Baldia factory fire: 22 days later, some victims remain unidentified

For many people in Karachi the tragedy of the Baldia factory fire ended soon after. But for some families, every day the disaster reminds them of their loves ones, who haven’t been identified or worse, found yet.

Twenty-two days after the inferno at Ali Enterprises where 258 workers were burnt alive, 39 bodies are still unrecognisable, unidentified and unclaimed at the Edhi morgue at Sohrab Goth.

On Wednesday, trade unionists and family members of the victims called on the government to issue the DNA reports of the unidentified victims immediately or they would set up a protest camp outside the press club.

“For the past 22 days, the families have been struggling to find the bodies, but neither the hospitals nor any institution is helping them,” said Nasir Mansoor, the deputy general secretary of National Trade Union Federation of Pakistan, while speaking at a news conference along with the bereaved family members.

In the first week after the tragedy, the DNA samples of 73 relatives of the victims were taken and the families were told to wait for 15 days for the results. “The authorities have extended the date by another 15 days without any reason, which has disturbed the families,” Mansoor added.

He also questioned the sampling of 73 people when there were only 39 bodies at the morgue. “Where are the rest of the 34 bodies?”

The prime minister, a private company and Nawaz Sharif had announced compensation packages for the heirs of all those who died in the fire but some families have still not received any support. More than 35 people were injured in the inferno that rendered about 1,300 people jobless. “They have not been compensated and are now starving,” the trade unionist claimed.

The family members should also be heard by the tribunal investigating the case because they know better about their family members who were burnt to ashes, Mansoor suggested.

Besides the factory owners, the three ruling parties – Pakistan Peoples Party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Awami National Party – are equally responsible for the tragedy, he alleged. “Ali Enterprises prepared products for a German company named KIK, which is also responsible for the workers deaths and should help their families,” he added.

Like many others, Sohrab Khalid is also waiting for the DNA result. His brother Amer Aftab was one of the victims of the factory fire but his body hasn’t been found yet.

“The hospital authorities took a DNA sample from my mother and now she is waiting to see her son for the last time,” Khalid said while taking to The Express Tribune. “We have been going from hospital to hospital and from one police station to another, but our DNA sample has not matched with any of the bodies.”

The chief mechanic of the garment factory, Imran, also died in the fire. His wife had to ask Imran’s brother to come to Karachi from Punjab to give his DNA sample, as the authorities refused to take the DNA samples of their son.

“I have no idea where to go and what to do to find my husband. I want to see him to make sure that he is dead,” she said at the press conference.

Thursday 4 October 2012

http://tribune.com.pk/story/446623/baldia-factory-fire-22-days-later-some-victims-remain-unidentified/

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11 bodies found in the landslide that took place in Harkate Haspokhari Area of Mechi Highway

ILAM, OCTOBER 3 - Eleven amongst the many bodies that had gone missing in the landslide that took place in Harkate Haspokhari Area of Mechi Highway have been discovered today. The police informed that ten bodies have been identified so far. The bodies identified today are those of Mandira Pradhan and Padam Pradhan of Samalbung-1, Ilaam, and Dawa Norbu Sherpa, Arati Lama, Namgyal Bhutia and Choden Bhutia all from Sukhia, India.

One body found today however has not been identified yet while three people are still missing. Five vehicles plying on the highway were buried in the landslide on Monday. Elsewhere, two people who had gone missing in the landslide that occurred in Jyamire of Dhupu VDC in Sankhuwasabha have been found dead.

The police have informed that the bodies of Dilmaya Rai and Krishna Ghimire who had gone missing were found today. Four members of a same family and a guest were killed when a house belonging to Chakra Bahadur Rai at Dhupu-8, Jyamire was buried in a landslide on Monday night.

Thursday 4 October 2012

http://imagechannels.com/news/details/19234/11-bodies-found-in-the-landslide-that-took-place-in-Harkate-Haspokhari-Area-of-Mechi-Highway

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landslide buries primary school

A landslide has buried 18 children and one adult in a mountainous area of south-western China that was hit by earthquakes and flooding a month ago, state media have reported.

Chinese officials said the Youfang primary school collapsed when the landslide struck the village of Zhenhe in Yiliang county, Yunnan province, at around 8am on Thursday morning. Eighteen students are thought to have been inside.

An adult was also trapped when two houses in the village were toppled, according to the statement published on the county website.

State news agency Xinhua said a family of three managed to escape. It added that other residents had been evacuated from the area. An official from the county told Associated Press on Thursday that rescuers had arrived at the village, a three-hour drive from the county seat.

The students at the Youfang Primary School would not normally have been in school this week as China is on a week-long national holiday. But Li Zhong, head of the county education bureau, told the China News Service they were making up for classes suspended after two earthquakes hit the area in early September.

But they were making up for lost time caused by disruptions stemming from two September 7 earthquakes that struck Yiliang county where Zhenhe is located, killing 81 people and leaving hundreds injured.

Web users immediately raised questions about the decision to have the children back in the schools.

The safety of school pupils is a sensitive issue after thousands of students died when an 8.0-magnitude tremor in 2008 rocked Sichuan province in southwestern China and parts of neighbouring Shaanxi and Gansu.

Many schools collapsed in the 2008 quake, which killed more than 80,000 people in total.

This led to accusations that corner-cutting in construction projects and possibly corruption led to shoddy buildings, especially as many buildings nearby such schools held firm.

That disaster, which saw shockwaves of 5.7 and 5.6 magnitude, claimed 81 lives and injured 800 people in Yiliang and neighbouring areas. It was followed by torrential rain that triggered floods and mud and rockslides through the area — damaging roads and relocation sites for emergency services.

The central government said at the time it had allocated 1bn yuan for disaster relief in the county and premier Wen Jiabao visited to inspect rescue work.

Local government officials moved local residents to safer ground after the disaster and dispatched rescue teams to the area, it added.

Yiliang county was one of the areas worst-hit by the two 5.6-magnitude earthquakes last month. Last month's quakes left 820 people injured and 201,000 displaced.

In the wake of that disaster, domestic media said authorities should emphasise safety and sustainability in future developments.

Despite decades of rapidly improving living standards, China remains prone to natural disasters such as floods, quakes, and landslides, with heavy loss of life.

Thursday 4 October 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/04/china-landslide-buries-primary-school

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Six dead after missing vintage plane is found at 'high-impact' crash site in Queensland

Six people found dead in the wreckage of a vintage aircraft are believed to have been killed instantly when the plane plunged into rugged bushland on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

Almost 48 hours after it vanished on Monday, rescue helicopters today spotted a glimpse of red and then saw the wreckage of the 1934 DH84 De Havilland Dragon in dense forest near the Borumba Dam, south of Gympie.

After landing nearby and walking 200 metres to the crash site, 14km northwest of the dam wall, a team of paramedics and doctors established there were no survivors.

Australian Maritime Safety Authority spokesman Mike Barton said it was “a high impact” crash site.

“The plane is not in a condition that you would recognise,” he told reporters.

Mr Barton said it was apparent the plane was travelling fast when it crashed on Monday and hit the ground hard. He said it was too early to tell what caused the crash.

“They have hit the ground exceedingly hard and the aircraft is fundamentally destroyed.”

Formal identification may take up to two days, but police yesterday identified those on board as veteran pilot Des Porter, 68, his wife Kath Porter, 61, and their friends John and Carol Dawson, both 63, and Les and Janice D'Evlin, aged 74 and 61 respectively.

Their next of kin have been notified.

The discovery of the wreckage ended an intensive search which by early this afternoon involved up to 16 helicopters and which extended nearly 600 square nautical miles west from Gympie and south to Maleny.

Inspectors from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau are heading to the scene to determine the cause of the accident.

The recovery effort is expected to take some time, given the crash site is in a remote and heavily wooded area.

The crash is Australia's worst since 15 people died in the Lockhart River air disaster on Cape York Peninsula in May 2005.

The biplane disappeared while flying from Monto to Caboolture, in south-east Queensland, on Monday afternoon.

Mr Porter had called for help and activated a distress beacon.

Before contact was lost, he told air traffic controllers he had flown into clouds, didn't know his location and needed help.

Mr Barton said he personally knew Mr Barton and the discovery was a blow for everyone who knew the veteran pilot and his five passengers.

“It was always our hope today that we'd find this site, and we'd find survivors, but that is not the case.”

Mr Barton said the antique plane community would miss Mr Porter deeply, and he felt deeply for the family and friends of all six people who perished.

Mr Porter survived a 1954 crash involving the same model aircraft. The Brisbane Telegraph at the time reported he was flying with his father James and his elder brother Keith, in a plane owned and flown by James.

