Cypriots Digging for Graves of Missing

Nearly 39 years after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) has begun digging for possible burial sites of victims within a fenced Turkish military area in the occupied areas, said Aristos Aristotelous, the Greek Cypriot member of the CMP.

Speaking to the Cyprus News Agency, Aristotelous said the Turkish authorities recently gave their consent for excavations to take place, following a request from the CMP. The former AKEL MP said he hoped the committee would also be able to carry out excavations in other Turkish military areas which have long been linked to possible burial sites.

Until now, Turkey has resisted requests to open up military areas where many of the missing are believed to have been buried in mass graves, based on witness accounts given to the CMP.

Aristotelous said digging for the remains of missing persons began in a fenced military area southwest of the Kyrenia district, based on information given long ago to the CMP.

As a result of fighting between Greeks and Turks in the 1960′s and the Turkish invasion of 1974, some 1,464 Greek Cypriots and 494 Turkish Cypriots were reported missing and both sides blamed the other for atrocities and murders. According to the CMP, to date, human remains of more than 900 people have been exhumed from burial sites located across the island.

The CMP team of scientists has visited and opened more than 600 potential burial sites so far, the majority in the north of the island. Officials said that 373 did not contain any human remains. As of August 2012, a total of 330 missing persons (264 Greek Cypriots and 66 Turkish Cypriots) were identified and returned to their families for burial.

Exhumations are carried out on both sides of the buffer zone by bi-communal teams (six teams in the north and two teams in the south) made of over 55 Cypriot archaeologists and anthropologists. The teams are now autonomous after having been trained by international experts from the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF) during the first 18 months of the project.

Saturday 26 January 2013

http://greece.greekreporter.com/2013/01/26/cypriots-digging-for-graves-of-missing/#!lightbox/0/

Anti-tank mine may have caused Chitungwiza blast

An anti-tank landmine is believed to have caused the Chitungwiza blast that killed five people on Monday. Sources close to the investigations revealed that the “the nature of the damage was consistent with a landmine”.

Burial papers for the victims indicated “suspected bomb” as the cause of the death. However, police spokesperson Asst Comm Charity Charamba said investigations were continuing.

“We are still investigating. We cannot confirm it was a landmine as of now. We want to exhaust all leads,” she said.

She said no arrests had been made yet.

Landmines do not end with the personal, physical, or even mental trauma of an individual. They inflict societal trauma, through infrastructure and economic damage.

Sources close to investigations believe the other two dead were a soldier and a police detective.

The two are believed to have brought the deadly weapon to Sekuru Shumba — Speakmore Mandere — the traditional healer who also perished in the blast.

It is believed they wanted to extract red mercury, which has an attractive market in Johannesburg.

According to online sources, red mercury is a 19th-century term for protiodide or iodide of mercury.

It was commonly recommended for use as an anti-syphilitic as late as 1913.

Today, it is used in some countries for skin lightening, causing some cases of nephritic syndrome. Red mercuric iodide is a poisonous, scarlet-red, odourless, tasteless powder that is insoluble in water.

According to some world media reports red mercury sells for as high as US$1,8 million per kilogramme.

Remains of the five victims of the explosion were collected for burial yesterday. First to collect the remains were the Mandere family from Centenary, followed by the Chimina family whose daughter, seven-month-old Kelly, also died. She was buried yesterday at the Unit L cemetery.

The remains of commuter omnibus operator Clever Kamudzeya were expected to be collected late afternoon.

Burial is scheduled for today in Chihota.

Relatives of one of the victims, Aleck Shamu, were also making arrangements to collect his body while the remains of the fifth victim were still to be identified.

He would be buried in Masvingo.

A member of the Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers Association, Mr Lovemore Muparadzi, said the blast was most likely the result of a failed attempt to address problems associated with an enrichment medicine (muti) processed using a rare animal called sandawana, which looks like a mouse.

“That explosion was not caused by lightning or goblins. It most likely happened because of a sandawana,” he said.

He said the practice was very dangerous such that it was not recommended to be done in a house.

He said the practice is usually discharged in the bush.

Zinatha spokesman George Kandiyero concurred with Muparadzi.

“Buying such muti can be dangerous because people tend not to get the full manual on how it is used. And if you do not get full details, it can backfire,” he said.

