China blasts: Tianjin explosions death toll reaches 55, relatives looking for the missing

Chinese rescue teams say they have located a survivor more than 30 hours after the city of Tianjin was rocked by a devastating chemical explosion that killed at least 55 people and has forced thousands from their homes.

Rescuers discovered a 19-year-old firefighter – named as Zhou Ti – at 7.05am on Friday morning, according to Xinhua, China’s official news agency.

Zhou was taken to Tianjin’s Teda hospital and is in a stable condition, according to The Paper, a Shanghai-based news website.

The discovery offered a rare glimmer of hope as authorities battled to help those left injured or homeless when a warehouse storing hazardous chemicals caught fire and exploded on Wednesday sending a mushroom cloud rising into the night sky.

With acrid black smoke still billowing from the disaster zone, more than 1,020 firefighters continued to battle “raging” fires in the area, Zhou Tian, Tianjin’s fire chief, told Xinhua on Friday.

The official death toll rose to 55 after five more bodies were found, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

As the body count rose, displaced residents took shelter in the homes of relatives or in makeshift government camps set up in local primary schools. At least 6,000 people were expected in such shelters on Thursday night, a local official said.

By Friday morning, around 200 volunteers and family members looking for lost relatives were milling around outside the primary school opposite the GSK Glaxo Smith Kline Tianjin headquarters.

At the front of the gate, volunteers had erected a tent where they were maintaining long lists and posters featuring the names, descriptions and contact details of some of the missing.

“We have a group on WeChat where volunteers circulate the names of the missing and inform each other if anyone has been found” Xie said.

Asked why the government wasn’t doing this work, Xie said: “They’re focussing on the explosion. That’s more important than this. They don’t have extra energy to deal with this as well.

“Of course this is important too, but while they direct their energy to that, common people like us can offer our help in this way.”

Relatives of Tianjin residents missing after the blasts hold up information about their loved ones. At the Vantone Central Park – which is around 2km from the scene of the disaster – signs of the blast were everywhere.

The glass façade of the Jingcheng Real Estate company had been completely shattered. From a fourth-floor apartment a man peered down from a pane-less window at a carpet of glass.

A bright red banner hanging at the heart of the compound read: “It is everyone’s duty to report crimes involving guns and explosives.”

“Look at this damage – it’s like an earthquake hit,” said Zhang, who said her relatives had fled with their young child following the explosion. “I’ve come because they’re still too scared to come back,” she said. “Young children can’t really comprehend these kinds of things.”

Others were refusing to leave the area around the blast site, despite government calls to evacuate and fears that volatile chemicals could trigger secondary explosions.

Authorities admitted they had still not been able to determine which chemicals were being stored in the warehouse at the time of the disaster, blaming “major discrepancies” in company and customs records.

Liu Yandon, a top Communist party leader, visited Tianjin on Friday morning and ordered officials there to provide the best possible medical care to the wounded, especially the 71 people reported to be in a critical condition. Liu said psychological support and counselling should be offered to families of the dead and injured as well as rescue workers.

Friday 14 August 2015

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/14/china-explosions-thousands-seek-refuge-55-killed-tianjin-blasts

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13 dead in Guizhou coal mine accident

The death toll from a coal mine gas outburst in Guizhou Province rose to 13 after authorities found bodies of three people previously reported missing.

Another five people were injured and authorities have wrapped up search and rescue. The cause of the investigation is still ongoing.

The outburst occurred at around 7:50 p.m. Tuesday at the coal mine in Louxia Township of Pu'an County. A total of 56 people safely moved out of the mine.

Friday 14 August 2015

http://www.ecns.cn/2015/08-14/177205.shtml

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Nigeria: 30 unidentified corpses lying at Mararaba Medical Centre

The management of Mararaba Medical Centre in Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State has said that 30 unidentified corpses are in its mortuary.

Dr Ibrahim Adamu, the Medical Director of the centre, made the fact known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Mararaba on Thursday.

Adamu said that the situation was unhealthy and worrisome to both the patients and members of staff of the centre.

"These corpses have been here since 2013 with no record of ownership.

"They were brought or dumped here by the police as most of them happen to be victims of accidents or armed robbery.

"We are appealing to Karu Local Government authorities and the police to arrange for their burial.

"Evacuation of these corpses will promote, not only the health of our workers, but also health of our patients, especially those on admissions," he said.

Friday 14 August 2015

http://allafrica.com/stories/201508131889.html

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DNA of Kullu bus accident victims to be preserved

With the bodies of the July 23 Kullu bus accident victims now being retrieved from the Parvati river too decayed to be recognised, the Kullu district administration in Himachal Pradesh will preserve the DNA from these to avoid identification issues later.

The DNA samples from three bodies fished on Tuesday have been collected. The bodies of a woman and two men extracted on Wednesday could not be identified. “Knowing what would be the condition of the bodies that have remained under water for so long, we decided three-four days ago to preserve the DNA from the bodies to be retrieved from now,” said Kullu subdivisional magistrate (SDM) Rohit Rathore.

“The families that claimed the bodies retrieved on Tuesday had identified the victims from their clothes and other belongings; but we have kept the DNA samples as well to avoid controversy later as we find more victims. The DNA samples will be sent to the forensic laboratory at Junga in Shimla district,” said the SDM.

Identification issues had cropped up in June last year when 24 students from Hyderabad were swept away in the Beas river near Thalot in Mandi district. On July 23, a private bus carrying pilgrims from Bathinda, Barnala and Mansa districts of Punjab had fallen into a swollen Parvati river on the Bhuntar-Manikaran road. So far, 20 bodies have been retrieved, while 26 victims are still missing. In the accident, 23 passengers were injured.

Kullu Deputy Commissioner Rakesh Kanwar said still search is going on to recover bodies from river. A anonymous body recovered from river which is not in passengers list.

National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), and Himachal Pradesh Police continue to search for bodies and possible survivors.

