Fate of 64 missing in Nairobi attack unknown

The fate of the 64 people reported missing in the terror attack on a Nairobi mall remained a mystery Wednesday with authorities remaining tight-lipped on what has transpired at the operational level over the past two days.

Kenyan police and government officials have not made public any details of the latest developments attack that started Saturday, leading to widespread speculation that the 64 may have died, or are trapped in the rubble of the building whose three floors have since collapsed.

So far 67 people, including six soldiers involved in the operation, have died and five terrorists confirmed dead, according to Kenyatta’s Tuesday night televised address.

Dozens of Kenyan-Indians have also lost their lives, as well as businesses. Third generation Indians are dominant residents in the the area where the mall is located.

At least five of the bodies have already been interred at the local Ismailia cemetery.

Forensic specialists from Israel, the US, Britain, Germany, Canada and Interpol have been called in to help with investigations, according to cabinet secretary Francis Kimemia.

The United States Ambassador to Kenya says U.S. experts are helping Kenyan forces search for bodies and evidence in the collapsed mall that Islamic terrorists held for four days.

An official tells The Associated Press that Nairobi's city morgue is preparing for the arrival of a large number of bodies of people killed in the Westgate mall terrorist attack in Kenya.

The government official says morgue employees were told to prepare for many bodies. Morgue employees were dressed in smocks early Tuesday, though no bodies had been delivered. Most of those bodies were already taken to the morgue, either directly or from hospitals.

According to the Kenya Psychological Association (KPA), lack of information is causing anxiety among people whose kin have been missing since Saturday.

KPA Chairperson Gladys Mwiti told journalists on Tuesday that the lack of information was affecting the families' and victims' psychological wellbeing.

"We do not have right now actual data of who lost their family member or a relative but we can say that some of the cases that we have seen include those that do not know where their relatives are," she said.

"That is very worrying and very anxiety provoking." The last media brief that the government gave was on Monday at around 3pm. Government agencies have however been randomly tweeting information surrounding the attack, but this information might not be accessible to everyone.

The Kenya Red Cross has so far registered 64 people as missing but information from the non-governmental agency has also not been forthcoming.

"Right now I can only tell you that we have recorded 64 people as those that are missing but I cannot disclose any other details," said a Kenya Red Cross official who declined to be named.

The Visa Oshwal Centre is being used as a tracing and counselling facility but it is not very easy to get in for security reasons. KPA Secretary Sammy Wambugu said that more counselling centres would be opened up with one at the Uhuru Park and another at the City Mortuary.

"We are aware that most Kenyans have been flocking the Uhuru Park and so we want to set up a facility there by tomorrow morning. We also know that people have been going to the morgue to look for their relatives and we will also have a team there to help in the grieving process," he said.

Hostages who were rescued as well as security personnel and children who witnessed the attack are being counselled and given psychological support.

There are also schools that have requested the counselling teams to visit their pupils but Red Cross refused to reveal any details or even number of these schools.

Mwiti said that it was important to counsel them so as to ensure they are able to overcome the emotional suffering they might have endured as a result.

"Some people may suffer false guilt and for instance someone might start asking himself why he allowed his wife and child to go shopping at Westgate instead of the Sarit Centre and there will be people who are grieving and identifying bodies in the morgue so the impact will be huge," she said.

Wednesday 25 September 2013

http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=191209

http://allafrica.com/stories/201309250111.html

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Heavy rains kill 36 in Vietnam, Cambodia

Heavy monsoon rains exacerbated by Typhoon Usagi have pounded parts of Vietnam and Cambodia killing at least 36 people, authorities said Tuesday, with many swept to their deaths in floods.

Despite not being directly hit by Usagi, the world’s most powerful storm this year, parts of Southeast Asia have seen a worsening of their annual rainy season as the typhoon barrelled through the Philippines and China in recent days.

Central and southern Vietnam have been hit by bad weather since early last week, inundating fields and villages, with 24 dead and six missing, according to a 10-day update from the country’s flood and storm control department.

In Cambodia, officials said low pressure from the typhoon caused heavy rains, swelling the Mekong river with floods sweeping across several provinces.

