Belitung ferry fire: 6 dead, 7 missing

Six people died and 7 others were still missing on Friday afternoon after a ferry carrying hundreds of people caught fire in the Java Sea in Bangka Belitung province on Thursday, police said.

“There were 197 people on the boat when the incident happened, but only 189 people were registered on the list, including 13 crew,” National Police spokesman, Sr. Comr. Rusli Hadiaman said on Friday.

“The ferry caught fire after one of the passengers disposed of a cigarette into a box full of chicks,” Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), said in a text message to the Jakarta Globe. No further details were provided.

“The investigation is still ongoing,” he added.

Police said that the the MV Express Bahari 8C boat caught fire at 5:30 p.m. around eight kilometers from Tanjung Pandan. It was en route to the Belitung port from Pangkalbalam port on neighboring Bangka.

Police have identified four victims, including a two-year-old girl.

“We managed to save [184] people,” Rusli said.

“The team, consisting of Bangka Belitung Water Police, the Navy and local fishermen, is still combing the area to locate and rescue the missing victims,” National Police analysis and evaluation division chief Sr. Comr. Rusli Hendyaman said at National Police headquarters in South Jakarta.

Saturday 24 August 2013

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/belitung-ferry-fire-6-dead-7-missing/

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At least 29 dead in Bolivia prison fire

At least 29 people were killed and about 50 others wounded on Friday at a prison in eastern Bolivia as clashes between rival gangs ended in a huge fire, officials said.

One of the dead was a child living with incarcerated parents in the maximum-security Palmasola prison in the eastern city of Santa Cruz — a facility that houses about 5,000 inmates.

Bolivia allows children to legally live with incarcerated parents.

"The latest information we have is that the number of dead is already at 29. Of those hospitalized, 35 of them have very serious injuries," prisons director Ramiro Llanos told AFP.

Police had earlier put the death toll at 15. Local police commander Jorge Aracena said authorities had brought the situation under control.

Aracena said the incident began early Friday when a group of inmates broke into another sector of the prisonOne group attacked the other with sharp weapons and firearms, and set two liquid gas cylinders on fire, sparking an explosion fueled by exploding propane gas tanks.



Bodies were taken to the morgue for autopsies and identification, he said. Television networks broadcast images of charred bodies and ambulances taking the dead and injured to hospitals, which were overwhelmed by the number of victims.

Authorities called on local residents to donate blood to help the wounded.

Prisons in Bolivia suffer from serious overcrowding. Hundreds of children are forced to live with their parents in jails because they have no other relatives, or because both parents are incarcerated.

Saturday 24 August 2013

http://www.timesofoman.com/News/Article-21400.aspx

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Missing persons event set for next month in Arkansas, DNA collected

Authorities in Arkansas are encouraging relatives of missing people to have their DNA collected at an event next month in an effort to try to find those who have disappeared.

The event, called "Never Forgotten: Arkansas Takes Action," is slated to take place on Sept. 14 in Little Rock.

It follows a similar missing persons' event held last year, where the state worked to collect genetic material in an effort to link DNA to some of the thousands of sets of unidentified remains across the country.

Last year's event worked: Authorities identified the remains of an east Arkansas man who had been missing for more than a decade.

Relatives of Tommy Lee Newingham of Earle gave DNA samples, which were logged into a national database. Officials then matched those samples with a previously unidentified set of remains found in Memphis, Tenn., in 2011.

Now, authorities hope Newingham's story will drive more people to the upcoming event.

"I think that when people see an example of another family getting some peace and closure and resolution, it gives other families first of all more information ... but then also, it gives people more reason for hope," said Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, who is working with law enforcement agencies and the State Crime Lab to organize Arkansas' second missing persons initiative.

There are hundreds of active missing persons cases in Arkansas alone, according to the attorney general's office.

Authorities want relatives of missing people to bring police reports, photographs, dental records and other information to the event next month. Forensic analysts will be on hand to take DNA samples.

The DNA collection and other services at the event are free.

