Body of man recovered from sunken ship

OKHOTSK, Russia - A rescue team recovered the body of the crewmember found in a sunken Russian vessel in the Sea of Okhotsk Friday, officials said.

No documents were found on the body, and he has not yet been identified, ITAR-Tass reported.

Divers from the Emergencies Ministry's Far Eastern regional search and rescue center are working at the shipwreck site to recover other bodies from the vessel, the ministry said.

The divers have gone down to the sunken ship seven times, examining the captain's room, the dining room and the pilothouse. No other bodies have been found inside the vessel.

On Oct. 28, the freighter Amurskaya was en route to Okhotsk from Kiran with a cargo of gold ore weighing 700 tons when it sent a distress call. Nine crew members were aboard the vessel.

The vessel was found lying on the bottom of the Sea of Okhotsk at a depth of about 82 feet, near the Shantar Islands.

Friday 9 November 2012

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2012/11/09/Body-of-man-recovered-from-sunken-ship/UPI-67461352486318/#ixzz2BlqdQ11l

Miyagi, Iwate police scale down searches for missing people

Iwate and Miyagi prefectural police have scaled down their search operations for the more than 2,500 people still missing from the March 11, 2011, tsunami.

The Iwate police stopped dispatching officers this month from inland stations to coastal areas for monthly intensive searches for missing people. This was mainly due to a dwindling number of search requests from families of the missing and municipalities hit by the tsunami that followed the Great East Japan Earthquake.

However, police will continue their search around the 11th of each month but with fewer officers, said Keiki Chida, deputy chief of the prefectural police's security division.

The police stopped dispatching officers from inland stations once before, in January, but they resumed supporting the operations in June following an increasing number of requests from families and other people. More than 100 officers from these stations took part in the search each month.

For example, of the 400 cumulative officers who participated in the search from Oct. 10 to 13, 176 came from inland stations, according to the prefectural police.

Sunday will mark 20 months since the disaster, and the number of search requests has declined. In an increasing number of cases, police have been asked to comb the same sites two or three times. Therefore, they decided to conduct intensive searches only with riot police officers and those from coastal stations.

This month, searches will be carried out for eight days from Wednesday and will mobilize about 100 officers in total. Next March--the second anniversary of the quake and tsunami disaster--the police will conduct a massive search for victims.

Meanwhile, the Miyagi prefectural police has maintained its special search squad of about 160 officers, but has scaled down its operations.

Beginning in March, the squad shifted in principle from an intensive search around the 11th of each month to smaller-scale searches twice a week. It carried out three searches in September and October, respectively. It plans to conduct several searches this month in Higashi-Matsushima and other places.

This month the prefectural police cut the number of officers exclusively assigned to a task force that identifies the bodies of unknown victims. The number of unidentified bodies has fallen from about 1,250 in April last year to about 340 in March and less than 80 recently.

Some officers who were assigned to the force have been sent back to their previous sections, but those remaining are determined to see the mission through to the end.

"We'll do our best to identify the last of the bodies," an officer in charge said.

As of the end of October, four bodies had been found this year in Iwate Prefecture, but none were discovered during a police search. In Miyagi Prefecture, five bodies were found in February and a skeleton was uncovered during the latest search by the police on Sept. 11.

According to the National Police Agency, 1,195 people were missing in Iwate Prefecture and 1,359 people were missing in Miyagi Prefecture as of Oct. 31.

Friday 9 November 2012

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T121109002169.htm

Deadly Indonesian flooding kills 13

The number of people killed after days of torrential rain triggered a landslide and flash floods on Indonesia's Sulawesi island has climbed to 13 with four others missing, police and disaster officials say.

Kain Lotong Sembe, who heads the disaster management agency in Mamasa district of West Sulawesi province, said rescuers recovered three more bodies Friday and revised downward the number missing to at least four after some of the initially reported 20 missing were found alive.

Residents and rescuers in Batanguru, a village in a hilly corner of Mamasa district, used their hands to dig through mud to search for relatives, said local police chief Capt. Yuslim Yunus.