Thursday 13 August 2015

http://www.hindustantimes.com/bathinda/dna-of-kullu-bus-mishap-victims-to-be-preserved/article1-1379587.aspx

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Japan: Ashes of thousands of wartime dead still unclaimed

The remains of thousands of civilians killed during World War II still remain unclaimed by relatives and languish in storage at temples and other sites across the country, an Asahi Shimbun survey shows.

The families of more than 7,400 people have yet to claim ashes stored in eight cities across Japan, even though the deceased have been identified based on name tags and other items attached to their clothing.

Many of the victims were killed in U.S. air raids. But in Okinawa, the victims were caught up in shelling and fighting.

In an effort to tally the unclaimed remains, The Asahi Shimbun contacted local governments, private-sector organizations, temples and other parties. The study covered Okinawa and 71 cities where 100 or more people are said to have died in connection with the war.

Although the central government has been diligently working to return the remains of Japanese soldiers killed in the war to their families, there had been no detailed research on the uncollected remains of civilians killed in U.S. air raids and other means.

According to the survey results, the ashes of 3,701 people stored in Tokyo have been identified but remain unclaimed by relatives. The figures for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which were both leveled by atomic bombing in 1945, are 815 and 122, respectively.

Each of the three cities annually receives several inquiries and ashes have been returned in some cases. But in many instances, ashes that have been identified cannot be claimed because all family members perished in the war, according to the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum.

The ashes of more than 2,700 identified civilians remain unclaimed in Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, Yokohama, Hamamatsu, Osaka and Sakai, Osaka Prefecture. Because the bodies of victims were cremated and buried together in those five cities, relatives are now unable to collect the remains.

The Hiroshima and Nagasaki city governments publicly disclose names of the identified victims. In the case of Hamamatsu and Sakai, bereaved families can view lists of remains that have been identified by contacting the temples and private groups storing them. Tokyo and Osaka do not publicly disclose the identities of remains.

The Asahi Shimbun also learned that unidentified remains of more than 300,000 people were buried together at temples and other facilities in Okinawa, Tokyo and 11 other cities.

More than 500,000 civilians are thought to have perished in Japan in World War II, mainly as a result of U.S. air raids.

One reason behind the large number of unclaimed remains is that it was difficult for Japanese officials during the war to identify victims and locate their families in the face of intensified aerial attacks by the United States.

According to records on damage to Tokyo during the war and other source material, the police were responsible for examining and identifying those killed in airstrikes.

But police were overwhelmed by the number of victims in the Great Tokyo Air Raid of March 10, 1945. Corpses were laid out on city streets for several days so people could find their families. The bodies were later transferred to nearby parks and elsewhere for tentative burial because it was thought that leaving them laid out on the ground for a prolonged period could undermine the people's fighting spirit.

Victims of the Great Tokyo Air Raid were exhumed and cremated after the end of the war so they could be enshrined at a Tokyo government-run memorial facility.

Although some of the victims of the air raid were identified, those remains could not be returned to relatives because the bereaved families did not know where or even if the ashes were being stored.

Interviews with bereaved families showed they could not afford to claim their relatives’ ashes as they were caught up on the task of rebuilding their own lives. In some cases, ashes were not returned because authorities mixed up names.

“The wartime authorities prioritized hiding corpses rather than identifying them so as not to lower citizens’ morale,” said Katsumoto Saotome, director of the Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage. “If the authorities had actively sought bereaved families of the remains immediately following the war, more ashes may have been returned to their relatives by now.”

Thursday 13 August 2015

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201508120070

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At least 44 dead, hundreds injured as blasts from hazardous materials warehouse rock Chinese city of Tianjin

Huge explosions at a warehouse for dangerous materials in the northeastern Chinese port of Tianjin killed at least 44 people, including 12 firefighters, and injured hundreds of others.

The massive blasts late on Wednesday night sent fireballs into the air forming a mushroom cloud in the sky.

About 520 people are receiving treatment in hospital, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported. Sixty-six of them are said to be in a critical condition.

The explosions late on Wednesday blew doors off buildings in the area and shattered windows up to several kilometers away.

Twelve firefighters were killed tackling the blaze, Xinhua said. Thirty-six are missing, according to an earlier report from The Beijing News.

The authorities suspended firefighting efforts at the warehouse on Thursday morning due to a lack of clarity about what dangerous goods are inside and how much is stored, according to a local government statement issued on Thursday.

Fire staff will survey the scene and efforts made to find out what is inside the complex before firefighters return, state television reported.

It said the risk of hazardous chemicals remaining on the site was high.

The city’s fire brigade said its personnel were sent to the warehouse at about 10.50pm on Wednesday night, 40 minutes before the first large explosion occurred.

About 1,000 firefighters were deployed before teams were pulled out on Thursday morning.



About 400 members of China's paramilitary forces are helping with the relief and rescue efforts, the PLA Daily reported.

Roads around the complex have been sealed off and a rail link to the affected area has been suspended.

Tianjin resident Zhang Siyu, whose home is several kilometers from the blast site, said she thought the explosions last night were an earthquake.

“Only once I was outside did I realise it was an explosion. There was the huge fireball in the sky with thick clouds. Everybody could see it.”

Zhang said she could see wounded people weeping. She said she did not see anyone who had been killed, but “I could feel death".

A 28-year-old man told the South China Morning Post that he was driving on a bridge about 1km from the warehouse when the first explosion occurred.

"The first blast was like setting off fire crackers and we were watching it from the car, but when the second one happened the shock wave was much stronger.

"It was like shooting stars. There were also balls of metal falling from from the sky. We had to leave our car and escape at once leaving all of our personal belongs behind," the driver said.

The force of the blast was so strong it buckled metalwork on the car and blew out all of its windows, he added..

Police in Tianjin said an initial blast took place at shipping containers in a warehouse for hazardous materials owned by Ruihai Logistics, a company that says it’s properly approved to handle hazardous materials. State media said senior management of the company had been detained by authorities.

