25 killed as bus falls into ravine in N. Pakistan

At least 25 people were killed and over 60 others injured when a passenger bus fell into a deep ravine in Pakistan's northern city of Kahuta in the wee hours of Monday, police said. District civil administrator Saqib Zafar said that the passenger bus with over 100 wedding guests on board plunged in Nurh area of Kahuta, a hilly area at about 33 km away from the country's capital of Islamabad. He said that driver of the ill-fated bus lost control of the vehicle at a sharp turn due to over speeding. The driver jumped out of the bus and police arrested him when he was trying to escape from the accident site, he said. The accident happened at midnight when the bus was on its way back to northern city of Chakwal after attending a wedding ceremony in Kahuta. Eye witnesses said that at least seven women and 4 children were also among the killed. Over 40 injured people including women and kids have been shifted to a hospital in Kahuta and over 20 critically inured passengers were sent to District headquarters hospital Rawalpindi. Hospital administration has said that death toll may further rise as at least 26 people were in critical condition. Rescue work is still underway and more bodies could be recovered from the site. Talking to media, Deputy Commissioner Rawalpindi Imdadullah Bosal has said that rescue teams were facing difficulties in the operation due to the insufficient facilities. "Emergency has been declared in various hospitals in Kahuta and Islamabad," he said, adding that the army was also called to carry out rescue operation. Monday 4 June 2012 http://www.china.org.cn/world/2012-06/04/content_25555929.htm

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Crash: 109 Corpses So Far Recovered, Says LASEMA

Dr Femi Oke-Osanyintolu, the General Manager, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, on Monday said that 109 victims had so far been recovered from the crashed Dana Air plane. The plane crashed on Sunday at the Iju-Ishaga area of Lagos State, killing all 153 people on board. The number of those killed on the ground has yet to be determined. Oke-Osanyintolu told journalists at the scene of the crash that 25 of the bodies were still intact while the remaining ones were burnt beyond recognition. He said that DNA tests on the corpses had been started by the Lagos State Ministry of Health to ascertain the identities of the burnt persons. The general manager said that 15 families displaced by the crash had been taken to the state relief camp at Agbowa-Ikosi in Epe, Lagos State. He also said that counselling centres had been established by the state government for the bereaved families. “The major challenge we had yesterday was crowd control which hindered our gaining access to the scene but with the presence of security personnel, the evacuation has been easy,” he said. “It is a national disaster; we urge the people to stay away to avoid more danger as the affected buildings will be pulled down. “The place has to be epidemic-free as it is a residential area,” he said. Monday 4 June 2012 http://newsnet.com.ng/newsnet/news/04/06/crash-109-corpses-so-far-recovered-says-lasema

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Plane crashes in Nigeria, all 153 aboard dead

LAGOS, Nigeria - Police dogs sniffed for dead bodies Monday in the rubble of buildings destroyed when an airliner crashed into them, killing all 153 aboard, as cranes lifted away heavy pieces of debris in the grisly aftermath of Nigeria's worst air disaster in nearly two decades. A Nigeria Red Cross report said 110 bodies had been recovered, with more being dug out from the rubble. A U.S. official said American citizens had been aboard the flight. The Dana Air jetliner smashed into businesses and crowded apartment buildings near Lagos' Murtala Muhammed International Airport, the worst air disaster in Nigeria in nearly two decades. The airline said an investigation had begun into the cause of Sunday's crash. The aircraft's black box recorders where flight data is stored had still not been found by Monday, said Harold Demuren, the director-general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority. In Washington, a State Department official confirmed that there were "a number" of American citizens on board, most, if not all, of whom were dual U.S.-Nigerian nationals. The official said consular officials in Lagos, Abuja and Washington were still reviewing the flight manifest to determine exactly how many Americans were on the plane. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Rescue officials said they fear many more people may have perished on the ground. "The fear is that since it happened in a residential area, there may have been many people killed," said Yushau Shuaib, a spokesman for Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency. The twin-engine jet appeared to belly-flop into an apartment building in a densely-populated suburb of Lagos close to Murtala Muhammed International Airport, reports Tony Guida. The plane tore through roofs, sheared a mango tree and rammed into a woodworking studio, a printing press and at least two apartment buildings before stopping. The plane was heading to Lagos from Abuja, the capital, when it went down. A white, noxious cloud rose from the crash site that burned onlookers' eye. Pieces of the plane were scattered around the muddy ground. Thousands of residents swarmed the smoking ruins taking cell phone pictures. The crowd was so large that ambulances, sirens wailing, could not get through. A Nigeria Red Cross report said that 48 bodies had been recovered, with more being dug out from the rubble. Dozens of residents pitched in to drag a fire hose to the crash site. The dead included at least four Chinese citizens, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported late Sunday, citing Chinese diplomats in Nigeria. Officials at the Chinese embassy in Nigeria could not be reached for comment by the AP. Two of the crash victims were Lebanese, according to state-run Lebanon's National News Agency. The NNA identified them as Nadim Chediac, an architect who has a Lebanese father and Nigerian mother, and Roger Awwad, an investor. In the wake of the crash, Nigeria's president has declared 3 days of national mourning. On Monday morning the debris still smoldered. Some people wore masks to try and protect themselves from the stench of the dead, as police with cadaver dogs searched for bodies inside the wreckage. Overnight officials had brought in a large crane from a local construction company to lift pieces of debris away, and blow torches to cut through what remains of the plane. Using the crane rescue workers lifted the tail of the aircraft; the metal shrieked as it was raised skyward and then dropped down. Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan spent about 20 minutes looking at the wreckage with federal lawmakers and said the crash was a setback to Nigeria's growing aviation industry. "We will make sure this will not repeat itself in this country," he said, a pledge that will be hard to keep in a nation with a history of major passenger plane crashes in the last 20 years. The cause of the crash remained unclear. The pilots radioed to the Lagos control tower just before the crash, reporting engine trouble, a military official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to journalists. Demuren said the Nigerian registration number of the Boeing MD-83 was 5NRAM. Aviation databases show the plane was exported to Nigeria in early 2009. It was first delivered in 1990 with the U.S. registration number N944AS to Alaska Airlines and it suffered two minor incidents while in the Seattle-based airline's service, according to databases of the Federal Aviation Administration and the Aviation Safety Network. On Nov. 2, 2002, the plane made an emergency diversion due to smoke and electrical smell in the cabin, and on Aug. 20, 2006, the plane was evacuated after landing at Long Beach, Calif., because of smoke in the passenger cabin. Boeing said in a statement on its website that the company is ready to provide technical assistance to the Civil Aviation Authority on Nigeria through the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. Monday 4 June 2012 http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57446477/fears-of-on-ground-deaths-in-nigeria-plane-crash/