The plane crashed in Doboy Creek in Brisbane's south. James and Keith died but Mr Porter, who was 11 at the time, was saved from the sinking aircraft by rescuers, who cut a hole in the fuselage and dragged him out.

Wednesday 3 October 2012

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/searchers-find-missing-aircraft-near-south-queensland-dam/story-e6frg6nf-1226487392979

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Retreating Italian Glacier Reveals Dead From World War I

Two soldiers' bodies from World War I have been discovered on an Italian mountain, the Telegraph reports.

Workers on the Presena glacier in the Trentino-Alto Adige region of the Dolomites in Italy found the bodies at an altitude of 9,850 feet. The glacier has been receding because of an unusually hot summer and the workers were covering it with a giant tarpaulin to keep it from thawing further.

The area was the scene of high-altitude fighting between Austrian and Italian forces towards the end of the war.

Historians believe the men may have died on 3 September 1918, during what was called "the great battle".

The soldiers are believed to have been from an artillery unit of the Austro-Hungarian army and were killed in 1918. The skeletons were identified by remnants of uniform and insignia. No word yet on whether they can be named.

During World War I, Italy fought against Austro-Hungarian and German forces in the bitter cold of the mountaintops. One favorite tactic was to fire artillery shells above enemy positions to cause avalanches to bury them. In other cases soldiers died from wounds or exposure and were lost. Many of these bodies have been found in later years.

The Presena glacier isn't the only one melting. The entire Alps is seeing less ice cover, reducing the number of ski slopes and increasing the risk of avalanches for trekkers.

The preserved bodies were spotted and retrieved by Maurizio Vincenzi. Map of Peio, Italy

Not only is he an amateur historian, but he is also a member of the local mountain rescue team, and the director of the military history museum at the small town of Peio.

The museum announced the discovery on Sunday, after Mr Vincenzi and his colleagues recovered the bodies on Friday.

Mr Vincenzi, 46, said: "Using binoculars, I saw what looked like a stain on the Forni glacier and went to look."

"When I got close, I discovered they were the bodies of soldiers frozen in the glacier. Nothing like this has ever happened in my lifetime. Bodies haven't been found in the ice around here for decades," he said.

The bodies were preserved by the ice. He said the bodies were found upside down, encased in ice.

Their uniforms included leather belts, a gas mask and a cap with a star on it - all in good condition.

It is thought the men may have died in a grenade attack.

The battle, 86 years ago, was won by the Austrians, but they lost 11 men in the process.

"This is an important discovery from a historical point of view, and exciting for the communities on both sides of the border," said Mr Vicenzi.

A funeral for the men is planned for Tuesday afternoon, after which they will be laid to rest in the local military cemetery.

The Presena glacier isn't the only one melting. The entire Alps is seeing less ice cover, reducing the number of ski slopes and increasing the risk of avalanches for trekkers.

Wednesday 3 October 2012

http://www.gadling.com/2012/10/02/retreating-italian-glacier-reveals-world-war-one-dead/

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Eight still missing in Ilam landslide

Eight of the 14 people swept away by a landslide along the Mechi Highway on Sunday night were still missing till Tuesday night.

Although a joint team of Nepal Police, Armed Police Force (APF) and Nepal Army (NA) personnel, accompanied by local villagers, searched for the missing people from Tuesday morning, no bodies were found. "We found only some dismembered parts," said DSP Bishnu KC, Chief of District Police Office (DPO) of Ilam. On Monday, six dead bodies were recovered from the debris.

Five vehicles -- a truck, two pick up vans and two cars -- were swept away by the landslide in Kolbung VDC of Ilam district on Sunday night.

Three of the six people killed in a landslide that hit the Mechi Highway at Harkate, Kolbung-1 in Ilam district on Sunday night, have been identified. Fourteen people had gone missing in the disaster.

Those identified are 42-year-old Saran Pradhan and Rabi Gupta of Fikkal-6, Ilam district and 15-year-old Tshering Kesang Kesang Sherpa of Sukepokhari, Darjeeling, India, the District Police Office, Ilam stated.

Pradhan´s body was found some 500 metres from the landslide site while the bodies of Gupta and Sherpa were found in the Biring stream flowing through Ghailadubba-9 Jhapa district

Sand excavation banned

A day after a massive landslide in the Harkate-Hanspokhari section of the Mechi Highway, an emergency meeting of the District Natural Disaster Rescue Committee of Ilam on Tuesday banned sand excavation along the highway. According to Assistant Chief District Officer of Ilam Purushottom Ghimire sand excavation will not be allowed along the Ilam section of the Mechi Highway. "The ban will be effective in the areas between Sunmai and Ranke," Neupane said. He said that the ban was necessary to avoid landslides along the highway.

"I survived by clinging to the truck"

Roshan Tamang, a landslide survivor

I was driving a pick-up van ahead of a truck along the Mechi Highway on Sunday night. I saw some stones and boulders coming down from the roadside hill. I stopped the van. So did the truck. Ravi Gupta, of Fikkal bazaar, and my assistant Kumar Tamang were in the van. Shortly, more stones and boulders started falling on the road. Ravi panicked and jumped out of the van. Our van was buried under the debris of the landslide in no time. I and Kumar somehow managed to get hold of the truck. We clung to the truck until stones and boulders stopped falling over us and we just fled the landslide site. Soon, the truck was also swept away by the landslide. Had we not escaped the site on time, we might have also been buried in the landslide

Wednesday 3 October 2012

http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=42861

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Bus plunges into ravine in Peru, killing 22 Read more: Bus plunges into ravine in Peru, killing 22

A bus riding along a foggy road in Peru plunged into a ravine, killing 22 people and leaving 16 injured, a news agency reported Tuesday.

Two foreigners were among the dead: a Spanish engineer working in Peru and a Venezuelan tourist, the Andina agency said.

The accident happened Monday near the city of Huarmaca, about 850 kilometers (530 miles) north of Lima.

The agency said the fog was apparently the cause of the tragedy.

Peru’s roads are among the most dangerous in Latin America, with 2,900 people killed in accidents in 2010 and 2,583 in 2011, according to government figures.

Perilous mountain roads and the shoddy condition of Peruvians’ cars and trucks are the cause of most of the accidents.

Last month 14 people died in an accident on a secondary road in the southeast Cuzco region.

Wednesday 3 October 2012

Read more: Bus plunges into ravine in Peru, killing 22 - Latest - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/latest/bus-plunges-into-ravine-in-peru-killing-22-1.151926##ixzz28DzfgEHb

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For two mothers, the charred remains might have been their boy

Amid the nauseating stench of death inside the Edhi morgue in Sohrab Goth, two elderly women were at each other’s throats. The bone of contention was a body. One claimed it was her son “Honey”. The other insisted it was her boy “Zeeshan”.

There are 39 bodies of the Baldia factory fire victims at the morgue, burnt beyond recognition. The body of Honey or Zeeshan or perhaps somebody else is one of them.

Weeks after the devastating blaze that killed more than 250 people, the families of the victims are still looking for the remains of their loved ones.

“So far we have handed over 164 bodies to the families. But 39 of them are still with us,” said Edhi spokesperson Anwar Kazmi.

In many cases, the bodies that were eventually handed over to the families after identification turned out to be someone else’s, but taking them back is a daunting task for the officials.

“Both women have their sons’ company cards without their picture making it quite difficult to sort out the issue,” said Salman Asghar Ali, an operator at the ill-fated factory who survived the fire and also the two women’s neighbour. “But even if they have pictures, that won’t make a difference as the body is completely charred.”

Ali said Edhi officials were eventually asked to keep the body with them till the families came up with the identification papers.

Unbearable losses

Most of them next door neighbours to each other in Sector 3 of Baldia Town, the families know what happened to whom. With financial prospects nearly zilch, they help each other arrange food for the children and the elderly.

Babar Abdul Saeed, a factory worker and a survivor, lost eight members of his family. His wife Nasreen, four nieces, brother-in-law, a nephew and an aunt were among the victims.

He had found their bodies through a rescue worker’s help.

He did not recognise his wife at first, as her face and torso was completely burnt. But as soon as he recognised her dress, he fainted.

“A small piece of her floral printed shirt was stuck to her knee. It was the dress she wore to work that day.”

Saeed’s elder sister, Rehana, lost five of her children who worked at the factory. A diabetic, the grieving mother said if she got even one of them back, it would make her really happy.

“Most people at least have a body to fight over. I have no clue what happened to my children.”

Her children, 23-year-old Zoya, 16-year-old Rubab, 15-year-old Sony, 14-year-old Sehbo and 12-year-old Aijaz, had asked her to let them work.

