New bus collision kills 16 in Bolivia

Two buses collided head-on along a highway in Bolivia’s eastern state of Santa Cruz early on Thursday, killing 16 passengers and injuring more than 40 others just a day after another road accident killed 25 people, said the Bolivian police.

The accident was the fourth of the kind in the past six days in Bolivia. Altogether 67 people were killed and 120 others injured in the four road accidents, according to the police sources.

The police sources said the two buses crashed into each other when one of them swerved into the opposite lane of the road, colliding with the other at half past midnight local time (0430 GMT) in the community of Taperas, 50 kilometers from San Jose de Chiquitos, in Bolivia’s Amazonian region.

Police Regional Commander Rene Calla said the injured were taken to a local hospital in San Jose.

Friday 25 January 2013

http://www.nzweek.com/world/new-bus-collision-kills-16-in-bolivia-44707/

Seven Killed In Landslide In Ecuador

At least seven people were killed and 17 others injured in a landslide in Ecuador's mining zone of Bella Rica in the southern province of Azuay.

Patricio Lopez, mayor of Ponce Enriquez, told reporters the landslide occurred early in the day due to heavy rains which caused damage to two mines in the region, Xinhua news agency quoted local reports as saying.

The mayor said several miners may have been trapped in the mines and the death toll may increase over the next few hours.

Four homes have been damaged and Ponce Enriquez has been left without electricity.

Rescue units are at the disaster site located in a rural area accessible only on foot or by plane, local authorities said.

Ponce Enriquez has a population of more than 10,000 and most residents work in gold mining or agriculture.

The region was previously affected by landslides that killed several miners.

Ten days ago, a Peruvian and an Ecuadorian died in another landslide in the same area.

Friday 25 January 2013

http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v6/newsworld.php?id=924072

8 dead, 1 injured in E China auto collision

Eight people were killed and another one was injured in a collision involving four automobiles Friday morning in east China's Anhui Province, local police said.

Around 9:10 a.m., four vehicles piled up on the Xuancheng-Wuhu section of the G50 expressway, local traffic police said.

An investigation into the cause of the accident is under way.

Friday 25 January 2013

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-01/25/c_132127921.htm

Mozambique floods kill 36

Flooding in Mozambique has killed at least 36 people and displaced nearly 70,000, the United Nations said Friday, as residents braced for a fresh storm surge.

"A total of 26 persons have died in (the worst affected southern province of) Gaza alone, with the nationwide death toll at 36," the UN in Mozambique said in a statement.

The number of displaced people now stood at 67,995 while nearly 85,000 have been affected by the raging waters in recent days, the UN said, urging donors to urgently make more funds available "to help deal with this emergency" in the impoverished southeast African nation.

Meanwhile, severe flooding continued to spread across the south of the country with the Mozambique government, international agencies and neighbouring South Africa scrambling to ease the humanitarian disaster.

The floods are a result of week-long torrential rains in South Africa and Zimbabwe that swelled the Limpopo river forcing an orange alert on January 12, when the toll began.

But the full impact of the rains were only now being felt.

An AFP reporter on the scene saw thousands of residents who had fled their homes stuck on road sides leading out of devastated towns, surviving on scarce aid and in some cases forced to eat grasshoppers.

Their plight was only expected to worsen as intense rains were forecast for the weekend.

In the tourist coastal city of Xai-Xai, spared until Friday, up to eight metres of water (26 feet) was expected to hit.

"The water is coming into the city. It is just starting. Some roads in the lower part of town are under water," said government spokesman Joao Carlos. "The situation is not very good."

Severe flooding in Xai-Xai would sever the main road connection between the north and south of the country.

"Private and commercial services have been evacuated from the lower parts of the city to higher areas," said police spokeswoman Sylvia Paolo.

"The population obeyed the calls for them to leave risk areas."

Initial evacuations of around 30,000 people in the southern region who did not hear or ignored flood warnings were under way.

