Ten dead in 'intense' 7.4 Guatemala earthquake

A 7.4-magnitude earthquake has struck off the coast of Guatemala, killing "around 10" people, causing panicked evacuations as far as Mexico City and a tsunami alert in El Salvador.

The victims died in the Guatemalan town of San Pedro Sacatepequez, some 250 kilometres west of the capital Guatemala City.

"Reports from colleagues in the area indicate that there are around 10 dead," firefighters' spokesman Sergio Vazquez said.

Communication was difficult in the area because phone lines fell and several places were without power, Vazquez said.

The Guatemalan national disaster response agency (Conred) had confirmed only one death.

In El Salvador, the president ordered people in a coastal area to evacuate their homes over fears of a potential tsunami.

The US Geological Survey said the quake struck some 24 kilometres south of Champerico, Guatemala and 163 kilometres west-southwest of Guatemala City. The depth was 41.6 kilometres.

The Mexican Seismological Service said nine aftershocks followed the quake, which it put at a magnitude of 7.3, some 68 kilometres southwest of Ciudad Hidalgo in the state of Chiapas.

The quake was strongly felt in Guatemala City and southern Mexico, prompting scenes of panic across the region. People streamed out of homes, schools and office buildings as far north as Mexico City.

"We just had an earthquake," Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard wrote on Twitter.

"It was intense in a good part of the city,'' he said, adding later that the quake did not cause any damage in the sprawling metropolis of 20 million people.

One Mexico City metro line was briefly suspended but Ebrard reported moments later that the system was back running normally.

Buildings were also evacuated in the southern Mexican states of Oaxaca and Chiapas, without reports of damage or victims.

"I was scared. It was horrible," Uvita Mena, who lives in the Chiapas town of Tuxtla Gutierrez, told AFP.

The USGS had initially measured the quake at 7.5 magnitude.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no destructive widespread tsunami threat, but Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes ordered evacuations in Puerto de la Libertad and other western coastal towns.

"This country is constantly exposed to threats ... and this time the threat is a tsunami on the Salvadoran coast, especially the western beaches,'' Funes said.

The Salvadoran Environment Observatory issued a tsunami alert for the west coast departments of Ahuachapan and Sonsonate.

"We are not talking about a tsunami of a large magnitude," observatory spokeswoman Daysi Lopez said, adding that it would be very localized.

The event came two months after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake rocked Costa Rica, without causing any casualties or injuries.

Wednesday 7 November 2012

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10845880

Death toll in south India floods rises to 45

The death toll from floods in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh has reached 45, officials said on Wednesday, amid continuing efforts to provide relief to marooned villagers.

Downpours triggered by a cyclone that hit the coast further south last week have left hundreds of villages inundated and nearly 70,000 people in relief camps set up across the state for stranded people.

At least 45 people have died and 1,300 houses have been damaged by the flooding, a state government official who declined to be named told AFP.

Although flood water was receding, remote villages in the Godavari region and two other coastal districts continued to reel from the devastating rains.

Officials said they were trying to provide relief to flooded villages and restore rail and road traffic.

Standing paddy and cotton crops also suffered extensive damage due to the unseasonal rainfall.

State chief minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy on Tuesday visited flood-hit areas and vowed to provide help for the victims, especially farmers whose crops have been destroyed.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked Reddy to “constantly monitor the situation”, a statement from his office said.

In September this year two million people were forced to flee their homes in the northeastern state of Assam after floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains.

Wednesday 7 November 2012

The Lahore Times Read more: http://www.lhrtimes.com/2012/11/07/death-toll-in-south-india-floods-rises-to-45-officials/#ixzz2BYZY2nlZ

Surge in deaths of migrants bound for Spain from Morocco

More than 90 illegal sub-Saharan migrants have died attempting to reach Spain from Morocco in the past two weeks, a Moroccan security source and members of the African immigrant community said on Tuesday.

