Families of missing Kosovo Albanians protest at talks with Serbia

Some 1,000 people protested Saturday in Pristina saying Kosovo should not restart talks with Serbia before it clarifies the fate of more than 1,700 people still missing from the 1999 conflict, Beta news agency reported in Belgrade.

"Before talks with Serbia can begin, we want all of the missing to be identified and their bodies returned," said Igbala Rogova of the Women‘s Network, one of the organizers of the protest.

The Vetevendosje party, the third-strongest group in parliament which strongly opposes any negotiations with Serbia before it recognizes Kosovo, joined the protest.

Kosovo is Serbia‘s mostly Albanian former province that declared independence in 2008. The area was the scene of an insurgency against Belgrade‘s rule in 1998-99 and Serbia‘s heavy-handed response that ended with NATO intervention.

During the conflict, Serb forces embarked on a campaign of terror, including mass expulsions and killings. In a bid to hide the crimes, Belgrade ordered the transport of hundreds of victims from Kosovo for secret burial in mass graves in Serbia proper.

Serbia‘s rejects Kosovo‘s secession, but has agreed to hold talks under European Union auspices.

The talks were interrupted in February after seven rounds because of Serbian general elections in May. They are expected to restart in November.

Serbia had vowed never to recognize the sovereignty of what it still regards as its territory.

But Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said Saturday, during a visit to a highway construction site, that the EU-facilitated talks "will end with mutual recognition."

Sunday 4 november 2012

http://en.europeonline-magazine.eu/families-of-missing-kosovo-albanians-protest-at-talks-with-serbia_247270.html

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Storm death toll in U.S. rises to 109

The death toll in the United States from Superstorm Sandy rose to 109 victims on Friday, as Pennsylvania reported four additional deaths and New York City reported two more fatalities. Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned: “There could be more fatalities.”

Two bodies were recovered Friday on Staten Island. The toll in the nation’s largest city is now 41 deaths, according to the governor’s office. However, the New York Police Department had reported 40 deaths in the city.

Half of the city’s deaths were on Staten Island and Bloomberg noted the deaths there of two brothers swept from their mother’s arms in the storm surge.

“It just breaks your heart to think about it,” Bloomberg said.

Sunday 4 november 2012

http://www.wnd.com/2012/11/storm-death-toll-in-u-s-rises-to-109/?cat_orig=us

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Chakwal: Bus accident leaves 6 dead

CHAKWAL: A passenger bus turned-turtle in the wee hours on Sunday killed at least six people and wounded thirty here, Geo News reported.

Motorway police said that driver’s reckless driving of the ill-fated bus caused the accident. The passenger bus was on way from Nowsehra to Raiwind when it went overturned near Allah interchange. Most of the passengers belonged to the ‘Tablighi Jamaat’.

The corpses and the injured were shifted to the Chakwal District Headquarter Hospital.

Hospital sources told that the three persons among the dead namely Muhammad Amin, Muhammad Aslam and Muhammad Hussain belong to Nowsehra.

Sunday 4 november 2012

http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-74061-Chakwal:-Bus-accident-leaves-6-dead-

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Crew, captain blamed for S Korean ship tragedy

An investigation into the sinking of a South Korean trawler southeast of New Zealand with the loss of 22 lives two years ago has found the captain and crew to blame.

The Insung I sank on December 13, 2010, in the Antarctic Ocean and inside the New Zealand search and rescue region. Of the 42 people on board, five bodies were recovered and 17, including the captain, were never seen again.

The Korean Maritime Safety Tribunal found the vessel sank because the crew failed to keep the trawling and fishing gear passageway doors shut while sailing in bad weather, allowing sea water to flow in and destabilise the ship.

The tribunal’s report, released by New Zealand’s Transport Accident Investigation Commission Saturday, also found the loss of life “indicates the captain’s failure to evacuate the ship in a timely manner”.

The ship management was blamed for failing to provide adequate safety instructions and training in languages the crewmembers, who were from five different countries, could all understand.

Sunday 4 November 2012

http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-1-141008-Crew-captain-blamed-for-S-Korean-ship-tragedy

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Korean War soldier’s body identified after 62 years

A Korean War soldier who went missing 62 years ago has been buried with full military honors in a North Carolina veterans cemetery after his remains were finally identified.

The Fayetteville Observer reported Saturday that Army Pfc. James Curtis Mullins was buried in Sandhills State Veterans Cemetery in Spring Lake. It was the third burial of his remains.

His older brother, Clayton Mullins, said Friday’s service brought closure.

“It brings closure to a lot of questions I had in my mind,” he said. “Where he was at. What could possibly have happened to him. It made me happy that they finally identified him, and it made me sad in another way.”

James Mullins was 18 when he headed for South Korea at the onset of the Korean War in June 1950. He went missing a month later, when his unit was overrun and scattered near the village of Yugong-ni.

