Nepal ends hunt for climbers missing in avalanche

Nepalese rescuers on Thursday called off a search for three climbers who have been missing since a huge avalanche that killed eight mountaineers at the weekend, presuming them dead.

The two French mountaineers and a Canadian disappeared after their group was hit by a wall of snow near the 8,156-metre (26,759-foot) Himalayan peak Manaslu in the early hours of Sunday.

"We have come to an end of the search operation. A team of five sherpas were involved in the operation. But despite their best efforts, they were unable to find them," district police chief Basanta Bahadur Kunwar told AFP.

"They are presumed dead, but the French embassy have told us they may continue a private search," Kunwar added.

Eight people were found dead in the immediate aftermath of the snowslide -- four French, a Spaniard, a German, an Italian and a Nepali guide.

Experts say climbers buried in an avalanche typically have 20 minutes to be dug out before they die from hypothermia or asphyxiation.

Police also fear the missing could have been swept into a crevasse, meaning their bodies might never be recovered.

One of the missing French climbers was Remy Lecluse, 48, a well-known Chamonix-based mountain guide and extreme skier who had recently married and was the father of a two-year-old girl.

An experienced skier, Lecluse carried out more than 500 extreme descents -- long, steep descents on mountain peaks -- in the Alps, Himalayas, Andes and elsewhere.

The French embassy in Kathmandu was not immediately available for comment.

Friday 28 September 2012

http://www.france24.com/en/20120927-nepal-ends-hunt-climbers-missing-avalanche

New Mass Grave Found in Bosnia: Victims' Bodies near Cerska, Srebrenica - Likely Bosnian Muslims

27 September 2012 - A mass grave containing remains of nine persons was found during an exhumation in the area of Hajvazi in the Osmici municipality in northeastern Bosnia.

Bosnia's Institute for the Missing Persons, INO, says that the remains most probably belong to Bosniak victims, who were killed in November 1992.

“The exhumation in this area will continue, because we expect to find more victims who died in 1992. We are searching a group of 38 individuals, whose remains have still not been found. However, we shall be able to say with certainty whether the remains belong to them only after a DNA analysis,” said Lejla Cengic, spokesperson for the Institute.

The Bosnian State Prosecution issued an announcement, saying that the remains would be transported to the Commemorative Center in Tuzla for further expert examination and identification through DNA analysis.

The Institute for the Missing Persons says that it has been determined that one of the nine exhumed victims is a woman.

“The victims were dumped on top of each other and buried in a shallow grave,” Cengic said.

The exhumation was led by an investigator with the Bosnian Prosecutor.

Representatives of INO and the International Commission for the Missing Persons, ICMP, a court medicine doctor, workers of the Commemorative Center from Tuzla and police officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska took part in the exhumation.

According to the ICMP figures, at the end of the conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina there were around 30,000 people missing, presumably dead.

Until now two thirds have been identified and around 10,000 are still missing.

Friday 28 September 2012

http://www.bim.ba/en/341/10/35839/

Somaliland: Large-scale Exhumations Started

Thursday 27, 2012 (Saxafi News) - For the first time in 24 years since 1988 people of Somaliland will finally find out the truth on what happened to almost 60,000 people and the Massacre that was inflicted by the former Dictator regime of Siyad Barre during the civil war that destroyed the infrastructure and much of the major cities of Somaliland particularly Hargeisa.

“Equipo Peruano Antropologia Forense” in Short EPAF,forensic Investigator team landed yesterday in Hargeisa, Somaliland and accompanying the team is Abdiziz Mohamed Diriye who recently was one of 21 plaintiffs that a court in the State of Virginia awarded $22 million in a case against former Prime minister and minister of Defense of Somalia gen. Mohamed Ali Samatar, which the court found guilty of participated in the Crimes Against Humanity and Human Rights Violation.

Several officials from the government of Somaliland were also present at one of the Mass grave sites in the city of Hargeisa such as The Minister of Justice, Minister of Religious Affairs, and also the Somaliland Genocide Commissioner Mr. Khadar Like.

First to speak was the Minister of Justice Mr. Hussein Ahmed Aidid also former rebel fighter of SNM, talked about the importance the findings will means for Somaliland that has campaigned for 21 years to the international community the atrocities ,genocide and Massacre of innocent civilians across major cities of Somaliland, “41 people were buried on this site alone and were all tide together as you will find out during your excavation, you will also find them in the same clothing when they were taken from their houses, street or village by the Military of the former regime of Siyad Barre.” said the Minister of Justice Somaliland.

Minster of Religious affairs Mr. Khalif Abdilahi also gave a short speech to the forensic team “that no one can forgive the people was behind these crimes and to admit their guilt for these crimes against humanity.”

