South Africa: Investigators to Exhume Bodies From Mass Grave On South Coast Farm

The police have confirmed that an operation to exhume bodies believed to be buried in a mass grave at a former prison labour camp on a South Coast farm began on Monday.

SAPS provincial spokesperson Major Thulani Zwane said he could "confirm" officials were on site as of on Monday.

"We are assisting the Missing Persons Task Team of the NPA [National Prosecuting Authority] who are leading the investigation. Therefore we will not be able to comment further on the investigation," said Zwane.

The search is believed to get under way properly on Tuesday.

The Witness was told that the police had dispatched an SAPS Search and Rescue team complete with excavation gear and "four sniffer dogs" while several officials from various government agencies were also on site.

The Missing Persons Task Team were established in the Priority Crimes Litigation Unit (PCLU) in the NPA in 2004. The task team have since been conducting investigations into cases of missing persons who disappeared in political circumstances between March 1, 1960 and May 10, 1994.

The existence of the graves on a sugar plantation called Glenroy Farm in the Dududu area just outside Amanzintoti was first announced in March by the Office of the Premier.

The site was apparently found by local sangoma Gogo Bongekile Nonhlanhla Nkomo and was first brought to the province's attention in August 2014.

KZN Premier's spokesperson Thami Ngwenya said that Premier Senzo Mchunu will give feedback to his cabinet on Wednesday on progress made.

"The premier had referred the matter to the Presidency who confirmed they had tasked the Department of Justice to take the matter further. The premier wants a full inquiry into this matter. There are several agencies involved, including our office," said Ngwenya.

KZN Department of Arts and Culture communications head Lethukuthula Mtshali said they could not comment "due to the sensitivity of the Glenroy Farm case".

Tuesday 23 June 2015

http://allafrica.com/stories/201506231942.html

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Karachi heat wave kills about 400 people, death toll still rising

A scorching heat wave across southern Pakistan's city of Karachi has killed more than 400 people, authorities said Tuesday, as morgues overflowed with the dead and overwhelmed hospitals struggled to aid those clinging to life.

The majority of the deaths occurred in the port city of Karachi, Pakistan's economic hub of around 20 million people.

Temperatures reaching 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) began scorching Pakistan's port city of Karachi over the weekend. Hourslong power outages, typical in Pakistan, also struck the city, leaving fans and air conditioners inoperable as the majority of people in this Muslim country abstain from food or water during the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

The power outages also affected the sporadic water supply in the city, where those who can afford it rely on tankers of water being delivered to their homes. Some men cooled themselves off Tuesday under the pouring water of a broken water pipe.

Most of the dead are the elderly, said Seemi Jamali, a spokeswoman for Karachi's Jinnah Hospital. Hundreds more are being treated for heat-related ailments, including fever and dehydration and stomach-related illnesses, she said. Mortuaries were running out of space, with local television stations showing bodies stacked inside of cold storage rooms of morgues.

Provincial Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah ordered schools and public offices closed Tuesday until the heat wave ends.

Semi Jamali, a doctor at Karachi's largest hospital said they had treated about 3000 patients.

"More than 200 of them were either received dead or died in hospital," Jamali told AFP.

Pakistan's largest charity, Edhi Welfare Organisation, said their two morgues in the city had received more than 400 corpses.

"More than 400 dead bodies have so far been received in our two mortuaries in the past three days," Edhi spokesman Anwar Kazmi told AFP. "The mortuaries have reached capacity."

Electricity shortages have crippled the water supply system in Karachi, hampering the pumping of millions of gallons of water to consumers, the state-run water utility said.

Pakistan's Meteorological Office said temperatures remained at around 44.5 Celsius in Karachi on Tuesday but forecast thunderstorms for the evening.

"Due to a low depression developing in the Arabian sea, thunderstorms will likely begin this evening and might continue for the next three days," a Meteorological official told AFP.

The provincial government meanwhile announced a public holiday to encourage residents to stay inside, an official said. Many of the victims have been labourers who toil outdoors.

Some residents also took to hosing each other down with water on Tuesday to avoid collapsing from heat stroke.

Tahir Ashrafi, a prominent Islamic cleric, urged those who were at risk of heat stroke to abstain from fasting.

"We (religious scholars) have highlighted on various television channels that those who are at risk, especially in Karachi where there is a very serious situation, should abstain from fasting," he said.

"Islam has drawn conditions for fasting, it is even mentioned in the holy Koran that patients and travellers who are not able to bear fasting can delay it and people who are weak or old and are at risk of falling sick or even dying because of fasting should abstain," he added.

An official from the National Disaster Management Authority told AFP heat stroke treatment centres would be established at all hospitals across the province to provide " emergency medicines for heat stroke victims".

The deaths come a month after neighbouring India suffered a deadly heatwave, with more than 2,000 deaths.

Hundreds of mainly poor people die at the height of summer every year in India, but this year's toll was the second highest in the country's history.

Tuesday 23 June 2015

http://www.12newsnow.com/story/29383428/major-heat-wave-in-pakistans-karachi-kills-over-400-people

http://news.yahoo.com/death-toll-pakistan-heatwave-rises-over-450-officials-065253981.html

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At least 6 immigrants drown as boat sinks in Aegean Sea

At least six illegal immigrants were drowned on Tuesday morning as a boat sank in Aegean Sea off western Turkey, private Dogan news agency reported.