Remains of nine U.S. soldiers were recovered from the battlefield. Only one body could not be identified – now known to be Mullins’.

All nine were buried in South Korea.

The bodies were exhumed a year later. Mullins’ remains were recorded as X-14 and sent to the Army’s identification unit in Japan for analysis. Still unidentifiable, the remains were transferred to Hawaii and reburied in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

They were exhumed again this year and identified through radiography, dental records and other evidence.

Mullins was presumed dead on Dec. 31, 1953. Records show that Army units had searched the battlefield and surrounding areas in 1952.

Clayton Mullins, a retired master sergeant with Fort Bragg’s 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, said their father never stopped hoping his little brother survived.

When he encouraged his father to think of other things, he responded, “It’s just hard to do. You can’t think of nothing but where he’s at, what he’s doing.”

Mullins says of his father, “He had hopes that he (James) was just lost out there. He kept hoping until he left here.”

He said he last saw his younger brother in boot camp at Fort Jackson, S.C.

The military counts 7,940 troops still unaccounted for from the Korean War. Of those, 196 are from North Carolina.

Technology advances are allowing more remains to be identified – 39 in 2011, and 31 so far this year, said Maj. Carie A. Parker, a spokeswoman for the Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office.

Sunday 4 November 2012

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/11/03/3642433/korean-war-soldiers-body-identified.html#storylink=cpy

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Migrant boat sinks off Libyan coast killing 11, 70 rescued

Italy's coastguard has rescued 70 boat migrants who had spent hours clinging to the hull of a capsized vessel while attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea from Libya. Rescuers have recovered 11 bodies.

The Italian news agency ANSA said a Maltese aircraft had first sighted the capsized boat about 65 Kilometers (40 miles) off Libya's coast on Saturday afternoon.

The survivors - 62 men and eight women, one of whom was pregnant - were transferred to an Italian Navy ship for medical care. Many of them were suffering from hypothermia.

The Italian coastguard and navy recovered the bodies of 11 Somali nationals about 35 miles (56 km) from the Libyan coast on Saturday and Sunday after the motorised raft they were using to try to get to Italy sank, the coastguard said.

The Italian news agency ANSA said a Maltese aircraft had first sighted the capsized boat about 65 Kilometers (40 miles) off Libya's coast on Saturday afternoon.

The survivors - 62 men and eight women, one of whom was pregnant - were transferred to an Italian Navy ship for medical care. Many of them were suffering from hypothermia.

Two coastguard boats and a navy ship pulled 70 other Somalis from the water, according to a statement sent on Sunday. The survivors and the dead were being taken to the Italian island of Lampedusa.

The coastguard, an Italian tug boat, and a navy helicopter are continuing to search for survivors.

Each year, thousands of people, mostly from Africa, attempt to cross the Mediterranean from north Africa to Europe in overcrowded and frequently unseaworthy vessels.

In September, dozens of people – believed to have been from Tunisia – went missing when the fishing boat carrying them sank near Lampedusa.

At a subsequent meeting of European and north African leaders on Malta last month, Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki called for the creation of a regional task force.

Marzouki said coordinated responses must be established to deal with what he called a "humanitarian disaster."

Solutions to the problem, he said, lay in finding solutions to instability, persistent poverty and high youth unemployment in Africa.

Italy's government recently said that between the start of the year and September 8,000 clandestine migrants landed on Italy's coastline.

Italian Interior Minister Maria Cancellieri said cooperation, especially with Tunisia and Libya, had led to a reduction in the numbers reaching Italy since the Arab Spring popular uprisings of 2011.

Thousands of people have been killed attempting the dangerous crossing from North Africa to Europe in overcrowded and frequently unsafe vessels. In the past few years, Italy has become the main destination for maritime migration to southern Europe, which is usually from Libya.

Sunday 4 November 2012

http://www.dw.de/boat-migrants-rescued-off-italy/a-16354433

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Indian scientists devise unique radiation-decontamination wipes

They look like the facial wipes available in the market, but what makes them different is that they are meant to clean off radioactive material from the body during a nuclear disaster. Developed by India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the unique decontamination wipe is catching the attention of vendors who cater to NATO forces.

Scientists working on it claim the wipe, developed at the DRDO Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS) here, can remove over 95 percent of the contamination.

At Rs.10 (20 cents), the 5cm x 5cm wipe - the size of a face wipe - is easy to use and dispose of.

According to the scientists, these decontamination wipes will be useful for people working in nuclear plants and those living around them, as also during any nuclear disaster like what happened at Fukushima in Japan.

"This is one-of-a-kind product not known to have been developed by anyone else," R.K. Sharma of INMAS's CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear) division, told IANS in an interview.

