Australian, South African Killed in Indonesia Plane Crash

A South African pilot and his Australian passenger were killed when their Susi Air plane crashed in eastern Indonesia, officials said Thursday, in the airline’s third fatal accident in a year. They were the only people on board the Pilatus PC-6 aircraft, which was carrying the Australian photographer on a chartered flight, the airline’s operations director Christian Strombeck said. “The pilot was South African and the photographer was Australian. Both were killed,” he said. “The plane crashed Wednesday at around 5:30 p.m. local time (0930 GMT), and the bodies were found at around 1:30 a.m. Thursday,” he said. “The Pilatus PC-6 aircraft was flying in East Kalimantan to do some aerial photography when it crashed,” Strombeck added. The plane went down near a village in the Kutai Kartanegara district, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency. “The aircraft crashed at the edge of a ravine,” he said. Susi...

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Nadra offers AFIS help to identify disaster victims

The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) has volunteered its services to Pakistan Army for identification of soldiers trapped in Gayari snow-slide once they are found as it is in close contact with the relevant authorities for the purpose. This has been revealed in a report submitted by the Nadra here Tuesday. According to the report it deployed its Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) Unit in the rescue and recovery operation after the Bhoja Air crash on the orders of Chairman Nadra Friday last. The DVI Unit, headed by Director General, National Data Warehouse, Syed Muzaffar Ali, provided critical assistance and technical support in the identification of the bodies of the deceased. The report claimed that in many instances, bodies are charred or decomposed beyond recognition rendering them unidentifiable through conventional means. The DVI uses its Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) for establishing...

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Widow sues funeral home, crematorium after receiving stranger's ashes

SALT LAKE CITY — Marilynn Flynn opened the urn containing her husband's ashes for the first time while preparing for a memorial service marking one year since his death. Flynn intended to spread some of his remains in the Sacramento Mountains near her home in Alamogordo, N.M. But what she says she saw inside the urn stunned her: a dental bridge fragment, a dental crown and three porcelain fragments — none of which belonged to her husband. "She feels devastated. She feels she let her husband down because she didn't secure his remains," said John Wheeler, an Alamogordo attorney representing Flynn in a federal lawsuit. The suit filed in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City alleges McDougal Funeral Homes and Independent Professional Services were negligent in handling the remains of Michael Wayne Flynn. It contends the ashes given to Marilynn Flynn could not have been those of her husband. Mike Flynn, 59, and two other men died April...

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Identifying bodies a dilemma again

ISLAMABAD: Local administration is once again facing the dilemma of identifying air crash victims as it had faced after the Airblue crash in the Margallas in July 2010. Relatives have collected the...

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ISLAMABAD - The victims of an airline crash near Islamabad that killed all 127 people on board were laid to rest on Sunday, as investigators probed the causes of the fatal incident. The Bhoja Air flight from Karachi came down in fields near a village on the outskirts of Islamabad on Friday evening, second major fatal air crash in less than two years. Thirteen of those killed were buried late Saturday in Islamabad and funerals for 36 other victims were held in Karachi and other cities early Sunday, with more ceremonies expected in different cities throughout the day. Television broadcasts showed footage of distraught relatives, weeping and hugging each other, as the dozens of coffins left Islamabad’s Institute of Medical Sciences Hospital where the remains had been taken. Some nine dead bodies have not yet been identified and will undergo DNA tests, a hospital official said. Doctor Waseem Khawaja, in charge of Pakistan Institute of Medical...

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Identities of 60 victims of dictatorship will be known in a year

Within about a year, a team of forensic anthropologists from Argentina could lead the identification of the bones of 60 victims of the military dictatorship in Panama. The news comes from officials of the Panamanian Foreign Ministry says La Prensa. Since March 7 a group of anthropologists, Mercedes Salado, Carlos Vullo and Ute Hofmainer, the Panamanian government have worked ona report explaining the procedures they will follow to begin studies of human remains in custody of Panama’s Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences. No starting date has been set because the Institute, has not received the comments of the Argentine forensic report submitted to the board members. After the fulfillment of this phase, anthropologists will coordinate with the Institute of Legal Medicine to begin their work. The investigations will be carried out in several stages, including the study of the bones and DNA testing ofrelatives of the victims. The...

