DANA crash: 64 days gone, victims’ families bemoan non-release of corpses

As at the early hours of last June 3, when Mr. Femi Shobowale prepared to board the DANA aircraft heading for Lagos from Abuja, the thought never flashed through his mind that that would be actually a journey of no return, let alone getting to his destination.

The charming but resolute man, happened to be a pious Christian of the popular Apostolic Faith Church and what more a son to one of the pioneer member of the church in Nigeria, his untimely departure from the world of the mortals has no doubt dealt a big blow on the Shobowale's Family.

Still grappling with unbelievable and jolting news of his death, recent development has compounded the family's grief, as they still awaits the release of the corpse of their deceased son to allow them give him a befitting burial rite.

They are among relatives of the illfated DANA crash victims, yet to get the lawful compensation from the affected airline..

MEMORIES

The bereaved wife, Mrs. Titilope Shobowale, a young woman, while recounting to National Daily her last conversation with her hubby, said “he called to tell me he was about leaving Abuja and will be in Lagos very soon, that Sunday morning after which he said we should pray together for a safe trip and that was all, I never imagined it was his last prayer. My husband was actually part of those who were not burnt in the crashed aircraft, that informs why they could use his phone to call me and break the news, I was totally devastated. I later sent all the necessary document asked for by the airline operator to facilitate compensation but till this moment nothing of such has been given to us, they did even speak about it. When we got there to ask for his corpse, which due to the fact that he did not get burnt we could easily identified , we were told to wait for six week when the results of a compulsory DNA carried out on the charred bodies will be available before we can get the retrive the corpse of my husband, we learnt this last Sunday that the result of the DNA is available and we would be called upon before this week runs out but till this very moment we have not heard anything, I am thus appealing at this junction that they should, please release my husband dead body for him to be properly buried”.

35 days, after which the Dana Airplane crashed at Iju Ishaga area of Lagos State, in which 153 passengers and six crew members on board were consumed. One of the victims, Femi Shobowale, who would have celebrated his 48th birthday on June 28th if not for the unexpected fate that took him away, until his death he was a staff of Town Crier a company handling the marketing gamut of MTN.

The management of Dana Air has said that initial payments will soon be made to about 57 families of the victims of the Dana plane crash which occurred on June 3, 2012, by the insurers that insured the flight.

However, in a statement issued by the company, only 57 families out of the 120 of the victims involved in the accident have sent in completed forms for compensation. According to the statement, only 57 families out of the 120 of the victims involved in the accident have sent in completed forms for compensation.

Information from the hospital authorities confirmed that six identifiable bodies had so far been released, while seven other bodies ready for collection since the weekend were yet to be claimed as the hospital was waiting for the families to show up just as four more bodies were cleared for collection yesterday.

When our reporter got to the family house of Late Shobowale, at the Apostlic Faith Church hostel in Anthony Village. the family wore mournful looks, it a somber scene no doubt, when she was introduced, they were so pleased and she was offered a seat while they wait for the aged mother of the deceased of 82 years, she couldn't speak out because their eyes were heavy, so the younger son decided to speak with National Daily.

The younger brother ,Mr Joseph Biyi Shobowale comment on his late elder brother, he said this is not his first time of traveling to Abuja for the same assignment, he was a cheerful person, full of live, never a dull moment with him, he was the kind of person that put smiles on people face, whenever they are down. That very Sunday my brother was supposed to come back home to his wife and family, she said he spoke with him like two hours ago, and he said he will be home in one hour time, so two hours passed ,he didn't see the husband ,she then decide to call me to inform me that his husband is not yet back from Abuja, that she heard on radio and television that there was a plane crashed in Agege,she hope and prayed her husband is not among the people ,he then told her not to worry that, he will call him. He then try calling him in the evening of that Sunday, but the phone was switched off and I even slept very well because I don't want to believe that he died, but the next morning being Monday, I was too heavy to get up from bed, I received another call that people should come and identify their love ones that was in the crashed.

Its so unfortunate that he went and did not come back, I think he would have survived the crash, because he has not any injury on his body, even his cloth was still looking neat, when we went to identify him at Luth, we were told that it was only seven bodies that was not burnt and my elder brother was among them, it was like he just comb his hair and stepped out of his house, his phone was switch off, wallet and everything was intact. its was through his phone they use to call us and we have concluded we know why God allow this to happen, there are a lot of people that were not able to identify their person, because they were burnt beyond recognition, but we thank God our case is different. I think what killed my brother was the smoke and the fact that the rescue team could not easily access the spot of the mishap, perchance he would have been one of the lucky survivor had it been that help got there on time.

There was nothing that indicated that was his last moment, because after calling the wife that in one hour time, he should be home, and the last person he called was our cousin he has a business with him on Monday, he told him that he will be leaving Abuja soon, “by tomorrow we are going to get this thing done”. Not until when the wife couldn't reach him, after waiting for several hours, that she later heard about the plane crash and informed accordingly and I confirmed it but prayed that will not our portion. I then called his boss in the office that my brother is not yet back, he later got back to me, after going to inquire at the airport to confirm if he was among the people in the plane crash, that his name was on the manifest, it now dawn on me that I will not see him again. We then went to general hospital, when I saw his lifeless body. Even one of the nurses who known my late elder brother, when she saw the body, she refuse to believe that he was the one, not until when they called the name, she almost fainted, even that Sunday my mother and I were discussing about him, unknowingly that he is gone already and the wife has not been able to sleep since the incident.

The last person Femi called on Sunday,was Olufemi Idowu his cousin who also spoke about him, he was a man of vision, cheerful, hard working, very focus person, We didn't talk about anything serious, its was just about our business, if you see him for the first time, he will treat you like a special person, he has help me a lot, if you have any problem he will encourage you to stay positive that problem will go, because am into visual and audio packaging business .Because of the kind of person his was I decide to work with him, anytime MTN has event he use to call me to come and cover it, everybody thinks I work with MTN whereas I just a audio-visual packaging expert. He is a person that you cannot forget easily, because he makes everybody feel important and bring out the best in you. John Ojo is a family friend, who also spoke about him, he took to the family house and our reporter was told that Femi has been so good to him, they were suppose to travel this coming week to Oyo state concerning “Ajisebioyo” Programme, he has promised to help me make it big this year and even told me to help him get white inner shirt, which I brought six for him. John said he even called him on that Sunday when he was coming back, only to received a call from his office driver telling me that he was in the plane crash that night.

Femi was such a cheerful person, who can never leave one unhappy, if you come in contact with him. He once talks about starting his company by December this year, his wife is pregnant almost

Tuesday 8 august 2012

http://www.nationaldailyngr.com/special-feature/dana-crash-64-days-gone-victims-families-bemoan-non-release-of-corpses

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Flooding eases after killing 23 in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Widespread flooding that killed at least 23 people, battered a million others and paralyzed the Philippine capital briefly eased Wednesday, allowing rescuers on rubber boats to reach a large number of distressed residents still marooned in submerged villages.

Government forecasters said the monsoon rains that overflowed major dams and rivers crisscrossing Manila and surrounding provinces would gradually abate and lead to sunny weather later this week after 12 days of relentless downpours.

The deluge that began late Sunday was the worst since 2009, when hundreds died in rampaging flash floods. "We're still on a rescue mode," said Benito Ramos, who heads the government's main disaster-response agency. "Floods are receding in many areas but people are still trapped on their roofs." Ramos said the massive flooding turned half of Manila into "a water world" on Monday evening and into Tuesday.

At least 23 died, including nine in a landslide in a hillside slum in suburban Quezon City and several others who drowned in outlying provinces.

More than 1.2 million people were affected by the deluge, including 783,000 who fled from their inundated homes.

With the receding floodwaters, some of the displaced have started returning to their homes but others stayed put despite the hard conditions in emergency shelters as rain clouds again darkened the sky Wednesday afternoon.

Carmen Empesao said she panicked and left with her three grandchildren when waist-deep floodwaters swamped her home in the hard-hit city of Marikina. "We fled without any food and the clothes we managed to grab were wet and cannot be worn," Empesao, 60, told The Associated Press in an evacuation center teeming with 3,000 displaced.

Rescue efforts shifted into high gear Wednesday, with more than 130 emergency crewmen from two provinces reaching the capital city of 12 million people to help their overwhelmed teams, including police and soldiers.

Rescuers used rubber boats and ropes to navigate flooded streets where many people climbed on rooftops to escape neck-deep waters.

Food and drinking water were in short supply because of impassable roads. President Benigno Aquino III distributed food packs in flood-hit communities south of Manila. Ramos said he was overwhelmed by the extent of the flooding when he flew aboard a helicopter with Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin for an inspection Wednesday, although he added that water in many areas was beginning to recede. "In some areas, I could not tell the sea from the flooded villages," he told The AP.

Manila was drenched with more than half of a month's worth of rain in just 24 hours starting Monday. A typhoon in eastern China that has helped intensify the southwest monsoon in the Philippines blew further into the Chinese mainland, prompting Filipino forecasters to predict better weather the rest of the week. "We may see the sun tomorrow," government forecaster Glaiza Escullar said. She added that heavy but brief downpours may still sporadically drench the coastal capital.

Although heavy rains may ease, she warned that up to three storms or typhoons were expected to lash the country this month.