"According to the testimonies of six survivors who managed to reach Spain, 54 people on the same boat drowned last week," said Pierre Delagrange, president of the sub-Saharan immigrant community in Morocco.

Another 19 sub-Saharans were confirmed to have died off the coast of Tangier, Morocco's northern port city, just 14 kilometres (eight miles) from Spain, in the past fortnight, he added.

"Yesterday (Monday) three bodies were recovered from a beach near Tangier, bringing the number of dead there to 19, including women and children," Duladrang said, adding that two more who attempted the sea crossing were still missing.

A Senegalese in Tangier contacted by AFP, who identified himself only as Osman, gave the same toll of 54 from last week's boat tragedy and 19 dead off Tangier.

A Moroccan security source said the body of a sub-Saharan migrant was found on the coast at Nador on Monday, near Spain's north African enclave of Melilla, after the body of a man and his young son were found in the same area last week.

The casualty figure of 76 raise the number of African migrants confirmed to have drowned in the waters between Morocco and Spain in the past two weeks to 92.

On October 26, the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, two Africans died and lifeguards rescued about 50 trying to reach Spain by boat from Morocco, a day after 14 others were pulled dead from the water, according to Spanish emergency services.

They are the most recent victims in a steady wave of migrants attempting to reach Spanish soil from Morocco, many of them in makeshift rafts, that has swelled in recent weeks.

The Moroccan authorities have saved around 6,500 illegal migrants from death at sea in the past five years, according to the official MAP news agency.

Another 23,000 sub-Saharans planning to attempt the dangerous crossing have reportedly been arrested in Morocco over the same period.

Wednesday 7 November 2012

http://www.starafrica.com/en/news/detail-news/view/surge-in-deaths-of-migrants-bound-for-sp-259951.html

SS Wisconsin went down off Kenosha shore 83 years ago

Last week was the 83rd anniversary of a disaster on the waves just five miles from Kenosha’s shoreline.

On Oct. 29, 1929, the iron-hulled steamship SS Wisconsin went down in a violent storm on its regular run from Chicago to Milwaukee.

There were 71 crew members and four passengers aboard, along with cargo — autos and barrels of steel casings.

Tons of freight broke loose and slammed the inside of the hold. The freight smashed the sides hard enough to compromise the steel plates, and soon the pumps couldn’t keep up with the water rushing in.

At 2 a.m. Coast Guard boats — one each from Racine and Kenosha — were sent to assist the sinking ship. The Kenosha station cutter under the command of Capt. Alfred Kristofferson arrived first about 3 a.m., and lifeboats were then lowered from the listing steamer.

The last lifeboat holding 21 men overturned, pitched into the water by violent waves.

The Kenosha Coast Guard craft made two rescue/recovery trips out to the Wisconsin that morning.

The Coast Guard boats headed back to the Kenosha station, filled with survivors and the dead.

But there was another commercial boat that braved the gigantic waves to assist in the rescue: the Chambers Brothers’ 52-foot diesel-powered fish tug Search, under the command of Capt. Clifford Chambers, 38.

With a crew of Cliff’s brother Lloyd Chambers, Clinton “Tuffy” Young, Capt. Roland Hill of the Hill Steamship line, Clarence Ferris, Jule Ellefson and Kenosha policeman Ray Gleason, the tug breached the waves to pluck 15 more from the water.

In the icy waters, hypothermia was setting in quickly for the victims, and the Chambers brothers were their last hope.

The Kenosha Coast Guard vessel was an open rig, but the Chambers’ tug was enclosed, and they kept the tug as warm as they could. When they got the survivors inside the tug, they had to keep some of the half-frozen men from grabbing the steam pipes so they wouldn’t burn themselves.

The Chambers Brothers dock was located in the harbor on the site of today’s Best Western Harborside Inn, across from the Kenosha Coast Guard Station, and that’s where they unloaded their human cargo.