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Mexico bus-truck crash leaves 43 dead

XALAPA, Mexico — A truck crashed into a passenger bus Friday in Mexico's eastern Veracruz state, killing 43 and injuring around 20 others, officials said. "In total, 43 people died in this accident" near the town of Alamo, Veracruz government spokeswoman Gina Dominguez told Milenio television late morning. The bus was traveling from the port of Coatzacoalcos to the northern border state of Coahuila when the crash occurred at around 4:30 am (0930 GMT) in the north of Veracruz state on the Gulf of Mexico. As rescue workers recovered bodies from the wreckage, officials organized the transfer of the injured to hospitals in the nearby port city of Tuxpan. "The first report we have, which we need to confirm with investigators, is that the truck's trailer came loose and hit the bus," Dominguez said. The bus passengers were agricultural workers traveling to work, according to local newspaper El Diario del Golfo, citing witnesses, on its website. Another...

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Charred wreckage litters Pakistan plane crash site

HUSSAIN ABAD, Pakistan — The smell of burning filled the air at the scene of Friday's deadly plane crash on the outskirts of Islamabad, where chunks of charred wreckage lay scattered across farmland. The...

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15 dead found in southern Tamaulipas

A total of 15 dead were found in two southern Tamaulipas cities Thursday and Friday, according to news accounts. To date, no information has been released by authorities, since the government of Tamaulipas state is observing restrictions to news releases under Article 41 of the Mexican Constitution which forbids government propaganda during federal elections. Ten unidentified dead, nine men and one woman, were found Friday aboard an abandoned soft drink truck in Ciudad Mante. Ciudad Mante is about 25 kilometers along Mexico Federal Highway 85, south of Ciudad Victoria, the capital of Tamaulipas. Meanwhile in Ciudad Victoria, five unidentified dead were found in Colinas del Valle colony of the city. The count was four young men and one woman. A recent news repors in Milenio news daily said that two new Mexican Army bases, for units of the Mexican 106th Infantry Regiment were recently completed, one in San Fernando municipality...

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Colombia: disappearance

Disappearance is a source of constant pain for families who never stop searching for their loved ones. Unsolved cases, the persistence of the problem and the neglect of many affected families are a cause for serious concern. There may be no trace of those who are missing, but each has a story. Behind each missing person lies the uncertainty and anxiety of a family tirelessly searching, suffering constantly and in silence. Their pain is only eased when they discover the fate of their loved ones. The exact number of missing persons in Colombia is not known, but we do know that there are many more than the 51,000 names on the State's national register. This is a cumulative, large-scale problem. Every year, more names are added to a long list whose first entries date back more than half a century. There are two specific scenarios that result in people being declared missing: forced disappearance in connection with the conflict and other...

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The Pathribal Aftermath

Pathribal was a part of three successive and related killings which claimed 50 lives between March 20 and April 3, 2000. On March 20, unidentified gunmen killed 35 Sikhs at Chittisinghpora followed by the Pathribal killings on March 25 and then the killing of nine civilians at Brakpora on April 3 who were part of a protest over the Pathribal killings. Vakil Manzoor recounts. On 25 March 2000, Indian military forces killed five men in (Vuzkhah Zontangri peak) Pathribal village of Anantnag district, claiming that the victims were “foreign militants” responsible for the attacks on Sikhs in South Kashmir’s Chittisinghpora. Official reports claimed that security forces after a gunfight, blew up the hut where the ‘militants’ were hiding, and had retrieved five bodies that had been charred beyond recognition. The bodies were buried without any postmortem examination. Over the following days, local villagers began to protest, claiming that...

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Most mass graves in C'nawabganj now 'a matter of indifference'

Freedom fighters said, a large number of people were killed by the Pakistan occupation forces with the help of local collaborators and buried in those places, 1971. Due to lack of maintenance, a number of the identified mass graves have turned into abandoned places while others are about to be obliterated, they said. Some of the places where the mass graves are located are Shmashan Ghat, Rehaichar and BGB camp in the town, Zamindar House of Baroghoria, Poragaon, Teroroshia and Dashroshia villages in Islampur union under Sadar upazila. The killing ground known as 'Pakistan Bagan' near Shibganj Girls' College in Chapainawabganj has almost been devoured by Pagla River, while the mass grave near Gomostapur police station is now about to be obliterated. Most of the mass graves of Liberation War martyrs in different upazilas lie uncared for while a few face obliteration largely due to indifference of the authorities. Besides, there is...

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8,000 jars of human remains are to be given a proper burial

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- A group of relatives of Palestinians killed by Israel demanded Tuesday that the Israeli government exclude their remains from a state plan to bury unidentified remains. Israel's Haaretz daily reported that 8,000 jars of human remains are to be given a proper burial, under a national program unveiled Sunday by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv. Palestinian relatives insisted that Israel follow through on its agreement with the Palestinian ministry of civil affairs in summer 2011 in which it agreed to release nearly 200 bodies of slain Palestinians. In a statement, the group condemned Israel's "defiance of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions of 1949, in which Israel is obligated to return victims of war to their families." It was not immediately clear if the unidentified remains kept by Israel would include Palestinians. The burial process will start on May 20, Haaretz...

