Remains of missing Spitfire pilot feared to have ditched in the Channel found 70 years later in French farmer's field... and now his family can lay him to rest with full honours

Ever since Sergeant William Smith's spitfire was shot down over the English Channel during a World War Two dogfight, his family have hoped that one day his body could be found.The brave pilot was presumed to have crashed and died in the middle of the sea after his plane was targeted by an enemy aircraft in 1942.

For the next seven decades his relatives held on to the slim hope that a fishing trawler might one day drag up the wreckage so that they could bury their loved one.

Incredibly, their wish has now come true after Sgt Smith's remains were unearthed in his wrecked Spitfire - in a French farmer's field 30 miles inland.

It was discovered by a British historian and film crew who were looking for the wreckage of another downed Spitfire whose pilot had been taken prisoner by the Germans.

Their research and eye-witness accounts of a plane crashing led them to excavate a site near Cassel in northern France.

Unsurprisingly, they found parts of a Spitfire 25ft down but were shocked when they also discovered the skeletal remains of the pilot.

And the mystery of who the dead airman was was soon cleared up when a dogtag with Sgt Smith's name and service number on was also discovered.

Parts of a Spitfire were found by the search party, but they were stunned to also discover skeletal remains

It is assumed the pilot was either knocked unconscious or killed in his cockpit at 20,000ft over the Channel and his plane flew 50 miles out of control before crashing.

Now the hero's younger brother Bert, 84, is preparing to lead his family at a funeral with full military honours that is due to be held for Sgt Smith in Cassel on Thursday.

Mr Smith's son Mark, 55, said: 'My family had assumed that my uncle had been shot down and he and his plane had ended up in the Channel.

'When my father found out Bill's body had been found without hearing anything for 69 years he was stunned, shocked and some what relieved at the same time.

'We are relieved to finally find out what happened to Bill and it is important that there will be a resting place for him where family members can go and visit and pay their respects for years to come.'

Sgt Smith, from Melbourne, joined the Royal Australian Air Force before going off to war in 1941.

He was stationed at Redhill in Surrey with 457 Squadron and on May 9, 1942, his Spitfire helped escort a number of Boston bombers in a raid over northern France.

On their return to England the squadron was attacked by up to 30 Fock-Wulf Fw 190s midway between Mardyck and Dover.

Sgt Smith, who was 24 at the time, was last sighted at 20,000ft in combat with a number of Fw 190s and wasn't seen again.

Mr Smith, a school teacher, said: 'Bill's disappearance had a devastating impact on the family, especially his mother Freda who was very close to him.

'She used to scan and re-scan the photos of prisoners of war in the newspapers and look for someone that looked like Bill and would almost be convinced that some of them were him.
'She came to terms that he had died after the war when there was no returning hero.
'Dad didn't talk a lot about him but Bill's picture was always present on the mantlepiece of my family home as we were growing up.'

Send-off: This image shows an identification disc belonging to Sergeant Smith. The hero's younger brother Bert, 84, is preparing to lead his family at a funeral with full military honours

Historian Andy Saunders, from Hastings, East Sussex, found Sgt Smith's remains last November during the excavation of farm land.

Mr Saunders and a film crew from the Discovery History Channel were searching for a Spitfire that had been donated by the Parker Pen Company at the time. He said: 'The pilot of the Parker Pen Spitfire bailed out and that plane came down about two weeks before or after Sgt Smith's. 'All our research pointed us to this site for the other Spitfire.

'We had removed various parts of the aircraft when we started to find human remains.
'As soon we realised that we stopped work straight away and called the MoD in England and the local mayor.

'Obviously we hadn't expected to find any remains and there were no records at all for Sgt Smith in the area because he disappeared over the English Channel.
'We found his identity disc which was on a chain along with a lucky sixpence and a St Christopher.

'We have been in contact with William Smith's family and they are delighted that we have been able to solve this mystery.'

Sgt Smith's funeral will take place on Thursday at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission section of Cassel cemetery.

A documentary on the find and the funeral is due to be broadcast on Discovery History on Friday.

17 April 2012

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2131075/Remains-missing-Spitfire-pilot-feared-ditched-Channel-70-years-later-French-farmers-field--family-lay-rest-honours.html#ixzz1sK5umQcY

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8 die in Jalandhar factory collapse

Jalandhar, April 16 - At least eight employees of a blanket-manufacturing unit were killed and 55 others hurt after a four-storey building in Focal Point Extension here collapsed late last night. Several workers are feared trapped inside even as the rescue operations are on.

Tragedy struck at Shital Fibres around 11.30 pm on Sunday when over 300 employees were working over-time, according to some workers. Most of the employees were migrants from UP and Bihar.