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10 killed in cargo plane crash in Ghana's capital

ACCRA – Grieving family members gathered at a morgue in Ghana’s capital Accra on Sunday after a cargo plane overshot an airport runway and crashed into a passenger bus, killing at least 10 people. The four crew members from the Boeing 727 Allied Air cargo plane survived Saturday night’s accident, and Ghanaian President John Atta Mills visited at least two of them at the clinic where they were being treated. “I pray that all of you have survived and wish you speedy recovery,” Mills said, but did not speak directly to reporters. One witness reported seeing the plane come down and hit the bus, killing those inside. "I closed from work, walking home in the rain, only to see the plane falling and people in the Benz bus crushed to death," said Kofi Anor. A senior military officer said the plane crash-landed and also spoke of 10 dead. The bus was severely damaged, while the plane's wings and tail had broken off from its body. The bodies of those killed were taken to a morgue at a nearby military hospital where a small crowd had begun to gather trying to identify the dead, an AFP reporter said. Some at the morgue cried out, fearing that their relatives were among those killed, but they declined to talk to reporters. The plane crashed in an area just outside a stadium, near the airport and a military base. It did not appear to strike any houses, and scores of people gathered in the area seeking to get a view of the crash. At a military hospital morgue where the bodies of victims had been taken, family members gathered to identify remains and spoke of their grief. “My life has been destroyed,” a teary-eyed Zenab Ayesha, the wife of one of the victims, told AFP. “He was my husband, and the breadwinner of the family is gone.” She said she heard from a friend that her husband was among the dead. “I was waiting for him to come back from work and he did not show up,” Ayesha said. Fred Aneba, who was at the morgue to identify his 27-year-old brother, called his death “a disaster for my family.” “How will I communicate the death of my brother to our 80-year-old mother? I have lost my only brother,” he said. The government meanwhile ordered the creation of a committee to investigate the crash, which saw the cargo plane barrel into a minibus in an area near the airport in the capital. The flight operated by Allied Air, a Nigerian-based firm, had left the Nigerian economic capital Lagos before attempting to land in Accra. The crash left the minibus destroyed and the plane badly damaged, though its body remained largely intact, allowing the crew members to escape. Ghanaian police on Sunday sought to control hundreds of residents converging on the site of the crash to gape at the badly damaged bus as well as the plane’s wing and tail, which had broken off from the body. Sirens blared as the police tried to contain the chaos. “I have never seen anything like this in my life before,” John Asiedu, one of the onlookers, told AFP. Ghana’s Vice President John Dramani Mahama told reporters at the airport in the hours after the crash that a thorough investigation would be carried out. “No early conclusions should be drawn,” he said before heading toward the scene of the accident. “We should allow investigations to arrive at the actual cause of the accident. But I can assure Ghanaians that the situation is under control.” A person who answered at a number listed for Allied Air in the Nigerian oil hub of Port Harcourt identified the company as Nigerian-owned but said only officials at the Lagos office could comment on the crash. Repeated calls to the company’s other listed numbers have gone unanswered. Tunji Oketunbi of Nigeria’s Accident Investigations Bureau described Allied Air as a small Nigerian cargo airline but declined to comment on the crash. Ghana’s airport operator, Ghana Airports Company Limited, said operations had returned to normal after the crash and that flights were continuing as scheduled. Kofi Kportufe, head of Ghana’s national disaster management agency, applauded the response of the emergency services. “We are grateful for the military (and) fire service for the quick response which averted further disaster,” he said. “We want to assure Ghanaians and the entire world that everything is under control. There’s no cause for alarm.” Ghana, a west African nation of some 24 million people, is not known to have had any recent plane crashes. 03 June 2012 http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/international/03-Jun-2012/10-killed-in-cargo-plane-crash-in-ghanas-capital

