft had been officially declared as having been involved in an accident and that everyone on board had perished.

He said that according to the religion, only “Arahants” who had overcome all their desires will not be reborn and as such they would achieve their final objective which was “Nirvana” (paradise).

Meanwhile, for the Hindus, the “Athama Santhi Poojai” ceremony must be held by family members of the victims as a religious ritual.

The president of the Hindu Sangam Malaysia, Datuk Mohan Shan said the “Punyavachanam” ceremony must also be held by followers of the faith.

“Family members must carry out both ceremonies with the help of an ‘Iyer’ (priest) for the peace of the victim’s soul. This ceremony is most important as a ritual to honour the victim,” he said.

Funeral prayers for missing bodies are normally performed for Muslims who died of minor martyrdom due to drowning, fire, murder or accident and their bodies are not found.

Kelantan Mufti Datuk Mohamad Shukri Mohamad said such prayers were not obligatory but encouraged, and meant that the body was not present in front of the congregation or was far away.

The prayers for the missing body was similar to that performed for normal remains of dead Muslims, he said when commenting on the announcement by the Malaysian government today that the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was officially declared an accident under the international aviation regulations and that all the 239 passengers and crew members on board were considered as dead.

The flight MH370 which carried 12 crew members and 227 passengers, including two infants, disappeared from radar screens while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, about an hour after taking off from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) on March 8, last year.

It was scheduled to arrive in Beijing at 6.30am on the same day. A search mission participated by various nations was initiated in the South China Sea and Andaman Sea before Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced on March 24 last year that the flight MH370 had “ended in the southern Indian Ocean”.

Friday 30 January 2015

http://news.kuwaittimes.net/malaysia-declares-mh370-disappearance-accident/

http://www.therakyatpost.com/news/2015/01/30/normal-religious-rites-mh370-buddhist-hindu-passengers/

continue reading

Fishermen discover two bodies and luggage from doomed AirAsia flight 1,000km from the search zone

Local fisherman have found two bodies and a passenger's bag 1,000km from the AirAsia QZ8501 crash zone, while the Indonesia search and rescue agency temporarily suspended the Java Sea search for missing victims.

An AirAsia statement said that local fishermen in West Sulawesi located two remains in the sea near Majene which are suspected to be that of QZ 8501 passengers.

The remains are being taken to Makassar and will be transported to Surabaya for identification purposes. The fishermen also located a bag in the proximity of the area where the bodies were found – approximately 1,000 kilometres from the aircraft’s lost contact point – that is suspected to belong to one of the passengers.

A multinational search and recovery operation found 72 bodies in the Java Sea and had hoped to find more after locating the fuselage of the plane.

But days of rough weather and poor underwater visibility hampered rescue efforts and the search was temporarily suspended. The Airbus A320 vanished from radar screens during bad weather on December 28, less than half way into a two-hour flight from Surabaya, Indonesia's second-biggest city, to Singapore. All 162 passengers and crew were killed.

On Tuesday the Indonesian National Armed Forces withdrew their personnel and assets from the search and evacuation site. But Indonesia's search and rescue agency stated that the search and recovery efforts will resume again on Saturday, allowing them a few days to consolidate all their resources.

AirAsia's statement said that the operation will be conducted for a period of seven days, after which Indonesian authorities will determine the next course of action.

Saturday's new search and recovery operations will be supported by SAR vessels, helicopters, a fixed-wing aircraft provided by AirAsia, divers, and salvage experts.

Authorities also confirmed they have recovered a total of 72 bodies of which 56 have been identified by the Disaster Victim Identification Police Department Republic of Indonesia.

Fourteen remains are still being identified and two remains have yet to arrive at Bhayangkara Hospital, Surabaya.

Thursday 29 January 2015

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2930536/Fishermen-discover-two-bodies-bag-doomed-AirAsia-flight-1000km-search-zone-airline-vows-continue-searching-missing.html

continue reading

Mozambique: Flood Death Toll Now 117

The known death toll from the floods in central and northern Mozambique has risen to 117, according to the latest report from the Ministry of State Administration and the Public Service, which supervises the country's disaster management bodies.

The report, submitted to the Council of Ministers (Cabinet) on Tuesday, says that the vast majority of the deaths (93) occurred in Zambezia province.

There were also 13 confirmed deaths in Niassa, eight in Cabo Delgado and three in Nampula. It does not mention the six deaths in Manica province reported by the local branch of the relief agency, the National Disaster Management Institute (INGC), on 20 January.

Some of the victims were swept to their deaths by the flood waters or by mudslides, others were killed when their houses collapsed on top of them, and still others were struck by lightning. The report does not state how many deaths were caused by each of these factors.

The United Nations said last week that the rains in early January had triggered floods affecting nearly one million people in Mozambique, Malawi, Madagascar and Zimbabwe. About a quarter of a million people have been forced to leave their homes.

“The floods have killed 117 people, an increase from the last balance of at least 84 dead a week ago,” said Mozambique deputy health minister Mouzinho Saide.

A majority of the deaths occurred in the central coastal region of Zambezia, he said. “The deaths were caused by drowning, lightning and collapsed houses.”

Malawi President Peter Mutharika said on Tuesday that his country, one of the poorest in the world, would probably miss its economic growth forecast this year of 5.8% owing to the rains, which had killed more than 60 people.

A lack of funds has hampered the region’s ability to tackle the effects of the disaster, according to aid groups.

Victims of the Licungo flood are also facing serious water shortages. The flood severely damaged the pumping station which provides water for all of Mocuba town.

Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario, who visited Mocuba on 22-24 January, ordered a survey of the costs involved in repairing the pumping station so as to resume the supply of clean water to Mocuba as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, tanker trucks are carrying drinking water to the accommodation centres.

The storms and floods have destroyed 8,814 houses and damaged a further 10,561. 403 schools and seven health units also suffered damage.

Work is under way to repair the five cuts in Zambezia along the main north-south highway. The most serious is on the south bank of the Licungo river in Mocuba town, where the raging flood waters swept away part of the bridge over the Licungo on 12 January. The Portuguese construction company Mota Engil is building a new embankment for the south end of the bridge, and hopes to finish this work by Friday.

Wednesday 28 January 2015

http://allafrica.com/stories/201501280055.html

continue reading