Factory owner Shital Vij said the exact number of workers in the unit could not be ascertained as the attendance register lay buried as well. He said around 70 workers could have been inside when tragedy struck. National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Commandant SK Verma said two bodies had been extricated whereas six were spotted under a collapsed beam.

While the exact cause of the accident is not known, NDRF Assistant Commandant Musaphir Ram said the building seemed to have collapsed due to poor construction. Shital Fibres MD Abhishek Vij said the factory was constructed four years ago. Relatives and friends of the trapped workers complained of the tardy pace of rescue operations and raised slogans against the administration. Police Commissioner Gaurav Yadav managed to persuade the mob to allow smooth conduct of operations.

Residents living near the factory were among the first to reach the site along with police and fire brigade personnel. The Army and the NDRF were called in after Deputy Commissioner Priyank Bharti and other officers realised the magnitude of the disaster.

Kuldeep Patial of nearby Guru Amar Dass Nagar told The Tribune that he along with 10-odd youths of the locality reached the accident site shortly after hearing a loud noise. They rescued 10 workers.

The entire 30-member staff of the local fire brigade led by additional divisional fire officer Kashmir Singh began rescue operation soon after. “Firemen reached the spot within five minutes of getting information and saved many precious lives,” Kashmir Singh said.

The Punjab Government has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh to the next of the kin of each of the deceased, Rs 65,000 for the seriously hurt and Rs 45,000 for those who sustained minor injuries. Of the injured, 16 have been discharged, whereas 39 are still in hospitals.

The injured were rushed to the Devi Talab Mandir Hospital and Civil Hospital here. Factory owner Sheetal Vij is also president of the Devi Talab Mandir Management Committee that runs the hospital of the same name. Several teams of NGOs, including Pahal and sewadars of Dera Sacha Sauda, also joined rescue work. A 45-member NDRF team led by its Assistant Commandant Musaphir Ram reached the site from its Bathinda Headquarters. It started rescue operations at about 6.30 am.

“Rescue operations are on in full swing, but teams are finding it difficult to reach the buried survivors,” Musaphir Ram said, when asked about the slow pace of rescue operation.“We are using various type of equipment to tear through the debris and reach the trapped persons and have rescued several workers,” he said.

A column of army engineers of Vajra Corps led by Colonel Simrajeet Singh also reached the spot at 7.30 am. It also pressed sniffer dogs into service to reach out to survivors. After initial operations, another NRDF team was rushed in from Bathinda, which reached the site today afternoon.

Divisional Commissioner Anurag Verma and Deputy Commissioner Priyank Bharti were supervising rescue operations. The NDRF Assistant Commandant said it would take at least two days to clear the debris and know the exact loss of human life and property.

The Divisional Commissioner has been asked to look into the incident. Soon after visiting the site, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, SK Sandhu, said building experts would assist in the probe. He also said that all commercial and industrial buildings in the state would be put through a safety review to avoid recurrence of an untoward incident.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120417/main1.htm

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Deadly chase: Arizona desert becomes immigrant deathtrap

Arizona remains the deadliest state for illegal border crossings, with 71 bodies recovered in the past six months alone. Beefed-up US security along the Mexican border does not stop immigrants from trying – instead, it pushes them into a killer desert.

­With its rocky valleys and spectacular peaks, the Sonora desert in Arizona is said to be a treasure of the American southwest. But at the same time is a frontier land where a deadly conflict is underway.

Every year thousands of people from Mexico and other parts of Latin America try to make it to the US by illegally crossing the border. But scores of people never reach the American dream for which they risked their lives.

In 2011, there were nearly 200 (figures vary from 183 to 192) migrant body remains recovered. Even though the number has decreased about 20 per cent compared to 2010, the rate of migrant deaths remains consistently high.

”It’s deadlier. The border is absolutely deadlier,” says Kat Rodriguez, from the Arizona NGO Coalición de Derechos Humanos.

More than 6,000 have died along the US-Mexico border since 1994, according to human rights groups. That is when Operation Gatekeeper – a program fortifying the international crossing with high-priced fencing, thousands of agents, and high tech surveillance – was launched.

“It’s almost a mass disaster situation,” says Dr. Gregory Hess, chief medical examiner at Pima County, Arizona.

The disaster Hess faces is the growing number of unidentified bodies being found in Arizona’s southern desert. Bodies are stacked high in a fight for space – and perhaps even a proper burial.

“It becomes not so much an effort to determine why that person died… it becomes an effort to sort out who this is,” Hess says.

Many remains found in the desert are merely bone fragments, making them difficult to identify. In other cases, remains of the missing are never found.

The Pima County cooler at the Medical Examiner’s office has a capacity to hold hundreds of bodies. The facility is much larger than others around the country, specifically because of the issue of bodies being found along the border.