But Kermit Channell, executive director of the State Crime Lab, said he hopes to see people who have already given samples — whether they show up to update their information or just check in.

"I hope that having these things makes them more aware that we haven't forgotten," Channell said.

Read more: The Courier - Your Messenger for the River Valley - Missing persons event set for next month.

Saturday 24 August 2013

http://www.couriernews.com/view/full_story/23439175/article-Missing-persons-event-set-for-next-month-

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Human body parts found in landfill

Police yesterday recovered around 16 severed human body parts and 13 bones at Dhaka South City Corporation landfill in Matuail.

They, however, could not say whether criminals dumped those, in four sacks, after killing people or those were from hospitals or anatomy departments of medical schools.

Ragpickers made the grisly discovery around 5:30am, and waste management staff informed the police of the matter.

There were seven legs, three hands and six parts of heads and chests, said Minhajul Islam, senior assistant commissioner (AC) of Demra zone of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

Some of the bones were screwed and wired together.

He said police were suspecting there could be bodies of a man and a woman somewhere in the landfill.

The recovered body parts, which seemed to have been cut with hacksaw blades and had preservatives on them, were first taken to Jatrabari Police Station and later sent to Sir Salimullah Medical College morgue.

According to police, one of the hands had painted nails, suggesting that it might be of a female. They could not say how many people the body parts belonged to.

Samples would be sent to DNA laboratory for identification of the deceased, AC Minhajul added.

Asked from which area the body parts were taken to the landfill, the Jatrabari Police Station’s officer-in-charge (investigation) refused to say anything without completing investigation.

Every night 250-280 garbage trucks dump garbage in that zone, said Abdulla Harun, an assistant engineer at Waste Management Department of Dhaka South City Corporation.

He said the sacks were probably dumped early yesterday or very late into Thursday night as garbage trucks dumped trash in that particular spot after 11:00pm.

A source in charity organisation Anjuman Mofidul Islam said they were the one who usually receive unidentified or unclaimed bodies or parts of bodies from Dhaka Medical College and Sir Salimullah Medical College morgues and that they bury the bodies or parts of bodies in Azimpur or Jurain graveyard.

Saturday 24 August 2013

http://www.thedailystar.net/beta2/news/16-human-body-parts-found-in-landfill/

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Belongings of victims accurately recorded

Cash bills wrapped in plastic turned up in the oil-soaked clothes of a woman, one of the fatalities of the sunken MV St. Thomas Aquinas.

The clothes were being washed by Charles Tubio, a criminology intern, one of 76 assigned since Tuesday to help in the ongoing victim identification process at the Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes.

Tubio turned over the bills, which ran to several thousand pesos, to the head of the Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO).

“I pity the victim who died,” the intern told Cebu Daily News, when asked about the discovery.

He said the woman, who remains unidentified, reminded him of a student who travels at sea bringing her tuition fee money in her pocket.

The clothes or any jewelry, personal effects or even body tattoos or scars are sometimes the only clues to the identity of unclaimed bodies recovered at sea after the Aug. 16 sea tragedy.

Senior Supt. Nestor Sator, regional chief of the PNP Crime Laboratory, said each item is documented and safeguarded.

When a cadaver is brought to the funeral home, crime lab personnel tag the body, place the human remains in a body bag which is also tagged, and take photographs. Another tag is placed on on the plastic bag holding the belongings of the victim – apparel, gadgets, jewelry, etc.

All items are documented in the presence of the Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) and Cosmopolitan staff before they are turned over to the evidence custodian.

Sator said fingerprint and dental examination are made as the main source of information in the Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) process.

DNA testing is used as a last resort if families are unable to produce dental records of their loved ones or fingerprint records from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) or police clearances .

The student interns who help out belong to the graduating class. Part of their duties is to tape numbers on the hands of cadavers so the victims can be easily located once they are identified by the families.

The bodies are bloated and face features are unrecognizable after days in the water.

“We pray before we head to work for the eternal rest of their souls,” said one of the interns.