The Forensic Investigators team and Somaliland Government signed a 5 year contract to excavate all the major Mass graves sites across cities in Somaliland, Jose Pablo Baraybar representing the forensic team and senior out of all the members of the team with 20 yrs. of field expertise in mass graves investigations sites such as Srebrenica (Bosnia) 1996-2002 which is the first case of Genocide to be prosecuted using forensic evidence after the Tribunals of Nuremberg and Tokyo.

The forensic team will also grant students from the Medical Faculty branch of University of Hargeisa, will teach the students detailed knowledge on Forensic Investigation Sites where Genocide has been committed.

The chairman of the Somaliland Genocide commission said the crime happened in 1984 they investigated this site that they are standing today, and most of the victims buried here were normal people that had no affiliation with any of Government, Military institutions.

The commissioner also gave details on all the sites they uncovered across Somaliland, also the commissioner mentioned that each burial site has up to 12 people buried.

Mass Graves Findings by the Somaliland Genocide Commission

Hargeysa: 200 Mass Grave Sites,

Berbera: 12 Mass Graves

Buroa: 8 Mass Graves

Sheikh: 1 Mass Grave

Erigavo: 2Mass Graves Gabiley: 2 Mass Graves

Arabsiyo: 1 Mass Grave

Friday 28 September 2012

http://saxafinews.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=1592:digging-mass-graves-in-somaliland-has-begun&Itemid=27

A different outlook of death in Guatemala City

Rodrigo Abd / AP — In Guatemala, which has one of the highest mortality rates in the world and where violence is rampant, burial grounds have transformed into social spaces where relatives and friends of the deceased drink and dance as photographers are hired to take pictures and musicians play during funerals. Meanwhile, workers exhume bodies from plots that are behind on their payments, street peddlers set up shop and children play hide-and-seek.

Six years after a burial in the General Cemetery in Guatemala City relatives must pay around U.S. $24 to renew the burial plot for another four years, according to cemetery rules. If there is no payment, cemetery workers exhume the body and place the corpse in a mass grave. Over 2,000 bodies are exhumed annually after relatives fail to pay cemetery fees.

Friday 28 September 2012

http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/27/14128917-a-different-outlook-of-death-in-guatemala-city?lite

9 dead in tanker-bus collision in Nueva Ecija

SCIENCE CITY OF MUÑOZ—Leoncio Pajarillo, 39, was ferrying his wife, Evangeline, 42, on his motorcycle to the city center here to catch a bus for Metro Manila. She was to attend an orientation for an overseas job. They never made it. They didn’t know what hit them.

They were among the nine people killed with eight others injured on Wednesday when a Metro Manila-bound bus hit a fuel tanker on Maharlika Highway at Barangay (village) Bantug here, police said.

The drivers of the bus and tanker and the Pajarillo couple on a motorcycle were among those killed in the accident on a newly paved section of the highway in Purok (sub village) Villa Medina at 2:30 a.m.

Supt. Michael Angelo Zuñiga, city police chief, said the Victory Liner bus, which came from Cagayan province, tried to avoid the motorcycle carrying Pajarillo and his wife, and hit the fuel tanker instead on the opposite lane.

The Pajarillos died instantly but police could not say which vehicle hit their motorcycle.

The other fatalities were bus driver Victor Ryan Camanguig, tanker driver Silvino Marzo and Donatella Aquino and Marife Cale-Bondoc, who were among 44 passengers of the bus. Three other fatalities, all of them women, have yet to be identified.

The eight injured passengers were taken to hospitals in San Jose and Cabanatuan cities.

Ronnie Calica, one of the two bus drivers, said the vehicle left its terminal in Tuao, Cagayan, for Pasay City at 3 p.m. Tuesday. Calica drove the bus from Cagayan to San Jose City. There, after a pit stop about 12 kilometers from the accident site, he turned over the wheel to his alternate driver, Camanguig.

Calica dismissed reports that Camanguig was sleepy while on the wheel. “He just relieved me in San Jose City. It was my turn to sleep and I was awakened when I fell off my seat,” said Calica, who was seated at the rear section of the bus.

Lilibeth Geron, 33, said her fellow passengers started screaming and jumping out of the windows when they saw other passengers strewn around.

“The impact of the collision was frightening. People were screaming,” said Geron, who complained of leg pains.

Another passenger, Rowella Elepante, 26, said she felt the bus swerve before it hit the tanker.

“I was seated five rows from the driver and was wide awake. I felt the bus swerving to the left as it avoided hitting a motorcycle. In an instant, I heard a loud thud. Then I immediately smelled diesel fumes,” Elepante said.

She said the front part of the bus was wrecked. Four passengers in that section died instantly, she said.

Thelma Estera, a professor at Central Luzon State University whose house is a few meters from the accident site, said she took in some of the dazed survivors and provided them food.

Firemen cleaned up the fuel spilled on the highway. Traffic was stalled for at least five hours until the vehicles were removed at 7:30 a.m.

Friday 28 September 2012

http://www.philstar.com/nation/article.aspx?publicationsubcategoryid=200&articleid=853020

At Least 14 Killed in Nigeria Gasoline Tanker Fire

Police in north central Nigeria say at least 14 people have died after a gasoline tanker caught fire and exploded.

