22 killed in Kano road accident as seven die in tanker fire

A road accident along Marke village in Takai Local Government Area of Kano State yesterday killed 22 passengers of a Ford, marked XA671 NNG. Several people were injured even as another tragedy hit Rivers State yesterday when a loaded fuel tanker crashed at about 1am in Elele, Ikwere council area, barely 24 hours after fire razed the popular Mile One market in Port Harcourt.

A resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the loaded tanker upturned at an area known as ‘roundabout’ and exploded. Seven died in the inferno, which also burnt about 30 houses, both residential and business buildings, six cars, three trailers and a police van parked around the area.

The state police command’s spokesman, Ahmad Muhammed, a Deputy Superintendent, confirmed the incident. on Tuesday, at about 2am, fire razed the Port Harcourt market and destroyed inestimable goods and property. Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has urged the police command to investigate the cause of the fuel tanker fire, according to a Government House statement. He visited the scene yesterday.

He said: “The police should investigate the cause of this fire. We hear a life was lost and properties have been damaged. We need to hear from the police and know what happened before the government can decide on what to do.”

Meanwhile, a more devastating tragedy occurred in Kano yesterday along Marke village in Takai Local Government Area, killing 22 passengers. The victims of the auto crash, include 10 women. Nine injured victims, who survived the crash, were rushed to Takia General Hospital.

Some of the deceased were burnt to death in the crash which happened at about midday.

According to the Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Alhaji Garba Mohammed Ibrahim, the bodies were given mass burial at the scene of the crash by the community. They were buried at about 3.00 pm. Eyewitness said that the heavily-loaded Ford vehicle was also carrying bags of foodstuffs when it somersaulted and burst into flames following a suspected mechanical fault.

The sector commander appealed to motorists to drive more carefully even as he prayed for the repose of the souls of the victims. The Information Officer in the area, Malam Muntari Usman Romi, journalists that funeral prayer was conducted at the graveyard side by Malam Ibrahim Usman, adding that the burial was attended by the local government officials and traditonal rulers in the area.

He said the passengers were coming from Magami village in Takai local government and were travelling to the state capital.

Friday 20 December 2013

http://www.osundefender.org/?p=138722

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December 17, 1983: Alcalá 20 nightclub fire

On the morning of December 17, 1983 Madrid awoke to terrible news. A fire at the Alcalá 20 nightclub in the heart of the capital had left 78 people dead. The lack of safety measures at the establishment and the padlocking of emergency exits led to a complete overhaul of safety and security protocols in Spain. Now, 30 years later, the victims and some of the people responsible for the tragedy prefer to forget. The images of that night still haunt them today.

The Alcalá 20 disaster completed a black month for the region of Madrid, where two fatal air crashes had also recently taken place at Barajas airport and Mejorada del Campo: in total, 355 people were killed in the space of a few days. The initial death toll at Alcalá 20 rose to 81 after a person died in intensive care and the bodies of two youngsters were discovered in an elevator shaft inside the building.

It is thought that the fire might have been caused by a short circuit in the electrical system. At around 4.30am that Saturday morning, the stage curtains went up in flames. Cries of "fire, fire" were initially taken as a joke by many clubbers, who remained on the basement dance floor. According to the owners of the club there were 150 people inside at the time, although customers said the figure was closer to 1,000.

The flames created a thick blanket of smoke, causing people to run up the stairs to street level. But the hallway and coat check area were too narrow to cope with the dozens of people rushing madly to escape death. The desperation to get out led to a human stampede in which many people were trampled. The locked emergency doors converted the night spot into a death trap from which dozens of people were unable to escape in time through the one available exit.

It has been a long time, and many people have tried to move on. Purificación A. P. lost a sister in the tragedy. Her father was the janitor of the building located right above the nightclub. She had been sleeping when her parents pulled her out of bed. The house was filling up with smoke.

"It's been very tough. It's been 30 horrible years," she says, tears welling up. "Every single day I remember what happened and it is never out of my mind."

