Building collapse: Death toll rises to 61, rescue operations may end tomorrow

Tamil Nadu Government today set up an inquiry commission to probe the collapse of a 11-storey under-construction residential building here in which the death toll has mounted to 61 with no survivors found for the second straight day.

As rescue operations by multiple agencies entered the sixth day, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa announced that the one-man commission headed by Justice (Retd) R Reghupathy will probe the circumstances leading to the collapse of the building at suburban Porur on June 28.

"The Commission will find out whose ignorant attitude resulted in such a mishap that left many workers dead and others injured and decide on (fixing) those responsible for it," she said in a release.

The rescue team personnel could not find any survivor for the second consecutive day today and pulled out 14 more bodies with the toll mounting to 61 as they indicated the operations might be nearing completion soon.

"As of now, 61 are dead and out of this 41 are men and 20 women," K Kulandaisamy, Director, Public Health told PTI.

The focus of the rescue operations was on reaching a spot - estimated to be around 2,000 square feet in the basement - where 20-25 people were feared trapped, revenue officials said adding they wanted to ensure all survivors were pulled out.

The massive rescue work undertaken by government agencies like the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), state disaster response force, police, fire and rescue services, revenue, public works, health and revenue departments is likely to be wrapped up on Friday evening, on the seventh day after the building collapsed.

More than 1,500 rescue workers, including police personnel who were deployed for crowd management, were involved in the operations.

"There is a general consensus among all agencies involved in the rescue operation that the chance of finding more bodies is very remote. We will have a review meeting at 11am on Friday and take a joint decision," said NDRF commandment M K Verma.

DIG of National Disaster Response Force S P Selvan said the operations were likely to end by tomorrow evening.

"We hope that the rescue work will be fully completed by evening tomorrow," he said.

A total of 27 persons, including eight women, were rescued alive till July 1.

In a related development, Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority today commenced inspection of high-rise buildings in the city in the backdrop of the mishap.

Eighteen teams comprising 54 officials from the CMDA inspected eight multi-storeyed and 12 special (high-rise) buildings in various parts of the city, a senior CMDA official said.

Friday 04 July 2014

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-building-collapse-death-toll-rises-to-61-rescue-operations-may-end-tomorrow-1999445

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Poland finds skeletons in search for Stalinist victims

Investigators in Poland have unearthed seven skeletons in the search for a mass grave that may contain the remains of “a thousand” people murdered during the dark days of Stalinism.

The human remains were found in an unmarked grave in a Warsaw cemetery in the early stages of a hunt to locate the last resting place of hundreds of people who were executed, tortured to death or died in captivity in the years following the end of the Second World War.

“There is no doubt they were prisoners,” said Professor Krzysztof Szwagrzyk, the investigator leading the search at the cemetery where he believes “a thousand” people could be buried. “There was evidence in the grave we discovered. These people were at the bottom of a pit and their remains were entwined. The bodies weren’t arranged.”

Investigators have appealed to the descendants of anybody who disappeared during the Stalinist period to come forward and submit DNA samples in order to help identify the dead.

Thousands of people were arrested by the secret police in a government campaign to remove anyone believed to be an enemy of the state. Many of those imprisoned, often on bogus and fabricated charges, had been in the wartime Polish Home Army: the massive underground military organisation that had led Polish resistance to German occupation. But along with fighting Nazis, it had also drawn the hatred of Stalin and Poland’s communists because of its loyalty to the Polish government in exile and its commitment to an independent Polish state. After the war, anybody linked to it faced persecution, 
arrest and even death.

In particular, investigators want to find the remains of Captain Witold Pilecki. A Polish war hero, Capt Pilecki got himself arrested deliberately and sent to Auschwitz in order to write a report on the camp, and in doing so became the first man to document the Jewish Holocaust. After three years at Auschwitz, in 1943 he escaped and resumed his struggle against German occupation.

Despite his wartime record, in 1948 Capt Pilecki was executed by the communist government for allegedly working for “foreign imperialism” and he has no known grave.

The hunt for the captain and the hundreds who perished with him has been complicated by new evidence revealing the communist government buried people on top of the graves in 
an attempt to conceal its 
crimes.

“We have new information about the ‘death pits’ and it turns out that in an effort to erase any traces of unmarked graves, in the 1980s senior politicians from the Polish People’s Republic and military top brass were buried over them,” said Marcin Golebiewicz, one of the men leading the search for the dead.

Friday 04 July 2014

http://www.scotsman.com/news/world/poland-finds-skeletons-in-search-for-stalinist-victims-1-3466112

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Italy migrants: ‘Seventy missing’ off Sicily

At least 70 migrants have been lost at sea after their boat capsized off Sicily, survivors have said.

The latest disaster to hit migrants trying to reach Italy emerged from a group rescued by the Italian navy who spoke to UN workers.

Thousands of migrants have tried to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa in recent days.

Earlier, Italian officials said 45 people had died on another boat discovered two days ago.

Initial reports on Monday had put the number of deaths on the boat – which had been carrying about 600 migrants – at 30.



The navy said that those who died were crammed into a compartment below decks. They were either crushed or asphyxiated.

The discovery was made when rescuers boarded the vessel to evacuate a number of people said to be in distress, two of them pregnant women.

The boat has since been towed to the port of Pozzallo in southern Sicily and the bodies of those who died have been taken away.

The cause of many of the migrant tragedies in recent months has been the poor quality of the overcrowded boats making the crossings to Italy, largely from Libya and Tunisia,

The latest disaster to emerge involves a boat that capsized in the Strait of Sicily, the stretch of sea between the island and Tunisia.

Local prosecutor Giovanni Salvi told Italian media that 101 people were apparently on board the overcrowded boat. The navy managed to rescue 27 of those on board, he said, emphasising that the details were yet to be confirmed.

There has been a significant increase in the number of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to Italy in recent weeks.



EU border agency Frontex says almost 60,000 migrants have already landed in southern Italy this year. The record of 63,000 set in 2011 is likely to be broken within weeks.

Most are from Africa or the Middle East and pay large sums to people smugglers in Libya who transport them in unsafe fishing vessels.

Officials say one reason for the rise in numbers is because of Libya’s continuing political instability.

Italy – which bears the brunt of migrants making the perilous crossing – launched a rescue operation in the Mediterranean last year but has repeatedly appealed for help from the EU to tackle the problem.

Friday 04 July 2014

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-28131675

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Death toll rises in SW China landslide

The death toll in a landslide in southwest China's Yunnan province has risen to five with ten still missing, local authorities said on Friday.

Rescuers retrieved three more bodies as of Thursday evening after the landslide on Monday in Latudi village, Shangpa Town, Fugong county, the emergency response and rescue headquarters said.

After the accident, two people were confirmed dead, three others were injured and another 13 were missing, it said.

More than 1,100 rescuers have cleared nearly 60,000 cubic meters of earth. Search efforts are still under way.

Friday 04 July 2014

http://www.ecns.cn/2014/07-04/122438.shtml

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