Intern Concepcion Avenido said that last Tuesday, after she helped SOCO, she skipped lunch and dinner and she could hardly sleep at night.

“After the hands-on experience, we had a hard time eating our meals because the smell of the dead clings to our nostrils and body,” she said.

Nevertheless, the interns said the experience makes them count their blessing that their own families are safe.

Last Tuesday, SOCO allowed the public viewing of a slideshow of photos of the recovered victims and their belongings in the lobby of the funeral home to speed up identification of the victims by their families.

However, this was stopped on Thursday after the Department of Health advised that it was traumatic for the families to see deformed faces and bodies of their kin.



With this, Chief Inspector Benjamin Lara of the PNP Crime Laboratory -7, changed the procedure and showed only personal belongings of the victims like clothing one by one to the families.

“We stopped the viewing because it adds to the families’ trauma. Viewing only prolongs their agony,” Lara said.

This time, staff conduct interviews and ask families to describe in detail their missing loved one as well as their belongings to avoid spurious claimants.

DNA tests are done in Camp Crame in Metro Manila and would take months.

“The relatives should understand the sheer volume of the specimens taken from the victims and the sheer volume of specimens taken from the relatives. Take note, there are more than 80 relatives who are looking for their missing loved ones,” Lara said.

Saturday 24 August 2013

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/473463/belongings-of-victims-accurately-recorded

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Three bodies found, fourth missing, as helicopter crashes off Shetland

The Super Puma L2 aircraft went down at 6.20pm last night, around two miles west of Sumburgh airport on Shetland as it was returning to the island from the Borgsten Dolphin platform in the North Sea.

Fourteen of the 18 people on board the helicopter were taken to safety during the immediate rescue response.

A major search operation, involving the coastguard, police, RAF and RNLI, was extended overnight to hunt in the darkness for those who remained missing.

This morning, Police Scotland confirmed the bodies of three people have been recovered.

A fourth person remains unaccounted for, a spokeswoman added.

The families of those affected have been informed.

Jim Nicholson, RNLI rescue co-ordinator, said he understands two of the bodies were recovered in the area where the helicopter crashed.

"The bodies came to the surface close to the helicopter wreckage," he said.

"The helicopter was in a pretty inaccessible place but the lifeboat crew were able to get to them using an inflatable craft.

"It's fortunate there were not more casualties in a helicopter crash of this kind.

"There appears to have been a catastrophic loss of power which meant the helicopter suddenly dropped into the sea without any opportunity to make a controlled landing."

The rescue team then spent hours securing the helicopter and moving it to a more accessible location where it is waiting to be loaded on to a vessel.

Mr Nicholson added: ''The helicopter is being held in position but no one has been able to board it yet.

''Once the helicopter has been loaded on to the vessel it can be searched.

''It may be that a body is recovered on the helicopter.''

He praised the efforts of the rescue agencies involved.

''I think it's been a very long night and I think the crew have been tremendous.''

Saturday 24 August 2013

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/three-bodies-found-fourth-missing-as-helicopter-crashes-off-shetland.1377324649

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Cebu collision death toll rises to 80

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) yesterday said the death toll from the ill-fated M/V St. Thomas Aquinas has gone up to 80 as five more bodies were seen floating near Cordova town in Cebu.

PCG spokesman Commander Armand Balilo said as of 4:45 p.m., the recovered bodies from the St. Thomas Aquinas, which collided with M/V Sulpicio Express 7 off Cordova town last Aug. 16, consist of 76 passengers and four crewmembers.

The current death toll brings down the number of missing persons to 40.

There were 750 survivors of the accident, the PCG said.

The Cebu Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council is the overall agency handling and supervising the search, rescue and retrieval operations on the country’s latest maritime disaster.

Day of mourning

The city government of Butuan declared yesterday as a “Day of Mourning” in sympathy to the victims of St. Thomas Aquinas, some of whom came from Butuan.