Even so, the lack of storage is a major headache.

“We had 300 remains. We had a refrigerated truck parked out here to help us with the overflow,” Hess says.

April 16, 2012

http://www.freedominfonetwork.org/profiles/blogs/deadly-chase-arizona-desert-becomes-immigrant-deathtrap

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Five more Concordia victims identified

The bodies of two Germans, two Americans and an Italian recovered from the wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise liner have been formally identified, local authorities said in a statement on Tuesday.

The corpses, which were recovered in March, were identified as those of Christina and Norbert Ganz from Germany, Barbara and Gerald Heil from the United States, and an Italian member of the ship's crew, Giuseppe Girolamo.

The bodies were among five that were recovered in the past three weeks from the liner, which capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio after hitting rocks on January 13.

Two are still unaccounted for.

A total of 32 people are believed to have died when the ship crashed into rocks off an Italian island in January, with two people -- an Italian passenger and Indian crew member - still unaccounted for, according to the prefecture in Grosseto.

Of the 30 identified victims, 12 are German, six French, six Italian, two Peruvian, two American, one Hungarian and one from Spain.

The Costa Concordia, which had 4 229 people on board, ran aground and keeled over, prompting a panicked evacuation in which dozens of people threw themselves into the sea.

Nine people are under investigation for manslaughter, including captain Francesco Schettino, who is also accused of abandoning ship before everyone on board could be evacuated.

Three of those being investigated are executives from the ship's company, Costa Crociere, Europe's biggest cruise operator. - AFP

April 17 2012 at 12:18pm

http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/five-more-concordia-victims-identified-1.1277739

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Landslide Kills 6 in Southwest China's Chongqing

CHONGQING, April 14 (Xinhua) -- Six people were killed and another two wounded in a mountain collapse Saturday morning in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, local authorities said.
A section of a mountain near the Egongyan Bridge collapsed at 1 a.m. Saturday, crushing nearby work sheds and killing six people inside, said an official with the city government.

The victims were employees of a construction company and a lighting company.

The injured only suffered minor wounds, said the official.

Authorities are probing the cause of the tragedy.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-04/14/c_131526537.htm

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12 confirmed dead in NE China colliery flood

CHANGCHUN, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Rescuers have retrieved the bodies of 12 colliery workers who died in last week's coal mine flood in northeast China's Jilin Province, authorities said Monday.

Eight bodies were retrieved from the pit of the Fengxing Coal Mine in the city of Jiaohe early on Monday, 10 days after the accident, the local work safety bureau said in a press release.

The statement said that at least 20,000 cubic meters of water poured into the shaft on April 6. Of the 70 people working in the pit, 58 escaped.

Rescuers spent about a week draining flood water from the shaft before they were able to reach the first four trapped miners, all of whom were found dead, on April 13.

Fengxing was a licensed, privately-run mine.

Investigators said the flood water came from a neighboring state-owned colliery.

In another recent mining tragedy, five miners were killed and four remained trapped in a flooded colliery pit in central China's Henan Province.

The flooding in the city of Pingdingshan was reported Saturday afternoon, and rescue work continued on Monday.

2012-04-16

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-04/16/c_131529348.htm

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Garage blast kills nine, injures dozens

BEIJING, Apr. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- A four-story residential building in the Xinluo district of Longyan, in East China's Fujian province, collapsed on Sunday after an explosion at a nearby auto repair facility, killing at least nine people and injuring 55, according to the Longyan information office.

It wasn't clear whether people were still trapped in the debris.

According to a preliminary investigation by police, the blast was caused by the illegal storage of explosive materials by a man surmaned Chen, said You Buzheng, spokesman of the Longyan Public Security Bureau.

Chen is under arrest and the investigation is continuing, You said.

"The rescuers are using life detectors and their hands, digging to find trapped people," You said.

A sudden downpour on Sunday evening forced the suspension of rescue work, an anonymous rescuer told China Daily.

At the scene, a China Daily reporter saw the blast had created a crater at least 3 meters deep and 10 meters wide. The hole was covered with a plastic sheet by local police.

More than 10 trucks parked inside the facility were overturned by the explosion, and broken glass shards were everywhere.

The collapsed building was still standing, though one side was destroyed.

Ambulances took the injured to hospitals all afternoon.

Guo Zhaolong, an official of the Xinluo district who arrived at the scene, told Xinhua News Agency that the explosion is still under investigation.

Local media reported the residential building belongs to the coal mine of Subang village in Yanshi town, while the auto repair facility is managed by the village head, who was eating with the staff inside.

