Migrant boat capsizes off Australia's Christmas Island, 144 rescued

A boat carrying about 150 suspected asylum seekers has capsized off Australia's Christmas Island, with four people confirmed dead.

Border authorities said two naval vessels had rescued 144 people from the water after the capsize on Tuesday.

The vessels were escorting the boat to a detention centre on Christmas Island but the ship overturned in rough seas.

Many asylum seekers try to reach the island, hoping then to move on to the Australian mainland.

Christmas Island, located about 1,600 miles (2,575km) north-west of the mainland, is the closest part of Australia to Indonesia - the key transit hub for people-smugglers.

Life rafts

"Overnight, our officers have rescued 144 people from the sea and recovered the bodies of four other people," Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare said.

Australia's rescue co-ordination centre received a phone call from people on the vessel on early on Tuesday, after the boat's engine reportedly stopped, he said.

However, the "weather conditions and the high sides of the vessel" prevented rescue personnel from boarding the boat.

Navy vessel HMAS Albany reported that one of the two engines on the boat was not working and began escorting the boat, he said.

"At approximately 18:00, the vessel began to lean to one side and passengers began jumping into the water. At approximately 18:40, [HMAS] Albany reported that the vessel had rolled and capsized," Mr Clare said.

"A total of six life rafts were deployed" to rescue the passengers as well as an overhead Orion aircraft and small boats from the naval vessels, he said, thanking rescuers for their "tough, hard, difficult and dangerous work".

Customs said it had now suspended rescue efforts as there were no further signs of life.

The boat overturned 70 nautical miles from Christmas Island.

Customs said in a statement: "HMAS Warramunga rescued 76 people from the water and HMAS Albany rescued 68 people from the water. Tragically, four deceased persons were recovered."

David Johnston, commander for Australia's Border Protection Command, said: "It is a dreadful feeling in the stomach when we hear that a vessel has capsized, or that it is in some difficulty."

"Recovering 144 people in the conditions they had yesterday was extraordinary work."

Thousands of asylum seekers arrive in Australia by boat every year.

Several boats carrying migrants heading for Australia have disappeared in recent months.

In a separate incident on Saturday, 88 asylum seekers were rescued after their boat sank off the same island.

A baby boy died in the accident and eight people were missing and presumed dead. The boat, which set off from Indonesia, was reportedly carrying asylum seekers from Iran, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.

New Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is expected to announce new asylum policies in advance of Australia's general election, which must be held by November.

Refugee tribunals have been told to use new country assessments by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade when assessing asylum seeker claims, Australian broadcaster ABC reported.

Critics say this will lead to genuine asylum seekers being classed as economic migrants and being sent back to their original countries.

Wednesday 17 July 2013

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23332634

‘Body Worlds’ challenged to provide DNA

The dead human bodies preserved by being injected full of plastic by German anatomist Gunther von Hagens have toured the world for decades, and made their author a very wealthy man. For years, too, the Body World exhibitions have also been a rich source of controversy, dogged by claims that the bodies of executed Chinese prisoners—including prisoners of conscience—have been splayed open and put on display for a paying public.

Now, von Hagens has been challenged to put to rest some of those allegations, by supplying DNA samples of the specimens currently on display at the Naturhistorisches Museum in Wien, Austria.

Ethan Gutmann, a researcher who has written extensively about organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience in China—primarily practitioners of Falun Gong, a persecuted spiritual discipline—said on July 12, standing in the Maria-Theresien-Platz outside the museum, that DNA samples would effectively resolve the controversy.

“We now have a show which is traveling around which may have the DNA of murdered prisoners of conscience,” Gutmann said in an interview with NTD Television, putting emphasis on the word “may.”

“The legs on some of the female specimens appear to be unnaturally short,” Gutmann said, based on observations he made when he visited the exhibition in Wien recently. “The frames are a little frail; the skulls are a little fine. I’m not an expert, but these look Chinese.”

Gutmann’s suspicion is not based only on the anatomical features he observed. In 1999 von Hagens set up shop in Dalian, a city in northeast China, and acquired an unknown number of bodies, some of which were used for his exhibitions.

At that time, Bo Xilai, the now-disgraced Chinese official, was mayor. Bo is now under detention and awaits trial for violation of Communist Party discipline and a range of other offenses, but was known to have been a protégé to the former leader of the Chinese Communist Party, Jiang Zemin, and an early proponent of Jiang’s campaign to persecute Falun Gong.

