Kenya: Baragoi Officer Buried in Teso

A victim of the Baragoi bandits attack was buried on Wednesday at Osuret village in Teso South after nearly two months.

A DNA test released a few days before Christmas enabled the identification of AP constable Emmanuel Emaide Orachi's body.

Chief Inspector Onyango Opiyo represented Acting AP Commandant Samuel Arachi at the burial that saw Emaide honoured with a 21-gun salute.

Based at Rumuruti, Emaide, 26, was among officers deployed in Baragoi who were killed while pursuing cattle rustlers at Suguta valley.

Saturday 29 December 2012

http://allafrica.com/stories/201212281042.html

Remains of Operation Condor''s Uruguayan Victim Delivered

The remains of Uruguayan fighter Alberto Mechoso, a victim of military dictatorships' Operation Condor, were delivered to his family today in the presence of President Jose Mujica.

The urn with the remains of Mechoso, arrested in 1976 in Buenos Aires by Argentine and Uruguayan repressive forces, was handed over to his family, who held a vigil and buried him in the capital cemetery of El Cerro.

Coordinator of the Presidency's Human Rights Department, Graciela Jorge, described the moving and contradictory moment, which mixed sorrow and joy. Mechoso, she said, returned home and had a proper burial.

Mechoso, who was a member of the Uruguayan Anarchist Federation and the People's Revolutionary Organization 33 Orientales, was last seen as a prisoner in the clandestine detention center known as Automotores Orletti.

Mechoso's identification was made by the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team from genetic samples sent in May to Buenos Aires by the Human Rights Department of the Uruguayan Preside

Saturday 29 December 2012

http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=848941&Itemid=1

Azazi’s kinsmen threaten to boycott burial

Some members of the Peretorugbene community in Bayelsa State, the hometown of the late former National Security Adviser, Gen. Andrew Azazi, have warned against burying him in Yenagoa, capital of the state.

Azazi died in a helicopter crash on Dec. 15 alongside Governor Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna State and four others, on his way from the funeral of the father of an aide to President Goodluck Jonathan, Oronto Douglas.

The Bayelsa State Government had pledged to give him a befitting state burial in Yenagoa after a compromise was reportedly reached between the Nigerian Army and family of the late NSA.

But Azazi’s kinsmen, led by Chief A. Ebikake and Tubereoke Azazi, demanded that he should be buried in Peretorugbene in line with the tradition of the people, adding that the entire community would boycott the burial ceremony if the state government went ahead with its plan..

Ebikake said the late general’s kinsmen were trying to avoid a repeat of the misfortune that befell their community when the grandfather of the deceased was wrongfully buried in a neighbouring community without due consultation with the extended family some years ago.

He said Azazi personally supervised the exhuming of his grandfather’s remains for proper burial when it was apparent that the wrongful burial was responsible for the disaster that befell the community.

Ebikake said, “We are afraid of what will happen if our illustrious son is buried in Yenagoa. We were witnesses to the calamity that befell our community after Pa Azazi, Owoeye’s grandfather, was buried in Egbeme-Angalabiri. Even the late general himself participated in the cleansing of the land by personally exhuming the body when he was a major in the Nigerian Army.

“He (Azazi) respected the tradition of his people. So we cannot fold our hands and watch few individuals ruin our land.

“The Ijaw nation has traditions and culture, which we hold in very high esteem. In Ijaw tradition, the larger family, the community and the bereaved have the right to determine the final resting place of the dead.

“But these people violated our tradition and went ahead to tell the world that our illustrious son would be buried in Yenagoa without consulting us. We won’t be a part of such arrangement.”

Saturday 29 December 2012

http://www.punchng.com/news/azazis-kinsmen-threaten-to-boycott-burial/

100 bodies in Durango mass grave identified since January

Less than 30 percent of victims found in Durango's mass graves have been identified, according to Mexican news accounts.

A news report posted on the website of El Siglo de Durango news daily, Durango state Fiscalia General del Estado (FGE) or attorney general, Sonia Yadira de la Garza Fragoso, released information that since the final report on the mass graves in Durango state in March, 2012, 100 bodies have been identified by family members, and then returned to them.

Starting in mid 2011, 331 total dead were found in a series of mass graves discovered in Durango state, primarily in Durango city, the capital. Other sites found were as far away as Gomez Palacio in the extreme western part of the state around the La Laguna area and in Santiago Papasquiaro municipality in the north.

Late July another nine dead were found in Cristobal Colon sector of Durango city, bringing the total to 340 dead.

Many of the victims had been killed as far back as 2007, and 77 percent of those had been strangled or asphyxiated, mainly by being buried alive.

de la Garza Fragoso said relatives such as grandparents and cousins were providing DNA samples to help with identification, a much less accurate means of determining the identity of the victims. Some remains, however, are so decomposed that DNA samples are impossible to obtain, so, according to de la Garza Fragoso, other means are being used.