“They worked in a 10-hour shift every day and didn’t take a day off. They asked me to rest at home. I want nothing else, but my children. They deserve a decent burial.”

Having lost almost all that she had, Rehana’s relatives have found a job for her in Hyderabad, so that she “stays busy and does not die from starvation”.

‘I see dead people’

Saiqa, Saeed’s younger sister who lives just a mile away from the factory, said she does not even look at the place where so many people she knew had met a tragic end.

She has been to almost all the hospitals and morgues in the city to look for her nieces and nephew, whom she now believes have perished in the fire. “Now, I see dead people all around me.”

One of the first people to know that a fire had broken out “at the back of the factory”, Saiqa, along with a few of her co-workers, was among the first ones to walk out of it.

“I just shouted ‘fire’ for all of them to listen. Some had started praying. I dragged them out.”

There was a reason behind the slackness. A similar tragedy had been averted “three months back”.

“But that didn’t turn into a disaster. The doors were not locked. This time, as soon most of us came out, the doors were locked and many were stuck inside.”

Many victims of the deadly inferno were children, working at the factory at the age of 13 or 14 years.

“During a tour by a foreign delegation, the children were given a day off, whereas we were ordered to say that we get a handsome salary of Rs10,000. We were actually given Rs6,000 without a day off.”

The hated Mansoor

Almost all the workers share a hatred for a man named Mansoor. Nobody knew his last name and when asked, they referred to the aliases - Bhai or Lala - by which he was called.

Saiqa recalled that Mansoor was the first one to flee the factory, when the fire could not be controlled. “He pretended that he had a heart attack and said he was feeling claustrophobic. He was taken away in the first ambulance that arrived. Nobody saw him after that.”

The workers said he had a home and family in New Karachi. But after the fire, nobody knew their whereabouts.

“A general manager and contractor for the Ali Enterprises, Mansoor was known to iron out petty problems for the owner,” Ali said. “That included dealing with the goons in the area and dodging extortion demands.”

Ali demanded that Mansoor should be remanded and questioned about what had exactly happened as he “surely knew a lot”.

Many of the workers did not deny the reports about the factory owner receiving “extortion threats”, and insisted that the probability “must be investigated.”

Tuesday 2 October 2012

http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-4-134806-For-two-mothers-the-charred-remains-might-have-been-their-boy

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Bus crash in China kills five Germans

A BUS carrying many German tourists has hit the back of a truck and burst into flames on an expressway in northern China, killing five Germans and a Chinese citizen, state media report.

The accident happened on Monday near Tianjin on an expressway that links that port city with the capital Beijing, the official Xinhua News Agency says.

The bus was engulfed in flames and black smoke, and was a charred skeleton of metal by the time the fire was out.

Xinhua quoted police as saying the bus rear-ended a container truck and caught fire. The driver was one of the dead.

It said 12 Germans and two Chinese were hurt, suffering from burns, fractures and bruises.

They were first taken to a local hospital but Xinhua said the three most serious cases, all German, were transferred to Tianjin Municipal People's Hospital and to the city's First Hospital for treatment.

The cause of the accident is being investigated, Xinhua said. It said the German ambassador to China, Michael Schaefer, went to Tianjin to visit the injured.

Road safety is a serious problem in China. According to government statistics, poorly maintained roads and bad driving habits result in about 70,000 deaths and 300,000 injuries a year.

Tuesday 2 October 2012

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/five-germans-die-in-china-bus-crash/story-e6frfkui-1226485967317#ixzz288IOQBWC

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Relatives of missing ferry passengers gather at Kwai Chung mortuary

Dozens of people gathered at Kwai Chung Public Mortuary by 10am on Tuesday morning, looking for relatives who went missing in the Lamma ferry disaster.

The mood was sombre and subdued as the relatives gathered in the building’s hall, some talking to mortuary officials.

Others wept openly while some speculated aloud about the ferry collision on Monday evening.

One man at the mortuary, who gave his surname as Leung, said he was looking for his father-in-law, who had boarded the ferry to watch the fireworks with his daughter and a granddaughter. His father-in-law was not a strong swimmer, Leung added.

A woman who identified herself as Mrs Shum said she and her family were searching for a cousin of her husband’s, and a niece of the cousin, who was seven or eight years old.

“No one thought it would turn out like this,” Shum said. But she was relieved that two other relatives had survived the disaster and been discharged from hospital.

The Lamma IV ferry was taking employees of Hongkong Electric, and their family members, to watch a National Day fireworks display on Monday evening, when the disaster happened shortly after 8.20pm.

Members of Hong Kong's Disaster Victims Identification Unit (DVIU) arrive at Kwai Chung Public Mortuary on Tuesday.

Earlier on Tuesday morning, specialists on the police disaster victim identification team were seen offloading items from the wreck at the Marine Police Aberdeen Base.

One man, who identified himself as Mr Li, arrived at the mortuary searching for his older sister after looking for her in vain elsewhere.

“I went to piers and three hospitals to look for her but there was nothing,” he said. “So I came to the mortuary to see whether there might be information here.”

His sister, a social worker with grown children, boarded the ferry on Monday night with three friends who were employees of Hongkong Electric.

Tuesday 2 October 2012

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1052242/relatives-missing-ferry-passengers-gather-mortuary

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Ferry, tug collide off Hong Kong, killing 25 passengers

A ferry and a tugboat collided off Hong Kong on Monday night, killing 25 people and sending dozens of passengers into the water, according to government and medical authorities.

The crash necessitated what local police called a "major rescue" operation, China's state-run media Xinhua said.

The tug struck the middle of the ferry, Xinhua said. It happened around 8:20 p.m. local time, just off the coast of Lamma Island, southwest of Hong Kong, according to the government statement. The Hong Kong Hospital Authority said as of 4 a.m. Tuesday, about 100 people and the bodies of the dead had been taken to five public hospitals.

Rescuers initially retrieved dozens of approximately 120 ferry passengers from the water, and brought them to six on-shore locations, the city government statement said. The rescue effort was still going on as dawn approached Tuesday, the hospital authority said.

A local power supply company, HK Electric, had rented the boat for a staff outing, a company official told Xinhua.

The party was watching National Day celebrations, the South China Morning Post reported.

Monday 1 October 2012

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/01/world/asia/china-ferry-crash/index.html

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New DNA Technique Could Provide Hope of Identifying Remains of More 9/11 Victims

For the 1,120 families of 9/11 victims whose remains have yet to be identified, there's a new glimmer of hope for closure.

City forensic scientists plan to soon add another tool to their laboratory -- a cutting-edge technique that will allow the city Medical Examiner's Office to use DNA taken from bone fragments to determine a person's eye and skin color.

"It'll give us some physical descriptions of some individuals whose remains were recovered," said Mark Desire, assistant director of the medical examiner's Department of Forensic Biology. "We can narrow down the search."

As it stands now, an unidentified DNA sample without a match can only tell scientists whether the deceased was a man or a woman.

With 8,655 partial remains from the World Trade Center still unidentified, that isn't very useful.

But by determining if a DNA sample belongs to someone with light or dark skin or brown or blue eyes, scientists could get several steps closer to linking those remains to actual victims. Scientists believe that using such new data, coupled with yet-to-be-made advancements -- DNA markers for hair color, for example -- could eventually lead to positive identifications.

John Cartier, who lost his brother James on 9/11, hopes one day he will be able to claim James' remains.

"This is a step in the right direction," Cartier said. "I see it as them continuing to find ways to help."

The new technique has been unfolding for more than three years in the lab of Elisa Wurmbach, a scientist with the ME's Department of Forensic Biology. She studied ways to identify markers in DNA samples by conducting tests on more than 700 volunteers.

Wurmbach was able to determine eye color within a 3 percent margin of error and skin color within a 1 percent margin.

Those margins are "very low," she said.

Now she's working on perfecting a testing method in which identifying the DNA markers won't fail.

Before the city can use the technique, its scientists must validate it.

"It has to go through very rigorous evaluations," said Zoran Budimlija, a city researcher. "It's not going to be used in the WTC case -- not yet."

The new technique could be applied broadly, and even be used to solve some of the 60,000 missing persons cases that crop up in the U.S. every year.

In the aftermath of 9/11, Only 1,633 of the 2,753 victims have been identified. As DNA testing is exhausted, the number of new identifications has dwindled in the last six years. Only one new identification has been made so far this year.

The continuing effort to ID victims has cost more than $50 million. The examiner's forensics lab, which is the largest government lab of its kind in the nation, receives funding from the city, state and federal governments.

