Bodies found at Russian jet wreckage in Indonesia

Rescuers discovered bodies Thursday near the shattered wreckage of a new Russian-made passenger plane that smashed into the steep side of an Indonesian volcano during a flight to impress potential buyers. All 45 people on board were feared dead. Due to the remoteness of the crash site, the bodies will need to be placed in nets and lifted by ropes to a hovering chopper, national search and rescue agency spokesman Gagah Prakoso said. The bodies from Wednesday's crash were to be flown to the capital, Jakarta, for identification by family members. "So far we haven't found any survivors, but we are still searching," he said. "I cannot say anything about the condition of the bodies," Prakoso said, but he added that: "A high speed jet plane hit the cliff, exploded and tore apart." Authorities had lost contact with the Sukhoi Superjet-100 shortly after it took off from a Jakarta airfield carrying mostly representatives from Indonesian airlines. Family members, many of whom spent a long, sleepless night at the airport, broke down in tears on hearing news of the wreckage. Others stared blankly ahead in disbelief. The plane, Russia's first new passenger jet since the fall of the Soviet Union two decades ago, hit a jagged ridge on top of Mount Salak, a long-dormant volcano, leaving a giant earthy gash along the steep slope as it stripped trees. The Superjet _ a 75- to 95-seater _ has been touted as a challenger to similar-sized aircrafts from Canada's Bombardier Inc. and Brazil's Embraer SA. Potential buyers will scrutinize the crash investigation for signs of flaws in the aircraft. "If it's a technical fault ... then obviously that will be very serious for them," said Tom Ballantyne, a Sydney-based aviation expert. "But if it's pilot error or the fault of air traffic control, it won't be quite so bad because they'll be able to say, 'Well, it's not the airplane'." The plane took off early Wednesday afternoon for what was supposed to be a quick demonstration flight _ the second of the day. Just 21 minutes later, the Russian pilot and co-pilot sought permission to descend from 10,000 feet to 6,000 feet (3,000 meters to 1,800 meters), said Daryatmo, chief of the national search and rescue agency. The plane then fell off the radar. It was not clear why the crew asked for the shift in course, he said, especially when they were so close to the 7,000-foot (2,200-meter) volcano, or if they got the OK. Communication between pilots and air traffic control are being reviewed, said Tatang Kurniadi, chief of the National Commission on Safety Transportation, but the tapes will not be made public any time soon. More than 1,000 people, including soldiers and police, took part in the search and rescue efforts. Eventually, helicopters carrying out aerial surveys near the crater and northern slope spotted the wreck. The Superjet _ developed by the civil aircraft division of Sukhoi with the co-operation with Western partners _ has been widely considered Russia's chance to regain a foothold in the international passenger plane market. The country's aerospace industry was badly undermined in the economic turmoil following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. It was on a "Welcome Asia!" tour, which included stops in Pakistan, Myanmar and Kazakhstan, and was supposed to head next to Vietnam and Laos. All but 10 of the 45 people on board were potential buyers and journalists, said Sunaryo from PT. Trimarga Rekatama, the company that helped organize Wednesday's event. The others were Russians, all from Sukhoi companies, an American consultant with a local airline and a Frenchman with aircraft engine-maker Snecma. The Superjet made its inaugural commercial flight last year. "It is their big hope that they will somehow get into the jet aircraft passenger market in a bigger way than they have," Ballantyne said. "We all know that the Russians have had a dreadful record in the past with their aircraft, so this was vitally important to their industry." With a relatively low price tag of around $35 million, the plane has garnered around 170 orders. And Indonesia, a sprawling archipelagic nation of 240 million people with a fast-growing middle class, is already one of the biggest customers. Kartika Airlines and Sky Aviation _ among dozens of airlines to have popped up in Indonesia in the last decade to meet the growing demand for cheap air travel _ had ordered at least 42. 10 May 2012 http://qctimes.com/news/world/asia/russian-plane-with-aboard-missing-in-indonesia/article_4b61e769-7585-5b95-83a8-9ef31674a77e.html

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4 killed in Mt Gamalama cold lava flood

Four people died as a result of a flood of volcanic material from Mt Gamalama, North Maluku, leaving at least 10 people missing while 15 others sustaining minor injuries. The four fatalities were identified as Raihan Sangaji, 9, Mildawany Johar, 25, Sarnawia Hamid, 52 and one remaining individual that was unidentified. The North Maluku and Ternate chapters of the Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) said in a statement that the officers continued to locate flood victims and damaged houses. The agencies also reported that a total of 188 houses in 11 villages had been destroyed by the flood, leaving 58 families, or 284 residents, homeless. In addition to the houses, the flood also ripped through two bridges connecting Daulasi and Air Tege-Tege villages and also the districts of Dufa Dufa and Akehuda. “We keep updating our data from the ground. A joint rescue team from the agencies, the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the police continues to evacuate the victims,” the agency said. (dre) Wed, 05/09/2012 http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/05/09/4-killed-mt-gamalama-cold-lava-flood.html

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Philippines clothing store fire kills 17 workers sleeping inside

Predominantly female staff became trapped on top floor of building in Butuan city, authorities say A fire at a three-storey clothing store in the southern Philippines has killed 17 employees, most of them women who had been asleep and found themselves trapped on the top floor, officials said. The fire in the Butuan city store broke out at 3.55am and raged for five hours. Firefighters and police scouring the gutted building found 17 bodies, the city police chief, Pedro Obaldo, said. A store employee, Mylene Tulo, who escaped with two co-workers, said she had awoken as the fire was spreading rapidly in the third-floor office where they slept. Amid the flames and cries for help, she managed to dash out with her colleagues. They sustained minor burns on their arms. "We wanted to rouse others from sleep but the fire was already too strong," Tulo said. At least 20 employees, mostly women, had been sleeping at the store when the fire broke out, Obaldo said. Many stores in the Philippines allow their employees to sleep over, especially workers with homes far away. Relatives and friends, most of them in shock and tears, gathered in search of loved ones in front of the building, where police stood before body bags containing the victims' remains. Obaldo said investigators were trying to determine what sparked the fire, and whether the owners had violated fire regulations. The building, in Agusan del Norte province in the southern Mindanao region, was a theatre before being turned into a commercial centre with several stores, including Novo Jeans and Shirts, where most of the victims died. A lack of firefighting equipment and personnel, coupled with safety violations, has resulted in major fire disasters in the Philippines, especially in shantytowns. A 1995 blaze that gutted the Ozone Disco Pub in Manila, the capital, killed 162 people. Butuan is a city of more than 300,000 about 500 miles south-east of Manila. 9 May 2012 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/09/philippines-clothing-store-fire-sleeping

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Hope fades for Nepal flood victims, toll may hit 60