It is part of an industrial park, with some apartment buildings nearby.

Among the chemicals the company handles are sodium cyanide, often used in the mining industry to help extract gold; plus toluene diisocyanate, a toxic organic compound, the China Youth Daily reported, citing the firm's website.

The state-run Xinhua news agency said an initial explosion triggered other blasts at nearby businesses. The National Earthquake Bureau reported two major blasts before midnight, the first with an equivalent of 3 tonnes of TNT and the second with the equivalent of 21 tonnes.

China’s President Xi Jinping has told the city authorities to contain the fire and rescue the injured, the China News Service reported. He also ordered them to fully investigate the cause of the explosions and hold people accountable if they were found to be responsible for the disaster, the report said.

Photos taken by bystanders and circulating on microblogs show a gigantic fireball high in the sky, with a mushroom-cloud. Other photos on state media outlets showed a sea of fire that painted the night sky bright orange, with tall plumes of smoke.

About 2 km from the explosion site is the luxury Fifth Avenue apartment complex on a road strewn with broken glass and pieces of charred metal thrown from explosion. Like surrounding buildings, the Mediterranean style complex had all its windows blown out and some its surfaces were scorched.

“It’s lucky no one had moved in,” said a worker on the site, Liu Junwei, 29. “But for us it’s a total loss. Two years hard work down the drain.”

“It had been all quiet, then the sky just lit up brighter than day and it looked like a fireworks show,” said another worker on the site who gave just his surname, Li.

In one neighborhood about 10 to 20 km from the blast site, some residents were sleeping on the street wearing gas masks, although there was no perceptible problem with the air apart from massive clouds of smoke seen in the distance.

“It was like what we were told a nuclear bomb would be like,” said truck driver Zhao Zhencheng, who spent the night in the cab of his truck. “I’ve never even thought I’d see such a thing. It was terrifying but also beautiful.”

At the nearby Taida Hospital as dawn broke, military medical tents were set up. Photos circulating online showed patients in bandages and with cuts.

One woman spent the night on the street after she was blown from her bed by shock waves from the explosions.

"Even the elevator doors in our block were buckled," she said.

Ruihai Logistics says on its website that it was established in 2011 and is an approved company for handling hazardous materials. It says it handles 1 million tonnes of cargo annually.

Tianjin, with a population of about 15 million, is about 120 km east of Beijing on the Bohai Sea and is one of the country’s major ports. It is also one of China’s more modern cities and is connected to the capital by a high-speed rail line.

Thursday 13 August 2015

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1849118/blast-explosives-shipment-rocks-chinese-city-tianjin

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Nepal: Kin of quake missing want relief, compensation

Sange Sherpa of Khijiphalate-5 in Okhaldhunga district had gone missing in a landslide triggered by the April 25 earthquake in Langtang, Rasuwa. His body has yet to be recovered four months after the disaster.

Three months into his disappearance, Sange’s family gave up hope of finding him alive and performed his final rituals. Now his wife Kami and two children are struggling with their lives. “Our house was destroyed in the quake and we are staying under tarpaulins now,” said Kami, adding that they hardly have enough to eat. Some social organisations did provide them some food stuffs but they were insufficient.

“We are in pitiful condition and don’t know how to lead our lives,” she said. The kin of Lucky Sherpa of Khijiphalate-6 too have similar story to tell. Lucky, who went to work in a Langtang hotel, has been missing since the day of the devastating quake. As Lucky was the sole bread winner in her house, the family has found itself in lurch. Lucky’s father, Pasang, said they have not received government relief till date.

Seventeen people from Okhaldhunga had gone missing in the avalanche on that fateful day in Langtang. Of them, nine were from Patle, three from Khijiphalate, four from Khijikatika and one from Bhusinga in Okhaldhunga district. But victims’ families are unable to retrieve the bodies of those missing. The victims’ families demanded that the government declare them as deceased persons and provide relief and compensation amount. Rinji Sherpa, a relative of one of the missing persons, said the government should provide facilities as their family members are no more alive. “The authorities are dilly-dallying in providing compensation,” he said.

When asked to clarify the situation, Assistant Chief District Officer of Okhaldhunga Nagendra Poudel said the Home Ministry had not sent a letter of missing persons in the district. “We have not received the list of missing persons even from Rasuwa,” he said, adding that eight of the missing persons had been identified in the district.

Thursday 13 August 2015

http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2015/08/12/news/kin-of-quake-missing-want-relief-compensation/279485.html

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Days after missing Pawan Hans chopper was located, three bodies found in Arunachal Pradesh

Search and rescue teams looking for a helicopter that went missing in Arunachal Pradesh with three people on board have spotted bodies and wreckage, an official said on Wednesday.

The bodies were spotted along with the wreckage of the Pawan Hans chopper that went missing on August 4 in a deep gorge in a remote forested area in Tirap district of Arunachal Pradesh.

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Secretary Ramesh Negi confirmed this on Wednesday but said it will take time to recover the bodies due to the hilly terrain.

"The search team had spotted the bodies amid the wreckage today. The operation is on to recover the bodies now. We are trying to bring it to Khonsa first. However, it is likely to take some time due to the difficult mountainous terrain," he said.

Paratroopers of the Indian Army and some mountaineers will be pressed into service on Thursday to find out the Pawan Hans chopper and its passengers that went missing in Tirap district of Arunachal Pradesh last week.

Director General of Police S Nitithyanandam told PTI that highly-trained commandos of the HAWS in Jammu and Kashmir, who were airdropped in the tough hilly region, reached the spot where the debris of the chopper had been spotted on Monday last.

It may be mentioned here that the aerial search operations have located the main portion of the wreckage of the Pawan Hans chopper lying in a gorge between two hills on Tuesday but the steep downward climb has made it difficult for the rescue teams to reach to it.