Matching up

21,817 Remains recovered

13,162 Remains matched to the dead

2,753 Victims killed at Ground Zero

1,633 Number of those victims identified from remains

Monday 1 October 2012

http://www.ufanyc.org/cms/contents/view/14130

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Kathmandu, without DNA testing, victims of plane crash unrecognizable

Kathmandu - The Nepalese government refuses to hand over the bodies of the 19 victims of the air disaster that occurred on September 28. According to police, the bodies are unrecognizable and a DNA test is needed to identify them. Unfortunately, Nepal does not have the technology to carry out the test and has asked India and other countries to use their equipment. To date, the estimated time for recognition is over a month. The news has sparked the ire of victims' families, mostly foreign who are not willing to wait for such a long period.

Wosti Harihar, head of the forensic department of the Tribhuwan University Hospital in Kathmandu, states that "the autopsies on the bodies have already been completed, but it is impossible to determine the identity without DNA testing." The doctor adds that the only option is to seek the assistance of foreign hospitals. "The bodies - he explains - are in terrible condition and if India agrees to help take us it will take more than a month to analyze all of the remains." Meanwhile, local media is railing against the authorities accused of failing to cooperate with the research institute, to avoid taking responsibility. Today Laxmi Prasad Dhakal, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, confessed that he knew nothing about the case. Bal Krishna Ghimire, spokesperson for the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation, on the other hand silenced the criticism, saying that for the moment there are no updates.

The plane, owned by Sita Air, crashed minutes after taking off from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu. According to the reconstruction, the aircraft collided with a large bird - perhaps a hawk - which damaged one of the engines triggering a fire on board. The pilot had attempted to land near the river Manahara, but without success. 19 people died in the disaster, seven Britons, five Chinese and seven Nepalese, including three crew. United Kingdom authorities have sent a team of experts on site to speed up the investigation.

Airplanes and helicopters are the main means of transport for the people of Nepal. Nepal has a limited network of roads and many communities in the mountains and hills are accessible only on foot or by air. The explosion of trekking tourism across the Himalayas has increased the risk of aircraft accidents. In a few years the travel agencies that offer tours on to the rooftop of the world have more than doubled. In order to collect more money, the authorities have lowered safety standards allowing flights during the monsoon season, characterized by fog and heavy rains. In December 2010, a plane carrying three crew members, 22 people in all, crashed into a mountain shortly after taking off from a small airstrip 140 kilometers east of Kathmandu. The passengers were mostly Bhutanese citizens on a pilgrimage who had chartered a plane to visit a Buddhist holy site in the area.

Monday 1 October 2012

http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Kathmandu,-without-DNA-testing,-victims-of-plane-crash-unrecognizable-25966.html

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Pipeline fire in southeast Nigeria kills 20

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — A government spokesman says 20 people in southeast Nigeria died when a broken gasoline pipeline caught fire, burning alive those gathering the fuel.

The fire happened in a remote village in Abia state, near Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta. Abia state government spokesman Ugochukwu Emezue said Monday that the fire happened Sept. 23, but it took days for the information to reach officials.

Pipeline ruptures remain common in Nigeria, an oil-rich nation where militants and criminals routinely tap into lines to steal crude oil and refined gasoline. Fires can easily and accidentlally be sparked by those attempting to gather the fuel.

In September, Nigeria's state-run oil company said suspected thieves shot dead three of its workers in southeast Ogun state after rupturing a gasoline pipeline to steal fuel.

Monday 1 October 2012

http://news.yahoo.com/pipeline-fire-southeast-nigeria-kills-20-111318939.html

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DNA tests a must

KATHMANDU: With the bodies of the Sita Air Dornier crash victims charred beyond recognition in the fire that engulfed the plane after yesterday’s disaster, forensic experts are finding it tough to conduct post-mortems and identify the victims.

All of the 19 — seven Nepalis, seven Britons and five Chinese nationals — on board the plane died in the second air crash in the country within five months. Dr Harihar Osti, forensic expert at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, said post-mortems were expected to complete by tonight.

“Officials are collecting data on the crash victims and their belongings. We are preparing to recommend the government to conduct DNA tests to establish the deceased’s identities,” he informed.

Although officials from British and Chinese embassies and kin of the deceased have been demanding they be allowed to take stock of the bodies, the hospital said the bodies would not be handed over to the families until DNA tests are conducted.

Experts are facing a tough time identifying the victims’ body parts. They said only DNA tests can determine which parts belong to whom.

Sunday 30 September 2012

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=DNA+tests+a+must&NewsID=349136

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Bodies of French climbers killed in Nepal reached Paris

The bodies of four French climbers who were killed in an avalanche on Manaslu peak in Nepal nearly a week ago reached in Paris on Saturday, sources at Charles de Gaulle airport said.

The four — two guides and two clients — were among eight people killed after an avalanche swept through their camp on the side of the 8,156-metre (26,759-foot) Himalayan mountain early last Sunday, just hours before the alpinists were to make an attempt to reach the peak’s summit.

The other dead included a Spaniard, a German, an Italian and a Nepali guide. Three climbers, two Frenchmen and a Canadian, remain missing and presumed dead following the deadly slide.

A memorial ceremony for the dead is due to be held on Tuesday in Chamonix, the French Alpine village that is considered the birthplace of European alpinism and the home of most of the French climbers killed

Sunday 30 September 2012

http://www.nepalmountainnews.com/cms/2012/09/30/bodies-of-french-climbers-killed-in-nepal-arrive-in-paris/

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Gyari operation: two more bodies found

The dead bodies of two of the soldiers who were buried under an avalanche in the Gyari Sector on April 7 have been recovered on the 176th day of the operation.

A total of 140 people—soldiers and civilian—were buried under the ice on April 7, 2012 and since then an operation is under way to rescue the victims. The rescuers found the 83 bodies till now and there are hopes that more bodies will be found in future.

The bodies have been shifted to Goma Hospital; however, the officials cannot identify it because it has decomposed badly. A team of around 300 soldiers and 50 engineering plants are employed at the search operation in the harsh weather conditions.

Sunday 30 September 2012

http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/national/30-Sep-2012/gyari-operation-two-more-bodies-found?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online%2F24hours-news+%28The+Nation+%3A+Latest+News%29

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Kin of Nepali passengers receive bodies

KATHMANDU, Sept 30: The kin of five Nepali passengers who died in Friday´s Sita Air crash received their dead bodies on Sunday. The bodies were identified on the basis of dental data and personal belongings of the dead.

According to Dr Harihar Wasti, head of Forensic Department at Tribuvan University Teaching Hospital, the bodies of crew members, Captain Bijaya Tandukar, co-Pilot Takeshi Thapa, airhostess Ruja Shakya, and passengers, Dipen Rai and Madan Kumari Tamang, were handed to their kin.

Wu Hui, who was earlier thought be a Chinese citizen, has now been identified as a US citizen and his family members are arriving in Kathmandu to receive the body, according to the department. Dr Wasti said, "The remaining bodies couldn´t be identified till Sunday because of the lack of equipment and sufficient information."

Meanwhile, the problem of keeping dead bodies at mortuary has been solved temporarily. According to the department, four bodies have been kept at the mortuary of US embassy and five have been accommodated at the mortuary of German embassy. The remaining five bodies are at Teaching Hospital.

Seven Nepalis, including three crew members, seven Briton, four Chinese and a US citizen were killed in the crash. Sales and Marketing Manager of Sita Air, Dipendra Shahi, said that the samples have been sent for DNA test to identify other bodies and would take some time to get the reports. Shahi said that the bodies of the foreigners would be handed over only after DNA report arrives.

A probe team that comprises of experts from the UK has started the investigation.

Two aviation experts from the UK have joined the five-member probe team instituted by Nepal government for investigating the crash and the team has started working from Friday.

The panel headed by former tourism secretary Nagendra Prasad Ghimire visited the crash site along with the UK experts, according to Suresh Acharya, joint-secretary of MoCTCA and member secretary of the accident probe team. "Today we surveyed the position of the damaged aircraft and took photographs," he said.

Aided by National Bird Control Committee, the team also inspected the runway where the bird reportedly hit the elevator of the aircraft.

Sunday 30 September 2012

http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=42752

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Nepal plane crash victims' bodies may not be released to families for weeks

Officials told The Telegraph it could be more than a month before their bodies are released.

Seven British men, Raymond Eagle, 58, Christopher Davey, 51, Vincent Kelly, 50, Darren Kelly, 45, Timothy Oakes, 57, Stephen Holding, 60, and Benjamin Ogden, 27, were among 19 passengers and crew killed when their light aeroplane crashed minutes after taking off from Kathmandu airport in Nepal last Friday.

Accident investigators believe the pilot panicked and lost control of the Dornier twin turboprop when a bird hit one of the propellers and crashed while trying to make a sharp turn for an emergency landing.