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Italian quake toll rises to 17, last victim found

MIRANDOLA, Italy - Italian rescue workers removed the last earthquake victim from the rubble Wednesday, bringing the death toll to 17 as the government approved measures to rebuild the quake-hit area so crucial to Italy's economic health.

The magnitude 5.8 temblor north of Bologna on Tuesday felled old buildings and new factories and warehouses alike, many of them already weakened by a stronger quake May 20 that measured 6.0 and killed seven people.

In both quakes, the death toll was disproportionately workers toiling in factories, leading to some questions about Italy's building codes or possible corruption. "I remember with sorrow the deaths in Emilia, who died while working, mostly workers but also entrepreneurs," Interior Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri said in Rome.

Premier Mario Monti has promised the government would do whatever is necessary to rebuild the region.

On Wednesday, the government approved measures, including raising the price of gas by .02 cents a liter, to begin the reconstruction of homes, businesses and historic structures, including many churches, in the stricken area.

 Crews on Wednesday pulled the last body from the rubble of a factory in the town of Medolla. Three others also died in the structure.

Civil Protection authorities in Rome say no one else is known to be missing. The quake, which also injured some 350 people, dealt another blow to one of the country's most productive regions at a time when Italy is struggling to restart its anemic economy amid Europe's debt crisis.

Italy's economic growth has been stagnant for at least a decade and the economy is forecast to contract by 1.2 percent this year.

 The area encompassing the northern cities of Modena, Mantua and Bologna is prized for its super car production, churning out Ferraris, Maseratis and Lamborghinis; its world-famous Parmesan cheese, and less well-known but critical to the economy - its machinery companies. The ground continued to shake through the night, rattling the nerves of residents.

Many spent the night in tent camps or their cars, too afraid to sleep at home. In the tent camp, residents had basic needs met but carried profound scars. "I had a psychological breakdown," said Annalisa Caiazzo, 34, from Mirandola near Modena as she began her day in a makeshift tent camp. "After so many aftershocks, I did not expect that everything would have restarted again. We are all collapsed."

 Civil protection coordinator Carmine Lizza said counselors were on hand to help rattled residents who have lived through two terrifying quakes in two weeks in an area not considered particularly quake-prone. "They will need weeks to recover, because the earthquake is a deep wound," Lizza said.

Wednesday, 30 May 2012

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20120530/API/1205300617?p=2&tc=pg

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At least ten killed in 5.8-magnitude earthquake in Italy

MILAN, Italy -- An earthquake struck northern Italy on Tuesday, killing at least 10 people, damaging buildings and spreading panic among thousands of residents still living in tents after a tremor shook the region just over a week ago, destroying their homes. Officials and a source from the Italian Red Cross said several people were trapped under the rubble of houses and warehouses in the Emilia-Romagna region. Police said 10 people were confirmed dead but the toll was likely to rise. The United States Geological Survey said the 5.8-magnitude quake, which struck at 9:00 a.m. local time (3 a.m. ET), was centered 25 miles northwest of Bologna and was felt across much of northern and central Italy. "The situation is very serious, some people are stuck under the rubble," Alberto Silvestri, the mayor of San Felice sul Panaro, one of the towns near the epicenter, told SkyTG24. Prime Minister Mario Monti said: "I want to assure everyone that the state will do all that it must do, all that is possible to do, as fast as it can to guarantee the return to normality in a region so special, so important, so productive for Italy." Italian media also said a tower in San Felice sul Panarohad collapsed. The quake hit the same region where a stronger temblor measuring 6.0 on May 20 killed seven people, most when factories working overnight collapsed. That quake destroyed hundreds of buildings, including ancient churches and castles, and forced more than 7,000 people to sleep outdoors in tents. It also hit production of some of the area's most internationally famous produce, including Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. Farmers estimated the damage to agriculture in one of Italy's most fertile zones at more than 200 million euros. People trapped under rubble On Tuesday, officials said operations to rescue people from the rubble had been hampered by disruption to the mobile phone network. "The town has been largely damaged. There are people under the rubble, we don't know how many," a police officer from Cavezzo told Reuters. Train services around Bologna, near Modena, were disrupted, media said, and schools and other public buildings had been evacuated as far south as Florence. "We felt a very strong tremor," said Raffaella Besola, a resident of Bologna. Television footage on ITV News showed evacuees from the previous quake peering out of shaking tents in disbelief. 29 May 2012 http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/29/11931934-at-least-ten-killed-in-58-magnitude-earthquake-in-italy?lite