"The decontamination procedure with the use of soap and water removes most of the external contaminants. But the accidental release of a number of radio-isotopes in the environment could contaminate water also, thereby limiting its availability or sometimes it may be scarce," he said.

"In view of this, the self-usable skin decontamination wipe has been developed for immediate application after the release of the contaminant," Sharma added.

Named radio-decontamination wipes, the project costs Rs. 495,000 ($9,200) and INMAS has already initiated the process for patenting the technology.

"Once we get it patented, we would propose keeping this wipes not just with disaster management forces like NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) but also at Metro stations and with local authorities like the state police," Sharma said.

Following a major earthquake, a 15-metre tsunami disabled the power supply and cooling chambers of three of Fukushima's Daiichi reactors Mar 11, 2011. There were no deaths but over 100,000 people had to be evacuated from their homes to prevent exposure to radiation.

The decontamination wipe causes no skin toxicity and has been found to be safe, effective and non-irritant.

INMAS has already received a request from British-based Branco Diagnostics and an Indian company, Novel, for transfer of technology for mass production of the decontamination wipes.

An email from the Branco Diagnotics in October said: "We understand that you are developing radiation decontamination wipes and have completed efficacy studies and skin safety studies under the Drug and Cosmetics Act 1940."

"We are interested to take this technology from your organisation for commercializing the same. Branco produces reactive skin decontamination lotion (which removes chemical warfare agents), which is used by the US Department of Defense and military forces in NATO countries," the letter said.

INMAS has sent both the requests to the DRDO's marketing wing - the Directorate of Industry Interface and Technology Management (DIITM).

The wipes come in a small packing along with a sealed disposal zipper bag so that the contamination doesn't spread further after wipe is used.

The institute has also published the results of its study in the International Journal of Pharmaceutics in September, the official said.

Sunday 4 November 2012

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/290066/indian-scientists-devise-unique-radiation.html

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Mining experts look at Pike River recovery plan

Families of the Pike River disaster victims are hoping a group of international mine safety experts will be able to give its approval to a plan aimed at re-entering the mine.

The families have enlisted the help of New Zealand mining expert David Feickert, who has been advising the Chinese Government on mine safety.

Mr Feickert and two British mining experts are in Greymouth for five days and will meet with Solid Energy, Mine Rescue and other experts in the area.

Mr Feickert says it could be possible to enter the main shaft of the mine to retrieve some of the bodies.

But he says they'll need to ensure the mine is safe enough to re-enter.

Mr Feickert is expected to sign off on the families' plan, which aims to overhaul health and safety standards in mining.

A spokesperson for some of the families, Bernie Monk, says the approval must happen before the plan can be presented to Solid Energy.

On Monday, the Royal Commission's report on the Pike River disaster will be presented to the families of the 29 men who died in explosions at the coal mine in 2010. The report will be released later in the day.

Sunday 4 November 2012

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/119903/mining-experts-look-at-pike-river-recovery-plan

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Bodies of two more sailors handed over to relatives

For the families of the five sailors who perished in Cyclone Nilam, it was finally all over as they received the bodies of their dead kin.

While three of the families returned home on Friday night after receiving the bodies, the families of Jomon Joseph and Krishna Chandra returned home on Saturday.

The bodies of Jomon Joseph and Krishna C.P. Purayil were identified by their relatives at the Ponneri Government Hospital on Saturday morning. Jomon was among the five sailors who were declared missing when they did not return to the shore on Wednesday after the oil tanker MT Pratibha Cauvery ran aground at Elliot’s Beach in Besant Nagar.

Jomon’s family, who began their hunt for him on Thursday, had sought fishermen’s help to take them through every canal. They managed to find Raj Ramesh Khamitkar’s body on Friday afternoon.

Even when there was confusion over identification of Raj at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital here, they were sure that it was not Jomon. “He is taller, around 5feet 8inches, and this body is that of a shorter person,” one of his uncles maintained.

Jomon’s body had washed ashore in Minjur and been sent to the GH around 5 p.m. on Friday. Jomon had worked on an oil tanker in the Gulf for a year and took up a job on MT Pratibha Cauvery six months ago. His uncle said he loved cricket and was a fun-loving person who wanted to become a sailor. His father K.J. Joseph had been in no position to talk, late on Friday evening. When contacted by The Hindu he had said, “I am very tired now. I don’t feel like talking.”

On Saturday, a body clad in blue uniform was found near Ennore Creek. It was identified as that of Krishna Chandra by his relatives at Ponneri GH. Krishna’s uncle and cousins received the body. His father P.P. Chandrasekar works as a bank manager in a co-operative bank.

The bodies of K. Niranjan, Rushub Jadhav and Raj Khamitkar were handed over to the respective families on Friday evening after the mandatory autopsy.

Sunday 4 november 2012

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/chen-news/bodies-of-two-more-sailors-handed-over-to-relatives/article4062530.ece

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