Last two bodies recovered

JOHOR BARU: ALL the five illegal immigrants who went missing after the boat they were in capsized last Thursday were confirmed dead.

This followed the discovery of the last two bodies off Tanjung Ayam at Pengerang, one at 11.13am and the other at 6.45pm, on the first day of Hari Raya.

No documents were found on them.

The search and rescue operations involving 96 personnel from the Malaysia Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA), Marine Operations Force and Singapore Coast Guard, which began at 8.25pm last Thursday, was called off.

MMEA southern region enforcement chief First Admiral Adon Shalan said only the tekong and another illegal immigrant survived the boat tragedy.

"The case has been referred to the Kota Tinggi district police."

It was reported the boat left an undesignated jetty at Kampung Pasir Putih in Pasir Gudang here about noon and was heading towards Pulau Batam, Indonesia, when it was struck by strong waves and sank off Tanjung Pengelih on Thursday.

The tragedy only came to light more than eight hours later when a fisherman rescued the boat's tekong, Harman Latip, 44, off Tanjung Pengelih.

The fishermen alerted the Johor Baru Maritime Rescue Subcentre at 8.25pm the same day.

The MMEA and the Marine Operations Force sent out a 30-member search and rescue party to the site of the incident.

At 9.30pm, one of the victims was found clinging to a buoy.

The Singapore Coast Guard later joined the search and rescue operations. They found the first body in their waters about 2am on Friday.

The second body was found three nautical miles southeast of Tanjung Stapa at 6pm on Friday, and the third, at 2.15pm on Saturday, off Tanjung Pengelih.

The tekong is believed to have been sending the illegal immigrants back to Indonesia for Hari Raya when the boat sank.

At least 10 boats had been spotted attempting to smuggle out illegal immigrants from Johor during Ramadan.

However, most of them had to make a U-turn and hide in forests nearby or abandon their trips after they were spotted by the authorities.

Tuesday 21 August 2012

Read more: Last two bodies recovered - General - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/nation/general/last-two-bodies-recovered-1.127364#ixzz24DI8FLF5

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Philippines: body of MP found after plane crash

The body of the Philippines's interior secretary, Jesse Robredo, has been found in the sea off a central province where his small plane crashed three days earlier, according to officials.

Robredo's body was pulled out from the overturned fuselage of the twin-engine Piper Seneca about 55 metres under water and 800 metres off the coast of Masbate province early on Tuesday, said the transport secretary, Mar Roxas.

Roxas said the bodies of the plane's Filipino pilot and Nepali student pilot were still inside the cockpit.

"At 7.25 this morning, our volunteer divers found the fuselage with bodies inside," Roxas told reporters in Masbate.

Robredo, 54, was heading to his hometown of Naga city on Saturday from central Cebu city, where he had met with local officials, when one of the plane's engines stalled 30 minutes into the flight. The aircraft crashed as it attempted an emergency landing at Masbate airport, about 235 miles south-east of Manila, Roxas said.

An aide of Robredo escaped from the plane as it sank and was rescued by fishermen, then went back to help in the search, Roxas said.

The search involving 600 coastguard, police and military personnel backed by dozens of civilians ended after a foreign deep-sea volunteer diver saw the wreckage.

As interior secretary, Robredo was in charge of the national police and provincial governments.

He was popular for his reformist views and policies and clean image that were prominent since he entered politics as Naga city's mayor in 1988, deviating from the political patronage and corruption that characterised traditional Filipino politicians. He won a Ramon Magsaysay award – regarded as Asia's version of a Nobel prize – in 2000 for good governance.

Tuesday 21 August 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/21/philippines-minister-dead-plane-crash?newsfeed=true

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British man confirmed dead in Thailand bar fire

BANGKOK (AP) - Thai police have confirmed a British man was among the four people killed in a nightclub fire on the popular resort island of Phuket.

Forensic experts at Bangkok's police hospital said Tuesday that they were able to use dental records to identify the body of 24-year-old Michael Pio Tzouvanni.

Police Lt. Gen. Jarumporn Suramanee said Tzouvanni died from smoke inhalation in Friday's blaze at the Tiger Discotheque on Patong beach.

He said Tzouvanni's brother confirmed the body's identity from his belongings.

Jarumporn said police were still waiting for DNA test results to help identify the other three bodies. Those are believed to be those of two Thai women and a French man.

At least 11 people were also injured in the fire.

Tuesday 21 August 2012

http://www.abc27.com/story/19326921/british-man-confirmed-dead-in-thailand-bar-fire

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