The boat, which were carrying a total of 62 immigrants heading for Istankoy Island of Greece, sank in the Aeagean off Bodrum town of Mugla province of western Turkey due to the strong storm, according to the report.

Turkish Coast Guards have discovered six bodies of immigrants and rescued some others, said the report, adding that an investigation was underway.

They were apparently sailing for the Greek island of Kos, about 3.2 kilometers from the resort city of Bodrum, according to the source.

The coastguard and a helicopter are still searching for survivors and bodies, the source added.

In the first five months of 2015, over 42,000 people arrived by sea to Greece, most of them refugees, according to the UN Refugee Agency.

Turkey is geographically positioned between Asia and Europe, and has become a major transit point for Middle Eastern and Asian migrants and refugees fleeing from poverty or conflict in their home countries.

Tuesday 23 June 2015

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/928410.shtml

http://www.worldbulletin.net/boat-carrying-migrants-sinks-in-aegean-sea/161070/boat-carrying-migrants-sinks-in-aegean-sea

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Tbilisi flood: Three missing people feared dead

Three people remain missing following the June 13 deadly flash flood that tore through Georgia’s capital city Tbilisi.

Today the country’s Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri said there was almost no hope the three missing people would be found alive and efforts now focused on finding and recovering the bodies of the victims.

The natural disaster hit Tbilisi overnight on June 13 and claimed the lives of 19 people. Hundreds more lost their homes. Four days after the disaster, a local man was attacked and killed by a tiger that had escaped from Tbilisi Zoo in the flood.

Specialist crews now operated heavy machinery on affected Tbilisi streets to clean the city after the flooding.

Minister Gomelauri said there one rescue officer stood at each vehicle to monitor the recovery process. These officers were tasked with stopping the machinery and continue working with their hands if any of the missing bodies appeared under the debris.

Tuesday 23 June 2015

http://agenda.ge/news/37766/eng

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30th anniversary of Air India Flight 182 disaster

As the morning sunshine slides across a memorial tomorrow morning in West Cork, a shadow on a sundial will mark the moment a jumbo jet was blasted out off the sky off the south-west coast.

At exactly 8.13am on June 23, 1985, Air India Flight 182 — en route from Montreal to New Delhi with a stopover in London — disappeared from radar screens at Shannon.

A total of 329 people were killed, including 268 Canadian citizens, 27 Britons, and 24 Indians. The majority of the victims were Canadian citizens of Indian ancestry. The incident was the largest mass murder in Canadian history. It was the deadliest terrorist attack involving an airplane until 9/11. It is also the deadliest aircraft bombing.

With no survivors, the biggest operation in the history of the State to recover bodies got under way with the Irish Naval Service being backed by the RAF, Royal Navy, fishing trawlers, merchant ships and coastguard teams.

Cork Airport and the city’s then Regional Hospital were the nerve centres as over 1,000 relatives, mainly Canadians of Indian origin, arrived to identify the victims.

Rear Admiral Mark Mellett of the navy recalls the search which would shed light on what happened to the ill-fated jumbo jet.

“Before we could go to the scene, American and Canadian experts had to fit a side scan sonar [to the vessel] which had the capacity to pick up transmissions from the black boxes — which are actually red.

“Much of the wreckage was about 2,000 metres below the surface. The ship was towing the sonar and we had to try and map the wreckage which was scattered over several square kilometres of the seabed,” he said.

The sonar was towed out about a mile behind the ship, scanning the ocean floor and searching for an all important ‘ping’ transmission from the black box.

As the technology was so new, he said, “we were learning as we went along”.

The navy was using a navigation system called DECCA which relied solely on land-based masts to show position. Unfortunately there was very poor coverage from DECCA in the search area.

“Then we got the pings from a black box. Until recovered we didn’t really trust what we had because we had never did that before.” Fingers were crossed as another ship brought in a deep water remotely controlled vehicle which retrieved the device.

He said that when he and some of LÉ Eithne’s crew saw the bodies being unloaded from LÉ Aisling they wanted to play their part in the mission and help find the black boxes.

“There was a sense of elation when this happened,” Rear Admiral Mellett said.

By 09:13 GMT, the cargo ship Laurentian Forest discovered wreckage of the aircraft and many bodies floating in the water. India's civil aviation minister announced the possibility that the plane had been destroyed by a bomb, and the cause was probably some sort of explosion. Previous 747s had been damaged or destroyed on the ground, but this was the first jumbo jet downed by sabotage.

The bomb killed all 22 crew and 307 passengers. 132 bodies were recovered; 197 were lost at sea. Eight bodies exhibited "flail pattern" injuries, indicating that they had exited the aircraft before it hit the water. This was a sign that the aircraft had broken up in mid-air. Twenty-six bodies showed signs of hypoxia (lack of oxygen). Twenty-five, mostly victims who were seated near windows, showed signs of explosive decompression. Twenty-three had signs of "injuries from a vertical force". Twenty-one passengers were found with little or no clothing.

One official quoted in the report stated, "All victims have been stated in the PM reports to have died of multiple injuries. Two of the dead, one infant and one child, are reported to have died of asphyxia. There is no doubt about the asphyxial death of the infant. In the case of the other child (Body No 93) there was some doubt because the findings could also be caused due to the child undergoing tumbling or spinning with the anchor point at the ankles. Three other victims undoubtedly died of drowning."