Officials of Sita Air said the plane caught fire within minutes of the take off, while residents of the tin shack shanty town close to where it crashed said they heard passengers screaming and saw them waving their arms as it nosedived.

The forensic scientist heading the investigation into the cause of the 19 deaths, including four Chinese trekkers, five Nepalese passengers and three crew, has told The Telegraph they all died "on impact", but the fire which engulfed the plane had left most of the bodies "unrecognisable."

The bodies of five Nepali victims, including the aircrew, the British trekkers' tour guide and a local passenger, were released last night after their families identified them from dental records and possessions found on them, including jewellery.

Sunday 30 September 2012

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/nepal/9577170/Nepal-plane-crash-victims-bodies-may-not-be-released-to-families-for-weeks.html

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Nepal ends hunt for climbers missing in avalanche

Nepalese rescuers on Thursday called off a search for three climbers who have been missing since a huge avalanche that killed eight mountaineers at the weekend, presuming them dead.

The two French mountaineers and a Canadian disappeared after their group was hit by a wall of snow near the 8,156-metre (26,759-foot) Himalayan peak Manaslu in the early hours of Sunday.

"We have come to an end of the search operation. A team of five sherpas were involved in the operation. But despite their best efforts, they were unable to find them," district police chief Basanta Bahadur Kunwar told AFP.

"They are presumed dead, but the French embassy have told us they may continue a private search," Kunwar added.

Eight people were found dead in the immediate aftermath of the snowslide -- four French, a Spaniard, a German, an Italian and a Nepali guide.

Experts say climbers buried in an avalanche typically have 20 minutes to be dug out before they die from hypothermia or asphyxiation.

Police also fear the missing could have been swept into a crevasse, meaning their bodies might never be recovered.

One of the missing French climbers was Remy Lecluse, 48, a well-known Chamonix-based mountain guide and extreme skier who had recently married and was the father of a two-year-old girl.

An experienced skier, Lecluse carried out more than 500 extreme descents -- long, steep descents on mountain peaks -- in the Alps, Himalayas, Andes and elsewhere.

The French embassy in Kathmandu was not immediately available for comment.

Friday 28 September 2012

http://www.france24.com/en/20120927-nepal-ends-hunt-climbers-missing-avalanche

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New Mass Grave Found in Bosnia: Victims' Bodies near Cerska, Srebrenica - Likely Bosnian Muslims

27 September 2012 - A mass grave containing remains of nine persons was found during an exhumation in the area of Hajvazi in the Osmici municipality in northeastern Bosnia.

Bosnia's Institute for the Missing Persons, INO, says that the remains most probably belong to Bosniak victims, who were killed in November 1992.

“The exhumation in this area will continue, because we expect to find more victims who died in 1992. We are searching a group of 38 individuals, whose remains have still not been found. However, we shall be able to say with certainty whether the remains belong to them only after a DNA analysis,” said Lejla Cengic, spokesperson for the Institute.

The Bosnian State Prosecution issued an announcement, saying that the remains would be transported to the Commemorative Center in Tuzla for further expert examination and identification through DNA analysis.

The Institute for the Missing Persons says that it has been determined that one of the nine exhumed victims is a woman.

“The victims were dumped on top of each other and buried in a shallow grave,” Cengic said.

The exhumation was led by an investigator with the Bosnian Prosecutor.

Representatives of INO and the International Commission for the Missing Persons, ICMP, a court medicine doctor, workers of the Commemorative Center from Tuzla and police officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska took part in the exhumation.

According to the ICMP figures, at the end of the conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina there were around 30,000 people missing, presumably dead.

Until now two thirds have been identified and around 10,000 are still missing.

Friday 28 September 2012

http://www.bim.ba/en/341/10/35839/

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Somaliland: Large-scale Exhumations Started

Thursday 27, 2012 (Saxafi News) - For the first time in 24 years since 1988 people of Somaliland will finally find out the truth on what happened to almost 60,000 people and the Massacre that was inflicted by the former Dictator regime of Siyad Barre during the civil war that destroyed the infrastructure and much of the major cities of Somaliland particularly Hargeisa.

“Equipo Peruano Antropologia Forense” in Short EPAF,forensic Investigator team landed yesterday in Hargeisa, Somaliland and accompanying the team is Abdiziz Mohamed Diriye who recently was one of 21 plaintiffs that a court in the State of Virginia awarded $22 million in a case against former Prime minister and minister of Defense of Somalia gen. Mohamed Ali Samatar, which the court found guilty of participated in the Crimes Against Humanity and Human Rights Violation.

Several officials from the government of Somaliland were also present at one of the Mass grave sites in the city of Hargeisa such as The Minister of Justice, Minister of Religious Affairs, and also the Somaliland Genocide Commissioner Mr. Khadar Like.

First to speak was the Minister of Justice Mr. Hussein Ahmed Aidid also former rebel fighter of SNM, talked about the importance the findings will means for Somaliland that has campaigned for 21 years to the international community the atrocities ,genocide and Massacre of innocent civilians across major cities of Somaliland, “41 people were buried on this site alone and were all tide together as you will find out during your excavation, you will also find them in the same clothing when they were taken from their houses, street or village by the Military of the former regime of Siyad Barre.” said the Minister of Justice Somaliland.

Minster of Religious affairs Mr. Khalif Abdilahi also gave a short speech to the forensic team “that no one can forgive the people was behind these crimes and to admit their guilt for these crimes against humanity.”

The Forensic Investigators team and Somaliland Government signed a 5 year contract to excavate all the major Mass graves sites across cities in Somaliland, Jose Pablo Baraybar representing the forensic team and senior out of all the members of the team with 20 yrs. of field expertise in mass graves investigations sites such as Srebrenica (Bosnia) 1996-2002 which is the first case of Genocide to be prosecuted using forensic evidence after the Tribunals of Nuremberg and Tokyo.

The forensic team will also grant students from the Medical Faculty branch of University of Hargeisa, will teach the students detailed knowledge on Forensic Investigation Sites where Genocide has been committed.

The chairman of the Somaliland Genocide commission said the crime happened in 1984 they investigated this site that they are standing today, and most of the victims buried here were normal people that had no affiliation with any of Government, Military institutions.

The commissioner also gave details on all the sites they uncovered across Somaliland, also the commissioner mentioned that each burial site has up to 12 people buried.

Mass Graves Findings by the Somaliland Genocide Commission

Hargeysa: 200 Mass Grave Sites,

Berbera: 12 Mass Graves

Buroa: 8 Mass Graves

Sheikh: 1 Mass Grave

Erigavo: 2Mass Graves Gabiley: 2 Mass Graves

Arabsiyo: 1 Mass Grave

Friday 28 September 2012

http://saxafinews.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=1592:digging-mass-graves-in-somaliland-has-begun&Itemid=27

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A different outlook of death in Guatemala City

Rodrigo Abd / AP — In Guatemala, which has one of the highest mortality rates in the world and where violence is rampant, burial grounds have transformed into social spaces where relatives and friends of the deceased drink and dance as photographers are hired to take pictures and musicians play during funerals. Meanwhile, workers exhume bodies from plots that are behind on their payments, street peddlers set up shop and children play hide-and-seek.

Six years after a burial in the General Cemetery in Guatemala City relatives must pay around U.S. $24 to renew the burial plot for another four years, according to cemetery rules. If there is no payment, cemetery workers exhume the body and place the corpse in a mass grave. Over 2,000 bodies are exhumed annually after relatives fail to pay cemetery fees.

Friday 28 September 2012

http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/27/14128917-a-different-outlook-of-death-in-guatemala-city?lite

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9 dead in tanker-bus collision in Nueva Ecija

SCIENCE CITY OF MUÑOZ—Leoncio Pajarillo, 39, was ferrying his wife, Evangeline, 42, on his motorcycle to the city center here to catch a bus for Metro Manila. She was to attend an orientation for an overseas job. They never made it. They didn’t know what hit them.

They were among the nine people killed with eight others injured on Wednesday when a Metro Manila-bound bus hit a fuel tanker on Maharlika Highway at Barangay (village) Bantug here, police said.

The drivers of the bus and tanker and the Pajarillo couple on a motorcycle were among those killed in the accident on a newly paved section of the highway in Purok (sub village) Villa Medina at 2:30 a.m.

Supt. Michael Angelo Zuñiga, city police chief, said the Victory Liner bus, which came from Cagayan province, tried to avoid the motorcycle carrying Pajarillo and his wife, and hit the fuel tanker instead on the opposite lane.

The Pajarillos died instantly but police could not say which vehicle hit their motorcycle.

