‘Angels’ search for migrants’ bodies

FALFURRIAS — Miles and miles of brush filled with hidden dangers, dehydration and high temperatures line the road awaiting many undocumented immigrants who try to circumvent U.S. Border Patrol checkpoints in Falfurrias and Sarita.

The trek has led many of those migrants to graves that line the municipal cemetery in Falfurrias.Small metal plaques that read “unknown male remains” or “unknown female remains” mark the end of the journey for many immigrants and leave their families back home with questions about their fate.

“The bodies here are just the ones that have been found and most of the time they are found only by accident,” said Rafael Hernandez, the director of Angeles Del Desierto, a nonprofit that searches inhospitable areas looking for stranded migrants — and their bodies.

While the group is based in California, the repeated calls that it receives about migrants traveling through the Rio Grande Valley prompted Hernandez to make the drive east in an effort to establish the networks needed to have his group search the areas around the checkpoint.

“I have gotten about 200 reports of missing migrants that were traveling through this area,” he said. “Unlike California or Arizona, most of this land is private property so we have to make contacts with the ranch owners so they will let us search through their property.”

Angeles Del Desierto attempts bringing closure to families, said Hernandez, who arrived with a list of missing migrants he hopes to find or rescue.

In 2012, Border Patrol has rescued about 300 immigrants and recovered more than 150 bodies in the Rio Grande Valley sector to date, said agency spokesman Enrique Mendiola.

“On top of the extreme weather, you have the dangers presented by the wildlife out there: coyotes, wild pings and rattlesnakes are just some of them,” Mendiola said, adding that immigrants also suffer from dehydration. “They are not able to carry enough water with them and if they do find water it is from a contaminated source.”

During his trip to the Valley, Hernandez trekked through one of the ranches searching for migrants and trying to survey the area to determine the dangers that migrants face. The biggest obstacles Hernandez faced were the “no trespassing” signs posted at many ranches.

With a backpack filled with emergency supplies and a cell phone, Hernandez walked for several miles searching for bodies or migrants in need of help. A cell phone is the best survival tool because migrants can dial 911 if they need help and authorities can pinpoint their location for rescue effort, he said.

“Sadly enough we were not able to find any migrants,” Hernandez said.

“We were, however, able to identify the body of a 12-year-old boy we had been looking for.”

Elmer Calinga Ceballos traveled from El Salvador to the U.S to seek a better life and reunite with his family; however, his journey ended on a table at the Elizondo Mortuary in Mission, where officials hadn’t been able to identify him.

Hernandez helped provide preliminary identification, which prompted the Salvadoran consulate to get involved and make arrangements to have the body sent home for burial.

When bodies turn up, the local sheriff’s office becomes involved.

Investigators at the Brooks County Sheriff’s Office have noted a sharp increase in the number of bodies discovered, said Chief Deputy Urbino “Benny” Martinez.

In 2010, deputies found 22 bodies. That figure had nearly tripled by 2011, when they found 64 bodies. But those numbers pale in comparison to the 95 bodies found so far this year.

Deputies find bodies at all stages of decomposition, including corpses that have been reduced to skeletal remains.

“This is a very sad case because these individuals are placed in the trust of unscrupulous individuals who will not hesitate to leave them to their fate,” Martinez said.

An additional danger is the predatory nature of the coyotes — guides — who sometimes sexually assault the women they’ve been paid to smuggle north, Martinez said, adding that his department is investigating five such cases.

“What makes it difficult to investigate is that many times all we have to go on is a nickname or a tattoo,” Martinez said. “The victim doesn’t know who that individual really is.”

Smugglers sometimes force illegal immigrants to carry drugs, leaving them exposed to federal prosecution.

“For the most part, they are hardworking people,” Martinez said. “The best choice would be for governments to have some way to fix this immigration problem so these individuals can travel in a humane fashion.”

Tuesday 9 October 2012

http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/local/article_b9ad0ca4-10f3-11e2-a700-0019bb30f31a.html

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'John Doe' in '87 Arizona crash ID'd as missing teen

After nearly a quarter of a century in a pauper's grave, John Bryan Moore is going home.

Moore ran away from his home in Southern California at age 16, hitchhiking cross-country to Florida.

His family would wait for him for the next 24 years, wondering if he was just too scared to come home, or if he had settled down somewhere.

They never dared to move away or even change their phone number in the hopes that he might look for them.

As technology and social media developed, they searched for him with renewed hope on Google and Facebook.

Now, they are finally reunited, but it wasn't the outcome the family had hoped for.

"I think it's the beginning of the closure that at least now, we know that he's not out there in the desert someplace, or in the hills," his father, Joe Moore, said in an emotional news conference on Monday. "We know exactly where he's at and where he's going. To me, that would be better than me going to my grave and never knowing."

Moore died in June 1987, six months after he was reported missing. He was hitchhiking from Arizona to California -- his family believes he was coming home -- but died in a car crash on westbound Interstate 10 near Tonopah.

The only identification he had was on a duffel bag with his name misspelled -- authorities suspect that he might have changed it because he was a runaway or that the initial investigating officer wrote it down wrong.

Moore was buried amid hundreds of other nameless bodies at Maricopa County's Twin Butte Cemetery for the indigent, a gravel lot tucked away next to I-10 just south of Broadway Road in Tempe. A metal disc about the size of a coaster marked his grave as John Doe, case No. 87-1337.

In late 2010, the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office received a federal grant to begin exhuming more than 200 sets of unidentified remains and use new technology and investigative techniques to solve their cases.

So far, they have identified 11 sets of remains out of the 40 they have investigated. They have partial sketches and causes of death for others.

The county project is one of many across the country that the U.S. Department of Justice's National Institute of Justice funds. The Identify the Missing project focuses on unnamed bodies buried from 1950 to 1992. This spring, the county Medical Examiner's Office applied for another round of funding, which is expected to be announced soon.

