Glencoe avalanche, four dead, say police

Four people have died after an avalanche in Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands, the Northern Constabulary has said.

A party of six climbers, three men and three women, were caught up in the avalanche on Bidean Nam Bian, at about 14:00.

One male member of the party raised the alarm.

The sixth climber, a woman, is in a serious condition in hospital in Fort William.

It is understood the party were descending from a peak on the south side of the valley, when the slope they were on broke away.

The climbers were descending close to Church Door Buttress, when the snow slope broke away.

Five of them were swept down the mountain and engulfed by ice and snow.

One, who had avoided being swept away, raised the alarm, and a major rescue effort got under way.

One female climber was recovered alive but has serious head injuries.

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's deputy first minister, expressed her concerns on Twitter, saying: "Dreadful news from Glencoe. Thoughts with all those affected."

Saturday 19 January 2013

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-21101217

Skeletons from Bali’s Past: Large Waves Uncover 1965 Killing Field Near Cucukan Village, Gianyar, Bali

The large waves that hit Bali’s eastern shore at Gianyar have wreaked havoc on parts of the shoreline and dredging up a dark page in Bali’s history. The Cucukan Beach front at Medahan Village, Blahbatuh yielded up a number of human skeletons when waves eroded the shoreline on Monday, January 14, 2013.

According to Bali Post, the strong wave hitting the shore reopened mass graves of those executed during the violence following the 30 September Movement (Gestapu) of 1965.

The bones scattered along the beach also yielded up a wristwatch, thought to belong to one of the dead.

Based on reports for local villagers, the area where the bones were found was used for the execution of suspected Communist Party Members in 1965.

Many of the graves are located in an area just west of a private villa owned by former president Megawati Soekarnoputri. One villager estimated there were some 200 unmarked graves located in this area.

Some 20 meters to east of the mass graves, another body wrapped in burial shroud was revealed by the waves. Ida Bagus Arka, the chief of the Cucukan Village, said that the area was also used for the burial of unidentified victims of crime. The body uncovered was buried in 1997 was that of a 19-year-old man brought there by police and hospital workers for burial.

The bones uncovered by the waves will now be gathered and burnt with the ashes to be eventually committed to the seas in accordance with Balinese tradition.

Saturday 19 January 2013

http://www.balidiscovery.com/messages/message.asp?Id=9030

Death toll from floods in Indonesia’s capital rises to 14

The death toll from floods in Indonesia’s capital has climbed to 14 after searchers pulled three more bodies from the waters.

Indonesia’s national disaster management agency said Saturday that the body of a 35-year-old member of the city’s search and rescue team was found on the banks of an overflowing river late Friday. Another man was found dead near his flooded home in western Jakarta.

The third body of a male worker was found Saturday in the flooded basement parking of a building in central Jakarta.

The agency said most victims were electrocuted or drowned. Electricity supplies have been cut to several flooding areas to prevent electrocutions.

A dike in central Jakarta collapsed late Wednesday amid floods that swamped Jakarta. Successive governments have done little to mitigate the flooding threat.

Saturday 19 January 2013

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/death-toll-from-floods-in-indonesias-capital-rises-to-14/2013/01/19/7e611488-6210-11e2-81ef-a2249c1e5b3d_story.html

Body found as bushfires continue across Vic, NSW

One man has been killed and communities in Victoria and New South Wales remain on alert as large bushfires continue to burn out of control.

The fires turned deadly on Friday evening when Victorian police confirmed the death of a man near Seaton in the Gippsland region.

The man's body was found inside a burnt out car in the Glenmaggie bushfire area.

"The body of the male has yet to be formally identified. Police are investigating and will prepare a report for the Coroner," Victoria Police said in a statement.

Five homes have been destroyed by the Glenmaggie blaze which has burnt through 48,000 hectares and is creating spot fires up to 1 kilometre ahead.

The fire has slowed in pace, but is moving steadily toward the farming hamlet of Licola.

About 10 residents have decided to stay in the area and Country Fire Authority (CFA) crews are also there to defend homes.