At the height of the flooding, many residents called radio and TV stations desperately asking to be rescued. TV footage showed rescuers dangling on ropes to bring children and other residents to safety from a rooftop.

Vehicles and even heavy trucks struggled to navigate water-clogged roads, where hundreds of thousands of commuters were stranded.

The government suspended work and classes Tuesday but most offices opened Wednesday. Traffic was still light as workers began clearing roads of debris, trash and fallen trees.

In 2009, massive flooding spawned by a typhoon devastated Manila and surrounding areas, killing hundreds.

Wednesday 8 August 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/10379699

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Meghalaya bus accident kills 31

SHILLONG: Thirty-one people were killed and 27 injured when a bus proceeding from Assam to Tripura rolled down a hill in Meghalaya early Wednesday, police said.

Two women were among those killed when the bus rolled down a 100 metre deep gorge in Tongseng, East Jaintia Hills district police chief M K Dkhar told IANS.

Tongseng is about 150 km east of Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya. The privately-owned night bus was on its way from Guwahati in Assam to Tripura capital Agartala.

Of the injured, Dkhar said seven were rushed to Silchar Medical College in southern Assam and the rest in nearby hospitals in the district. "The rescue operations are over and investigation has begun to ascertain the cause of the accident," the officer said.

A Tripura official told IANS in Agartala that 27 people died on the spot.

The driver of the bus, who also died, lost control of the bus when he was taking a turn in the terrain cramped Assam-Agartala highway.

Tripura transport minister Manik Dey told IANS that a state government team had left for the site. He said the place where the disaster site was "extremely accident prone". "Every year a number of accidents have occurred in the area. killing many people."

India has the highest annual road death toll in the world with more than 110,000 people dying each year in accidents caused by speeding, careless driving and poor roads.

Wednesday 8 August 2012

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Meghalaya-bus-accident-kills-31/articleshow/15403915.cms

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Senegal road accident leaves 22 dead

DAKAR — At least 22 people were killed in a collision between a bus and a truck in the centre of Senegal on Tuesday morning, the fire department said. "

It was a collision between a 35-seat bus and a truck transporting charcoal above the village of Sikilo.

The preliminary toll is 22 dead and one injured," an official from the fire department told AFP.

Tuesday 7 August 2012

http://gulftoday.ae/portal/1171cde5-215a-412a-ab95-4c69ccac8f7e.aspx

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Khmer Rouge mass grave uncovered in Cambodia

Workers found the skeletal remains of at least 17 people last week when they used an excavator to dig up soil for commercial use in Kralanh district, said Siem Reap province deputy military police chief Nhim Seila.

"Some of the skulls were found blindfolded and the hands and feet were tied up with shoelaces," Nhim said, adding that many of the skulls appeared to have suffered heavy blows. "According to locals, this was a place where the Khmer Rouge killed people every day during the regime.

I think there are hundreds of skeletons in the grave," Nhim said. Military police have closed off the site for inspection.

The Cambodian countryside is littered with thousands of mass graves from the Khmer Rouge regime's reign of terror in the late 1970s when up to two million people died from starvation, overwork, torture or execution.

The Documentation Centre of Cambodia, which researches the atrocities, identified the area in Kralanh as a "Killing Field" in 1998 and estimated some 35,000 bodies are buried there, its director Youk Chhang told AFP.

He said he hoped Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court, which is currently trying the three top surviving Khmer Rouge leaders, would examine the site for potential evidence of crimes committed by the regime.

"The bones cannot find peace until the truth they hold in themselves has been revealed," he said. It is not uncommon for Cambodians to uncover Khmer Rouge graves and monks and villagers usually take the bones to a local pagoda or cremate them, Youk added.

Tuesday 7 August 2012

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/cambodia/9455336/Khmer-Rouge-mass-grave-uncovered-in-Cambodia.html

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Bodies of Mexican Miners Recovered After Collapse

A rescue team found and recovered the bodies of six workers trapped inside a coal mine in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila, officials told Efe.

State Public Safety Secretary Jorge Luis Moran Delgado said initial reports indicated five miners were trapped but that that number later rose to six, while another worker, Armando Robles Piña, was rescued alive.

Coahuila’s deputy emergency management chief, Francisco Martinez, also confirmed to Efe Friday afternoon that a rescue crew had recovered the bodies of the six miners who perished in the accident. “The most recent report is that we now have the bodies of the six people and all that’s left is to officially identify them,” the official said.

Martinez said some 75 rescue workers using special equipment took part in the search operation at the mine, which is located in the town of San Juan Sabinas and operated by the Mimosa unit of Minera del Norte, a subsidiary of steelmaker Altos Hornos de Mexico.

Moran said an investigation will now be launched “to determine the causes of this fatal accident.” He said the accident occurred at a large coal mine being “professionally” developed by a company “that normally has all the permits and (complies with all) safety standards.” “Unfortunately, accidents happen in all situations,” Moran said, adding that Mimosa “has been fully cooperating with authorities” and contributed to the search-and-rescue effort.

 In a statement, Mimosa said the one worker rescued alive had “only bruises” and was taken to a hospital for treatment.

It added that a pocket of methane gas caused a giant landslide of “approximately 100 tons of coal” and that “proper functioning of the ventilation system prevented the gas from igniting and exploding, while the automatic control systems inside the unit instantly suspended the operation.” The mine’s equipment allowed “the immediate and risk-free exit of 285 workers who were on the first shift,” Mimosa said.

The Labor Ministry, for its part, said that once the rescue efforts have concluded it will conduct a “special inspection of safety and hygiene conditions to identify possible violations of (mining) regulations.” The ministry said it has instructed the federal prosecutor for the defense of labor, “who is already in the region,” to provide free legal counseling and representation to the workers and their families.

Seven men were killed last week in an explosion at a coal mine in the nearby town of Muzquiz, Coahuila. A July 25 explosion killed seven miners, highlighting lax safety conditions in small mines that are often poorly regulated.

Coahuila is home to numerous coal mines, many of which fall short of official safety standards.

Men have mined the largely unregulated, small "pozito" mines that dot Coahuila for more than a century.

A February 2006 gas explosion at the Pasta de Conchos coal mine in San Juan de Sabinas, Coahuila, killed 65 men. Only two of the bodies were ever recovered.

Monday 6 August 2012

 http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com/notitas-de-noticias/details/bodies-of-mexican-miners-recovered-after-collapse/17613/

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A week after the train fire, bodies continue to arrive

Bodies of the passengers aboard the Tamil Nadu Express that caught fire continue to arrive one after another even a week after the accident that occurred on July 30.

The family members of M.V. Sambasiva Rao (34), who succumbed to burns in the train mishap, performed the funeral at his native village Javvanapudi in Krishna district on Friday.

Mr. Rao suffered 80 per cent burns.

The charred body of Ilapogu Nagarani (52) was brought to his native place at Nandigama in the district and the final rites were performed on Saturday.

Nagarani’s daughter Pallavi and his son-in-law K. Venkata Ramana of Anigandlapadu village in the district, also died in the accident.

 A pall of gloom descended in the villages with the bodies of the victims arriving one after the other. The body of S. Jaswani (22), arrived a couple of days after the accident to his house in Kanuru village.

Of the 28 passengers who boarded the New Delhi-Chennai Central train which met with the fire accident at Nellore on July 30, most of them were youth and were working as software professionals in Chennai or on lookout for jobs.

The software engineers and the young couples used to shuttle between Chennai and Vijayawada during weekends to spend time with their families. “Young engineers used to prefer Tamil Nadu express train which arrives in Vijayawada around midnight (12.15 a.m.) and reach Chennai at 7.15 a.m. which was convenient for the techies to attend their office”, said an engineer. “My brother, Venkata Ramana, used to travel by TN express. But, we never expected that it was his last visit.

It is our misfortune that three members of our family died in the accident”, Ramana’s elder brother K. Nagaraju bemoaned.

Monday 6 August 2012

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Vijayawada/article3733753.ece

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Angolan football fans killed in bus accident

23 fans of Angolan soccer club Kabuscorp were killed and 29 injured when their bus overturned on the road back to Luanda after an away match, state news agency Angop reported on Sunday.

The accident happened on Saturday in Kwanza Sul province after the fans had watched their team play in the country's top division at Libolo, about 370 miles (600km) southeast of Luanda, Angop said.

Kabuscorp president Bento Kangamba said: "I am distraught and sad. The place where the accident took place is very dangerous and the driver was young and he was probably speeding."

He added that the bodies of the dead had been taken to Luanda, while the injured fans received treatment at hospitals in Kwanza Norte province. He did not give details on the severity of their injuries.

President José Eduardo dos Santos said in a statement that he was "deeply saddened" by the accident. Angola has one of the highest traffic-related death tolls in the world.

According to police, 3080 people died in 2010 due to road accidents, which are the second-biggest cause of death in the south-western African nation after malaria.

Kabuscorp received international attention in January when they signed striker Rivaldo, the Brazilian World Cup winner and former World Footballer of the Year.

Monday 6 August 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/06/angolan-football-fans-killed-bus

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N. Korean Floods Leave 400 People Missing, 212,000 Homeless

North Korea said 400 people were missing and about 212,000 were left homeless following heavy rains and floods that lasted through July.