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Remains' burial project underway

"Final Resting Place," a joint venture by the Health Ministry and the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute, which aims to entomb 8,288 organs and tissue samples removed from deceased during autopsies, was officially launched on Sunday. Health Ministry Director-General Ronny Gamzo told reporters that the first phase of the program will focus on increased efforts to contact all of the families. The ministry has also set up a special information hotline for any public inquiries. The Abu Kabir Forensic Institute (AKFI) is scheduled to begin referring remains for burial in May. The families will be asked to choose between burying the remains in their relatives existing graves or in a specially designated gravesite. However, the ministry said that families who choose to use an existing gravesite will have to bear the cost. The statement was met with ire from both families and Knesset members alike. Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, who heads ZAKA (Disaster...

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Remains of missing Spitfire pilot feared to have ditched in the Channel found 70 years later in French farmer's field... and now his family can lay him to rest with full honours

Ever since Sergeant William Smith's spitfire was shot down over the English Channel during a World War Two dogfight, his family have hoped that one day his body could be found.The brave pilot was presumed...

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8 die in Jalandhar factory collapse

Jalandhar, April 16 - At least eight employees of a blanket-manufacturing unit were killed and 55 others hurt after a four-storey building in Focal Point Extension here collapsed late last night. Several...

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Deadly chase: Arizona desert becomes immigrant deathtrap

Arizona remains the deadliest state for illegal border crossings, with 71 bodies recovered in the past six months alone. Beefed-up US security along the Mexican border does not stop immigrants from trying – instead, it pushes them into a killer desert. ­With its rocky valleys and spectacular peaks, the Sonora desert in Arizona is said to be a treasure of the American southwest. But at the same time is a frontier land where a deadly conflict is underway. Every year thousands of people from Mexico and other parts of Latin America try to make it to the US by illegally crossing the border. But scores of people never reach the American dream for which they risked their lives. In 2011, there were nearly 200 (figures vary from 183 to 192) migrant body remains recovered. Even though the number has decreased about 20 per cent compared to 2010, the rate of migrant deaths remains consistently high. ”It’s deadlier. The border is absolutely...

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Five more Concordia victims identified

The bodies of two Germans, two Americans and an Italian recovered from the wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise liner have been formally identified, local authorities said in a statement on Tuesday. The...

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Landslide Kills 6 in Southwest China's Chongqing

CHONGQING, April 14 (Xinhua) -- Six people were killed and another two wounded in a mountain collapse Saturday morning in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, local authorities said. A section of...

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12 confirmed dead in NE China colliery flood

CHANGCHUN, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Rescuers have retrieved the bodies of 12 colliery workers who died in last week's coal mine flood in northeast China's Jilin Province, authorities said Monday. Eight bodies were retrieved from the pit of the Fengxing Coal Mine in the city of Jiaohe early on Monday, 10 days after the accident, the local work safety bureau said in a press release. The statement said that at least 20,000 cubic meters of water poured into the shaft on April 6. Of the 70 people working in the pit, 58 escaped. Rescuers spent about a week draining flood water from the shaft before they were able to reach the first four trapped miners, all of whom were found dead, on April 13. Fengxing was a licensed, privately-run mine. Investigators said the flood water came from a neighboring state-owned colliery. In another recent mining tragedy, five miners were killed and four remained trapped in a flooded colliery pit in central China's...

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Garage blast kills nine, injures dozens

BEIJING, Apr. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- A four-story residential building in the Xinluo district of Longyan, in East China's Fujian province, collapsed on Sunday after an explosion at a nearby auto repair facility,...

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Bus accident kills 12 people in Zimbabwe

HARARE, April 16 -- At least 12 people died early Monday morning in southern Zimbabwe when a Beitbrigde-bound bus overturned, police chief spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena told Xinhua. "The accident occurred around 2 a.m. this morning at the 92 km peg along the Masvingo-Beitbridge highway," he said. He said police were still gathering further details. The accident took place after the death of 49 people during last week' s Easter holiday, up from 43 recorded last year. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-04/16/c_131530178....