KATHMANDU (AFP) - Rescuers scouring Nepal's central Annapurna region after severe flash flooding said Sunday that there was almost no hope of finding survivors and that the final death toll could be more than 60. The bodies of 17 people have been recovered but district police superintendent Sailesh Thapa told AFP that 47 missing people, including three Ukrainian tourists, were feared dead. "So far, 12 of the 17 bodies have been identified. An excavator has reached the worst affected areas and is clearing the mud," he said. "We have a list of another 47 people who have gone missing. Their chances of survival are almost zero. The three Ukrainians are still missing." Just eight people have been rescued since the Seti burst its banks near the city of Pokhara, a popular tourist hub, on Saturday, sweeping away an entire village, and swamping families enjoying picnics on the river banks. Most of the missing are thought to be local. One witness, named as Uddha Bahadur Gurung, described how the river had suddenly swollen with water and turned into a lethal surge. "There was nothing unusual. People were enjoying picnics, some were relaxing in the hot spring pools by the river and others working," he told the Kathmandu Post. "Out of nowhere came this swelling dark murky water with debris, sweeping away many people." Sniffer dogs have been sent 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the capital Kathmandu to search for bodies along the banks of the river, which has now subsided, while police and army personnel hunted for survivors. Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai broke off from key political negotiations over forming a new government to visit Kharapani village, which was washed away by the flood, his spokesman told AFP. "He has instructed the authorities to bring 20 excavators so that the dead bodies of those who have been buried by the floods can be recovered," said Bishwadeep Pandey, personal secretary to the premier. "The prime minister has also committed the government to provide expenses for the last rites to family members of those who died." A landslide caused by days of heavy rain had blocked the Seti near its origin in the snow fields and glaciers of the Himalayas, said Nepalese Army spokesman Ramindra Chhetri. "Then there was a powerful outburst, which resulted in a flash flood in the Seti river that entered human settlements and created havoc," he told AFP, adding some houses were covered with mud up to 12 feet (3.5 metres) deep. "We have mobilised a company, an engineer platoon and soldiers from specialised troops for search and rescue operations," he said. The 8,091-metres (26,545-feet) Mount Annapurna attracts thousands of trekkers, both local and foreign, each year as well as day-trippers who enjoy picnics on the banks of the Seti river. The mountain is considered both technically difficult and avalanche-prone and has a much higher death rate among climbers than Everest, the world's highest peak. 07/05/2012 http://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/-/world/13615283/hope-fades-for-nepal-flood-victims-toll-may-hit-60/

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Protecting WWII mass graves is a duty to victims

BUCHAREST (AFP)---Hundreds of Holocaust-era mass graves are scattered around Eastern Europe, scholars said Friday, urging authorities to protect them as they owed it to victims of World War II atrocities. "We cannot build Europe and democracy upon the mass graves of forgotten victims," Patrick Desbois, a French Catholic priest who set up the Yahad-In Unum association, told participants in a seminar on WWII mass graves. The Paris-based association has embarked upon the gruesome task of documenting extermination sites in Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and Poland. "We have received hundreds of letters from people asking: 'in which mass grave is my grand-mother or my uncle buried'," Desbois said. "We have a duty to victims because each and every one of them had a name." A historian with the association, Patrice Bensimon, said that 650 mass-grave sites had been identified on the outskirts of villages, in valleysor forests in the four countries since 2004. After interviewing more than 1,850 eyewitnesses, Desbois said he had come to a shocking conclusion: "I thought they were done secretly, but the shootings were public. People watched, thinking the executions were interesting." In one case, a witness aged seven at the time of the pogrom recounted how he had watched Jewish children aged 0 to 6, some 800 of them according to archives, being massacred in the Transdniestrian village of Bogdanivka (now part of Ukraine). "How can you be a seven-year-old and watch all day the assassinations? This is a big human question," Desbois wondered. "Most Holocaust victims lying in mass graves and still waiting to be remembered are in this part of Europe," Paul Shapiro, director of the centre for advanced studies at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, said. He stressed that more than one million people, and maybe up to one third of the six million Jews murdered during WWII, were slaughtered in Eastern Europe, in their own villages, in front of neighbours and family members. Roma, Soviet POWs, higher echelons of Polish society and homosexuals also lie in unmarked mass graves, he said. "The multitude of mass graves and the implication of forces acting under different authorities make the situation in Eastern Europe more complicated," Radu Ioanid, director of the Holocaust Museum, told AFP. After having for years denied any role in the Holocaust, Bucharest accepted the conclusions of an international commission of historians saying that up to 380,000 Romanian and Ukrainian Jews were murdered or died in Romania and the territory under its control between 1940 and 1944, during the regime of pro-Nazi marshal Ion Antonescu. In one of the worst single WWII massacres, the June 1941 pogrom in the northern Romanian city of Iasi, nearly 15,000 Jews were shot dead in the street or asphyxiated in "death trains". "The killings elicited no negative reaction from the population," Shapiro said. A mass grave containing the bodies of at least 35 Jewish men, women and children killed by the Romanian army in 1941 was discovered in a forest at Popricani, near Iasi, last November. The remains were exhumed before being properly reburied five months later. But Popricani was an exception. "We do not open mass graves, because Jewish law does not allow it," Desbois said. What his team does is transmit the GPS data to the American Jewish Committee so that the exact location may be entered into archives that will eventually be posted on the internet. The Committee is expected to launch soon, jointly with Germany, a project to protect some of the mass graves. Apart from the local authorities' indifference, scholars like Desbois must also fight the threat of construction or industrial projects destroying the graves. "But the biggest problem is that time is running out, as witnesses are dying," Bensimon said. 4 May 2012 http://ejpress.org/article/51814

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Remains of 23 people found in Turkey mass grave

(AFP) DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — Turkish authorities found the remains of 23 people in a mass grave in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey on the former site of military police headquarters, Anatolia news agency reported Wednesday. The first remains were discovered earlier this month, during an archeological dig in Ickale, in central Diyarbakir, where ruins of an ancient palace dating back to the 13th century were being excavated. The area had been the site of a military police headquarters until the early 2000s. The eventual aim of the excavation is to carry out restoration work and turn the place into a museum and culture spot. Human rights activists claim the remains belong to civilian Kurds killed by security forces during 1990s. “Skulls and other bones belonging to humans were found here… According to what we saw they were piled up in a narrow place… They were apparently thrown there casually, without any religious ceremony,” Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker told reporters earlier this week, after visiting the site. The Diyarbakir branch of the Human Rights Association (IHD) and 36 families whose relatives went missing during 1990s filed a criminal complaint on Wednesday against state officials of the time and asked for DNA tests for identification. Around 45,000 people have died since the mid-1980s when the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) took up arms for a self-ruled homeland in southeast Turkey. Remains of 190 bodies have been found in 29 different mass graves in more than 10 provinces in southeast Turkey, according to IHD’s Diyarbakir branch. The association estimates that more than 3,000 people are buried in 224 different mass graves in the region. 4 May 2012 http://ikjnews.com/?p=3219

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Short circuit likely behind deadly bus fire in West Sumatra

Police say that a short circuit likely triggered the fire that killed 13 people on board a bus in Hulu Air in Harau district, Limapuluh Kota regency, West Sumatra, on Tuesday. “Witnesses said that the bus suddenly caught fire while passing along Jl. Negara West Sumatra-Riau at Kilometer 30 before entering Payakumbuh. Many of the passengers were trapped inside the bus,” West Sumatra Police spokesman, Adj. Sr. Comr. Mainar Sugiarto, said on Tuesday. Five of the victims, all residents of Agam regency, have been identified as Dariman, 75; Nurhayati, 45; Riski, 7; Rosida, 60; and Yasnimas, 41. Identification of the victims, comprising five women, three men, four children and a toddler, has been hindered due to the conditions of the bodies. Twelve passengers who suffered burns and bone fractures are currently being treated at Adnan Hospital in Payakumbuh, while a further 10 passengers were treated and then released. About 48 people were on the bus when it departed from Dumai, Riau, on Sunday night bound for Solok in West Sumatra. Most of the passengers were asleep when the bus caught fire after the driver stopped the vehicle to pour water on its smoking engine. Police officers and emergency workers evacuated injured passengers from the bus and rushed them to the Payakumbuh hospital, an official from the Limapuluh Kota regency Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), Edi, said as reported by Antara news agency. Authorities deployed personnel from the Payakumbuh fire department and the BPBD to recover the remains of those who perished in the fire. The driver, YND, 31, and his co-driver, HSD, 26, reportedly managed to flee the bus. They were arrested and are currently being questioned by police, Limapuluh Kota Police chief, Adj. Sr. Comr. Partomo Irianto, said. Meanwhile, a representative of state-owned insurance company PT Jasa Raharja confirmed that his company would pay compensation to all the victims on the ill-fated bus. “All of the bus’ passengers will receive compensation from Jasa Raharja, in line with a 1964 law,” spokesman of the company’s West Sumatra branch office, Kamil, said in Padang as quoted by kompas.com. Kamil explained that the families of each of the dead would be given Rp 25 million in compensation and those of the injured victims, a maximum of Rp 10 million each. If a person’s medical costs exceed Rp 10 million, the surplus will have to be borne by their family. “Victims who don’t have any relatives will be entitled to funeral costs of up to Rp 2 million,” Kamil said. He added that Jasa Raharja did not yet have detailed information about the number of dead and injured victims. Officials from the insurance company were currently compiling data about the wounded passengers and the families of the dead, all of whom would receive the compensation, he said. Kamil also said that Jasa Rahar-ja expressed its condolences over the incident. “Jasa Raharja will do its utmost to serve its clients,” he said, adding that in such a situation, Jasa Raharja would directly support the medical treatment at the hospital and the transfer of the bodies of those killed to their relatives for funeral. Wed, 05/02/2012 http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/05/02/short-circuit-likely-behind-deadly-bus-fire-west-sumatra.html