Saturday 26 January 2013

http://www.herald.co.zw/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=64771:anti-tank-mine-may-have-caused-chitungwiza-blast&catid=37:top-stories&Itemid=130#.UQP3IkH3TUI

11 killed when truck hits people boarding Kenya ferry

At least 11 people were killed Saturday morning when a truck lost control and rammed into passengers boarding a ferry in Kenya’s port city of Mombasa, the Kenya Red Cross said.

“So far we can confirm 11 deaths from the ferry tragedy. Scores are still trapped at the scene and more than 20 people have been evacuated,” Mombasa regional Red Cross chief Mwanaisha Hamisi told AFP.

Hamisi confirmed witness accounts of the event, saying “the lorry rammed into the passengers as they were boarding the ferry.”

“Its brakes failed then it lost control and hurtled down the ferry’s boarding ramp, running over the passengers and trapping people underneath it,” she added.

“Hamisi said that the death toll could rise as “many people are trapped in the wreckage.”

A witness, Hassan Juma, who was on his way to work, told an AFP reporter that he “saw the lorry lose control and ram into a crowd of passengers boarding the ferry.”

The area traffic police boss confirmed the incident but was unsure of the number of dead and injured.

“We have dispatched a team to the scene…We can’t tell the exact number of people because there are a lot of people usually crossing the channel,” regional traffic police chief Joshua Omukata said.

Mombasa, some 400 kilometres (248 miles) southeast of the capital Nairobi is Kenya’s main port city and a key tourist hub famed for its sandy beaches.

Saturday 26 January 2013

http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2013/01/11-people-killed-in-likoni-accident/

Arepo And pipeline vandalism; source of many deaths and disasters

Arepo, an otherwise obscure and somnolent community in Ogun State, which is only a few kilometres away from Lagos, has been in the news for the wrong reasons.

The community is important as it has a pipeline which supplies about 9 to 11 million litres of fuel from Lagos to Ibadan, Ilorin and the North.

But since September last year, the community has witnessed pipeline explosions, pipeline vandalism, death of persons in the community and the murder of officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

On September 5, a pipeline was vandalised by some scoundrels. Their purpose was to scoop fuel illegally from it, but the fire that ensued was said to have killed at least 30 persons.

Later, the NNPC sent three engineers to fix the damaged pipeline but they were killed by people who were suspected to be enjoying the proceeds of the fuel obtained illegally from the wrecked pipeline.

Four weeks after they were killed, a police special task force recovered the bodies of the three missing NNPC engineers. Their bullet-riddled bodies were buried in a shallow grave.

The head of the Anti-Pipeline Vandalism Special Task Force, Friday Ibadin, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), explained how the bodies were found.

He said: “We found, in a decomposing state, bullet-ridden bodies of the three victims. We learnt that the body of the local security guard employed by NNPC, Taye, a.k.a Dead Man, was cut into pieces and disposed off.”

Ibadin continued, “Shortly after the incident, the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, reconstituted the dissolved anti vandal team.

“It became important to get to the root of the incident that led to the death of these NNPC officials. And in the course of the investigation, about six suspects were arrested. We gathered from the confession of one of the suspects, Imerepamu Ijebu Joel, that he knew where the NNPC staffers were buried.

“Initially, he took our team to a spot and after several hours, the bodies were not found.

“At night, the Ijaw boy attempted to dig one spot, but the police who were on guard stopped him. And two days later, he opened up and agreed to take us to the real spot.

“It took six hours of sailing to get to the spot. We had 40 heavily armed men, and we took along a pathologist, a coroner, and the medical team from NNPC that eventually identified the bodies.

“They took us to a place where they buried non-natives. With the assistance of one John Bosco, Peter Opidi, and the suspect, Imerepamu Ijebu Joel, we were shown two shallow graves.

“It was there that we discovered the bodies and they have been deposited at a mortuary.

“I wish to commend the sector commander, DSP Onaghise Osayande, and his team who dared the dangers of the creek to recover the bodies. Meanwhile, we are carrying out further investigations to see if there was more to the killings than what we had gathered.”

However, the people of Arepo absolved themselves of the pipeline vandalism that reportedly claimed not less than 30 lives in the area.

In a statement signed by the secretary of the Arepo Oba-in-council, Victor Olajide, the community claimed that none of its indigenes was involved in the vandalisation of the pipeline.

The statement which described the act as barbaric, claimed that it was Ijaws who lived in the area that perpetrated the act.