He said the landslide blocked a river Thursday, causing it to burst over its banks and wash away seven houses.

"Many people didn't have time to save themselves," said Yunus, adding the isolated mountainous area and limited telephone connections were hampering rescue efforts.

Ten victims were recovered late Thursday after they drowned or were buried by mud. More than a dozen other people hospitalized with cuts and broken bones, he said.

Seven people were missing, including four children and a six-month-old baby, he said.

Indonesia has been repeatedly afflicted by deadly floods and landslides in recent years during its wet season which lasts around half the year.

Environmentalists blame logging and a failure to reforest denuded land in the world’s fourth-most populous country for the frequent flooding.

Floods in Indonesia’s Papua region killed more than 140 people and displaced around 5,000 in 2010.

Seasonal downpours cause frequent landslides and flash floods in Indonesia, a chain of 17,000 islands where millions live in mountainous areas or near fertile flood plains.

Friday 9 November 2012

http://sawdis1.blogspot.co.uk/

Floods claim as many as 16 lives in Haitian city

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Nov 9, 2012 (AFP) - Flood waters inundated impoverished areas of Cap Haitien, Haiti's second largest city, killing as many as 16 people, including three children, city officials said Friday.

"The city has been struck by disaster. There are many dead and major damage. All the populous areas are flooded," Cap Haitien Mayor Wilborde Beon told AFP by telephone.

Beon said many people had to be rescued and given shelter from the high waters, which swept through the northern city Thursday night amid heavy rains in the region.

"The entrance to the city is completely flooded, all the rivers and ravines are swollen," he said, appealing for aid and support.

Preliminary estimates put the number of dead at 16, most of them when their homes collapsed in the flooding and heavy rains, the city's police chief, Kenel Pierre, told AFP.

"Haitian police patrols found a number of bodies in the streets. We have seen the bodies of three children aged two or three," Pierre said.

Four members of a family of eight were found dead Friday morning by rescue workers. Three children were unaccounted for and their father was in the hospital, officials said.

"There are effectively many victims that we have not been able to confirm because it is difficult to move around," Beon said.

The latest disaster to befall Haiti, which was devastated by a 2010 earthquake that killed some 200,000 people, comes just two weeks after it was hit by Hurricane Sandy, which claimed the lives of at least 54 people.

"We ask the private sector to help us because it continues to rain," said Beon. "All other sectors of the state have been mobilized."

Friday 9 November 2012

http://reliefweb.int/report/haiti/floods-claim-many-16-lives-haitian-city-officials

Melcom Disaster: Death toll rises to 18

The death toll of the Melcom disaster has now risen to 18 following the discovery of nine more bodies on Thursday evening. One of the victims is a pregnant woman.

The discovery follows the intensification of rescue efforts at the Melcom disaster site at Achimota-Neoplan in Accra, with the arrival of an eight-man rescue team from Israel.

The arrival of the team is in fulfillment of an earlier promise made by the Israeli government after the news of the disaster broke on Wednesday.

According to a Citi Fm reporter Betty Kankam Boadi, the rescue team struggled to retrieve the bodies beneath the rubble.

She noted that four of the victims are buried under slabs of stones.

Friday 9 November 2012

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=255786

Israeli Sophisticated Gadgets save three Bodies from Melcom

A Deputy Minister for Information, Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa, has confirmed to Gold News that the eight member rescue team from Israel has been able to save three bodies from the wreckage of the collapsed Melcom shopping complex at Achimota.

However, it is uncertain whether the saved bodies are alive or dead. The Minister who left the disaster scene this morning at 1:30 am, added that the Israeli rescue team worked through the night with their sophisticated gadgets and has been able to sniff out three bodies from the debris.

He said rescue operations are still ongoing and as part of that the government has created hotlines for persons who live within Achimota whose relations have gone missing in the last 48 hours to call.