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Ferry disaster: 13 bodies recovered, toll mounts to 122

Rescuers found bodies of 13 victims of Monday’s deadly ferry disaster here pushing the toll to 122 on Thursday while Bangladesh assured Indian authorities of assistance in recovery and repatriation of bodies that may have been washed downstream. Of the bodies, 12 were found during the day and one last night, Additional Superintendent of Police Prashanta Dutta said. The bodies were found at Mundiya and Jogomaya downstream in the Brahmaputra river from Medartary ghat where the double-decker ferry capsized. The ferry was carrying around 380 passengers, according to tickets sold. On the other hand, a flag meeting was held at Sonarhat on the Indo-Bangla border between the BSF and the Border Guards Bangladesh in which senior district and police officers from Dhubri and Kurigram district of Bangladesh participated. “We have asked for help and cooperation from Bangladesh in retrieving bodies that may have been washed downstream. They have assured us of all help,” Dhubri District Commissioner Kumud Chandra Kalita told PTI. Both sides jointly identified two villages in Kurigram, Dahikhawa and Yatrapur, where bodies could be washed ashore in view of the strong current of the Brahmaputra, Mr. Kalita said. “BGB and Kurigram district officials said that so far not a single body has been recovered from their side. People in Kurigram district have been told by the Bangladeshi authorities to contact them in case of any sighting,” he said. President of the state’s principal Opposition party AIUDF and Lok Sabha MP from Dhubri Badruddin Ajmal visited the spot. “I have contacted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and he has assured of all help. Around 5 to 6 of our party MLAs will camp in the area to ensure that search operations are carried out properly,” Mr. Ajmal said. 3 May 2012 http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/other-states/article3379766.ece

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Visegrad Genocide Memories

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Visegrad genocide. For a more easier and quick way of understanding what occurred in 1992, we decided to publish a booklet about the Visegrad genocide. This booklet is entitled: “The memory remains: 20 years since the Visegrad genocide”. The booklet (pdf) can be downloaded here

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81 men and 3 women were shot in one night in February 1937 What is believed to be the second largest mass grave of people shot by the Franco troops in the Civil War has been revealed in the Málaga village of Teba. The largest such grave is in the San Rafael Cemetery in Málaga. It’s estimated that the grave contains at least 125 bodies, and so far the remains of 35 people have been recovered. The 35 were shot between 1936 and 1949 in Teba. Identification of the bodies is complicated given that the remains have just been dumped on top of each other. It has been decided to construct a pantheon to lay the bodies finally at rest at a site where those who want to pay their respects can do so. This will only happen when the bodies are indentified with DNA, to give the families the chance to bury their loved ones where they wish. Between September 12 and 14 1936, the Franco troops took Teba. Many locals fled looking for the republican front which was then between Peñarrubia and Ardales in a night known as ‘the escape night’. Some preferred to stay in the village, and soon started to face the repression, but those who ran were intercepted on February 6 1937 at Campanillas. They told Franco’s troops that they had not carried out any blood crimes and they were allowed to return to the village. But on the return between Feb 7 and 10 nearly all the men were arrested at put into improvised jail made from two houses. On February 23, 81 men and 3 women were taken to the cemetery in groups of ten and shot. The archaeologist, Andrés Fernández, who is directing the excavation says that there was a night, on 23 February 1937, referred to locally as ‘the night of the 80’. On that night 81 men and 3 women were shot. The investigation is being coordinated by Juan Fuentes, who is a member of the Historical Memory Association in Antequera. He asked for the funds to start the job, and said that parallel research is being carried out in both local and provincial history archives. Ramón Espinosa, a Teba resident, told EFE news agency that the exhumation is being carried out as ‘an absolutely normal question, as something you have to do’. May 2, 2012 http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_34545.shtml

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CIUDAD JUAREZ - The identities of nearly 800 skeletal remains found between 2007 and December last year in the state of Chihuahua - 135 in this city - continue to be an unsolved mystery, state authorities said on Tuesday. During a tour of the state's forensic services department in Juárez, technicians said they have obtained genetic profiles of each one of the remains, but they still haven't been able to determine their identities because none of the 791 victims has matched the genetic material samples provided by relatives searching for missing people in the state. The lack of positive matches in these cases means the victims came from other states or countries, or that their relatives never provided a sample of genetic material. Daniel Ricardo Jaramillo, general director of the state's forensic services department, said he has shared the genetic database of the unidentified victims with Mexico's National Human Rights Commission, or CNDH, which is putting together a national database to identify individuals who disappeared outside of their home state. Under the CNDH's system, the states would deliver database updates every three months. Chihuahua became the first state to contribute to the project when Governor César Duarte Advertisement submitted the state's database to the president of the CNDH in February, Jaramillo said. The information in Chihuahua's database could put an end to years of uncertainty for many relatives of missing people in other Mexican states, Jaramillo said. "We know we're at a crossing point," he said. "Imagine the people who saw their relatives leave and their only reference was that they were heading north, toward the United States, and that's the last thing they ever knew from them." The problem of missing people and skeletal remains found in the open, particularly of young women, has haunted Juárez for more than two decades. The anthropology area of the forensic services department currently has in its custody the unidentified skeletal remains of 51 women - 41 that remained from a previous study conducted by a team of Argentine forensics experts, four found in 2010, two found in 2011 and four found this year. Forensics experts have obtained genetic profiles for all of the remains - except for two of the most recent ones - but they haven't matched any of the DNA samples provided by relatives of missing young women. On Tuesday, officials with the forensic services department gave a tour to members of the press of the state's laboratories on genetic forensics, criminal forensics, anthropology and ballistics to explain their operations and boast their state-of-the-art facilities. During the tour, Jaramillo highlighted recent efforts to identify skeletal remains buried by state authorities in common graves before 2004. Last year authorities exhumed 128 individuals - 123 men and 5 women - buried between 1996 and 1997 with the purpose of trying to determine their identities using methods that didn't exist more than a decade ago. So far forensic experts have been able to identify a 19-year-old woman, Myriam Glizeth Bernal Hernández, who went missing in July 1996. In response to the many complaints that state authorities have received regarding the long periods of time it has taken them to determine whether a skeletal remains belongs to a missing person, forensic experts explained the processes they must employ to identify a victim. Eberth Castañón Torres, coordinator of the genetic forensics laboratory, said they can obtain a genetic profile from an ideal sample - like blood taken from a living person or who had just recently died - within three or four days. But even though the state's laboratories are among the most modern in Mexico, the forensics team said that the wait can drag for three or four months if authorities are only able to retrieve incomplete skeletal remains or if they have been out in the open for too long. Exposure to heat, the concentration of salts in the region and scavenger animals can damage skeletal remains even more. "No matter how good our equipment is, if the sample is too eroded, it will prolong the process," Jaramillo said. Time can extend even longer like in the case of Hilda Gabriela Rivera Campos, a 16-year-old woman whose remains were found in 2009, but were not given to her family until last year. Forensic experts said other causes for delays were the workload of the eight persons working at the genetic laboratory and the current limitations of science and technology. Castañón said they currently have around 2,000 samples of all types - hair, blood, semen, urine, among others - collected so far this year that are still waiting to be analyzed. That was the approximate amount of samples they would collect and analyze in an entire year before the current period of violence began in 2008, he said. Another factor is that current processing methods may be insufficient to obtain DNA samples from excessively eroded remains - such is the case with 17 male skeletal remains under the forensic services department's custody since 2005. However, as technology improves and new methods become available, new tests are implemented, which occasionally yield better results. "We have samples that have been in the labs for years and we haven't been able to obtain results," said Oscar Villanueva, coordinator for the state's forensic services department in Juárez. Castañón said they conduct new tests on remains from which they were unable to obtain DNA samples one or two times each year. Another impediment, perhaps more serious, is the current language of the state's law on genetic database regulation, which prohibits forensic experts from producing and presenting a genetic study without an official request from a state investigator. "We can't do anything without a specific petition from the investigative authorities," Villanueva said. Jaramillo said the state's general legal department is currently going over changes to the law to allow forensic experts to have a more active role in producing evidence. Tuesday's tour also included a visit to the laboratory where forensic experts clean and measure skeletal remains and the room where they keep unidentified remains. Currently, authorities have in their custody 32 boxes with evidence and 69 with skeletal remains found between 1996 and 2012. Other facilities included the ballistics laboratory, where they try to match bullets with the weapons they were fired from. Since 2010, the forensic services department has processed 1,104 weapons and more than 37,000 bullet casings and projectiles. 2 May 2012 http://www.lcsun-news.com/new_mexico-news/ci_20530633/800-skeletal-remains-chihuahua-still-not-identified