The statement said, “Not a single Arepo indigene has been arrested and police records revealed that those arrested are non-indigenes. The name Arepo is synonymous with palm oil and not petroleum products and the people are land merchants, making enough resources from their trade. We will never demean ourselves in the breaking of pipeline or siphoning of fuel, it is criminal and we will not do it.

“Most casualties or arrested youths are usually of the Ijaw extraction. The records are with the police to show those that were arrested recently for the killings of the innocent NNPC engineers are all from the Niger-Delta.”

But there was no let-up in the activities of pipeline vandals in the area as another explosion occurred on January 11 this year.

The consequence of that was that five charred bodies were recovered at the scene by security operatives.

However, early in the morning of last Wednesday, an unspecified number of vandals were reportedly killed when some suspected hoodlums stormed Arepo, and again wreaked havoc on the NNPC Pipeline in the area.

This is barely two weeks that an incident of great magnitude occurred at the same place that claimed several lives.

It was gathered that the Wednesday deaths might not be unconnected with the face-off with the men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the Vandals.

The image maker of the NSCDC, Kareem Olanrewaju told LEADERSHIP that the fire outbreak and the deaths were also as a result of “an exchange of fire between them and our men at Magboro area, we cannot say whether it is the same team we had encountered with that went to vandalise at Arepo”.

Olanrewaju said “Officers of NSCDC were stationed to patrol the area since the last incident. We have also carried out a series of operations there successfully with the arrest of some suspected vandals and seizure of exhibit”.

He explained that the NSCDC Commandant was already at the spot “as some of our men were attacked in another operation around Iperu/Ogere area. Some of them were injured and had been taken to the hospital”.

It appears that vandals still have their eyes on illegally siphoning fuel from the pipeline at Arepo, and it would take the vigilance and competence of security agents to stop them.

Saturday 26 January 2013

http://leadership.ng/nga/articles/46084/2013/01/26/arepo_and_pipeline_vandalism.html

Riot kills 22 in Egypt after death sentences for football hooligans

At least 22 people have died after a furious crowd rampaged through Egypt's Port Said, adding to a bloody three days for the country.

The protesters were angered by the death sentences handed to 21 men for their involvement in last year's football stadium disaster in the city, which killed 74.

Spectators were crushed in the disaster on 1 February last year after the match between Cairo's al-Ahly and Port Said's local team, al-Masri.

Today's disturbances were sparked when Judge Sobhy Abdel Maguid announced that the men would be "referred to the Mufti," a phrase meaning execution, as in Egypt all death sentences require approval from the country's top religious authority.

Families of victims in the Cairo court cheered and wept for joy at the announcement.

A total of 73 people were standing trial, with more verdicts due on 9 March.

One relative of a victim in the court shouted: "God is greatest." Outside al-Ahly's stadium, supporters also cheered. Fans had threatened fresh violence unless the death penalty was given.

But in Port Said, al-Masry fans protested the decision outside the city's prison, where most of the convicted men are being held. Residents rampaged through the streets and some tried to storm the prison, angry that people from their city had been blamed, with gunshots reported.

At least 11 people are reported dead, two of them policemen.

Armoured vehicles and military police were deployed on the streets, with the state news agency quoting a general saying the aim was to "establish calm and stability in Port Said and to protect public institutions".

Unrest has been growing across Egypt since rallies marking the second anniversary of the protests which ended Hosni Mubarak's dictatorial 30-year reign.

Protesters are unhappy that the revolutionary fervour has since dissipated, alleging continued police brutality. President Mohamed Morsi, elected in June last year, stoked unrest with his decision to fast-track an Islamist-tinged constitution rejected by his opponents.

Morsi's supporters say their critics are ignoring democratic principles, after elections swept the Islamists to office.

Thousands took to the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and other cities yesterday.

Police fired tear gas to disperse protesters who had tried to cross barbed-wire barriers outside the presidential palace in Cairo, state TV reported. Protesters' tents were also dismantled and some burned.

Nine people were killed in yesterday's violence, most in the port city of Suez, where the army has also been deployed.

Security sources said the latest deaths brought to 20 the number killed in three days of violence, and hundreds have been injured.

In Cairo's Tahrir Square, Mahmoud Suleiman, 22, said: "We want to change the president and the government. We are tired of this regime. Nothing has changed."