The floods killed 169 people and injured 144, while destroying more than 8,600 houses and submerging 43,770 residential buildings, the official Korean Central News Agency said yesterday.

At least 65,280 hectares of farmland was damaged, KCNA said. Inundation of coal mines north of Pyongyang threatens to hurt the isolated communist country that relies on exports of underground minerals as one of few legitimate ways to earn foreign currencies.

North Korea, now under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, has been grappling with decades of food shortages and economic mismanagement, while its nuclear weapons and missile programs have cut international support. North Korean Premier Choe Yong Rim toured Anju, where almost all public buildings and industrial facilities were flooded or destroyed, with water and power supplies cut off, KNCA said in a separate report.

Choe was briefed on the damages in the city and held a meeting, the agency said. United Nations staff members based in North Korea made visits on July 31 with the Red Cross and other non-governmental organizations to two storm-struck counties to investigate and assess damage and needs, Christopher de Bono, Unicef’s chief of communications for East Asia and the Pacific, wrote in an e-mail last week.

UN Visit The visits were made at the request of the North Korean government, according to a July 30 statement on the website of the UN’s North Korea office.

The UN expanded sanctions against the North after it conducted a long-range missile test on April 13. The test also cost Kim a deal with the U.S. for 240,000 metric tons of food promised in exchange for a moratorium on nuclear and missile tests.

North Korea’s rainy season began on July 18 as Typhoon Khanun struck the Korean peninsula, hitting northwestern coastal areas the hardest.

The monsoon season set in after the country’s worst drought in a century threatened wheat, barley and potato harvests.

Sunday 5 august 2012

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-08-04/north-korean-floods-leave-400-people-missing-212-000-homeless

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Death toll from Beijing rainstorm climbs to 78

The death toll from rain-triggered disasters and accidents in Beijing on July 21 has climbed to 78 as one more body was recovered, the Beijing flood control and drought relief headquarters said Saturday.

The victim found in the worst-hit suburban Fangshan district in southwestern Beijing, where 43 died, was identified as Li Ruixin, a 65-year-old native of Hebei province, said Liu Hongwei, a spokesman for the headquarters.

Of the 78 victims, 10 remained to be identified, Liu said.

The severe landslides and flash floods complicated the search for missing people as well as the victims' identification, but the work never stopped, the official said.

The Beijing city government substantially raised the death toll to 77 from 37 on the night of July 26, releasing their names, ages and reasons of death, following public outrage over the government's lack of transparency in tackling the disaster and also its insufficient weather alert and disaster rescue.

Beijing was battered by the heaviest rain in six decades on July 21. Average precipitation hit 170 mm, while a township in the suburban district of Fangshan recorded 460 mm of rain.

Sunday 5 August 2012

 http://www.china.org.cn/china/2012-08/05/content_26132213.htm

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Bodies Recovered in Flooded Mine in China

Beijing - Rescue workers have recovered the bodies of eight mine workers trapped in a flooded coal mine in the northern Chinese province of Shanxi, while an investigation into the cause of the accident is under way.

Twenty-two out of 34 workers who were working underground at the time the mine flooded last Wednesday could escape, while the rest were trapped.

Four of them were rescued on Friday.

The coal mine belongs to Ji'anda Coal Mining Co. Ltd. of the Shanxi Luhe Coal-Chemical Group

Saturday 4 August 2012

http://www.cadenagramonte.cu/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11797:bodies-recovered-in-flooded-mine-in-china&catid=3:world&Itemid=14

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Tamil Nadu Express fire toll 34

The death toll in the Tamil Nadu Express fire mishap rose to 34 on Saturday with Sukhdev Singh of Amritsar dying of burns at the Narayana Hospital here. Sukhdev Singh, 23, suffered 55 per cent burns in the July 30 accident.

His father Gurdeep Singh, a plumber at the Northern Railway Mechanical Workshop, Amritsar, is making arrangements to take the body back home by a flight from Chennai.

A student of the Indian Maritime University, East Coast Road, Chennai, Sukhdev was returning with three co-students after visiting Amritsar.

On Friday, one of the passengers, M.V. Sambasiva Rao, died of burns. Relatives of Avinash, a passenger and native of Warangal who had been missing, could not identify him.

Till now, no one has claimed the bodies of a woman and a man lying at the mortuary of the DSR District Headquarters Hospital here.

Divisional Railway Manager Pradeep Kumar said the Commissioner of Railway Safety conducted an inquiry on August 2 and 3.

He recorded the statements of railway officials, the Government Railway Police, the Railway Protection Force, the district administration and the Police and Fire departments.

Of the eight injured being treated at the Narayana Hospital, the condition of four is serious. An injured passenger, Kumud Kumar Bansal of Agra, is expected to be discharged on Monday.

Mr. Bansal faced money shortage as the compensation of Rs. 25,000 given by the Railways was exhausted. His relatives had sought the help of officials to take him back to Agra.

Sunday 5 August 2012

http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/tamil-nadu/article3727192.ece

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Multan fireworks explosion toll rises to seven

MULTAN: Another dead body was found from the rubble of building that collapsed as a result of bomb explosion in Hussain Aghai Chowk Bazar here, raising the death toll to seven.

According to rescue sources, an explosion occurred due to the fireworks material present in a house near a school at Hussain Agahi Chowk Bazaar.

Due to the blast, a building collapsed while several near-by buildings were also damaged.

A case had already been registered against the couple for keeping fireworks material. SHO Kup police station has been suspended over poor security while departmental investigation against DSP Haram Gate Sadiq Mehdi is underway.

Fire brigades were trying to control the blaze that broke out as a result of blast until the last reports.

Sunday 5 August 2012

 http://www.dinnews.tv/index.php/en/?option=com_content&view=article&id=6428

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Uttarkashi flash floods : 31 dead, 40 missing

Dehradun - In the worst tragedy to hit Uttarkashi in more than 30 years, 31 people have died and at least 40 are feared missing in the flash floods that occurred late on Friday night.

The MeT department has warned of more heavy rains today. A cloud burst in the middle of Friday night triggered landslides and flash floods, which destroyed hundreds of homes in the Uttarkashi area.

The cloud burst swept away bridges and a large chunk of the Gangotri national highway. Chardham yatra has been suspended to all four shrines with hundreds of pilgrims stranded.

ITBP and state disaster management forces are currently involved in the rescue operations. About 200 families have been evacuated from low lying regions of Uttarkashi to higher ground. "Nearly 2000 people have been affected in the floods.

200 families have been displaced and have been arranged to live in a relief camps like bhavans and schools. Seven people are missing till now in the Gangotri river," Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna said.

 In Varanasi, the level of Ganga has risen by more than an inch and the ghats, where daily ceremonies usually take place, have submerged in water.

Several residents have been evacuated from the affected area.

Sunday 5 August 2012

Read more: http://www.indiavision.com/news/article/national/331532/uttarkashi-flash-floods--31-dead-40-missing/#ixzz22gKjlmNu

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NDRRMC: Death toll from Typhoon Gener, monsoon rises to 45

The death toll from tropical cyclone "Gener" (Saola) and the southwest monsoon rose further to 45 Sunday, with four members of a family in Mindanao being the latest fatalities.

National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) head Benito Ramos said a mudslide fell on the house of the victims in Midsalip in Zamboanga del Sur Saturday.

The NDRRMC said the mudslide and a subsequent flash flood swept the victims' house after a tornado (buhawi) hit the area.

 It also said a person previously missing, 15-year-old John Marck Rigueros of Benguet in northern Luaon, was confirmed dead as of Saturday.

The NDRRMC said Gener and the southwest monsoon have so far affected 190,196 families or 858,534 people in 1,207 villages in 150 towns and 28 cities in 35 provinces.

Of these, 3,258 families or 14,181 people are being served in 94 evacuation centers.

Sunday 5 August 2012

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/268372/news/nation/ndrrmc-death-toll-from-typhoon-gener-monsoon-rises-to-45

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Lessons for disaster management

If the Indian Railways fails to learn its lessons from tragedies like the one at Nellore, then it is condemning thousands of other passengers to a similar fate.

CHENNAI: At 4:30 a.m. on the morning of July 30, sleeping passengers in carriage S11 on the Chennai-bound Tamilnadu Express were awoken by a blazing fire, as the train approached the east coast town of Nellore, just two and a half hours shy of its final destination.

At least 32 people burned to death in the train, their bodies charred so badly that hospitals were forced to use DNA analysis to identify the victims for anxious families.

Officials have not ruled out a short circuit in the train toilet or sabotage, considering one survivor reported hearing a loud bang in the burning train car.

Whether or not gas cylinders or other inflammable materials were aboard the train is yet to be established by the Railway’s formal inquiry.

For grieving family members, the inquiry might be too little too late. But if similar tragedies are to be avoided in the future, authorities must use this accident to draw lessons in disaster management for the colossal Indian railway network, which operates 9000 trains carrying 18 million passengers daily.

This number does not include the countless thousands who travel on train roofs, undeterred by the risk of fatal injuries inside mountain tunnels or the possibility of electrocution.

It quickly became apparent to disaster management experts, after the fire had been put out and the survivors pulled to safety, that the lack of emergency preparedness on most Indian trains is a huge liability.