The mass graves in Durango are cumulatively the worst mass grave find in the Mexican Drug War to date. That said, those murders occurred over a six year period. The mass murders and graves in San Fernando municipality in Tamaulipas state are by far the worst mass grave in the Mexican Drug War to date, standing at 193 dead. Those deaths took place between August 2010 and May 2011.

Saturday 29 December 2012

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2012/12/less-than-100-bodies-in-durango-mass.html

6 killed, 50 injured in Pakistan blast

At least six persons were killed and nearly 50 others injured when a powerful explosion ripped through a bus a short distance from the Pakistan Army chief’s official residence in the southern port city of Karachi on Saturday.

The bus had just left a terminal near the Cantonment Railway Station when the bomb went off, witnesses and police officials said.

The incident occurred at a spot located less than a kilometre from Army House, the army chief’s official residence when he visits Karachi.

TV news channels reported army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani was in Karachi and had stayed at Army House on Friday night.

Officials at Jinnah Hospital said they had received six bodies, including one which was in pieces, and 48 injured people. Eight of the wounded were in a serious condition.

Women and children were among the injured, they said.

Witnesses said they had seen body parts lying at the site.

One man told reporters a young boy was torn in two by the explosion.

Several police officials claimed soon after the incident that the blast was caused by the CNG cylinders of the bus.

However, the cleaner of the bus told the media that the vehicle ran on diesel and had no CNG cylinders.

Police officials later acknowledged the incident was an act of terrorism and that a bomb had been planted in the bus.

The explosion hit several nearby shops, buildings, motorcycles and cars. A fire erupted in the bus, which was reduced to a heap of mangled and blackened metal.

Footage on television showed the bus on fire as a thick column of smoke rose into the sky.

No group claimed responsibility for the blast.

Security forces cordoned off area soon after the explosion.

Saturday 29 December 2012

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/6-killed-50-injured-in-pak-blast/article4253232.ece

An-72 crash investigation well under way

Forensic experts have identified nine persons killed in the Antonov An-72 airplane crash occurred near the South Kazakhstan city of Shymkent.

A spokesman of the Kazakh Prosecutor's General Office made a corresponding statement at a media briefing on Friday. According to Nurdaulet Suindikov, relatives of the late officers identified Colonels Aitmanbetov, Dosybekov, Shukanov, and Vyacheslav Rakhman, Majors Ibrayev and Golubev, Staff Sergeant Konakbai, Sergeants Dolanbayeva and Vyazikov. Also, the official spokesman confirmed that the identification was under way.

The remains of bodies with significant injuries are scheduled to undergo a genomic examination in Astana.

Specialists promise to announce results in the near future.

As for the investigation into the plane crash disaster, Nurdaulet Suindikov reported that seven UkrSpetsExport specialists and experts from the Ukrainian aircraft repair plant already arrived in Kazakhstan from Ukraine to take part in the investigation of the causes of the Antonov An-72 crash.

In November this year, the aircraft underwent repairs in Ukraine, where it was actually produced at the Antonov Experimental Design Bureau.

So far, investigators have found out that on December 25, a 50 kilometre radius above the airport of Shymkent had severe icing at height from 300 meters up to 7,600 meters.

Thus, it is confirmed that the crashed AN-72 plane was descending to land in bad weather, said Nurdaulet Suindikov.

The investigation is continuing and experts are looking into every possible version of the incident, he added.

An interdepartmental commission is now operating at the scene to investigate aviation incidents.

A Shymkent garrison military prosecutor opened a criminal case under article "violation of flight regulations and training". Saturday 29 December 2012

http://caspionet.kz/eng/general/An72_crash_investigation_well_under_way_1356763899.html

Four dead as passenger jet crashes into highway after landing at Moscow Vnukovo Airport

A passenger jet crashed after making a hard landing at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport. At least four people were killed and four critically injured, says the Interior Ministry. Officials believe the cause could be pilot error.

Two people were reportedly found dead at the scene, while a 27-year-old woman died on the way to hospital. Whether the fourth person died at the scene or in the ambulance remains unclear. Those killed are the captain, the co-pilot, the flight engineer and a flight attendant, the Emergencies Ministry declared.

Four people taken to Moscow hospitals – two flight attendants, a technical staff and unidentified staff – remain in a critical condition. They have sustained traumatic brain injuries, say medical officials.

The plane was flying in from Pardubice, the Czech Republic, and was carrying eight people. Vnukovo Airport says that everyone onboard were the crew. Pardubice Airport confirms that:

“There was only the crew aboard. No Czech nationals were among them. Before taking off the operating company checked all the plane’s systems and said they were functioning normally,” Pardubice's press-service told Gazeta.ru. The service added the plane had taken tourists to Pardubice and was going back without any passengers.