"The protests will continue until we realise all the demands of the revolution - bread, freedom and social justice," said Ahmed Salama, 28, a protester camped out with dozens of others in Tahrir.

In a statement in response to yesterday's violence, Morsi said the state would not hesitate in "pursuing the criminals and delivering them to justice". He urged Egyptians to respect the principles of the revolution by expressing views peacefully.

The president is due to meet later today with the National Defence Council to discuss the violence.

Saturday 26 January 2013

http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/riot-kills-22-in-egypt-after-death-sentences-for-football-hooligans-8468099.html

Fire guts Bangladesh garment factory, six killed

Fire raced through a small garment factory in the Bangladesh capital on Saturday, killing at least six employees and injuring 10, firefighters and witnesses said, two months after the country's worst factory blaze killed 112 workers.

Fire service officials said the fire at Smart Fashions, housed in the upper floor of a two-storey building in the suburb of Mohammadpur, appeared to start in a tyre repair and welding shop downstairs. But the exact cause was still to be determined.

Firefighters and police combed the building after the blaze was brought under control and pulled out six bodies.

"Everything inside the factory has been gutted," a Reuters photographer said.

A fire at Tazreen Fashions Limited in a Dhaka suburb in November killed 112 workers and injured at least 150, a blaze that focused world attention on poor safety standards in the country's garment sector.

Working conditions at Bangladeshi factories are notoriously poor, with little enforcement of safety laws. Overcrowding and locked fire doors are common.

Bangladesh has about 4,500 garment factories and is the world's biggest exporter of clothing after China, with garments making up 80 percent of its $24 billion annual exports.

Officials in the industry have demanded quick implementation of recommendations to improve standrds in a report that concluded the Tazreen blaze was the result of both sabotage and negligence.

Western clothing brands, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc(WMT.N), have announced tougher measures to ensure safety standards are upheld.

Saturday 26 January 2013

http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/01/26/bangladesh-fire-garment-factory-idINDEE90P03L20130126

NIST biometric workshop studies voice, dental, oral standards, DVI

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will host a workshop to discuss proposed supplements to the biometric data format standard that support voice recognition, dental and oral data, disaster victim identification and special data needs for mobile ID applications. The ANSI NIST-ITL Standard Workshop 2013 will meet Jan. 28-30, 2013, at the NIST Gaithersburg, Md., campus.

Biometric data standards specify formats and data necessary to accurately exchange biometric identification information between different agencies and systems. In November 2011, NIST published a revised biometric data transfer standard* that greatly expanded the type and amount of information forensic scientists can share across international networks to identify victims and support criminal investigations. A little more than a year after the 2011 revision, two working groups will be presenting proposed additions to the standard.

A proposed data record developed by one working group for recognizing voices could enable law enforcement agencies to identify, for example, a caller of potential interest by matching their voice sample to voice data collected from prior bookings. The standard data record would note the type of recording equipment used and other details useful in the analysis of the voice recording.

A working group of international dental and forensic experts has developed a draft dental and oral biometric data record that would ease identification of bodies in disasters such as an airplane crash. For instance, if bodies are burned beyond recognition, photographs or fingerprints might not offer practical means of identification; in such instances, forensic analysts turn next to dental and oral information. Developing this standard was challenging due to the variety of ways dentists around the keep dental records, but could offer an interoperable mechanism to exchange such information in the future.

"Oral" measurements and images include attributes such as lip prints and soft palate impressions. Lip prints can sometimes be linked to specific persons and may be found on objects at crime scenes.

The proposed Dental and Oral Supplement would enable the exchange of images and descriptions of pattern injuries on persons, some of which may resemble bite marks, and to allow transmission of imagery such as X-rays and sonograms.

The workshop also will collect information to develop recommended best practices for identifying disaster victims. A panel will discuss the use of various biometric data in identifying victims, including DNA, facial characteristics, tattoos, dental records and fingerprints. This project is in conjunction with the international Scientific Working Group for Disaster Victim Identification (www.swgdvi.org/index.html).

An entire day will be spent considering a special "lighter" data format for mobile ID systems—to reduce the amount of information required and speed up data transmission—for agents or warfighters in the field. For instance, this could facilitate use of a handheld device that would keep one arm free at all times for the data-gatherer's safety—not requiring data entry on a keyboard.