She prefers not to go on. Many other victims and family members did not even let the reporter finish his question: the conversation was over as soon as Alcalá 20 was mentioned.

One of the first people to go inside the nightclub after the fire had broken out was firefighter Francisco Gallego Clavero, who says the place was absolute chaos. One of the first things he remembers about that night is that as soon as he walked in, he saw three bodies lying on a staircase. Later he went downstairs and found "a bunch of people piled up" next to the coat check.

"I was using a vest pocket flashlight of the kind we used to carry back then to light up the place while my colleagues took out the bodies. Outside there were friends and relatives waiting," recalls Gallego, who was 35 at the time. "It was a huge blow, because nearly everybody died of asphyxiation."

Technical reports showed that the staircase leading up to the entrance door turned into a chimney draft that sucked out all the smoke even as customers attempted to escape through it.

Meanwhile, news about the fire spread quickly through the emergency services' radios. Sitting inside one of the patrol cars that reported to Alcalá 20 was Mateo Rivas, a 24-year-old officer who had also recently been to the site of the air crash in Mejorada del Campo. He and his colleague, who were driving a Seat 131 station wagon, picked up a young woman who was injured and drove her to the Provincial Hospital [now the Gregorio Marañón].

"When we were driving by Puerta de Alcalá, they warned us that this center was over capacity, so we ended up driving to La Paz [hospital in the north of the city]," recalls Rivas, who now works in the traffic accident department.

"What struck me the most was all the smoke coming out and the fact that you couldn't even stand at the front door of the nightclub. The firefighters had to go down with breathing equipment."

The investigation was overseen by a very young judge, the 28-year-old Jacobo López Barja de Quiroga, whose work was later described by other jurists as "masterful" and "textbook perfect."

The four club owners were arrested and the trial, which took place 10 years later, found them guilty, as well as the electrician in charge of the installation and the Interior Ministry inspector who should have checked the club's safety measures.

The state took four years to pay damages to the victims.

Friday 20 December 2013

http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/12/19/inenglish/1387459694_048856.html

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28 bodies discovered at hidden burial ground in El Salvador

Four more bodies have been found in the hidden burial ground that was discovered in El Salvador last month, bringing the total number to 28, the country’s justice minister said Wednesday.

“There are already 28 (bodies) found” at the site on the El Limon ranch in Colon, a city 19 kilometers (about 12 miles) west of San Salvador, Ricardo Perdomo told a press conference.

The burial site includes more than 14 graves in an area of some 200 square meters (about 2,100 square feet), according to the Attorney General’s Office, and investigators estimate that there could be as many as 44 bodies in all interred there.

Investigators began digging on the El Limon property on Nov. 19 and made the “first discoveries” three days later, the head of the organized crime unit in the AG’s office, Rodolfo Delgado, said last week.

Militant members of the Pandilla 18 gang were behind the killings, the AG’s office says.

Perdomo announced that “probably investigations will be begun in other places” around the country to determine if there are more clandestine burial sites.

Between January and Dec. 15, at least 2,391 people have been murdered in El Salvador, according to official figures.

But national police director Rigoberto Pleites said Wednesday that the force is “analyzing” the number of disappearances, which have almost doubled this year, since “possibly many of them may have been murdered.”

Between January and Dec. 1, 1,070 people were reported missing, compared with 545 during the same period last year.

The increase has called into question the ostensible 52 percent reduction in murders due to a cease fire declared among gangs in March 2012.

Friday 20 December 2013

http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com/latino-daily-news/details/28-bodies-discovered-at-hidden-burial-ground-in-el-salvador/28454/

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Himalayan 'Village of Widows' struggles after flash floods kill 57

The Indian government still doesn't have a final toll for the thousands of people killed in massive flash floods earlier this year, but in the Himalayan hamlet known as the Village of Widows, the loss is all too specific: 57 people killed, about a quarter of its population.

Six months after walls of melted glacier, mud and debris came crashing down the mountainside, the village officially named Deoli-Benigram has 37 widows from the floods, making up about a third of its remaining inhabitants and giving the town its grim new name.

