Nine more bodies recovered from Teknaf shore, death toll from boat capsize rises to 31.

Police recovered the bodies of nine children from Teknaf shore on Friday, raising the death toll from the boat capsize in Bay to 31.

The bodies were retrieved in Dargah Chhara and Habir Chhara areas between 6:00am and 3:00pm, said Didar Ferdous, inspector of Teknaf Police Station.

He said the children were between 10 and 12 years.

The bodies were taken to Teknaf Police Station, reports our correspondent in Cox’s Bazar.

The inspector added that the death toll could rise as reports of floating of more bodies were poring in.

Earlier on Thursday, 22 bodies were recovered from Teknaf shore. The dead include 15 children and three women.

Babul Akhter, additional Police commissioner of Cox’s Bazar, said a trawler had capsized with 200 Rohingyas in Myanmar two days ago and that the 22 dead might be among the victims of the accident.

Ferdous however said a trawler carrying some passengers sank in the Bay of Bengal on Wednesday night, after cyclone Mahasen hit the coastal belts and the dead were among the passengers.

The 22 victims, most of them apparently Myanmar nationals, had set off for Malaysia from Teknaf on Wednesday, Didar added.

Friday 17 May 2013

http://www.thedailystar.net/beta2/news/5-more-children-bodies-recovered/

Remains thought to be lost Diggers

A 68-YEAR wartime mystery may have been solved with the discovery of human remains on a remote island off the coast of Papua New Guinea.

Seven elite Australian soldiers from the top-secret `Z' Special Unit died during a botched mission behind enemy lines called Operation Copper on Muschu Island off the coast of Wewak in northern Papua New Guinea in April 1945.

Sapper Mick Dennis was the sole survivor and five bodies have been accounted for, but the remains of former St George rugby league club first-grade forward Lance Corporal Spencer Walklate, 27, and Private Ron Eagleton, 20, have never been found.

The two men washed up on neighbouring Kairiru Island after putting to sea on logs to try and contact a rescue aircraft. They were captured by Japanese forces and beheaded.

Two officers, Lieutenants Alan Gubbay and Tom Barnes, were drowned and their bodies are in the Lae War Cemetery.

Three other soldiers, Sergeant Malcolm Franou, 26, and Signallers Michael Hagger, 23 and John Chandler, 23 were killed during a Japanese ambush.

An investigation team from the army's Unrecovered War Casualties unit found a burial site on Kairiru two weeks ago after an exhaustive search of Japanese war records and interviews with natives.

Anecdotal evidence led searchers to an old medical waste dump near the site of a Japanese hospital.

After identifying a depression in the ground and some disturbed earth they found bones belonging to two humans.

One was bigger - Walklate was a large man - and the other smaller. Eagleton was slightly built. The bones were taken to an Australian army facility at Bomana War Cemetery near Port Moresby.

A DNA sample has been taken from Spencer Walklate's grandson Todd Walklate from Aberdeen in NSW and DNA from the remains is being tested to establish if there is a match.

Mr Walklate said his three children and two brothers were fascinated by the story of Spencer.

"We didn't know much until a few years ago when I met Mick Dennis," he said.

"The kids think it is amazing and if it is his remains it will be closure for our family. It will be sad and happy because he will finally have a proper burial."

Officials from the Unrecovered War Casualties office were at Bomana cemetery yesterday to examine the remains.

Friday 17 May 2013

http://www.news.com.au/national-news/exclusive-remains-thought-to-be-lost-diggers/story-fncynjr2-1226645600966

Japan: Gov't to standardize electronic dental record formats for use in disasters

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is poised to standardize the formats of electronic dental records for use in body identification in case of major disasters, it has been learned.

The move comes on the heels of the Great East Japan Earthquake, when experts had a hard time identifying the bodies as many of their dental records had been swept away by the tsunami and the remaining records were found in different formats.

In fiscal 2013, the ministry is embarking on a verification project for standardizing the currently unintegrated dental data formats. It is expected that once those formats are standardized and records are compiled into databases in the future, they will be utilized in cases other than disasters as well.

In the March 2011 quake disaster, dental records played a critical part in identifying the bodies of 1,240 people who died in the natural calamity -- well surpassing the 163 who were identified through DNA testing, according to a National Police Agency survey as of April 10 this year.