NIST will also be sharing and requesting comments on its idea to develop a database and tools to facilitate development of automated systems that can be used to identify certain unique objects such as bullets, cartridges, tire tracks, shoe prints and inks.

Workshop information: http://www.nist.gov/itl/iad/ig/ansi_workshop_2013.cfm

Saturday 26 January 2013

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-01/nios-nbw012513.php

Tombstone: The Untold Story of Mao's Great Famine

In 1959, Yang Jisheng watched the uncle who raised him starve to death during Mao's Great Famine. In 2008, he published Tombstone in Chinese in Hong Kong. The tome took him over a decade to research and acts as an exhaustive monument to the tens of millions who died during the worst famine recorded in world history. Yang begins the story by attempting to make sense of his own childhood tragedy.

He was a schoolboy in the late 1950s and editor of his school newspaper, Young Communist. Like the majority of his generation bought up on a diet of propaganda, he was an ardent believer in Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In spring 1959, Yang returned to his home village from school to discover his uncle on his deathbed. Anything edible had long since being consumed: the dogs had been cooked, the elm tree in their yard stripped for bark to boil, the pond dredged for molluscs. Yang came bearing rice, but it was too late.

Some 36 million died during the Great Famine, according to the author. (The Dutch historian Frank Dikötter has gone further, calculating that 45 million died in his book Mao's Great Famine.) Yang points out that the famine occurred during a period of normal climate patterns with no wars or epidemics. Yet its death toll was greater than the First World War.

Famines, as the Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen argues, are political: no large famine has ever occurred in a country with a democratic leadership and free press. The Great Famine was a result of Mao's disastrous Great Leap Forward in which he extolled rapid industrialisation and agricultural collectivisation. Yet when the polices went wrong, there was no one to correct them. The Party controlled every outlet of information. For his part, Yang believed for years that his uncle's demise was an isolated tragedy rather than directly caused by the state's actions.

Tombstone is therefore a bold plea for China to take responsibility. So far, it has gone unheeded. The Great Famine is still referred to erroneously as the "three years of natural disasters" in the mainland. Any official acknowledgement of the tragedy is unforthcoming, largely because the Party which oversaw the disaster remains in power today. Tellingly, Tombstone is banned in mainland China and no full account of the famine has ever been published there.

For this reason, Tombstone is a vital testament of a largely buried era. Wisely, Yang's superb translators Stacy Mosher and Guo Jian have cut the book to one volume for the English edition. It is not a Western-style historical narrative. Rather, Yang has provided an exhaustive, unrelenting log of abuses. Key to the book is uncovering the role of violence, which added to the toll.

Officials falsified data to meet procurement quotas. Peasants were forced to hand over grain and rely on communal kitchens. Those who objected, or who tried to hide grain, were tortured or starved to death. Some were hung upside down and beaten; others had bamboo driven into their hands or had their ears cut off. Ideology more often than not trumped common sense. Parts of Tombstone are particularly sobering because of Yang's non-sensationalist presentation of data. Survival techniques are no less shocking. Many of the starving turned to cannibalism, digging up dead bodies to cook.

Why did China's leaders allow such erroneous policies to continue? Mao, and other leaders, knew what was going on but refused to change their course. Yang is, above all, at pains to blame the system of totalitarianism. Democracy, he concludes, is the only solution which will prevent further catastrophes

Tombstone: The Untold Story of Mao's Great Famine, By Yang Jisheng, trans. Stacy Mosher and Guo Jian

Saturday 26 January 2013

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/tombstone-the-untold-story-of-maos-great-famine-by-yang-jisheng-trans-stacy-mosher-and-guo-jian-8465446.html

Update: Six, including centenarian, killed in illegal Mahim slum blaze

A major fire broke out in an illegal slum cluster in Mahim before dawn on Friday, killing six persons, including four from one family. It is being claimed that one of the deceased was over 100 years old.

The bodies were charred beyond recognition and were identified by relatives on the basis of the places they were found in. The police have refused to release the bodies, saying DNA tests have to be done.

Witnesses said the fire started around 5.15am in a hardware godown and spread in Naya Nagar. The flames leapt easily from one shanty to another in the packed cluster of about 1,300 one to four-storey structures. Four cylinders in the shanties also blew up, fanning the flames.

The fire brigade reached around 5.32am and took about two hours to control the fire. By that time, at least 100 shanties had been gutted. Residents said the flames were so strong that cars and streetlights across the road were also damaged.