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Three More Body Parts of Sukhoi Victims Found

The National Search and Rescue Agency said on Tuesday that a group of 13 local people found three additional body parts from the victim’s of the Sukhoi Superjet crash on May 20. “Only three body parts were found and it is normal in the search process,” Gagah Prakoso, spokesman of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) told the Jakarta Globe. “I don’t think it is a big deal that should be blown up. Have pity on the family. If we find a hand, does the family have to reopen the coffin?” Locals alleged they found an entire body, not just body parts. A local, Junaidi, told Antara that they found a body 500-700 meters from the crash point and they also found an identity card of a Russian citizen nearby. The National Search and Rescue Agency on May 21 decided to terminate the search and evacuation process of the victims, claiming that the Disaster Victim Identification Team from the National Police had identified all 45 victims from the Sukhoi accident. However, on Monday Sukabumi police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. M. Firman said he had received a report from local people that some body parts including a thigh, part of a chest and a hand were found near the crash point. Gagah on Monday denied the finding. “They do not belong to bodies of Sukhoi’s victims,” Gagah said as quoted by Vivanews on Monday. He reversed his stance on Tuesday. Following the finding, 29 personnel from the Indonesian military, national police, outdoor organization Wanadri, Forest Police and local people teamed up on Tuesday morning and started searching and evacuating the body parts that were scattered on the mountain. “Search and evacuation of Sukhoi victims was led by Sukabumi military commander Capt. Sanusi with 29 personnel,” Bogor military commander Col. AM Putranto said. The team is headed to the location where local people from the Cicurug district found the body parts and belongings of the victims. Putranto said he expected the evacuation could be done in a day and that all the body parts could be evacuated at the latest by 4 p.m. today. “The bodies will be taken to Kramat Jati police hospital using the ambulance,” Putranto said. “Seven body bags and two ambulances have been prepared to evacuate and carry the remains left at the crash point of the airplane.” Revising his statement on Monday, Gagah explained that there was heavy rain recently that unearthed the body parts that had been buried and could not be found earlier. He said the small Basarnas expert team was still sweeping the area trying to find the flight data recorder and any other body parts or belongings that may have been unearthed. “Some body parts were unearthed due to soil erosion after heavy rains,” Gagah said. “But the body parts do belong to the existing 45 victims, not to another victim.” Gagah said Basarnas terminated the search on May 21 because the agency was limited by time in searching for the bodies. “Though we’re no longer searching for the victims on a massive scale, we still have a small team sweeping the area and looking for the flight data recorder,” he said. Locals also found identity cards, social security cards, insurance cards, ATM cards, vehicle registration certificates and several name cards belonging to Edi Satrio, Herman Suladji and Desiyanti Amalia. Edi and Herman were on the list of 45 victims. Desiyanti’s name was not on the victim list, so it remains unclear why her identity card was found at the crash scene. The Sukhoi Superjet crashed on May 9. 29 May 2012 http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/three-more-body-parts-of-sukhoi-victims-found/520776

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Qatar Villaggio mall nursery fire kills 19 people

THE New Zealand children killed in a fire in a nursery in a Doha shopping mall are two-year-old triplets. Firefighters didn't know where the nursery was which caught fire in Qatar, says a New Zealander who was at the scene where three New Zealand children are believed to have been among 19 killed overnight . New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has confirmed that two-year-old triplets were killed in the fire. Seven girls, six boys, four teachers and two firefighters were believed to have died from smoke inhalation. Former New Zealand journalist Tarek Bazley was in the Doha mall when the fire broke out, saying he heard a benign alarm which sounded like a repeating doorbell, but he was told by an attendant that "it's usually a false alarm". "About 10 minutes later someone else, a member of the public, raced through this area and said 'everybody out, you've got to get out now, the other half of the mall is on fire'." Mr Bazley understood there was no way to escape for those in the nursery as both entrances to the Gympanzee were blocked by smoke, and those that were rescued escaped through a hole in the roof cut by firefighters. "The Ministry for the Interior, which runs the Civil Defence and the Fire Brigade, said they didn't know where that nursery was. They had no plan of the mall," he said. "In my estimation that's the first thing any fire brigade should know." It was reported some sprinklers and fire alarms either did not work or did not operate properly. Reports from the Doha News and Al Jazeera suggest that there were also children from Spain, France, Japan, South Africa and the Philippines killed, along with three Filipino teachers and one teacher from Africa. Unconfirmed reports said two managers were arrested and may face charges in court, Doha News reported. A New Zealand teacher living in Doha told NZ Newswire there were a number of Kiwis living in the country and he understood the family lived at a compound with other New Zealanders. "It won't be a happy day at school tomorrow," he said. Temperatures in Doha were around 40C at the time of the fire around midday local time. A website for the nursery said it catered for children aged between 12 months and four years and it had a waiting list for places. The Villaggio opened in 2006 and is one of Qatar's most popular shopping and amusement destinations. Monday 28 May 2012 Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world/qatar-villaggio-mall-nursery-fire-kills-19-people/story-e6frfkyi-1226370848953#ixzz1wFJXP5pE