Neighbouring South Africa, where the flood waters have killed at least 12 people in the past week, dispatched two military helicopters and divers on Friday to assist with the evacuations in Mozambique.

A South African Hercules C-130 military transport plane was also due to take off late on Friday with a contingent of doctors, nurses and social workers to attend to the flood victims.

"The operation will be more focussed on rescuing and saving lives," Brigadier-General Xolani Mabanga of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) told AFP.

The scale the of the disaster was already evident in the affected towns and cities.

Towns such as Chokwe in the province of Gaza were submerged, with thousands of homes destroyed and key services such as banks, shops, schools and hospitals affected.

There were also reports of looters breaking into submerged stores.

"Eight people were arrested in the Chokwe district," said Paolo. "They stole beer, drinks, oil and rice from shops."

The suspects were taken to a nearby town because " they can't be held in Chokwe. All prisoners have been transferred to higher zones," she said.

In the capital Maputo several bridges, roads and schools were seriously damaged.

The price tag from the flood devastation in the capital alone is expected to be around $30 million, according to UN agencies.

Humanitarian workers are now racing to provide food and shelter before cholera, malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea grip those left homeless by the floods.

Agencies are also rushing to supply three mobile hospital tents, 15,000 mosquito nets and various other provisions.

According to the National Water Directorate, nine rivers in five basins were above alert levels, including the Zambezi and the Limpopo.

The deluge also wreaked havoc in South Africa where some 15,000 crocodiles escaped after flood gates were opened at a breeding farm in the Limpopo area.

Friday 25 January 2013

http://www.modernghana.com/news/441719/1/mozambique-floods-kill-36-displace-tens-of-thousan.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MoviesNews+%28Nigeria+Movies+News%29

Who Made That Military Dog Tag?

During the Civil War, more than a quarter of dead soldiers remained unidentified. “I saw two human skull-bones, one pelvis and two jaw bones lying on a stump with no trace of a grave,” a newspaper correspondent wrote in 1866 about his tour of Southern battlefields. Even mothers could not recognize the weathered corpses of their sons. In order to increase the chances that they would receive proper burials, soldiers bought customized name tags made of metal or wood. When pinned on the lapel or worn around the neck, a tag could help bring the dead soldier home. “Soldiers did a lot to try to be identified,” says Luther Hanson, curator at the U.S. Army Quartermaster Museum. “Some soldiers even wrote their names on the bottom of their shoes.”

During the Spanish-American War, a military chaplain named Charles Pierce pushed to make these improvised tags official. As he worked in the Manila morgue, Pierce noticed that the bodies of soldiers who’d elected to wear pins had a much better chance of being sent home, and so he drew up plans for a military-issued tag: round, aluminum, the size of a half-dollar. “It is better that all men shall wear these marks as a military duty than that one should fail to be identified,” he wrote.

By World War I, soldiers wore two tags. “One tag remained with the body, tied around the legs or ankles or feet,” Hanson says. “And one tag was put outside the coffin, or it might be nailed to the cross or Hebrew star.” The tags soon evolved into mementos with powerful symbolism. “In many cases, the tags are presented to the family,” Hanson says. “The tag is a link between the soldier and his loved ones.”

Elias Krakower is a Vietnam veteran and a volunteer with the Dog Tag Project of the POW/MIA Awareness Committee of N.J., a group that delivers lost tags recovered in Vietnam to their former owners or to the families of the deceased soldiers.

Do you still have your own tags? I have a duplicate set of my tags that I carry in my motorcycle bag. The original tags I gave to my eldest grandson. These tags — you rarely give them a second thought when you’re wearing them. But when someone is killed in combat, the tags are removed. It’s a very traumatic experience to have to take the tags off someone else.

You recently returned a set of tags to a veteran who survived combat. How did he react? Yes, we delivered them to a veteran who lost his tags in a firefight in Vietnam. He had taken the tags off his neck because they clinked and made noise. When he got them back, he cried. It brought back that moment when someone was trying to kill him.