Along with their loved ones, the grieving women's livelihoods were also lost, and they say the state's help is not enough.

"Just six months ago, we were the richest family in this village, and now we do not know where our next meal will come from,'' says Bijaya Devi, tears rolling down her face as her orphaned one-year-old grandson reaches up to touch her cheek.

Mrs Devi lost her husband, three of her sons and a nephew in the June 17 floods, which devastated the temple town of Kedarnath where most of the men in the village made their livings.

At age 64, Mrs Devi is the village's oldest widow. The youngest is her 22-year-old daughter-in-law. Both their husbands worked in the family's small lodge and grocery store in Kedarnath which catered to pilgrims to the shrine.

The Indian government has been criticised for its slow response to the floods in the northern state of Uttarakhand, near Tibet. In all, about 1000 bodies were found and some 5700 people are missing.

The early monsoon floods struck near the end of the summer Hindu pilgrimage to the Kedarnath shrine - one of four major temple towns in the area 3500 metres high in the Garhwal Himalayan mountain range.

Many of the surrounding people depend on temple tourism to make their livings, either as priests, innkeepers or guides with mules to take pilgrims up the steep trails.

The Kedarnath temple - dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva - was not badly damaged itself but the area around it is still strewn with piles of debris up to 4 metres high.

The government has distributed 500,000 rupees (about $8000) to families in the area who lost a breadwinner, but the villagers say what they need are jobs, and for roads and electricity to be restored.

They worry that next summer's pilgrims won't come to the devastated area, even if they did have a way to rebuild their businesses.

But with the harsh Himalayan winter setting in, many are concerned just with surviving.

"Earlier, the life in the hills was dangerous, but now it is hell. There are no roads, no water, no electricity and no jobs,'' said Vinod Kumar in the village of Bhatwadi, also near Kedarnath.

"People in many villages are still living in make-shift tents. How can they survive in tents? How will they keep themselves warm?''

Friday 20 December 2013

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/world/himalayan-village-of-widows-struggles-afer-flash-floods-kill-57-critics-say-not-enough-govt-help/story-fni0xs63-1226787074245

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Namibia: Nine plane crash bodies identified

Police this week identified nine bodies, after examining 609 human remains recovered from the site of the Mozambique plane crash.

The examination of the remains, which included comparison of dental DNA and fingerprints, is part of the Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) process that was completed on Thursday last week.

The bodies are still with the Namibian police awaiting repatriation to their respective countries.

"These nine individuals are some of the passengers who were in the aircraft and thus their families will be notified individually through their governments," police deputy Inspector General James Tjivikua said.

Tjivikua also said families of the deceased requested to wait until the process is completed before the remains are repatriated.

The police are in process of obtaining more data and samples from five counties where the victims originated and once these samples have been received, further analyses will be done.

The Director of the Institute of National Forensic Science, Paul Ludik, said the institute received additional support from 10 countries in addition to those where the victims came from.

Ludik said the investigators had to overcome a number of challenges in the examination of the bodies including the state of the remains.

"Chemicals in the plane also affected the bodies and thus making it hard to identify the bodies at a faster pace," said Ludik.

Friday 20 December 2013

http://allafrica.com/misc/forms/sendpage.html

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11 Killed in Peru bus crash

Eleven people were killed and 35 others injured Thursday when a bus ran off the road and tumbled 30 meters (98 feet) to the bottom of a ravine in northern Peru's Ancash region, police said.

The accident occurred shortly before 11:00 a.m. in Cajacay district on the road linking the cities of Huaraz and Pativilca, a police spokesman told Efe.

Authorities are still working to recover the bodies of the dead, he said.

The 35 injured survivors were taken to several different hospitals in Barranca, Huaraz and Cajacay.

Bus accidents are all too common in Peru, especially in mountainous areas. Most crashes are attributed to excessive speed, driver fatigue or the poor condition of the vehicle.

Friday 20 December 2013

http://www.laprensasa.com/309_america-in-english/2345235_11-killed-in-peru-bus-crash.html

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