The other fatalities were bus driver Victor Ryan Camanguig, tanker driver Silvino Marzo and Donatella Aquino and Marife Cale-Bondoc, who were among 44 passengers of the bus. Three other fatalities, all of them women, have yet to be identified.

The eight injured passengers were taken to hospitals in San Jose and Cabanatuan cities.

Ronnie Calica, one of the two bus drivers, said the vehicle left its terminal in Tuao, Cagayan, for Pasay City at 3 p.m. Tuesday. Calica drove the bus from Cagayan to San Jose City. There, after a pit stop about 12 kilometers from the accident site, he turned over the wheel to his alternate driver, Camanguig.

Calica dismissed reports that Camanguig was sleepy while on the wheel. “He just relieved me in San Jose City. It was my turn to sleep and I was awakened when I fell off my seat,” said Calica, who was seated at the rear section of the bus.

Lilibeth Geron, 33, said her fellow passengers started screaming and jumping out of the windows when they saw other passengers strewn around.

“The impact of the collision was frightening. People were screaming,” said Geron, who complained of leg pains.

Another passenger, Rowella Elepante, 26, said she felt the bus swerve before it hit the tanker.

“I was seated five rows from the driver and was wide awake. I felt the bus swerving to the left as it avoided hitting a motorcycle. In an instant, I heard a loud thud. Then I immediately smelled diesel fumes,” Elepante said.

She said the front part of the bus was wrecked. Four passengers in that section died instantly, she said.

Thelma Estera, a professor at Central Luzon State University whose house is a few meters from the accident site, said she took in some of the dazed survivors and provided them food.

Firemen cleaned up the fuel spilled on the highway. Traffic was stalled for at least five hours until the vehicles were removed at 7:30 a.m.

Friday 28 September 2012

http://www.philstar.com/nation/article.aspx?publicationsubcategoryid=200&articleid=853020

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At Least 14 Killed in Nigeria Gasoline Tanker Fire

Police in north central Nigeria say at least 14 people have died after a gasoline tanker caught fire and exploded.

The Niger State police spokesman told The Associated Press on Thursday that some victims were trying to scoop gasoline from the tanker after it toppled over and turned on its sides late Tuesday in a town about 140 miles (230 kilometers) from Nigeria's capital.

Pius Edobor said the tanker's driver had lost control of the vehicle carrying 33,000 liters of gasoline.

He said many were injured and that nearby homes had been consumed by the fire.

The accident comes two months after a similar incident killed at least 95 people in Nigeria's oil-producing region.

Despite decades producing oil, the majority of Nigerians live on less than $2 a day.

Friday 28 September 2012

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/14-killed-nigeria-gasoline-tanker-fire-17338863#.UGVbqb3R5Bg

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One more victim of Arkankergen massacre identified via DNA test

ASTANA. September 27. Experts of German Legal Medicine Institute have identified remains of one more soldier killed on Arkankergen border post in Kazakhstan, two more corpses remain unidentified, Kazakh Attorney General's Office reported on Thursday.

The Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences Charite in Berlin examined remains of three bodies discovered at the scene of the massacre. The results of the DNA test proved that one of the bodies belonged to Rustem Akylbayev. Unfortunately, German specialists were unable to identify other remains, because they couldn't find cells suitable for DNA test, according to A. Abdildin.

Thus two more soldiers Denis Rey and Meyrhan Imenov are still missing.

On May 30 a fire took place on Arkankergen border post on Kazakh-Chinese border. In summer 15 frontier guards serve at this post. Some 15 corpses were founded at the scene including 14 border guards and a hunter from the nearby hunting ground located near the post. The fifteenth border guard was found alive near the post. Later border guard Vladislav Chelakh confessed that he killed his colleagues and then set fire to the barracks, where they were. Chelakh named internal conflicts and clouding of consciousness as the reason of killing his colleagues. However, later he refused this confession and said the border post had been attacked. Remains of 11 killed people were earlier identified.

As was reported earlier, the burnt out building of the Arkankergen border outpost with the remains of 14 border guards and one huntsman was discovered on the 30th of May 2012.

The act of terror occurred on the night of 27-28th of May, 220 km away from the Usharal town of Almaty region.

Friday 28 September 2012

http://www.inform.kz/eng/article/2498001

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Seven Britons, five Chinese dead in Nepal air crash: police

Seven Britons and five Chinese are among the dead in a plane crash Friday on the outskirts of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu which killed all 19 on board, according to a revised toll by police.

"The plane crash in the capital has caused death of 12 foreigners, including seven British and five Chinese tourists. The remaining seven, including three crew members, are Nepalese," said Nepal Police spokesman Binod Singh.

Police had initially said five Japanese, two Italians and a Briton were killed in the crash but later corrected the information, which had been given in error by an officer at the crash site.

The Sita Air craft had just taken off from Kathmandu airport and was headed to the small town of Lukla, a gateway to Everest, when it plunged towards a river on the outskirts of the city.

"All 19 passengers of the Sita Air plane have died. The accident site is less than one kilometre (half a mile) from the airport," said Singh.

"The pilots seem to have tried to land it safely on the banks of the river but unfortunately the plane caught fire."

Singh said the plane, carrying mainly foreigners and three local crew, plunged into the banks of the Manohara river early in he morning.

"There are four Nepalis among the dead, apart from the crew. The majority of the dead are foreigners from Western countries," he said.

Dozens of army personnel had arrived at the crash site, said Nepalese army spokesman Ramindra Chhetri, and were battling to bring the blaze under control.

"I was just walking and saw a plane landing. It was caught in fire and I even heard people inside the plane screaming," a witness told Kantipur Television.

Another witness said he saw half burned bodies near the crash site, a slum settlement.

Nepal has a poor road network and large numbers of tourists, pilgrims and professional climbers often rely on the country's 16 domestic airlines and 49 airports to reach remote areas.

The latest fatal crash in Nepal -- the sixth in less than two years -- could potentially lead to new scrutiny of the country's numerous small airlines, which provide vital links to remote parts of the country.

Aircraft and pilots often have to contend with bad weather and difficult landing strips in the Himalayan nation.

In another recent accident in Nepal, a small Agni Air plane taking tourists to a treacherous high-altitude airport near the Annapurna mountain region ploughed into the ground, killing 15 people on board.

In September last year a small plane taking tourists on a sightseeing trip around Everest crashed into a hillside near the Nepalese Kathmandu, also killing all 19 people on board.

The Buddha Air Beechcraft plane, carrying 10 Indians, two Americans, one Japanese citizen and three local passengers, came down in heavy rain and fog at Godavari, about 10 kilometres from the capital.

Friday 28 September 2012

http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/Nepal/Seven-Britons-five-Chinese-dead-in-Nepal-air-crash-police/Article1-936808.aspx

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Body not found but 58th massacre victim recognized

Although his body has not been found, Reynaldo Momay, a photojournalist from General Santos City, has been formally recognized by the Department of Justice (DOJ) as the 58th victim of the “Maguindanao Massacre” in 2009.

In a DOJ resolution, Assistant State Prosecutor Bernardo Parico said the dentures recovered at the crime scene in Barangay (village) Salman in Ampatuan, Maguindanao, as well as statements of witnesses that Momay was among those killed were enough evidence to prove that he was a victim.

Momay, 63, was working for the weekly community paper Midland Review when he joined a convoy of 58 people that accompanied the wife of then Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu of Buluan town in Maguindanao to the capital, Shariff Aguak, to file his certificate of candidacy for governor on Nov. 23, 2009.

All of them, including 32 media workers, were killed allegedly by members of the Ampatuan clan and their henchmen in Sitio Masalay in Barangay Salman, 3.5 kilometers from the national highway in Ampatuan town. Some were buried along with three vehicles, while others were shot in the head.

Murder charges have been filed against 197 people, including former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr., former Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and former Datu Unsay mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., in Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221.

Only 96, however, have been arrested and detained, and 78 of them have already been arraigned.

New set of charges

With Momay’s inclusion as the 58th victim, state prosecutors filed a new set of charges on Monday. The court’s clerk, Jimmy Cardines, received the revised complaint.

The additional information could mean that all 78 accused, previously arraigned for 57 counts of murder, have to go through an arraignment for the 58th count. Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes has yet to acknowledge the DOJ information and rule on whether those previously arraigned would have to make their pleas of guilty or not guilty on the 58th count.

Without an earlier proof of his death, Momay’s name was not counted among the official victims in legal proceedings of the case. As such, the court has been hearing only 57 counts of murder.

In the DOJ resolution issued on July 12 but filed in court only on Friday, Parico said the evidence was sufficient that Momay was murdered and recommended that the 96 respondents in the massacre case be additionally indicted for Momay’s death.