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Search for IRA murder victim Columba McVeigh begins

THE FORENSIC scientist leading the search in Co Monaghan for the remains of one of the Disappeared, Columba McVeigh, has appealed for anyone with even the most “trivial” information to come forward. Geoff Knupfer, who in the 1980s was involved in the search for two of the victims of Moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, yesterday began overseeing “painstaking work” to find the remains of Mr McVeigh, who was abducted, murdered and secretly buried by the IRA in 1975. Forestry workers last week cut down and cleared away trees at Bragan, Co Monaghan, where Mr McVeigh, who was 17 when he disappeared, may have been buried. Yesterday Mr Knupfer, chief investigator of the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains, led specialist workers as they began clearing away the tree roots in their efforts to find the remains of Mr McVeigh. He said up to a dozen members of the IRA may have been involved in the abduction, interrogation, murder and burial of Mr McVeigh, who was from Donaghmore in Co Tyrone. He urged anyone with information to bring it to the commission. “I would appeal to anyone with information, however trivial they may think it is, to bring it forward. That information may mean nothing to them but it might be the piece of information we are looking for,” he said. The commission has searched the general Bragan bog site three times already, but now the trees have been cut down in a 100m by 100m area, this is the first time it has been able to search this specific location. When Mr McVeigh was murdered the area would have been covered in saplings. Mr Knupfer said the work would take a number of weeks. “This is a complex process. We have to be very careful in digging the ground and clearing away all the tree roots. It’s a case of fingers crossed that we will be successful this time,” he said. In the mid-1980s, Mr Knupfer carried out searches for two of the victims of Brady and Hindley, who in the early 1960s killed five children aged between 10 and 17 in the so-called Moors murders. He was successful in recovering the remains of victim Pauline Reade. The remains of Keith Bennett were not found. So far the remains of 10 of the 17 Disappeared victims of the Troubles, most of whom were murdered by the IRA, have been recovered. The Irish Times - Tuesday, April 24, 2012 http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0424/1224315104139.html

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Philadelphia Soldier Missing from Vietnam War Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced today that the remains of a serviceman, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors. Army Capt. Charles R. Barnes of Philadelphia, Pa., will be buried May 2, in Arlington National Cemetery. On March 16, 1969, Barnes and four other service members departed Qui Nhon Airfields bound for Da Nang and Phu Bai, in a U-21A Ute aircraft. As they approached Da Nang, they encountered low clouds and poor visibility. Communications with the aircraft were lost, and they did not land as scheduled. Immediate search efforts were limited due to hazardous weather conditions, and all five men were list as missing in action. From 1986-1989, unidentified human remains were turned over to the United States from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) in several different instances. None of the remains were identified given the limits of the technology of the time. In 1993, a joint U.S.-S.R.V. team, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), conducted investigations in Quang Nam-Da Nang, and Thua Thien-Hue Provinces. They interviewed a local Vietnamese citizen who supplied remains and an identification tag bearing Barnes' name, which he claimed to have recovered from an aircraft crash site. In 1999, another joint U.S.-S.R.V. team interviewed additional Vietnamese citizens about the crash and they were led to the crash site. In 2000, a joint U.S.-S.R.V. team excavated the site and recovered human remains and material evidence. Scientists from the JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used circumstantial evidence, and forensic identification tools such as mitochondrial DNA -- which matched that of Barnes' sister -- in the identification of the remains. For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to account for missing Americans, call 703-699-1420 or visit the DPMO website at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo 1 May 2012 Read more: http://www.gloucestercitynews.net/clearysnotebook/2012/05/soldier-missing-from-vietnam-war-identified.html#ixzz1tj0ckliD

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Mangalore: Mass burial site of crash victims not indicated

TOI-pk The mass burial site of 12 victims of the IX-812 crash at Tannir Bhavi near here is now an obscure spot. Barring a few undulations where the bodies were buried and a red and white tape bordering the site, there is hardly any indication to show that the bodies of the air crash victims lie interned there. This has angered many, including Robert Pinto, who had airline crew - Yuganthar Rana and Mohammed Ali and who perished in the air crash - as his tenants. Pinto said the district administration should at least erect a fence so that the site is not disturbed and a board to indicate that unidentified bodies were buried there. One of the cabin crew, Sujatha Survase, from Maharashtra was also buried there. Not all of her family members could come for the mass burial as it was decided by the administration at the last minute. If her relatives want to see the site where she was buried, they will be shocked. Can I show that place and say your kin was buried there? asks Pinto. To give credit to the district administration, it tried hard to get a land for mass burial, but due to religious sentiments involved they could not get any land. New Mangalore Port Trust had stepped in to provide the land. Sources in NMP say that nothing can be done at that site as it is abutting the river and high tension power lines run above the site. Earlier, the authorities here had sent samples of 22 victims and their relatives for DNA sampling to Hyderabad-based Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) after they were faced with multiple claims for some of the bodies. The CDFD, on May 26, presented a report identifying 10 of the bodies. Of this, a Udupi-based family refused to collect the body stating that it did not match physical profile. Based on a subsequent report presented by CDFD authorities on May 28, the authorities handed over one more body to next of their kin. This left them dealing with families of remaining victims. The 12 bodies were laid to rest after the religious leaders from Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Sikh communities performed the last rites. 6/25/2010 http://www.sfxkutam.com/news_index_arch1.asp?offset=1210

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Assam asks Dhaka to help locate ferry victims

Guwahati, May 2 (IANS) Assam has sought help from Bangladesh to trace bodies of a ferry disaster which might have been washed away downstream, an official said Wednesday. As authorities resumed search operations for the Monday victims, an Assam government spokesman admitted that Bangladesh had been asked to help. The incident took place in lower Assam’s Dhubri district. Border Security Force (BSF) and National Disaster Rescue Force (NDRF) personnel are engaged in the search for the missing following the tragedy that is feared to have killed 270 people. The spokesman said strong river currents may have washed away the bodies downstream to Bangladesh. Although it is estimated that about 270 died in the worst ever ferry tragedy in Assam, the administration is yet to confirm the exact number of the dead. “We have reports that there were about 350 people on board and only 80 were rescued. However, our investigation is still on and we cannot confirm the exact number of deceased as we we do not have the bodies,” Dhubri district Deputy Commissioner Kumud Kalita told IANS. He said only 42 complaints of missing people had been received. He hinted the government might have to presume the missing were dead. “But it’s too early,” Kalita said. The government said the state machinery had been told to take measures to stop the recurrence of such incidents. Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is likely to visit the area Thursday. http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/assam-asks-dhaka-to-help-locate-ferry-victims-lead_100615291.html