Additional evidence to support a bombing was retrieved from the broken up aircraft which lay on the sea bed at a depth of 6,700 feet (2,000 m). The British vessel Guardline Locator, equipped with sophisticated sonar, and the French cable-laying vessel Léon Thévenin, with its robot submarine Scarab, were dispatched to locate the flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR) boxes. The boxes would be difficult to find and it was imperative that the search commence quickly. By 4 July, the Guardline Locator detected signals on the sea bed. On 9 July, Scarab pinpointed the CVR and raised it to the surface. The next day, the FDR was also located and recovered.

Most official accounts place responsibility for the attack on Sikh extremism.

Monday 22 June 2015

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/sundial-to-mark-moment-of-air-india-flight-explosion-338281.html

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Unidentified Rohingya human-trafficking victims given proper burial in Malaysia

Malaysian authorities Monday gave a Muslim burial to 21 human trafficking victims, believed to be Rohingya Muslim refugees, found in shallow graves in jungles bordering Thailand.

The 21 were among 106 bodies found last month in 28 jungle camps in northern Perlis state, a remote area bordering Thailand that trafficking syndicates used as a transit point to hold migrants and refugees. Most were believed to be from Myanmar's persecuted Rohingya minority and impoverished migrants from Bangladesh.

The victims were buried in a village ceremony in neighboring Kedah state, with Islamic officials performing burial rites.

Kedah Chief Minister Mukhriz Mahathir said investigations showed the victims died of starvation and illness.

The bodies of 19 men were placed in simple wooden coffins each and buried together in a huge grave, while the bodies of two women were laid to rest in an adjacent grave, he said.

The bodies of the other victims will be buried once autopsies are completed, he said.

The discoveries in northern Malaysia followed similar revelations earlier May in Thailand, where police unearthed 36 bodies from shallow graves in seven abandoned camps on the Thai side of the border.

The discoveries have exposed hidden networks of jungle camps run by human smugglers, who have for years held countless desperate people captive while extorting ransoms from their families. Most of the victims were part of a wave of people who fled their homelands to reach countries like Malaysia, where they hoped to find work or live freely.

Human rights groups and activists say the area along the Thai-Malaysia border has been used for years to smuggle migrants and refugees, including Rohingya Muslims.

In many cases, they pay human smugglers thousands of dollars for passage, but are instead held for weeks or months while traffickers extort more money from their families. Rights groups say some have been beaten to death, and The Associated Press has documented other cases in which people have been enslaved on fishing boats.

Malaysian Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said at the time that investigations showed the bodies were wrapped in shrouds and their resting places marked with wooden sticks.

He said Malaysian security forces had not been patrolling the area because it was thought to be inaccessible but began surveying it after the discovery of graves in Thailand.

Monday 22 June 2015

http://www.timesunion.com/news/crime/article/Malaysia-buries-Rohingya-human-trafficking-victims-6341037.php

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Heatwave kills at least 148 in Karachi, other parts of Pakistan

Nearly 150 people have died from heatstroke in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi in the last two days, according to officials. Hospital reports confirm at least 148 deaths, said the city’s health director, Zafar Ejaz. According to health officials, many patients complained that they had collapsed suddenly during the day and suffered extreme breathing problem.

The head of the emergency department at Jinnah Hospital in Karachi said the majority of the victims were elderly.

Besides the deaths, scores of patients complaining of dehydration and low blood pressure are also queuing up at hospitals. Scores of people were referred to tertiary care hospitals from private hospitals.

‘Since Saturday 114 people have died in Karachi and eight others [have died] in three districts of Sindh, ’ provincial health secretary Saeed Mangnejo told AFP on Sunday.

In a statement, the Director General of Pakistan Meteorological Department Dr Ghulam Rasool said that this weather pattern will gradually move towards the south and bring moderate rain in Sindh and Balochistan from Tuesday to Friday.

Officials thought the heat wave could break the city’s record-high temperature of 116 degrees Fahrenheit, set in June 1979, according to the Agence France-Presse.

He said that the minimum temperature recorded in Karachi on Saturday was 32 degrees Celsius while humidity – a measure of the amount of moisture in the air – was 45 per cent.

The officials said the city wouldn’t see any let-up on Monday when temperatures are expected to go up to 44 degree Celsius.

In Sibbi, a town in Balochistan Province to the south of the Quetta, one man died and five others fell unconscious when temperatures rose to 49 degrees Celsius.

The heat and subsequent power outages have brought some residents of Karachi to their boiling points. There have been a series of violent protests by people throughout Karachi who feel that the government should do more to help alleviate the suffering and numbers of people dying due to the heat wave.

Social welfare organisation, the Edhi Foundation, said its mortuary had been packed to capacity with heatwave deaths and other casualties, with 150 bodies were placed there.

Early this month, 17 people died because of heatstroke in Sehwan during the Urs of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar.

Monday 22 June 2015

http://www.ifreepress.com/world/3225-heatwave-kills-at-least-122-in-karachi-other-parts-of-pakistan

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On Delhi’s edge, a trail of bodies that leads to nowhere

Over the last two months, police in this Haryana district on the edge of NH1, just 20 km away from Delhi, have stumbled upon seven bodies, one bearing burn marks, another showing signs of injuries on the head, one badly mutilated, another cut to pieces.

They haven’t yet been able to identify even one, and this is their chilling conclusion: Sonipat is emerging as a “dumping ground” of bodies from outside the state.

The latest, unprecedented spurt started with the sensational discovery on April 6 of the naked bodies of a man and a woman found squeezed into two steel trunks in the parking lot of Tau Devi Lal stadium — the woman’s body had wedding bangles, the man had been cut up to fit in.