The massive search operations involved Tirap and Changlang district administrations, the army, Assam Rifles and police personnel, as also IAF’s Ml-17, Cheetah helicopters, Sukhoi MKI30 and EW Boeing aircrafts. Joshi's wife Neha and brother Maj Rajesh Joshi had been camping at Khonsa since August 6. Often hindered by inclement weather, the search operation had succeeded in locating the tail portion of the chopper from a place, about 4-5 km away from Sangliam village on a hill covered with dense forest on Monday last, civil aviation secretary B M Mishra had said.

The Dauphin twin-engine helicopter went missing with the Tirap DC and the two pilots after taking off from Khonsa in Tirap district on August 4 last. The chopper was on way to Longding to pick up its Deputy Commissioner and that of Changlang and proceed to New Delhi to attend an important meeting on August 6.

The wreckage has been located between Pongkong and Longliang villages in Tirap district. The bodies were burnt badly as the chopper seems to have exploded following the crash.

After spotting the main portion of the wreckage of the chopper, the government had used the services of army`s paratroopers and mountaineers to reach to the wreckage on Wednesday.

The chopper went missing it took off from Khonsa in Tirap district on August 4.

Tirap Deputy Commissioner Kamlesh Kumar Joshi and two pilots of the chopper were on its way to Longding on a routine sortie and it was supposed to return to Mohanbari airport in Dibrugarh.

Hectic search operations have been on to locate the missing helicopter and its three boarders by the IAF choppers, Army, the Assam Rifles, Arunachal Pradesh police personnel and local villagers since the last eight days.

Thursday 13 August 2015

http://www.firstpost.com/india/days-after-missing-pawan-hans-chopper-was-located-three-bodies-found-in-arunachal-pradesh-2389574.html

http://zeenews.india.com/news/india/search-teams-spot-bodies-wreckage-of-missing-chopper_1645873.html

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Over 60 Missing from NW China Landslide

More than 60 people were missing in China Wednesday after a landslide buried the living quarters of a mining company under one million cubic meters of earth, state media said.

The landslide covered 15 employee dormitories and three houses in Shanyang county in the northern province of Shaanxi shortly after midnight, an official at the county's propaganda office told AFP.

The state-run Xinhua news agency, quoting the provincial government, said late Wednesday that more than 60 people remain missing.

It said four people had been rescued and rushed to hospital. Another 10 at the site had avoided being trapped when the landslide struck, it added.

More than 1.3 million cubic meters of earth buried 15 dorms and three houses at around 12:30 a.m. on Wednesday at Wuzhou Mining Co. in the mountainous county of Shanyang. Earlier reports put the number missing at 40.

Ten people managed to escape by themselves.

Zhou Kunlin, one of the 10, said:"I woken up by people shouting about the danger."

Zhou said he and several colleagues ran out of the dorm and up the mountain. They were lucky to escape with just minor injuries from the falling stones.

"Those who ran down the mountain were buried by the landslide," he said.

"Many just had no time, as the landslide buried the area in mere minutes," he added.

More than 700 police, firefighters, mining rescuers and paramedics are at the scene. Residents living nearby have been evacuated.

Photos posted on news websites showed rescue workers in orange jumpsuits standing next to a pile of earth and rocks at least four times their size. Mechanical backhoes were atop the mound.

President Xi Jinping said he was following the rescue efforts closely and every effort should be made to prevent casualties and further disasters, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Rescue efforts, however, have been hampered by the unstable environment on the surrounding mountain slopes.

A work team sent by the State Council, China's cabinet, is en route to the site to oversee the search and rescue efforts.

Villagers believe excessive mining may be to blame as the region received no rain on Sunday.

The mine's operator was identified by Xinhua as Wuzhou mining company, which according to its parent company is mainly a vanadium producer.

Shanyang is a vanadium-rich county and several mines are located in the township where the landslide occurred. Residents have often voiced concern about the impact of mining activities on the environment.

Separately, an accident at a coal and gas mine on Tuesday night in the southwestern province of Guizhou killed 10 people, provincial work safety authorities said in a statement.

Rescue efforts were under way, the statement said Wednesday.

Xinhua reported Wednesday that 56 miners left the shaft safely after the accident, with five injured and three more still missing.

China -- the world's largest producer of coal -- is grappling to improve standards in the sector, where regulations are often flouted and corruption enables bosses to pursue profits at the cost of worker safety.

Accidents in Chinese coal mines killed 931 people last year, a top work safety official said in March.

The official number of mining fatalities is declining but some rights groups argue the actual figures are significantly higher due to under-reporting.

The country is also prone to landslides, often caused by floods but with lax management of industrial sites sometimes a factor.

In 2008, 277 people died in a mudslide in the northern province of Shanxi after an illegal mining waste reservoir burst its banks following heavy rain.

A total of 58 government and company officials were convicted over the disaster and sentenced to prison terms, some to life.

In 2013, a vast volume of rock crashed down a mountainside east of the Tibetan capital Lhasa, burying 83 people in a mineworkers' camp.

Thursday 13 August 2015

http://english.cri.cn/12394/2015/08/12/2702s891350.htm

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/115914/60-missing-after-landslide-buries-15-mining-dorms-in-chinas-shaanxi

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Migrants rescued by Italy say up to 50 missing after boat sinks

Up to 50 migrants went missing after a large rubber dinghy sank in the Mediterranean Sea, Italian rescuers said on Wednesday, while more than 1,500 were picked up from other vessels in the past 24 hours.

The Mediterranean has become the world's most deadly border zone for migrants. More than 2,000 migrants and refugees have died so far this year in attempts to reach Europe by boat, compared with 3,279 deaths during the whole of last year, the International Organization for Migration said last week.

An Italian navy helicopter on Tuesday spotted a rubber boat that appeared to be deflating, the navy said, and dropped life rafts to the migrants on board. The boat then sank, it said.

The Italian naval ship Mimbelli rushed to the scene and pulled 52 migrants to safety. Survivors said there had been about 100 on board, leaving up to about 50 unaccounted for, a rescue operations source said.

