Explosions in Congo kill 200, including 4 Chinese

BRAZZAVILLE - Around 200 people, including four Chinese workers, have been killed and many more injured in a series of explosions in Brazzaville, the capital of Congo Republic, according to a senior official in the presidency, citing hospital sources.

"According to sources at the central hospital we're talking of around 200 dead and many injured," Betu Bangana, head of protocol in the president's office in Brazzaville, told Reuters by telephone.

Congolese officials earlier said the blasts occurred after a fire started in an arms depot in a military base in the riverside capital.

Xinhua News Agency, quoting the Chinese embassy in Brazzaville, said four Chinese, who belonged to the Beijing Construction Engineering Group, were killed and dozens were injured in the explosions.

Around 130 staff of the company were working on the nearby construction site when the blasts hit the munitions depot, Duan Jinzhu of Chinese embassy said.
About 80 Chinese workers have been transferred to safe areas, Duan added.

The powerful blasts also shattered the windows of the Xinhua bureau office and severely damaged the dormitory of Huawei, a Chinese multinational networking and telecommunications equipment and services company.

The explosions shook houses in Brazzaville and echoed across the Congo River to the capital of the neighboring country.

Didier Boutsindi of the presidential office said the explosions killed an untold number of people, including churchgoers who were killed in the debris of the collapsed building.
"Many of the faithful are trapped in the debris of the church," he said. "Several of the dead have been taken out and I confirm there are more deaths inside."
He said his uncle was killed when his home collapsed on him.

"It's like a tsunami passed through here," said Christine Ibata, a student.
Defense Minister Charles Zacharie Boawo appeared on national television on Sunday to urge calm in Brazzaville and in the neighboring capital of Kinshasa.

Witnesses said the explosions came from the north of the city and that the impact of the blasts threw open doors of houses in the city center. The explosions also prompted some residents of the northern part of the city to flee south.

Hardest hit was the neighborhood of Mpila, according to government authorities, where many houses and buildings were flattened.

The Mines Advisory Group, or MAG, which was working with authorities to deal with the crisis, said Monday that the blasts scattered ammunition across the city, and that the munitions were continuing to explode, causing more fatalities.

“The location means that this explosion is devastating, involving a huge number of casualties and enormous damage to the area," said Lionel Cattaneo, a MAG official in Brazzaville, in a statement. He added that it was critical to work quickly to avoid more loss of life.

"Educating people about the risks, and removing and destroying these deadly items, are of critical concern," Cattaneo said. "We have the full support of the Republic of Congo government and have teams responding as a matter of urgency to help avoid further loss of life.”

According to a Small Arms Survey briefing paper last November, 210 people were killed last year in Africa by explosions at munitions depots. There were 35 explosions internationally, the most serious a March blast in Yemen that killed 150. The next most serious incident last year was a July blast in Turkmenistan that killed 100.

It's a global problem: From 1998 to October 2011 there were 38 similar incidents in Africa, along with 57 in Eastern Europe and 138 in Asia.

The problem is exacerbated when huge munitions depots are located in crowded urban settings, in particular African or Asian cities. An incident in 2002 in Lagos, Nigeria, killed about 1,000.

“The suffering and damage caused by these incidents underlines the importance of storing munitions safely and also the importance of providing states with the technical support that can enable them to do so," Mines Advisory Group director Nick Roseveare said in a statement. “It’s far easier to avoid these incidents than to deal with the deadly fall out."

People crowded outside the Brazzaville city morgue and a major hospital Sunday and Monday, searching for missing relatives.

5 March 2012

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2012-03/05/content_14755075.htm

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/03/aftermore-than-200-died-in-sundays-devastating-blasts-at-a-munitions-depot-in-the-republic-of-congo-capital-brazzaville-mor.html

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Monk guards remains of unknown tsunami victims

YAMAMOTO — Hundreds of the 19,000 people killed by Japan’s horrific quake-tsunami remain unmourned, their bodies never claimed because there is no one left to notice they have gone.

But one Buddhist monk has lovingly stored the ashes and bones of some of those whose names no one knows in the hope that one day they can be reunited with their families.

Every day for the last year, Ryushin Miyabe has offered prayers and lit incense for the souls in his care at the Myokoin temple in Yamamoto, a small town on Miyagi Prefecture’s tsunami-wrecked coast.