It was the gatekeeper of a railway crossing who first noticed the fire in the passing carriage and notified the Nellore railway station, which halted the train. By then screaming passengers had already pulled at the emergency brake. The burning car was immediately separated from the train to prevent the fire spreading to other coaches. But this did not make up for the fact that there were no fire alarms in the train cars.

The public relations officer of the South Central Railway, Frederick Michael, confirmed to IPS that there were no fire hydrants in the sleeper car. “Since it was night time, the passengers had closed all the windows and one door of the vestibule that connects to the rear car was also locked for the night to prevent criminal elements’ entry and mischief,” he said.

The other vestibule door, according to reliable sources, was also closed for the night, resulting in a death trap for the passengers. Inflammable material like synthetic cushion covers and curtains, inadequate emergency exits and fire extinguishers, to say nothing of a poorly trained cabin crew are the main culprits in this avoidable disaster, experts told IPS.

No public address system 

Lower class train cars, which carry millions of Indians, do not contain a single fire extinguisher or hydrant. Nor are passengers instructed in basic emergency evacuation procedures. Further, there is no public address system on board the long-distance non-luxury trains.

Railway coaches are in dire need of inflatable life rafts with a rigid hull, disaster management experts aver. These rafts should automatically unfurl themselves as escape chutes from the hinges of the emergency exits in case of a fire, or during a water evacuation.

These can help save lives and can also double up as easy transport for frail, infirm and physically challenged passengers.

Wide emergency exits with collapsible shutters that can automatically open during emergencies need to be installed by the dozen in every train car.

Currently each car has only four emergency exits and four entry doors for carriages that accommodate 72 passengers and probably carry scores of other unreserved commuters.

The spokesman of the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai told IPS that ICF only manufactures coaches for Indian Railways but is not responsible for the design of the carriages, nor the rolling stock – hardware such as wheels, steps or sleeper frames – within them. The fact that the Railway Authority does not provide for the needs of physically challenged persons is hazardous to all passengers during emergencies and seriously hinders rescue operations – with the infirm or the disabled getting left behind, or other passengers stuck behind them.

The average height of the train floor is at least 1.5 metres above the ground. The steps are arranged more like a ladder than a staircase, making it impossible for physically challenged passengers to use them unassisted.

Though the mobile “medical relief van” stationed at all railway stations reached the burning train within minutes, they found they could not access the passengers inside, as the inflammable material and burning heat had caused the doors’ locks to melt and fuse together.

 Ambulances rushed the critically injured survivors to the district general hospital after rescue teams cut through the burning car.

If the fire had occurred in the countryside it would have led to far more casualties, experts say.

A review needed 

CU Rao, general secretary of the Indian Red Cross Andhra Pradesh chapter, the state where the tragedy occurred, told IPS, “The Nellore branch of the Indian Red Cross scurried to (transport) injured passengers to various hospitals, installed freezers to keep the corpses awaiting DNA identification, brought their mobile blood bank to the site of the disaster, and distributed food packets to survivors in the immediate aftermath of the calamity.” But these services should be the responsibility of the railway authorities.

Emergency equipment should be installed in every railway station across the country as part of disaster mitigation efforts, especially since the railway network has been responsible for the deaths of 1,200 people in the last five years alone according to statistics provided by Indian Railways.

Michael believes that “a review of design is urgently called for; hereafter we will have to heed attention to alternative designs.” Wide collapsible doors that automatically roll up in the event of fires are far more effective than doors that have to be opened manually.

 Locks and emergency brakes need to be automated to ensure heat does not create vacuum chambers and seal doors shut.

If the Indian Railways fails to learn its lessons from tragedies like the one at Nellore, then it is condemning thousands of other passengers to a similar fate.

Sunday 5 August 2012

Read more: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/top-news/2012/08/05/lessons-for-disaster-management/#ixzz22gIjegm0

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North Korean rainstorms return, causing 31 deaths

Torrential rain and a typhoon in North Korea have killed 31 people and left 16 missing since Sunday, the official news agency reported on Wednesday.

Earlier in July, a week of heavy rainfall and floods caused 88 deaths and left thousands homeless.

It is feared that flooding in many parts of the impoverished country will deal a severe blow to North Korea's already malfunctioning economy.

The storms destroyed 46,000 hectares of crops to exacerbate its already serious food shortage.

 "Downpours swept some east and west coastal areas of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on 29-30 July, leaving 31 people dead and 16 missing," the KCNA news agency reported.

A United Nations inter-agency team had already been deployed to the two hardest-hit areas to assess the damage with a view to developing an aid plan.

Since the mid-1990s, North Korea's farm sector has frequently been devastated by floods and drought. The new disaster could harm leader Kim Jong-un's efforts to repair the moribund economy, especially as floods damaged some coal mines, North Korea's primary energy source

Thursday 2 August 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/01/north-korea-rainstorms-typhoon

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US aircrew's remains found in sunken WWII aircraft

The remains and personal belongings of five American airmen have been recovered from the wreck of a US Air Force plane, almost 70 years after it sank in Canadian waters, a diplomat said Tuesday.

The amphibious plane was accidentally discovered by underwater archeologists in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in 2009 and a 50-person US military team was sent earlier this month to search for the remains of the crash victims.

They found the aircraft resting upside down in pitch black, frigid waters, about 40 meters (131 feet) down, two kilometers (1.2 miles) off the coast of Longue-Pointe-de-Mingan, Quebec, said US Consul General Peter O'Donohue. "In these extremely difficult circumstances, you could see the stress on the faces of the divers who were returning from the wreck," he told AFP, noting that the aircraft remained in fairly good condition. "The team has been able to recover quite a few artifacts, including instruments, personal items, even part of a log book that is still legible after 70 years under water... as well as human skeletal remains."

The Catalina seaplane had foundered in rough weather during takeoff on November 2, 1942, in the waters surrounding what is now the Mingan Archipelago National Park Reserve in the eastern part of the gulf.

The plane was based at Presque Isle, Maine, in the United States, and it serviced an airfield in Longue-Pointe-de-Mingan, about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) northeast of Montreal.

Nine people were on board when the aircraft went down but four crew members escaped the flooding plane and were rescued by local fishermen rowing out from shore in open boats in rough seas. The five others perished, trapped inside.

The recovery "was quite emotional for everyone on the ship and people in the local village who felt a connection with the American airmen who have been just offshore from their village for the past 70 years," O'Donohue said.

Around 84,000 US servicemen who served in conflicts since the Second World War are still missing.

O'Donohue said he witnessed on the Canadian waterway "a sacred mission to recover US soldiers lost in war." In the United States, "there's a deeply held sense that servicemen whenever possible should be returned to their families and given a respectful burial... in our own soil," he explained.

 In 1941 and 1942, the United States constructed a series of airfields in eastern Canada to ferry aircraft to Allied air forces in northern Europe, as part of the so-called "Crimson Route."

The construction of the airfield in Longue-Pointe-de-Mingan was meant to serve as an emergency landing strip along the ferry route between Presque Isle and Goose Bay, Labrador.

Other items recovered from the wreck include a watch, a pair of glasses, navigational instruments, and pieces of uniforms.

The bones and artifacts will be sent to a US military base in Virginia for forensic identification, including dental records and DNA. The Catalina sea plane will remain where it lies.

Wednesday 1 August 2012

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/us-aircrews-remains-found-sunken-wwii-aircraft-184153155.html

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Philippine farmer finds mass grave; 30 skeletons exhumed

MANILA - A Philippine farmer unearthed a mass grave with the skeletal remains of up to 30 people believed to be victims of an internal purge by communist rebels in the 1980s, the army said on Sunday.

Rommel Malinao was ploughing his field in a remote village in Quezon province, south of Manila, when he made the discovery on Saturday, army spokesman Major Harold Cabunoc said.

The army deployed a team to cordon off the site and with the help of police forensics experts exhumed the skeletons. “As of last count, there were about 30 human skeletons,” Cabunoc said. “We believe these were victims of the New People’s Army (NPA) ‘kangaroo courts’, which sentenced to death many members they had suspected as government intelligence agents.”

The NPA is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, which has been waging a Maoist rebellion since 1969 — one of the longest-running communist insurgencies in Asia.

At its peak in the 1980s, NPA numbers were believed to have reached 26,000, but that is now down to only 4,000 fighters due to losses on the battle field.

The government alleges that in the mid-1980s, the NPA set up so-called ‘kangaroo courts’, which condemned to death hundreds believed to have become agents for the state.

Various mass graves have been unearthed by the military since 2009, but Saturday’s find was believed to contain the biggest number of skeletons so far, Cabunoc said.

Cabunoc added that villagers interviewed by the army near the site said many of their relatives whom they had suspected of joining the NPA went missing in the 1980s and had not been heard of since.

Some of the skeletons showed the hallmarks of torture, although further verification was needed, he said.

President Benigno Aqu-ino re-opened peace talks with the communists in February last year but the negotiations have been delayed by the rebels’ demand to release detained comrades.

Wednesday 1 August 2012

http://www.omantribune.com/index.php?page=news&id=124258&heading=Asia

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ID-card may reveal mystery of crashed AN-12 aircraft

Manali (Himachal Pradesh), Aug 1 (IANS) A frayed identity card bearing the name Arjun Singh of Pune may reveal the 45-year-old mystery crash of an AN-12 aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) into the snow-capped mountain of Lahaul Valley of Himachal Pradesh.