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Australian, South African Killed in Indonesia Plane Crash

A South African pilot and his Australian passenger were killed when their Susi Air plane crashed in eastern Indonesia, officials said Thursday, in the airline’s third fatal accident in a year. They were the only people on board the Pilatus PC-6 aircraft, which was carrying the Australian photographer on a chartered flight, the airline’s operations director Christian Strombeck said. “The pilot was South African and the photographer was Australian. Both were killed,” he said. “The plane crashed Wednesday at around 5:30 p.m. local time (0930 GMT), and the bodies were found at around 1:30 a.m. Thursday,” he said. “The Pilatus PC-6 aircraft was flying in East Kalimantan to do some aerial photography when it crashed,” Strombeck added. The plane went down near a village in the Kutai Kartanegara district, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency. “The aircraft crashed at the edge of a ravine,” he said. Susi Air is a small domestic airline that operates mostly Cessna Grand Caravan planes usually configured to carry 12 passengers and two pilots. It also operates a few smaller Pilatus aircraft. In November, one of the company’s Cessna aircraft crashed while trying to land in Indonesia’s remote Papua region, killing a Spanish pilot. Another of its aircraft crashed in September in Papua province, killing an Australian and Slovakian pilot. The Indonesian archipelago of more than 17,000 island relies on air transport to reach remote areas and has a poor aviation safety record. Fri 27 April 2012 http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/update-indonesia-plane-crash-victims-identified/514196

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Nadra offers AFIS help to identify disaster victims

The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) has volunteered its services to Pakistan Army for identification of soldiers trapped in Gayari snow-slide once they are found as it is in close contact with the relevant authorities for the purpose. This has been revealed in a report submitted by the Nadra here Tuesday. According to the report it deployed its Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) Unit in the rescue and recovery operation after the Bhoja Air crash on the orders of Chairman Nadra Friday last. The DVI Unit, headed by Director General, National Data Warehouse, Syed Muzaffar Ali, provided critical assistance and technical support in the identification of the bodies of the deceased. The report claimed that in many instances, bodies are charred or decomposed beyond recognition rendering them unidentifiable through conventional means. The DVI uses its Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) for establishing identification of the victims. The fingerprint samples taken by Nadra teams are compared with the existing records in the database and then identity is verified before handing over the remains to the respective families. The Nadra identified 7 bodies of the Bhoja air crash without delay through AFIS. It has the capacity to use facial imaging and recognition tools for identification and can help local law enforcement authorities with DNA identification as well. The first body was identified within a few hours of recovery; the speedy identification was greatly appreciated by the media and the relatives of deceased. The Nadra has previously helped in rescue and relief operations in many parts of Pakistan, including the floods of 2010, 2011 and Air Blue crash and other disasters. The report suggested that one can easily determine that if this would had not been there, many days must be needed in identification of dead bodies. In that case their relatives will have to undergo the stress and agony for fairly long time. The report noted that the federal Minister for Interior Rehman Malik and the relevant authorities appreciated the Nadra staff efforts, dedication and devotion during the rescue operation. Thursday, April 26, 2012 http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-6-105035-Nadra-offers-AFIS-help-to-identify-disaster-victims

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Widow sues funeral home, crematorium after receiving stranger's ashes

SALT LAKE CITY — Marilynn Flynn opened the urn containing her husband's ashes for the first time while preparing for a memorial service marking one year since his death. Flynn intended to spread some of his remains in the Sacramento Mountains near her home in Alamogordo, N.M. But what she says she saw inside the urn stunned her: a dental bridge fragment, a dental crown and three porcelain fragments — none of which belonged to her husband. "She feels devastated. She feels she let her husband down because she didn't secure his remains," said John Wheeler, an Alamogordo attorney representing Flynn in a federal lawsuit. The suit filed in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City alleges McDougal Funeral Homes and Independent Professional Services were negligent in handling the remains of Michael Wayne Flynn. It contends the ashes given to Marilynn Flynn could not have been those of her husband. Mike Flynn, 59, and two other men died April 25, 2009, when the airplane he was co-piloting crashed in the Oquirrh Mountains in Tooele County. The men were traveling from Missoula, Mont., to southern New Mexico to fight a wildfire. Marilynn Flynn positively identified her husband's remains shortly before they were cremated, Wheeler said. After discovering the dental fragments, she questioned whether the remains were her husband's. "Mr. Flynn never had that type of dental work done," Wheeler said. Marilynn Flynn took the fragments to a forensic dentist who determined they did not come from her husband. She also consulted with the widow of the pilot and found he had not had that kind of dental work done either, he said. Flynn intended to combine and inter her husband's ashes with her own after she dies. The purpose of the lawsuit is to locate Mike Flynn's remains and to find out "where the system broke down" so it doesn't happen again, Wheeler said. The crematory at Independent Professional Services is cleaned with a fine-bristle brush before each body goes in, and workers go over the remains with magnets to remove any metals before placing them into a heavy plastic bag, says owner Gerald Newlon. McDougal Funeral Homes, 4330 S. Redwood Road, took custody of the body from the state medical examiner's office and arranged with nearby Independent Professional Services for the cremation. Gerald Newlon, owner of Independent Professional Services, said Mike Flynn's body arrived in a "disaster pouch," which he said is typical of crash victims. An identification tag is attached, he said. Bodies are cremated one at a time. "We don't really know what we get in the disaster pouches," Newlon said. "In a case like this, everything we get goes into the crematory." The crematory is cleaned with a fine-bristle brush before each body goes in, he said. Workers go over the remains with magnets to remove any metals before placing them into a heavy plastic bag. Newlon said his company's patron contract advises them of the possibility of foreign objects. A woman who answered the phone at McDougal on Tuesday declined to comment. 25 April 2012 http://www.ksl.com/?nid=960&sid=20135237

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Identifying bodies a dilemma again

ISLAMABAD: Local administration is once again facing the dilemma of identifying air crash victims as it had faced after the Airblue crash in the Margallas in July 2010. Relatives have collected the bodies of 118 of the 127 persons who perished in Friday’s Bhoja Air crash but nine remain unclaimed. What makes the identification task difficult is that the remains of the victims fill 45 boxes. Frankly, most of the bodies were badly mutilated in the unfortunate crash. It were mostly body parts that we collected from the crash site. Only a few were intact,” a senior health officer told Dawn. Asked how they handed over the bodies to the heirs, he said: “Nadra helped us a lot and it was through finger marking and visual recognition.” When a similar question was raised by this reporter with the deputy commissioner of Islamabad, Amir Ali Ahmed, he said visual recognition by heirs was the key method also mentioned in the law and followed globally.” The second is DNA testing which takes a week or so. “We can’t say no to the heirs if they claim that a body belongs to them because visual recognition is the key to any claim,” he added. When told that some 45 coffins still remained with the local administration, Ahmed said: “Those 45 boxes are a symbol of respect given by my administration to the body parts of the victims. As Muslims, we respect every part of the body and keep them in separate coffin boxes.” He said the body parts would remain at the cold storage till the final DNA test reports were available after which it would be handed over to the heirs. “Once we receive a scientific report, we will hand over the bodies to the heirs.” Asked what he would do if several boxes still remained in their custody, he said: “We will bury them as per the defined Islamic rules and principles separately.” The DC said after the Airblue crash, they had faced a similar situation when they were left with some 20 coffins. But they followed the standard procedures. Meanwhile, Ahmed said the PC-I for establishment of a new mortuary was being prepared by the ICT administration and in this regard the help of Pims management had also been sought. It may be noted that the outpatient department (OPD) of Pims remained closed after the bodies of the air crash victims were kept in the hall. The executive director of the hospital, Prof Mahmood Jamal, said the OPD had now been opened. However, the DC said nowhere in the country a mortuary was managed by the district management; instead it was under the administrative control of hospitals. “However, to ease the load of Pims we have decided to go for an independent mortuary since we have to take a cold storage on rent during disasters.” 24 April 2012 http://dawn.com/2012/04/24/identifying-bodies-a-dilemma-again-2-fm/