Fire-fighters said the eight fire engines pressed into service could not pass through the narrow lanes and they had carry the water pipes to the affected area. "It was difficult to fight the fire in the slum. The fire was spreading quickly because there were godowns of wooden and plastic material," said a senior official.

The dead were identified as Safi Mohammed (106), Sadil Hamisa Sayed (45), Asatullah Sayed (28) and Chanda Sayed (18), all from one family, and Chand Mohammed (45) and Babloo Verma (27). Locals said Safi Mohammed was bed-ridden and couldn't run to save himself. The rest of the family got trapped as their house was almost at the epicentre of the blaze.

"The Sayed family had shifted to this area only a few months ago. Asatullah Sayed was visiting and would have stayed another week," said Saru Bano, a neighbour.

Nine persons suffered burns and were taken to Bhabha hospital in Bandra. "It was a stampede-like situation. People just woke up and rushed out of their homes. After some cylinders burst, people began dragging out the cylinders in their house," said Rizwan Siddique, who managed to escape the flames.

The Naya Nagar slum on collector's land near Sion-Trombay road in Mahim has not been notified as legal because most of the structures came up after 1995, some as recent as six months ago.

"According to our records, the slum is illegal. The decision whether compensation will be given will be the state government's," said Chandrashekhar Oak, collector.

Saturday 26 January 2013

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Six-including-centenarian-killed-in-illegal-Mahim-slum-blaze/articleshow/18189986.cms

Second Malaysian identified in Algeria hostage crisis

The death of a second Malaysian worker in the Algerian hostage crisis has been confirmed after his body was identified by his dental records and a tattoo, the Malaysian foreign ministry said on Saturday.

The man, Tan Ping Wee, had been unaccounted for since Islamist militants attacked the In Amenas gas plant in the north African desert on January 16.

"Tan Ping Wee's body was identified by the forensic team through his dental records as well as confirmation of his tattoo by his family," Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said in a statement.

Two other Malaysians working at the plant returned home Wednesday while another had stayed in Algiers to help locate Tan, the last Malaysian unaccounted for following the attack.

According to preliminary estimates by the Algerian authorities, 37 foreign hostages and 29 kidnappers died in the Islamist attack against the gas field and in the military operation that followed.

The hostage-takers were demanding the release of Islamist prisoners and an end to France's intervention in Mali.

Saturday 26 January 2013

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/second-malaysian-found-dead-algeria-crisis-govt-062444832.html

Mazaruni River crash deaths climb to nine

With the recovery of four more bodies, the death toll from Tuesday’s Mazaruni River collision was up to nine at press time last night, and while search efforts will continue for the missing the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) has signalled plans for stricter policing of the country’s major marine centres.

The bodies of Keanu Amsterdam, 17, of Barr Street, Kitty and Bartica, Deon Moses, 33, of Lot 6 Norton Street, Wortmanville, Kevon Ambrose, 25, of Vergenoegen, East Bank Essequibo and Brazilian national Francisco Olivera Alves, 48, were recovered during continuing search efforts yesterday.

Previously confirmed dead were Jermaine Calistro, 27, of Boodhoo Housing Scheme, East Bank Essequibo, whose body was found hours after the collision; Ulrick Grimes, 39, of Salem, East Bank Essequibo, who was found by relatives around 9 pm on Wednesday; Christopher Ramnarine, 21, of Parika, East Bank Essequibo, and Zahir Baksh, 34, of Kaneville, East Bank Demerara, who were found on Thursday morning; and Jewan Seeram of Tuschen, whose body was found by searchers on Thursday night.

Up to press time, Ricky Bobb, 27, of Barr Street, Kitty, who is the brother of Amsterdam, remained unaccounted for, although Region Seven Chairman Gordon Bradford maintained that the continuing operation was trying to locate two persons. The bodies are floating up in the vicinity of the operations camp which was set up three days ago.

A report on the collision, prepared by Director of Maritime Safety Stephen Thomas, yesterday confirmed that the small open boat “Dube” collided with another small open boat “Mattrani” in the Mazaruni River on Tuesday around 12:30 pm, in the Crab Falls area, as they were navigating the point of an island. The Dube, with 10 persons on board and a quantity of cargo, was travelling from Parika and was destined for Puruni, while the Mattrani was leaving Puruni and was destined for Parika through Bartica, when the accident occurred, the report said.

