Tornado kills 20 in Brahmanbaria

At least 20 people, including a child, were killed and more than 300 others injured when a tornado ripped through scores of villages in Brahmanbaria district on Friday afternoon.

The district’s Deputy Commissioner Nur Mohammad Majumder told reporters late Friday night the causalities took place when a tornado lashed several villages at the Sadar, Bijoynagar and Akhaura Upazilas at around 5pm.

Residential Medical Officer at Brahmanbaria Sadar Hospital Dr Abu Syed told bdnews24.com that there were bodies of six people at the hospital who were killed in the nor'wester.

Dr Shah Alam of Akhaura Upazila Health Complex said that five of the six people admitted to the hospital died from their injuries later.

Of the deceased, seven were identified.

The 13 others could not be immediately named.

DC Nur Mohammad Majumder told bdnews24.com jailkeeper Masudur Rahman died on the spot after a portion of the boundary wall of the jail collapsed due to the violent storm.

Akhaura Police Station Sub-Inspector Zakir Hossain confirmed the deaths of Joynal and Sumi during the storm.

Mashiur Rahman Selim, Chairman of Ramrail Union Parishad of the Sadar Upazila, said Taher Mia was killed in wall collapse during the storm.

One Atul Mia confirmed that his maternal uncle Jhanu Chowdhury died on the spot after a tree fell on him during the storm.

Dr Abu Syed of Brahmanbaria Sadar Hospital said that physicians at the hospital’s Emergency Department pronounced four, including Lovely and Dolly, dead after they had been taken there.

He said of the two unidentified men, one was aged about 22 while another about 45.

DC Majumder said many houses and standing crops on a huge swathe of land were badly damaged by the tornado.

The storm uprooted scores of trees and electric poles as it swept through Urshiura and its surrounding villages of the Sadar Upazila at around 5pm, he added.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed deep shock at the loss of lives and properties in the nor'wester and asked the officials to take necessary measures for rescuing the trapped people.

Her Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad told bdnews24.com that the Prime Minister directed authorities to rehabilitate the affected families, provide those injured with proper treatment and support including food and clothes.

She prayed for those who died and conveyed deep sympathy to the bereaved families.

The government will provide relief to the victims.

“Each families of the dead will receive Tk 20 000 , those who have been injured will receive Tk 3,000 and rice weighing up to 30 kg,” Shaheenur Rahman, Information Officer for the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief told bdnews24.com.

Those with damaged homes will be provided with tin to rebuild their houses and Tk 3,000 with every parcel of tin that is allotted, he added.

Mohammad Abdul Wazed, Director General for the Department for Disaster Management and Relief, said the Deputy Commissioner of Brahmanbaria was directed to provide assistance.

Friday 22 March 2013

http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2013/03/22/tornado-kills-14-in-brahmanbaria

Into the wake of the quake: A witness to the Japanese Tsunami

Two years ago this month, an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale off the northeastern coast of Japan unleashed the energy of 600 million Hiroshima bombs, followed by massive seismic tidal waves. The world's media reported intently on the resulting destruction, especially since it triggered the meltdown of a nuclear power plant. Then international attention moved on, but Gretel Ehrlich chose to go to the heart, both physically and emotionally, of what became "a wild place of total devastation," where one hundred years of modernization seem to have been erased in one afternoon."

Ehrlich, renowned author of 15 books of nature writing, fiction, poetry and more, was no stranger to Japan, having spent much time there since childhood. She is a longtime student of Japanese poetry and writing. One of her most famous books details her experience of being struck by lightning. But nothing could have really prepared her for what she witnessed in the months following the "Three sorrows: quake, tsunami, meltdown." Traveling widely with local people through the most-impacted areas, she gives voice to over 30 local survivors -- fisherman, farmers, Buddhist priests and nuns, families ripped apart and decimated. Entire villages, including schools, hospitals, factories -- everything -- were swept away. Bodies were found in trees and hand stuck up out of mud. Hungry, cold -- it was snowing that horrible day -- the surviving "internal refugees" were left to wander and attempt to piece lives together while searching for corpses to burn and mourn in "a world of lost lives, illegible debris and sorrow."