Friday 9 November 2012

http://www.myradiogoldlive.com/index.php/general-news/1143-israeli-sophisticated-gadgets-save-three-bodies-from-melcom-disaster

EXHUMATIONS OF THE REMAINS OF VICTIMS KILLED IN THE PAST WAR ARE BEING CARRIED OUT IN THE MUNICIPALITIES OF BIHAĆ AND DRVAR

Exhumations are being carried out under the supervision of an Investigator of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH at the locations of Ševina jama in Bihać municipality and Šajnovac in Drvar municipality.

The skeletal remains of at least two persons were unearthed in Bihać municipality while several skeletal remains, the exact number of which shall be established later, were unearthed at Drvar municipality.

The recovered remains from both exhumation sites shall be transported to the premises of City Cemetery Banja Luka for post mortem exams, identification and forensic processing.

The DNA analysis of these bodies shall be handled by the laboratory of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP)

The exhumation in Bihać is attended by the representatives of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), representatives of the BiH Institute for Missing Persons, representatives of the alpine team of the Federation MoI, representatives of the Una –Sana MoI, a doctor working in the field of forensic medicine and an investigator of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH. The exhumation in Drvar is attended by representatives of the BiH Institute for Missing Persons, representatives of the Drvar Police Station, a doctor working in the field of forensic medicine and an investigator of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH.

These exhumations are supervised by an investigator of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH, who acts in accordance with the instructions of the Prosecutor while coordinating the work of police, forensic experts and other authorized persons engaged in the process of exhumations.

The Prosecutor's Office of BiH, along with other institutions involved in the process of tracing the missing persons in BiH, continues its activities in the process of tracing and exhuming the missing in all parts of BiH.

Friday 9 November 2012

http://www.tuzilastvobih.gov.ba/?id=1628&jezik=e

Campaign for database of missing persons

A nationwide campaign is being launched today to set up a national database of missing persons and to establish the identity of body parts retrieved off west and south east coasts.

Known as the "forgotten dead", they include six different sets of human remains retrieved along the Waterford and Wexford coasts since 1999 and two bodies in the city morgue in Galway.

A committee which is due to be formed this evening in Waterford will lobby TDs, make a presentation in the Dáil and is seeking a meeting with Justice Minister Alan Shatter. It will also focus on hundreds of Irish people who have gone missing over the past decade and seek to give a dignified burial to those who have perished and were never identified.

"The minute a body is found on land, the gardaí will investigate and a full technical examination is made, including DNA tests. However, human remains that are found in the water do not undergo these tests and that means that many of these people are never identified," said fisherman and Sinn Féin councillor John Hearne, one of the founders of the campaign group.

"Even at this stage, all it would cost to send these bones for DNA testing is €10,000 — about the price of a small car. This would be of huge benefit to the families of those missing and if it is found that the body is that of a missing loved one, at least the family will know and be able to give that person a decent burial."

Cllr Hearne said that a national database of missing people was also essential.

"This could include identification clues like trinkets, tattoos and clothes that the missing person was wearing."

The committee will be looking for a private meeting with Mr hatter to discuss the database and the importance of DNA testing. It will also be contacting coroners in Ireland to canvass their support.

Cllr Hearne pointed to the case of the partial remains of a woman washed up in Wexford in 1996 whose skull was missing. They were buried later in Crosstown Cemetery but the woman was never identified.

"Secondly, two sets of human remains are in the custody of the coroner in Galway and have been there since 1996 and 2001 respectively. The remains were found off the Aran Islands and during this time a number of fishermen including 13 Spanish fishermen were lost off the west coast. This clearly shows the need for DNA testing."

* A meeting to form a steering committee will be held at the offices of the Irish Fishermen’s Organisation in Waterford at 5pm today.

Friday 9 November 2012

http://www.irishexaminer.com/text/ireland/cwkfmheycwql/

Mexico: PGR Debuts “super morgue” to identify dead bodies

In the final stretch of his term and amid the bloody war against organized crime that has so far left more than 60,000 dead, many of them unidentified the head of the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), Marisela Morales Ibáñez inaugurated on Wednesday the first Forensic Medical Center (Cemefo) that will in theory determine the identity of the bodies.