A group of trekkers, from local mountaineering institute NALS Outdoor India Private Ltd., has found the identity card of Arjun Singh, aircraft wreckage, shoes and clothes spread over a glaciated area at an altitude of over 17,500 feet near the Chandrabhaga peak.

Trekker and expedition leader Dinanath Thakur told IANS Wednesday that during descent of the majestic CB-13 peak (Chandrabhaga peak 13), located at an altitude of 6,164 metres or 20,624 ft, they found the debris of an aircraft scattered over Dakka Glacier July 15. "We have handed over the identity card to sub-divisional magistrate on return to Manali," he added.

 The other two members of the expedition were Kamlesh Kumar and Kuber Kumar. The AN-12 aircraft of the IAF had taken off from Chandigarh Feb 7, 1968, on a routine logistics sortie with 102 people on board to Leh in Jammu and Kashmir.

The ill-fated aircraft carrying 102 passengers, including four crew members, 92 Army and six IAF personnel, had taken off from Chandigarh to Leh. Minutes before landing, the pilot — flight lieutenant HK Singh — was radioed to return to Chandigarh due to inclement weather. The flight took a U-turn and lost contact with the radio operator after some time. The aircraft, according to the IAF, was not able to negotiate the bad weather en-route and hit the Chandrabhaga peak. There were no survivors of the crash.

The flight’s disappearance remained a mystery for 35 years until mountaineers from Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports, Manali, recovered its wreckage and a body, identified as Beli Ram, resident of Akhnoor, in 2003. In August 2007, three more bodies were accidentally recovered. Search for the bodies has been stopped since 2009.

It was only in July 2003 that an expedition from the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports in Manali discovered the wreckage site.

And last week, three youths – Deena Nath, Kamlesh Kumar and Kuber Kumar — from Manali accidently found the scattered wreckage, including machine parts, clothes, documents and human remains, during their CB-13 peak climbing expedition.

They also discovered an identity card of a soldier, Arjun Singh from Pune, with ASC (Army Service Corp) written on it. The trekkers said they would have salvaged more but had to return to base camp due to lack of time and rations.

“There are lots of things scattered around the valley and melting snow has exposed them,” said expedition coordinator Deena. Searching for the remains of the soldiers should not prove very difficult this year, he added.

Since the crash, only four bodies have been recovered and 98 bodies are still beneath the snow. Their families are writing to the government to launch a search and bring the bodies back for last rites. After half a dozen searches by the military failed to yield results, the operation was called off in 2009. Now when most people have forgotten about the accident, the recovery of the identity card has sent a wave of hope among the relatives.

Kamlesh said Dhaka glacier, at a height of 16,000 feet, has receded and exposed vast areas. “Plane debris are lying there which could be helpful in establishing the cause of the crash. We found a bunch of human hair too,” he added. Youths have handed over the documents to Manali sub-divisional magistrate for further action.


The team also found the mortal remains and documents of Pioneer Beli Ram.

His remains were moved to his native village in Akhnoor and cremated with full military honours.

Subsequently, the Indian Army has launched expeditions every summer to recover bodies of the lost soldiers. Code named Operation Punaruthan-III, an expedition of the army retrieved three bodies Aug 9, 2007, near the Chandrabhaga peak.

The cause of the crash is still a mystery as the black box (flight data recorder) has not been recovered.

 Thakur, who is currently on another mountaineering expedition in Leh and is to return to Manali Aug 8, said: "There are chances that aircraft's major portion could be located in the glacier's southern portion where the debris was spotted." "It seemed that the glacier mass was thinned more this season compared to the previous years. This might help the subsequent search parties of the army to recover more human remains and other vital aircraft parts," he added.

Manali sub-divisional magistrate Balbir Thakur, who was given the identity card by the trekkers, Wednesday handed it over to Col. Arun Kainthla, Administrative Commandant posted at army transit camp at Palchan, some nine km from here.

Wednesday 1 August 2012

 http://pluzmedia.in/news/crime-disaster-accident/54055/id-card-may-reveal-mystery-of-crashed-an-12-aircraft

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18 train fire victims remain unidentified

Hyderabad - Eighteen of the 32 people who died in the Tamil Nadu Express fire in Andhra Pradesh Monday are yet to be unidentified even as a forensic team Tuesday inspected the gutted coach.

Relatives of missing passengers, who are believed to have perished in the disaster, are reaching Nellore, where the tragedy struck, for identification.

Railway officials said only 14 of the 32 dead have been identified. At least 32 people were killed and 27 were injured when a coach of the New Delhi-Chennai super fast express train caught fire early Monday near Nellore railway station.

The bodies of the victims were shifted from Nellore railway station to Government Hospital in the town, about 450 km from here.

Railway officials said the bodies would be kept at the hospital till Tuesday evening to enable the relatives to identify them.

The bodies will later be shifted to Perambur railway hospital in Tamil Nadu. All arrangements were made to preserve the bodies at the railway hospital.

Since majority of the bodies were charred beyond recognition, the identification has become a tough task. The authorities were also preparing for DNA test on the bodies to ascertain the claims of their relatives before handing over the remains.

The relatives are facing the mental trauma of identifying the skeletal remains bundled in white cloth. Some of them were agitated over the failure of railway authorities to at least provide them information.

Of the 14 bodies identified so far, six were from Andhra Pradesh, five from Chennai and three from Amritsar.

Meanwhile, a team of forensic experts visited Nellore railway station and inspected the gutted S11 coach as part of the investigations.

The team would collect the samples and submit their finding to railway officials, conducting the probe.

The forensic report will be crucial in view of the claims by some survivors and witnesses that they heard explosions before flames engulfed the coach. T

here are also reports of traces of kerosene found in the ill-fated coach. They have expressed doubt over short circuit being the cause of fire.

Railway Minister Mukul Rai, who visited Nellore Monday night, said the commissioner, railway safety, would probe the tragedy from all angles.

Tuesday 31 July 2012

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/18-train-fire-victims-remain-unidentified-061554122.html

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Ebola Outbreak in Uganda Kills 14

The deadly Ebola virus has killed 14 people in western Uganda this month, health officials have said, ending weeks of speculation about the cause of a strange disease that has prompted many people to flee their homes.

The officials and a World Health Organisation representative confirmed the outbreak at a news conference in Kampala on Saturday.

In a joint statement, the Ugandan government and WHO said: "Laboratory investigations done at the Uganda Virus Research Institute… have confirmed that the strange disease reported in Kibaale is indeed Ebola haemorrhagic fever." .

Kibaale is a district in mid-western Uganda, where people in recent weeks have been troubled by a mysterious illness that seemed to have come from nowhere.

Ugandan health officials had been stumped as well, and spent weeks conducting laboratory tests that were at first inconclusive.

Health officials told reporters in Kampala that the 14 dead were among 20 reported with the disease. Two of the infected have been isolated for examination by researchers and health officials.

A clinical officer and, days later, her four-month-old baby died from the disease caused by the Ebola virus, officials said.

There is no cure or vaccine for Ebola, and in Uganda, where in 2000 the disease killed 224 people and left hundreds more traumatised, it resurrects terrible memories.

There have been isolated cases since, such as in 2007 when an outbreak of a new strain of Ebola killed at least 37 people in Bundibugyo, a remote district close to the Congolese border, but none as deadly as in 2000.

Ebola, which manifests itself as a haemorrhagic fever, is highly infectious and kills quickly. It was first reported in 1976 in Congo and is named for the river where it was recognised, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

A CDC factsheet on Ebola says the disease is "characterised by fever, headache, joint and muscle aches, sore throat, and weakness, followed by diarrhoea, vomiting, and stomach pain. A rash, red eyes, hiccups and internal and external bleeding may be seen in some patients". Scientists don't know the natural reservoir of the virus, but they suspect the first victim in an Ebola outbreak gets infected through contact with the blood or other bodily fluids of infected animal, such as a monkey—who may have become infected by bats, researchers hypothesize.

Once the virus infects a human, it spreads to others through contact with the blood, urine, or other bodily fluids of the infected person, putting family members, hospital staff, and others who tend to the ill at risk.

Infected people remain contagious even after they are dead—a challenge because traditional funeral rites in Uganda call for touching a loved one's body. The virus can be transmitted through direct contact with the blood or secretions of an infected person, or objects that have been contaminated with infected secretions. During communal funerals, for example, when the bereaved come into contact with an Ebola victim, the virus can be contracted, officials said, warning against unnecessary contact with suspected cases of Ebola.

In Kibaale, some villagers had started abandoning their homes in recent weeks to escape what they thought was an illness linked to bad luck, because people were quickly falling ill and dying, officials said. "Being a strange disease, we were shocked to learn that it was Ebola," Byaruhanga said. "Our only hope is that in the past when Ebola broke out in other parts of Uganda it was controlled."

Officials also worry that other villagers suffering from other diseases might be afraid to visit the hospital for fear of catching Ebola, he said.

Monday 30 July 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/29/uganda-ebola-outbreak-confirmed

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13 die in Nigeria’s ghastly road crash

No fewer than 13 passengers died in a motor accident on the Benin-Ore road, the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) confirmed on Sunday.