While human teeth are more likely to remain intact even after bodies are damaged, it was difficult in the wake of the 2011 disaster to identify bodies by the dental treatment records of the missing. The Miyagi Prefectural Police force introduced software that is capable of collating such dental information with the cooperation of Tohoku University some two months after the quake and tsunami and strived to collect electronic and paper dental records on those missing kept in computer storage devices at dentists. However, because the formats and contents of those records varied, experts had to re-enter the data in integrated formats.

For a feared massive earthquake centering in the Nankai Trough off central to western Japan, the government puts the casualties at some 320,000 in a worst-case scenario. If no measures are taken, procedures to identify bodies are expected to be enormous tasks.

The ministry is therefore setting up a review panel as early as June to discuss how to standardize information formats for body identification. The ministry has allocated 21 million yen in the fiscal 2013 budget for launching the verification project, in which standardized e-records will be introduced at some dentists on an experimental basis by the end of this fiscal year.

Tadahiro Yanagawa, a director at the Japan Dental Association, who has insisted on the necessity to standardize such records since before the 2011 disaster, lauded the ministry's move. "In the case of a Nankai Trough quake, body identification would be difficult unless we have a system to swiftly collect dental information. The verification project will provide a good opportunity for establishing a system including database creation in the future."

Meanwhile, Masao Horibe, professor emeritus at Hitotsubashi University who is specializing in personal information protection, pointed out that "it is necessary to clarify the objective of identity confirmation and obtain the person's consent to provide their personal information."

The health ministry is currently not planning to consider whether to create databases using those electronic dental records.

Friday 17 May 2013

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130517p2a00m0na007000c.html

Three mass graves with 1,000 corpses found in Iraq

Iraqi officials have found three mass graves containing the bodies of about 1,000 people thought to have been executed by US soldiers during their occupation of the country.

The graves were uncovered in Iraq's western province of al-Anbar. The remains are believed to be from victims killed by US forces during 2004 and 2005 in the city of Fallujah, located roughly 69 kilometers (43 miles) west of Baghdad.

“Security forces and rights groups found the three mass graves in Saqlawiyah and Ameriyah of Fallujah near a cemetery north of the city. They contain the remains of about a thousand people,” Deputy Chairman of Anbar's provincial council, Sadoun Obaid al-Shaalan, said on Wednesday.

He also called on the Iraqi government to order DNA tests on the remains to ascertain the identity of the victims, especially since there are hundreds of families in Anbar - particularly Fallujah - who are trying to discover the fate of their lost children.

The first battle of Fallujah was an unsuccessful attempt by the US military to capture the city in April 2004.

Fighting broke out after four US mercenaries from Blackwater Company were killed, dismembered and hanged from a bridge over the Euphrates River.

On May 1, 2004, the US troops withdrew from Fallujah as Lieutenant General James Conway announced that he had unilaterally decided to turn over operations to the Fallujah Brigade -- which composed of local militiamen under the command of former Ba'ath Party General Muhammed Latif.

Iraq accounts of the first battle of Fallujah put the number of injured or dead at more than 400.

The second battle of Fallujah was a joint American and British offensive in November and December 2004. The Iraqi narrative of the second battle puts the total number of dead and wounded at more than 5,000.

Friday 17 May 2013

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/05/16/303886/three-new-mass-graves-uncovered-in-iraq/

At least 14 killed as cyclone hits Bangladesh

Cyclone Mahasen has hit the coast of Bangladesh, forcing the evacuation of one million people and killing 14.

But authorities breathed a sigh of relief after Mahasen, with winds of 100 kilometres per hour, lost much of its punch after making landfall.

At least 14 people were killed by drowning and falling trees as tens of thousands of mud, tin and straw-built homes were flattened by pounding rain and flooding.

One million people spent the night in 3,000 cyclone shelters, schools and colleges along Bangladesh's long, winding coastline which is home to 30 million people.

An official in the south of the country says many villagers had refused to move to shelters for fear their cattle would be stolen.

Shamsuddun Ahmed, the deputy head of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department says the cyclone was not as severe as feared.

He says it was downgraded to a tropical depression as it headed for north-eastern India.

"We're lucky," he said.

The storm also claimed the lives of 22 Muslim Rohingya people from neighbouring Myanmar, who had been missing since their boat capsized on Monday as they fled the oncoming storm.

Their bodies, including those of 14 children and six women, were found on a beach near the Myanmar border.

Bangladesh authorities are expected the remaining 31 missing people to wash ashore.

Friday 17 May 2013

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-17/14-killed-as-cyclone-hits-bangladesh/4695404

Storms hit southern China, 33 killed and 12 missing

Thirty-three people have been killed and 12 others are reported missing in the latest round of rain and hailstorms that have swept southern China.