The Center has a capacity for 150 bodies and, according to Morales Ibáñez, was equipped with infrastructure and technological equipment tip, so that it meets international protocols and regulatory standards for receiving, processing, preservation of cadavers and autopsy practice.

Thus Cemefo forensic specialists, based on scientific research, may determine the cause of death and mechanics, enabling the identification and preservation of the corpses.

During his message, Morales Ibáñez said that the Centre aims to ensure that the results have the reliability and certainty required in criminal proceedings.

In addition, he said, will be assisted by other institutions of law enforcement and justice administration in identifying corpses, autopsies and other studies required. Also, he said, will develop technical and scientific research and academic permanently, with the support of new technologies.

Therefore, we will implement a new program to provide a database at national level, it will enable the recognition of bodies.

To this end, he said, four classrooms were equipped with modern audiovisual equipment, which is 60% increase in installed capacity in areas of education and training and updating of experts in 26 specialties that include expert services of that institution.

Among the equipment available to them the facilities, is a chamber for preservation of bodies that complements the research areas related to forensic management bodies.

There are four seasons for the practice of autopsies and for those infectious-contagious risk, with the necessary biosafety conditions.

A laboratory X-ray high technology that will support knowledge before beginning the autopsy, the location and characteristics of the lesions and, where appropriate, ballistic elements, thus avoiding unnecessary damage to the bodies.

It also has a histopathology laboratory for the study of organs and tissues, in order to know the factors that might influence the cause of death and can not be perceived in the external review alone.

According to the prosecutor, in Cemefo may establish the correct identity of bodies and ensure delivery to families, as it has an area of ​​identification, intervene where multidisciplinary teams made up of dentists, anthropologists, geneticists, photographers and fingerprint and two ambulances to support the work.

also implement a new program for the identification of bodies and body parts, which provide information to a national database for effective search and recognition.

This, said Morales Ibáñez, will strengthen the institution of the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), to provide the scientific tools needed to develop their work.

As we leave the presidency, the PGR opened also the Federal Expert Training Center, where experts will be trained in 27 disciplines.

Friday 9 November 2012

http://flashpointreport.com/americas/mexico/pgr-debuts-super-morgue-to-identify-dead-bodies-after-60000

The International Commission on Missing Persons

Last December, the Libyan National Transitional Council decided it was about time to tackle the thorny problem of dealing with the thousands of persons who had gone missing in the country over the previous 35 years. The Council authorised the country’s new Ministry of Martyrs and Missing Persons, itself then merely a month old, to handle this issue. Their minister, Mr. Naser Djibril Hamed, then promptly approached for assistance the Sarajevo-based International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP).

The ICMP will now help Mr Djibril Hamed and his ministry, which he says is committed to searching for persons in a non-discriminatory fashion, regardless of whether the person missing is a “loyalist, rebel, or from another group.” He says there could be up to 10,000 people missing in Libya, both from the recent conflict, as well as those missing from the 1977 war with Egypt, the 1978 war with Uganda, the 1980-1987 wars with Chad and the 1996 Abu Salim Prison massacre in Tripoli. The bodies of missing people are scattered in mass graves across the country.

Founded at the behest of Bill Clinton at the G-7 summit in 1996 to deal with the problem of the thousands of people missing from the Balkans conflicts, the ICMP set out to identify, using DNA technology, the mangled human remains of the estimated 8,100 Bosnian Muslim victims of the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica scattered in mass graves around Bosnia (pictured above). Seventeen years on ICMP has identified over 85% of these, returning the bodies to grieving relatives for proper burial. By matching blood-samples taken from living relatives with DNA extracted from bone samples taken from exhumed human remains as well as using traditional means, some 70% of the estimated 40,000 persons missing from the 1990s Balkans wars have been identified.

The organisation’s director-general, a tenacious American called Kathryne Bomberger, says that ICMP, through its efforts in the western Balkans, Southeast Asia and elsewhere, has demonstrated that the missing can be found, whether they are missing as a consequence of wars and atrocities, disasters, or other causes. The ICMP, she says, “has modernised and transformed the international community response to the issue.” On a recent visit to Sarajevo, William Hague, the British foreign secretary, said that by supporting the ICMP, the international community has shown that missing persons can be found.