Wang Chengqiong, a worker at the Subang coal mine, was slightly injured. From the Longyan hospital, he told taihainet.com, a website managed by the Fujian Daily, that he was sleeping on the third floor of the residential building at the time of the blast.

After hearing the explosion, he ran as fast as he could downstairs.

Zhang Zhaomin, mayor of Longyan, and Huang Xiaoyan, secretary of the Longyan Party committee, said a comprehensive building safety inspection campaign will be carried out in the city.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-04/16/c_131528458.htm

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Bus accident kills 12 people in Zimbabwe

HARARE, April 16 -- At least 12 people died early Monday morning in southern Zimbabwe when a Beitbrigde-bound bus overturned, police chief spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena told Xinhua.

"The accident occurred around 2 a.m. this morning at the 92 km peg along the Masvingo-Beitbridge highway," he said.

He said police were still gathering further details. The accident took place after the death of 49 people during last week' s Easter holiday, up from 43 recorded last year.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-04/16/c_131530178.htm

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192 bodies given a decent burial in Musha

192 bodies of victims of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, on Friday were accorded a decent burial in Musha genocide memorial site found in Rwamagana district.

About 18.310 bodies of genocide victims are buried in Musha genocide memorial site.

The bodies are mainly of Tutsis who were killed in Musha catholic parish, where they had sought refuge.

Internal security Minister Sheik Harerimana Mussa Fazil, during the event criticized people who don’t want to provide information on where the bodies were dumped during the genocide.

He said it’s sad to see, after 18 years, since the genocide against the Tutsi was stopped, bodies of victims are still being buried and searched for.

According to UWIMANA Collette who survived from the church, said that they had gone to the parish thinking that a church is a sacred place where killers would not dare come, and this explains the big number of people who died in churches.

They were wrong, because in few hours after their arrival, grenade and bullets rocked the church, painting the once holy place, with blood of innocent lives.

The killing spree at Musha Parish was led by former head of Bicumbi commune, SEMANZA Laurent, Interahamwe militias, the army and police officers.

Bikoro commune, where Musha Parish was found, was headed by BISENGIMANA Paul at the time of the genocide.

After killings, in a move that was aimed at destroying evidence, Interahamwe ferried the bodies and dumped them in Musha mining site, which was 5 meters deep.

This makes it difficult to discover the bodies.

13 April 2012

http://www.orinfor.gov.rw/printmedia/topstory.php?id=5338

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Officials: Human remains at Titanic shipwreck site

NEW YORK (AP) -- A federal official says there may be human remains embedded in the mud of the North Atlantic where the New York-bound Titanic came to rest when it sank 100 years ago.

The director of maritime heritage at the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration says forensic evidence indicates signs of human remains at the shipwreck site.

James Delgado said Saturday that one 2004 photograph shows a coat and boots in the mud. He says the way they are "laid out" makes a "compelling case" that it is where "someone has come to rest."

He released the full image this week to coincide with the disaster's centenary. It was previously seen in a cropped version.

They were taken during a NOAA expedition.

The luxury liner went down April 14, 1912, after striking an iceberg.

Published : Sunday, 15 Apr 2012

http://www.wtnh.com/dpps/news/international/officials-human-remains-at-titanic-shipwreck-site_4139402

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Women and children last? In real sea disasters, chivalry takes a back seat - TWICE as many men survive sinking ships

When the Titanic sank beneath the waves, men famously stood back from the boats, and women and children fled to safety first.

But a new study suggests that the chivalrous rule of 'women and children first' rarely happens - and may only have happened on the Titanic because the captain threatened to shoot men who got into the lifeboats.

A new analysis of 18 maritime disasters where 15,000 people died only 17.8 percent of the women survived versus 34.5 percent of the men.

Of the Titanic's passengers, 70% of the women were saved, but just 20% of the men.

The idea of saving 'women and children first' has been described as 'the unwritten law of the sea'.

But a new analysis of maritime disasters suggests that women and children are often left to last - and that even on the Titanic, the 'chivalry' was helped by the fact that the captain threatened to shoot men who got into the lifeboats before women.

Economists Mikael Elinder and Oscar Erixon of Uppsala University analyzed 18 of the world's most famous maritime disasters from 1852 to 2011.

'The Titanic disaster has generated immense public and scholarly interest, and as one of the most extensively covered events in history obtained an almost mythological status,' say the researchers.

'The evacuation of the Titanic serves as the prime example of chivalry at sea. Men stood back, while women and children were given priority to board the lifeboats.

They found that men actually have a distinct survival advantage.

Elinder said Thursday when it comes to sinking ships ‘it appears as if it is every man for himself.’

The actual iceberg which sank the liner Titanic in April 1912 photograaphed from the German ship Prinz Adalbert

Meanwhile, new research into the behaviour of passengers onboard the Titanic, continues to puzzle scientists.

