Death toll rises in Nepal avalanche area

Rescuers have widened their search for trekkers missing since a series of blizzards and avalanches battered the Himalayas in northern Nepal earlier this week, leaving at least 29 people killed.

The government also announced on Friday the formation of a high-level committee that would monitor and co-ordinate rescue efforts following criticism that officials were not doing enough to help hikers who have been spotted but remain steanded along a popular trekking circuit.

A group of about 40 of the stranded trekkers tried to start leaving the area on Friday, not realising it was still blocked.

The incident prompted the army rescuers to abandon their operation to find survivors from under the snow on another mountain in order to airlift the trekkers.

Authorities have rescued 78 trekkers from Mustang and 157 from the neighbouring Manang district since Wednesday.

Minendra Risal, the country's information minister, said the new committee, ordered by the prime minister, would directly monitor the rescue operation and help wherever needed.

The committee would co-ordinate operations among the army, police, local administrations and the private operators now involved in the rescues.

The Annapurna trekking route, 160km northwest of the capital, Kathmandu, was filled with foreign hikers during the peak October trekking season, when the air is generally clear and cool.

There were also many Nepalese on the trails because of local festivals.

Two trekkers from Hong Kong and 12 Israelis were airlifted on Wednesday to Kathmandu, where they were being treated at a hospital. They said they survived by taking refuge in a small tea shop along the path.

The blizzard, the tail end of a cyclone that hit the Indian coast a few days earlier, appeared to contribute to an avalanche that killed at least eight people in Phu village in neighbouring Manang district.

The dead included three Indian and four Canadian trekkers as well as three villagers, said government official Devendra Lamichane.

The foreigners' bodies were buried in up to two metres of snow and digging them out will take days, Lamichane said.

Three Canadian trekkers who survived the avalanche were taken by helicopter to a shelter in a nearby town.

Authorities said five climbers were killed in a separate avalanche about 75km to the west, at the base camp for Mount Dhaulagiri.

The climbers, two Slovaks and three Nepali guides, were preparing to scale the 8,167-metre peak, the world's seventh tallest, said Gyanedra Shrestha of Nepal's mountaineering department. Their bodies were recovered on Thursday.

Friday 17 October 2014

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2014/10/death-toll-rises-nepal-avalanche-area-2014101773126516349.html

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Pentagon report faults efforts to find MIAs

The Pentagon's effort to find missing service members from past wars is wracked within inefficiencies, lacks a clear mission and fails to differentiate remains that can be recovered from those lost forever, an inspector general's report charged Friday.

As a first step, the Pentagon needs to limit its MIA search to those whose bodies might still be found, identified and repatriated, the report said, citing investigators who looked into the recovery process.

The Pentagon lists 83,000 American troops missing in action going back to World War II. But at least 50,000 of them are almost certainly beyond recovery since they were aboard ships or aircraft lost over deep ocean waters, the inspector general report said.

The report recommends that the Pentagon conclude that these remains -- mostly from World War II -- will likely never be recovered and notify the families.

Another problem is caused by confusion over who in the military can approve disinterring remains of service members buried as unknown casualties to try to determine their identities, the report said. As a result, some MIA cases that could be resolved remain open, the report said.

This includes an estimated 300 sailors killed in the sinking of the USS Oklahoma during the Pearl Harbor surprise attack on Dec. 7, 1941. Those remains were recovered and buried on land as unknown casualties. But the Navy has been reluctant to approve disinterring the remains, the report said.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, responding to the 108-page report, concurred with its recommendations and said he has already initiated changes.

Friday 17 October 2014

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/17/mia-inspector-general-report-assessment-pentagon/17442187/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=usatoday-newstopstories

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16 killed in collapse at South Korea pop concert

At least 16 people are dead and nearly a dozen injured after the ventilation grate they were standing on collapsed at an outdoor pop concert in South Korea today, officials said.

The crowd had climbed up a steel grate to get a better view of the stage, and their weight caused the grate to collapse sending their bodies crashing 40 feet below, rescue authorities told.

Hundreds of people were gathered at the show in Seongnam, just south of Seoul, to watch 4Minute, a popular girls' band, perform as part of a local festival.

Video from a concert-goer that ran on South Korea's YTN television network shows the group continuing to dance for a short while after the crash, apparently unaware that the grate behind them had collapsed, according to The Associated Press.

Many of the concert-goers were female students, witnesses said.

The steel grate was 13 square feet. Eleven people were injured.

The injured were being treated at several hospitals near the venue.

South Korea has suffered a recent series of accidents involving young victims, including the Sewol ferry disaster in April that left more than 300 dead, most of them high school students.

In February, the roof caved in on a student-packed auditorium near the southern city of Gyeongju, killing 10 people and injuring more than 100. An investigation uncovered evidence of structural flaws and lax management controls.

The Sewol disaster prompted government promises of a national review of safety standards, as it became clear that poor regulatory oversight was a major contributor to the scale of the tragedy.

The last major accident at a music concert was in 2005 when 11 people were crushed to death and nearly 80 injured in a stampede as thousands tried to enter the stadium venue in the southeastern city of Sangju.

Friday 17 October 2014

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/16-killed-in-collapse-at/1421310.html

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