A helicopter later airlifted to safety two migrants seen hanging onto a floating barrel near where the dinghy had sunk, the navy said. The survivors were being taken to the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Overall on Tuesday, Italy's coastguard said it coordinated the rescue of more than 1,500 migrants -- many fleeing war zones and poverty in Africa and the Middle East -- from seven different vessels.

People-smugglers, mostly based in lawless Libya and charging thousands of dollars for passage, have sent more than 100,000 migrants by sea to Italy so far this year, according to an Interior Ministry tally. Italy took in 170,000 in 2014.

Around 200 migrants were presumed killed earlier this month off the coast of Libya when their boat capsized. More than 400 were rescued from that shipwreck.

Financially strapped Greece has also struggled to cope with a surge in migrants and refugees arriving on its Mediterranean shores.

Greek police used fire extinguishers and batons against migrants on the island of Kos on Tuesday after violence broke out in a sports stadium where hundreds of people, including young children, were waiting for immigration papers.

Wednesday 12 August 2015

http://news.yahoo.com/italian-navy-rescues-migrants-survivors-50-feared-missing-052603008.html

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15 Years on, Kursk Submarine Tragedy

Fifteen years after one of the worst disasters in Russian naval history — the sinking of the Kursk submarine in the Barents Sea in which all 118 crew members died — the number of Russians who blame the authorities for not doing enough to rescue the sailors has dropped.

The tragedy occurred on Aug. 12, 2000, making it one of the first serious challenges faced by Russia's new president Vladimir Putin. While at the time and in the immediate aftermath, the president's actions were criticized, a poll published Monday by the independent pollster Levada Center showed that 40 percent of Russians thought the authorities did everything possible to save the crew — compared to 34 percent in 2010 and 23 percent in August 2000.

At the time, Russia's rejection of offers of help from other countries elicited outrage among some members of the public. Attitudes to that position also appear to have softened: If five years ago, only 21 percent of respondents considered it the right decision, this year, 28 percent of people agreed with it.

'It Sank'

In a fateful moment that would be remembered and criticized for years to come, Putin told CNN's Larry King: “It sank” — and appeared to smirk — when answering a question about what had happened to the submarine during an interview on the television channel a month after the tragedy.

This laconic answer and the president's demeanor were slammed as being cynical, indifferent and inappropriate for years to come, and further enraged those who already believed the government could have saved some of the sailors.

On Aug. 12, the Kursk, a nuclear submarine and one of the largest attack submarines ever built, was taking part in naval exercises in the Barents Sea. As the results of an official investigation later showed, one of the torpedoes the Kursk was carrying went off accidentally at around 11:28 a.m., followed by another explosion minutes later, after which the submarine sank.

Military officials only registered that an incident had taken place at 11:30 p.m., after failing to contact the crew numerous times.

The vessel was reportedly located at 4:30 a.m. the next day more than 100 meters below the surface. Attempts to rescue any possible survivors gripped the world's attention for more than a week, but were ultimately unsuccessful: By the time Norwegian rescuers managed to open the submarine's hatch on Aug. 21, everyone inside it was dead. Twenty-three sailors are now believed to have survived the initial blast for several hours before their oxygen ran out.

Blame Game

Putin's administration was criticized for a lot of things — for waiting too long to start the rescue operation, for refusing assistance from other countries, and for the apparent lack of concern shown by Putin himself: The president only terminated his vacation in Sochi five days after the tragedy struck.

“They should have raised the alarm immediately. In only doing so at 11:30 [p.m.], they were several hours late,” Boris Kuznetsov, a lawyer who represented 55 families of the deceased sailors, told the Voice of America radio station last year.

Kuznetsov, who is now in his 70s, moved to the U.S. in 2007, fearing arrest after having published a book called “It Sank” that decried the authorities' failure to save the survivors of the blasts.

The lawyer claimed that the explosion on the Kursk was recorded by a cruiser named the Pyotr Veliky (Peter the Great) that was nearby at the time. The cruiser's crew also heard and recorded what sounded like the submarine crew banging on its walls, which sailors do in extreme situations to attract attention, the lawyer said.

The banging, Kuznetsov told Voice of America, continued until Aug. 14, so the experts' conclusion that everyone had died from lack of oxygen eight hours after the tragedy, and that by the time the submarine was located there was no one to save, was deliberately falsified, because the authorities didn't want to admit they were helpless.

“The U.K. sent an airplane with rescue apparatus, but it was prohibited from entering Russian air space. The Norwegians offered help. Everything was rejected. The real reason was fear of showing total inability to rescue people during extreme situations,” Kuznetsov was cited by Voice of America as saying.

Unhappy Ending

In 2001, the hull of the submarine was raised from the bottom of the sea. A year later the official investigation concluded, naming the accidental torpedo detonation as the cause of the disaster.

That conclusion eliminated all the other versions — the submarine being attacked by foreign naval forces, a World War II-era underwater mine explosion, the submarine colliding with something in the sea — that had been circulating in the media for two years.

Not everyone accepted the results of the investigation. Some insisted that the Kursk had been attacked by a U.S. submarine and Putin had deliberately concealed it in order to avoid an international conflict.

Nevertheless, the case was closed and declared classified.

The bodies of 115 sailors were recovered and identified, several military officials were fired and all the crew members were posthumously awarded Orders of Courage. Their families received a total of up to 23 million rubles (about $700,000 at the time) in compensation from the authorities, the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper reported in 2003.

Wednesday 12 August 2015

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/15-years-on-russians-less-inclined-to-cast-blame-for-kursk-submarine-tragedy/527770.html

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SOS Malta launches urban canine search and rescue unit

SOS Malta today launched its first urban canine search and rescue unit to help it in its humanitarian missions.

The unit is made up of nine dogs, four of which have concluded their training, and nine handlers.

All dogs will be fully trained by January 2016. Training cost €17,000 per dog.