Whilst women and children were given priority, men stood on the deck smoking cigars and the ship's band infamously 'played on'.

David Savage, an economist at Queensland University in Australia said: 'There was no pushing and shoving. (It was) very, very orderly behavior.'

Savage was contrasting the behaviour of the passengers on the ancient ship with those on the Lusitania, another ship, which also sank around the same time.

He eventually concluded that the the panic on the Lusitania was a direct result of the sheer speed in which the boat sank.

Savage affirmed that given the Lusitania was under water in just 17 minutes, a stark contrast with the two-and-a-half hours it took to floor the Titanic, that passengers instinct won out as they raced for the lifeboats.

Those that managed to swim to them were rescued, increasing the chances of men surviving as many women were responsible for their children.

Friday, 13 April 2012

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2128812/Women-children-Sadly-quite-chivalrous-real-life--twice-men-survive-sinking-ships.html

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Click here to find out more! More Sharing ServicesShare | Share on facebook Share on twitter | Share on email Print Text Size With morgues full, Philippine flood victims buried

ILIGAN, Philippines - With funeral parlors overwhelmed, authorities in a flood-stricken southern Philippine city on Monday organized the first mass burial of some of nearly 700 people who were swept to their deaths in one of worst calamities to strike the region in decades.

For the first time in a day, the staggering death toll from Friday night's disaster, spawned by a tropical storm, remained little changed but the number of missing varied widely. Official figures put the missing at 82, while the Philippine Red Cross estimated 800.

The disparity underscores the difficulty in accounting for people who could be buried in the mud and debris littering much of the area or could be alive but lost in crowded evacuation centers or elsewhere.

"We lost count of how many are missing," said Benito Ramos, head of the government's Office of Civil Defense.

In Iligan, a coastal industrial hub of 330,000 people, Mayor Lawrence Cruz said the city's half a dozen parlors were full to capacity and no longer accepting bodies. The first burial of 50 or so unclaimed bodies was to take place later Monday in individual tombs at the city cemetery, he said.

"For public health purposes, we're doing this. The bodies are decomposing and there is no place where we can place them, not in an enclosed building, not in a gymnasium," Cruz told The Associated Press.

He said many of the Iligan dead — 279 by official count — "are just piled and laid outside the morgues," which ran out of formaldehyde for embalming and coffins.

"We're using plastic bags, whatever is available," Cruz said.

In nearby Cagayan de Oro city, the situation was more chaotic and people were resisting mass burials, instead demanding that bodies be interned until relatives can claim them.

About 340 died in Cagayan de Oro, most of them women and children and many of whom lived along river banks. Flood waters came gushing after 12 hours of pounding rain, catching most of them in their sleep.

Residents told local officials that plans for a mass burial was "un-Christian," said Cagayan de Oro city administrator Griscelda Joson.

Mayor Vicente Emano called a meeting later Monday to discuss the problem. Funeral parlors have asked authorities to do something about the unclaimed bodies because of the stench and complaints from neighbors, she said.

More bodies continue to be found. While city officials were meeting Sunday, more than 40 bodies were seen floating off an island but the coast guard could not recover them, Joson said.

In a grim sign of desperation, a funeral parlor dumped about 30 badly decomposed bodies in a city garbage dump over the weekend, sparking protests from distraught villagers who were looking for the missing loved ones.

Ramos, the head of the agency that is spearheading the recovery and relief operations, attributed the high casualties "partly to the complacency of people because they are not in the usual path of storms" despite warnings by officials that one was approaching.

"We've had flooding before but nothing like this," Cruz, the Iligan mayor said, recalling floods in the early 1950s. "We have a good drainage system but it as simply overwhelmed. The rainfall fell heavily on the mountains and this flowed down to two of our river systems and they overflowed and swept away houses and covered the highway and residential areas."

About 143,000 people were affected in 13 southern and central provinces, including 45,000 who fled to evacuation centers. About 7,000 houses were swept away, destroyed or damaged, the Office of Civil Defense said.

An estimated 35 percent of evacuees are children, said Trevor Clark, head of UNICEF in the southern Mindanao region. Running water and hygiene were major concerns, followed by a lack of clothing, blankets and even shoes for young children, he said.

Although he said government agencies were responding in a quick and efficient manner, they were overwhelmed and the United Nations was preparing an appeal for urgent assistance from donors and foreign governments.

11 December 2011

http://www.cbs8.com/story/16353370/with-morgues-full-philippine-flood-victims-buried

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Benue church victims to be buried April 20

The 22 victims of the collapsed St. Robert's Church in Vandeikya Local Government Area of Benue will be buried on April 20, a statement from the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi has said.