Simultaneously, "the worst maritime contamination disaster in recorded history" was underway at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, with over 200,000 surviving residents evacuated. The extent of the radiation and risk and quality of the response were -- and are -- debated, and will take decades to truly determine. There was yet another breakdown in technology there this past week, and allegations of cover-ups of real risks and longterm impacts. But for many at ground zero, that unknown cloud results in what feels like "a futureless future."

The overwhelming tragedy, perhaps unsurprisingly, brought out both the best and worst in people. Looting and fraud occurred, but from Ehrlich's skilled reportage, it seems many more people responded with self-sacrifice in helping others. People tell of many large and small efforts to feed and comfort others, even when they have little to nothing to give. Monks begged for funds and baked bread to take to the disaster zone; temples and homes became shelters and morgues. Older men volunteered to work at the reactor to spare the young. Many risked their own health to rescue lost animals. Ehrlich strives to record it all and to make sense of the human dynamic: "To say that the tsunami survivors' attitude towards their tremendous loss is stoicism would be to underestimate the complexity of their response. Courage and self-discipline are evident everywhere... but the pain of loss is staggering; there's confusion, nightmarish fear, and there are suicides."

Yet Ehrlich, who stayed in Japan for nine months following the quake, finds and ends on notes of perseverance and hope. "We've been laughing alot -- I don't know why" marvels a Buddhist abbot's wife, who lost and suffered much. "The tsunami is past. We must think about the future," the abbott himself counsels. As Ehrlich concludes, "We can see the pain of loss and swing the other way, encountering the unexpected joy of survival." Her own account, both harrowing and beautifully told, in this brief but unforgettable book is itself a heartrending and unexpected marvel.

FACING THE WAVE: A Journey in the Wake of the Tsunami
By Gretel Ehrlich
Pantheon; 240 pages

Friday 22 March 2013

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-heilig/facing-the-wave-a-journey-in-the-wake-of-the-tsunami_b_2919931.html

Philippine government offers to assist in identifying the remains of Sulu gunmen

Not discounting the possibility of Malaysians being among the slain gunmen, the Philippine government has offered to assist in identifying the remains of the enemy that were retrieved from two villages at Felda Sahabat here since Sunday.

Philippine Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Jesus J. Yabes said families of the intruders who were killed here are concerned as they are in the dark over the matter.

"We hope the Malaysian government will provide us with details of those killed. We understand there may be difficulty identifying the bodies but we are willing to assist.

"We have our own ways of identifying these bodies as to which family they belong to. There may also be non-Filipinos among them." he told theSun during a visit at the Felda Sahabat Residence Resort.

When asked if he believed there may be Malaysians among the dead gunmen, he said: "Why not? These days in armed conflicts all over the world, it is no longer a single nationality fighting a cause but others who share the same interests integrate and fight together."

To date, security forces have gunned down 57 terrorists of the group that was sent on the orders of Sulu chieftain Jamalul Kiram.

According to him, Philippine President (Benigno Aquino III) has sent officials to meet Jamalul to resolve and end the resistance to avoid more bloodshed.

"We understand Malaysia has its interests and security to protect but we are also here on the humanitarian aspect as we are concerned about the welfare of our nationals living here.

"Legal assistance to Filipinos detained by security forces, if the need arises, will be offered by us. Those in detention should be tried according to the law and treated humanely. We have a policy where we render legal assistance to our nationals even if they have been held for serious crimes." he said.

Yabes, who was accompanied by officials from his ministry and the embassy in Kuala Lumpur, also spent almost an hour at Kampung Batu Batu, a Suluk settlement in Felda Sahabat.

Azman Buyong, a Sulu contract worker at the village who holds Malaysian permanent residence status, told theSun the intrusion had disrupted the daily lives of villagers in the area.

"Loss of income and the fear we face are causing us hardship. The Sulu community lives peacefully with others and we have been treated well. We are against what the intruders are doing and support all action by the police to put an end to it," he said.

Azman said security forces should have moved in on the gunmen much earlier and not given them more than a week to surrender.

