Van plunges into pond, killing 11 kindergartners in China

minivan carrying 15 children to kindergarten plunged into a roadside pond in a rural area of eastern China on Monday, killing 11 children, state media and an official said.

Three children died at the scene of the accident in Guixi city in Jiangxi province and another eight died later in hospital, said an official from the propaganda office of the city's Communist Party committee. Four children survived, said the official, who like many Chinese bureaucrats gave only his surname, Jiang.

The accident is the latest in a string of deadly crashes in China involving school children.

Police detained the driver for questioning and were investigating the cause of the accident, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Photos on the Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post's website showed a silver minivan partially submerged in a grassy pond, with one of its three windows on the right side broken.

The minivan belonged to Chunlei kindergarten, which doesn't have a government license to operate, according to an article on the website of state broadcaster China Central Television that didn't cite any sources. The van taking the children to school was travelling too fast and swerved to avoid a vehicle parked on the side of the road, ending up in the pond, CCTV said.

Photos on its website showed pairs of tiny shoes and brightly colored school bags lined up on the ground near the scene and an injured child being treated.

The Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights & Democracy said in a statement that cited no sources that the van was made to carry seven people but was overloaded with 17. The human rights group also said it took 70 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.

Overcrowding on school buses is common in rural China, where the education system is short of funds and children are forced to travel far to get an education because of school closures.

Last year, a nine-seat private school van overloaded with 62 kindergarten children and two adults crashed head-on with a truck in rural western China, killing 19 children and the adults.

The accident caused public uproar and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pledged more support for school bus safety and said central and local governments would bear the cost of bringing often-shoddy buses up to standard. The kindergarten head, who owned the vehicle, was later convicted of a traffic accident crime and sentenced to seven years in prison.

Accidents happen frequently in China, reportedly because of poorly maintained vehicles and reckless driving habits.

Monday 24 December 2012

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/12/24/china-road-children-plunge.html

No claim made so far on unmarked graves: Omar

Not a single claim in respect of the bodies buried in unmarked graves across north Kashmir has been made to the state government yet, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today said. No DNA profiling has thus been conducted to link the blood sample of anyone to that of those buried in the graves.

Militancy in J&K at present was at an all-time low, just 5 per cent as compared to the 2002 levels, said Omar while batting for the withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from parts of the Valley. “On the one hand the J&K Police and the CRPF are praised for a good job and on the other they are not trusted to handle the situation. The Army should be withdrawan from areas where people don’t want the Army,” he said.

The State Human Rights Commission had in 2011 detailed the existence of 2,730 bodies in close to 38 unmarked graves in north Kashmir raising the hopes among families who have been saying that their kin disappeared following militancy and could be among those buried in unmarked graves.

But no such linkage has yet been established with Omar Abdullah today saying in response to The Tribune query that no one had given a blood sample yet or identified a grave where their kin could be buried to enable the state to exhume the body to determine the truth.

The state had earlier told the families to identify the graves of their missing relatives and give blood samples so that the government could exhume the particular body and conduct DNA tests on it to match the samples.

“We had earmarked an officer in the state human rights cell. We had asked families to come forward with DNA samples. No one has come,” the CM said while raising the pitch for the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission through a joint initiative between India and Pakistan to determine the truth behind the Valley’s disappearances and bodies in unmarked graves.

“A Truth and Reconciliation Commission straddling the Line of Control must be set up by India and Pakistan to determine the truth behind the Valley’s disappearances. Answers to this question don’t lie here alone.

Everyone who disappeared wasn’t killed by security forces here. What about those killed by militants and those who may have died during training in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir camps?” asked the Chief Minister.

He argued that it was easy to say that the alleged forged elections of 1987 in J&K were the root of militancy. “But is the answer so simplistic? Where did militancy start? What happened to our people?

Monday 24 December 2012

http://urdutahzeeb.net/articles/blog1.php?p=20456&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

NEMA activates search and rescue teams nationwide for yuletide period

The National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, said it has activated its emergency Search and Rescue Teams to be on full alerts in the event of any emergency situation during the yuletide season.

The Director General of the Agency, Muhammad Sani-Sidi, made the disclosure in his office at the weekend while receiving the communiqué of the 2012 Annual Media Retreat of Journalists and Information Officers on Disaster and Emergency Management in Nigeria.

“All Search and Rescue Officers of the NEMA and that of other response agencies as well as trained emergency volunteers throughout the federation have been put on alert in case of any untoward development between the Xmas period and the New Year.

“The activation of Search and Rescue officers to be on full alert has been the tradition of the agency in its collaborative efforts with other agencies and volunteers in responding to distress situation,” he said.

The NEMA boss also lamented the inability of the Nigerian Communication Commission, NCC, to provide the country with a 3-digit National Emergency call line as obtained in other jurisdictions.

“We are waiting for NCC to work out the emergency toll free number as soon as possible to help us on disaster management,” he said.

Mr. Sani-Sidi also noted that most states have lukewarm attitude to the subject of emergency management and combating disasters by not complying with legal mandates to establish their State Emergency Management Agencies . He added that in the case of those that have established, most of them are yet to become functional because they are not adequately funded.

He tasked journalists to take governors and local government chairmen to task on the need to establish functional emergency management bodies.

“Every Nigerian now look forward to NEMA to respond to emergencies and combat disasters whereas, only situations beyond the coping capabilities of State and Local Emergency outfits that supports and assistance could be referred to NEMA as the national body,” he said.

He also stated that disaster management will soon be included in both primary and secondary school curricula in the country as a result of efforts of his agency. He explained further that students have graduated from the six post graduate departments that NEMA funded in the six geo-political zones across the country.

