DNA 'identichip' gives a detailed picture of a suspect

Imagine you are trying to solve a burglary, and your sole lead is a cigarette butt. It has enough DNA on it to check against the national DNA database, but this throws up no matches. Running the DNA through machines capable of identifying physical characteristics could help - only there is not enough DNA to deduce more than two traits.

A new all-in-one chip that can identify multiple traits should help. The Identitas v1 Forensic Chip allows investigators to home in on someone's gender, eye colour and hair colour, as well as ancestry - all based on a small sample of DNA such as that from saliva on a cigarette butt.

Developed by VisiGen, a consortium of universities and law enforcement agencies, the chip is the first to provide data on all these traits simultaneously. Other devices can determine at most two at a time - usually eye and hair colour.

The new chip contains hundreds of thousands of short sequences of DNA that bind to different single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) - single letter variations in the genetic sequence - in the DNA sample. SNPs are indicative of physical traits, so once we know which SNPs are present in the sample, software can be used to compute likely appearance and ancestry.

The VisiGen team tested the chip on more than 3000 DNA samples collected around the world, and found that it was 99 per cent accurate at predicting gender. The chip also predicted European or East Asian ancestry with an accuracy of 97 per cent, and African ancestry in 88 per cent of cases. However, it was only 63 per cent accurate at predicting blond hair (International Journal of Legal Medicine, doi.org/j5k).

The tool is not accurate enough to secure convictions in court, but team member Aruna Bansal of New York biotech firm Identitas envisages it being useful in focusing investigations or corroborating eyewitness reports, as well as in identifying disaster victims. "It provides you with a starting point," she says. The current chip is ready to be launched and the team is now working towards a chip that can determine even more traits.

Erin Murphy, a professor of law at New York University, is concerned that this technology may encourage "police dragnets", in which anyone matching a profile created with such chips could be questioned. But VisiGen team member Manfred Kayser of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, counters that the authorities "already use all types of information for investigative purposes". With the chip, the only difference is that they will be looking at DNA-derived traits.

Friday 11 January 2013

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21728995.500-dna-identichip-gives-a-detailed-picture-of-a-suspect.html

Breath test could identify trapped survivors in disaster zones

A team of atmospheric chemists has published a study suggesting we hunt down trapped survivors in disaster zones by testing for chemicals found on the human breath.

The researchers, led by Wolfgang Vautz of Germany's Leibniz Institute for Analytical Sciences, developed the technique using a combination of rapid gas chromatography and ion mobility spectrometry, which they believe could be a portable and quick alternative to the use of animals in the field -- while dogs sniff out people with their finely-tuned senses, they will often be unable to distinguish between an individual who is dead or alive. Of course emergency teams will be working to retrieve all people from debris in disaster zones, but every second is important when it comes to getting to the survivors first.

This new technique tunes into the chemicals a survivor will exhale. The idea is that a tube is fed deep into rubble to collect air samples. These are then run through a gas chromatograph to separate the different chemicals in the vapour. The resulting gases are then fed through a portable ion mobility spectrometer, which ionises the chemicals before hurling them through a chamber -- the team can identify what the chemical is by recording how long it takes for them to pass through the chamber.

Carrying out a field test, Vautz and his team asked ten volunteers to spend time in a confined space that replicated a void within debris. With those volunteers trapped in for six hours at a time, the team would extract an 8ml air sample every 20 minutes. After running the samples through the gas chromatographer, then breaking down the ions, it took the team just three minutes to compare the results against a database and identify 12 chemicals commonly found on human breath, including acetone and benzaldehyde. All ten volunteers were successfully identified. In another experiment, the team was able to identify the presence of a person in a 25 square metre cubed room after they had spent 30 minutes in it, meaning the process is sensitive enough to pick those 12 metabolites out.

Although the process appears to be a helpful tool, with rescue workers focusing purely on finding high levels of those 12 chemicals, it will no doubt have its practical problems. Feeding the tube through a chaotic mass of debris will need a time-consuming trial and error approach to get it through blockages. The whole process would also need simplifying so that rescue workers rather than trained chemists can carry out the work -- they'd need a user-friendly version of the analysis equipment. Nevertheless, it's promising to see progress in a field where we still rely largely on the senses of both humans and animals.

Friday 11 January 2013

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-01/11/rescue-survivors-breath-test

Italians join Venezuela's search for missing plane

Italy has sent experts to help Venezuelan authorities search for a plane that disappeared carrying the CEO of Italian fashion firm Missoni.

More than 400 people in boats, planes and helicopters were searching for the twin-engine aircraft, which disappeared off the resort islands of Los Roques.