Hundreds of Kenoshans witnessed the rescue efforts on that cold morning, as these photos attest. Police from Kenosha and Racine fought the crowds to make way for shivering survivors and the dead being carried from the boats.

A dozen injured survivors were taken to St. Catherine’s Hospital with seven more to Kenosha Hospital.

Of the 75 aboard, 16 died, including the captain. Ten bodies were recovered, and three remain unidentified and unclaimed, buried in a grave in Green Ridge Cemetery.

Lying 6½ miles east-southeast of Kenosha in 130 feet of water, the SS Wisconsin today is a favorite spot for advanced divers.

Wednesday 7 novemebr 2012

http://www.kenoshanews.com/news/that_history_column_ss_wisconsin_went_down_off_kenosha_shore_83_years_ago_460368612.html

Japanese dentists eye cloud computing for dental records

November 6, 2012 -- A Japanese team is proposing that 100% of the country's dental records be digitized and stored using cloud computing.

This is to ensure that dental records cannot be lost -- a problem that has plagued the quest for the identities of victims of last year's tsunami, leaving 600 unidentified. More than half of the area's dental offices and dental divisions in general hospitals were destroyed by the tsunami.

The team members, from the area hardest hit by the disaster, outlined their proposal in a poster presentation this week at the American Medical Informatics Association 2012 annual meeting in Chicago.

"We still have more than 600 dead bodies of which the identities had not been determined as of March 2012. The heavy damage suffered by the dead bodies make it difficult to identify them," noted lead author Shin Kasahara, DDS, PhD. "Furthermore, dental records are not available because a majority of the antemortem dental record data were lost in the tsunami."

More than 15,000 people died in the aftermath of the 9.0-magnitude earthquake that struck the Tohoku district of eastern Japan on March 11, 2011. Earthquake-resistant buildings were constructed in the country after the massive Hanshin earthquake in 1995, hence relatively few people died in last year's quake. However, the scale of the subsequent tsunami brought the death toll to 15,836. Another 2,872 people were injured, and 3,650 are still missing and presumed dead.

Dr. Kasahara and his colleagues from the Tohoku University Hospital provided emergency relief and medical and dental care in the afflicted areas during the disaster. They also assisted in the identification of tsunami victims, using dental radiographs and gypsum models of the oral cavity.

In Japan, less than 50% of dental x-rays are in digital form, and almost all digital information is stored in onsite computers, the study authors noted. As a consequence, many tsunami victims' records were not retrievable, and their identities may never be known.

Dr. Kasahara and his colleagues are starting to push for a switch to fully digital dental records and cloud computing, if several technological and funding barriers can be overcome.

Tohoku University dentists began using a digital x-ray system in January 2010. The radiographic images are stored with other medical images on the hospital information system, which is an onsite mainframe computer system.

"However, we have severe problems with respect to the digital dental x-rays," Dr. Kasahara told DrBicuspid.com. "We do not have the 'international standard of dental x-rays' in the DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) system. We have been trying to achieve this for the last couple of years, but we haven't had a good result yet."

Dr. Kasahara and his colleagues now also digitize dental casts. They started this in 2005 using the assistance of the Japanese company Digital Process. The group intends to switch to high-speed data acquisition, which is a prerequisite for cloud computing.

"Currently, we gather 3D data using a dental CAD/CAM system, but this is slow. I want to make shooting as quick and easy as snapping photos," Dr. Kasahara said. "Also, unfortunately, this measurement and display system for digitized dental casts requires a standalone computer system, so it currently is not compatible with the goal of storing data offsite."

He and his colleagues are proposing that the funds for converting to 100% digital and offsite dental record storage should come from a nationwide increase in treatment fees, a portion of which would be used to pay for this project.

Wednesday 7 November 2012

http://www.drbicuspid.com/index.aspx?sec=sup&sub=img&pag=dis&ItemID=311926

CTV inquest: Rescue gear did not arrive until day after collapse

Specialist search and rescue gear did not arrive at the CTV Building collapse site until the day after it came down, killing 115 people, an inquest was told today.