In a statement issued by Mr Bisi Kazeem, Deputy Corps Public Education Officer, the commission stated that the accident happened at kilometre 53, before Ohosun town, zone 5.12 toll gate unit command in Edo State at 7.45 a.m on Sunday.

Kazeem said the accident, which involved two vehicles, was caused by the driver of the Anambra Mass Transit Toyota Hiace bus, with registration number YB 610 EPE (Lagos), who for no reason drove against traffic on the Benin-Ore lane.

The driver faced an oncoming Iveco truck descending a slope, resulting in head-on collision.

The bus was coming from Lagos carrying traders dealing in electronics and 13 out of the passengers in the bus died, while three people survived including the truck driver.

The victims, according to FRSC, have been taken to Shiloh Hospital, Ugbogui in Edo for treatment while corpses were deposited at the mortuary of the same hospital.

The Commission said the obstruction caused as a result of the accident had been promptly cleared

Monday 30 July 2012

http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2012/07/29/13-die-in-nigerias-ghastly-road-crash/

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Dana air crash inquest: update

John Obafunwa, Chief Medical Examiner at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, said that some of the passengers on the ill-fated flight died from inhalation of toxic fumes after the crash. “They must have been alive to inhale the smoke,” said Mr. Obafunwa, a professor of Forensic Pathology.

Mr. Obafunwa cited fume inhalation and multiple injuries as the causes of more than half of the deaths.

“Fractures to the skull, damage to the brain, punctures in the lungs, severe blood loss. All of these things can individually cause death,” he added.

Mr. Obafunwa also stated that the test results of the DNA tests carried out for unidentifiable bodies would be available next week. “We asked for samples from parents, siblings, and offsprings. These are what we'd use to compare victims' DNA profile and confirm the identity,” Mr. Obafunwa said.

Haphazard response 

The inquest, which began last month, continues to shed light on the uncoordinated and haphazard operations of the nation's emergency rescue agencies.

Testimonies given by the Fire Service, the police, and other emergency response teams showed that although relevant agencies arrived minutes after the crash, lack of appropriate equipment delayed rescue efforts.

 Julius Berger, a private construction company, had to bring in her cranes and other heavy duty equipment, over an hour after the crash, before rescue and response could be undertaken.

In a deposition to the inquest signed by Tanko Ashang, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) stated that crowd control was a major issue that hampered rescue efforts at the accident site.

 “Another clog in the wheel was co-ordination of the various stakeholders. Regular joint simulation exercises and informal meeting between members of various organizations will engender more effective collaboration in future operations,” said Mr. Ashang, NEMA's legal adviser. “A de-briefing meeting will soon be organized for all stakeholders by NEMA in order to gain from lessons learnt from this operation for better performance in future,” Mr. Ashang added.

Monday 30 July 2012

http://premiumtimesng.com/news/national/6228-DANA-CRASH-Police-blunder-Dana-air-crash-inquest-infuriates-coroner.html

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25 pilgrims killed in road accident in Haryana

At least 25 people were killed when the mini truck they were travelling in collided with a truck at Siwani in Haryana's Bhiwani district on Monday.

While 22 people were killed on the spot, three succumbed to injuries while being taken to hospitals in Bhiwani and Hisar, Bhiwani SP Satish Balan told PTI.

The mini-truck was carrying pilgrims from Ghugha Maari temple in Rajasthan to Kalayat near Kaithal district of Haryana.

The canter carrying 60 pilgrims of Sisarhato village in Kaithal district was returning from Amarpura dham in Rajasthan.

The accident occurred on a blind curve on the road at around 8:30 am. According to reports, most of the passengers were asleep at the time of accident.

The residents of nearby village rushed to the spot to extract injured people and bodies of the victims from the mangled remains of the vehicle.

The injured werwe sent to nearby hospitals in Hansi and Hisar town.

Monday 30 July 2012

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Haryana/25-pilgrims-killed-in-road-accident-in-Haryana/Article1-904088.aspx

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Andhra Pradesh train fire: 47 killed, probe ordered

At least 47 passengers were charred to death and 25 others injured when a fire broke in a coach of the Chennai-bound Tamil Nadu Express near Nellore early this morning after a suspected short circuit.

Twenty-six passengers were rescued from the coach S 11 which was completely gutted, Nellore Collector Sridhar said.

Out of 72 passengers travelling in the ill-fated S11 coach of New Delhi-Chennai Tamil Nadu Express, 28 were from Chennai, while 17 passengers were from Delhi.

As the train was passing through Nellore, which is about 150 km from Chennai, some people noticed the fire and informed railway authorities. "The death toll in the affected coach will be around 30-35," he said. Rescue workers have recovered 12 bodies while efforts were on to retrieve others from the compartment.

The coach had around 70 seats.

 "There was a short circuit near the toilet and the train was moving at a speed of 110 kms per hour. It was going to Chennai from Delhi.

All the passengers were asleep when the fire broke out at 4:30 am. People were not able to come out immediately," he said. "The fire spread fast and the passengers could not come out through one of the doors because of the fire. So the other edge of the coach was to be used. Some people could come out and others succumbed to death," he said.

The bodies have been charred so it is difficult to identify them, Sridhar said.

15 passengers are believed to have jumped down from the burning compartment.

A total of 72 passengers were travelling in the reserved compartment.

A witness told reporters that many were trapped inside when the flames engulfed the compartment. "I was lucky to come out but many passengers could not escape as two doors were jammed and the smoke spread fast," said Sudhir.

Fire fighting personnel extinguished the fire and rescue workers were using gas cutters and other equipment to retrieve the bodies.

 Ambulances were pressed into service to shift the injured to hospital.

Top officials including district collector and superintendent of police rushed to the scene and supervised rescue and relief work.

The district collector said burning bogie was detached to prevent the fire from spreading to other compartments.

He quoted some witnesses as saying that the fire was caused by short circuit near the toilet. As the train was not moving at full speed, some passengers either entered the adjoining compartment or jumped down.

However, those sleeping on the upper berths could not escape as the smoke spread fast and even the doors were not opening.

Meanwhile, railway minister Mukul Roy has ordered an inquiry into the Tamil Nadu Express fire mishap and announced an exgratia payment of Rs. five lakh each for the next of the kin of those killed in the incident. He also announced a payment of Rs. one lakh each for those who were grievously injured and Rs. 25,000 for those who suffered simple injuries.

The inquiry by D K Singh, Commissioner of Railway Safety of South-Central Circle, will look into the cause of the mishap near Nellore in Andhra Pradesh. Railway Ministry spokesperson Anil Saxena said relief has been despatched through the accident relief medical train from Bitragunda station.

Fire brigade from Nellore reached the site and extinguished the fire, he said, adding Railway Board Chairman Vinay Mittal along with senior officials have rushed to the accident site.

A special train has been arranged for carrying relatives of affected passengers from Chennai to Nellore.

Saxena said Railways has instructed General Managers of all zones to exercise extra vigil and launch a special safety drive regarding precautions to be taken to avoid recurrence of such accidents.

Monday 30 July 2012

 http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Hyderabad/Andhra-Pradesh-train-fire-47-killed-probe-ordered/Article1-904036.aspx

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Helicopter Crashes in Southeastern France, 6 Dead

Officials say six people have been killed after a helicopter plunged into a mountain in South East France.

Security official Francis Mene said the Super Puma AS 532 AL came down while carrying out a test flight deep in the Verdon Gorge.

One of the possible causes of the accident being considered is that the chopper hit an electricity cable, a source close to the crash inquiry said.

The bodies were recovered close to the village of La-Palud-sur-Verdon.

The aircraft belonged to the company Eurocopter, the firm's spokesman confirmed.

He said the six men on board were test pilots and engineers, who were testing the helicopter ahead of delivery to a buyer.

Experts from the French aviation safety authority and Eurocopter staff are on the way to the site to help determine the cause.

The helicopter came down near a group of people hiking, and one of them was injured in the crash.

Stephane Chery, the head of International Media Relations for aviation company Eurocopter, said all six were company employees. The EADS-owned firm earlier issued a statement confirming the aircraft involved was manufactured by them, adding that they were working on identifying the circumstances and exact cause of the accident.

The rocky, limestone area — seen as France's answer to the Grand Canyon — is one of Europe's most beautiful river canyons and extremely popular with tourists and hikers. At 700 meters (2297 feet) deep, it is also one of Europe's biggest.

Mene, speaking on French station BFM-TV, said the helicopter crashed "very deep in the gorge" near the village of Aiguines.

A private jet crashed in the same region earlier this month, killing three people.

Wednesday 25 July 2012

 http://news.sky.com/story/965060/six-dead-after-helicopter-crash-in-france

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Thirteen people killed in overloaded motorcycle crash

Thirteen people were killed and seven others injured when an overloaded three-wheel motorcycle crashed off a bridge in south-east China, state media said today.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported that the vehicle was travelling along a rural road in Fujian province when it fell off a stone bridge.

A man who works for the Shouning county news office, who would give only his family name Zhong, said the vehicle was overloaded with passengers - a common occurrence in rural areas where villagers have no other way to travel.

No other details were known on the crash. Serious road accidents are common in China where vehicles are not properly maintained and laws are often ignored.