Governments worldwide trying to cope with missing persons, from Iraq to Colombia, and from South Africa to Norway, now come to ask for the ICMP’s assistance. The organisation has identified in its Sarajevo laboratory Chilean victims of General Pinochet killed in the 1970s. The ICMP assisted in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and after the Asian tsunami. INTERPOL has ICMP on-call for help with the grisly task of DVI, or Disaster Victim Identification.

The organisation will assist the Libyans by deploying the same operationally-trifurcated approach that reaped success in the Balkans. This involves the establishment of forensic scientific expertise, a human rights-based approach to helping victims’ living relatives, and the creation of legislation that will help the fledgling Libyan authorities deal with missing persons. In time, Libyans will aim towards the establishment of the Libya Identification Centre, handling the locating, recovery and identification of the missing. Two NGOs, the Libyan Society for Missing Persons and The Free Generation Movement, working on the ‘Mafqood’, or ‘Missing’ project, have been recording information on mass graves.

The American government are providing 65% of the initial $1m costs of the preliminary Libya project. Denmark is providing the remainder. America has given some $45m to the ICMP since 1996, making it the largest of the 22 governmental donors that fund it along with the EU, UN and Interpol.

Nearly 85% of the organisation’s staff are Bosnian, says Adam Boys, a Scot who is the ICMP’s Chief Operating Officer, and who has worked in the country since the days of the war in 1993. ICMP is one of the few Bosnian exports that are in demand. “The ICMP’s success could be said to be one of the most successful international interventions in post-conflict former Yugoslavia.”

Friday 9 november 2012

http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2012/11/bosnia

Hope fades after Guatemala earthquake

There is little chance of finding anyone else alive under the rubble, Guatemalan officials say.

At a 7.4 magnitude, Wednesday's earthquake was the strongest quake to hit the country in more than 30 years, and left 52 people confirmed dead, with dozens more missing, and several thousand homeless, displaced, or without power.

The tremor hit off the country's Pacific coast on Wednesday, leaving many villagers near the Mexican border trapped under rubble, as homes and cars were crushed.

Subsequent landslides blocked roads, making both evacuation and rescue efforts more difficult.

"I talked to rescue workers this afternoon who said they have switched their operations from attempts to find people alive to trying to find those who have died and trying to recover their bodies," said Al Jazeera's Rachel Levin.

"There is little hope here that they will actually find any more survivors. That's the mood here and also throughout other parts of this state, San Marcos, the largest, most populated state in Guatemala with a little over a million people.

"The president did come here yesterday to give his support to people, but people in the community here are saying that they actually haven't seen much help from the government - it's really their neighbours, people from nearby towns, that are pitching in to help out these people in any way that they can."

President Otto Perez said the government would pay for the funerals of all those killed in the mountainous San Marcos region.

"It's very sad to meet people here who are waiting to find their families who are still buried," he said on Wednesday. "It's really a tragedy and we will do all we can to help the families that are suffering."

Hitting 42km below the surface, it was the strongest earthquake to strike the Central American nation since 1976.

In San Cristobal Cochu, ten members of the Vasquez were killed after the rock quarry where they worked collapsed during the earthquake. Only the family's oldest son, 19-year-old Ivan, survived.

Justo Vasquez, his wife Ofelia Gomez, six children and two nephews died in the rubble.

On Thursday, dozens of neighbours and friends came to the Vasquez family home to pay their respects, filing past the ten wooden caskets in the living room.

"I feel sad, because I knew them and the children shouldn't have died like that," said Antonioa Miranda, a neighbour and the children's nursery school teacher.

Mourner Siomara Alfaro added: "You start to let your imagination go. At that moment, what desperation they felt at that moment to save their lives - but they couldn't, it was too quick."

The death toll is still expected to rise, as at least 22 people remain missing.

The quake struck 32km below the surface, 24km off the coastal town of Champerico, 160km southwest of Guatemala City.