Key listening equipment, designed to detect signs of life, was being used at the nearby PGC Building in Christchurch which had partially collapsed.

A lawyer for widower Alec Cvetanov, whose wife Dr Tamara survived the six-storey office block's total collapse on February 22 last year but could not be found alive, questioned today why the gear had not immediately been used at the larger CTV disaster site.

The revelations came on day eight of a coroner's inquest into the deaths of Dr Cvetanov of Serbia, Cheng Mai of China, Japan's Rika Hyuga and Jessie Redouble, Emmabelle Anoba, Ezra Medalle, Reah Sumalpong and Mary Amantillo, all from the Philippines.

All were students at King's Education School for English Language on the CTV Building's third floor and survived the collapse but could not be rescued from the wreckage.

Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) were using 'delsar' listening equipment and core drilling equipment with cameras at the PGC Building, where 18 people would die.

Several survivors were pulled free from the PGC debris in the hours after it came down in the magnitude-6.3 shake at 12.51pm.

But USAR engineer John Trowsdale, who was working at the CTV site, was asked by lawyers today why that kit was not available to him. Mr Trowsdale said it wasn't his decision to make, saying he was unaware of the bigger picture as he was too busy on the ground with the rescue efforts.

He said bosses would have needed to consider which site had a higher likelihood of finding people alive - and that would determine where the listening equipment and cameras should go.

It wasn't until the next day that delsar listening device was used on the CTV site, he recalled.

He was unsure if core drilling equipment with cameras was used on the first night.

Heavy machinery used at CTV to "delayer" the rubble by lifting off large beams and heavy slabs of concrete came with "some risks".

The inquest was showed videos taken on February 23 of a digger using a pincer tool to pick up slabs of concrete, which disintegrated when raised into the air and went crashing back on top of the rubble.

The Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission hearing into the CTV disaster heard evidence of how the building's concrete was brittle "like chalk" and questions were raised over its density.

Hulking steel beams were removed from the site as well as concrete floor slabs.

Nigel Hampton QC referred to his client Mr Cvetanov's evidence, where he spoke about seeing two diggers operating on the Madras St side at around 1.30am, 12 hours after the collapse.

He saw a beam being cut and it causing rubble above and below it to move, stirring up plumes of dust.

USAR engineers on the ground yelled at the digger driver to stop. It was feared that the removal of large pieces of debris could have compromised the position of people lying trapped below.

Mr Cvetanov said about 2.30am to 3am that night, a digger tried to drag the top floor concrete slab.

Once it was moved, three bodies were found.

Mr Trowsdale said he remembered that happening, but could recall being consulted before the action was taken.

He would have been the engineer on the ground in charge of inspecting the beams ahead of any removals, but could not recall assessing any beams.

The rescue engineer was unaware who was in overall charge of the site.

The inquest, before Coroner Gordon Matenga, continues.

Wednesday 7 November 2012

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10845734

Victims trapped as Ghana mall collapses

A SIX-STOREY shopping mall has collapsed in the Ghanaian capital Accra and an unknown number of victims are feared trapped in the rubble, witnesses and an AFP correspondent say.

"I was very close to the mall because I was going to buy something only for me to see the building coming down," witness Ama Okyere told AFP.

"I had to run for my life. I was so terrified. I believe there are lots of people trapped under this because this is a heavily patronised shoping mall in the area."

The newly built six-storey Melcom shopping complex is opposite the Neoplan Assembly Plant at Achimota and the Agricultural Development Bank(ADB).

The collapsed shopping complex is on the same compound with Fidelity Bank, Achimota branch,near the Standard Chartered Bank and another shopping mall, Sarlinesta.

According to a correspondent from Peace FM, the police, fire service personnel as well as Ambulances are at the scene with excavators rescuing those trapped as well as those feared dead.