Friday 25 January 2013

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/magazine/who-made-that-military-dog-tag.html?_r=0

Map found, may lead to graves of Indian workers killed in 1902

A Suriname-born researcher in The Netherlands has found a map amongst Dutch military archives that could aid archeologists in Suriname in locating forgotten mass graves of Indian indentured workers killed by colonial authorities in 1902. Suriname's government earlier this month granted a local archeologist permission to carry out the search for the graves.

Indentured workers from East India came to Suriname in 1863, ten years after slavery was abolished, to replace the slaves on whose labour the colony relied. Many were placed to work at Marienburg , a once thriving sugar plantation in District Commewijne. From when they first arrived in the country in 1873, the Indians protested about ten times violently against the harsh working and living conditions they were exposed to. In total 24 Indian workers are believed to have fallen during these protests.

The revolt of 1902 at Marienburg was in retaliation against Scottish plantation director James Mavor, also known as Massa Mewa, who, aside from mistreating the workers, also withheld their meager pay at will and forced their married women into sexual relationships. Fed up workers eventually killed Mavor, following which the colonial Government sent the army to restore calm.

During the ensuing clash, 16 protesting workers were mowed down on July 30, 1902. Their bodies were dumped unceremoniously in unmarked mass graves alongside the train tracks of the estate. Before closing the graves soldiers scattered lime on the bodies to prevent stench. The colonial Government also prohibited visiting the graves.

On July 30, 2006 a monument to mark the workers' sacrifice was unveiled by then Vice President Ram Sardjoe, but the location of the mass graves remained unknown. Then last year, archeologist Benjamin Mitrasingh proposed to use modern technology and aerial surveys to locate the graves.

He recently secured government's go-ahead and has also been assured full support by the district commissioner (mayor) of Commewijne, the surveyor's office and the Marienburg coordinator for his investigations. The surveyor's office will provide a detailed map of the disused rail system at Marienburg. And according to media reports, Mitrasingh has also been offered the use of a private helicopter for an aerial survey of the area.

Meanwhile, as the archeologist waited for government's permission to commence his search, researcher Sandew Hira and historian Radhinder Bhagwanbali in The Netherlands located a map that could give indications to where the mass graves were located.

A copy of the map was sent to Mitrasingh, but he seemed a bit dismissive about its value for his research. "It is not an actual military map that gives coordinates and specific locations of the graves," said the archeologist. He said the map looks like a rough sketch that depicts the rail tracks, the roads and other topographical features of the area.

Bhagwanbali, the author of three books on migration and the indenture system in Suriname, had been researching the resistance on the plantations when he found the map. "During his research, Bhagwanbali went into the archives and studied the reports of the Dutch military regarding the uprisings by the workers. He found this map in the military files," Hira wrote in an email interview.

Hira, who himself is creating a database of all Indian indentured labourers in Suriname, has put together a list of the victims of the Marienburg massacre.

He said he is keen on also getting some recognition in India for those who died in the Marienburg uprising. "I have written a letter to the Indian government with the names, villages and addresses of those killed in the uprising, so that they can get recognition in their homeland. I am still awaiting a response," he said. Hira's list was sent to the ministry for overseas Indian affairs in July 2012.

Friday 25 January 2013

http://www.thedailyherald.com/regional/2-news/35309-map-found-may-lead-to-graves-of-indian-workers-killed-in-1902.html

Earthquake in China Linked to Idea of Divine Retribution

An earthquake that struck close to the site of a known concentration camp in China was seen by netizens as having possible divine portent—given the ancient Chinese belief that misdeeds by rulers are punished by heaven.

The 5.1- magnitude quake hit the border region of Liaoyang City and Shenyang City in northeast China’s Liaoning Province at 12:18 p.m. on Jan. 23, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center.

