(Reuters) - A plane chartered by Canada's Kinross Gold Corp crashed shortly after take-off in the North African country of Mauritania on Thursday, killing all seven people on board, the mining company said.
The Harbin Y-12-II military plane was chartered to carry gold from Kinross's Tasiast mine, located some 300 kilometers (185 miles) north of the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott.
It crashed just after take-off from Nouakchott en route to the mine.
The company said two pilots, two customs officials and three contract security guards were killed in the crash. No Kinross employees were on board.
Friday 13 July 2012
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/12/kinross-mauritania-idUSL2E8IC5CX20120712?type=companyNews&feedType=RSS&feedName=companyNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FcompanyNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Company+News%29
Friday, 13 July 2012
Private jet crash kills three Americans in France
Three Americans were killed on Friday when their private jet broke up and burst into flames on landing at an airport in the south of France, a police source told AFP.
Emergency services battled to put out the blazing Gulfstream IV, which had earlier been reported as a Mystere-Falcon 20, at Castellet airport, between the Mediterranean cities of Marseille and Toulon.
The dead are two men aged 24 and 61 and a woman aged 30, the source said, adding that the plane crashed on landing at the private airport at Castellet after flying from Nice.
"The plane broke in two, one bit ended up in the lake at the end of the runway and the other bit caught fire," an air safety official told AFP, requesting anonymity.
The accident happened at Castellet airport, between Marseille and Toulon.
The accident mirrors a similar incident in 1995 when another Mystere Falcon 20 crashed on take-off at Le Bourget airport just north of Paris killing all ten people on board.
Friday 13 July 2012
http://news.sky.com/story/959853/six-trapped-after-jet-crashes-in-france
Missing person’s relative obtains injunction protecting his genetic material
VASSILIS Pantazis, whose brother Philippos went missing in 1974, has taken legal steps to stop his genetic material from being used by any other body or entity except the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics (CING).
Nicosia Court yesterday pushed forwards a hearing for June 20 at the request of CING’s lawyer, Polys Polyviou, who asked for more time before the institute responded, Kathimerini newspaper reported.
In the meantime the court legally binds CING to keep put Pantazis’ genetic material. CING cannot “deliver and/or move and/or transfer the claimant’s genetic material to any other legal or physical entity” whatsoever in Cyprus or abroad, the court said.
The court order effectively stops the UN-supported Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) from sending Pantazis’ samples abroad, and could have sweeping implications on the use of the genetic material and profiles, currently in CING’s possession.
Pantazis told the Cyprus Mail that he was moved to go to court “given how things stand of late”. Last October a contract between the CMP and CING - the only body capable of carrying out missing persons’ DNA identifications – expired.
No new contract has been signed as of yet while missing persons’ remains have not been sent over to CING for identification.
The CMP has been asking CING to comply with a set of requirements which CING has publicly said it has met, making it unclear if and what requirements are the real sticking points. “I have lost trust,” Pantazis said adding this was his primary motivation for securing a court order.
Reports have suggested a lab in Bosnia as the most likely candidate for a new contract with the CMP for DNA identification, following the opening up of tenders in mid-February.
CING has publicly said it was willing to meet requirements set by the CMP, including assigning a project manager; meeting sorting process’ requirements; and handing over access to genetic profiles as long as they are legally assured they could.
The CMP has said that if requirements are met, they are happy for the process to stay at home. “All these games have convinced me to proceed with my lawyer to stop anyone, even the Republic of Cyprus, from using my genetic material,” Pantazis said.
The CMP, a bi-communal body investigates cases of persons reported missing during the sixties and 1974 under the auspices of the UN.
May 19, 2012
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/cyprus-institute-neurology-and-genetics/missing-person-s-relative-obtains-injunction-protecting-his
Nicosia Court yesterday pushed forwards a hearing for June 20 at the request of CING’s lawyer, Polys Polyviou, who asked for more time before the institute responded, Kathimerini newspaper reported.
In the meantime the court legally binds CING to keep put Pantazis’ genetic material. CING cannot “deliver and/or move and/or transfer the claimant’s genetic material to any other legal or physical entity” whatsoever in Cyprus or abroad, the court said.
The court order effectively stops the UN-supported Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) from sending Pantazis’ samples abroad, and could have sweeping implications on the use of the genetic material and profiles, currently in CING’s possession.
Pantazis told the Cyprus Mail that he was moved to go to court “given how things stand of late”. Last October a contract between the CMP and CING - the only body capable of carrying out missing persons’ DNA identifications – expired.
No new contract has been signed as of yet while missing persons’ remains have not been sent over to CING for identification.
The CMP has been asking CING to comply with a set of requirements which CING has publicly said it has met, making it unclear if and what requirements are the real sticking points. “I have lost trust,” Pantazis said adding this was his primary motivation for securing a court order.
Reports have suggested a lab in Bosnia as the most likely candidate for a new contract with the CMP for DNA identification, following the opening up of tenders in mid-February.
CING has publicly said it was willing to meet requirements set by the CMP, including assigning a project manager; meeting sorting process’ requirements; and handing over access to genetic profiles as long as they are legally assured they could.
The CMP has said that if requirements are met, they are happy for the process to stay at home. “All these games have convinced me to proceed with my lawyer to stop anyone, even the Republic of Cyprus, from using my genetic material,” Pantazis said.
The CMP, a bi-communal body investigates cases of persons reported missing during the sixties and 1974 under the auspices of the UN.