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ISLAMABAD - The victims of an airline crash near Islamabad that killed all 127 people on board were laid to rest on Sunday, as investigators probed the causes of the fatal incident. The Bhoja Air flight from Karachi came down in fields near a village on the outskirts of Islamabad on Friday evening, second major fatal air crash in less than two years. Thirteen of those killed were buried late Saturday in Islamabad and funerals for 36 other victims were held in Karachi and other cities early Sunday, with more ceremonies expected in different cities throughout the day. Television broadcasts showed footage of distraught relatives, weeping and hugging each other, as the dozens of coffins left Islamabad’s Institute of Medical Sciences Hospital where the remains had been taken. Some nine dead bodies have not yet been identified and will undergo DNA tests, a hospital official said. Doctor Waseem Khawaja, in charge of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) told AFP that most of the bodies were beyond recognition and mutilated. An AFP reporter who visited the hospital late Saturday said some of the remains still at the hospital were no more than body parts, stored on stretchers and covered by white sheets. Most of the bodies, handed over to the relatives were identified by their identity cards, jewellery, shoes, passports, watches, clothes and body parts, witnesses said. An AFP photographer at the crash site on Sunday witnessed policemen cordoning off the whole area and not allowing local residents near.Investigation teams were busy collecting evidence from the site where the wreckage of the plane, along with victims’ clothes and shoes, were visible.The disaster is the city’s second major plane crash in less than two years - an Airblue plane came down in bad weather in July 2010, killing 152 - and victims’ families have voiced fury at the authorities. Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Director General Nadeem Khan Yusufzai said the plane suddenly dropped from 2,900 feet to 2,000 feet as it made its final approach to land, and vanished from the airport radar. He said another plane from the private Airblue airline landed safely from the same approach about 10 minutes afterwards and there was no indication from the Bhoja pilot that he was in distress. The flight data recorder has been recovered and will be sent abroad for analysis, and the overall investigation could take up to a year to complete its work, he told reporters Saturday,Interior Minister Rehman Malik said a committee had been set up to investigate the crash and the head of the airline Farooq Bhoja had been put on an ‘exit control list’, banning him from leaving Pakistan. All 127 people on board - 121 passengers and six crew - were killed when the plane crashed and burst into flames at around 6:40 pm on Friday. There were 11 children among the dead.In July 2010 an Airbus A321 operated by Airblue crashed into the hills overlooking Islamabad while coming in to land in heavy rain and poor visibility, killing all 152 people on board. Friday’s flight was Bhoja’s first evening trip from Karachi to Islamabad since resuming operations last month after a 12-year suspension for not paying Civil Aviation Authority dues. Mon 24 April 2012 http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/islamabad/23-Apr-2012/victims-of-plane-crash-laid-to-rest

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Identities of 60 victims of dictatorship will be known in a year

Within about a year, a team of forensic anthropologists from Argentina could lead the identification of the bones of 60 victims of the military dictatorship in Panama.

The news comes from officials of the Panamanian Foreign Ministry says La Prensa.

Since March 7 a group of anthropologists, Mercedes Salado, Carlos Vullo and Ute Hofmainer, the Panamanian government have worked ona report explaining the procedures they will follow to begin studies of human remains in custody of Panama’s Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences.

No starting date has been set because the Institute, has not received the comments of the Argentine forensic report submitted to the board members.

After the fulfillment of this phase, anthropologists will coordinate with the Institute of Legal Medicine to begin their work.

The investigations will be carried out in several stages, including the study of the bones and DNA testing ofrelatives of the victims.

The documentation available for each case will be collated and, the evidence divided into groups to create a genetic database of human remains with DNA samples from relatives. Some of the analyzes will be made in Argentina. .

The Argentine forensic experts were hired by the Panamanian government after the forming on January 5 of the committee to identify victims of the dictatorship. This committee is made up of by the Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared, the Attorney General, Office of the President, the Red Cross and the Foreign Ministry.

The bones were exhumed by the Truth Commission (2001-2002).

MONDAY, 02 APRIL 2012

http://www.newsroompanama.com/panama/4118-identities-of-60-victims-of-dictatorship-will-be-known-in-a-year.html

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Mexico bus-truck crash leaves 43 dead

XALAPA, Mexico — A truck crashed into a passenger bus Friday in Mexico's eastern Veracruz state, killing 43 and injuring around 20 others, officials said. "In total, 43 people died in this accident" near the town of Alamo, Veracruz government spokeswoman Gina Dominguez told Milenio television late morning. The bus was traveling from the port of Coatzacoalcos to the northern border state of Coahuila when the crash occurred at around 4:30 am (0930 GMT) in the north of Veracruz state on the Gulf of Mexico. As rescue workers recovered bodies from the wreckage, officials organized the transfer of the injured to hospitals in the nearby port city of Tuxpan. "The first report we have, which we need to confirm with investigators, is that the truck's trailer came loose and hit the bus," Dominguez said. The bus passengers were agricultural workers traveling to work, according to local newspaper El Diario del Golfo, citing witnesses, on its website. Another collision between a passenger bus and a truck on a road in Jalisco state, western Mexico, left 36 hurt and one dead Friday, a state civil protection official told AFP, without giving further details. On April 5, 14 sugar cane workers died and nine were hurt when the bus they were traveling in crashed into a tree and overturned, also in Jalisco. Around 24,000 people die from road accidents in Mexico each year, according to insurance companies -- a figure almost double the annual drug violence death toll. Fri 20 April 2012 http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iRAW2whNRnb_nH6H3QCAvvK4bi5w?docId=CNG.f07951d248e08c101c9eefe7c8769715.81

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Charred wreckage litters Pakistan plane crash site

HUSSAIN ABAD, Pakistan — The smell of burning filled the air at the scene of Friday's deadly plane crash on the outskirts of Islamabad, where chunks of charred wreckage lay scattered across farmland. The Bhoja Air Boeing 737 from Karachi came down at dusk as it tried to land at the city's airport in a thunderstorm and officials say there is no hope of any of those on board, believed to number up to 130, surviving. Rescue workers in orange jumpsuits and local residents used torches to search through the wreckage after nightfall, assisted by soldiers carrying assault rifles. Part of the airline's name could be read on a large section of ripped white fuselage from the passenger cabin. Witnesses described seeing human limbs strewn over a wide area spattered with blood and an AFP reporter saw plane oxygen masks and luggage littering the wheat fields around the village of Hussain Abad. A long row of coloured sheets at the edge of the fields covered the remains of victims recovered from the crash site so far. Part of the plane's wing fell on a house in the village. The owner Intezar Hussain said it damaged a balcony but caused no casualties. "The plane came down with huge noise," his son Jaffer Hussain said. "Its pilot perhaps tried to land into the farmland. It hit trees and exploded," he said. "It all happened in front of my eyes. I rushed away to save my life. When I looked back I saw flames were coming out of the plane. "It crashed in heavy rains. There was thunder also." A large section of wing with the airline logo and an engine could be seen among the debris. There were emotional scenes at Islamabad airport as distraught relatives wept bitterly for the victims of the crash. "I had come to receive my newly wed son and daughter-in-law. My son Sajjad Ali married only 20 days back. He was coming with his wife Sania Abbas today, I had come to receive the couple," said one heartbroken old man. In the southern city of Karachi, hundreds of people gathered outside the airport to inquire about relatives who had departed on the flight to Islamabad. Women, men and children were seen crying after finding the names of loved ones on the list of passengers displayed by the airline. "My wife was on the plane, she was alone, going to see her parents," said Arshad Hussain, 27, tears rolling down his cheeks. He had married just a few months ago. "I have seen the name of my sister and her infant girl," said Mohammad Usman. "Our lives have been devastated." Fri 20 April 2012 http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ipq46Vq-aps5nN1X0jSezGFf6pXQ?docId=CNG.fbce75d2eba2ecc24710f72328c3b9d9.4b1

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15 dead found in southern Tamaulipas

A total of 15 dead were found in two southern Tamaulipas cities Thursday and Friday, according to news accounts.