In Guatemala City, volunteers were gathering aid and supplies to send to the affected region, where an estimated 1.2 million Guatemalans were affected.

Julio Franco, a volunteer from Aero Club Guatemala, formed a team with many other volunteers in the nation's capital, gathering together aid packages that were about to be flown out to San Marcos.

"We are loading the planes with blankets which we know are needed by our brothers and sisters in San Marcos, and also some medication to treat emergencies," he said.

Friday 9 november 2012

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2012/11/20121193586994133.html

Bodies of family found amid Guatemala ruins's ruins

The 10 members of the Vasquez family were found together under the rubble of the rock quarry that had been their livelihood, some in a desperate final embrace, others clinging to the faintest of dying pulses.

As Guatemalans sought yesterday to pick up the pieces after Wednesday's 7.4-magnitude earthquake, one family's tragic story came to symbolize the horror of a disaster that killed 52 people and left thousands of others huddling in the cold shadows of cracked adobe buildings, most without electricity or water.

Neighbors came to pay their respects. They filed past 10 wooden coffins in the Vasquez family living room, and contemplated the unspeakable future that awaits the family's only surviving son. Justo Vasquez, his wife, Ofelia Gomez, six children and two nephews died.

Only the eldest son, Ivan, 19, survived. He had stayed in the house when the rest of his family went to the quarry, taking care of last-minute details for his accounting degree -- the first in his family to have a professional career. His father had been saving for a party to celebrate his Nov. 23 graduation.

"He died working," sister-in-law Antonia Lopez said. "He was fighting for his kids." Hundreds of villagers in the humble town of San Cristobal Cucho ran to dig the family out after Guatemala's biggest quake in 36 years. When they uncovered some of the children, one body still warm, two with pulses, they were in the arms of their father, who had tried to shield them from a falling mountain.

The death toll was expected to rise as 22 people remained missing, President Otto Perez Molina told a news conference.

Perez said the powerful quake, felt as far as Mexico City, 600 miles away, affected as many as 1.2 million Guatemalans. More than 700 people were in shelters, with most opting to stay with family or friends, he added.

"They have no drinking water, no electricity, no communication and are in danger of experiencing more aftershocks," Perez said. There had been 70 aftershocks in the first 24 hours after the quake, some as strong as magnitude 5.1, he said.

Friday 9 November 2012

http://www.newsday.com/news/world/bodies-of-family-found-amid-guatemala-ruins-s-ruins-1.4203232

Guatemala quake toll rises as search for survivors continues

Rescue workers today carted out dead bodies found under rubble in the aftermath of Guatemala's most powerful earthquake in decades, while others cleared wrecked cars and collapsed buildings as they searched for survivors.

Most of those killed by yesterday's 7.4-magnitude quake were crushed under debris in San Marcos state, a mountainous region near the Mexican border. Nearly two dozen people were still missing and President Otto Perez forecast the death toll would climb from 52.

But in a glimmer of hope, emergency workers said they pulled seven people alive from rubble at a construction site on the outskirts of San Marcos city.

Lying in a hospital bed in obvious pain, Jesus Ramirez recounted how he had tried to rescue his nieces and was trapped.

"My mother shouted to me to go and see my nieces," he said. "I wanted to pull them out, but couldn't, because the wall of my house fell on them and on me too.

"I lost my leg, they amputated it."

His mother and two nieces were later found dead.

On the outskirts of the city of San Marcos, rescuers stepped up efforts at a collapsed construction site. Emergency workers in white hard hats used tractors and trucks to shift debris blocking roads. Cars were crushed, highways were peppered with gaping cracks and modest homes had crumbled.

"The people of San Marcos are in deep mourning," said Wilfred de Leon, one of whose relatives was buried by rubble and feared dead.

The quake destroyed roads and forced evacuations as far away as Mexico City. It was the strongest to hit the Central American nation since 1976, when a 7.5-magnitude quake killed more than 20,000 people.

"Sadly, we expect the number [of dead] to keep rising," President Perez told a news conference in Guatemala City. He said 22 people were missing and around 200 injured.