Friday 22 March 2013

http://www.thesundaily.my/news/642893

Missing bodies: Araria police to investigate organ smuggler syndicates

Are bodies of those who died due to thunder being smuggled and sold at an exorbitant price in foreign countries by a smuggler syndicate operating along the Indo-Nepal border? ArariaSPShivdeepLande, replying in the affirmative, said the racket of smuggling of human organs and that of human bodies will be busted soon. Although these villagers are Hindus, they are buried when they die of thunder. Poverty makes it extremely difficult for their relatives to collect firewood for their last rites.

The disappearance of buried bodies of villagers who died due to thunder from Madhulata village under Raniganj PS in Araria district, 35 km from here has posed a problem for the police. Lande said two such bodies were taken out from the grave by a gang of smugglers and when the villagers objected to it, the smugglers' gang paid a sum of Rs 3,000 each to their sons and asked them to come to their Forbesganj office to receive Rs 15,000.

The smugglers, posing as government officials, told villagers that the bodies had been exhumed to verify the claim and payment to be made to their kin. The bodies, which had been taken out from the grave by the smugglers, were that of Neti Rishideo and Naibat Rishideo, Lande said.

Their relatives including sons as well as villagers narrated a shocking story of theft of bodies by the gang members whom they can recognize on seeing. Lande has visited the village twice on the complaints of the relatives of Neti Rishideo and Naibat Rishideo. Within three days of their death, the bodies were taken out clandestinely by the smugglers, the SP said.

All this came to the fore after ivory was recovered from the possession of one, Abdul Mazid Khan, who is in jail facing charges of theft of animal bone and subsequent confessional statements of some of his accomplices. The judicial magistrate himself recorded statements in some cases of theft of ivory and antiques and subsequent recovery.

Meanwhile, bodies of Kumod Singh and his wife, Rina Devi, of Kamalpur village under Raniganj PS (lightning killed them), were exhumed by the smugglers from their graves near Kajradhar, 28 km from here. On the complaint of villagers, the SP, who visited the burial ground from where the bodies were stolen, said smugglers stole only bodies of those who died of lightning or thunder.

The villagers told police that smugglers came and gave some money to them and told them that they were government officials and had come here to verify the bodies so that their family members could get compensation and then took away the bodies with them.

Meanwhile, a smuggler, Abdul Majid Khan, posing to be a member of a Kolkata-based company was allowed by the CJM court, Araria, to be taken on remand on the prayer of the police and SSB, Araria, to quiz him.

Friday 22 March 2013

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Araria-police-get-after-vital-organ-smugglers/articleshow/19118768.cms

The city of the dead

One of the most extraordinary areas of Cairo is the city of the dead, as a testament to the interest of people in the afterlife while their worldly lives continue.

Travellers and chroniclers, like the famous Moroccan Ibn-Batuta who visited Cairo in the fourteenth century, were impressed by the Al-Qarafa or Al-Gabana district. They were fascinated by the strikingly ornamented domes and mosques, its well-organised districts and gardens, and amazed by the fact that this pleasant neighbourhood was established entirely for deceased residents. According to Egyptian historians the Al-Maqrizi, the Al-Qarafa is named after a Yemeni tribe called Qorafa which dwelt in the area.

Al-Qarafa extends from the Moqattam hill in East Cairo to Al-Azhar Street in the heart of Fatimid Cairo; the place was historically known as the city of domes due to the high number of domes and mosques. Since the Mamluk era kings and princes built mosques and domes as their final resting places in this area of the city, although the habit of building a specific building for burial began much earlier in Egypt with the pyramids. The practice did not disappear with the pharaohs, but continued into the Islamic era.

The first man to develop this area of the city was a Mamluk Sultan called Beibers. Sultan Beibers established in Al-Qarafa, which then was outside Cairo’s boundary walls and gates, a racetrack which staged horse races and competitions between knights and princes. Beibers also exploited the area as a training ground for the soldiers in his army.

The first to build a tomb for himself in Al-Qarafa was Sultan Al-Zaher Barkouk and the remains of the dome can still be seen. Sultan Farag, the son of Al-Zaher imitated his father and built a tomb and a Khanqa that carries his own name. Khanqa is a Persian word, which was the language of the Mamluks and the Egyptian elite at the time; it means a large mosque which includes a school for teaching Islamic jurisprudence and rooms for foreign students and teachers.