To identify victims, police put up posters

And then, this is what followed, according to police records:

April 8: The body of a young man was found on the Delhi-Panipat highway with clear signs of injuries on the head.

April 18: The body of a woman was recovered from the Haryana State Infrastructure and Industrial Development Corporation (HSIIDC) industrial estate in Kundli.

April 25: The body of a man was found in Chinoli village.

June 15: The charred bodies of two women were recovered from a burning pile of dried cow dung at Dehisara village. With no clues yet to their identities — police have taken DNA samples before cremating them — senior officers say Sonipat’s proximity to the national capital and Uttar Pradesh have made it vulnerable to what one of them described as the “this macabre dumping” of bodies.

“Gurgaon and Faridabad also share borders with Delhi, but these are urban areas. This is not the case with Sonipat. We suspect that people are being murdered in Delhi or UP and their bodies dumped here,” said Shrikant Jadhav, IGP, Rohtak range, who oversees policing in Panipat, Sonipat, Rohtak and Jhajjar districts.

“It’s not only in Sonipat, bodies are dumped in areas adjoining NH1 all the way to Panipat,” he added. In fact, two bodies were found in Panipat and two in Rohtak, both districts bordering Sonipat, in the last two months — in these cases though, the alleged killers were arrested.

Jadhav added that police have now intensified night patrolling along the highway, dividing areas of Panipat and Sonipat adjoining NH-1 into six segments.

According to police records, over 155 unidentified bodies of suspected murder victims have been found so far across all districts of Haryana this year. In 2014, at least 16 per cent of murder cases in the state remained unsolved.

In Sonipat, meanwhile, the bodies of the two victims stuffed in trunks continue to dominate conversations.

“We tried our best, but we have not been able to get any clue about the identity of the two. We took their fingerprints and even contacted the Unique Identification Authority of India (UID) headquarters in Delhi to seek their help.

Nothing was achieved,” said a senior police officer. What’s baffling police is that despite the wide publicity that the discovery of these bodies generated, not one family member or friend has turned up.

Haryana Police have also sent messages to their counterparts in the neighbouring states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi, seeking help. “There has been no response,” the officer said.

To identify victims, police put up posters

A day after the bodies of a young man and woman were found in separate trunks in Devi Lal Park on NH-1, police are yet to identify the victims. In a bid to make a headway in the case, they have put up posters with the deceased’s photographs in public places like cinema halls, markets, schools, colleges and dhabas along the highway.

Eight teams from Murthal police station have been sent to neighbouring districts of Uttar Pradesh, Outer Delhi’s Bawana, Narela and Alipur areas and districts of Punjab with the deceased’s photographs to check if they match with those in the recent missing cases filed in those areas. The photographs have also been shared on police WhatsApp groups and websites. Police have announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh for anyone who identifies the victims or gives leads to the accused.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (Sonipat) Bharati Dabas said: “This is a big case and it is a challenge for us to crack it. We believe somebody will come forward and identify the deceased because of the massive media coverage. The posters should throw up some clues,” she said.

Dabas seemed confused regarding the honour killing angle in the case as instances of such crimes in Haryana have drastically gone down in recent times.

“Mindsets have changed. Till a couple of years ago, couples who married within their caste or village and were hounded by furious relatives approached courts for protection and police put them in safehouses. Most safehouses are now empty and cases of honour killings are few,” she added.

Head constable Jitender said the state in which the bodies were found suggested that the murders were meticulously planned.

“We usually find bodies dumped in fields or on roads. But to find the bodies in brand new trunks, the man’s limbs hacked to fit his body into the trunk, red-and-white bangles of a newly-wed on the woman’s wrists—all these point to a group having meticulously planned and executed the double murder in such a way that the honour killing angle seems obvious. It could be angry parents or an irate spouse if it is a case of an extramarital affair,” he said.

Police suspect the murders were committed in Outer Delhi and the bodies dumped at Sonipat. “It is unlikely that the killers are from Haryana because then they would have dumped the bodies far from their permanent locations. The murders might have been committed in the Outer district of Delhi or districts on the Yamuna bank at Delhi-Haryana border. The murderers must have driven down the highway and dumped the trunks in the park,” said Deputy Superintendent of Police (Gannaur) Satish Kumar under whose jurisdiction Murthal police station falls.

“We are trying to trace the shop from where the trunks were bought. Fingerprints from the trunks have been sent to the forensics team. We have also contacted telecom companies for access to phone calls made after 12 am in the area where the bodies were dumped. However, we are primarily depending on identification of the victims to lead us to the murderers,” Kumar reiterated.

Sunday 21 June 2015

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/on-delhis-edge-a-trail-of-bodies-that-leads-to-nowhere/99/

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/to-identify-victims-police-put-up-posters/99/

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June rains kill at least 16 in I. Coast's Abidjan

Heavy rains in Ivory Coast have killed at least 16 people so far in June in the economic capital Abidjan, including six this weekend, civil protection said Sunday.

The latest victims died in Attecoube and Adjame, two poor neighbourhoods in the city, because of a landslide and a collapsing wall, civil protection chief General Fiacre Kili said.

At least 10 other people had died earlier in the month due to the floods.

On Friday, a fire brigade supervisor reported 15 deaths between June 7 and 18.

"The dead bodies were found in different districts of Abidjan, in gutters, floating in the lagoon or in water puddles," the fireman told AFP.