The Niger State police spokesman told The Associated Press on Thursday that some victims were trying to scoop gasoline from the tanker after it toppled over and turned on its sides late Tuesday in a town about 140 miles (230 kilometers) from Nigeria's capital.

Pius Edobor said the tanker's driver had lost control of the vehicle carrying 33,000 liters of gasoline.

He said many were injured and that nearby homes had been consumed by the fire.

The accident comes two months after a similar incident killed at least 95 people in Nigeria's oil-producing region.

Despite decades producing oil, the majority of Nigerians live on less than $2 a day.

Friday 28 September 2012

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/14-killed-nigeria-gasoline-tanker-fire-17338863#.UGVbqb3R5Bg

One more victim of Arkankergen massacre identified via DNA test

ASTANA. September 27. Experts of German Legal Medicine Institute have identified remains of one more soldier killed on Arkankergen border post in Kazakhstan, two more corpses remain unidentified, Kazakh Attorney General's Office reported on Thursday.

The Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences Charite in Berlin examined remains of three bodies discovered at the scene of the massacre. The results of the DNA test proved that one of the bodies belonged to Rustem Akylbayev. Unfortunately, German specialists were unable to identify other remains, because they couldn't find cells suitable for DNA test, according to A. Abdildin.

Thus two more soldiers Denis Rey and Meyrhan Imenov are still missing.

On May 30 a fire took place on Arkankergen border post on Kazakh-Chinese border. In summer 15 frontier guards serve at this post. Some 15 corpses were founded at the scene including 14 border guards and a hunter from the nearby hunting ground located near the post. The fifteenth border guard was found alive near the post. Later border guard Vladislav Chelakh confessed that he killed his colleagues and then set fire to the barracks, where they were. Chelakh named internal conflicts and clouding of consciousness as the reason of killing his colleagues. However, later he refused this confession and said the border post had been attacked. Remains of 11 killed people were earlier identified.

As was reported earlier, the burnt out building of the Arkankergen border outpost with the remains of 14 border guards and one huntsman was discovered on the 30th of May 2012.

The act of terror occurred on the night of 27-28th of May, 220 km away from the Usharal town of Almaty region.

Friday 28 September 2012

http://www.inform.kz/eng/article/2498001

Seven Britons, five Chinese dead in Nepal air crash: police

Seven Britons and five Chinese are among the dead in a plane crash Friday on the outskirts of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu which killed all 19 on board, according to a revised toll by police.

"The plane crash in the capital has caused death of 12 foreigners, including seven British and five Chinese tourists. The remaining seven, including three crew members, are Nepalese," said Nepal Police spokesman Binod Singh.

Police had initially said five Japanese, two Italians and a Briton were killed in the crash but later corrected the information, which had been given in error by an officer at the crash site.

The Sita Air craft had just taken off from Kathmandu airport and was headed to the small town of Lukla, a gateway to Everest, when it plunged towards a river on the outskirts of the city.

"All 19 passengers of the Sita Air plane have died. The accident site is less than one kilometre (half a mile) from the airport," said Singh.

"The pilots seem to have tried to land it safely on the banks of the river but unfortunately the plane caught fire."

Singh said the plane, carrying mainly foreigners and three local crew, plunged into the banks of the Manohara river early in he morning.

"There are four Nepalis among the dead, apart from the crew. The majority of the dead are foreigners from Western countries," he said.

Dozens of army personnel had arrived at the crash site, said Nepalese army spokesman Ramindra Chhetri, and were battling to bring the blaze under control.

"I was just walking and saw a plane landing. It was caught in fire and I even heard people inside the plane screaming," a witness told Kantipur Television.

Another witness said he saw half burned bodies near the crash site, a slum settlement.

Nepal has a poor road network and large numbers of tourists, pilgrims and professional climbers often rely on the country's 16 domestic airlines and 49 airports to reach remote areas.

The latest fatal crash in Nepal -- the sixth in less than two years -- could potentially lead to new scrutiny of the country's numerous small airlines, which provide vital links to remote parts of the country.

Aircraft and pilots often have to contend with bad weather and difficult landing strips in the Himalayan nation.

In another recent accident in Nepal, a small Agni Air plane taking tourists to a treacherous high-altitude airport near the Annapurna mountain region ploughed into the ground, killing 15 people on board.

In September last year a small plane taking tourists on a sightseeing trip around Everest crashed into a hillside near the Nepalese Kathmandu, also killing all 19 people on board.

The Buddha Air Beechcraft plane, carrying 10 Indians, two Americans, one Japanese citizen and three local passengers, came down in heavy rain and fog at Godavari, about 10 kilometres from the capital.

Friday 28 September 2012

http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/Nepal/Seven-Britons-five-Chinese-dead-in-Nepal-air-crash-police/Article1-936808.aspx