According to a 2004 investigative report in the German newspaper Der Spiegel, by the year 2001: “Around von Hagens’ corpse factory in Dalian, there were already three labor camps and prisons. Among them were the ‘No. 3 Provincial Prison’ and the ‘[Dalian City] Reeducation Through Labor Camp.’ In the notorious ‘[Dalian] Yaojia Detention Center,’ political prisoners are detained, among them adherents of the spiritual movement Falun Gong.”

Later, von Hagens won an injunction that forbid Der Spiegel from making the claim that he used the corpses of executed prisoners.

In an interview with the New York Times two years later, though, von Hagens said: “When I came here, [Sui Hongjin] said we’ll have no problem with Chinese bodies… He said we can use unclaimed bodies. Now it’s difficult, but then it was no problem at all.”

Sui Hongjin was von Hagen’s former apprentice who split from von Hagen’s operation in 2002 and began operating his own plastination factory, supplying, among others, the plastinated body touring company called “Bodies: The Exhibition.” While von Hagens denies using executed Chinese prisoners any longer, “Bodies: The Exhibition” carries a disclaimer saying that some of its bodies came from the Chinese police.

Gutmann says his approach to calling on DNA samples from von Hagens is two-pronged: first, it will establish whether Chinese bodies were used in his exhibits, which allows for the next step, of collecting the DNA of family members of Falun Gong practitioners who were killed in China, so as to test for any relationship. Secondly, it will put pressure on the exhibitition that Sui is associated with, to also provide DNA about the bodies that it has.

The rivalry between von Hagens and Sui should propel him to cooperate, Gutmann said in a telephone interview.

“There is another Body show going around the world. It’s actually bigger. It’s run by Von Hagens’ former manager Sui Hongjin,” Gutmann said in his statement, which was read out to the press and public. “His bodies come from the PSB. His sponsor, Premier Exhibitions admits it. Sui has plastinated an estimated thousand bodies. We have a saying in English: every criminal makes one mistake. Could shipping murder victims loaded with DNA around the free world qualify as a mistake? It sounds crazy that someone would take that chance. But let’s find out.”

Gutmann continued: “If any samples are Chinese we can match them with DNA from Chinese families who lost a loved one because they were Falun Gong. That will take years. But it’s worth it, because the families have the moral authority in this case.”

Wednesday 17 July 2013

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/182902-body-worlds-challenged-to-provide-dna/

School meals kill 22, villagers dig up graves of children after school meal deaths in Bihar

Villagers in Bihar dug up mass graves in the premises of a primary school to lay the bodies of their children who died after eating midday meal on Tuesday.

Heart-rending wails rent the air as the villagers took to the ritual of burial as several women fainted on the grounds, looking just not ready to part with the bodies of their near and dear ones.

A total of 22 children, all aged between four and 10, died and 25 other fell sick after eating free midday meal at a newly-created primary school at Dharmasati-Gandaman village in Saran district of Bihar, some 80 km north of the state capital Patna on Tuesday afternoon.

The poor children had been served rice with potato-soyabean curry but soon after eating several of them began feeling uneasiness and started vomiting. They were rushed to a local hospital but 22 died in course of treatment.

Soon after the bodies of the children were handed to the parents, the crowd of mourning villagers dug up mass graves almost in the premises of the primary schools and laid to rest the bodies of the kids who barely a days before were studying in the school. TV grabs showed the crowds of local villagers digging up graves with shovels and other earth-cutting tools and gently laying the bodies to rest as other groups of villagers shouted anti-government slogans, demanding resignation of the chief minister.

Footages also showed the abandoned books of the children wrapped in plastic bags lying on the ground in the ghostly class room. Also lay on the ground were the dirty plates in which the kid had eaten meal yesterday.

“We had been served rice with potato-soyabean curry in the midday meal but soon after eating we began feeling pain in stomach and started vomiting,” said bare-bodied Poonam with saline bottle attached to her hand. She had talked to the media persons after she came out of the bed to meet the nature’s call after feeling fine.

Angry villagers also set fire to four vehicles of the local police and damaged many others vehicles hitting them with woods and other stones to register protests during the day-long shut-down in Saran district called by the opposition parties. They also had violent clashes with the police.

“That is a criminal act and gross negligence on the part of the official who showed no sensitivity and rushed the sick children to the hospital in a bus which came to a stop midway as it ran short of fuel. By the time the fuel could be arranged, the condition of many children had deteriorated,” alleged local parliamentarian Prabhunath Singh from opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal.

The BJP spokesman Rajiv Paratp Rudy while expressing shock too blamed the callousness on the part of the state administration behind the incident, saying many lives could have been saved had the children been admitted to hospitals on time.