State-run daily Fraternite Matin reported 10 dead in its Friday edition.

Most of the victims lived in shantytowns, where shoddily-built houses are ill-equipped to withstand the flooding during the long rainy season from June to August.

The rains cause casualties almost every year in Abidjan.

In June 2009, 21 people were killed, while seven died in 2008.

In 2011, 11 died, while in 2014, 39 were killed in June and July alone.

The government launched an unpopular drive in August 2014 to demolish precarious, overcrowded neighbourhoods in the city, citing health and safety concerns. "It's not for lack of arrangements. Many places were cleared for the approaching rains. The maximum was done," government spokesman Bruno Kone said, while blaming the latest deaths on the weather.

Sunday 21 June 2015

http://news.yahoo.com/june-rains-kill-least-16-coasts-abidjan-173211523.html

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10 dead, 12 injured in fire in hotel in Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh

At least ten people died and 12 others suffered injuries in a major fire that broke out in a hotel in Pratapgarh in Uttar Pradesh in the early hours of today, official sources said.

District Magistrate Amrit Tripathi told NetIndian over the telephone that those killed included nine men and a woman, all guests staying in the hotel.

Five of the seriously injured were taken to a hospital in Allahabad for treatment, while seven with minor injuries were being treated at a hospital in Pratapgarh, he said.

The fire was reported at around 4.45 am in the restaurant of the hotel and quickly spread to other areas. Fire tenders rushed to the spot and managed to put out the flames by 5.15 am, Mr Tripathi said.

Most of the victims had died due to suffocation, he said, adding that the bodies had been sent for post-mortem examination.

An inquiry has been ordered to determine the cause of the fire and establish criminal liability, if any. Initial reports suggested that the fire started due to an electrical short-circuit.

Saturday 20 June 2015

http://netindian.in/news/2015/06/19/00034150/10-dead-12-injured-fire-hotel-pratapgarh-uttar-pradesh

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14 feared dead, 22 injured after Delhi-bound Uttarakhand state transport bus falls into gorge

At least 14 people are feared killed after a Delhi-bound bus of the Uttarakhand Transport Corporation (UTC) fell into a deep gorge in the hills of Almora district on Saturday afternoon.

As many as 22 were injured when the speeding bus carrying around 36 passengers slipped into the gorge.

The district disaster management control room said rescue and search operation started immediately after the accident that took place around 1pm at village Thyadi in Bhanoli Tehsil.

Senior officials including the district magistrate and the senior superintendent of police rushed to the accident site.

“The gorge is too deep and narrow. It has made rescue operations difficult. So far, 10 bodies have been recovered by the rescue teams. Fourteen passengers are feared dead,” said Shyam Singh Rawat, Bhanoli police station in-charge .

According to the disaster management control room, the UTC bus (No: UK 07 PA 1093) was moving at more than the prescribed speed during a steep climb. It lost control and plunged into the gorge, which is more than 50m deep.

All the injured persons were rushed to Dhauldevi block hospital for medical aid. The bus was going to Delhi from Munsyari block and took a route that Delhi-bound corporation buses don't usually take.

Saturday 20 June 2015

http://www.hindustantimes.com/dehradun/14-feared-dead-22-injured-after-delhi-bound-uttarakhand-state-transport-bus-falls-into-gorge/article1-1360912.aspx

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Flood victim identified 62 years after Zeeland disaster

A second victim of the Zeeland flood disaster, which happened 62 years ago, has been identified based on a DNA match. The victim is 38 year old Maartje Verhelst from Nieuwerkerk. The announcement was made at a meeting for survivors in Ouwerkerk on Thursday night, Omroep Zeeland reports.

Last year human remains were exhumed at various cemeteries in an effort to identify 32 unidentified victims of the disaster. The victims’ DNA was compared to that of people who lost relatives in the disaster that were never found or identified. Thursday night’s meeting for survivors was the conclusion of the project.

Maartje Verhels was identified based on DNA material from two nieces. This identification is quite extraordinary, as identification with 100 percent certainty can usually only be done with DNA matches with first-degree relatives – parents, siblings, children. Maartje Verhelst was buried at the cemetery in Ouwerkerk, beneath the flood monument.

The first victim was identified in February this year. Magdalena Cornelia Koter from Kruiningen was identified by a DNA match with her now 77 year old child Ad de Bel from Wezep, Gelderland. She was 41 years old at the time of the disaster and was buried in Yerseke.

Friday 19 June 2015

http://www.nltimes.nl/2015/06/19/flood-victim-identified-62-years-after-zeeland-disaster/

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Over 400 Victims Still Missing in Tragedy of MV Princess of the Stars

Seven years after the tragedy, relatives of those who perished in the sinking of the MV Princess of the Stars cling to hope that justice will still be served. Families of the victims and survivors shed tears as they marked the seventh anniversary of the maritime tragedy yesterday. Father Robert Reyes led the viewing of 133 skeletal remains which have been kept inside wooden boxes at the main office of the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) which is headed by Chief Public Attorney Persida V. Rueda Acosta.

A memorial ceremony of the seventh anniversary of the tragedy in Quezon City, the Philippines was held on June 18, 2015. Relatives looked at skeletal remains of unidentified victims of the capsized MV Princess of the Stars during the ceremony. The Philippine Public Attorney's Office (PAO) said that from over 850 passengers of the submerged MV Princess of the Stars, only 300 of the retrieved bodies were identified, while more than 400 victims are still missing seven years after the mishap

Fr. Reyes gave spiritual encouragement to the victims’ kin by saying that, “God will give you justice!”