Butuan City Mayor Ferdinand Amante Jr. also directed all the city’s public institutions to lower the Philippine flag at half mast for three days beginning yesterday.

Amante said they will also provide legal, moral and financial support to the victims and their families.

Saturday 24 August 2013

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2013/08/24/1128641/cebu-collision-death-toll-rises-80

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Mexico officials identify 5 mass grave bodies as those of missing 12 kidnapped teenagers

Mexican authorities said Friday they have identified five bodies pulled from a mass grave as some of the 12 people kidnapped three months ago from a Mexico City bar.

Assistant attorney general Renato Sales told reporters that 13 badly decomposed bodies have been pulled from a mass grave covered with cement, lime and asbestos discovered Thursday on a rural ranch east of Mexico City.

Officials said the remains are at federal labs, where experts are using DNA tests, and they expect to have all of them identified soon.

The young bar-goers vanished from the Heaven club at midday May 26, just a block from the leafy Paseo de Reforma, the capital's equivalent of the Champs-Elysees.

The bizarre disappearance resonated across the city of 9 million people because many had come to believe it was an oasis from the rampant drug violence that had led to discovery of mass graves elsewhere in the country.

Authorities set up a perimeter more than a mile (1.5 kilometers) from the excavation site on a hilly ranch known as La Negra, where federal police and attorney general's trucks and large white vans were seen working the operation. The private property next to Rancho La Mesa Ecological Park is walled and surrounded by oak and pine trees.

The federal Attorney General's Office said agents had received information about possible illegal weapons on the property and obtained a search warrant. When they started looking around, they discovered the grave.

"They found a home that looked like a safe house," Murillo Karam told reporters Thursday. "We were operating under the belief it was a weapons case."

Prosecutors have said the abductions from the Heaven bar were linked to a dispute between street gangs that control local drug sales in the capital's nightclubs and bars. They say the gangs are based in Mexico City's dangerous Tepito neighborhood, where most of the missing lived. The families insist the missing young people were not involved in drug trafficking.



Surveillance cameras showed several cars pulling up to the bar at midday and taking the victims away. A witness who escaped told authorities that a bar manager had ordered the music turned off, told patrons that authorities were about to raid the establishment and ordered those inside to leave.

Saturday 24 August 2013

http://news.yahoo.com/mexico-officials-id-body-5-missing-12-221806955.html

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Three missing after helicopter crashes off Shetland

Three people are missing after a Super Puma helicopter, carrying 18, crashed into the sea near Shetland.

The Coastguard confirmed that 15 people had been rescued from the sea and were taken to a hospital in Lerwick. An air and sea search is continuing.

The incident happened west of Sumburgh Airport at about 18:20 BST.

The L2 helicopter, carrying 16 people and two crew, was operated by CHC for Total, taking people to and from oil and gas platforms in the North Sea.

Jim Nicholson, RNLI rescue co-ordinator, told the BBC the helicopter was in an "inaccessible" position and that the weather in the area was not "particularly good"

He said: "There was a fresh wind, not overly strong, visibility is not particularly good and it was misty in the area but I doubt if that would have had any impact on causing whatever happened to the helicopter.

"I believe that the helicopter is in a fairly inaccessible position at the moment near the cliffs. There's quite a lot of tide in that area so any person in the water could be carried some distance away.

"It will be becoming much more difficult with darkness but I have no doubt that those involved are putting in every effort to try to obtain the best possible outcome."

One rescue helicopter flew nine people into Lerwick. One was taken off the flight by stretcher. The rest walked off the flight.

A coastguard spokeswoman said passengers had suffered a range of injuries.

She said: "The people that were involved are in varying stages of injury, no-one has walked away from this without a scratch."

Major incident

A CHC spokesman said: "We can confirm that an L2 aircraft has landed in the water, approximately two miles west of Sumburgh.

"The aircraft was on approach to Sumburgh Airport at approximately 6.20pm when contact was lost with air traffic control.