On the 15-point communiqué, the NEMA boss promised to implement most of the recommendations especially those pertaining to creation of information centres at emergency scenes to create synergy in dissemination of information and reportage during emergencies. He also promised to improve partnership with the media on dedicated programmes and columns in electronic, print and even online media.

Monday 24 December 2012

http://premiumtimesng.com/news/112446-nema-activates-search-and-rescue-teams-nationwide-for-yuletide-period.html

Eight killed in coal mine blast in NW Pakistan

At least eight labourers were killed and around 50 others injured in a coal mine blast on early Monday morning in the northwestern region of Pakistan , local media and officials said.

According to the reports, the incident took place in the early hours of Monday morning in the Doli area of Lower Orakzai, one of the seven northwestern tribal regions of Pakistan.

Officials of the local administration said that at the time of incident around 60 laborers were working in the mine while around two dozen others luckily had already come out to take breakfast minutes before the blast took place.

The initial reports said that the explosion occurred as gas accumulated due to the absence of proper ventilation in the mine.

According to the eyewitnesses and first hand rescuers, at least seven labourers were killed on the spot while others got injured and fell unconscious. One of the injured also succumbed to his injuries on the way to the hospital.

All the killed people belonged to the Shangla district of the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

One week before, the same kind of blast killed at least five people in another coal mine in the same area.

Pakistan's miners always complain about the lack of proper security measures and rescue facilities in the mines.

Monday 24 December 2012

Read more: http://www.indiavision.com/news/article/topnews/381026/eight-killed-in-coal-mine-blast-in-nw-pakistan/#ixzz2FythQ7Xm

Foreign cargo crew reported missing off Batanes

Members of the Philippine Coast Guard are searching for 17 foreign missing seafarers who have abandoned a distressed Korean vessel off northern Philippine province of Batanes, the Coast Guard said today.

The Coast Guard said the missing crew included 11 Myanmar nationals and 6 Koreans, who abandoned their vessel at about 165 nautical miles east of Batan Island in Batanes in Northern Luzon.

Immediately upon receiving the distress alert from the MRCC Korean Coast Guard on Saturday, the Coast Guard units in Northern Luzon and Batanes made joint efforts for rescue operation.

The search and rescue are continuing at sea areas where the vessel was abandoned.

Sunday 24 December 2012

http://www.philstar.com/breaking-news/2012/12/23/889416/foreign-cargo-crew-reported-missing-batanes

Shipwreck in Congo River leaves 9 dead, scores missing

Searchers in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday looked for about 100 people still missing from a shipwreck that more than 200 people survived and in which nine are confirmed dead.

The boat sank around 9:30 p.m. local time (3:30 p.m. ET) Friday along the Congo River near Maluku, which is part of the capital city of Kinshasa in the western part of the central African nation, according to a United Nations radio report.

The vessel -- the MB Mobek, which was early into its route and was carrying several tons of merchandise -- went down after striking an obstacle.

Maluku Mayor Papy Epiana told UN Radio on Sunday that authorities don't have a copy of the ship's manifest "because we haven't seen the general or the commander." But they believe about 100 people are missing, while more than 200 survived.

"We have recovered nine bodies since Friday," Epiana said.

Monday 24 December 2012

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/12/23/world/africa/congo-boat-sinks/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

Philippine typhoon death toll may reach 1,500

The death toll from Typhoon "Pablo" will likely hit 1,500, making it the second deadliest since the country began keeping records, Benito Ramos, head of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), said on Saturday.

Ramos said that so far, the council had counted 1,067 dead with more than 800 still missing nearly three weeks after the typhoon, internationally named "Bopha," struck with winds up to 200 kilometers per hour, devastating communities and farmlands.

"It (the death toll) will go higher. But let us not assume the missing are already dead," he told Agence France-Presse, estimating fatalities at "about 1,500" but adding that the search for the missing continued.

The toll from Pablo is expected to exceed the 1,268 confirmed dead from Tropical Storm "Sendong" (Washi) a year ago. If it reaches 1,500, it would make it the second deadliest storm to hit the Philippines since 1947, when the Philippines began keeping records a year after independence.

Tropical Storm "Uring" (Thelma), which killed at least 5,101 in 1991, remains the deadliest on record, the government statistics bureau said. Typhoon "Nitang" (Ike), which claimed 1,363 lives in 1984, is listed as second.

Thousands of people remain homeless after Pablo brought flash floods that wiped out whole towns.

However, Ramos expressed confidence there would be no rise in health problems as the government had brought enough food and medicine to care for those affected.

"It will be contained. The government presence is felt by the people already," he said.

In the hard-hit town of New Bataan in Compostela Valley, a forensics team from the National Bureau of Investigation was working double time so that 351 bodies could be identified and buried, according to Marlon Esperanza, the municipal information officer.

Of the unidentified bodies, 111 are in coffins while 240 others are in body bags in the damaged public cemetery, where the NBI examination was being conducted.

Esperanza said relatives wanted to bury the unidentified corpses, but the task of digging a common grave was being hampered by rain, which also was making search operations difficult.

"People are still searching for family members and friends," Esperanza said.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Claretian Pastoral Care of the sick have deployed volunteers to conduct stress debriefing to the families of typhoon victims in New Bataan.

"Many of the survivors have lost their livelihood and family members. Through the sessions, we hope to ease the tension, anger and other negative emotions brought by Typhoon Pablo," said Fr. Arnold M. Abelardo, head of the 13-member Claretian volunteers.


Sunday 24 December 2012

http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20121223-391230.html