The commemoration of the seventh anniversary of the tragedy was scheduled to be held on June 21. However, the group opted to hold it yesterday.

On June 21, a simple prayer will be offered by families of the victims from Cebu.

Friday 19 June 2015

http://englishchannel.nen.com.cn/system/2015/06/19/017796677.shtml

http://indonesia.shafaqna.com/EN/ID/809733-MV-Princess-of-the-Stars-tragedy-victims-kin-still-hope-for-justice

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Tbilisi flood recovery: Two bodies found in past 24 hours

Authorities have discovered the bodies of two more flood victims.

This news comes five days after the natural disaster, bringing the total death toll to 21. As of this afternoon, three people remain missing and six others are receiving treatment in local hospitals.

After rescue workers assessed the situation today, they discovered more local families had suffered in the flood.

This evening officials confirmed 457 people from 106 families, including 119 children, 56 elderly and five pregnant women, were affected by the June 13 flood.

An unidentified body was recovered yesterday while the body found today at Tbilisi Zoo has been identified as Liza Zarandia. Liza, 25, was a sister of 22-year-old Indira Zarandia, the youngest victim of the flood whose body was found on June 15 at Mziuri Park.

Indira and Liza Zarandia were in a taxi together with their friend Sergo Kapanadze when the flood hit Tbilisi. Kapanadze remains missing.

The two recovered victims were earlier named on the missing list, while another person deemed missing has returned home safely.

All day today special teams have cleaned Tbilisi Zoo, Mziuri Park and Svanidze St territory to remove the debris and find the remaining three missing victims.

Epidemic threat

Due to possible risks of epidemic threats or predator attacks, volunteers who have been actively working at disaster zones in recent days were forbidden to get involved in the clean-up works without wearing protective clothing and using special equipment.

"The volunteers will continue working in the suburbs. The Health Ministry will take appropriate measures in the ‘at risk’ areas. There are special rules and conditions that need to be taken into account by all,” Tbilisi Mayor Davit Narmania said.

The Patrol Police closed off the natural disaster zones to traffic so volunteers could freely access the site.

After visiting the Vake Meat Products factory today Georgia’s Health Minister Davit Sergeenko said: "there are no epidemic treats in Tbilisi”. The factory is completely destroyed. Today the factory was cleaned of its spoiled meat products, which could potentially illness.

Meanwhile the Health Ministry is providing tetanus shots for people who are injured during the cleaning works. People can visit the Centre of Immunization and Prevention to receive this vaccine. Tbilisi Zoo director Zurab Gurielidze was one of several citizens who have received this medication.

Furthermore, Catholicos-Patriarch of all Georgia Ilia II has blessed the volunteers working at Mziuri Park. The Patriarch visited the affected area with clergymen to familiarise himself with the volunteer efforts.

Monitoring the tunnels

The Patrol Police and Crisis and Emergency Management Council representatives are continuing to work on recovery operations.

Today Crisis and Emergency Management Council envoys and geologists monitored the tunnels that were full of water and mud after the severe flood in Tbilisi. Using boats they managed to creep into the clefts that appeared between the old and new river tunnels.

Council director Zviad Kanashvili said the tunnels were checked as part of the search for the missing victims as well as to check the integrity of the tunnels.

Geologist Zurab Tsintsadze said the tunnels were in "normal” condition. "The only problem is the adhesion point of the tunnels which will be fixed,” Tsintsadze said.

US Ambassador to Georgia Richard Norland promised American forest experts, geologists and seismologists will visit Georgia to help their counterparts.

Be careful: Tiger and hyena still missing

A handful of wild animals that escaped from the Zoo during the flood in Tbilisi are still walking freely in the city’s streets. The whereabouts of one tiger and a striped hyena remain unknown. The Zoo director called on the Tbilisi public to be careful.

Gurielidze did not rule out that the lost predators were dead, but said enclosures in the Zoo were still filled with mud, making it impossible to enter and check if the missing predators’ bodies were there.

He said once the enclosures were cleaned then Zoo staff would know what the true situation is.

Friday 19 June 2015

http://agenda.ge/news/37521/eng

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27 graves of cemetery damaged in a landslide in Mizoram

At least 27 graves of a cemetery were damaged in a rain-triggered landslide in Muanna locality here, officials said today.

Locals joined the rescue officials in removing and shifting bodies and skeletons from the cemetery, besides helping in the restoration work which resumed today, district SP C. Laldina today said.

Majority of the damaged graves in the burial ground were recently dug ones, he said.

Friday 19 June 2015

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/27-graves-of-cemetery-damaged-in-a-landslide-in-mizoram/articleshow/47731383.cms

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Yogyakarta cliff collapses, kills four, 11 still missing

Eleven people were reported missing as of Thursday morning after a cliff collapsed at Sadranan Beach in Sidoharjo village, Tepus district in Gunungkidul regency, Yogyakarta, on Wednesday, says a local police chief.

“The number of people who have not yet returned home from the beach as of now is 11, as reported by relatives,” said Gunungkidul Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Hariyanto told tempo.co on Thursday morning.

He added that police had secured a Toyota Avanza minibus at the parking lot of the beach area. “The car is probably owned by one of the victims. It is locked from the outside,” said Hariyanto.

Seven victims had been found as of early Thursday. “Four of them have died; two were injured and one survived,” he said.

