India: Government plans DNA database to help find missing people

The government told the Indian Supreme Court on Monday that it intends to create a database of DNA profiles for the first time to locate missing persons and to identify bodies, and a Bill in this regard is in the pipeline.

The decision is significant as approximately 40,000 unidentified bodies are disposed of every year, removing every trace of their existence.

At the same time, thousands are reported missing across the country.

The DNA profiles will be used to ascertain if there is a connection between unidentified bodies and missing persons.

The Centre provided the information in its response to a PIL filed by the NGO Lokniti Foundation, seeking a direction to the government to implement a scientific system of DNA profiling at the national-level for cross-matching missing persons reported from different parts of the country with unidentified bodies.

The PIL said it will also help establish the identity of victims in mass disaster situations like a tsunami, fire or terror attacks.

"Government is seized of the matter and will take an appropriate decision. We are not undermining the issue. But keeping in mind the expertise, expense and infrastructure involved, extensive consultation is required. We are even planning a bill on the issue," Additional Solicitor General Neeraj Kishan Kaul told a bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra.

The NGO'S lawyer, Ashok Dhamija, said the INTERPOL Global DNA Profiling Survey of 2008 showed that 120 of 172 INTERPOL member countries were using forensic DNA profiling in criminal investigation, and as many as 54 countries had set up full-fledged national DNA databases.



Tuesday 15 July 2014

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2692100/Government-plans-DNA-database-help-missing-people.html

19 missing, two dead as boat with illegal immigrants capsizes off Malaysia

At least two people died and 18 others were missing after an overloaded fishing boat carrying illegal Indonesian immigrants capsized off the coast of southern Malaysia, a maritime official said Tuesday.

The small fibreglass boat overturned and sank late Monday with around 80 people onboard as a patrolling vessel was pursuing it off the state of Johor, the official with the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency said.

"The boat carried illegal immigrants going back to Indonesia" to celebrate the end of Ramadan, the official told AFP, adding that 59 people had been rescued.

"The boat was small and... overloaded," said the official, who requested anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

He said the bodies of one man and a woman had so far been recovered.

The boat was heading to Indonesia's Batam island and sank three nautical miles off Tanjung Piai, peninsular Malaysia's southern-most point, he added, raising hopes that some of those missing could have swum to safety.

He said authorities were still investigating the accident but the boatman -- who is among those still missing -- may have panicked when he saw the agency's patrol vessel and lost control.

He denied local media reports that the two vessels collided.

Boat accidents are common as Malaysia draws hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants from poorer regional countries who fill factory, plantation, construction and other mostly low-paid jobs shunned by locals.

Authorities have stepped up patrols along the country's long coastline during Ramadan as many from Indonesia seek to sneak out and return in rickety boats to celebrate Eid al-Fitr in late July, Islam's biggest festival which marks the end of the fasting month.

The government needed to crack down on agents and employers profiting from illegal labour and corruption among border authorities, said Aegile Fernandez, an official with Malaysian migrant labour rights group Tenaganita.

"Unless all this is addressed, this will happen again and again," she told AFP. More than a dozen people died and about two dozen others went missing last month in two boat accidents in rough weather off Malaysia's west coast.

The boats were also carrying Indonesians, trying to sneak out of the country for Ramadan.

Both Malaysia and Indonesia are Muslim-majority Southeast Asian countries.

About two million foreigners are estimated to live in Malaysia illegally, in addition to almost two million legal foreign workers.

Malaysia also draws refugees from strife-hit regional countries, such as Myanmar and Sri Lanka, who arrive illegally and hope to be resettled to the US, Australia or another nation that accepts them.

Tuesday 15 July 2014

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/two-dead-18-missing-as-boat-capsizes-off-malaysia.aspx?pageID=238&nID=69130&NewsCatID=356

12 killed, over 160 injured as Moscow Metro carriages derail in rush hour

12 people have been killed and over 160 injured as several subway cars derailed on the Moscow Metro on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya dark blue Metro line on Tuesday morning.

“There are so far 12 [dead],” Vladimir Puchkov, the head of the Russian Emergencies Ministry (Emercom) told journalists.

“One hundred and twenty people have sought medical help, 106 were taken to hospital. About a half of them are seriously injured,” Golukhov told ITAR-TASS.

The driver of the train is among those dead, according to a source in the Moscow Metro.

Media reports have emerged of 16 people being dead. Those have not yet been officially confirmed.

The accident happened during the morning rush hour when the train was packed with passengers.

The first carriage of the train sustained most of the damage, according to an eyewitness of the accident who spoke to RT. Ivan, said he was in the second car when the train suddenly braked and the lights went off.

“I was tossed up in the air,” the young man says. “There was blood on the floor, heads bruised, arms broken. Panic broke out.”

Ivan also says after the train derailed there was a flash and then the tunnel was filled with thick smoke.

“The car was badly damaged. We started to get out. We saw a door in the tunnel’s wall. Men eventually broke that door and we saw workers, constructing a parallel tunnel. They helped us to get out.”

An eyewitness, who spoke to LifeNews, was in the fifth carriage and says they had to wait for 30 minutes before the evacuation started.

“So as we got out, we proceeded to march on foot, probably for two or three minutes - along the tunnel with cables underneath. The train driver had told us right away to stick to the right side, so we did. No sooner had we got to the surface than we realized it was a full-blown emergency.”

Andrey Zenin, another survivor in the accident, says he helped extinguish the fire in one of the carriages and he also was among the volunteers who helped to get the injured out of the tunnel.

“There was a man next to me and his head had been smashed by the handrail and he was unconscious,” Zenin told RT. “Some people had broken ribs and one person’s arm was injured. All in all, people were hysterical.”

Law enforcement officials told that three train cars had derailed, “but not overturned.”

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has expressed condolences to the families of the dead and promised that the federal government will help in the post-accident clean-up.

Moscow authorities do not consider the cause the accident in the Metro could have been a terrorist act, according to Maksim Liskutov, the head of the transport department in the Moscow government, cited by Dozhd TV channel.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin has promised to take tough measures against those responsible for the accident after visiting the crash site.

“I’m sure a criminal case should be launched into the accident, an investigation conducted and the toughest measures taken,” Sobyanin told journalists, after he visited a hospital where the injured had been taken.

Some passengers could still be at the site of the accident, according to Maksim Liskutov, Moscow’s deputy mayor.

Attempts are being made to try and evacuate the stricken passengers, who are stuck in a tunnel between Park Pobedy and Slavyansky Bulvar stations, in the west of Moscow.

News of the derailment was preceded by reports of smoke detected on the dark blue line of the Moscow Metro. Later, Moscow’s emergencies agency denied reports of smoke and said a sudden failure in the electricity supply to a conductor rail could have caused the accident.

A failure in the power supply led to a false alarm going off. The alarm was a signal to the train driver to immediately stop the train. The sudden braking led to the derailment of several carriages.

The press service says the train derailed because it had to brake too suddenly.

“At 8:39am Moscow time [04:39 GMT] on a stretch between stations of Park Pobedy [Victory Park] and Slavyansky Bulvar there was abrupt deceleration of a train,” Moscow emergencies agency 's press service employee told RT.

Sixty-six buses, 40 ambulances and eight helicopters have been deployed by rescuers for evacuations. Fifty people have already reportedly been evacuated from Slavyansky Bulvar and 200 from Park Pobedy.

The Investigative Committee (IC) has launched a criminal case over ‘violation of transportation security demands’, according to interim head of the Moscow’s Western District Department of the IC, Roman Syomushkin.

Tuesday 15 July 2014

http://rt.com/news/172808-train-moscow-metro-evacuation/