The BN-2 Islander disappeared on Jan 4. It dropped off radar about 11 miles (18 kilometers) south of Los Roques during a flight to Caracas.

It was carrying two crew members and four Italian tourists, including Vittorio Missoni, CEO of his family's fashion company.

Venezuela's government announced on Thursday that four Italian experts have joined the search.

Friday 11 January 2013

http://www.wboc.com/story/20556321/italians-join-venezuelas-search-for-missing-plane

At least 93 lives lost in Quetta explosions

As many as 81 people were killed and 121 injured in suicide and car bomb blasts in Quetta’s Alamdar Road area on Thursday night.

Earlier in the afternoon, 12 people lost their lives when a bomb went off near a vehicle of the Frontier Corps at Bacha Khan Chowk.

A cameraman and a reporter of a private news channel, a computer operator of a news agency and nine police personnel, including two senior police officers, were among the dead, while 10 army and FC personnel were injured in the blasts.

A majority of the people killed in the Alamdar Road blasts belonged to the Hazara Shia community.

The banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi has claimed responsibility for the blasts.

“Eighty-one people have been killed and 120 injured, including 10 army and FC personnel, in two blasts,” Hamid Shakeel, Deputy Inspector General of Police, told Dawn.

The death toll might go up because the condition of several injured people was serious, he added.

Police sources said that the first blast took place in a snooker club on Alamdar Road when people were busy playing the game. Several people were killed or injured in the blast. “A man entered the snooker club and a powerful blast took place,” they said, adding that it appeared to be a suicide attack.

Police, workers of Edhi Trust and media teams rushed to the place soon after the first blast and started taking the injured to hospital.

A second blast took place 10 minutes after the first blast outside the snooker club when a large number of people, police and rescue workers gathered there. A majority of people were killed and injured in the second blast.

Five police personnel, including a senior police officer, and three media men also lost their lives in the second blast. Reporter Saifullah Baloch and cameraman Imran Shaikh belonged to Samaa TV, while computer operator Mohammad Iqbal worked for NNI.

Some other media men, who reached the site to cover the first blast, were also injured in the second explosion.

Imran Shaikh was the third Samaa cameraman to have lost his life in the line of duty. Earlier, Ejaz Ahmed Raisani and Malik Arif had been killed in bomb blasts.

Police said that an explosive-laden car parked at the roadside was used in the second explosion. Both the blasts shook the entire provincial capital.

“The building which housed the snooker club was destroyed completely, while over 50 shops and nearby houses were badly damaged,” eyewitness Khalil Ahmed said.

Two rescue workers were also killed in the blast, he added.

Soon after the second blast, power supply was disrupted in the area as wires snapped. “Bodies littered a large area,” another eyewitness Banaras Khan told Dawn, adding that several media men were missing. A DSNG of Geo TV was damaged in the second explosion. A cameraman received injuries while other staffers remained unhurt.

Rescue workers and security personnel faced difficulty in collecting bodies and in shifting the injured to hospital.

An emergency was declared at Civil Hospital and the Combined Military Hospital. Most of the injured and bodies were brought to CMH. The condition of at least 10 of the injured was stated to be critical.

“The death toll might increase,” hospital officials expressed fears.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Lashkar-i-Jhangvi told media from an unknown place that his organisation had carried out the two explosions.

Capital City Police Officer Zubair Mehmood confirmed at a press conference the killing of 81 people and injuring of 121 in the two blasts.

“A doomsday scenario was at the blast site. Bodies were lying everywhere.”

Mr Mehmood said that nine police officials had lost their lives.

Earlier in the afternoon, at least 12 people, including an FC soldier and a child, were killed and over 60 injured in a bomb blast before the night-time carnage shook the city.

The bomb was planted close to a parked vehicle of Frontier Corps at the crowded Bacha Khan Chowk. The blast rocked the entire city Several other FC men were injured in the blast, Balochistan Home Secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani told Dawn, adding that the condition of at least five people was serious.

Among the injured were two women and three children.

Frontier Corps officials confirmed that one soldier had been killed and 10 others injured in the blast. “We have lost one soldier in the blast and another is in critical condition,” a spokesman said.

An Afghan national, who hailed from Spin-Boldak, a border district of Afghanistan, was also killed in the blast.

The banned United Baloch Army has claimed responsibility for the blast. Its spokesman Mureed Baloch told newsmen that the blast was in revenge for Mashkay, Awaran and Bolan operations launched by FC.

The area where the blast took place is a populated and busy commercial junction where thousands of people come for shopping and doing business in Baldia Plaza.