The statement, signed by the Rt. Rev. William Avenya, the Auxiliary Bishop of Catholic Diocese of Makurdi, said the burial would take place at St. Robert's, Adamgbe, near Vandeikya.

It expressed the hope that the families involved would allow the burial take place at the venue.
``We are hoping that the families involved will allow us to bury the 22 corpses in one location and the vestments shall be white," the News Agency of Nigeria quoted the church as saying in the statement.

The statement also said that those who sustained injuries and in different medical centres around the area were responding to treatment.

The 22 persons were killed, while many others injured when a storm pulled down St. Robert’s Church building in Vandeikya, Benue, on Holy Saturday.

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Wall Of Water: The Tsunami Explained

During a tsunami the ocean suddenly floods the coast, smashing everything in its path, and then just as quickly recedes.

Large quakes are the main cause of tsunamis, but they can also be sparked by other cataclysmic events, such as volcanic eruptions and even landslides.

During a strong quake, oceanic plates can lurch many metres and rupture the ocean floor.
This movement can suddenly move a massive amount of water.

Major quakes that rupture the ocean floor are usually shallow quakes occurring at a depth of less than 44 miles (70km).

The 9.1 magnitude quake that caused the devastating 2004 Boxing Day tsunami was 18 miles (30km) below the seafloor.

The movement of the quake can also affect the likelihood of a tsunami occuring.
The vertical movement of some earthquakes can cause the seabed to heave and displace water vertically, sending towering waves racing toward shores.

The 2004 tsunami, which killed nearly a quarter of a million people, and the 2011 disaster in Japan were both caused by these "mega thrust" quakes.

Strike-slip quakes cause a horizontal - instead of vertical - movement, with the tectonic plates sliding against each other, creating more of a vibration in the water.

On the ocean surface, tsunamis start as an insignificant ripple capable of passing under a ship unnoticed, but they become giants as they approach land and the ocean becomes shallow.
A tsunami is not a single wave, but a series of waves.

They can travel across the ocean at speeds of up to 620mph (1,000km), the speed of a jet aircraft.

A tsunami can travel across the Pacific Ocean in less than a day. As the trough of the wave drags along the sea floor, slowing it down, the crest rises up dramatically and sends a giant wall of whitewater onto land. And the first wave may not be the biggest.

The destructive force of a tsunami comes not from the height of the wave, but from the volume of water moving inside it.

The word tsunami is derived from the Japanese words for "harbour" and "wave".

Wedn 11 April 2012

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16206542

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The Victims Affairs Discusses Cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Victims Affairs Office of the Central Operation Headquarters in the Abu Dhabi Police discussed mutual cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the case of crisis and disasters. The cooperation will be in the field of providing data and information regarding expatriates who are residents in the country and communicating with them during crisis or disaster situations.

A delegation headed by Major Raed Ali Al Muhairi, Director of the Victims Affairs Office visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and met with Mohammed Jasem Al Nwais, Deputy Director of Citizens Affairs Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Al Muhairi gave a summary about the work of the Victims Affairs Office, which provides complete information during and after crisis in order to identify those victims in major accidents and natural disasters within a short period of time, and contact their families.

He pointed out that the office focuses on receiving notifications in case of accidents and possible crisis, calling the families of victims and answering their questions and inquiries. The office also contributes to fulfilling specific social goals in the local community such as providing social and psychological support to the families of victims, missing, and injured, as well as offering support to survivors.

The meeting was attended by a number of officers from the Victims Affairs Office in Abu Dhabi and Departments Directors in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Wednesday, 11 April, 2012

http://www.adpolice.gov.ae/en/News/victm.aff.meeting.aspx

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DNA lead in search for Anton Hammerl's body

DNA taken from a coffin found in a mass grave in Libya may match that of South African photographer Anton Hammerl, according to a report on Tuesday.

As Libya does not have the capacity to do DNA testing, it was understood officials were in the process of sending the genetic material -- from coffin number 57 -- to the headquarters of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) in Bosnia, the Star newspaper reported.

Hammerl was covering the conflict in Libya when he was shot by militia loyal to then Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi near the town of Brega on April 5 last year.

Brigadier Leonie Ras from the SAPS victim identification centre told the daily newspaper that the ICMP was aware of the sample but had not yet received it.

Ras was planning to send DNA samples from Hammerl's parents to the ICMP on Tuesday in a bid to compare them with those found in coffin number 57.

Dodgy bonuses
In other news, Libya's interim authorities have stopped paying bonuses to former rebels due to widespread fraud costing millions of Libyan dinars, the official LANA news agency reported on Monday.