The epicenter had a focal depth of seven kilometers and was located near the Sujiatun District of Shenyang, capital of the province, and county-level city Dengta of Liaoyang. The quake lasted about 30 seconds, and was felt not only in the areas of Liaoning, but also its neighboring Jilin Province’s Siping, Liaoyuan, and Changchun.

No casualties or severe damage was immediately reported, though the external walls on some old houses were cracked or split, and at least eight chimneys collapsed, according to Beijing Times.

One frightened young man in Shenyang, with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders, was reported to have run from the 21st floor of his residential building to the ground in a single minute.

Shenyang residents said that buildings continued to tremble after the earthquake, making them especially anxious about aftershocks. Many companies evacuated their workers because of safety concerns.

Communications were disrupted in Dengta, where houses in the hardest-hit areas were visibly cracked. This is the second earthquake in that city in the past year.

Some commentators online linked this earthquake, and other earthquakes and natural disasters in China, with the Chinese belief in “heaven’s will.” One Hunan netizen remarked: “There have been so many earthquakes these days … Jiangsu, Liaoning, and Shandong … .”

In Chinese history the end of a corrupt dynasty has often been marked by unusual or catastrophic weather or natural disasters. Xinhua, the Communist Party’s mouthpiece, in 2008 devoted a long article to attacking and dismissing the idea.

The Chinese scholar Zhu Xueqin wrote in the liberal Southern Metropolis Daily that the disastrous earthquake in Sichuan in May 2008, in which tens of thousands died, must have been “divine punishment.”

He wrote: “Isn’t this punishment by heaven? But that doesn’t mean that those who died committed sin. If it weren’t divine punishment, why did the earthquake happen on the birthday of the Buddha?”

Xinhua, in attempting to dismiss the concept, described the view of ancient Chinese people: “Every time there was a natural disaster in society, people took it as a matter of course that it was due to shortcomings in government policy. It was even to the extent that every time there was an earthquake or natural disaster, the emperor would write a ‘declaration of fault.’”

Some Chinese continue to make the same associations between a corrupt polity and natural disasters. A netizen from Jiangsu wrote: “Everyone says: ‘Google Sujiatun and you will know why they were hit by this earthquake!’ What goes around comes around.’”

The reference was almost certainly to the reports of a concentration camp that held Falun Gong practitioners, and used them as a live organ bank.

Reports emerged in 2006 that thousands of Falun Gong practitioners were housed in a Sujiatun hospital and labor camp—the allegations said that they were being harvested for their organs while still alive, with their bodies then being cremated after the organs were removed and sold.

The U.S. State Department sent staff to the site, but could not corroborate that specific claim. However, further investigation by independent researchers found that tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been killed for their organs—an activity that may still be continuing in China.

Later, experts concluded that the time lag—about three weeks—from when the reports about the Sujiatun death camp emerged, and when State Department personnel arrived, was enough for Chinese officials to have thoroughly cleaned up.

Friday 25 January 2013

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/earthquake-in-china-linked-to-notions-of-divine-retribution-340004.html

Six killed in Mumbai slum fire

Six persons were killed and eight injured in a fire that gutted several hutments here today.

The fire broke out in Mahim's Nayanagar slum early today, fire brigade sources said, adding that the cause of the fire was not yet known.

Eight fire engines and two ambulances were rushed to the spot, they said.

Asked to comment on reports that the dead included a woman and three children, a spokesperson for the BMC's disaster control room said the bodies were awaiting identification.

Five bodies are at the Bhabha Hospital and the sixth is at the Sion Hospital. The injured have also been shifted to the Bhabha Hospital, the spokesperson said.

Friday 25 January 2013

http://www.indiatvnews.com/news/india/six-killed-in-mumbai-slum-fire-19836.html

Zengeza Blast: Mystery Soldier and Cop Identified

Investigations into the Chitungwiza deadly mystery explosion which killed 5 people on Monday publicly suspected to have been caused by super human powers, have escalated into an advanced stage amid revelations that the two unidentified bodies are of a serving soldier and an ex cop.