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192 bodies given a decent burial in Musha

192 bodies of victims of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, on Friday were accorded a decent burial in Musha genocide memorial site found in Rwamagana district. About 18.310 bodies of genocide victims are buried in Musha genocide memorial site. The bodies are mainly of Tutsis who were killed in Musha catholic parish, where they had sought refuge. Internal security Minister Sheik Harerimana Mussa Fazil, during the event criticized people who don’t want to provide information on where the bodies were dumped during the genocide. He said it’s sad to see, after 18 years, since the genocide against the Tutsi was stopped, bodies of victims are still being buried and searched for. According to UWIMANA Collette who survived from the church, said that they had gone to the parish thinking that a church is a sacred place where killers would not dare come, and this explains the big number of people who died in churches. They were wrong, because...

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Officials: Human remains at Titanic shipwreck site

NEW YORK (AP) -- A federal official says there may be human remains embedded in the mud of the North Atlantic where the New York-bound Titanic came to rest when it sank 100 years ago. The director...

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Women and children last? In real sea disasters, chivalry takes a back seat - TWICE as many men survive sinking ships

When the Titanic sank beneath the waves, men famously stood back from the boats, and women and children fled to safety first. But a new study suggests that the chivalrous rule of 'women and children first' rarely happens - and may only have happened on the Titanic because the captain threatened to shoot men who got into the lifeboats. A new analysis of 18 maritime disasters where 15,000 people died only 17.8 percent of the women survived versus 34.5 percent of the men. Of the Titanic's passengers, 70% of the women were saved, but just 20% of the men. The idea of saving 'women and children first' has been described as 'the unwritten law of the sea'. But a new analysis of maritime disasters suggests that women and children are often left to last - and that even on the Titanic, the 'chivalry' was helped by the fact that the captain threatened to shoot men who got into the lifeboats before women. Economists Mikael Elinder and Oscar...

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Click here to find out more! More Sharing ServicesShare | Share on facebook Share on twitter | Share on email Print Text Size With morgues full, Philippine flood victims buried

ILIGAN, Philippines - With funeral parlors overwhelmed, authorities in a flood-stricken southern Philippine city on Monday organized the first mass burial of some of nearly 700 people who were swept...

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Benue church victims to be buried April 20

The 22 victims of the collapsed St. Robert's Church in Vandeikya Local Government Area of Benue will be buried on April 20, a statement from the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi has said. The statement, signed by the Rt. Rev. William Avenya, the Auxiliary Bishop of Catholic Diocese of Makurdi, said the burial would take place at St. Robert's, Adamgbe, near Vandeikya. It expressed the hope that the families involved would allow the burial take place at the venue. ``We are hoping that the families involved will allow us to bury the 22 corpses in one location and the vestments shall be white," the News Agency of Nigeria quoted the church as saying in the statement. The statement also said that those who sustained injuries and in different medical centres around the area were responding to treatment. The 22 persons were killed, while many others injured when a storm pulled down St. Robert’s Church building in Vandeikya, Benue, on Holy Satu...

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Wall Of Water: The Tsunami Explained

During a tsunami the ocean suddenly floods the coast, smashing everything in its path, and then just as quickly recedes. Large quakes are the main cause of tsunamis, but they can also be sparked by other cataclysmic events, such as volcanic eruptions and even landslides. During a strong quake, oceanic plates can lurch many metres and rupture the ocean floor. This movement can suddenly move a massive amount of water. Major quakes that rupture the ocean floor are usually shallow quakes occurring at a depth of less than 44 miles (70km). The 9.1 magnitude quake that caused the devastating 2004 Boxing Day tsunami was 18 miles (30km) below the seafloor. The movement of the quake can also affect the likelihood of a tsunami occuring. The vertical movement of some earthquakes can cause the seabed to heave and displace water vertically, sending towering waves racing toward shores. The 2004 tsunami, which killed nearly a quarter of a million...

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The Victims Affairs Discusses Cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Victims Affairs Office of the Central Operation Headquarters in the Abu Dhabi Police discussed mutual cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the case of crisis and disasters. The cooperation will be in the field of providing data and information regarding expatriates who are residents in the country and communicating with them during crisis or disaster situations. A delegation headed by Major Raed Ali Al Muhairi, Director of the Victims Affairs Office visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and met with Mohammed Jasem Al Nwais, Deputy Director of Citizens Affairs Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Al Muhairi gave a summary about the work of the Victims Affairs Office, which provides complete information during and after crisis in order to identify those victims in major accidents and natural disasters within a short period of time, and contact their families. He pointed out that the office focuses...