In late January he was finally able to hand over the remains of a five-year-old boy, known until then only as “No. 906,” when the child’s grandmother was identified through DNA tests.

The young corpse had been cremated in June after the coast guard found it floating in the Pacific without any belongings, washed out to sea by the tsunami of March 11 that tore into the coast.

The grandmother told Miyabe that the boy’s mother had also been killed in the catastrophe and she had been searching for her grandson’s body for nearly a year.

With the boy’s remains back with a family member, his spirit can pass into the next world, says Miyabe.

“I guess the boy has met his mother in heaven by now,” he said. “She must have told him: ‘Hey, you are late!’”

Buddhist tradition dictates that a body is cremated and the ashes are placed in an urn, along with the bones that remain.

The urn is put in a family grave, which Japanese traditionally believe to be the gateway to the next world, one through which souls can return every year during the summer festival of Obon.

The grave must be cared for by surviving family, who in return, expect spiritual protection from their deceased relatives.

Nationwide, 500 bodies recovered after the huge waves swept ashore have still not been identified, and more than 3,000 of those who died have never been found.

At one point Miyabe was looking after the ashes of 30 people, their remains entrusted to him by authorities overwhelmed by the number of people who perished.

After the five-year-old was reunited with his family, Miyabe’s temple has only one small jar left.

“I will continue holding vigil, praying for the earliest return of the ashes to the victim’s family who must be desperately trying to find the body,” Miyabe said.

The majority of those who died in the tsunami were identified before being cremated and their families wanted full funeral rites.

Mortician Ruiko Sasahara prepared more than 300 often badly damaged bodies at makeshift morgues in tsunami-hit coastal towns, to allow relatives to bid their farewells.

As well as making funeral arrangements, morticians in Japan clean, dress and apply cosmetics to bodies in an effort to make them look as much like they did when they were alive as possible.

“My job is to help prepare the dead for their departure to heaven,” Sasahara said at her office in Kitakami, 60 kilometers from the tsunami coast.

The practice, which is fading in bigger cities but remains fairly common in rural areas, came to worldwide attention in 2009 when “Departures” won an Oscar for its depiction of an out of work cellist who becomes a mortician in small town Japan.

Many of the bodies that Sasahara was called upon to patch up were in bad condition.

“I’d never seen bodies in such a state—many of them smelled of decay, there was a lot of maggot damage and some of them were partial skeletons,” she said.

But she knew that families desperately needed to be able to say their goodbyes and even resorted to using clippings from her own hair to remake eyelashes and eyebrows.

Sasahara said the process of repair is vital to protect the dignity of the dead and to ease the pain of those left behind.

“Many of the bereaved blame themselves for failing to save their loved ones,” she said.

“When they once again see the smile of the person they lost, I think many people can feel they have been forgiven.”

Monday 5 March 2012

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/monk-guards-remains-of-unknown-tsunami-victims-2

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Five killed in Kotabaru flood

KOTABARU, S Kalimantan, March 5 — A flood swept through Kotabaru in South Kalimantan province on Sunday, leaving five people dead.

The overflowing of Baharu river following more than three hours of heavy rains resulted to flooding.

Three of the victims, identified as Irham (13), Iqbal (13), and Husein (13), were found stuck on a bridge near the Kotabaru police resort, Sugeng, a member of the task force of the Kotabaru regional disaster mitigation body, said.

The other victim was identified as Wawan (27). He was found dead beneath a bridge after being carried away by floodwaters as far as three kilometers, he said.
Wawan, a member of the task force, fell and was carried away by floodwaters while trying to rescue other victim, he said.

Wawan was believed to have worn no life vest so he was easily carried away by floodwaters.
"The last fatality, identified as Dedi (13), was found at the Kemakmuran fish market in Kotabaru at noon," he said.

Earlier, Head of the Kotabaru Regional Disaster Mitigation Body Tri Basuki Rahmat said about 50 rescue workers with the help of several divers were fielded to search for two flood victims identified as Wawan and Dedi. (PNA/Antara)

March 5, 2012 11:30 am

http://balita.ph/2012/03/05/five-killed-in-kotabaru-flood/

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Oregon missing-persons cases get assist from medical examiner's office: new online forms for DNA samples

CLACKAMAS -- The State Medical Examiner's Office has posted two new forms on its website in hopes of tipping the odds in missing-persons cases.

Dr. Karen Gunson, state medical examiner, said the office is partnering with the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification, a state-of-the-art facility that offers free DNA analysis.