At local hospitals, parents cried with the bodies of the children and became hysterical after losing their near and dear ones. “How will we live the rest of our lives? We have lost both of our children,” cried Harendra Mishra. So was Upendra Kumar who lost three of his children.

State authorities found traces of poison in the food and do not rule out conspiracy. Another theory is that food poisoning may be the cause of death. “Preliminary investigation suggests the children died of poison. This is a matter of inquiry now as to how the poison reached the school kitchen,” asked Bihar’s education minister Prashant Kumar Shahi.

Social welfare minister Perveen Amanullah who rushed to the local Patna Medical College and Hospital to see the sick children admitted there too suspects conspiracy in the incident.

“We suspect the children died of eating poisoned food. Even after eating sub-standard food, the maximum could be that the children might have fallen sick, not died,” said the minister, adding the incident was being thoroughly probed.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has in the meantime ordered an inquiry into the incident while expressing deep grief over it. He has also announced a compensation of Rs 200,000 to each of the victim family.

Wednesday 17 July 2013

http://gulfnews.com/news/world/india/villagers-dig-up-graves-of-children-after-school-meal-deaths-in-bihar-1.1210009

Kin of missing in Uttarakhand look up govt website for clues

With no news yet about their loved ones, who are still considered missing in Uttarakhand, the family members of the 15 victims from Hailey Mandi are now looking for some clues through the photos and other vital details that have been uploaded by the Uttarakhand police on the Zonal Integrated Police Network website.

These photos are of those whose bodies have been cremated by the state authorities.

With the Uttarakhand chief minister refusing to declare the missing as dead, some of these relatives are still hoping to hear some good news, even though it has already been a month since these 15 went missing.

"The entire village knows that the chances of survival of these 15 persons are extremely slim. But, we are still hoping for a miracle, especially after we got to know that yesterday a man was rescued after almost a month, albeit in a mentally unstable condition," said Purushottam Singla, whose parents and daughter are among the missing. "There is still no news about any of the 15, and now we are looking for some clues by looking at the photos uploaded by the Uttarakhand police," said Singla.

Apart from the photographs of those who have been cremated, the website, zipnet.in, also lists the belongings such as the ornaments and identity cards found on them, along with their pictures, and mentions the name of the place where these bodies were found. All the 15 victims from this village were last seen in Kedarnath. "In all, 19 people from our village had gone for the Char Dham yatra and four of them managed to survive because as they did not travel to Kedarnath and decided to stay back in Gauri Kund. We are scanning the website but still not able to get any information," Singla added.

Wednesday 17 July 2013

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/Kin-of-missing-in-Uttarakhand-look-up-govt-website-for-clues/articleshow/21111425.cms

'missing' City Lights building collapse victim

A week after the ill-fated City Light Hotel crashed, fresh police investigation has revealed that Ashok Kamble, initially feared dead in the collapse, was not at the crash site, raising doubts about the family's claims.

Ashok's wife K Meera gave a statement to the police that her husband was employed at the hotel for two months and was at work at the time of collapse. Though none of the 17 bodies that were recovered from the building was identified as Ashok's, the family insisted that he was present during the collapse. At the family's insistence that the rescue workers may have overlooked Ashok's body, the police along with volunteers sifted through the rubble on Monday, but to no avail.

What flies in the face of family's claims is that the owner, supervisor and the injured employees of City Light Hotel, failed to recognize Ashok. Also, analysis of call details of Ashok's cellphone helped the cops establish that his phone was switched off since July 4. A service message that was received by the number on July 10 helped the cops trace the signal to Warangal.

But his wife maintains that she spoke to her husband over the phone on July 6, though earlier she had claimed that she called him on July 7, a day before the mishap. However on careful questioning, some family members told the investigating officials on Tuesday that Ashok was working for a tent house on RP Road. The relatives added that Ashok was seen at his last employer's place a week before the crash.

The cops also learnt that Ashok was a welder by profession in his home town in Maharashtra and it is highly unlikely that he could have been employed in a kitchen. "The people of the hotel even identified one of the unclaimed bodies lying in Gandhi Hospital though they do not have the address of the deceased. When 17 bodies were extracted, how can one body go missing? The information we have gathered so far goes against the claims of Ashok's wife. We suspect the family seeks to make undue gains from the situation," said a police official.

To rule out all possibilities, investigating officials have now sent out the IMEI number of Ashok's dual sim phone to all service providers in order to determine if new sim cards are being used in the phone. Officials also said they would question the neighbours of Ashok's family.

Tuesday 17 July 2013

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Cops-smell-a-rat-in-missing-City-Lights-victim/articleshow/21111710.cms