As a result of the collision, a female passenger from the Dube was hurled overboard but she was subsequently rescued. The report noted that the vessel suffered extensive damages but the master managed to beach it on a nearby river bank and all those onboard were saved although some sustained various injuries. “The Mattrani suffered extensive damages and sank almost instantaneously,” it added, while noting that the master and bowman survived along with two passengers.

There remained conflicting accounts of how many were aboard the Mattrani up to yesterday, with MARAD saying the number ranges from 12 to 14. All of the dead were passengers on that vessel.

After further searches some miles from the Crab Falls crash site, Amsterdam’s decomposed body was discovered floating around 7:15 am yesterday and was immediately identified by family members, who were on the search team.

Amsterdam was reported to have been taken up by another person on the boat to work on some machinery. The man’s grandfather had told this newspaper that Amsterdam showed a great interest in mechanics and was pursuing it.

Before the recovery of Moses’ body, his wife Joan was clinging to the hope that her husband was still alive. She was praying for his safe return up to yesterday morning, but his decomposing body was found several hours later by searchers.

She said her husband had been returning home to surprise her. “When I spoke to him, he said, ‘Sweetie, I am coming home to surprise you. Please don’t put the food in the fridge; I am coming home to eat it.” That was the last word she heard from him. Stabroek News was unable to contact the families of Ambrose and Olivera Alves.

An army official said that that there is no way that Bobb could be alive and that they are conducting a search and recovery operation for his body. Bradford, who is related to Moses, Amsterdam and Bobb, told Stabroek News that the search and recovery operation was dangerous because of the rapids in the river. He said the scorching sun also added to the already difficult task.

The accident, which occurred a month after a similar collision in the Pomeroon River that claimed six lives, has put marine safety under scrutiny.

Thomas’ report noted that MARAD has commenced its investigation to find out what went wrong and how to prevent future occurrences of such accidents.

The January 25, 2012 report, which was addressed to Transport Minister Robeson Benn and which was released to the press, identified a number of steps to be undertaken by MARAD towards preventing recurrences. It said MARAD will deploy marine safety officers at all major marine centres across the country. “They will be actively monitoring and controlling the operations of boats in these areas,” it said.

All vessels will have to prepare a crew and passenger list and deposit a copy with “a responsible person” at the points of departure and destination; all captains and bowmen will have to be licence in accordance with Maritime Standards; and the use of life vests on all boats must be strictly enforced, Thomas’ report said.

The report noted that according to the master of the Mattrani, whose name was given as Devon Thomas, 29, of Bransford Point, Bartica, there were 12 persons including himself and his bowman Seeram of Parika. However, the report added that one of the survivors said there were 14 persons on board.

The report identified the Mattrani’s passengers as Thomas; Seeram; Francisca Rodrigues, a 40-year-old Brazilian national of Bartica; and Aubrey Bowen, 29, of Parika, who all survived. Calistro, Grimes, Narine, Baksh, Jewan Seeram and Amsterdam were listed as dead while Bobb, Moses, Alves and an unknown person were listed as missing. It is believed that Ambrose is the unknown person on the list. No names were given for the other persons who were abroad the other vessel.

It was stated that MARAD is currently coordinating efforts to search for the victims of the accident and is being assisted by the Guyana Defence Force, the police, the regional administration and other volunteers.

In wake of the accident, concerns were raised about the quality of life jackets that were being worn by some of the passengers. One survivor had related that even though some persons were wearing life jackets, they were still going below the water surface.

Asked about this issue yesterday, Benn said that the passengers wearing life jackets were going under because they did not properly fasten their jackets. He said that there were also instances where persons were not wearing life jackets at all.

He said that there seems to be a culture of persons travelling in boats and not wearing a jacket at all or neglecting to fasten them. It is mostly men who engage in these practices, he noted.

Benn further stated that as the boats were heading to their respective destinations, they kept dropping off and picking up passengers. He said that the boat heading ‘down’ might have picked up more persons than it had jackets for.

He explained that the persons that drowned either did not secure their lifejackets or were not wearing any because there were more persons than life jackets.

Asked about the quality of lifejackets used by the passengers, he said that they were properly specified and demonstrated to persons. He noted that people were able to see that they met the required specifications.