Tuesday 24 July 2012

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/thirteen-people-killed-in-overloaded-motorcycle-crash-7972480.html

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Clues sought in IDs of Texas pickup crash victims

Investigators continue the difficult task of trying to identify 14 suspected illegal immigrants who were killed when a pickup truck packed with nearly two dozen people crashed in South Texas during an apparent smuggling run.

They're also looking for clues about who else might have been involved in the operations. The men, women and children were carrying toothbrushes, toothpaste and changes of socks and underwear but no identifying documents.

Authorities said the white Ford F-250 was carrying 23 immigrants from Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala when it veered off a highway and crashed into trees Sunday night.

The crash happened on a highway about 90 miles southeast of San Antonio and about 150 miles northeast of the Mexican border.

Officials said at least 23 passengers were crammed inside the truck's cab and bed, including at least two young children.

Tuesday 24 July 2012

Read more: http://billingsgazette.com/news/national/article_ac419954-0046-5aa4-980b-122329502d8a.html#ixzz21Wlg85US

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Rain storms kill at least 37 in Beijing

BEIJING: Officials have raised the death toll to at least 37 in the heaviest rainstorm to hit Beijing in six decades, and dozens of other storm deaths have been reported elsewhere in China.

The rain Saturday night knocked down trees in Beijing and trapped cars and buses in waist-deep water in some areas.

A statement from the city government late Sunday said 25 people drowned, six were killed when houses collapsed, one was hit by lightning and five were electrocuted by fallen power lines.

The official China Daily newspaper reported Monday that rain and flooding caused damages of at least 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion), with 60,000 people evacuated from their homes.

The official Globe Times said Monday that it was the heaviest rainstorm in the capital in 61 years. It was the heaviest on record in Fangshan district in the southwest of the city, which received 460 millimeters (18.4 inches) of rain Saturday, according to the weather bureau.

The agency also said suburban Pinggu district got 100.3 millimeters (4 inches) of rain in one hour. A flash flood in Fangshan stranded 104 primary school students and nine teachers at a military training site, Xinhua said.

They were taken to safety. Elsewhere, six people were killed by rain-triggered landslides in Sichuan province in the west, Xinhua News Agency said, citing disaster officials.

Four people died in Shanxi province in the north when their truck was swept away by a rain-swollen river.

In neighboring Shaanxi province, state media said at least eight people died and 17 were missing after heavy rains hit.

China suffers flooding and dozens of storm-related deaths every summer during its rainy season, but such a heavy downpour in relatively dry Beijing is unusual.

The capital's skies were clear Monday, with traffic back to normal. The city's main airport was operating normally after hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed over the weekend.

Tuesday 24 July 2012

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Rain+storms+kill+at+least+37+in+Beijing&NewsID=340614

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Flooding in central Nigeria's Jos kills at least 35

Heavy rainfall in central Nigeria forced a dam to overflow, causing flooding that left at least 35 people dead and destroyed or damaged some 200 homes, the Red Cross said Monday.

"We have recovered the bodies of 35 people that drowned in the overnight flooding," said Manasie Phampe, head of the Red Cross in Plateau state, where Jos is the capital. "About 200 homes have either been submerged or destroyed."

The confirmed victims so far included a 90-year-old woman and a three-month-old baby, adding that the toll could rise, he said. "Rainwater and water from the Lamingo dam which overflowed swept across several neighbourhoods in the city," he explained. "We are still searching for more bodies as many people have been declared missing."

The downpour in Jos began at roughly 9:00 pm (2000 GMT) Sunday when many of the city's residents were at home for the night. "I have lost seven of my children in this disaster," said Alhaji Abdulhamid Useini, who described heavy rain pounding his neighbourhood for nearly three hours, which also swept away some of his livestock.

The area coordinator for the National Emergency Agency (NEMA), Alhassan Danjuma Aliyu, called the flood "devastating" and said police and other rescue bodies were searching the affected areas in hopes of finding survivors.

NEMA was also trying to quickly bring in added relief materials to care for those who lost their homes, Aliyu explained. "We hope to get these materials to them before the end of today," he said.

The head of search and rescue committee of the Muslim community in Jos, Sani Shuaibu, said the search was still on for 25 bodies still missing. "We are still looking for 25 other bodies that are still missing and the figure of the missing may rise as families come forward to register their missing family members," he said. "Most of the dead were children between three months and 13 years that were swept away by the flooding in their sleep. We picked the drowned along the river bank... We have two camps where around 700 displaced people are sheltering with little food and water supplies."

Much of the country has been affected by heavy seasonal rainfall, including Jos in the centre of the country and the economic capital Lagos in the south, where flooding has caused several road closures and other damage.

The rainy season typically runs from March to September. Last week, at least three people were killed by flood waters some 150 kilometres (90 miles) north of Lagos in Ibadan, an area where 102 people died following torrential rains last year.

At least 20 people died from flooding in Lagos last year, while 24 were killed after rains inundated a neighbourhood in Nigeria's largest northern city of Kano.

Nigerian papers have in recent weeks been filled with commentary criticising officials for failing to put in place measures to mitigate the impact of the annual, often severe floods.

The largest cities in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, are overcrowded, with many residents living in haphazardly constructed slums. Drainage systems are also often poorly maintained and contribute to the problem of floods.

In 2010, flooding affected roughly half a million people in two-thirds of Nigeria's 36 states.

Tuesday 24 July 2012

http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/633318-flooding-in-central-nigeria-s-jos-kills-at-least-35.html

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Disaster drones: How robot teams can help in a crisis

An ominous plume of black smoke hangs over east London. The scarcely believable news arrives in snippets: A huge blast has rocked the Thames Barrier; a surge of water is ploughing through the city; a sports stadium has collapsed; more explosions are reported on Twitter.

 Thousands of people are trying to evacuate, but like the banks of the Thames, the mobile networks are overwhelmed. It is time to send in the drones.

 Professor Nick Jennings prefers to call them unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). He is one of the chief scientific advisers to the government, and drew up this fictional scenario as part of his multi-million pound Orchid research project. 

Prof Jennings believes the key to mastering the pandemonium that follows large-scale disasters lies in intelligent, co-ordinated action between man and machine.

 Prof Nick Jennings heads the Agents, Interaction and Complexity Group at Southampton University The system he is testing will be ready next year, and will allow teams of drones to help emergency services from the air with minimal human supervision.

It is yet another non-military spin-off in the burgeoning field of drone technology. After studying real disasters like the Haiti earthquake of 2010, Prof Jennings realised that the key to successful disaster response - amidst all the chaos - is the intelligent allocation of tasks and resources, and humans on the ground are not always best placed to make those life and death decisions. "Humans can do things like fill in maps based on what they see, starting from a blank map, which is exactly what happened in Haiti. What buildings are damaged, where facilities are, that kind of basic crowd-sourcing already happens," says Prof Jennings. Aerial view of Haiti after the earthquake: Relief agencies currently fill out physical maps "But we want to augment that with autonomous flying vehicles that are able to get a view of the bigger picture on the ground, to improve situational awareness.

They can figure out where the disaster responders should go, where the resources should go." In his proposed system, UAVs will be launched immediately to monitor the unfolding disaster from the air. They will provide real-time footage to disaster responders on the ground, who can request specific information from the drones using hand-held electronic devices. They might ask, for example, 'how stable is this building's roof?' before entering to look for victims. "We could also have robots on the ground, that would go into areas too dangerous for humans," says Prof Jennings.

Handheld devices similar to this model (showing three screenshots) allow first responders to allocate tasks to drones, view live overhead video feeds from them, and mark tasks as completed, all on one shared platform.

His team is looking at ways that information from members of the public sent by smartphones could be integrated into this system. 


Research into non-military applications for drone technology is a booming area, with companies vying to find commercial applications. 


From their origins as expensive pieces of military hardware, the price of drones themselves has fallen dramatically, to the point where they are even within the budget of the hobbyist. 


Private individuals are adapting these drones, which are capable of programmable flight paths, for their own uses, including everything from wildlife surveillance to farm management. 

BAE Systems recently unveiled its research into technology that could allow pilot-less planes to fly in UK airspace, potentially for operations like border control and search and rescue. 


But what makes Prof Jennings's research stand out is that he is interested in allowing drones to fly as squadrons, improvising their own flight paths as a unit in response to new information, without human intervention. 

The teams of drones that will patrol a disaster have already been tested extensively in Sydney, Australia. 


Algorithms dictate the co-ordinated movement of the drones as they respond to requests from humans. Tests take place in Australia rather than the UK because of airspace restrictions. 

The drones he uses are in fact Mikrocopter Hexacopters, which have six rotary blades and are just under a metre in width. "The underlying research is based on aspects of artificial intelligence, getting software to do clever things, and underpinning that is a form of mathematics", explains Prof Jennings.

During tests, the drones are flown as a unit and allocated multiple tasks from the ground. What is in fact being tested on site is the mathematical algorithms that control the drones' joint movement.


If successful, these algorithms will direct the drones so that they are in the optimal position to collect information requests from humans and distribute them back to the ground. 

A poster in Prof Jennings' lab explains how a team of drones interacts with ground crew 'Decentralised coordination algorithms' are intelligent enough to deal with out of sync data requests, lost data, and can even predict where future requests will come from.