"Payment of rewards to rebels have been stopped due to violations and abuses," Mohammed Harizi, spokesperson for the ruling National Transitional Council, was quoted as saying.

"Millions of [Libyan] dinars allocated to revolutionaries were lost in [illegitimate] payments to non-beneficiaries," he said.

The interim authorities referred the violations to the offices of the attorney general and audit bureau for investigation, the spokesperson added.

Apr 10 2012

http://mg.co.za/article/2012-04-10-dna-recovered-in-libya-could-belong-to-sa-photographer/

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Identifying the Titanic’s Victims

For the 328 people whose bodies were recovered at the site of the Titanic disaster, unique fatality reports were created. They speak volumes about those whose bodies were retrieved. From third-class passengers to millionaires, these reports document their lives through what they had on their person that fateful night.

Dr. John Henry Barnstead, a Halifax physician, developed the system for identifying Titanic’s dead. He used a numbering system based on the order in which they were retrieved from the ocean. Mortuary bags were used to hold clothing and personal effects found on the body. This system was used again after the 1917 Halifax Explosion and countless times in other disasters with great loss of human life.

Using Barnstead’s system as its base, these reports document physical characteristics of bodies (typically sex, age, colouring, any identifying marks) and track potentially identifying papers and items found on their person. The reports were used to ensure that family members could claim their loved one’s body and personal effects. Each Fatality Report includes the Medical Examiner’s record listing physical characteristics and belongings, followed in the file by any other documents generated during disposition of the body and its effects. Some include extensive correspondence between White Star and the province of Nova Scotia.


Body No. 124 John Jacob Astor

The record of John Jacob Astor, who was in first class, begins with a description of his person and his belongings:

NO. 124 – MALE – ESTIMATED AGE 50 – LIGHT HAIR & MOUSTACHE

CLOTHING – Blue serge suit; blue handkerchief with “A.V.”; belt with gold buckle; brown boots with red rubber soles; brown flannel shirt; ”J.J.A.” on back of collar.

EFFECTS – Gold watch; cuff links, gold with diamond; diamond ring with three stones; £225 in English notes; $2440 in notes; £5 in gold; 7s. in silver; 5 ten franc pieces; gold pencil; pocketbook.

FIRST CLASS NAME-J.J.ASTOR

Managing the bodies and communicating with families, was the responsibility of the Provincial Secretary’s Office in Halifax. The correspondence in each file was either addressed to or signed by Frederick F. Mathers, the Deputy Provincial Secretary, or sometimes by George Murray, who was both the Provincial Secretary and Premier of Nova Scotia at the time.

Only 209 bodies were brought in to Halifax. The other 119 files in the Fatality Reports are for individuals buried at sea, and are identified as such.

10 April 2012

http://blog.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/blog/posts/identifying-the-titanics-victims/

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BENUE: Government plans mass burial for those killed by collapsed church building

The Benue state government on Monday assured the families of those who died in the collapse building of St Roberts Catholic Mission Church, Adambge in Vandekikya local government area of Benue state, that it will carter for their needs while the victims will be given mass burial at the church premises.

Eyewitnesses said the number of casualty was high because help could not reach those trapped on time.

Lack of proper medical facilities led to higher number of casualties

The state government, in the wake of the incident, ordered the immediate construction of a comprehensive health care facility in Adamgbe and also ordered that the road leading into the village be graded for easy access.

Eyewitnesses opined that the number of casualties would have been less if there had been a proper medical centre in the village or if the victims could have been taken out of the village on time to a proper medical facility.

Adamgbe is located on the high brow landscape of Vandeikya Local government, about 11 Kilometers away from the main Vandeikya town, few miles to the border between Benue and Cross River states.

It was gathered that the pillars of the church suddenly uprooted from the ground, leading to the collapse of the building on the multitude of worshippers. The development was said to have led to abrupt end of the Easter mass vigil.

When our correspondent visited the area yesterday, the priest in charge of the St. Robert's Catholic Mission, Rev. Fr. Cosmos Jooli, said the mass was arranged to be held under the mango trees (outside the church building).

He added that the development was due to the fact that the worshippers were over populated and that the church could not accommodate the capacity of the congregation.

The cleric further disclosed that the incident occurred between 8.30pm and 9pm when he had gone to his apartment to prepare for the mass, saying that heavy rainstorm forced the worshippers to rush to the church building to take refuge.

He also claimed that the cause of the collapse was as a result of the storm and not the dilapidated or old nature of the building as was being speculated, adding that the ugly situation led to the cancellation of the inauguration of a new Hilux pick up Van purchased by the church to ease the problem of transportation.


The Benue state commissioner for information, Conrade Wergba who said this, disclosed that twenty two persons died in the incident while the medical bill of those injured and receiving treatment at the hospital will also be settled by the state government.