At least 12 people, including six children under six years old, have died in the deluge, said Keo Vy of the National Disaster Management Committee.

Typhoon Usagi killed at least two people in the Philippines and some 25 people in southern China as it swept across the region over the weekend.

Strong winds and torrential rain lashed the Chinese coast after making landfall in Guangdong province northeast of Hong Kong on Sunday evening.

As the typhoon bore down on Hong Kong, operators shut down one of the world’s busiest sea ports and nearly 450 flights were either cancelled or delayed on Sunday.

At least 18 further deaths have been reported in the Philippines in monsoon rains worsened by the typhoon, which also unleashed landslides and power outages across southern Taiwan at the weekend as it ploughed through the Luzon Strait with ferocious winds and heavy downpours.

Some 7,000 houses were inundated and more than 5,000 hectares of crops have been damaged in Vietnam, officials said, although much of the water has since receded.

Early this month, the communist country reported 21 deaths as flash floods and landslides ravaged northern mountainous areas.

Last year, more than 260 people were killed in floods in Vietnam.

Wednesday 25 September 2013

http://www.arabnews.com/news/465728

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Mexican storm death toll rises to 130

The death toll from the recent two devastating storms in Mexico has jumped to 130, after more bodies were found from a landslide, authorities said.

The bodies were recovered in Acatepec in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, one of the hardest-hit states by Tropical Storm Manuel last week, said Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong.

Chong said in a radio interview that more bodies had been recovered from a devastating mudslide that buried 40 homes in the mountain village of La Pintada in southern Guerrero state.

Osorio Chong and President Enrique Pena Nieto oversaw recovery efforts in La Pintada, where dozens are still feared missing under the mud. Pena Nieto said over the weekend there was little hope that anyone had survived the village mudslide.

Guerrero, home to the battered Pacific resort of Acapulco as well as some of the country's poorest rural communities, has seen the worst damage after Tropical Storm Ingrid and Hurricane Manuel last week drenched the country with torrential rains.

Mexico's national meteorological service has warned that a new low pressure zone would bring more moderate to heavy rains to the state of Guerrero later on Tuesday, Xinhua reported.

Ingrid and Manuel, the two storms that hit Mexico's Pacific and Atlantic coasts respectively within 24 hours last week, have affected about 1.2 million people in 24 of the country's 32 states.

A total of 312 cities in 14 states declared a state of emergency due to heavy rains caused by the two storms. About 59,000 people have been evacuated nationwide, of whom 39,000 are still living in shelters, according to the Interior Ministry.

Wednesday 25 September 2013

http://www.tasnimnews.com/English/Home/Single/149226

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Zambales death toll reaches 31

Some 31 people have already died from floods and landslides triggered by the southwest monsoon, most of them buried alive in landslides in Zambales.

1Lt. Yvonne Ricaforte, Army 24th Infantry Battalion civil-military operations officer, said 28 people died in landslides in four barangays in that province. Nineteen were from Subic town.

Twelve bodies had been recovered in Barangay Wawandue near Barangay Cawag, while seven were retrieved in Barangay San Isidro in that town, Ricaforte said.

Authorities also recovered four bodies in Barangays Aglao and Balanawan in the municipality of San Marcelino.

Five other bodies were retrieved in Barangay Malaybalay in Castillejos town.

Speaking to reporters, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) executive director Eduardo del Rosario said the failure of residents to move to safer places caused the death of these people.

“These areas are high-risk areas,” he said. “Our countrymen were advised to relocate already or resettle, but the problem is because of their financial consideration, they could not relocate and transfer to new sites. In this incident, they did not evacuate immediately despite the warning.”

Voluntary pre-evacuation must be made in disaster-prone areas to prevent loss of lives, Del Rosario said.

The Office of Civil Defense Central Luzon said 10 people were reported missing due to the southwest monsoon.

NDRRMC said the southwest monsoon has affected a total of 18,231 people or 3,751 families in 60 barangays. Of this number, 11,169 people or 2,388 families were taken to evacuation centers.

In Abra, the 53-year-old wife of a barangay chairman went missing after a boat ferrying 10 people capsized in the Abra River in Bucay town Monday night.