The new online forms, which must be submitted by families of missing persons or by police, were designed to speed up the process of getting scientifically solid information.

"Because the Oregon State Police Forensic Services Division doesn't perform DNA analysis on missing person cases, our office put the required forms online to help facilitate the successful submission of DNA samples to the center's lab," Gunson said. "We hope having these forms online can help the center, families and investigators bring closure in cases that sadly ended in someone's death."

In 2008, Oregon's Missing Persons Law went into effect, requiring police to try to obtain DNA samples for people who haven't been found within 30 days after they were reported missing.

Gunson said DNA for a missing-person investigation can be collected from items used only by the missing person, such as a toothbrush, razor or lipstick, or from a medical specimen preserved at a hospital.

Another way is to collect oral swabs from family members. Police now use special DNA collection kits to gather samples.

When a DNA sample is submitted for analysis to the Center for Human Identification, one of the two forms is required to be sent with it:

The Family Reference Samples form is for law enforcement and families when submitting biological samples (oral swabs, blood cards) from biological relatives of missing persons.
The Direct Reference Sample form is for any article associated with the missing person that may contain biological material (toothbrush, hairbrush with hair, blood sample, or hospital sample).

Monday, 5 March 2012

http://www.oregonlive.com/happy-valley/index.ssf/2012/03/oregon_missing-persons_cases_g.html

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Families oppose 9/11 remains at memorial museum

NEW YORK (AP) - March 4, 2012 (WPVI) -- Families of Sept. 11 victims on Sunday called for congressional hearings to establish federal protocols on how to handle human remains after disasters like the terror acts that took thousands of lives in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

At a news conference near the Sept. 11 memorial, family members spoke days after Pentagon officials revealed that partial remains of several victims were incinerated by a military contractor and sent to a landfill.

The families said they oppose a plan to place unidentified human remains of the New York victims in an underground repository at bedrock they say "desecrates" the memory of their loved ones.

"Are our loved ones' remains marketable?" asked Rosaleen Tallon, sister of firefighter Sean Tallon, who died in the 2001 attack. "They're using them to market trinkets."
She held up a gift keychain inscribed with "No Day Shall Erase You From the Memory" - the same words that grace a memorial wall 70 feet underground. The unidentified remains are to be placed behind it, sharing space with the National September 11 Memorial & Museum but administered separately.

Norman Siegel, the attorney for 9/11 Parents & Families of Firefighters & WTC Victims - a group that has sued New York City over the plans - said they had sent out queries to families asking their opinion. He said they received 350 responses, of which 95 percent expressed opposition to the repository.

"The 9/11 museum is not a graveyard," Siegel said.

Seventeen family members have sued the city, demanding that officials ask relatives of victims what they would like done with the unidentified remains. The group lost, but is appealing.

Instead, group members would like to see the remains encased in a kind of "tomb of the unknown soldier" - above ground as part of the memorial.

The remains of more than 1,100 of the 2,753 victims killed at the World Trade Center have not been identified. The remains are under the jurisdiction of the city's chief medical examiner's office, and even in a repository, they would be available for analysis in the future using any scientific advances.

The wall would separate the museum from the repository and the general public.

An adjacent room will be reserved for family members for visits by special private appointment, apart from the public.

Joseph C. Daniels, president of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, said that putting the remains at bedrock fulfills a promise made to families.

"Since the very beginning, victims' family members have strongly advocated for the unidentified remains to be returned to the World Trade Center site," he said in a statement. "This is the plan that has been honored and is being implemented."

The Sept. 11 memorial was dedicated on the 10th anniversary of the attacks last September.

Work on the planned museum has ground to a halt because of a financial dispute, and there is now no possibility it will open on time next year, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said recently.

On Sunday, the group announced it would ask Congress to hold hearings to establish protocols on handling remains of victims of large-scale disaster.

Siegel said the decision was made in the past few days, and that he and group members would contact New York legislators on Monday to suggest hearings on how the unidentified remains of Sept. 11 victims have been and are being handled.

On Tuesday, an independent panel that studied management issues at Dover Air Force Base's mortuary mentioned the landfill disposal in a report it released last week.

"We believe that human remains do not belong in a landfill or a museum," said Sally Regenhard, of Yonkers, whose firefighter son died at the World Trade Center. His remains were never found.

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/national_world&id=8568398

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