Many sultans and princes followed Sultan Farag’s lead and built mosques and domes in the area as shrines, like Sultan Enal, Sultan Al-Ashraf Bersbay and Sultan Qaytbay. Most of them, however, were not buried in their mosques for many reasons; some died in battles outside Egypt and many others were killed by conspirators and their bodies were thrown in the Nile.

The miraculous structure and adornment of these mosques means the City of the Dead is a perfect historical tourism site. “Many tourists come to visit Al-Qarafa and the number of tourists increased after the revolution, despite the volatile security situation,” said Abdullah Saad, archaeologist and manager of the monument area.

Al-Qarafa is divided into two areas, West Al-Qarafa, teeming with Mamluk mosques and tombs, and East Al-Qarafa, at the foot of the hill of Moqattam. “The eastern area was used as a graveyard even before the domination of Islam in Egypt,” Saad said. “Egyptians believed that they were blessed by burying their dead at Moqattam because they thought it was a part of heaven.”

It is said that after the Muslim conquest of Egypt, the old Egyptian rulers offered a huge bid to purchase the Moqattam Mountain from the Muslim rulers due to the honour and revere Copts and Egyptians hold for this location. Many Sufi sheikhs and imams were also buried in East Al-Qarafa, including Ibn Al-Fared and Al-Shafei.

In the recent past a project was submitted to the former minister of monuments and antiquities Zahi Hawas to restore and renovate the complete Al-Qarafa area and turn it into a closed tourist area, but the project was rejected.

“The government must do something in favour of this historic area, all renovation projects were stopped and the view of the monuments is disappearing between the highrising housing blocks that encroach on the area. It would be a big mistake to neglect such a rich area as Al-Qarafa,” Saad said.

Friday 22 March 2013

http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2013/03/21/the-city-of-the-dead/

Death toll from heavy rains climbs to 30 in Brazil

,br> The death toll from torrential downpours lashing the mountain areas of southeast Brazil has reached 30, Civil Defense authorities said yesterday.

Rescue workers found two more bodies that had been buried by a landslide in Petropolis of Rio de Janeiro state, and two people were still missing, the authorities said.

Rescuers were searching for the missing in another area where a landslide buried several homes.

Latest report from the Civil Defense said 44 people were injured because of the heavy rains, and three of them in critical condition.

As many as 1,234 local residents were displaced, either because of the risk of more landslides or their badly damaged houses.

Petropolis, a mountain resort with a distance of 70 km from Rio and home to 300,000 inhabitants, was hit hard by torrential rains on Sunday and Monday.

Friday 22 March 2013

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=526620&type=World

Bringing back the missing of WWII

From World War I through the Gulf War, the United States military suffered 631,628 casualties and had 94,416 brave souls missing and unaccounted for. World War II alone accounts for 405,399 of those casualties and 78,978 missing soldiers.

“That is a staggering amount of missing men. And you have to think to yourself, each one of them had a family that loved them.”

Ken Crawford is a 1969 graduate of Wabash College and returned to the Lovell Lecture Room in Baxter Hall to talk about his work to bring home the missing World War II servicemen from battlefields in Europe.

As chief of the Engineering Division for the 21st Theater Support Command, Crawford supported the search and recovery missions by the U.S. Army Memorial Affairs Activity, Landstuhl, Germany, with the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command throughout Europe, from 1997 through 2002.

Through specific examples of excavations that he was a part of, Crawford detailed the process of recovering a missing soldier even five decades after his death.

“First there is the investigation, which can get very interesting. Often times we receive tips from locals who can still recall the plane crashes and point out where they went down,” he said, adding that many of the tips come from people searching for American .50 caliber guns or scrap metal from the engines.

The next step is search and recovery, which can take a very long time. First they need to identify the type plane by way of serial numbers and then hopefully find the tail number. That should be able to give them a list of the flight crew and narrow their search down.

“It’s a very methodical process, digging in four by four squares one foot deep at time.”

Archaeologists, engineer and translators run the dig, but much of the heavy lifting and sifting is done by special forces units.

One example Crawford gave was of three American soldiers who all died in their foxhole in Belgium. They appeared to take mortar fire and the Germans simply covered their foxhole when they marched through.