A joint team from the Gunungkidul and Yogyakarta Search and Rescue agencies, police and Indonesian Military (TNI) is working around the clock to recover victims by using two excavators.

“The recovery method is to break the cliff material sandwiching the victims,” Yogyakarta Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD Quick Response team coordinator Pristiawan said, adding that the recovery was halted at around midnight while waiting for the tides to ebb.

“It resumed immediately at 2 a.m. local time and is still ongoing until now,” said Pristiawan.

Police said relatives who wished to collect the bodies of the deceased need not ask for permission from the institution, provided that the bodies have been identified and a letter issued by the Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team.

Later in the evening, Hariyanto said the search had been stopped as no more victims had been found.

“Based on observations made by many parties, we decided to stop the search,” Hariyanto was quoted by Antara as saying on Thursday evening.

The rock fall took place as hundreds of people were carrying out the local padusan ritual of cleansing themselves before Ramadhan, when suddenly the cliff collapsed and crashed onto dozens of visitors who were sheltering in its shade.

Dwi Ripto, an eyewitness from Salaman, Magelang, Central Java, said he went to Sadrana Beach with seven members of his family. After taking a dip in the sea, they took turns rinsing in fresh water.

“I was watching over the family’s belongings in the shade under the cliff and I even fell asleep,” Dwi told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Dwi was spared from the disaster when two of his relatives woke him up. “They asked me to take a dip in the sea,” he added.

After moving just a few steps away, the rock fall dropped on top of dozens of people.

As it located on the coast, the evacuation process was hampered by high tides.

As of Thursday afternoon, four bodies were picked up by relatives for burial.

Two victims who are still getting treatment are Karwati of Bulu hamlet, Bejiharjo village, Karangmojo, Gunungkuidul, and Ahmad Taufik, 30, of Logendeng hamlet, Ngablak village, Srumbung district, Magelang. Both are suffering from bruises, head injuries and fractures in several parts of their bodies.

The padusan tradition is practiced in several areas in the country to welcome the fasting month.

Friday 19 June 2015

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/19/yogyakarta-cliff-collapses-kills-four-11-still-missing.html#sthash.DzlbGT1t.dpuf

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Ghana: Death toll in June 3 disaster now 159

Seven more bodies have been recovered after the June 3 disaster which had earlier claimed 152 lives in Accra, Vice-President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur has indicated. This brings to 159 the number of people confirmed dead from the twin flood and fire disaster.

Recounting the Accra twin disaster that rocked the country on June 3, 2015, Mr Amissah-Arthur said currently there were about 34 patients on admission at the 37 Military, the Ridge, the Police and the Korle Bu Teaching hospitals.

Briefing development partners on the current situation at the Flagstaff House in Accra Wednesday, the Vice-President said there were additional 70 outpatients with various injuries seeking medical attention at the hospitals.

The meeting with the development partners was for the government to formally inform them about the disaster and also seek their support to avert a future occurrence. Mr Amissah-Arthur told the partners that the government wanted to unravel the cause of the disaster and in so doing develop mechanisms to parent a recurrence.

He used the occasion to again commiserate with the bereaved families and reaffirmed the government’s pledge to underwrite the medical bills of the victims.

A drainage engineer, Mr Wise Ametefe, who made a presentation on the drainage system in Accra to the partners, said there were inadequate water channels in the Accra metropolis, which made it impossible for flood water to flow freely.

He observed that the interceptor at the Korle Lagoon needed to be cleared to pave way for easy passage of water and that the parking of cars on the banks of the channels was a contributory factor to the flooding phenomenon.

Mr Ametepe underscored the need to desilt the Odaw River to help prevent another disaster in the city

The acting Co-ordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Brigadier General Francis Vib-Sanziri, told the Daily Graphic that his office was currently collaborating with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to respond to the reported cases of cholera in Accra following the disaster.

He remarked that NADMO’s immediate response was the distribution of relief items to the affected people and trying to prevent an epidemic from breaking out in those areas.

Brigadier General Vib-Sanziri added that NADMO was trying to mobilise various teams in sectors such as the ministries of Health and Education to plan how to respond to the disaster.

He pointed out that not only was Accra affected by the recent floods, but NADMO was also receiving concerns from and sending relief items to the various regions that had also been affected by floods.

Thursday 18 June 2015

http://graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/44831-death-toll-in-june-3-disaster-now-159-veep.html

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NASA harnesses space technology to find victims of natural disasters

While Google recently made news with a patent filing for drones that could provide emergency medical services, NASA has long been finding ways to take their innovative space-bound technology find a way to apply it to everyday life on Earth.

Most recently, NASA is taking their advances designed to explore the likes of Jupiter and Saturn and apply it directly to saving lives.

The NASA Jet Propulsion Lab team worked with the Department of Homeland Security to develop a version of this space exploration system to rescue humans in disasters. The cutting-edge Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response (FINDER) technology recently saved four lives in during a collapse of a textile factory and another building in village of Chautara in Nepal.

What exactly is FINDER? It is a portable, lightweight, 20-pound radar detector that is about the size of an average suitcase. The detector is ideal for finding people trapped under debris from natural disasters like avalanches, earthquakes, and wildfires. The sooner a victim can be located, the sooner they can be rescued and receive medical care. The time it takes to find them can mean the difference between life and death.

How does it work?

FINDER locates people by sending out a low-powered microwave signal through the rubble. The signal is about a mere one-thousandth of a typical smartphone's output.