The dogs were trained in Malta and abroad by volunteer John Gera, a former civil protection officer, who offered his services for free.

The team will be used in the eventuality of a disaster in Malta and will also accompany SOS Malta on its missions overseas.

The unit was launched following a €10,000 donation by a Norwegian woman.

Wednesday 12 August 2015

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20150811/local/sos-malta-launches-urban-canine-search-and-rescue-unit.580219

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Japan Airlines jumbo crash remembered 30 years later

Hundreds of people attended ceremonies Wednesday marking the 30th anniversary of a Japan Airlines jumbo jet crash that killed 520 people on board, the deadliest single-aircraft disaster in history.


The doomed Boeing 747 had begun the hour-long flight from Japan's capital to Osaka when it crashed into a mountain about 120 kilometres (75 miles) northwest of Tokyo on August 12, 1985.

In all, 509 passengers, including a dozen infants, and 15 crew were killed in the accident. Just four passengers survived.

Bereaved relatives of victims make an annual pilgrimage to Osutaka Ridge, along with JAL president Yoshiharu Ueki who will walk the trail to a memorial service near the crash site.

Ahead of Wednesday's events, Ueki told local media that "we would like to learn a lesson from this accident without forgetting the memory" of the lives lost.

Television footage showed some victims' relatives starting their climb up the steep mountain trail before dawn.

Some blew soap bubbles to pay tribute the children who died in the accident, their names included on a stone memorial listing the victims.

"When I come here I feel like I can see her directly -- it's like she's in front of me," an 81-year-old man who lost his daughter told local media.

"Thirty years is a long time, but honestly I feel as if it happened yesterday, and the memories were stirred again this particular year."

Japan Airlines Flight 123 took off from Tokyo's Haneda airport at 6:12 pm local time and quickly ran into trouble with a loud noise heard about 10 minutes into the trip.

The crew quickly declared an emergency and fought to regain power over the aircraft which had become "uncontrollable". It crashed into the mountain at 6:56 pm local time, about 45 minutes into the flight.

It was later determined that the bulkhead burst, rupturing hydraulic systems and leaving the plane uncontrollable.

A government-appointed investigation panel blamed the accident on improper repairs on the rear bulkhead seven years earlier.

In 1988, local police served papers on 20 people from JAL, the transport ministry and Boeing on suspicion of professional negligence resulting in death and injury.

But prosecutors decided not to indict anyone.

"It can never be forgotten," Satoshi Iizuka, a former police officer who identified bodies at the site three decades ago, told broadcaster TV Asahi as he choked back tears.

"Today, people tend to prioritise speed over safety."

This year's anniversary comes several days after the hunt for more wreckage from missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 resumed on France's Reunion island in the Indian Ocean after being suspended last week.

A wing part was found on the island in late July and confirmed by the Malaysian prime minister to be part of the Boeing 777 that disappeared on March 8, 2014 with 239 people onboard.

Wednesday^12 August 2015

https://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/29243075/japan-airlines-jumbo-crash-remembered-30-years-later/

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Pentagon still searching for lost WW2 veterans

Long dead but little forgotten, US soldiers who disappeared across the globe during World War II are being reunited with their loved ones in a push to find and bring home their bodies.

From the forests of Germany to the jungles of Papua New Guinea, US experts employed by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency -- among them historians, archeologists and forensic experts -- are the main sleuths.

When recovery of a body is possible, the Pentagon specialists turn the remains over to an ultra-modern lab in Hawaii for identification and then wait for the ultimate reward: bringing the bereaved back together with their long-lost relatives.

Stephen Johnson, a historian-investigator, recalled how a delighted woman, whose father had been found in a German forest, exclaimed: "You gave me back my daddy."

"I think of her when I work on a case," Johnson said.

The woman, now a mother and grandmother, "had come to peace" after finding out the exact fate of her father, who died when she was 18 months old, Johnson said.

Sandi Jones, who lives in Montana, said she felt immense joy when the agency called her in June 2014 to say that her uncle had been found 70 years after his plane went down in the jungles of Papua New Guinea.

"I was flabbergasted," the 60-year-old said.

The uncle, whose photo Jones kept even though her grandparents refused to speak of him, was buried near the family ranch with honors in the presence of US Air Force officials.

The agency also gave the family his Masonic ring, which was discovered among the crew and deduced to be his since he was the only member of a Masonic Lodge.

Johnson said the willingness to return a soldier at any cost dates back to the nation's birth.

President George Washington, the first head of the US military, thought that "the allegiance of the Army to the nation was directly tied to the allegiance of the nation to the Army," he said.

"You don't stop being a member of the US military because you die," he added.

It is this logic that has driven the POW/MIA agency to take on a project to exhume 388 sailors and Marines who were killed aboard the battleship USS Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

At the time, remains of most of the crew could not be identified after spending weeks in the water, and the bodies were interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

Now the agency hopes to identify remains through dental and DNA analysis -- a daunting task considering that the bones are mixed together, Johnson said.

The agency, which uncovers around 70 bodies a year, has fallen short of Congress' goal of 200 bodies annually.

Meanwhile, private associations are aiding in the effort.

History Flight, whose multi-disciplinary team includes historians, archeologists and soil specialists, is searching for the remains of several dozen Marines on the Tarawa Atoll in Kiribati, from the war's Pacific theater.

The quest began in 2007 and has cost nearly $1.5 million, according to History Flight president Mark Noah, who decided to search for the missing planes after becoming interested in lost flights.

"For us, it's a humanitarian issue" said Noah, an airline pilot for 50 years, explaining that many of the children and relatives of the disappeared are still alive.

Just over 73,000 US World War II soldiers are still missing or unidentified according to official figures.

Tuesday 11 August 2015

http://news.yahoo.com/pentagon-still-searching-lost-wwii-veterans-023755027.html

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Survivors tell police in Sicily some 200 migrants were kept inside capsized

It is feared up to 200 migrants may have drowned after an overcrowded boat they were on capsized in the Mediterranean.