Two more people might have been onboard the crashed plane; they have not been found yet, reports Interfax citing sources.

A criminal case over possible flight safety violations has been opened in connection with the Vnukovo plane crash, the official spokesman of Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin said. The preliminary cause of the TU-204 accident is pilots’ error, Markin added.

The incident took place at around 16:35 local time (12:35 GMT). Preliminary reports say the jet, which belongs to Russian low-cost airline Red Wings, crashed after taking a second landing attempt. It rolled out from the runway into Kievskoye Highway, fell into three pieces and caught fire. The fire area of 100 square meters was extinguished by firefighters, officials said.

Media allege that Vnukovo firefighting cars were on repair so the first emergency crews appeared on the scene no earlier than 50 minutes after the blaze broke out.

The circumstances of the incident are being clarified. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered to set up a special investigation group to look into the accident.

Earlier, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry confirmed that the plane had to make a forced landing.

Witnesses say smoke from the crashed plane was seen from far away.

“There was a front part of the plane lying on half of the highway, the right wing attached to it was on fire,” one driver told Interfax.

Another driver said the plane appeared to be almost empty.

“The body of the plane was off the road. It grasped my attention that the plane body was not much damaged and inside, where the passengers should sit, there was nobody, the seats were empty.”

Part of the crashed Tupolev-204 blocked the highway; a huge traffic jam developed at the scene. At least 18 Vnukovo-bound flights were diverted to Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo airports. Vnukovo resumed work three hours after the incident.

Red Wings is a Russian airline that specializes in charter flights to Russia and Europe. In 2012 the company began to operate regular flights throughout Russia. The company is the largest buyer of Russian-made Tu-204 airplanes.

Red Wings is owned by the Russian tycoon Alexander Lebedev. In November 2012, a company leasing planes to Red Wings filed eight lawsuits demanding some $65 million in debts. However, it was reported that lawsuits were just a formal procedure and the dispute between the two companies would be resolved out of court.

The medium-range Tupolev TU-204 airliner was introduced in the late 1980s to replace the ageing TU-154 jet. TU-204, is referred to as the Russian equivalent of the Boeing 757, and until now has not been involved in any fatal accidents. In 2010 a TU-204 plane with 8 crew members crash-landed near Moscow’s Domodedovo airport, injuring 4 of the crew.

Saturday 29 December 2012

http://rt.com/news/plane-vnukovo-airport-moscow-073/

Families of plane crash victims received 1 million tenge each, ask for burial rituals

Akim (Governor) of South-Kazakhstan oblast Askar Myrzakhmetov has transferred 1 million tenge ($6,700) to the families of each officer who died in the plane crash near Shymkent, Tengrinews.kz reports.

The Akim met with the families of the crash victims. He expressed condolences and said that this money did not come from the budget. These were the funds collected by the oblast's residents, including entrepreneurs, opinion leaders and ordinary citizens. “People just came to the administration quarters and said that they were ready to help with whatever they could,” the Akim said.

The families of the crash victims asked the Akim not to put the remains of the bodies of the victims into zinc coffins straight away, but to allow them to perform burial rituals. Myrzakhmetov promised to grant the wishes and invite a priest and a mullah.

The AN-72 military plane of the Border Control Service of Kazakhstan National Security Commission crashed at 06:55 p.m. on December 25, 20km from Shymkent airport. The plane had 7 crew members and 20 militarymen onboard, including the acting head of the Border Control Service of Kazakhstan National Security Commission Turganbek Stambekov and his wife.

Saturday 29 December 2012

For more information see: http://en.tengrinews.kz/emergencies/Families-of-plane-crash-victims-received-1-million-tenge-each-15609/

Update: Scores feared dead after boat sinks off Bissau

Twenty-two people died and more than 75 were missing after an overloaded boat sank off the coast of Guinea-Bissau on Friday, hospital and port officials said.

The narrow wooden boat was ferrying 97 passengers and their luggage to the West African nation's capital Bissau from the island of Bolama when it began taking on water and sank around 11 a.m. (1100 GMT), Bissau Port Director Mario Domingos Gomes said.

Hospital sources said 22 bodies had arrived at the morgue in Bissau. Domingos Gomes said rescuers were searching for survivors from the pirogue, a hand-built vessel most often used for fishing across West Africa.

Tiny Guinea-Bissau is among the world's least developed nations and has been plagued by political turmoil since independence from Portugal in 1974.

As in much of the region, travel by land and sea is difficult and dangerous due to poor infrastructure and weak regulatory oversight.

Saturday 29 December 2012

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news/international/Scores_feared_dead_after_boat_sinks_off_Bissau.html?cid=34615688