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Burial ceremony honours mystery victim of crashed nuclear bomber

The remains of an American airman found 60 years ago in Canada have finally been laid to rest — along with one of the Cold War’s most enduring mysteries: the identity of the only recovered victim from the so-called “Broken Arrow” incident of February 1950, when a crippled U.S. bomber dropped an atomic bomb into the Pacific Ocean before crashing into a British Columbia mountaintop. In a poignant Memorial Day ceremony on Friday at cemetery in San Francisco, a few small bones from the body of U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Elbert W. Pollard were interred in the presence of his daughter, 64-year-old Betty Wheeler. She had learned just a few months ago, thanks to advanced DNA testing, that a man’s foot and parachute plucked from coastal waters by a B.C. fisherman in 1952 belonged to her father. Pollard, a decorated veteran of the Second World War and a U.S. Air Force gunner at the height of the Cold War, was one of 17 airmen involved in a simulated Soviet attack on San Francisco on Feb. 13, 1950. But their mammoth B-36 bomber — carrying an Mk-4 nuclear bomb en route to California from an airbase in Alaska — was disabled by an ice buildup in stormy weather approaching B.C.’s Queen Charlotte Islands. The bomb — which contained five tonnes of conventional explosives and some unenriched uranium, but not the plutonium core of a fully-armed nuclear device — was dropped and exploded over the ocean before the crew bailed out of the failing aircraft. It eventually crashed into Mount Kologet near Stewart, B.C., about 500 kilometres north of Vancouver near the southern tip of the Alaskan panhandle. The crash site, now protected by the Canadian government because of its significance in Cold War history, has given rise over the decades to both scholarly research and wild conspiracy theories about the possibility of a lost A-bomb on Canadian soil. Canadian Cold War historian John Clearwater, who curated the 2007 “Lost Nuke” exhibit about the incident at the Western Canada Aviation Museum in Winnipeg, said at the time that the B-36 crash “was a crucial event, both for understanding the nuclear age and Canada’s role in it.” The accident and the myths it gave rise to highlighted “the paranoia and secrecy that surrounded everything to do with atomic bombs,” he said. Twelve of the men from the doomed B-36 parachuted to safety and were later rescued by a fishing boat and a Royal Canadian Navy warship. But five others, including Pollard, were lost and presumed drowned or killed in difficult landings along the remote and rugged B.C. shore. In 1952, a fisherman in waters off the Queen Charlottes snagged a parachute and military-issued boot containing a man’s left foot. It was repatriated to the U.S. and — though not linked to a specific individual — was buried at a military cemetery in St. Louis in a ceremony commemorating Pollard and the four other airmen killed in the 1950 crash. In 2001, after a request by family members of one of the five victims — Lt. Holiel Ascol — the foot bones were exhumed and scientifically sampled to try to determine which of the men they belonged to. Those DNA tests proved inconclusive, but more advanced experiments conducted recently identified Pollard as the man whose boot and parachute were pulled from B.C.’s Hecate Strait in 1952. “I feel such joy that I am being given my father,” Wheeler said last week to a newspaper in Texas, where the B-36 had been scheduled to land after its planned mock attack on San Francisco in 1950. Wheeler, who lives near Sacramento, Calif., attended Friday’s burial of her father’s remains — with full military honours — at the U.S. national cemetery in the Presidio, a historic San Francisco military compound within sight of the Golden Gate Bridge. “I feel some kind of reverence and a strong desire to honour him,” Wheeler told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in advance of the ceremony. “I chose the Presidio because it’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. With all my father went through and all the places his bones have travelled, I wanted him to finally be in a place of beauty.” Monday 28 May 2012 http://www.canada.com/news/Burial%20ceremony%20honours%20mystery%20victim%20of%20crashed%20nuclear%20bomber/6687220/story.html

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27 killed in accident on Mumbai-Pune expressway

Twenty-seven members of a marriage party, including four children, were killed and 26 others injured when a speeding auto rammed in a stationary bus at Khalapur on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. The incident took place in the wee hours around 1 am when the tyres of one of the mini-buses carrying a marriage party got punctured on the highway and was parked on the roadside while another bus was stationed just behind the vehicle, helping it out with the repairs, they said. The mishap occurred when a high-speeding auto lost control and rammed into the second mini bus from the rear, crushing people seated on the road between both the vehicles, police said. The deceased including women and children were returning to Pune after attending a wedding at suburban Ghatkopar in Mumbai, they said. The injured have been admitted to MGM hospital at Panvel and Pune's Sassoon hospital, where three victims were pronounced dead on arrival, police said. The deceased have not been identified yet. The auto driver has been detained at Khalapur in Raigad district, they added.