Mr Wergba and the state’s commissioner of Education, Elizabeth Ukoh had accompanied the Deputy Governor, Steven Lawani to the church to commiserate with the church and affected families on the sad incident.

Following the assessment of the incident, the state government ordered the establishment of a comprehensive health care facility in Adamgbe and grading of the road for easy accessibility to the village.

At least 22 persons were on Sunday confirmed dead as the church building collapsed on Saturday night while parishioners were worshiping during the Easter vigil service.

Eyewitnesses said the number of casualty was high because help could not reach those trapped on time.

Monday 9 April 2012

http://www.channelstv.com/home/2012/04/09/benue-government-plans-mass-burial-for-those-killed-by-collapsed-church-building/

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Grief to joy: Misidentified crash victim alive

A plane crash victim who was assumed dead has been found alive in a hospital under a different name. The tragic incident killed 31 people a week ago. Information emerged on the man’s social network page, where friends have been mourning his death.

Dmitry Ivanyuta, 25, was listed among the dead after ATR 72-200 plane crashed near the western Siberian city of Tyumen last Monday. However, on April 7, a post appeared on his social network page claiming that Dmitry is very much alive and in a hospital, though registered under a different name.

This information has not been officially confirmed.

“Dima is alive. He was in intensive care. While there are no positive or negative trends, but there is a chance that he will get better,” one of Ivanyuta’s friends wrote on his “wall”.

This message reversed the flood of mourning posts on Dmitry’s page. People went from mourning to rejoicing in a matter of minutes.

Details emerged 12 hours later with a new post saying: “He was mixed up and identified as a different man. In fact he was in intensive care, and remembers everything and can move, so everything should be fine. The doctors said he would get better!!! Light a candle and pray with us for his health!!!! He is alive!!”

Ivanyuta’s former college professor, Denis Trushnikov, said Dmitry spent a week in the intensive care unit registered as Konstantin Pail, while his own name was on the list of those who died in the crash.

Rumors about the confusion in the lists of victims and survivors emerged after the preliminary results of the DNA examination that was unable to identify four bodies. This allegedly prompted Dmitry’s relatives to search for him among the 11 hospitalized survivors.

Ivanyuta has already been identified by his relatives, reports Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.

“Even though the results of the DNA test are not ready, we are positive that Dima is alive,” said his sister, Anastasiya Ivanyuta. “I don’t want to talk about it right now. It must be so hard for the relatives of Konstantin Pail.”


Following Anastasia’s statement, the parents of Konstantin Pail immediately took a blood test that confirmed their son had indeed been killed in the crash. His funeral will take place in his hometown on Monday.

No comments from Tyumen’s region health department have been available so far. The final results of the DNA test will be revealed on Monday.

A total of 11 survivors remain in Tyumen hospitals. Two of them have been transferred to a general ward and another nine remain in a critical but stable condition.

The French-Italian-built ATR-72 heading to Surgut crashed 30 kilometers from its departure point of Tyumen shortly after takeoff. The aircraft burst into flames and broke into three pieces upon impact. Forty-three people, among them 39 passengers and four crew members, were on board. Thirty-one were killed and 12 seriously injured.

Investigators name failure to de-ice the ATR 72-200 as the most likely cause of the disaster.

09 April 2012

http://rt.com/news/tyumen-misidentified-victim-alive-550/

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Nigerian church targeted in Easter bomb attack

A car bombing near a church in northern Nigeria on Easter Sunday killed at least 20 people and put the country on alert over fears of further attacks, rescue officials and residents said.

The explosion, a stark reminder of Christmas Day attacks that left dozens of people dead in Africa's most populous nation and largest oil producer, hit the city of Kaduna, a major cultural and economic centre in the north.

Motorcycle taxi drivers and passers by appeared to have borne the brunt of the blast, and body parts littered the area.

As news of the attack spread, security forces boosted patrols in key areas, including in the capital Abuja, where soldiers were sent to reinforce police posted near churches.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Details were still emerging of the attack, but at least one car said to be driven by a suicide bomber was believed involved. A rescue official speaking on condition of anonymity said two vehicles packed with explosives detonated.

"Now we have 20 dead from the twin explosions," said the rescue official, who was not authorised to speak publicly. Officials were still counting the number of wounded, he added.

"Bombs concealed in two cars went off just opposite this church," he said.

A police officer at the scene said a man believed to be a suicide bomber driving a car was stopped at a checkpoint near another church, the Evangelical Church of West Africa, and turned back.

KADUNA, NIGERIA - Apr 08 2012

http://mg.co.za/article/2012-04-08-church-targeted-in-easter-bomb-attack-nigerias-north

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