“Thousands of people were busy shopping and in doing business in Baldia Plaza and in the Bacha Khan Chowk when the blast took place,” said eyewitness Mehmood Khan, who owns a shop in the area.

Police sources said that the bomb planted with a time device in a bag close to the FC vehicle went off at 3.10 pm, killing at least 10 people on the spot and injuring over 60.

Police and FC personnel cordoned off the place and took the bodies and the injured to Civil Hospital, where an emergency had been declared.

Two injured, including the FC soldier, died in hospital as they had received multiple wounds.

“The target of the bomb blast was the vehicle carrying FC men and a checkpost in the area,” said Capital City Police Officer Zubair Mehmood.

He told reporters that it was a time device. “We have collected evidence from the site and investigation is in progress,” he said.

Bomb disposal squad personnel said that 20 to 25 kg of explosives had been used in the blast.

Hospital sources said that 11 bodies and over 40 injured were brought to the Civil Hospital. Some of the injured had been shifted to CMH, Quetta. “We are trying to save lives of seriously injured people,” hospital officials said.

Most of the people killed in the blast were vendors and shopkeepers selling old clothes, rings, soup and other edible items outside Baldia Plaza.

Two Naib Tehsildars, who came from the Taunsa town of Rajanpur district in Punjab, were also killed.

Eight of the 12 dead were identified as Naib Tehsildars Ghulam Sarwar Qaisrani and Inayatullah, Mazuddin, Ziaul Haq, Fazal Ahmed, Sher Ali, Akhtar Mohammad and Tamour Shah.A man selling fruits on a pushcart had reportedly seen a white bag near the FC vehicle and informed the paramilitary force’s personnel before the bomb exploded. However, he remained safe, sources said.

The FC vehicle and about a dozen other cars and motorcycles were destroyed in the blast. About two dozen shops were damaged while windowpanes of several buildings and offices in Baldia plaza were smashed.

In 2004, an army truck was hit by a cycle bomb, killing 12 people, including security personnel.

In Sept 2010, a suicide bomber claimed over 30 lives during an Al Quds rally at Bacha Khan Chowk.

Friday 11 January 2013

http://dawn.com/2013/01/11/at-least-93-lives-lost-in-quetta-explosions/

Minibus and Macorpolo bus in head on collision on Kapiri-Ndola road, 9 people dead

Nine people including a six month old baby have died in a road traffic accident along the Kapiri Mposhi-Ndola highway.

The accident which occurred around 15:30 hours yesterday at Kashitu area about 30 km away from Kapiri Mposhi Boma involved a Toyota Hiace Minibus registration number ACM 2334 and an RK Motorways Macorpolo bus registration number ABG 7403.

The mishap happened when the two vehicles collided head-on when the driver of the Ndola bound Toyota Hiace with 16 passengers on board wanted to overtake another vehicle thereby colliding with an oncoming, Lusaka bound, Marcopolo bus.

A ZANIS news clue crew that rushed to the accident scene found police and council fire brigade officers removing the bodies from the minibus wreckage.

According to the driver of the Marcopolo bus, Wekson Sikazwe, who was found at the accident scene said accident occurred after the driver of the Hiace mini-bus wanted to overtake another minibus but ended-up ramming into the right hand side of his bus.

All the 72 passengers on the Marcopolo bus were unhurt while the Toyota Hiace driver is among the dead.

A survivor from the mini- bus who was found at Kapiri Mposhi General Hospital attributed the accident to over speeding on the part of the Toyota Hiace driver.

Kams Chimfwembe who has lost his daughter and brother in the accident and found at the hospital after being attended to, told ZANIS that the accident could have been avoided if the driver of the small bus, identified as Amos Chisanga, exercised patience when overtaking.

And Kapiri Mposhi District Medical Officer, Charles Mwinuna confirmed the death of the people who were brought in dead to Kapiri Mposhi District Hospital.

Dr Mwinuna said among the dead was a six-month old baby, five females and three males while eight survivors who sustained fractures and head injuries have been referred to Kabwe General Hospital.

Dr Mwinuna said two females among the survivors who have been referred to Kabwe sustained traumatic amputations.

The Medical Officer also said three more survivors with extensive bruises and cuts have been admitted to Kapiri Mposhi district hospital.

Meanwhile, Kapiri Mposhi District Commissioner, Beatrice Sikazwe who also visited the scene of the accident has regretted the loss of lives due to non observance of traffic rules by motorists.

Ms Sikazwe advised motorists to be cautious on the road to avoid accidents and further loss of lives.

The bodies of the deceased are lying in Kapiri Mposhi district hospital Mortuary awaiting identification and postmortem.