Hundreds more were living in shelters.

Help has poured in from as far afield as Taiwan, including 44 tonnes of humanitarian aid destined for San Marcos.

Perez was set to fly to Quetzaltenango - the country's second largest city - to survey nearby damage later in the day. He said nearly 3000 people had been evacuated from their homes, while more than one million have been affected by the quake.

"Reconstruction will not be easy, because there are homes that are uninhabitable," Perez said, adding that the government had set aside US$60 million (NZ$72 million) for rebuilding.

He announced a state of emergency in four of the country's 22 states - San Marcos, Quetzaltenango, Quiche, and Huehuetenango.

Local Red Cross chief Carlos Enrique Alvarado said yesterday that 75 homes were destroyed in the city of San Marcos alone and authorities said damage to the prison forced them to transfer 101 inmates to another jail.

Perez, who announced three days of national mourning, said he was suspending all vacation time for more than 25,000 members of the national police force, who are being enlisted in rescue and cleanup efforts.

Authorities have distributed 16,000 emergency rations and mobilised more than 2000 soldiers to help with the rescue effort.

The quake's epicentre was 42 km below the surface, according to the US Geological Survey. It was felt in El Salvador and more than 1,223km away in Mexico City, where some people also fled offices and homes.

Friday 9 November 2012

http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/guatemala-quake-toll-rises-search-survivors-continues-5206709

Information cells set up to handle complaints from families of victims

Filling a vacuum left by the government and law enforcement agencies, labour rights organisations have now set up information points for victims of the Baldia factory fire incident.

Despite the passage of almost two months, no official record exists of the number of people who worked at the factory and how many of them were present when the fire broke out. The information cells would perhaps help nearly 70 families, who are awaiting the dreaded confirmation that their loved ones died in the fire.

“We believe that dozens of workers are still missing because their bodies have not been recovered, or [probably] melted due to the high temperature,” said Karamat Ali of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) at a press conference on Thursday.

A total of 259 people lost their lives in the country’s worst industrial disaster on September 11. Investigating officer Jahanzaib Khan had earlier told The Express Tribune that the actual death toll might be higher, as officials had not been allowed to visit the factory’s administration block, which survived the fire. Police have received over 100 complaints about people gone missing in the factory fire. Ali said that 61 workers were still missing, while Edhi morgue was awaiting DNA test results for 27 unidentified bodies.

He advised residents of industrial areas to approach the information cells to register complaints. The data collected by these cells will then be presented to the Sindh High Court in its hearings on the Baldia factory fire case. The factory’s owners, Abdul Aziz Bhailla, Arshad Bhailla and Shahid Bhailla, find themselves in the middle of a whirlwind of lawsuits, and are currently in judicial remand.

A tribunal set up by the provincial government to investigate the incident, has completed its report and submitted it to Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah. The government has yet to make that report public.

Ali claimed that an Italy-based company, RINA, had issued a SA8000 certificate to Ali Enterprises nearly 10 days before the fire broke out. SA8000 is a compliance certification that is granted after an audit of a company’s policies, procedures and documentation, to ensure a safe workplace. RINA has issued the same certificate to another 100 factories all over the country. “The government should inspect these factories because they might be vulnerable, and then and make its report public.” He also demanded that the Employees Old Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) and the Sindh Employees Social Security Institution provide details of the families it has compensated so far.

He also said that various international organisations were pressuring renowned branded clothing chains to ensure safe working environments for workers who manufacture their products. A German retail clothing chain, Kik, reportedly agreed to provide around $1.2 million in compensation to the families of the Baldia fire victims. The company had reportedly contracted Ali Enterprises with manufacturing jeans for it. An international organisation, Clean Cloth Campaign, has managed to secure compensation for Baldia fire victims, Ali said.

The information cells have been established in Baldia Town, SITE, Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Gulshan-e-Maymar.

Thursday 9 November 2012

http://tribune.com.pk/story/462851/information-cells-set-up-to-handle-complaints-from-families-of-victims/