A source was quoted on the local ZBC News stating that the other person who is also yet to be identified is someone in the military, raising credence to suspicions that the explosion may have been caused by a bomb. The names of the two deceased persons are still be identified due to the sensitive nature of investigations being carried out by both the army and police. ZRP Harare Provincial Spokesperson, Inspector Tadius Chibanda indicated they are still in the process of identifying the two bodies with the help of pathologists.

Until now numerous superstitious people had suspected that the explosion was caused by ‘supernatural’ causes. Social networks were awash with random rumours claiming that the N’anga had meddled with powers too great for him to handle and is experiment had backfired. The wider Chitungwiza community sounded fears even suggesting that traditional healers should not be allowed to operate within residential areas and should use the bush for public safety reasons.

But the extent of the blast which damaged several other houses and the possible citing of a soldier among the dead nearby have all solidified a suspicion that it could have actually been a bomb.

The elder brother of the kombi driver who died, Robert Kamudzeya, said the family was still not aware of what had caused the blast.

“We are concerned about the media reports. We are sure the incident had nothing to do with lightning,” he said.

His son Tichaona said the family was devastated by the death of a “loving and caring father”.

But what struck controversy was a claim by the n’anga’s wife who claimed that she experienced electric shocks during the incident.

Nyawata said she had just arrived at the house when the incident occurred.

She was with Kamudzeya’s wife and two other women when the explosion occurred.

The women had used Kamudzeya’s vehicle to go and to fetch water for domestic use in the suburb.

“When we got home there were some people intending to see my husband. They wanted to be attended to,” she said.

Nyawata said as she put the last bucket into the house she heard a huge blast and found herself “tucked into a refrigerator”.

“I got some electric shocks. I finally managed to escape. Once I was outside I looked for my husband.

“I saw him lying motionless outside. He was bleeding from the nose and mouth but was still breathing,” she said.

She said as the ambulance took her to the hospital she told the crew that her husband was still breathing, but they ignored her.

Meanwhile a ZBC News crew which attended the scene revealed that the residents who were within the vicinity of the explosion are still traumatised by the horrific scenes they witnessed.

Some of the victims contend that it will be difficult for them to wake up everyday facing reminders of the horrific explosion.

However, owner of the seven roomed house destroyed by the explosion, Mr Dumba said he will continue staying at his property as he was not part of the people who caused the explosion.

Friday 25 January 2013

http://www.zimeye.org/?p=72082

Body storage plan for Mazaruni boat collision victims flops

Despite assurances that bodies retrieved from Tuesday’s deadly boat collision on the Mazaruni River would have been properly stored and transported, that was not the case on Thursday when two more bodies were retrieved.

Transport Minister Robeson Benn on Wednesday had declared that unlike the massacres in Bartica where the bodies were just dumped on a boat and not properly prepared before being sent out of the mining area, the same would not have been for the victims of the boat crash.

He explained that already body bags were procured and that the bodies when recovered will be placed in body bags before leaving Bartica.

However, neither of the two bodies recovered from the Mazaruni arrived at Parika in body bags.

Those recovered on Thursday are Christopher Narine 21 of Parika Façade and Zahir Baksh 35 of Kane Ville, East Bank Demerara The bodies of the men arrived at the Parika Police Station just after 11 AM but it was only after 3 PM that they were removed and taken to the Lyken Funeral Parlour in the city.

Narine’s aunt, Debbie, told Demerara Waves Online News (www.demwaves.com) that she last saw her nephew five days before he went into the riverain community. She explained that he went to work with her cousin who operates a cargo boat from Parika to communities beyond Bartica.

Meanwhile the relatives of Baksh expressed much dissatisfaction that the bodies had to lay at the location for such lengthy period. One relative,who did not give his name added that they approached the police and suggested that they would have taken up the responsibility to have the body transported to wherever the police needed it to go. However. that suggestion was rejected by the police, the man said.