Daughter’s complaint

In January, the photojournalist’s daughter, Ma. Reynafe Momay-Castillo, filed a murder complaint against the massacre suspects, saying Momay was part of the ambushed convoy of media men and relatives of Mangudadatu.

Castillo said her father had called a friend before the massacre and confirmed that he was in a vehicle along with other journalists on their way to Shariff Aguak.

Momay’s body was never found, although a forensics expert from the Commission on Human Rights claimed to have recovered parts of his dentures. Castillo said the expert had concluded that the dentures did not belong to any of the 57 bodies recovered from the massacre site.

The herbalist who made the dentures identified them as her father’s, Castillo said. She added that there were witnesses who would testify that he was among the journalists who joined the convoy.

As of Tuesday night, Momay’s relatives could not be reached for comment. Castillo left the country last month and joined her mother in the United States

Wednesday 26 September 2012

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/277580/body-not-found-but-58th-massacre-victim-recognized

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Maharashtra Bus accident: 18 dead

Many school children are feared dead in Buldhana district, Maharashtra after a bus had fell off a bridge.

The state transport bus was carrying the school children along with several other passengers as it fell off the bridge. The bodies of few children, a helper and the driver in the bus were recovered at the sire after rescue operations have started.

It has been confirmed that almost 18 people were dead in the accident including several school going kids while the number is expected to rise as search operations continue.

Further details are awaited.

Wednesday 26 September 2012

http://www.andhrawishesh.com/home/in-the-news/33196-maharashtra-bus-accident-18-dead.html

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Tests prove Smolensk victims’ bodies were 'mixed up'

The plane crash in Russia that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others back in 2010 may once again stir controversy as two families in Poland discover that bodies they received for burial had been swapped.

Polish prosecutors announced the finding Tuesday, with DNA test results having been confirmed by two independent labs.

The two bodies were exhumed the previous week after examinations of postmortem documents received from Russia discovered several inconsistencies. The errors sparked concerns that the victims’ remains may have been passed on to Poland incorrectly.

The Smolensk plane crash took place on April 10, 2010. It involved a Polish-operated Tupolev-154, which was carrying seven crew members and 89 passengers including then-President of Poland Lech Kaczynski, his wife, almost all of the country's top military staff as well as civic and religious figures.

The delegation was heading to western Russia to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the slaughter of thousands of Polish nationals by the Soviet secret police in a forest near the village of Katyn. During a landing attempt at Smolensk-Severny Airport, the plane came down after hitting a tree, killing everyone on board. The crew’s visibility was severely restricted by a dense fog.

"The prosecutor's office is also looking into the issue of exchanging the bodies, and is investigating the evidence from this angle," said Colonel Zbigniew Rzepa, a spokesman for the military prosecutor's office.

One of the swapped bodies belongs to Anna Walentynowicz, an activist from the Solidarity trade union widely regarded at home as the “mother of independent Poland." The other body may be of scientist and civic activist Teresa Walewska-Przyjalkowska, Polish media speculate.

The Polish prosecutors’ office is now considering exhuming at least four more bodies from the crash.

It's not the first time the remains of Smolensk crash victims have been exhumed. The entire investigation, including the identification of bodies, was carried out in Russia with Polish representatives observing the process. The families of several politicians, however, insisted on independent expertise after their relatives were buried.

On April 10, 2010, President Lech Kaczynski, much of his cabinet and several civil activists were heading to the Katyn memorial near the western Russian town of Smolensk. They were going to attend a ceremony commemorating the mass executions of Poles carried out by Soviet troops during World War II.

In a dense fog, the plane went down, hitting a tree during a landing attempt at Smolensk's airport.

As the investigation proceeded, the crash began to threaten a new discord in relations between Moscow and Warsaw.

The Interstate Aviation Committee and Muscovite investigators blamed the tragedy on the plane's crew. Some circles in Poland met the finding with outrage, accusing Moscow of shirking responsibility.

Nevertheless, Warsaw finally accepted the IAC’s official version of events. But many Poles still believe that Russian air traffic controllers should not have allowed a landing attempt in such bad weather conditions. Some groups also accuse the Russian and Polish governments of being at least partially behind the tragedy. Six bodies of Smolensk crash victims were exhumed last week over suspicion of having been confused. Identities of three victims were eventually confirmed, while the bodies of Anna Walentynowicz, an activist of the Solidarity movement, and Teresa Walewska-Przyjalkowska had been mixed up, pathologists said.

Wednesday 26 September 2012

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_09_25/Tests-prove-Smolensk-victims-bodies-were-mixed-up/

http://rt.com/news/poland-smolenk-russia-bodies-960/

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10 years on, little justice in Senegal shipwreck disaster

ZIGUINCHOR, Senegal (AFP) - Ten years after one of the world's deadliest maritime disasters, relatives of those killed when a Senegalese ship sank in the Atlantic continue to clamour for some kind of justice.

Senegal on Wednesday marks the 10th anniversary of the capsizing of the Joola, a passenger ferry that was crammed more than three times beyond its capacity and tipped over in a storm as it sailed from the west African country's south to the capital Dakar.

The official toll was 1,863 but families of those who vanished say the number surpasses 2,000. The vessel was only supposed to be carrying a maximum of 580 people.

The number of deaths far exceeds the 1,500 or so who perished when the Titanic went down in 1912. Only 64 people survived.

Year after year, victims' families demand the reopening of what had been a swift and unsatisfactory judicial inquiry into the Senegal disaster.

Officials in 2003 concluded that the captain, who died in the wreck, was the only person responsible. Overcrowding and poor maintenance were also blamed.

Senegal that same year declared the case closed after several ministers and high-ranking military officers were fired, without it ever coming before a court.

"Many of the families have been unable to grieve. Most of us never received the remains of our loved ones," said Eli Diatta, a resident of Ziguinchor, the main city of the southern region of Casamance.

Her football-trainer brother perished along with 26 youngsters he was chaperoning.

"The trauma remains. It shows up in many ways: dementia, sickness, school dropouts," Diatta added.

Wednesday's anniversary will be marked by prayers, religious readings and the cleaning of cemeteries. About 500 recovered bodies were buried in mass graves, most unidentified, at four cemeteries.

After then-president Abdoulaye Wade lost the general election this year to Macky Sall, victims' associations are lobbying the new regime to reopen the case, but Marcel Mendy, a spokesman for the justice ministry, said such a move was not planned.

"The state has acted according to its capacity," he said.

The disaster did lead to the tightening of some maritime regulations and improved safety conditions on Senegal's busy coastal ferry route.

Due to the death of 22 French students in the disaster, an enquiry was opened in April in France, which had earlier issued arrest warrants against seven Senegalese civilian and military officials.

Relatives want the wreck refloated to gain some kind of closure and search for any remains that may still exist. Authorities promised to do so under the Wade regime but the project shows no signs of materialising.

"It's a delicate matter and any decision on the refloating must be concerted," Prime Minister Abdoul Mbaye told lawmakers earlier this month.

The wreck is located off the coast of Gambia, a narrow, English-speaking nation that almost bisects Senegal.

Construction began at the start of the year for a memorial to be erected in Dakar to honour the victims, but work there has since ground to a halt.

In Senegal, the majority of families accepted 10 million CFA francs (15,200 euros, $19,700) offered by the state for each victim, but others have refused, still hoping for successful legal action.

The world's deadliest maritime disaster in peacetime occurred in 1987, when the Philippines ferry Dona Paz sank after colliding with an oil tanker, killing more than 4,000 people.

During World War II, a Russian submarine in the Baltic torpedoed the German liner Wilhelm Gustloff, which was packed with refugees. More than 9,000 people died. Wednesday 26 September 2012

http://www.modernghana.com/news/419988/1/10-years-on-little-justice-in-senegal-shipwreck.html

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Vietnam finds mass grave of communist soldiers

HANOI, Vietnam — Farmers have found a grave containing the remains of at least 20 communist soldiers killed during the Vietnam War.

Military officer Nguyen Van Phat said Tuesday that the bodies were recovered from a rubber plantation in the southern province of Dong Nai. Farmers hunting for scrap metal there found the bodies last week.

The remains have not been identified. Phat says authorities also found 17 pairs of rubber sandals and 23 hammocks among the remains.

He says the soldiers were believed to have been killed while attacking an airport in 1969.

Some 3 million Vietnamese and 58,000 Americans died during the war, which ended in 1975 when communists overran Saigon, then capital of South Vietnam.

The remains of around 300,000 North Vietnamese soldiers have yet to be recovered.

Tuesday 25 September 2012

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501712_162-57519536/vietnam-finds-mass-grave-of-communist-soldiers/

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22 Chinese coal miners trapped in accidents

Efforts to rescue a total of 22 miners, who were trapped following three separate accidents in different parts of China, continued on Monday.