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Argentina identifies Dirty War victim from 1976

Argentine forensic experts have identified the remains of a body that washed ashore in Uruguay in 1976. DNA tests showed that the remains were of Roque Orlando Montenegro, who disappeared a month before the Argentine military took power. Evidence suggests he was on a death flight, in which political opponents were thrown alive into the sea. Mr Montenegro's daughter, Victoria, was brought up by an army couple and only discovered her own identity in 2000. She fought back tears as she announced that her father had been identified thanks to the "unwavering work" of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team. "We have recovered my father's remains, Roque Orlando Montenegro, known as Toti, who was only 20 years old when he disappeared," she said. Her parents were left-wing militants from the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP). In February 1976, a month before the military coup, the Montenegros, including Victoria who was just a few days old, were kidnapped and disappeared. She was raised by an army colonel's family. Twenty-four years later, using DNA tests arranged by the human rights movement Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Ms Montenegro found out about her real identity. Her DNA sample helped the forensic anthropologists to establish that an unnamed body discovered in a cemetery in Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay was that of her father. The remains of her mother, Hilda Ramona Torres, have never been found. Human rights groups estimate that up to 30,000 people were killed or disappeared in Argentina's "dirty war" from 1976 to 1982. The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, whose own children were disappeared, have identified dozens of sons and daughters of victims of the military repression. But some adopted children have said they would rather not know their origins, especially if the information implicates their adoptive parents in illegal acts. Friday 24 May 2012 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-18187255

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Sukhoi victims’ identification concluded: Police

The National Police’s Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) unit has concluded the identification process of the 45 people onboard the ill-fated Sukhoi Superjet 100. All of the remains have been identified. “The identification process has been concluded,” National Police medical unit chief Brig. Gen. Musadeq Ishak told a press conference on Sunday. He said that the team needed more time to reconcile the remains before handing them over to the families. “We will notify the victims’ families and they can see the remains on Tuesday at the Soekanto Police Hospital before we close the caskets. They can retrieve them on Wednesday at the Halim Perdanakusuma Airbase,” he said. Musadeq said the DVI team had used various methods during the process, including fingerprint identifications, forensic pathology, forensic anthropology and odontology. According to the team, of 45 victims, 31 were men and 14 were women. There were 35 Indonesian nationals among the identified victims. The Russian-made aircraft slammed into Mt. Salak in Bogor, West Java, on May 9 while flying an exhibition flight. 20 May 2012 http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/05/20/sukhoi-victims-identification-concluded-police.html

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Italy Earthquake: Finale Emilia Quake Near Bologna Kills At Least 4

SANT'AGOSTINO DI FERRARA, Italy — A strong earthquake shook northeast Italy early Sunday, killing four people, tearing off chunks of church facades and sending panicked residents into the streets. Aftershocks wreaked more havoc in the region, including knocking down a clock tower and injuring a firefighter. The magnitude-6.0 quake struck at 4:04 a.m., with its epicenter about 35 kilometers (22 miles) north of Bologna at a relatively shallow depth of 5 kilometers (3.2 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey said. Civil defense agency official Adriano Gumina described it as the worst quake to hit the region since the 1300s. The four people killed were factory workers on the overnight shift when their buildings, in three separate locations, collapsed, agency chief Franco Gabrielli said, In addition, he said, two women died – apparently of heart attacks that may have been sparked by fear. Sky TG24 TV reported one of them was about 100 years old. Dozens of people were believed to be injured. Two of the dead were workers at a ceramics factory in the town of Sant'Agostino di Ferrara. Their cavernous building turned into a pile of rubble, leaving twisted metal supports jutting out at odd angles and the roof mangled. "This is immense damage, but the worst part is we lost two people," fellow worker Stefano Zeni said. News reports said one of the dead had worked the shift of an ill colleague. Elsewhere in the town, another worker was found dead under factory rubble. In the town of Ponte Rodoni di Bondeno, a worker also died as his factory collapsed, news reports said, citing emergency workers. Nearly 12 hours after the quake, a sharp aftershock alarmed the residents of Sant'Agostino di Ferrara and knocked off part of a wall of city hall. The building already had been pummeled by the pre-dawn quake, which left a gaping hole on one side of it. The same aftershock knocked down the clock tower in the town of Finale Emilia, injuring a firefighter. Images from Sky TG24 showed the firefighter lying in the street near the rubble. The national geophysics institute assigned an initial magnitude of 5.1 to the aftershock. The quake Sunday came as Italy was still reeling from Saturday's bombing that killed one person at a school in the country's south. Pope Benedict XVI, in his traditional Sunday appearance from his studio window overlooking St. Peter's Square, said he was `'spiritually close" to those affected by the quake, and asked people to join him in prayers for the dead and injured. Emilio Bianco, receptionist at Modena's Canalgrande hotel – housed in an ornate 18th century palazzo – said the quake "was a strong one, and it lasted quite a long time." The hotel suffered no damage and Modena itself was spared, but guests spilled into the streets as soon as the quake hit, he said. The fear was palpable in Sant'Agostino. Resident Alberto Fiorini said there was `'pandemonium" during the night. 'I took shelter under the bed and I prayed," he told Associated Press. His house was not damaged, he said. Many people were still awake at 4 a.m. and milling about town since stores and restaurants were open all night. The epicenter was between the towns of Finale Emilia, San Felice sul Panaro and Sermide, but the quake was felt as far away as Tuscany and northern Alto Adige. One woman in Finale Emilia told Sky a child had been trapped in her bedroom by falling rubble for two hours before she was rescued. The initial quake was followed around an hour later by a 5.1-magnitude temblor, USGS said. And it was preceded by a 4.1-temblor. In 2009, a temblor killed more than 300 people in the central city of L'Aquila, where the historic center is still largely uninhabited and in ruins. Sunday 20 May 2012 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/20/italy-earthquake-finale-emilia-bologna_n_1530822.html