Friday 11 January 2013

http://www.lusakatimes.com/2013/01/11/minibus-and-macorpolo-bus-in-head-on-collision-on-kapiri-ndola-road-9-people-dead/

Philippines hotel fire kills six, including four foreigners

Seven people including four foreigners, died on Friday morning when a two-star mini hotel was razed by fire near a former naval base of the US that has been converted by the Philippine government into commercial use in central Luzon since 1991, officials said.

Three American men, a South Korean man, and two Filipinas were killed when fire began at the first floor, the office area of Dryden Hotel in Barreto Village, the red light district of Olongapo City, at 1am on Friday, Alex Testado, Fire Marshall of Olongapo’s Bureau of Fire Protection told Gulf News in a phone interview.

One American was trapped on the wooden staircase that served as the hotel’s escape route on the second floor, the hotel’s room area. The rest were trapped in five rooms. One of them was an octogenarian. Their identities came from Dryden Hotel’s guest list, Testado said, adding their bodies were retrieved after the fire was placed under control at six in the morning.

Fire officials have started investigating the cause of the fire, said Olongapo City’s fire investigator Jose Borlagdatan.

The fire almost affected two other adjacent buildings, all located near the national highway of Olongapo City. Its red light district used to cater to foreigners when the former US Subic Naval Base was still operating, said civil defence chief Angelito Layug.

Retired American servicemen and old Australian nationals who have married local residents have been residing in Olongapo City despite the absence of the US naval forces there, said Layug.

In 1991, the US Naval forces left Subic after the Philippine Senate rejected the US-proposed extension of the now defunct US-Philippines Military Bases Agreement (MBA), the basis of US presence in the country since 1898.

Friday 11 January 2013

http://gulfnews.com/news/world/philippines/philippines-hotel-fire-kills-six-including-four-foreigners-1.1130845

36 killed and 'dozens' trapped in Chinese landslide

State-controlled channel CCTV said 16 homes in the Gaopo village in Zhenxiong county were engulfed by falling earth at around 8.20am on Friday morning.

By Friday afternoon local time, rescue-workers had hauled 22 dead bodies from the ground, while 2 victims had been sent to hospital.

"Dozens more" locals were still thought to be buried, China's official news agency Xinhua claimed.

Photographs carried in China's state-media showed rescue workers in orange-overalls hunting for victims with the aid of an excavator.

Xinhua said rescue workers were operating in near-freezing conditions.

An official from Zhenxiong's propaganda office, who gave his name as Mr. Wu, told the Daily Telegraph: "All the leaders are at the scene giving instructions on the rescue work. Right now the rescue work is the priority, trying to save more lives is the priority." Local reports said a 700-strong emergency team had been dispatched to the disaster zone while Yunnan's provincial governor, Li Jiheng, had also travelled to the region.

The affected area is located around 550km northeast of Yunnan's capital Kunming and not far from Yiliang county where 18 schoolchildren died last October when their school was buried in a landslide.

That disaster was attributed to heavy rains and a series of strong earthquakes that had rattled through the region in September, claiming 81 lives.

Friday 11 January 2013

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/9795151/36-killed-and-dozens-trapped-in-Chinese-landslide.html

Latehar massacre: Maoists hid bombs inside bodies

Maoists once again displayed their propensity towards brutal violence when they cut open the body of a slain trooper on Tuesday and implanted an improvised explosive device (IED) to booby-trap the security personnel carrying out rescue operations.

The body, stitched with surgical precision, was retrieved on Wednesday from the Ambatikar forests, the theatre of the gun-battle between the security persons and rebels, and subsequently flown to Ranchi's Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) for autopsy.

What could have been a major disaster was averted after the doctors carrying out the postmortem found something wrong with the kind of stitches on the body. They immediately contacted senior officials of the state police and CRPF.

Experts from bomb disposal squads of both the CRPF and Jharkhand police carried out examinations of the body on Wednesday and Thursday and eventually discovered the IED, planted beneath the ribs of the slain CRPF jawan, Babulal Patel.

"The scanner detected the explosive," said a bomb disposal expert, adding that the IED was fitted with a solar panel and also connected with the stitches.

"It could have exploded either by the pull of the stitches or coming in contact with light," said a senior CRPF official not authorised to speak to the media.

An inspector general of the Jharkhand police said: "Maoists have been using booby traps in boxes, trees and clothes, but booby-trapping a body was never heard of so far."

Married only a year ago, Patel was from Allahabad.

Friday 11 January 2013

http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/NAT-TOP-latehar-massacre-why-maoists-hid-bombs-inside-bodies-4145498-NOR.html