17 die as bus plunges into ravine

Seventeen people were killed and three were left seriously injured when a long-distance bus overturned and plunged down a deep ravine in China, state media reported.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the accident occurred early on Wednesday and it was not immediately clear what caused the crash.

The report said 45 people were on the bus, which was heading from the eastern Jiangsu province to the coastal city of Xiamen in Fujian province.

It overturned in Fujian's Ningde city. Road safety is a serious problem in China, with many accidents caused by poorly maintained roads and bad driving habits.

 Fifteen people were killed when a bus crashed into a ravine in the northern Shanxi province in February.

Wednesday 20 June 2012

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/06/20/bus-plunges-deep-ravine-china-17-killed.html

Bus overturns in Haiti river; death toll disputed

Haiti - A bus overturned in a rain-swollen river in southern Haiti, and officials differed on Tuesday about the number of people who died.

A statement issued by President Michel Martelly's office says about 60 people were on the bus when the driver attempted to cross the Glace River.

It said that local civil protection officials have recovered the bodies of 40 people and are still searching the area.

The statement said nine people were either rescued from the submerged bus or managed to swim to safety. But Norman Wiener, an official from the Grand'Anse department, said the bus owner who collected money from the passengers told him that there were 27 people aboard and that only eight people are missing.

Wiener said another 19 people survived.

The accident occurred Monday near the town of Pestel on Haiti's southern peninsula. Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, director of Haiti's office of civil protection, says the driver apparently ignored warnings not to try to cross the river.

Jean-Baptiste said she could not confirm how many people died or survived.

Wednesday 20 June 2012

 http://www.portalangop.co.ao/motix/en_us/noticias/internacional/2012/5/25/Bus-overturns-Haiti-river-death-toll-disputed,524d8630-e1ae-497c-89f6-4c9a2f1582a1.html

Ghosts Scare Residents Of Dana Plane Crash Area

Some residents of Iju-Ishaga, a suburb of Lagos, where a Dana airline crashed into buildings on Sunday, have appealed to the authorities to bury the victims far from the area.

Their apprehension was based on their belief in the existence of ghosts, Idayatu Ali, a 24-year-old unemployed school leaver, said living around the scene of the crash, was superstitious and would not want the victims buried at the scene of the accident, “for fear of ghosts”.

According to her, human beings are no goats and when they die prematurely, especially, violently, their ghosts will haunt the scene for a while. “This is no superstition; I have witnessed where a young man died in an accident and his ghost continued to cry at the scene for days until a sacrifice was performed. “Please, tell them not to bury the victims here or else some of us will have to abandon our houses,” she pleaded. 


However, Jude Agwu, a commercial motorcyclist, said he and some colleagues could easily offer sacrifices to Ogun (the Yoruba god iron) in a bid to get rid of any ghost threat. 


Mr Iyiola Akande, the South-West Zonal Coordinator, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), said no decision had been taken on where to bury the victims. 


He, however, believed that identifiable bodies should be released to their relations for burial, while badly burnt ones would be given mass burial, probably far from the scene. “This is a densely populated area and erecting a memorial here may not be in the interest of the psyche of the residents. “This has nothing to do with the myth about ghosts,” Akande said at the scene of the crash. 


He also explained that a census of those living in the affected buildings—now demolished—would be taken soon to ascertain the number of those who died on the ground. 


Akande said this would also form part of the statistics for the full rehabilitation of the survivors and compensations to the families of those who lost their lives in the mishap.

Wednesday 20 June 2012

http://typicalnaija.com/ghosts-scare-residents-of-dana-plane-crash-area/