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Search for Sukhoi Victims Ended After 10 Days

Search efforts for the victims of the crashed Sukhoi Superjet 100 were officially brought to a close on Friday, 10 days after the plane carrying 45 people collided with Mount Salak in West Java. The decision was marked with a small ceremony at the evacuation command post in Cijeruk, Bogor, led by a military coordinator of the team, Putranto. “In accordance with the National Search and Rescue Agency’s [Basarnas] decision, evacuation operations are officially ended. We will, however, continue to comb the [crash] site to search for some materials of the plane,” Putranto told journalists after the ceremony, which included joint prayer for the dead victims. The dispersed joint search team consisted of hundreds of personnel from Basarnas, the Indonesian Military (TNI) and police, as well as some volunteers and a team from Russia. The effort to find some of the materials from the crashed plane, which already turned up the cockpit voice recorder, one of two "black boxes" on the plane, will continue with 45 personnel, the same number of people that died in the accident. The team will include members of the Army’s special forces (Kopassus). “We will coordinate with the police and the Russian SAR [search and rescue] team,” Putranto said. While Basarnas led the larger team that was looking for the victims of the crash, the new, smaller team will be headed by the Bogor command of the TNI and will officially start its work on Saturday, Putranto said. As of Friday, the Basarnas-led team had sent 37 bodybags believed to contain the remains of all 45 of the passengers to the National Police Hospital in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta, to undergo identification processes. Police announced earlier on Friday that they had so far managed to identify 15 of the victims — 13 Indonesians and two foreigners. There were 10 men and five women. I Ketut Parwa, the Basarnas official who led the first team, said there were probably more remains buried beneath the wreckage. “But it’s already the 10th day,” he said. “It will be very difficult to find and evacuate those remains.” Saturday 19 May 2012 http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/search-for-sukhoi-victims-ended-after-10-days/518673

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Indonesia needs finger print database

JAKARTA - It is time for Indonesia to have finger print database as it has many functions. For example, the database could also ease the identification of disaster victims of Sukhoi Superjet 100 crash, the Executive Director of Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) of Sukhoi SJ 100, Dr Anton Castilani, said on Saturday. DVI team is still having a hard time on identifying the data of the victims through the finger prints despite the ante mortem data is completely gathered. The obstacle is that the ante mortem data given by the family is different with the body parts found by the evacuation team. "The family sent us the certificate containing three finger prints from left hand, but unfortunately we found the right one. It does not match," Anton gave an example. DVI team, he added, successfully identified 15 victims. Yet, none of the identification uses the finger prints. "It is conducted by using their DNA," he explained. Saturday 19 May 2012 http://en.republika.co.id/berita/en/national-politics/12/05/19/m49np1-indonesia-needs-finger-print-database

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Tunnel Blast Kills 19 at Chinese Construction Site