The AFP correspondent witnessed two people being brought out of the rubble alive, with rescue workers arriving at the scene.

Officials have not commented so far and the cause of the collapse of the Melcom shopping centre was not immediately clear.

"I was on my way to school and all of a sudden heard a big bang and people shouting, only for me to see that the shopping mall has collapsed," said another witness, John Owusu.

Wednesday 7 November 2012

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/victims-trapped-as-ghana-mall-collapses/story-fn3dxix6-1226512637370

10000 hits so far

New mass graves found near site of Ivory Coast attack

Up to 10 new mass graves have been discovered near the site of a July attack on a camp for displaced people, officials said Tuesday, amid allegations that initial casualty totals were downplayed to mask killings carried out by the national ­army.

Rights groups claim summary executions were carried out by the Republican Forces of ­Ivory Coast. Last month, officials found six bodies in a well close to the former campsite in the western town of Duekoue.

Government, army, and UN officials toured 10 more graves in the same area on Saturday, said Paul Mondouho, vice mayor of Duekoue. He said the graves had first been identified by civilians, and that officials did not know the number of bodies they contained.

‘‘People were suspecting the presence of bodies in these graves because of the smell coming out of them and because of the shoes we saw nearby,’’ Mondouho said.

Prosecutor Noel Dje Enrike Yahau, who is based in the commercial capital of Abidjan, confirmed that multiple new graves had been discovered but could not provide details. UN officials and the local prosecutor in charge of investigating the suspected killings could not be reached Tuesday.

UN spokeswoman Sylvie ­van den Wildenberg confirmed that UN forces helped Ivorian authorities secure a perimeter around 10 wells ‘‘similar to the one in which six bodies were found,’’ and that ‘‘some of those wells are suspected mass graves.’’

She stressed that Ivorian ­authorities were leading the investigation but that the UN was able to provide assistance.

Army spokesmen could not be reached Tuesday. The Justice Ministry has previously vowed to investigate the discovery of the initial grave.

On the morning of July 20, a mob descended on the UN-guarded Nahibly camp, which housed 4,500 people displaced by violence in Ivory Coast, burning most of the camp to the ground. Officials said at the time that six people were killed.

The attack was prompted by the shooting deaths of four men and one woman on the night of July 19, according to local officials and residents. In response a mob of some 300 people overran the camp on July 20 after the perpetrators reportedly fled there.

The victims in the July 19 ­attack lived in a district dominated by the Malinke ethnic group, which largely supported President Alassane Ouattara in the disputed November 2010 election. The camp primarily housed members of the Guere ethnic group, which largely supported former President Laurent Gbagbo.

Gbagbo’s refusal to cede ­office despite losing the election sparked months of violence that claimed at least 3,000 lives.

Albert Koenders, the top UN envoy to Ivory Coast, said one week after the attack that UN security forces had been inside and outside the camp at the time but that no Ivorian security forces were present. He said the UN forces decided not to fire at a large group of people that were attacking the camp in order to avoid ‘‘a massacre.’’

Several witnesses have said soldiers and traditional hunters, known as dozos, participated in the attack on the camp. Both military and dozo leaders have denied the claims, saying they had tried to protect the camp.

In a statement released Friday, the International Federation for Human Rights said it had information confirming that the six bodies found in ­October were men who had been summarily executed by the army.

‘‘The disappearance of dozens of displaced persons after the attack, as well as confirmation of cases of summary and extra-judicial executions, suggest a much higher victim rate than the official figures report,’’ said the organization.

Duekoue was one of the hardest-hit towns during the post-election violence. The UN has established that at least 505 people were killed in and around the town.

Wednesday 7 November 2012

http://bostonglobe.com/news/world/2012/11/07/new-mass-graves-found-ivory-coast-officials-say/8fe6iMrh9nN5wByCs8rhfL/story.html