Families of 'missing' MH370 passengers asked to provide DNA samples to identify bodies

Families of passengers and crew members aboard Malaysian airlines flight MH370 have been asked to provide DNA samples even though the plane is still missing.

The next of kin were informed about the move at a press briefing in Kelana Jaya, Malaysia this week, at the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Academy. A MAS spokeswoman said that the briefing was provided by the Royal Malaysian Police Forensics team, reported News.com.au.

Those who attended the briefing said that the DNA samples were needed for "safe keeping" in case the flight was found.

"With reference to reports on the ante-mortem DNA sampling that was mentioned at the recent MH370 family briefing at MAS Academy in Kelana Jaya, this briefing was provided by the Royal Malaysian Police’s Forensics team," according to MAS media relations on Friday.

"As such, the ante-mortem procedures will be addressed by the police or the relevant authorities," it said.

MAS said that their top priority is to "provide care and assistance" to the families of the passengers and crew affected by the MH370 tragedy.

Flight MH370 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Bejing went missing on March 8. It was carrying 239 people, comprising 227 passengers and 12 crew members.

The flight is expected to have gone down into the Indian Ocean after drifting off-course, nine months ago.

An intensive underwater operation has searched more than 8000 square kilometres but has not found any trace of the Boeing 777 aircraft.

Friday 5 December 2014

http://www.aninews.in/newsdetail6/story194535/families-of-039-missing-039-mh370-passengers-asked-to-provide-dna-samples-to-identify-bodies.html

http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/12/05/MAS-DNA-MH370/

17 dead in migrant ship off Libya

Sixteen people died on a rubber dinghy carrying migrants from Libya to Italy, Italian authorities said Friday, after they rescued a total of 278 people in three sea operations.

The victims were found Thursday by two coast guard patrols and a private tug boat, along with 76 survivors, the Italian navy said in a statement.

The navy said the 16 migrants were already dead when the dinghy was found, presumably from hypothermia and dehydration.

Another migrant died of a pulmonary embolism shortly after rescue crews reached the rubber boat Thursday, and yet another was airlifted in critical condition to a hospital on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa to be treated for hypothermia, the navy said in a statement.

The bodies were expected to arrive in Sicily‘s Porto Empedocle later on Friday.

Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, speaking from Brussels, said the incident took place about 75 kilometres from Libyan shores and 185 kilometres south of Lampedusa - Italy‘s southern outpost in the Mediterranean.

Navy patrols intercepted two other dinghies on Thursday, rescuing 100 and 102 migrants respectively.

Another migrant died of a pulmonary embolism shortly after rescue crews reached the rubber boat Thursday.

Seventy-four survivors were heading toward Port Empedocle aboard the Navy ship Etna, which picked them up at sea.

The EU operation, launched last month after Italy phased out its more robust rescue program, foresees patrols 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the Italian coast. The Italian-run Mare Nostrum rescue operation had patrolled waters much closer to Libya.

Human rights organizations have criticised Italy for its decision to scale down its Mare Nostrum rescue mission in the Mediterranean following the November 1 launch of a parallel EU sea patrol operation, Triton, which has a smaller remit.

Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni stressed that, despite plans to wind down Mare Nostrum completely, Italian authorities would continue to step in in emergency situations.

Gentiloni stressed that even with the more limited EU patrols, Italian ships would still intervene to help those in need.

Friday 5 December 2014

https://news.yahoo.com/reports-least-17-die-migrant-ship-off-libya-095343719.html

http://en.europeonline-magazine.eu/italy-coast-guard-recovers-16-bodies-from-migrant-boat-off-libya_366872.html

Turkey Recovers Last Bodies From Flooded Ermenek Coal Mine

Turkish rescue workers recovered the last of 18 bodies trapped inside a flooded coal mine on Thursday, as efforts to extract the workers reached a grim conclusion nearly six months after the country’s deadliest mining catastrophe.

The six-week push to extract workers at the Ermenek mine in southern Anatolia’s Karaman province was complicated by flowing water underground which shifted the bodies around the mine, according to Energy Minister Taner Yildiz.

Initial findings suggest that the Ermenek mine flooded after yearslong water buildup in old galleries breached pressure thresholds, triggering an explosion, the local public prosecutor’s office said last month.

While the latest disaster pales in comparison to the fire at the country’s Soma coal mine in the western province of Manisa that killed 301 workers in May, it rekindled a debate about safety standards in Turkish industry.