It then looks for changes in the reflections of those signals that reverberate back to the device. These changes are caused by the tiny movements a person may make.

In fact, when NASA tested FINDER, the detector could pinpoint a person’s heartbeat buried beneath a whopping 20 feet of solid concrete. It could also detect a heartbeat beneath 30 feet of rubble.

To systematically sweep a disaster zone, rescue teams can take a laptop and run the FINDER software. They can program this tech to scan a specific. It then analyzes the microwaves that bounce back.

FINDER seeks out typical human motions like the chest rising and falling while breathing. The program alerts the rescuers to where the signal is strongest to help narrow down the location. It is even so precise that is can differentiate between the heartbeats of a human and those of an animal.

NASA built four new FINDER prototypes in just one year. These prototypes underwent extensive testing by first responder teams in seven states — California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Virginia.

NASA engineers brought FINDER to search and rescue teams to test how the tech would perform in a range of disaster scenarios.

Saving lives

FINDER got to prove what it could do in its rescue of the four men in Chautara, which was impacted by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Nepal in April. The men were trapped under approximately 10 feet of debris like brick wood and mud. This was the first time that this detection technology was used in an actual disaster.

“The true test of any technology is how well it works in a real-life operational setting,” aid Reginald Brothers, Department of Homeland Security’s under secretary for science and technology, in a release. Of course, no one wants disasters to occur, but tools like this are designed to help when our worst nightmares do happen. I am proud that we were able to provide the tools to help rescue these four men.”

NASA sees a lot of potential for FINDER, with the possibility for it to be applied to augment drone deployment to locate victims to even monitoring — from a safe distance — contagious patients who are kept in quarantine.

Thursday 17 June 2015

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2015/06/17/nasa-takes-space-technology-to-detect-victims-natural-disasters/

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Delay in recovery of dead bodies concerns monitoring committee

The dead bodies buried at Singati of Dolakha and Langtang, Mailung and Rasuwagadhi of Rasuwa district which were struck by the massive earthquake of April 25 and subsequent aftershocks have not yet been recovered.

It was found in course of the on-site monitoring by the sub-committee under the National Disaster Management, Monitoring and Direction Special Committee of the Legislature-Parliament that the dead bodies are yet to be taken out from the debris in the quake-hit northern remote and mountainous areas.

“The efforts made to take out corpses from the rubble in the far-flung areas, were found inadequate”, the monitoring subcommittee said, noting that “there were no presence of government and non-government bodies and human presence was also slim at local level due to psychological fear of earthquake.” It was stated that the dead body recovery bid saw further setback owing to remote hilly terrain; lack of transportation, competent human resource and coordination of information; and communications.

The monitoring subcommittee has underlined the need of effective excavation of the devastated tourism sites, residential houses and hotel buildings in Gorkha, Dhading, Rasuwa, Sindhupalchowk and Dolakha, among others.

Locals are still reeling from a sense of fear and terror at Rigaun, Lapa, Tipling, Sertung and Jharlang in the northern belt of Dhading with the complete destruction of their physical structures.

The subcommittee said that the areas were found to have been without human settlements during the monitoring and are in need of relocation to the secured places due to fear of landslide.

Likewise, the human settlements at Narayanthan, Gaira Bisauna, and Deupur VDC-2, Khatechaur of Kavre are also under the threat of dry landslide, which should also be shifted to secured area, the monitoring team recommended.

The government’s attention was drawn towards possible menace of landslides to human settlements in the northern mountainous area.

The subcommittee cautioned the government of risks posed to human settlements by the possible disruption of the Seti River in Suklagandaki municipality in Tanahun due to earthquake.

It seems that the alternative arrangement should immediately be put in place for the relocation of the vulnerable human settlements envisaging perspective plan of resettlement.

The parliamentary committee had undertaken onsite monitoring in 14 earthquake-ravaged districts and other affected sites through the subcommittee.

The monitoring subcommittee in its report urged the government to keep the operation of road and communication connectivity disrupted due to the natural disaster.

Wednesday 17 June 2015

http://arko.asia/news/nepal/delay-in-recovery-of-dead-bodies-concerns-monitoring-committee/

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Ghana: DNA test for identification of June 3 disaster victims begin

Family members of those who died in the June 3 flood and fire disaster have begun identifying their relatives through DNA tests.

Out of 72 bodies sent to the Police Hospital morgue, 50 of them have been identified.

President John Mahama announced last week that families whose relatives have been charred beyond recognition in the June 3 disaster should bring DNA to the hospital for the tests to be conducted.

Even families who have the bodies of their relatives quite intact are also being made to go through the DNA testing to ensure that bodies are handed over to the right families.

Already, three bodies have had to be exhumed after three separate families claimed ownership of them.

It is estimated that 152 people lost their lives through the disaster which was caused by floods after a 5-hour downpour and a subsequent explosion at a GOIL fuel station at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle.

Some family members who spoke to Joy News' Naa Dedei Tettey said samples were taken through mouth swaps for the tests.

The President has set aside a Ȼ50,000 fund to support the victims and their families.

Management of GOIL has also set aside Ȼ60,000 to be used to cater for the victims and their families.

President Mahama has ordered that those affected by the floods be treated free of charge. Those who have made any payments for treatment at the hospital would have their monies refunded.

Wednesday 17 June 2015

http://www.myjoyonline.com/news/2015/June-17th/dna-test-for-identification-of-june-3-flood-fire-disaster-begins.php#sthash.zQq0PtVV.dpuf

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