May 19, 2012
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/cyprus-institute-neurology-and-genetics/missing-person-s-relative-obtains-injunction-protecting-his
Nigeria holds mass burial for tanker explosion victims
State sector commander for the commission Kayode Olagunju told reporters in Port Harcourt, the state capital that 89 of the 95 persons who died in the petrol tanker explosion were given a mass burial at Okobe village in the Ahoada West Local Government Area of Rivers State.
They were buried on Thursday evening.
The Sector Commander for the Rivers State Command of the Federal Road Safety Commission, Dr. Kayode Olagunju, stated this in a post on Facebook at 8.02p.m.
The incident occurred while some villagers were allegedly scooping fuel after the tanker was involved in a crash with three other vehicles.
He stated that 95 persons died in the incident, of which 87 bodies were burnt beyond recognition.
The FRSc chief listed the vehicles involved in the crash as the tanker, a Toyota Corolla car, Toyota Hiace bus and a Maza bus.
A total of 34 motorcycles were also involved in the crash and were consumed by the inferno along with the Mazda bus.
Large excavators were brought to the site on a major inter-state highway to dig a mass grave for victims whose bodies were too badly damaged to be transported or recognised. "They couldn't be moved," Semenitari said, putting the number of those already buried at more than 85.
Some of those being treated at the hospital were also burned beyond recognition, said Geoffrey Ikogha, a local chief in Ahoada, near the oil hub of Port Harcourt.
Children were among those killed, while dozens more were badly burned, despite a warning from troops who arrived at the crash site that a blaze could ignite at any moment.
Given the severity of the burns suffered by some at the hospital, the toll could yet increase, Semenitari told AFP. "There is a chance that we could lose 10 to 15 more... medically, they are in a bad state," she said.
The number of family and friends at the General Hospital in Ahoada was huge, with many sobbing uncontrollably. "Security people are having a tough time controlling the surging crowd," said Ikogha. "The situation is tragic and pathetic."
Many of the dead were motorcycle taxi operators, known locally as "Okada", who raced to fill up their tanks after learning of the crash, according to an AFP photographer at the scene.
He noted that of the 20 injured victims rushed to the hospital, two died. Olagunju also said the bodies of six of the victims who died on the spot were earlier released to their families.
His statement reads, “87 corpses burnt beyond recognition as a result of the crash involving a tanker and three other vehicles were this evening given mass burial at the scene of the crash at Okobe along Ahoada – Mbiama on the East – West Road in Rivers State. “Six of the bodies of the victims that died on the spot had earlier been identified and released to their families.
Two of the 20 injured victims taken to the hospital also died. “A total of 95 persons died in the crash with 18 others injured. “The vehicles involved were a Toyota Corolla cr with registration number RQ 218 AAA; Toyota Hiace XZ 613 AGL; and a tanker XA 340 TDU.
One Mazda bus adn 34 motor bikes were burnt beyond recognition.”
Friday 13 July 2012
http://www.punchng.com/news/dead-victims-of-rivers-tanker-fire-given-mass-burial/
http://news.ph.msn.com/top-stories/nigeria-oil-tanker-fire-kills-more-than-116
Death toll from Ukraine bus crash reaches 15
The woman, who sustained severe injuries in the accident, died despite doctors' efforts to save her life.
Two Russian pilgrims, Marina Moryakova, who was mistakenly listed as dead, and Sergei Potashenkov, remain at Chernihiv's clinic.
The Health Ministry said on Thursday, July 12, that, according to Ukrainian doctors, the state of one of the Russian citizens being treated in Chernihiv had improved.
Fourteen pilgrims from Russia's town of Velikye Luki were killed and another 29 were injured in a bus crash in Ukraine early on July 7. They were heading to a monastery in western Ukraine's Pochayiv.
Twenty-seven people injured in the accident are currently being treated at hospitals in Moscow, Pskov and Chernihiv.
Friday 13 July 2012
http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/death-toll-from-ukraine-bus-crash-reaches-15.html#.T__s9rpVlnU
24 confirmed dead in South Africa crash
"The truck carrying farm workers was hit by a train at a level crossing," Mpumalanga police spokesman Joseph Mabusa told Reuters.
"It is a very gruesome scene. Some bodies are without heads and some without limbs. Forensic teams are still working on the scene," Mabusa said.
The truck was carried 200 meters by the impact, leaving body parts in its wake and making it hard for forensic experts to say how many people were killed, he added. "The driver was taken to hospital. His condition is unknown.
It's difficult to say what happened but at this stage it seems that the truck miscalculated as it was crossing the railway line." Emergency services said at least 24 other people were injured, some of them critically, in the smash near the town of Hectorspruit, about 400 km east of Johannesburg.
State rail operator Transnet said the train was carrying coal for export to Mozambique, but there was no derailment.
The coal was destined for the Indian Ocean port of Maputo. Mpumalanga is one of South Africa's major coal-producing regions.
South Africa's government has announced plans to spend billions of dollars on revamping its creaking rail network, although human error is as often to blame for sporadic accidents.
Traffic accidents with high death tolls are common in South Africa, and often are blamed on negligent drivers and badly maintained roads.
In 2010, a man driving 14 children to school evaded barriers at a crossing near Cape Town and a train crashed into it, killing 10 of his young passengers. The driver was convicted of murder in the deaths of the students and attempted murder in the case of the four surviving children. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Friday 13 July 2012
http://www.cnbc.com/id/48172685