Saturday 26 January 2013

http://www.stabroeknews.com/2013/news/stories/01/26/mazaruni-river-crash-deaths-climb-to-nine/

Amansea Tragedy: 15 Bodies To Be Exhumed For Full Autopsy

Following initial results of the ongoing autopsy being carried out on some of the bodies evacuated from Ezu River in Amansea area of Awka North Council of Anambra State, which were discovered last Saturday, the 15 other corpses already buried in mass graves at the banks of the river are now to be exhumed for full autopsy.

Commissioner for Health, Dr. Lawrence Ikeakor, who disclosed this while addressing journalists Friday on Ezu River bridge on the progress made so far to unravel the cause of deaths, stated that the autopsy on the 19 bodies would now begin on Monday.

“The autopsy will help to arrive at a comprehensive report,” he said, adding that the first autopsy carried out on three corpses on Thursday was quite revealing.

But he did not disclose full details of what had been found in their bodies on Thursday, even as he urged the public to be patient.

He appealed to members of the public to stop speculating on what caused their deaths and expressed optimism that the truth would eventually be known.

Also speaking, Commissioner for Local Government, Mrs. Azuka Enemuo explained that the state government considered the incident very worrisome and barbaric, adding that since the discoveries, the government had been trying to ascertain the actual cause or causes of the incident.

She, however, assured that adequate measures had been taken to address the problems of Amansea community by constantly supplying water to the residents, whose only source of water for domestic and economic uses had been polluted with the dumping of decomposing bodies in Ezu River by yet-to-be-identified persons.

Mrs. Enemuo said: “This is a river, which is at the boundary between Enugu and Anambra States. It actually runs from somewhere in Agbogu, Enugu State, through Oji River, crosses Anambra State and empties into River Niger.

“It is obvious that these corpses are floating from somewhere and I can tell you we haven’t seen the last of it.

“We cannot say the actual number of corpses because they are still floating down into Anambra State.”

Senator Chris Ngige, in whose zone the affected communities fall, during a visit to the area on Thursday assured them that the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), would soon visit the area with medical and other forms of assistance for the people.

He donated 6,000 cartons of water to the affected community and flagged off the sinking of a fresh borehole at Ngige Square in Amansea to provide alternative source of water supply, adding that more would be sunk at Ebenebe, Ugbenu Ugbenu, Awba Ofemili, Amanuke and Mgbakwu, this year.

In the same vein, a frontline politician and philanthropist, Dr. Obinna Uzoh also donated 15,000 bags of sachet water, 500 cartons of bottled water and some amount of money for the purchase of water treatment chemicals to Amansea community to ameliorate their problems.

Uzor, who made the donation through their traditional ruler, Igwe Kenneth Okonkwo, strongly condemned the dumping of corpses in the river.

“I have come to commiserate with the Igwe and the entire community over this ugly and satanic incident, to assist the people and provide them with drinking water, give my moral and other material support,” he said.

He called for urgent steps to be taken to provide permanent solution to the water pollution problem.

Saturday 26 January 2013

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=111571:amansea-tragedy-15-bodies-to-be-exhumed-for-full-autopsy-&catid=1:national&Itemid=559

Dozens killed in Venezuela prison riot

At least 54 people were killed and 88 others wounded in clashes at a prison in Venezuela's northwestern city of Barquisimeto, a hospital director who was at the scene has said.

Most of those injured at the Uribana prison in Lara state late on Friday suffered gunshot wounds, Ruy Medina, the hospital official said.

Among the dead are a pastor and a member of the National Guard - the rest are said to be inmates, the hospital director said.

He called the death toll "alarming", saying it was based solely on bodies brought to the hospital.

Saying that "prisons need to be places of re-education not for crimes and mafia", Nicholas Maduro, Venezuelan vice president, said an "immediate investigation" had been launched into the circumstances surrounding the deaths.

Medina said the inmates began arriving at the hospital shortly before midday, and that 14 of the injured had wounds severe enough to require surgery.

Iris Varela, the government minister responsible for Venezuela's jails and prisons, said the riot was set off after inmates rebelled when prison authorities launched a sweep of the facility in search of illicit weapons.

Varela had said earlier in the day that there was an "undetermined number" of casualties from the melee.

The state of Venezuelan prisons have often been called into question, especially for their overcrowding, which is among the worst in Latin America.

While the country's prisons have been built to house 14,000 inmates, there are almost 50,000 prisoners behind bars

Saturday 26 January 2013

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/01/201312615326992465.html