India floods: More bodies recovered in Uttarakhand

Rescue workers in the Indian state of Uttarakhand have recovered 75 bodies from the debris of June's devastating floods, taking the official toll to 528, police said.

The bodies were found near a destroyed bridge and a mountain in Ramabada.

Thousands were swept away after floods and landslides affected more than 4,000 villages.

In July, the government said that more than 5,700 people missing after the floods would be presumed dead.

Their families will be given financial compensation.

This year's early monsoon rains in the Uttarakhand region are believed to be the heaviest in 80 years.

Swollen rivers swept away entire villages in the state, where there were many travellers in what was peak tourist season.

The police said rescue workers had resumed their search for bodies "trapped in the higher reaches and ridges [of mountains] which we could not access earlier due to bad weather".

Senior police official Satyavrat Bansal told the BBC that the 76 bodies had been found in the upper reaches of a mountain in Ramabada and near the debris of a bridge that had been damaged in the floods.

The bodies found on the mountain "seem to be of devotees who climbed up the ridges out of fear after the mid-June calamity to save themselves and perished due to extreme cold conditions there," police official RS Meena told Press Trust of India.

However, authorities say, the exact number of deaths may never be known.

Many bodies may have been washed away or remain buried under debris. Some of the bodies were recovered in rivers downstream from the flood zone and cremated in the places where they were found.

Friday 6 September 2013

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-23974450

Unmasking hidden tattoos

It is now possible to reveal tattoos that have been erased or covered up by new tattoos using a combination of spectroscopic techniques. A lot of people get tattoos in a moment of madness which they later regret, so they have laser treatment to remove them. Others are happy to decorate their bodies this way but may feel like a change, so they go for a second tattoo which covers up the first. In both cases it can be difficult, if not impossible, to make out the original design.

Now, scientists from UCL have taken a two-pronged approach to visualising hidden or removed tattoos, described in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, using a tattooed pig's leg and a much-tattooed man as subjects. In the first instance, they used near-IR spectroscopy which was able to reveal some of the original detail, visualisation depending on the wavelength of the light that was used. No single wavelength performed the best of the three that were employed.

The second method was radiography. Using different settings to those used for examining bone, there was some success in making out the presence of tattoos that had been removed or covered up, due to the presence of metallic traces in the original inks.

Victims of mass disasters are often identified from their tattoos. Now, these techniques will help in cases where a body has been dismembered or the outer layer of the skin has been damaged by fire. They will also help in criminal cases where suspects have had known tattoos removed or changed to try and hide their identity or their affiliation with a particular gang.

Friday 6 September 2013

http://www.spectroscopynow.com/details/news/140ee3e15ab/Unmasking-hidden-tattoos.html?tzcheck=1

27 people killed as truck crashes into traffic in South Africa

Twenty-seven people were killed when a truck ploughed into traffic west of Durban in South Africa.

A government spokesman said about another 30 people had been injured, some critically, in Thursday's crash.

"Close on 30 others sustained injuries ranging from critical to serious and minor," department of transport spokesman Tiyani Rikhoto said.

The 18-wheeler truck allegedly failed to stop at a traffic light and collided with four mini-bus taxis and a car, said Chris Botha, spokesman for a paramedic service.

He said the scene in Pinetown, 16 kilometres west of Durban, was "absolutely horrific".

It is alleged the brakes on the truck failed, said Kwanele Ncalane, a spokesman for the provincial transport ministry.

The driver has been arrested.

South Africa has a high rate of road fatalities, with about 38 lives lost per day, a report said this week.

Friday 6 September 2013

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-06/27-killed-in-truck-crash-in-south-africa/4940168

13 killed in Kerala as speeding minibus overturns

The driver of an overcrowded private minibus trying to overtake another bus lost control of the vehicle and rammed into a tree. The bus overturned, leaving 13 dead and 24 injured, in Kerala on Friday, officials said.

The accident occurred near Perinthalmanna in Malappuram district, said State Transport Minister Aryadan Mohammed. There were 42 passengers on board at the time. The site of the accident is about 450km from state capital Thiruvananthapuram.

The dead include 11 women, seven of them students. The driver of the bus also died.

The state transport minister, who hails from Malappuram district, told reporters that the accident occurred because of overspeeding.

"We have been told that 13 people have died and numerous others are injured. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and I are reaching the district later tonight," Mohammed told reporters.

