Helicopter missing in Peru with 13 foreigners

LIMA, Peru (AP) -- A helicopter carrying 14 passengers, most of them from South Korea, was missing in Peru's highlands on Thursday, police said. The last communication with helicopter owned by Cuzco-based Helicusco was late Wednesday afternoon as it headed for Cuzco from the town of Mazuco in neighboring Madre de Dios state, said police Gen. Hector Dulanto. It was carrying 11 South Koreans, two Austrians and a Peruvian passenger in addition to an undetermined number of crewmembers, he said. The chopper was flying near Huallahualla, a town located at about 13,200 feet (4,000 meters) when communications were lost, said Dulanto, who was in charge of rescue operations. He said Helicusco provided a helicopter to assist in the search, but bad weather was preventing it from taking off. The company issued a brief statement saying "operations on the ground with the search brigade have been going on since yesterday but it has not yet been possible...

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Gravelooters Invade Awudome Cemetery

The activities of some daring grave looters at Awudome public cemetery in the Greater Accra Region is fast becoming a bother to residents in the area, as they continue exhuming dead bodies which have been buried at the western part of the cemetery with impunity. According to some reliable sources, that portion of the cemetery is full up and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has left it to fallow to enable it reclaim the land for construction of a graveyard that is befitting for the Millennium city. Activities of the grave looters according to THE HERALD’s impeccable sources are carried out in collusion with some of the care takers and grave diggers stationed at the cemetery. It was, however, not clear what the body parts of the exhumed bodies are used for but the sources are speculating that they are in high demand among malams and fetish priests who have resolved to advertise their activities on public radio, calling people to visit...

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Burial of crash victims to wait for two weeks

None of the dead victims of Sunday’s Dana plane crash will be buried until another two weeks. The Lagos State Government said on Wednesday that it would need the period to validate the identity of the dead victims and conduct an autopsy. Though 103 of the victims were said to have been burnt beyond recognition, 52 bodies had been identified as of Wednesday. But the relations who have expressed a desire for quick burials would have to wait for the state government to process the necessary paperwork in line with its coroner law. The state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Ade Ipaye, who said this at a briefing, said the two weeks would also enable the government to work out victims’ compensation with the Dana Airline’s insurer, Lloyds Underwriters of London, United Kingdom. Lloyds meanwhile has announced that it would pay compensation of $30,000 to each of the victims within the next 30 days. The compensation totals N693m. Ipaye...

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Confusion, grief as families identify bodies

TEARS flowed freely yesterday as over 300 relatives of the victims of DANA Air plane crash stormed the Lekan Ogunsola Memorial House of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja.  Most of them broke down at the sight of the lifeless and charred bodies of their breadwinners, children and friends, who died in the ill-fated flight and others, whose houses were hit by the aircraft. To others, it was an endless search as they went round the facilities without finding their missing relations. Confusion reigned as they moved from one end of the building, screaming “where is …(mentioning names of the affected victim). They starred into the faces of 43 decomposing bodies amid heavy stench that oozed from every side and not finding any that looked familiar to them, many of them broke down in tears. “If he is dead, why can’t I find his body to give him a befitting burial,” a woman lamented amid tears. She lost her husband...

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