“Deez bodies come here since morning and just deh here all de time, we tell de police dat we could take it to parlour and dem tell we is a police matter and we can't move it" a male relative of Singh said.

On Thursday afternoon the police were forced to lock the gates of the Parika police station as the hearse arrived to have the bodies taken away. Persons flocked the gateways and even glued themselves to the chain-link fence to get a glimpse of the bodies which were covered in tarpaulin.

The recovery of Narine and Singh brings to four the number of bodied retrieved from the river near the scene of the accident. The bodies of Jermaine Calistro of West Demerara and Ulric Grimes of Salem, Parika have been already found.

Operation Hawkeye, which includes representatives of the Maritime Administration, Region 7 administration and the police and defence forces, are now looking out for the five remaining bodies of two Brazilians and two brothers- Ricky Bobb and and Keanu Amsterdam-and a Bartician identified only as “Tallman".

The accident occurred Tuesday afternoon when the two high-powered boats collided in the vicinity of Crab Falls, about 25 miles up the Mazaruni River from Bartica.

Friday 25 Janaury 2013

http://www.demerarawaves.com/index.php/201301245374/Latest/body-storage-plan-for-mazaruni-boat-collision-victims-flops.html

Five bodies now recovered from Mazaruni tragedy

Three more bodies were found on Thursday after another gruelling day of search and recovery following the boat accident which occurred at Crab Falls, Mazaruni, on Tuesday.

Jewan Seeram, 52, from Tuschen was the most recent body retrieved while earlier on Thursday, Christopher Ramnarine, 22, of Parika, East Bank Essequibo and Zahir Baksh, 34, from Kaneville, East Bank Demerara were positively identified by family members and friends. The total number of bodies now stands at five, with four more persons still missing. There is some concern that all those feared missing may not have been identified, and the number could increase.

Ramnarine was identified by his uncle, his aunt told Guyana Times. She said he was working on a fuel boat for over a year and was accustomed to the back and forth trips that were required. She said that he was not afraid of the water and he left home on Saturday to take fuel into the interior. “I heard the boat was in an accident and Chrissy pitched out.”

Early Thursday morning, the woman noted that Ramnarine’s cousins went to look for him after there was no news of his body being found. However, while his cousins were looking for him, Ramnarine’s body was found and was being transported to Bartica Police Station. Baksh required two persons to positively identify him because of the decomposed state of his body. “He was so beat up, and decomposed, there was a piece of wood through him,” a close friend of Baksh stated.

He noted that “there are so many things we don’t know and you know conflicting reports. But I saw [Baksh] and I knew what his clothes were and recognised his hair and there was a phone in his pocket, but he was looking bad,” the friend noted.

The recovery is ongoing for Rick “Quaco” Bobb, 22, of Kitty; Deon “Tall Man” Moses, of Bartica and Keanu Amsterdam, 17, also of Bartica. Amsterdam’s aunt told Guyana Times that the young man’s father left early Thursday morning to search for his son. She also said “that lots of people are searching with their private boats”, noting that family members were out in droves looking for the missing men.

The Bartica Hospital was crowded with eager family members awaiting news of their presumed dead relatives. A hospital worker told Guyana Times that the wife of one of the missing men was unable to convey her distress because of the language barrier. “She is the wife of a Brazilian man on the boat and he is missing too, but she can’t speak English.” The hospital employee also stated that “with all the confusion around this accident, it is so much to deal with all these people who are here waiting on results”.

The search operation known as “Hawkeye” was shifted form a rescue to a recovery operation on Wednesday. Guyana Maritime Administration Department in collaboration with the Guyana Defence Force will continue to search for the missing persons, while at the same time pursuing an investigation as to the cause of the accident.

One of the boat captains is currently in police custody. He is being questioned with regard to the “blind turns” that may have attributed to the accident and the subsequent suspected death of nine persons.

Friday 25 January 2013

http://www.guyanatimesgy.com/?p=13990