The CFA says Licola Road is closed and the fire is making its way towards Mount Useful and The Springs.

Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley says the community is well prepared.

"The township itself, those that have stayed behind have said they are willing to fight it out. They've had fires around them before," he said on Friday.

"They, with their fire trucks around them, will have an interesting night. It's a decision that's quite gutsy I think, but they've made that decision to stay and I think they'll do quite well."

All of Friday's emergency warnings in Victoria and New South Wales have been downgraded, but several new fires have started.

Two fires have broken out near the Murray River in Victoria's north-east.

A fire in Mt Lawson State Park, near Tallangatta, is believed to have been caused by a lightning strike on Friday night.

It is burning out of control in remote bushland but is not threatening private property.

Further east, another fire has been reported in the Burrowa Pine Mountain area, near Corryong.

Sydney city sweltered on Friday as it recorded its hottest day since records began, with temperatures getting to 45.8 degrees.

The extreme heat across NSW also made it a busy day for firefighters as they battled over 100 fires.

The state received three emergency alerts on Friday before they were downgraded.

A cool change during the evening also brought strong southerly winds, leading to the loss of two homes and two sheds in a fire at Millingandi, near the Bega Valley.

Authorities say other properties along the Princes Highway are at risk.

NSW RFS spokeswoman Brydie O'Connor says firefighters will be kept busy through the night.

"That southerly change is moving through the state, it's moved through the Hunter area now," she said.

"It brought with it a lot of force, some very gusty volatile winds, winds gusting up to 90 kilometres per hour on some parts of the coast.

"We've still more than 120 fires burning and that's due to that lightening that also came through the state."

A fire is currently burning in the Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park, north of Sydney.

The RFS says a watch and act alert is in place for blazes at Cessnock, Deans Gap, Boorowa, Coonabarabran and Millingandi.

Cooler temperatures are expected for Sydney on Saturday, but the extreme heat is set to persist in many other areas of the state.

Saturday 19 January 2013

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2013-01-19/body-found-as-bushfires-continue-across-vic-nsw/1075552

Burned bodies found at besieged Algeria gas plant

The Algerian army on Saturday carried out a "final assault" on al Qaeda-linked gunmen holed up in a desert gas plant, killing 11 of the Islamists after they took the lives of seven foreign hostages.

"It is over now, the assault is over, and the military are inside the plant clearing it of mines," a local source familiar with the operation told Reuters.

The state oil and gas company, Sonatrach, said the militants who attacked the plant on Wednesday and took a large number of hostages had booby-trapped the gas complex with explosives.

The exact death toll among the gunmen and the foreign and Algerian workers at the plant near the town of In Amenas close to the Libyan border remained unclear.

Earlier on Saturday, Algerian special forces found 15 burned bodies at the plant. Efforts were underway to identify the bodies, the source told Reuters, and it was not clear how they had died.

Sixteen foreign hostages were freed on Saturday, a source close to the crisis said. They included two Americans, two Germans and one Portuguese.

Britain said fewer than 10 of its nationals at the plant were unaccounted for.

The attack on the plant swiftly turned into the biggest international hostage crises in decades, pushing Saharan militancy to the top of the global agenda.

Reports earlier put the number of hostages killed at between 12 to 30, with many foreigners still unaccounted for, among them Norwegians, Japanese, Britons and Americans.

The U.S. State Department said on Friday one American, Frederick Buttaccio, had died but gave no further details. The French defence minister said he understood there were no more French workers among the hostages.

Two Norwegians were released overnight, leaving six unaccounted for, while Romania said three of its nationals had been freed. A number of Japanese engineering workers were still unaccounted for.

Scores of Westerners and hundreds of Algerian workers were inside the heavily fortified compound when it was seized before dawn on Wednesday by Islamist fighters who said they wanted a halt to a French military operation in neighbouring Mali.

Hundreds escaped on Thursday when the army launched its operation, but many hostages were killed.

Saturday 19 January 2013

http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/foreigners-still-trapped-sahara-hostage-crisis-083141930--finance.html