They allow the drones to communicate between each other and work effectively as a team.

The algorithms themselves have already been tested on computer software, like RoboCup Rescue Simulator, that simulates human catastrophes with mock ups of people fleeing towns and cities. "The next stage," says Prof Jennings, "is to run some mock disasters in open spaces, and have individual human actors in there, interacting with the robots, doing it for real." This is scheduled to take place in October. 

A fully operational system is said to be 18 months away. Several police forces are already interested, Pof Jennings says, and he hopes both governments and NGOs will take up the technology.

So if in the future you are unfortunate enough to find yourself caught up in a terrorist attack or natural disaster and see a robot hovering above your head, take heart - help may be closer than you think.

 Monday 23 July 2012

 http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18581883

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Zanzibar says 145 people were killed in ferry disaster last week

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) – Authorities in Zanzibar said on Sunday that 145 people had been killed in last week’s ferry disaster in the Indian Ocean, a day after the operation to find survivors was called off.

The overcrowded MV Skagit/Kalama, which had also been carrying some foreigners, was en route to Zanzibar, a popular tourist destination, from mainland Tanzania last Wednesday when it capsized and sank. “We have recovered five more bodies today, bringing the total number of bodies found so far to 73.

The ferry had 290 people onboard and 145 were rescued, which means that 72 people are still unaccounted for,” Mohammed Mhina, a spokesman for Zanzibar police, told Reuters. “It has now been four days since the ferry capsized – it’s impossible to find any more survivors.

Those who are still missing are presumed dead, so the ongoing operation is for the recovery of bodies rather than a search for survivors.” Police said they had arrested six suspects on Sunday as part of an investigation into the ferry disaster. “The owner of the boat, Saidi Abdulrahman, and the captain of the vessel who survived the accident, Mussa Makame Mussa, and four other crew members have been arrested,” said Mhina. “Investigations into the cause of the accident are still proceeding and the suspects will be taken to court if found with a criminal case to answer.”

On Friday, riot police clashed with supporters of a separatist Islamist group in Zanzibar who had gathered at a mosque to pray for victims of the disaster.

Police said they had arrested 43 members of the Uamsho (Awakening) group following the violence. Some of the victims’ relatives have vented anger at the authorities for what they say were lax safety regulations which did not appear to have been improved since last September when more than 200 people were killed in another ferry accident in what was Zanzibar’s worst maritime disaster.

Monday 23 July 2012

http://in2eastafrica.net/zanzibar-says-145-people-were-killed-in-ferry-disaster-last-week/

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18 die as bus plunges into gorge in India

A government official in India says 18 people are dead after a bus fell into a deep gorge after being hit by hurtling boulders during a landslide in the mountainous northeast. Another 17 people are injured.

Arunachal Pradesh state Transport Minister Zoram Sangliana says the bus plunged about 150 feet into the gorge early this morning near Keifang, a village 60 miles east of Aizawl, the state capital.

Monsoon rains triggered the landslide in the region.

Seventeen bodies were recovered and one injured person succumbed to injuries while being taken to nearby Saitual rural hospital after the bus met with the mishap at around 12.45am, police said.

Among the dead, nine persons, including two non-tribals, have been identified. Aizawl Superintendent of Police LR Dingliana Sailo said that except for two persons, all the other injured persons have been sent to Aizawl Civil Hospital for treatment.

India has the world's deadliest roads, with more than 110,000 people killed every year.

Most crashes are blamed on reckless driving, poorly maintained roads and aging vehicles.

Saturday 21 July 2012 


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/18-die-as-bus-plunges-into-gorge-in-india-7963949.html


http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_18-killed-17-injured-as-bus-falls-into-gorge-near-aizawl_1717881

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At least 21 killed, 29 injured in Mexico bus crash

A bus accident early Friday in the western Mexican state of Nayarit left 24 dead and 14 injured, authorities said.

The original casualty report spoke of 21 dead and 29 injured.

First responders initially counted 17 bodies, but discovered four additional victims when the bus was lifted, while three injured passengers died en route to the hospital, sources in the state Attorney General's Office said.

The accident occurred around 4:00 a.m. on a stretch of highway between the towns of Puente de Chapalilla and Tequepexpan, Nayarit government spokesman Sergio Cañedo told Efe.

The bus was carrying a group headed to the beach in the village of Rincon de Guayabitos when the predawn crash occurred, Omar Landazuri, a duty officer for the Nayarit State Civil Protection Service, told AFP. "The bus overturned and began to roll down a ravine, ejecting people along the way," Landazuri added, saying that many of the victims died from the battering they received.

Injured survivors were taken to three hospitals in Tepic, the capital of Nayarit. Residents of a community in Chihuahua pooled their resources to charter the bus for the beach excursion, Nayarit officials said.

Schools let out in Mexico two weeks ago and the country's highways are crowded with families en route to vacation spots.

Landazuri said the bus, owned by Golden Express Tours, had been rented by the group from the northwestern Chihuahua state for a trip to the Pacific coast.

Friday's crash brings the number of serious bus accidents in Mexico to four this year. In the most serious recent incident, on April 20, a truck smashed into a bus transporting farm workers in the eastern state of Veracruz, killing 43 people.

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.

Saturday 21 July 2012 

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2012/07/20/24-die-in-mexico-bus-crash/#ixzz21D5X1SRF

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Four dead, 36 injured in Egypt tour bus accident

Egypt’s official news agency says a bus crash in the south has killed four Egyptians and injured 35 others, including some tourists.

The state-run Middle East News Agency says the accident happened early Friday morning on a highway linking the Red Sea resort city of Hurghada with port of Ras Gharib in southeast Egypt.

The agency said that the bus, carrying about 40 passengers, was speeding and overturned, killing a mother and her two-year-old toddler along with two other men. Among the injured were three Germans and one Ukrainian.

Ambulances immediately transferred the injured to Hurghada Public Hospital, and some critical cases were then taken to Gouna Hospital and the Nile Hospital.

The governor of the Red Sea, Major General Mahmoud Assem, told state television that he asked doctors from the military hospital in Hurghada to help treat the injured.

Red Sea security head Major General Mostafa Bedair was notified, as was the Red Sea prosecution, which will begin investigations.

Assem requested that the head of prosecution in Hurghada take the testimony of the injured and give permission for the burial of the dead.

Road accidents are common in Egypt due to badly maintained roads and vehicles and poor enforcement of traffic laws.

Police estimate that road accidents kill about 6,000 people a year in Egypt, a nation of about 84 million. 

Saturday 21 July 2012

http://www.timesofisrael.com/egypt-speeding-us-overturns-killing-4-injuring-35/

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At least 68 dead in Zanzibar ferry disaster

STONE TOWN, Zanzibar - Rescue workers fought rough seas on Thursday to search for survivors after an overcrowded ferry sank near the Indian Ocean archipelago of Zanzibar, but hopes of finding people alive were slim.

At least 68 people were confirmed dead and 145 were rescued after the MV Skagit/Kalama capsized around midday on Wednesday near Chumbe island, west of Zanzibar.

The vessel had set sail from mainland Tanzania to the semi-autonomous archipelago, a popular tourist beach destination.

One U.S. citizen was among the dead. Hundreds of people gathered at the Maisara Grounds park near Zanzibar's historic Stone Town area on Thursday to identify bodies laid out in a tent.

Tatu Kwiyela, a 35-year-old woman from mainland Tanzania, survived the accident but her nine-month-old son died. "I was swept away by strong waves and lost my son, Saidi Jumanne. I tried to hang on to him but he disappeared into the sea," said Tatu, who managed to identify his remains.

Police said more than 10 foreign tourists, including a group of Dutch holidaymakers, were among the rescued passengers. "One of those killed in the ferry accident is an American citizen. The body has been recovered and is being preserved at a mortuary," Zanzibar police spokesman Mohammed Mhina said.

The ferry, with a maximum carrying capacity of 250 people according to Zanzibar marine authorities, was carrying 290 people, officials said. "Out of the 68 dead victims, 54 bodies have been identified so far by their relatives and taken for burial," Mhina said. "We will continue with the search and rescue operation tomorrow morning, although it is becoming increasingly difficult to find any survivors now."

There were at least 145 survivors. Rescue teams battled heavy winds and rough seas in their search effort.

Divers trying to pluck more bodies from the wreckage said they were not able to reach the vessel. "The sunken boat is below depths of 25 meters (82 ft) ... we tried to go as deep as we could but could not locate it," Ali Ramadhani, one of the divers, said. "All we've seen today are bodies floating in the sea. I don't think we are going to find anyone alive. The sea is very rough, it is difficult for anyone to survive in such conditions."

Some of the victims' relatives said they were angry at authorities for lax safety regulations, especially after more than 200 people were killed in a ferry accident in September in Zanzibar's worst maritime disaster. "The government has killed all these people. They must bring the owner of the boat to us," said Abdallah Sadick whose brother was among the missing passengers.

Zanzibar residents said passenger ships are notoriously overcrowded and there are few safety inspections.

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete ordered an investigation into the incident and announced three days of national mourning.

Friday 20 July 2012

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/least-68-dead-zanzibar-ferry-disaster-185438820.html

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