Once their bodies were identified, the families of the soldiers decided to have them buried together in a cemetery in Belgium.

“They died together, so we buried them together,” Crawford said. “It was a beautiful ceremony.”

Another example, also in Belgium, was of a pilot who went down with his P-38. The surviving brother of the pilot was at the site, and when the team recovered the pilot’s Second Lieutenant bars, they presented the brother with them in a small ceremony.

“That was really touching to see.”

There are 146 national cemeteries, including Arlington Cemetery in Washington D.C. and the Normandy American Cemetery in France. Crawford said men he helped recover have been laid to rest in many of them. Many cemeteries have a wall of the missing; the wall in Normandy contains 1,500 names alone.

“Whenever we recover a body and lay him to rest, his name receives a rosette next to it which signifies he’s been recovered.”

Through his talk it was apparent that although it was a dirty job at times, Crawford took joy in the bright moments. He gave one surviving airman a piece of his recovered B-17 bomber that crashed over Germany after the pilot flew too low and he presented a farmer in Romania with a helmet, a rifle and bayonet that were uncovered with the body of an American soldier in his garden once the investigation was through.

“It is a long and difficult trail to find everyone. We were lucky to find as many as we did,” Crawford said in his closing. “There are so many guys that went missing. That’s just a fact of war. But the important thing is this — the Department of Defense is still searching.”

Friday 22 March 2013

http://www.journalreview.com/news/article_fdf1bc58-928e-11e2-be06-0019bb2963f4.html

Dignity in death is passé with rise in number of unclaimed bodies

While dignity during life time can be ensured by the living person, it becomes the bounden duty of the near and dear ones of that person to ensure that there is dignity in death. While some are lucky in getting a dignified send off, some are not. There are those who are left to die uncared for by the roadside, some whose identity is not known, others who are abandoned in hospital after being admitted, and some others who are abandoned in hospital after death.

All this because there are no family members in some cases, in others the family members do not have the means to do the last rites, while in some cases there is no inclination. Organisations that are involved in giving a dignified burial to such unclaimed bodies are getting more and more number of bodies with each passing month.

From eight bodies a month in 2004, ‘Thozhar Trust’ now buries more than 30. And, it only seems to be on the increasing trend, according to P. Shanthakumar, Managing Director of the Trust. The Trust has so far buried 1,850 unclaimed bodies from the morgue in Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) with the help of volunteers who include women and college students.

Mr. Shanthakumar says: “Couples without children or with a single child are increasing. Even those who have money are in a situation where the only son or daughter is abroad and someone else has to do the last rites in the event of them not able to arrive at short notice.

In the case of economically weaker sections, it is still worse with sons or family members dumping the dead body, or one who is about to die, on the road”. In addition to these cases are those who have lived as beggars, in old age homes, who die in accidents without identity proof.

There are many children who themselves call up an organisation and express their inability to bury their parent. The minimum cost involved in a burial without religious rituals is estimated to be Rs. 4,000. There is also another side to this state of affairs. There are many elders who call the members of the organisation and ask them to take care of their last rites.

Friday 22 March 2013

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Coimbatore/dignity-in-death-is-pass-with-rise-in-number-of-unclaimed-bodies/article4533456.ece

At least 30 die in boat capsize off Gabon

At least 30 people died when their boat capsized off the Gabonese capital Libreville, AFP journalists and rescue workers said Thursday, the latest disaster off the west African coast.

Police said the boat, which was carrying 65 people thought to be illegal immigrants, capsized in stormy weather overnight as it was travelling from Nigeria to Libreville.

AFP journalists counted 30 bodies lying along the shore, with the boat still visible in the waters of Cape Esterias, which lies about 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Libreville.

A gendarme who requested anonymity said there were at least eight survivors among the passengers thought to be illegal immigrants from Togo, Benin and Burkina Faso.

Last week, a boat carrying an estimated 128 people sank off Nigeria's southern coast. An emergency official said Thursday that 29 people have so far been rescued in that accident, but that the search for survivors is still ongoing.

Thursday 21 March 2013

http://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/-/world/16419711/at-least-30-die-in-boat-capsize-off-gabon-afp/