Saturday, 31 March 2012

World War I diggers named

March 31

Nine more World War I diggers have been identified out of more than 250 found in a mass grave at Fromelles, along with two Australian special forces troops killed in the Dutch East Indies in World War II. Revealing the names of the soldiers in a statement on Saturday, Veterans Affairs Minister Warren Snowdon said the total number of those identified from the Battle of Fromelles now stood at 119. A further 92 Australians remain unidentified, along with two British soldiers and a further 37 whose graves are marked 'Unidentified Soldier of the Great War'. 'We are encouraged by the success, made possible by the large number of extended family members, both in Australia and Britain, who have provided DNA samples to assist with identification,' Mr Snowdon said. Fromelles was the first major action involving Australian troops in France in World War I. It was fought over July 19-20, 1916 and resulted in more than 5500 Australian casualties....

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Government to Hold Mass Burial For Sinai Victims

March 31

A mass burial will be held next week for the Sinai fire victims who were burnt beyond recognition. The unidentified bodies and those burnt beyond recognition will be interred at the Lang’ata cemetery. The DNA testing of the victims was conducted against samples of the people who lost their loved ones. Speaking to media on Friday, Special Programmes PS Andrew Mondoh said that 15 bodies have so far been positively identified and will be given to family members for burial. “So far because of the severity of the burns and the inhalation injury in burns some of the survivors have become so sick, we lost five more survivors on Wednesday night,” she said. 15 bodies have been positively identified and the families will be given the go ahead to burry them although the government will meet the all the costs of transporting the bodies and the burial. More than 90 patients are nursing injuries at the Kenyatta National Hospitals and other hospitals...

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Witness Details Srebrenica Mass Graves Study

March 31

Former investigator describes complexities of identifying human remains from various sites. The trial of former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic continued this week with testimony from a former prosecution investigator about the research done on mass graves dating from the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995. Karadzic is accused of planning and overseeing the murder of some 8,000 Bosniak men and boys at Srebrenica in July 1995. The indictments against him include genocide, extermination, murder, persecutions and other crimes against humanity and war crimes. A high percentage of the Srebrenica victims have been identified from the remains found in mass graves. This week’s witness, Dusan Janc, is a police inspector in Slovenia. As he told the court this week, between 2006 and 2009, he served as an investigator the Hague tribunal’s Office of the Prosecutor, studying mass graves and the Srebrenica victims they contained. The witness...

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Thirteen dead in new Honduras prison fire

March 31

Tegucigalpa. At least 13 people were killed Thursday in a fire at a prison in Honduras, officials said -- less than two months after a deadly prison blaze killed more than 350, AFP informs. "There are 13 bodies. We have not yet been able to identify the circumstances of the incident" at the San Pedro Sula prison in the north of the country, said Marleny Vanegas of the city prosecutor's office. "We will have to await the results of the investigation." Earlier, police spokesman Walter Amaya had put the death toll at one. Officials said the fire was rapidly brought under control. Security Minister Pompeyo Bonilla said the fire at the facility -- which was built for 800 inmates but which currently has 2,250 -- had "once again highlighted the critical situation" in the country's prisons. A horrific fire erupted on February 14 at a prison in Comayagua, some 90 kilometers (55 miles) north of the capital Tegucigalpa. The incident, in which...

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Documents show debate over handling of 9/11 remains

March 31

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cremated remains that may have included those of victims of the September 11 attacks were incinerated and sent to a landfill despite an internal debate in which some officials at the main U.S. military mortuary recommended the ashes be dispersed at sea. Documents released on Friday show that nearly one year after the September 11, 2001 attacks, military and civilian personnel responsible for the mortuary at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware engaged in an lengthy e-mail exchange over what to do with 1,321 portions of remains. The fragmentary remains, which were categorized as "Group F," were unidentified and could not be linked to any specific victim of the September 11 attack on the Pentagon. They were mixed in with debris from the building and airplane, and could have included remains of the hijackers as well, an official said on Friday, adding that it was not even certain they were human. "They could have been...

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Seven soldiers die in Venezuela helicopter crash

March 31

CARACAS, VENEZUELA (BNO NEWS) — A military helicopter crashed Thursday morning during an operation against drug traffickers in southwest Venezuela, killing all seven crew members on board, officials at the country’s Ministry of Defense said. The accident happened at around 5:15 a.m. local time when the Super Puma 2216 aircraft, belonging to the Venezuelan Air Force, went down in a field near Yagual in the country’s state of Apure near the border with Colombia, approximately 600 kilometers (372 miles) southwest of Caracas. The press office of the Venezuelan Ministry of Defense confirmed all seven crew members were killed in the crash, which happened while the helicopter was taking part in a military operation against drug traffickers in the region. The cause of the accident was not immediately known. The victims were identified as pilot Captain José Ramón Garrido Salcedo, co-pilot Lieutenant Carlos Eduardo Martínez Salvatierra, Major...

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