Psychologists, cultural mediators, volunteers and members of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) do what they can to comfort the 367 survivors brought to Sicily by the Irish patrol boat which rescued them after Wednesday’s disaster.

If it is determined that hundreds were crammed in the hold of the iron fishing boat that overturned Wednesday, there is a real risk that numerous migrants died trapped inside, said Flavio Di Giacomo of the global Organization for Migration, a human rights group.

“The arrested are suspected of causing the confirmed deaths of 26 migrants and the presumed deaths of about 200 people who, according to witnesses, were locked in the hold of the boat that capsized”, a police statement said.

LE Niamh is heading toward the Sicilian port of Palermo, where it will arrive on Thursday afternoon with most of the survivors.

Military vessels and aircraft from a multi-nation operation are searching waters off Libya for a second day for any more survivors from an overturned boat crowded with migrants. “There have been some our bodies floating, so it was fairly a surprising scene”.

Some migrants who fell into the water had life vests; others, struggling to swim, were tossed life vests by rescuers.

“It was very upsetting to see a mother and father grieving for their young child, and our personnel tried to resuscitate him but unfortunately there was nothing they could do”, he said at the portside.

“And I dived under, ready to die to save my daughter”, he said, describing how he managed to rescue her – “I don’t know how” – and pull his wife to a lifeboat as well. What they found when they got there was unfortunately they had arrived too late, many people were in the water.

All the nationalities of the survivors weren’t instantly out there.

Di Giacomo said the estimate of 600 aboard was credible because the boat was 20-25 meters (70-85 feet) long, and smugglers, who don’t like to leave any space unused, usually fit about 600 aboard a fishing boat of that size.

Efforts to recover bodies from a horrific capsizing on April 18 off Libya, also when rescuers approached, are still being conducted, the Italian navy said. A number of Syrians were among those rescued.

Tuesday 11 August 2015

http://tvnewsroom.org/newslines/world/survivors-tell-police-in-sicily-some-200-migrants-were-kept-inside-capsized-77240/

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Kullu bus accident: Three more bodies recovered

Three bodies, including those of a child and a woman, were today recovered from separate places in Mandi district. One of the bodies has been identified, while the other two are believed to be of Punjab pilgrims who went missing after their Manikaran-bound bus plunged into the Parbati river at Sarsari on the Bhuntar-Manikarn road in Kullu district on July 23.

Eight persons were killed on the spot while bodies of seven others were later recovered from the Beas by search teams pressed into service by the district administration. However, 31 persons who went missing were feared to be washed away. At least 23 persons were injured in the mishap. The ill-fated private bus was reportedly carrying 69 pilgrims from Mansa, Bhatinda and Barnala districts of Punjab.

The search teams today recovered two bodies, including a child, from the Beas near Pandoh dam, about 50 km downstream from the accident site. The body of a female, reportedly of a pilgrim from the bus mishap, was retrieved further downstream from the Beas near Dharampur, 80 km from Mandi district headquarters.

The body of the child has been identified by his relatives at Kullu hospital. The other two bodies have not yet been identified.

Rajinder Singh Gill, a member of the Kullu Kar Seva, said the relatives camping here from Pakhokalan village of Barnala district had identified the body to be of one missing pilgrim Nacchater Singh, son of Dara Singh. However, his son had been called to confirm the same. br>
Gill said photos of another body recovered near Dharampur bore resemblance to a missing pilgrim Amarjeet Kaur, wife of Gurjeet Singh of Jagaramtirth village of Bhatinda district.br>
A police official at the Dharampur police station said the body of a woman of around 30 years of age had been recovered from the Beas and it had been sent to Sarkaghat hospital for the post-mortem examination.br>
Nearly 600 personnel of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Home Guards, police and a 12-member team of the Indian Navy were pressed into search and rescue operation. However, due to persistent rain in the valley, rivers and rivulets remained flooded, hampering the search operations. The floodgates of the Larji and Pandoh dams were also opened after increase in water level due to which the bodies might have washed away further downstream. br>
So far the death toll in the mishap had risen to 16. Meanwhile, the relatives of the missing persons were still camping at Kullu in a hope to trace the mortal remains of their loved ones to perform the last rites. Kullu Deputy Commissioner Rakesh Kanwar said the search for missing persons would continue till September end with nearly 160 personnel of the NDRF, the SSB, the ITBP, Home Guards and state police and re-enforcements could be sighted later on if required.br>
Tuesday 11 August 2015br>
http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/himachal/manikaran-mishap-three-bodies-recovered/118192.html

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Goil filling station explosion: Two bodies found at Circle Disaster zone after two month

More than two months after the deadly Circle disaster which killed an estimated hundred and fifty nine people, residents in the area of the incident have discovered two more dead bodies at the location.

The bodies were found in a storey building which was consumed by the fire that resulted from the explosion at the GOIL filling station.

Part of the bodies has been decomposed.

The bodies of the adult male and female were discovered by scrap dealers who were scavenging scraps in the burnt building.

Personnel from the Ghana Police Service have been to the location to examine the bodies but are yet to convey them to the mortuary.

The Circle flood and fire disaster which occurred on June 3rd is considered one of the worse disasters in the country’s history after the May 9th, 2011 stadium disaster which killed 127 soccer fans.

The security personnel at the location are preventing journalists from taking shots at the location.

Committee established to investigate the disaster has attributed it to a cigarette smoker who is now in BNI custody.

Tuesday 11 August 2015

Mass burial does not include victims of the June 3 disaster

Authorities at the Police Hospital in Accra have clarified that their upcoming mass burial does not include victims of the June 3 disaster.

The hospital has scheduled a mass burial for unclaimed bodies in its morgue at the end of August, 2015.

Speaking to kasapa FMs Maame Broni on the matter Monday, the acting public relations officer of the hospital Corporal Faustina Nunekpenu said the police administration is currently in talks with the Accra Metropolitan Assembly for a lease of land for the exercise.