The injured were brought to two private hospitals.

"All arrangements have been made for the treatment of the injured and the autopsy on the 13 bodies would be conducted today itself, so they can be handed over to relatives," local legislator and state Municipalities Minister M. Ali said.

Police have pasted photographs of the victims outside the hospital to help relatives identify their kin.

Friday 6 September 2013

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=data/international/2013/September/international_September146.xml§ion=international

Pilot's family hopes for recovery of mortal remains

The recent recovery of the body of havildar Jagmail Singh, who was on board the ill-fated AN-12 plane which crashed in 1968, has rekindled hopes of the pilot's family.

Flight Lieutenant Harkewal Singh was flying the plane when it crashed in the mountains over Lahaul and Spiti in Himachal Pradesh on February 7, 1968, killing all 102 people on board. The black box of the plane was never found, while the bodies of only five victims have been recovered so far.

Harkewal's Chandigarh-based niece Manjeet Kaur (59), who was 14 at the time of the crash, said, "It is high time the army carry out retrieval of the bodies on a war footing. There were theories that the enemy struck the plane down. We never came to know how it crashed," she said.

'Bodies could be spread over kilometres'

Manjeet's father and Harkewal's brother Harbans Singh Sawhney (88) rued, "Little effort is being made by the army. It is like a police case for them which they have closed."

Harkewal, who was around 30 years old at the time of the incident, had a flight experience of 3,441 hours, including 2,255 in mountainous areas. A veteran of the 1965 India-Pakistan war, he was awarded the Vayu Sena medal posthumously. Harkewal's two brothers, including Harbans, were also in the air force. Both retired as group captains.

The AN-12 flew from Chandigarh for Leh with 98 army personnel and four crew members. The co-pilot was squadron leader PN Malhotra. Halfway to Leh, Harkewal decided to turn back due to the inclement weather over Jammu and Kashmir. The aircraft made its last radio contact near the Rohtang Pass and thereafter went missing. The disappearance remained a mystery till 2003, when the plane's debris was found by an expedition team at the Dhakka glacier in the Chanderbhaga ranges of Lahaul and Spiti.

Harkewal was trained to fly AN-12 in Russia. "He was the first pilot to have flown the aircraft from Russia to India," said Harbans.

The family has maintained a file of clippings of news about the air crash since 1968. There is a letter from then Air Chief Marshal Arjan Singh, presently Marshal of the Indian Air Force, addressed to Harkewal's father, stating that "We are making every effort to locate the missing aircraft. In the meantime, I would like to convey our very sincere sympathy in this very difficult time you must be going through."

"We have written to the defence authorities a number of times, but no one has got back to us. No last rites have been performed so far. We are hoping against hope," said Manjeet.

Friday 6 September 2013

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Punjab/Chandigarh/Pilot-s-family-hopes-for-recovery-of-mortal-remains/SP-Article1-1118101.aspx

US JPAC On Search Mission For WWII Plane Crash Remains In India

A US team from the Joint Prisoners of War/Missing In Action Accounting Command (JPAC) on Thursday left for northeastern Indian state of Tripura to search for the remains of those who died in a plane crash in World War II, Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.

The six-member team led by JPAC director, Jennifer Nasarenko, will visit Birmonipara in Gandacherra subdivision in Dhalai district where a wreckage of an American plane was found in January this year after a month-long search operation by Assam Rifles troops.

The team comprising JPAC operations director, LTC Timothy Duffy and JPAC official Owen O'Leary will stay at Ambassa, the district headquarters of Dhalai and hold meetings with the district administration about visiting Birmonipara, a remote tribal hamlet where the plane had reportedly crashed on May 17, 1946.

The JPAC team is accompanied by Tripura government's Under Secretary Arup Deb. The team will leave for Kolkata on Sept 7 after carrying out an on-spot study.

The C-47-B plane took off from Rangoon Airport in Myanmar with 11 war criminals along with other passengers for Calcutta on that fateful day in 1946 but crashed in the dense forest near Birmonipara village in Dhalai district.

All passengers and crew members had reportedly died in the crash and their bodies later buried at a cemetery built by the local tribal people near Birmonipara village.

The plane's propeller and crash site were located within 3km of the cemetery.

Thursday 6 September 2013

http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v7/wn/newsworld.php?id=975717