Eleven people were trapped after a fire at Longshan Coal Mine in Shuangyashan, Heilongjiang province, on Saturday morning. Residents reported the accident to authorities on Sunday.

An initial investigation showed that 13 people were working underground at the time. Two were lifted to safety, according to a spokesman at the rescue team’s headquarters.

A team reached the coal mine to oversee the work, led by Wang Shuhe, deputy director of the State Administration of Work Safety, on Sunday.

The county’s coal management authorities had ordered the mine to suspend production on Sept 3, a day after its license expired, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Illegal production is being blamed for the accident, authorities said.

Rescuers extinguished the underground fire on Sunday night. The temperature of the underground area of the mine had been lowered and wind flow in the site was stable as of Monday afternoon.

Rescuers were still working to find the 11 missing miners.

Vice-governor of Heilongjiang Zhang Jianxing said late on Sunday that the operation of small mines in the province will be suspended for two months for inspection and similar problems will be rectified.

On Sunday, the Shuangya-shan government said it will examine potential safety hazards in all mines in the city, and the operation of ones near the Longshan mine will be halted immediately.

Saturday saw flooding at a coal mine in Jidong county, also in Heilongjiang, which trapped six miners.

Another five miners were trapped when a ceiling collapsed at a mine in Zibo, Shandong province, on Sunday.

The accident occurred at about 9:50 am at Dongtai Mining Co. A rescue team involving several departments was set up to find the miners.

As of Monday morning, no miners had been found and rescuers were still making efforts to search, said Wang Hong, an official at Zibo’s coal industry administration bureau.

Meanwhile, a gas explosion injured 13 miners at a coal mine in Anshun, Guizhou province, on Sunday night.

Within a month, two serious coal mine accidents have led to the deaths of more than 60 people.

A coal mine in Panzhihua, Sichuan province, was struck by a gas blast on Aug 29, trapping about one-third of the 154 miners who were working underground at the time. Forty-eight people died.

According to a report by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate on Monday, four safety management officials were detained in the wake of the accident.

Another accident at Gaokeng Coal Mine in Pingxiang, Jiangxi province, killed 15 miners on Sept 2.

According to the work safety administration, 41 accidents triggered by gas blasts have happened in China’s coal mines as of July this year, causing 149 deaths.

Compared with the same period last year, 36 fewer accidents occurred and 142 fewer miners were killed.

Tuesday 25 September 2012

http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-09/25/content_15779516.htm

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Nepal avalanche hit climbers as they were sleeping

KATMANDU, Nepal -- Mountaineers who survived a pre-dawn avalanche high on the world's eighth-tallest peak say they waited an hour for the sun to come up and then saw pieces of tents and bodies of victims strewn around them on the snow.

Italian climber Silvio Mondinelli said he and a fellow mountaineer were asleep when they heard a violent sound and felt their tent start to slide.

"It was only a few seconds and we did not know what happened, but we had slid more than 200 meters (650 feet)," Mondinelli told The Associated Press on Monday. "All we wanted was for it to stop.”

The avalanche hit at about 4 a.m. Sunday while more than two dozen climbers were sleeping in tents at Camp 3 on Mount Manaslu in northern Nepal.

At least nine climbers were killed and six are believed still missing. Ten climbers survived, but many of them were injured and were flown to hospitals by rescue helicopters.

Helicopters flew over the slopes on Monday to search for the missing mountaineers as climbers and guides searched the mountainsides on foot. Rescuers brought down eight bodies -- four French, one each from Germany, Italy and Spain and a Nepali guide -- and were trying to retrieve the ninth from the 7,000-meter (22,960-foot) area where the avalanche struck, police Chief Basanta Bahadur Kuwar said.

Three French climbers and two Germans were transported to hospitals in Katmandu on Sunday. Two Italians were flown there on Monday -- Mondinelli, who has climbed the world's 14 highest peaks, and fellow mountaineer Christian Gobbi.

Mondinelli said a third Italian climber and their Sherpa guide, who were both sleeping in another tent, were buried by the avalanche and died.

Gobbi said they could not see at first when they looked out of their torn tent because it was pitch dark and they had no light.

"We found someone's boots and put them on," he said.

When the sun rose an hour later, they saw parts of tents scattered across the snow, along with people who had been killed or injured.

They said they were able to assist the injured with the help of Sherpa guides who came up from lower mountain camps. Those who could walk made their way down to the base camp while those who were injured were picked up by helicopters.

At least three of the victims were from the French Alps town of Chamonix, a hub for climbers on Mont Blanc and nearby peaks. An avalanche on a route to the summit of Mont Blanc in July killed nine experienced climbers.

Two French climbers were still unaccounted for as of Monday afternoon, the French Foreign Ministry said. The rescue effort was called off "at least for today, probably definitively," Christian Trommsdorff, president of the French Mountain Guides Syndicate, said on BFM television.

A total of 231 climbers and guides were on the mountain but not all were at the higher camps hit by the avalanche.

Nepal Mountaineering Department chief Balkrishan Ghimire identified the eight recovered bodies as Fabrice Priez, Philippe Lucien Bos, Catherine Marie Andree Richard and Ludovic Paul Nicolas Challeat of France; German Christian Mittermeyer; Italian Alberto Magliano; Spaniard Marti Roirg Gasull; and Nepali Dawa Dorji.

Sunday's avalanche came at the start of Nepal's autumn climbing season, when the end of the monsoon rains makes weather in the high Himalayas unpredictable. Spring is a more popular mountaineering season, when hundreds of climbers crowd the high Himalayan peaks.

Mount Manaslu, which is 8,156 meters (26,760 feet) high, has attracted more climbers recently because it is considered one of the easier peaks to climb among the world's tallest mountains.

Nepal has eight of the 14 highest peaks in the world. Climbers have complained in recent years that conditions on the mountains have deteriorated and risks of accidents have increased, with some laying the blame on global warming.

Avalanches are not very frequent on Mount Manaslu, but in 1972 one struck a team of climbers and killed six Koreans and 10 Nepalese guides.

Ang Tshering of the Asian Trekking agency in Katmandu, who has equipped hundreds of expeditions, said low snow levels and the increased number of climbers on Manaslu have made climbing conditions difficult.

"It used to be a low-risk mountain in the past but now that has all changed," Tshering said, adding that conditions have become more unpredictable.

Tuesday 25 September 2012

http://www.king5.com/news/Nepal-avalanche-hit-climbers-as-they-were-sleeping-171037391.html

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15 persons still missing, believed to be buried under landslide debris

Family members of the 15 ‘missing’ victims of the Ukimath cloudburst are still hopeful that their dear ones may return home someday. The Rudraprayag district administration, has however, apparently given up hope to find any of these persons alive and has also begun the process of distributing compensation money to the genuine claimants.

Of the total of 69 persons, who were missing as per the records of the Rudraprayag District Administration, the rescue workers have so far recovered 54 bodies. A total of 15 persons are still missing and are believed to have been buried under tons of mud and debris of the landslide that hit the area following a cloudburst earlier this month.

According to the Executive Director of the State Disaster Management and Mitigation Department (DMMD), Piyush Rautela, a magisterial probe has already been ordered and the family members of all the 15 missing persons have been asked to get their statements recorded before the officials.

“The claimants of the compensation money have also been asked to fill an indemnity bond, stating that they will return the compensation money, in case their missing family members are found alive,” Rautela added.

Even as the indemnity bond may make the family members of the missing people, hopeful that they may see their loved ones alive someday, the rescue operators say that the possibility of finding anyone of these victims alive is almost negligible. “We have, however, still not called off the rescue operations and searches for the victims are still on. The final death toll in the tragedy is expected to surpass the present figure of 54,” Rudraprayag District Magistrate, Dr Neeraj Kherwal, said.

Meanwhile as life limps back to normal with people coming to terms with their grave losses in Ukhimath, a team of the Geological Survey of India (GSI) has started surveying the area to study the reasons for the unprecedented mudslides that caused more damage in the cloudburst-hit villages in the district.

Ukhimath area in the Rudraprayag district was the worst hit in the calamity that had flattened dozens of homes in eight villages in the area killing at least 54 people in their sleep. A total of 15 persons are still missing and 14 are presently under medical care. It may be noted that the Government had announced `3 lakh compensation for relatives of those killed and `1.5 lakh to those critically injured.

According to records, nearly 450 residents were rendered homeless after the calamity.

Monday 24 September 2012

http://dailypioneer.com/state-editions/dehradun/96579-15-persons-still-missing-believed-to-be-buried-under-landslide-debris.html

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