She explained that the bodies to be buried include those left at the hospital’s morgue for a period of 8 to 12 months.

Corporal Nunekpenu further explained that her outfit collected 70 bodies from the June 3 disaster site with 9 still at the morgue yet to be identified.

She is therefore urging Ghanaians to visit the Police Hospital and identify the bodies of their relatives for burial.

Tuesday 11 August 2015

http://www.starrfmonline.com/1.5885342

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Two-bodies-found-at-Circle-Disaster-zone-374204

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South Korea: Dead homeless foreigner remains unidentified

Late last month, a homeless foreigner who called himself “Thomas” died of biliary tract cancer in a public hospital in northern Seoul. He was brought to the hospital after experiencing severe pain and constantly shaking his hands.

Thomas had claimed that he was an Israeli in his 60s who came to Seoul to run an English education-related business, according to city officials. He had added that he ended up on the streets after the business failed.

Upon his death, the Seoul Metropolitan Government faced difficulties in managing follow-up procedures as they failed to identify his personal information. The case also brought to light a number of other similar cases, where the city has faced issues of unidentifiable foreigners who have gone homeless and died.

So far, the city has found out that he was not an Israeli. The city requested the Embassy of Israel to conduct an identification process of Thomas in order to hand over the body to his home country, but the embassy replied that he was not one of its citizens.

There were no other identification clues as Thomas had adamantly refused to reveal his personal information as well as family information, public shelter officials said. The foreigner identification number that Thomas had provided in the medical document was also found to be wrong.

Although the city found a British passport among Thomas’ belongings, it was confirmed to be counterfeit, they added.

Under the current law, the dead bodies of the Korean homeless are managed by city districts. If a family member does not show up within a month, the bodies are cremated and kept in a charnel house for 10 years in case any acquaintances appear.

Such regulations, however, are not applicable to foreigners.

“There’s nothing that the city can do as there are no particular manuals or rules stated over how to handle the dead bodies of the foreign homeless. Regarding the body handover, some embassies are also reluctant to take them,” a Seoul City official told The Korea Herald.

“For now, the city has requested the police to help identify Thomas. In the meantime, we will give our utmost efforts to find his family or acquaintances,” she added.

As of February, 25 foreigners have been found homeless, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government. Of them, Chinese and Mongolians accounted for the most with 17, followed by Taiwanese and Americans.

Seoul City launched a probe after a Taiwanese person was found frozen to death on a street in January.

“The number does not suggest an accurate count as it only includes those the city has spotted on the street,” the city official added.

As more deaths of foreign homeless are reported, the government needs to prepare for regulations for the after-death management process for them, experts said.

“Regardless of the nationality check, the foreign homeless also have human rights and dignity to pursue. The after-death handling should be ensured the same as the local homeless,” said the Korea Human Rights Policy Institute.

Tuesday 11 August 2015

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20150810000969

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Joumol landslide: No more bodies recovered

Even as the whole Joumol village was swept away by landslide following heavy rainfall for days, only four bodies were recovered. According to Khangbarol TD Block BDO Md Najimuddin who took part in the rescue operations, the reports that 20 villagers were feared buried alive was not totally true.

Quoting reports furnished by Joumol village chief, Md Najimuddin there were only 10 people when the landslide occurred.

Out of the 10 villagers, one survived the tragic landslide. Later in the course of the rescue operation, four were found dead. Post mortem of the four bodies were conducted then and there and they were buried at a nearby place with the customary rites. But the bodies of the five other victims could not be located even after the rescue operation spearheaded by NDRF was over.

Nonetheless, according to a document signed by the Joumol village chief, SDPO Chandel, TSA Chandel education secretary, the doctor who conducted post mortem and NDRF officials who took part in the rescue operation, it was assumed that nine persons were killed by the landslide. It was after signing this document that the rescue operation was called off on August 4. The four deceased victims whose bodies were identified.

Tuesday 11 August 2015

http://www.thesangaiexpress.com/page/items/54993/no-more-bodies-recovered

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Naufragi a Lampedusa, il Viminale rafforza procedure per identificare le vittime (in Italian)

Il Commissario straordinario del Governo per la gestione del fenomeno della scomparsa di persone Vittorio Piscitelli e il rettore dell'Università di Milano Gianluca Vago, hanno sottoscritto un protocollo d'intesa per rafforzare la collaborazione avviata lo scorso anno, volta a favorire la identificazione delle vittime del naufragio di Lampedusa dell'ottobre 2013, nel quale persero la vita circa 400 cittadini eritrei e siriani, e per quello del 18 aprile scorso in cui morirono circa 800 persone. Lo afferma una nota del Viminale nella quale si sottolinea che il «fronte» internazionale vede l'Ufficio del commissario ulteriormente impegnato in questo settore.

Difatti, il procuratore capo di Catania ha ritenuto «indispensabile» il coordinamento commissariale per agevolare la identificazione dei cittadini extracomunitari vittime del naufragio del 18 aprile scorso, i cui corpi (circa 800) sono in corso di recupero da parte della Marina Militare, giusta richiesta del Presidente del Consiglio al Ministro della Difesa.

La complessa attività, che si svolgerà in apposita area protetta individuata nel porto di Augusta (SR), prosegue il Viminale, viene effettuata dagli specialisti del Laboratorio di Medicina Legale dell'università, in sinergia con il Servizio della Polizia Scientifica, con le prefetture di Siracusa e Catania ed in collaborazione con la Croce rossa, con i medici legali delle Università di Palermo, Catania e Messina, nonchè con l'ASP di Siracusa. Visto l'alto numero delle vittime, sarà necessario coinvolgere ulteriori medici legali provenienti da altre Università degli Studi d'Italia.

Tuesday 11 August 2015

http://agrigento.gds.it/2015/08/05/naufragi-a-lampedusa-il-viminale-accelera-le-procedure-per-identificare-le-vittime_391959/

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