The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has had to fend off criticism for its failure to reverse the industry’s dire record. Workplace fatalities have continued since the Ermenek accident, including the death of two Chinese workers when a mine in the Black Sea region caved-in. This year more than 350 miners have died in workplace accidents and disasters, more than triple the 95 deaths in 2013.

“The energy lobby in Turkey is strong and merciless,” said Ozgur Ozel, a main-opposition Republican People’s Party lawmaker from Manisa.

“The responsibility is on the government, and there is an administrative side of this. We have a mind-blowing, careless situation at hand that doesn't value the lives of people,” said Mr. Ozel.

The government must take steps to bolster oversight of mines, end subcontracting that puts inexperienced personnel down mine shafts, and adopt international labor conventions, he said in a telephone interview.

Ankara has focused attention on alleged failings of management of the mining companies. The government has pledged to draw up new regulations after the back-to-back disasters, having already reacted to criticism of its handling of the Soma disaster by reducing length of mining-industry shifts to six hours a day from eight.

“We see what kind of results a possible neglect can lead to,” Mr. Yildiz said previously in televised remarks from Ermenek at an earlier point in the search.

“In both Soma and here. there are faults. And whether it is on the private sector, the public sector, or whoever, [they] must definitely have a response.”

Turkey has ramped up inspections and halted operations at 68 mines, more than half of the 111 locations under review after identifying dangerous working conditions, said Halil Etyemez, a deputy at the Labor and Social Security Ministry, in comments carried by the state news agency, Anadolu.

The Ermenek mine’s operator, Has Sekerler Madencilik, said in a statement last month that the deadly accident appeared to be a natural disaster, a finding that Mr. Yildiz has publicly rejected. The company also maintains that it fulfilled all workplace safety requirements and had passed necessary inspections.

Friday 5 December 2014

http://online.wsj.com/articles/turkey-finds-last-bodies-from-flooded-ermenek-coal-mine-1417697084

4 more bodies found in trawler disaster

The bodies of two Korean and two Southeast Asian sailors who were aboard the trawler Oryong 501 were found in the western Bering Sea on Thursday.

The trawler owned by Sajo Industries and carrying 60 people sank on Monday while fishing for Alaska pollack.

Twenty bodies have now been found, including six Koreans, 12 Southeast Asians, and two unidentified bodies. Thirty-three remain missing.

Rescuers searching for survivors of a shipwreck off Russia's Pacific coast had previously discovered four empty inflatable life-rafts in the area where the tragedy took place.

Seven people were rescued after the craft was swamped by a large wave as the crew hauled in its catch on Monday, one of whom later died of hypothermia. The rest of the crew was missing.

South Korea's government and Sajo Industries, the vessel's operator, said there were 60 people on board: 11 South Koreans, 13 Filipinos, 35 Indonesians and a Russian fisheries inspector. Russian authorities said there were 62 people on board.

Other fishing vessels as well as aircraft of the US Coast Guard joined the search for survivors after the Oryong-501 sank near Cape Navarin in the Bering Sea off the coast of Chukotka in Russia's Far East.

Rescue efforts continued overnight but were hampered by snow showers, high winds and 22ft waves, and were stopped as darkness fell on Tuesday. They are due to resume on Wednesday. However, the chances of finding more survivors are slim, said Artur Rets, head of the rescue team in the Russian port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

"In such water a person without a wetsuit can hold out for about 15 minutes. None of the rescued sailors were wearing wetsuits."

Mr Rets said the 83-metre boat had been "swamped by a wave".

"The storage area was flooded, then the hold; the rudder and fuel system jammed," he said. "Those are the initial assessments."

The New York Times reported from Seoul that the Oryong-501 left for the Bering Sea from a port in Busan, South Korea, in July. It was one of six South Korean trawlers allowed to catch a total of 40,000 tons of pollack this year under a fisheries deal with Russia.

The ship previously operated under a Russian flag as the Orion-501.

A US Coast Guard ship and a Hercules-C130 plane are expected to join the search again on Wednesday.

The survivors rescued on Monday were three Filipinos, three Indonesians and the Russian inspector.

Diplomats from South Korea's consulate in Vladivostok said they would be liaising with the trawler's owners and families of the missing crew.

Friday 5 December 2014

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2014/12/05/2014120501590.html