A blast in a tunnel killed 19 workers at a central Chinese highway construction site on Saturday, authorities said. The explosion in Hunan province also injured one person, said two officials from the provincial work safety bureau who would only give their surnames, Li and Yang, a practice that is common among Chinese government employees. The blast occurred when a vehicle was unloading explosives in the tunnel of the highway that is being built between Yanling and Rucheng in Hunan province, the official Xinhua news agency said. A total of 24 people were working at the tunnel when the blast occurred. Four were pulled out, including one in critical conditions, the Hunan provincial transport department said in a statement. Accidents and explosions are common in China due to weak safety standards and lax building practices. In November, a massive explosion near an expressway ramp in southwestern China killed at least seven people and injured about 200. That blast was caused by three explosives-laden vehicles that caught fire, also destroying a garage and a food warehouse. Saturday 19 May 2012 http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/tunnel-blast-kills-19-chinese-construction-site-16384577#.T7ejDXj82W8

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Abertay University student's system uses digital networks to plot real-world disasters

The way emergency crews search for missing people following a natural disaster could be revolutionised by the work of a Dundee student. David Kane, a computing and networks student at Abertay University, has developed a programme whereby broadband routers are used to detect whether a building is still standing. By ''pinging'' internet addresses in areas affected by disasters such as tsunamis and hurricanes, David's software could provide information to assist rescue teams, detailing the extent of the disaster and the areas worst hit. David, whose work has been exhibited at the university's degree show, said: ''Responding to disasters is immensely difficult and any extra accurate information can make the difference in saving lives. ''I wanted to prove it was possible to use an ordinary piece of technology we all have, a home broadband router, to map natural disasters in real-time.'' Using Google Maps, the system shows live data from ''safe'' areas from which signals have been received from routers. It could be assumed that areas from which no signal is returned have been worse hit, allowing rescue crews to focus their efforts on saving lives there. ''The idea definitely works and I've built it so anyone can take this code and improve it,'' he added. Saturday 19 May 2012 http://www.thecourier.co.uk/Living/Digital/article/22808/abertay-university-student-s-system-uses-digital-networks-to-plot-real-world-disasters.html

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15 victims of Sukhoi crash identified

JAKARTA: Forensic experts from the Indonesian police Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team, Friday, said that they had identified 15 victims of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 which crashed at Gunung Salak, Bogor, last May 9. The victims, 10 men and five women, comprised 13 Indonesians and two of other nationalities. Head of the Indonesian Police Hospital at Keramat Jati here, Brigadier General Agus Prayitno, at a media conference which was broadcast live by several television stations, said the victims were identified through their finger prints, dental records, DNA and personal possessions. However, he said the bodies had yet to be handed over to their next of kin as some of their body parts were still missing. Until today, the hospital had received 30 body bags of the victims’ remains and belongings which were recovered from the site of the crash. The ill-fated aircraft, with 45 passengers on board, was on a demonstration flight on May 9 when it suddenly lost communication with the air control tower. The plane’s wreckage was spotted on Gunung Salak the following day Friday 18 May 2012 Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/05/18/15-victims-of-sukhoi-crash-identified-new/#ixzz1vFfrYGaE

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At least 36 dies in bus accident in Vietnam

Hanoi, Vietnam - At least 36 passengers died when a bus carrying nearly 60 passengers broke the banisters of Serepok Bridge on National Highway 14, which connects Dak Lak and Dak Nong provinces in central Vietnam, and fell into the river on Thursday night, the Vietnam News Agency reported on Friday. According to the initial report, the bus, owned by a transport cooperate in Dak Lak province, some 960 km south of capital Hanoi, was on the way to Ho Chi Minh City. At around 10 p.m., while crossing the Serepok Bridge, the vehicle suddenly crashed into the banister and fell into the river, from the height of 18 meters. Rescue workers and local people were mobilized to save victims. By 3 a.m., rescue works finalized. A total of 34 people were dead on the spot and other two victims died in Dak Lak hospital, according to the report. Friday 18 May 2012 http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/82196/at-least-36-dies-in-bus-accident-in-viet-nahm

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Another mass grave was found today on Balambo Mountain in Halabja

A mass grave was found Wednesday on Balambo Mountain including children and women remains. “The corpses of the mass grave might be victims of the chemical attack in the late 1980s,” Goran Adham Halabja town commissioner told Press. He said that they have indicated the location with the cooperation of Halabja Martyr association and have informed the KRG ministry of Martyr and Anfal affairs to dig up the corpses. “There might be also three other mass graves there,” he added. Halabja is a Kurdish town in Northern Iraq, located about 150 miles (240 km) north-east of Baghdad and 8–10 miles from the Iranian border. The former Baath regime bombarded Halabja with internationally banned chemical weapon in April 1988, killing 5 thousand innocent people and displacing thousands others. Those who were dead were buried nearby Halabja randomly. Wednesday 16 May 2012 http://www.komalnews.net/%28A%28tlc5BDBqzQEkAAAAMGQ3OWQ2Y2QtZmZiOC00Mjc2LTlmYWUtMmY4MDc3YmZiNWVj79RK3hAKpaskK5NhKbv1971f20Q1%29%29/En/Detail.aspx?id=15765&LinkID=88&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

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