To date, no information has been released by authorities, since the government of Tamaulipas state is observing restrictions to news releases under Article 41 of the Mexican Constitution which forbids government propaganda during federal elections.

Ten unidentified dead, nine men and one woman, were found Friday aboard an abandoned soft drink truck in Ciudad Mante. Ciudad Mante is about 25 kilometers along Mexico Federal Highway 85, south of Ciudad Victoria, the capital of Tamaulipas.

Meanwhile in Ciudad Victoria, five unidentified dead were found in Colinas del Valle colony of the city. The count was four young men and one woman.

A recent news repors in Milenio news daily said that two new Mexican Army bases, for units of the Mexican 106th Infantry Regiment were recently completed, one in San Fernando municipality and one in Ciudad Mante. Mexican army bases typically house roughly a rifle company compliment, or between 100 and 150 personnel.

Tamaulipas of one of the most heavily fortified states in Mexico, with 8,000 Mexican Army troops at last count since last January.

San Fernando was the location a year ago where 193 dead were found in the aftermath of a murder spree by a Los Zetas group operating in the area. The find was the second biggest mass grave in modern Mexican history eclipsed only by the 331 dead found over last year in Durango state, 301 of those in Durango city alone.

San Fernando is located approximately between Ciudad Victoria and the northern border with the United State, about 120 kilometers northeast of Ciudad Victoria.

Wedn 18 April 2012

http://usopenborders.com/2012/04/15-dead-found-in-southern-tamaulipas/

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Colombia: disappearance

Disappearance is a source of constant pain for families who never stop searching for their loved ones. Unsolved cases, the persistence of the problem and the neglect of many affected families are a cause for serious concern.

There may be no trace of those who are missing, but each has a story. Behind each missing person lies the uncertainty and anxiety of a family tirelessly searching, suffering constantly and in silence. Their pain is only eased when they discover the fate of their loved ones.

The exact number of missing persons in Colombia is not known, but we do know that there are many more than the 51,000 names on the State's national register. This is a cumulative, large-scale problem. Every year, more names are added to a long list whose first entries date back more than half a century.

There are two specific scenarios that result in people being declared missing: forced disappearance in connection with the conflict and other situations of violence (when the perpetrator intends to make the person disappear); and disappearance as a result of bureaucracy, lack of information or oversight. The latter category includes those who die in combat or other violent circumstances, without any explicit intention to make them disappear. In some cases, bodies are simply left behind on the battlefield when the fighting ends. Due to shortcomings with the procedures for recovering, identifying and burying bodies, many have been buried in unmarked graves bearing no information whatsoever, or in mass graves in cemeteries around the country, thereby drawing out the search and uncertainty of their families.
Although in recent years there have been major advances in searching for and identifying missing persons (thanks to inter-organizational agreements and harmonized forms, protocols and procedures, among others), there is still a great deal of concern about the number of unsolved cases, the persistence of the problem and the neglect of many families of missing persons.

Although the missing persons are the direct victims of the violation, their relatives, who suffer their loss and embark on a campaign in search of them, are also victims. Another factor compounding the situation in Colombia is the fact that families experience innumerable difficulties when navigating the complex legal and forensic procedures in pursuit of their loved ones. In many cases, they are unfamiliar with the system and with their rights, or they get lost in all the bureaucratic steps.

Apart from this lack of knowledge, relatives may also be afraid to report a disappearance. This fear arises from suspicion and from the ongoing underlying threat, since the search goes on against a backdrop of persistent armed conflict and may result in the disappearance of more people. Their search is therefore not made official, denying families the chance to receive proper State assistance to ascertain the fate of their relatives. Families of missing persons have the right to know the truth about what happened to their loved ones.

Wedn 18 April 2012

http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/feature/2012/colombia-report-2011-missing.htm

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The Pathribal Aftermath

Pathribal was a part of three successive and related killings which claimed 50 lives between March 20 and April 3, 2000. On March 20, unidentified gunmen killed 35 Sikhs at Chittisinghpora followed by the Pathribal killings on March 25 and then the killing of nine civilians at Brakpora on April 3 who were part of a protest over the Pathribal killings. Vakil Manzoor recounts.

On 25 March 2000, Indian military forces killed five men in (Vuzkhah Zontangri peak) Pathribal village of Anantnag district, claiming that the victims were “foreign militants” responsible for the attacks on Sikhs in South Kashmir’s Chittisinghpora.

Official reports claimed that security forces after a gunfight, blew up the hut where the ‘militants’ were hiding, and had retrieved five bodies that had been charred beyond recognition. The bodies were buried without any postmortem examination.

Over the following days, local villagers began to protest, claiming that the men were ordinary civilians who had been killed in a fake encounter. According to them, the police between March 21 and 24 of 2000, had detained many men.

On 30 March, authorities in Anantnag relented to growing public pressure and agreed to exhume the bodies and conduct an investigation into the deaths.

On 5 April 2000, Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah ordered the exhumation of the bodies killed in Pathribal. DNA samples were collected from the 5 bodies, as well as 15 relatives of the missing young men, and were submitted to forensic laboratories in Kolkata and Hyderabad.

However, in March 2002 it was discovered that the DNA samples taken from the bodies of the Pathribal victims (all of whom were men) had been tampered with. According to reports, samples had in fact been collected from females.

Later, experts collected fresh samples in April 2002 from Kolkata and Hyderabad. That verified the five people killed in Pathribal were locals and not foreign militants as claimed by the police.

In January 2003 the case was handed to the CBI by the state government. The CBI investigation alleged that officials of 7 Rashtriya Rifles had in fact staged the fake encounter wherein they had killed the five innocent civilians and later on labeled them as “foreign militants”.

25-year-old youth Zahoor Ahmad Dalal was among the five persons killed. The other four civilians killed in the fake encounter included Muhammad Yousuf Malik of Halan Verinag, Bashir Ahmed Bhat of Halan Verinag, Juma Khan (son of Faqeerullah Khan) of Brari Angan and Juma Khan (son of Ameerullah Khan) of Brari Angan.

Zahoor Ahamd Dalal

For the last 10 years, the house of Raja Bano (mother of Zahoor Dalal) is locked and she is living with her brother in a nearby house. She doesn’t talk much of her son but says in a low voice. “I have kept every belonging including the clothing of Zahoor locked in almirah and each time he comes in my dreams, he asks me to donate them to poor,” says Raja.

Nazir Ahmad Dalal identified the maroon sweater and the shirt of his nephew as soon as the first grave was opened. The villagers had buried the half-burnt clothes of Dalal as well.

Zahoor Ahamd Dalal was picked up just outside their home at Mominabad.

Raja Begum says, “Now the world knows we were not lying. Our stand has been vindicated. The guilt of the officials involved has been proved beyond any shade of doubt.”

Juma khan
Roshan Jan, had no doubts left that her husband, Juma Khan was no more. “Main nay uski thudi aur nak pehchan lee (I identified his bearded, chin and nose),’’ she says. When asked whether she has any doubts left regarding the identity of her husband’s body as there is just half of the face left, she screamed, `I have lived my entire life with him, how can I make a mistake in identifying him?’’

Roshan Jan had come all the way from village Brariangan for the identification. Her son was among the eight villagers killed in the police firing upon the demonstrating villagers, who were seeking exhumation of these bodies.