Jim Nicholson, rescue co-ordinator for the RNLI, speaks to the BBC as footage shows the rescue operation taking place "We can confirm there were 16 passengers on board, and two crew."

He said the company's Incident Management Team had been mobilised. CHC has set up a helpline for concerned relatives on 01224 296 866.

Michael Bull, whose son Samuel was rescued, said: "We understand he was on his way back from a rig and the helicopter lost power suddenly and immediately ditched into the water.

"He managed to escape straight away because he was right by an exit and I understand soon afterwards that the helicopter turned over."

Police Scotland said a major incident had been declared.

A spokesman said 15 people had been taken to Gilbert Bain Hospital in Lerwick.

Sumburgh Airport has been closed to allow emergency services to deal with the incident.

Airport spokesman Donald Morrison said the helicopter had been making an approach at 18:15 BST and lost radar contact with air traffic control.

Three helicopters and two lifeboats are involved in the search.

Rescue helicopters

The coastguard said the helicopter's life rafts were found empty and wreckage from the helicopter was starting to wash up at Garth Sneff near Sumburgh Head.

A spokeswoman said: "There is still an ongoing search and rescue mission for the three missing people."

Sq Ldr Dave Webster said RAF Kinloss had received a call at 18:27 BST, saying a Super Puma had ditched to the west of Sumburgh - about three or four miles offshore.

A ferry travelling between Shetland and Aberdeen was diverted to the scene and the RNLI launched Aith and Lerwick lifeboats.

Northlink Ferries confirmed that one of its ferries, which had left Shetland and was heading to Aberdeen, had been diverted back to the incident.

A spokeswoman said: "I can confirm that the Hjatland passenger ferry and Helliar freight vessel are providing support.

"We believe there are 201 passengers on board the Hjatland, which was on its way to Orkney to pick up more passengers."

The helicopter was flying from the Borgsten Dolphin oil platform in the North Sea to Sumburgh Airport.

A specialist medical team has been flown from Aberdeen Royal Infirmary to Lerwick by the RAF helicopter from Lossiemouth.

Investigators from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) are travelling to the scene.

A spokesman for the Department for Transport said: "The AAIB is aware of the incident and has deployed a team".

Previous incidents

The Unite union's Scottish secretary Pat Rafferty said: "Our immediate thoughts are with those people and their families and we can only hope for good news although as time goes on the situation becomes more worrying."

He added: "Fifteen people have thankfully been rescued and accounted for, unfortunately some with injuries, and their rescue is testimony to the bravery and skills of the rescue services.

"This brings into sharp focus once again the very precarious nature of the transportation of workers to and from offshore platforms. The health and safety of working people is our priority and we will be watching events closely as they happen."

Tavish Scott, the MSP for Shetland, said: "The first thought has to be with those who are unaccounted for. One can only think of families and loved ones who must be desperately worried at this time."

The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Right Reverend Lorna Hood, said: "Our thoughts and prayers are with all those involved in the Super Puma helicopter crash off Shetland and especially those waiting news of their loved ones."

Last year, two helicopters ditched in the North Sea only six months apart. All passengers and crew were rescued in both incidents which were found to be caused by gearbox problems.

In October, 17 passengers and two crew were rescued from life rafts by a passing vessel after the helicopter, which was carrying an oil crew from Aberdeen to a rig 86 miles north-west of Shetland, was forced to ditch.

Previously, in May 2012 all 14 passengers and crew members on a Super Puma helicopter were rescued after it ditched about 30 miles off the coast of Aberdeen.

The helicopter was on a scheduled flight from Aberdeen airport to a platform in the North Sea at the time.

Super Puma EC 225s were grounded in the wake of the two incidents but were given approval to fly again and services resumed earlier this month.

In April 2009, 16 people died when a Super Puma plunged into the sea. Its gearbox failed while carrying the men to Aberdeen.

The Bond-operated aircraft was returning from the BP Miller platform when it went down off the Aberdeenshire coast.

Saturday 24 August 2013

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-23821083

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