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DNA lead in search for Anton Hammerl's body

DNA taken from a coffin found in a mass grave in Libya may match that of South African photographer Anton Hammerl, according to a report on Tuesday. As Libya does not have the capacity to do DNA testing, it was understood officials were in the process of sending the genetic material -- from coffin number 57 -- to the headquarters of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) in Bosnia, the Star newspaper reported. Hammerl was covering the conflict in Libya when he was shot by militia loyal to then Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi near the town of Brega on April 5 last year. Brigadier Leonie Ras from the SAPS victim identification centre told the daily newspaper that the ICMP was aware of the sample but had not yet received it. Ras was planning to send DNA samples from Hammerl's parents to the ICMP on Tuesday in a bid to compare them with those found in coffin number 57. Dodgy bonuses In other news, Libya's interim authorities...

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Identifying the Titanic’s Victims

For the 328 people whose bodies were recovered at the site of the Titanic disaster, unique fatality reports were created. They speak volumes about those whose bodies were retrieved. From third-class passengers to millionaires, these reports document their lives through what they had on their person that fateful night. Dr. John Henry Barnstead, a Halifax physician, developed the system for identifying Titanic’s dead. He used a numbering system based on the order in which they were retrieved from the ocean. Mortuary bags were used to hold clothing and personal effects found on the body. This system was used again after the 1917 Halifax Explosion and countless times in other disasters with great loss of human life. Using Barnstead’s system as its base, these reports document physical characteristics of bodies (typically sex, age, colouring, any identifying marks) and track potentially identifying papers and items found on their person....

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BENUE: Government plans mass burial for those killed by collapsed church building

The Benue state government on Monday assured the families of those who died in the collapse building of St Roberts Catholic Mission Church, Adambge in Vandekikya local government area of Benue state,...

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Grief to joy: Misidentified crash victim alive

A plane crash victim who was assumed dead has been found alive in a hospital under a different name. The tragic incident killed 31 people a week ago. Information emerged on the man’s social network page,...

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Nigerian church targeted in Easter bomb attack

A car bombing near a church in northern Nigeria on Easter Sunday killed at least 20 people and put the country on alert over fears of further attacks, rescue officials and residents said. The explosion, a stark reminder of Christmas Day attacks that left dozens of people dead in Africa's most populous nation and largest oil producer, hit the city of Kaduna, a major cultural and economic centre in the north. Motorcycle taxi drivers and passers by appeared to have borne the brunt of the blast, and body parts littered the area. As news of the attack spread, security forces boosted patrols in key areas, including in the capital Abuja, where soldiers were sent to reinforce police posted near churches. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Details were still emerging of the attack, but at least one car said to be driven by a suicide bomber was believed involved. A rescue official speaking on condition of anonymity said two vehicles...

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Bus crash in Argentina kills at least 10, hurts 40

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — A bus ran off a road in northern Argentina and plunged into a ravine, killing 10 people and injuring about 40 others, officials said Saturday. Two Germans were reported among...

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Five electricity workers die after boat capsizes in eastern Turkey

ASKALE, TURKEY (BNO NEWS) — Rescue workers in eastern Turkey have found the bodies of five electricity workers who went missing earlier this week when their boat capsized on a lake during a repair job, officials said on Thursday. The incident occurred late Tuesday night at the Karasu 2 dam reservoir in the Aşkale district of Turkey’s eastern province of Erzurum when the five Turkish Electricity Distribution Company (TEDAŞ) workers were aboard a pedal boat to repair a power line on the reservoir. The workers were crossing the ice-covered lake when the boat reportedly hit a large piece of ice, ultimately causing the boat to capsize. The five workers grasped on to pieces of ice desperately as they awaited for rescue teams, but they eventually disappeared before emergency teams reached the scene. Aşkale District Governor Asalet Karabulut told the Hurriyet Daily News that emergency teams consisting of a helicopters and seven divers were deployed...

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Unidentified disaster victims have devoted guardian

ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi--A mortuary employee has pledged to take care of the remains of 117 unidentified people killed by the Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent tsunami until all of them are returned...

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Pakistani troops buried in Kashmir avalanche

Rescue mission under way near Siachen glacier where at least 117 soldiers and personnel are reported to be trapped. Rescue operations are under way after an avalanche hit a Pakistani army base in the disputed Kashmir region, burying more than 100 soldiers under the Himalayan snow. The soldiers were operating near the Siachen glacier in the northern tip of Kashmir when the avalanche hit in the early morning hours of Saturday. "At six o'clock this morning this avalanche hit a [military] headquarters," Major-General Athar Abbas, the Pakistan military spokesman, said. "Over 100 soldiers and personnel are trapped." Speaking to Al Jazeera, Abbas said a rescue operation using helicopters, search dogs and soldiers is under way but warned "it will take days to complete the rescue operations" due to the climate and the difficulty of terrain. Despite describing the slide as "a massive scale avalanche", Abbas said Pakistani forces remain hopeful. A...

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