Heavy rain has hit 10 provinces in southern China, including Guangdong, Fujian and Jiangxi, affecting millions of people. In the worst-hit Guangdong province, rainstorms battered five cities, including the provincial capital Guangzhou, causing 19 deaths and leaving 11 missing.

A total of 650 thousand people in the province have been affected. Rainstorms have triggered flooding and landslides in some places.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs and the National Committee for Disaster Reduction have initiated a level-four disaster relief response.

Friday 17 May 2013

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/video/2013-05/17/c_132389714.htm

7 crew missing after ship collisions on Yangtze River

Collisions involving three vessels in the section of the Yangtze River in east China's Wuhu City, Anhui Province, early Friday morning, left seven people missing.

Twenty crew members on board the three vessels fell into the water after the collisions on Baimao Waterway. Thirteen of them have been rescued, according to the Yangtze River Maritime Department.

The vessels included a tug boat carrying iron ore from central China's Henan Province, and cargo ships carrying steel products and limestone, respectively from Zhejiang Province and Jiangsu Province.

The Ministry of Transport and the ministry's affiliated maritime affairs authorities have sent rescuers and experts for salvage and investigation.

Friday 17 May 2013

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90882/8248310.html

Kosovo: identification of mass grave bodies is complicated

Alan Robinson and Arsim Gërxhaliu explained that the bodies that have not been identified at the Department of Forensic Medicine are the result of incorrectly burial by the family. 2 thousand burials were made without any analysis or dissection. Identification of bones of victims of war is complicated because many dead bodies are buried without DNA analysis.

Considering the very sensitive issue, competent people who deal with this work have accepted to give interview for newspaper but only jointly. They are Alan Robinson, co-director of EULEX in the Department of Forensic Medicine and director of the Department of Forensic Medicine, Arsim Gërxhaliu.

Both have explained that in the Department of Forensic Medicine are still 250 unidentified bodies and 101 parts of skeletons which were exhumed from mass graves in Kosovo and Serbia. Robinson and Gërxhaliu stated that their identification is a very difficult process. For these they think that after the war many burials were made incorrectly. They have also shown that this year will be looking to work in mass graves in Kosovo and Serbia. So far there haven registered 1754 missing persons

Friday 17 May 2013

http://www.gazetatribuna.com/en/?FaqeID=2&LajmID=244

Tawerghans say mass grave bodies mis-identified, demand neutral investigation

Exhumed bodies found in a mass grave discovered earlier this week are not civilians from Misrata but are people from Tawergha, the town’s local council in exile has said, demanding that a neutral committee be formed to investigate the grave.

The head of the Tawergha refugee camp in Tripoli, Ali Arrous, told the Libya Herald that the displaced people of Tawergha do not trust the research team of the Ministry of Martyrs and Missing People.

Tawerghan refugees, he said, are demanding that a neutral committee be formed to investigate the cemetery. This, he said, should consist of members of the Red Cross and the UN mission in Libya to fully investigate the mass grave.

“The cemetery is about 300 years old,” Arrous said, “but the bodies in this grave were victims of a NATO airstrike. They were martyrs.” He added that the Tawerghans have witnesses, including those who actually buried the bodies on 11 August 2011.

Some of corpses were, however, found in handcuffs. Asked why they had been handcuffed if they were martyrs, Arrous hesitated, then said: “that is why the Local Council of Tawergha, exiled in Benghazi, is asking for a neutral committee.”

Media office manager for the Ministry of Martyrs and Missing People, Hamed Malki, told the Libya Herald that the ministry was already linked up with the Red Cross and the UN in Libya. He said it was ready to cooperate with both organisations, in both the interests of the Ministry itself and the families of the victims.

Friday 17 May 2013

http://www.libyaherald.com/2013/05/16/tawerghans-say-mass-grave-bodies-mis-identified-demand-neutral-investigation/

19 Myanmar boat casualties recovered

Nineteen bodies recovered Thursday off Bangladesh in the Bay of Bengal were believed to be Myanmar nationals killed in a boat capsizing before Cyclone Mahasen hit the region, officials said.

The bodies were decomposing when they were found off Teknaf, which lies on the border of Myanmar, indicating they died before the storm hit Bangladesh Thursday, Ruhul Amin, chief district administrator, said by telephone.

Myanmar currency was found on the bodies, Amin said.

Police officer Babul Akhter said the victims were 11 children, five women and three men

Friday 17 May 2013

http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/myanmar-boat-casualties-found-1.1517223