Mary Torres Loy along with 10 others, including her husband, swam their way out from the strong currents of the Abra River.

Police said the Torres couple and other passengers were crossing the river when the boat’s engine suddenly stopped. Abra River is one of the five largest rivers in the country.

Wednesday 25 September 2013

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2013/09/25/1237838/zambales-death-toll-reaches-31

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Pakistan earthquake: Death toll passes 200

The powerful earthquake which struck yesterday in south-western Pakistan has claimed more than 200 lives, according to sources.

The 7.7-magnitude quake hit the Awaran district of Pakistan's impoverished Balochistan province Tuesday afternoon, at a depth of 20km.

Homes and businesses have been reduced to rubble as survivors begin the task of burying the dead. The latest figures state that 208 people have been confirmed dead, but many more are missing and the death toll is expected to continue to rise

Abdul Rasheed Baluch, a top local official, said that 90% of homes in the stricken area had been destroyed. Many of them were simple mud huts not designed to withstand anything like the massive tremors which struck yesterday.

"We have been busy in rescue efforts for the whole night and fear we will recover more dead bodies from under the rubble during the daylight," he said.

A state of emergency has been declared in the stricken districts of Awaran and Chagai.

The earthquake was so strong that it led to the creation of a small new island 600 meters off the Pakistani coast, near the port of Gwadar.

Balochistan province is home to Pakistan's minority Baloch ethnicity, who have long complained of discrimination at the hands of the Pakistani government and whose traditional homeland, Balochistan, has been occupied by Pakistan and Iran since 1948.

Wednesday 25 September 2013

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/172220#.UkKqq3fWb2Y

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At least 16 dead, others missing in Bolivia landslide

At least 16 people died and a dozen others went missing after a mudslide triggered by heavy rainfall swept vehicles off a road and into a river in Bolivia's northeastern Amazon region, officials say.

A bus, a minibus and a car were swept off the road on Monday near the village of Caranavi, about 180 kilometers (110 miles) north of La Paz, Colonel Juan Cuevas, a traffic police official, said Tuesday.

The vehicles were travelling along Bolivia's "Death Road" before falling down a 100-meter ravine and into the Cajones River, the official said.

The persistent rain has complicated rescue efforts, though officials marked the death toll as high as 16, stressing that it could rise further due to fears that more bodies are buried under the landslide.

Around 10 people have survived the accident.

The event marked the latest landslide disaster in Bolivia. In February 2011, over 300 homes were destroyed by a massive landslide in the country’s capital city, La Paz.

Wednesday 25 September 2013

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/09/24/325781/at-least-16-dead-in-bolivia-landslide/

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Search under way for Italy cruise wreck's missing bodies

The search for two bodies still missing 20 months after Italy's Costa Concordia cruise ship tragedy began Tuesday off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy's civil protection agency said.

Salvage workers who pulled the doomed vessel upright from its watery grave last week in an unprecedented operation "have ensured the ship is secure and given the green light to begin the search," a spokeswoman said.

"Specialist divers from the coastguard, fire brigade and police have begun scouring the area between the righted ship and the land," she added.

The team is looking for the corpses of Italian passenger Maria Grazia Tricarichi and crew member Russel Rebello, whose bodies were not recovered after the nighttime disaster on January 13, 2012, which left 32 people dead.

They will also be assessing how best to carry out the search within the wrecked liner if necessary.

Franco Gabrielli, head of Italy's civil protection agency, had earlier said that the righting of the ship would allow searchers to reach parts of the vessel that had been inaccessible since the accident.

"When the ship toppled, corridors became deep wells. Now she is upright, we can get to areas previously off limits," he said, adding that there would likely "still be areas it is difficult to access and search".

The Concordia had 4,229 people from 70 countries on board when it struck rocks just off Giglio after veering sharply towards the island in a bravado sail-by allegedly ordered by its captain, Francesco Schettino.

It lurched over onto one side during a chaotic and delayed evacuation, throwing terrified people into the freezing sea and preventing some lifeboats from deploying.

Wednesday 25 September 2013

http://www.france24.com/en/20130924-search-under-way-italy-cruise-wrecks-missing-bodies

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