She says the Army came in the night on March 24 and asked him to accompany them. They were not aggressive. They told us they wanted my husband to guide them through the hilly track. So we happily let him go. Our relative from Pathribal Moulvi Qasim identified the dead body of my father and he informed us about that. They (army) buried these dead bodies at different places.

Bashir Ahmad Bhat
A second grave was dug up at Chogam where Ghulam Rasool Bhat, whose brother Bashir Ahmad Bhat was also missing, says it was his brother’s body lying in the grave. The rest of the graves, spread over a radius of 2 to 3 km in the Pathribal area where the security forces had claimed to have killed five “foreign guerrillas” involved in the March 20 massacre of 35 Sikhs at Chittisinghpora.

He was arrested from Islamabad. He went there to collect money from the borrowers. It was 24th March, Friday. Around 7:45 pm they were arrested in the Shirpora area of Anantnag. We came to know about them only after my brother went to Islamabad on the very next morning. He asked shopkeepers about Bashir.

On 24th they were arrested and the same day they were killed and on the next morning their pictures were shown on newspaper and televisions. We staged protest for 13 consecutive days. No local was allowed to enter the graveyard. Their corpses indeed spoke how they had been tortured. We couldn’t identify them. One family recognized their son only after they saw the remaining of trousers and warmer. I recognized when I saw hand of one corpse, I shouted it is my brother.

Tuesday, 17 April 2012

http://nvras.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/pathribal-aftermath.html

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Most mass graves in C'nawabganj now 'a matter of indifference'

Freedom fighters said, a large number of people were killed by the Pakistan occupation forces with the help of local collaborators and buried in those places, 1971.

Due to lack of maintenance, a number of the identified mass graves have turned into abandoned places while others are about to be obliterated, they said.

Some of the places where the mass graves are located are Shmashan Ghat, Rehaichar and BGB camp in the town, Zamindar House of Baroghoria, Poragaon, Teroroshia and Dashroshia villages in Islampur union under Sadar upazila.

The killing ground known as 'Pakistan Bagan' near Shibganj Girls' College in Chapainawabganj has almost been devoured by Pagla River, while the mass grave near Gomostapur police station is now about to be obliterated.

Most of the mass graves of Liberation War martyrs in different upazilas lie uncared for while a few face obliteration largely due to indifference of the authorities.

Besides, there is one at Doroshia village, two mass graves at Monakasha union, several at Kalabari village, Dhobra, Baliadighi, Kansat Musa Chowdhry's mango orchard and two other at Pakistani Bagan and Selimabad in Shibgonj upazila.

The other graves are at Shahpurgarh in Bholahar upazila and Gomostapur village, Rohonpur Rail Station Para, Rohonpur AB High School, Tikrampur village, Ginarpur village, Enayetpur village and Gomostapur Smriti Mandir in Gomostapur upazila.

Major portion of Rehaichar mass grave has been devoured by Mohananda River while Shmashan Ghat mass grave is also in bad shape. People built houses in Shmashan Ghat mass grave area almost obliterating the spot.

Pakistan army killed and dumped the bodies of a large number of people at Shmashan Ghat, Rehaichar and former EPR camp (BGB headquarters) in Chapainawabganj town.

Locals built houses on the mass graves at Zamindar House in Baroghoria and now there is no sign of any mass grave.

Major portion of the two mass graves in Pakistani Bagan in Shibgonj has been devoured by Pagla River. From July to August, Pakistan army and their collaborators killed several hundred people in these places.

Pakistan army killed at least 200 people in Poragaon, Dashroshia and Teroroshia village under Islampur union of Sadar upazila and dumped their bodies at different spots.

Doroshia village mass grave in Shibgonj upazila has been lost forever due to river erosion. On October 10, 1971 Pakistan army killed 38 villagers in the village.

Pakistan army in collusion with the local collaborators raided Gomostapur Hindupara village and caught a large number of villagers. They forced them to stand in a row, shot them dead and dumped their bodies under earth.

On April 23, Pakistan army raided Gomostapur village again and caught and killed 35 villagers. During the liberation war, they killed 14 freedom fighters at Shahpurgarh and buried in the area.

Most of the aforesaid mass graves are still without any memorial, while the memorials at several places are lying neglected, said local freedom fighters.

Only Baliadighi mass grave and Rohonpur Rail Station Para mass grave have memorials, they said.

Leaders of Chapaianwabganj district unit of Muktijoddha Sangsad have demanded steps for proper maintenance of all identified mass graves and build memorials where martyrs were killed and buried by the Pakistan occupation forces during the liberation war.

“During the liberation war, a number of massacres took place in the district. There are mass grave everywhere, of which only 25 to 30 have so far been identified,” said Dr Mazharul Islam Toru, writer of Chapainawabganjer Itihas (History of Chapainawabganj).

Proper steps should be taken to identify and preserve the mass graves, he said.

Wedn 18 April 2012

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/photo_gallery.php?pid=230551

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8,000 jars of human remains are to be given a proper burial

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- A group of relatives of Palestinians killed by Israel demanded Tuesday that the Israeli government exclude their remains from a state plan to bury unidentified remains.

Israel's Haaretz daily reported that 8,000 jars of human remains are to be given a proper burial, under a national program unveiled Sunday by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv.

Palestinian relatives insisted that Israel follow through on its agreement with the Palestinian ministry of civil affairs in summer 2011 in which it agreed to release nearly 200 bodies of slain Palestinians.

In a statement, the group condemned Israel's "defiance of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions of 1949, in which Israel is obligated to return victims of war to their families."

It was not immediately clear if the unidentified remains kept by Israel would include Palestinians.

The burial process will start on May 20, Haaretz reported.

Families who wish to have their loved ones' tissues and organs buried together with relatives, instead of in a mass grave, will be permitted to do so, according to the report.

Published 18/04/2012

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=477375

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Remains' burial project underway

"Final Resting Place," a joint venture by the Health Ministry and the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute, which aims to entomb 8,288 organs and tissue samples removed from deceased during autopsies, was officially launched on Sunday.

Health Ministry Director-General Ronny Gamzo told reporters that the first phase of the program will focus on increased efforts to contact all of the families.

The ministry has also set up a special information hotline for any public inquiries.

The Abu Kabir Forensic Institute (AKFI) is scheduled to begin referring remains for burial in May.

The families will be asked to choose between burying the remains in their relatives existing graves or in a specially designated gravesite.

However, the ministry said that families who choose to use an existing gravesite will have to bear the cost. The statement was met with ire from both families and Knesset members alike.

Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, who heads ZAKA (Disaster Victim Identification) also voiced his objection to the project, saying that Judaism mandates that each and every part of a deceased's remains, no matter how minute, be buried.

However, Rabbi Yaakov Rosa, who works with the Forensic Institute, said several rabbis have endorsed the project.

The project was launched following a legal controversy regarding AKFI's right to keep forensic evidence over time.

The Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee weighed in on the matter, eventually ruling that AKFI will only be allowed to maintain minimal samples and not entire organs.

The first civil suit in the matter was filed against AKFI last week. The family claims that their loved one's tissues were removed and kept without their consent.

04.17.12

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4216664,00.html

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

17 April 2012

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

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8 die in Jalandhar factory collapse

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Deadly chase: Arizona desert becomes immigrant deathtrap

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

April 16, 2012

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

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Five more Concordia victims identified

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

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

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

Two are still unaccounted for.

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

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

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

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

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

April 17 2012 at 12:18pm

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

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Landslide Kills 6 in Southwest China's Chongqing

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

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

The injured only suffered minor wounds, said the official.

Authorities are probing the cause of the tragedy.

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

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12 confirmed dead in NE China colliery flood

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

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

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

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

Fengxing was a licensed, privately-run mine.

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

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

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

2012-04-16

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

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Garage blast kills nine, injures dozens

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ambulances took the injured to hospitals all afternoon.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Bus accident kills 12 people in Zimbabwe

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

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

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

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

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192 bodies given a decent burial in Musha

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This makes it difficult to discover the bodies.

13 April 2012

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

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