Moore's case took nearly two years of intense cross-agency work, a team of dedicated investigators and some luck.

Investigators zeroed in on Moore's case, optimistic that they had enough leads to piece the puzzle together.

"He was a 16-year-old boy -- a boy who ran away from home. For us, this case has been painful because we all have children, and we know what it's like for someone to be missing," said Laura Fulginiti, a forensic anthropologist with the project.

There is minimal evidence available in most of the unidentified cases because burials were so long ago. It takes a wide-cast net and cooperation among several agencies, sometimes in different states, to make an identification.

Moore's fingerprints had initially been on file in California but for some reason were no longer in the system, leading to a lengthier search process, officials said. Detectives searched through a list of juveniles who were missing but no longer listed in the national missing-persons database. A search combining his age, demographics and characteristics yielded 30,000 results.

Moore's duffel bag also had a Florida address with it, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety's report on the accident. But, at the time, attempts to identify him with that information failed, county officials said.

This time, Detective Steve Leon, who recently left the agency, began with the address and searched for more leads, narrowing down potential matches.

When he found the most likely candidate, the team contacted Moore's family members.

The family offered DNA samples right away. They matched. Moore's brother identified the tattoo on his chest -- his parents didn't know Moore had gotten it.

"This has been extremely overwhelming," said Joella, Moore's older sister. "Some people might think that we've had 24 years to prepare ourselves for this. There is no preparation because you always have hope."

She recalled times she and her brother shared at home in California -- before the anger issues that troubled him and which, his family believes, ultimately drove him to run away.

"We grew up in a small little country town. We built forts with spoons, in alfalfa fields, and threw rocks at cars when they drove by," she said. "We were getting into all kinds of trouble. A typical kid, you know? A little country kid."

It has been a rough few weeks for the family. They imagine his last moments and potentially suffering at a hospital in a different state by himself, she said near tears.

The family wonders if they could have found answers earlier: If his name wasn't "Brian" on his duffel bag, or if they had searched for variations of his name. They wonder how they missed the various Arizona news stories that had been published about Moore after the new program began.

The Moores urged other families with missing members to keep information updated in the national database.

Joe Moore urged other families to keep contacting law enforcement, especially if information disappears or becomes outdated on national missing-persons databases. "Don't give up," Moore said.

Tuesday 9 October 2012

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2012/10/08/20121008arizona-john-doe-arizona-crash-identified-missing-teen.html?nclick_check=1#ixzz28n3wqOBo

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Baldia fire mystery deepens as 70 persons still missing

KARACHI, Oct 8: As the report of the Sindh government’s inquiry tribunal set up to investigate the Baldia Town factory inferno is keenly awaited, the mystery behind the deadly incident is deepening with each passing day, with more than 70 families of missing Ali Enterprises workers still looking for their loved ones and 39 charred bodies being kept at the Edhi morgue.

While the authorities are firm on 259 deaths in the last month’s tragic incident, the number of persons who were inside the industrial unit at the time of the fire and missing since put a serious question mark over their fate and the total number of casualties.

Background interviews with grieving families and interaction with labour and non-governmental organisations engaged with these families after the tragedy suggest that there are more than 70 families in the Baldia Town, Orangi Town and SITE whose loved ones have not yet returned home after the fire incident, which has turned the Ali Enterprise factory into a haunted place.

Amna Bibi is passing through dual tragedy. She is unaware of the fate of his paternal cousin Kamaluddin, a ‘helper’ at Ali Enterprises. Nobody has approached her to confirm his association with the industrial unit. The 66-year-old labourer was posted at the second floor of the garments factory, where most of the casualties took place.

“He had been living with us since childhood when his parents died,” she said. “He was unmarried and had no one in blood relation. After the incident, we have made every possible effort to trace him or his body in vain. People said he was dead, but how one could believe it without seeing his body.” Since the labourer had no sibling or child, no blood samples had been taken for DNA matching with the unidentified bodies.

Amna Bibi is not alone as Rehana Yasmin of the Hosiery Garment Textile Workers Union says her organisation has so far collected details of more than 60 families, which are unaware of the fate of their loved ones, employed at the factory.

“We have completed a survey of Badia Town and Orangi Town in collaboration with Piler (Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research),” she says. “Here we have 65 families whose members have been missing after the fire incident. If they have died, the casualties are much higher than reported as 39 bodies are yet to be identified.”

Similarly, she says, the union also came to know about New Karachi and SITE areas, where the families of Ali Enterprises workers are looking for their loved ones and their count could further increase the number of missing persons to more than 70.

The authorities have declared a total of 259 deaths in the fire that engulfed Ali Enterprise on Sept 11 evening and took more than 18 hours to extinguish with over 50 firefighters taking part in the operation using almost all available machinery and equipment of the city’s fire department.

Rescue workers insist that they cleared the industrial unit only after retrieving all bodies, including several charred ones, from the garment factory.

“The limbs and other parts of bodies were also recovered from the factory after the fire died down, but not in a huge number,” said chief fire officer Ehtashamuddin. “Almost all bodies are intact and it’s not possible that human remains in such a large number remained out of rescue workers’ sight.”

Tuesday 9 October

http://dawn.com/2012/10/09/baldia-fire-mystery-deepens-as-70-persons-still-missing/

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Factory fire: Govt told to speed up victims’ identification

KARACHI: Finally there’s some hope for some 70 families whose beloved remain unidentified almost a month after the tragic Baldia factory fire.

The Sindh High Court has told the Sindh government to speed up the DNA matching process to identify the remaining victims of the country’s worst industrial disaster. The court has also ordered the authorities to submit the complete details of those killed or injured in the tragedy and provide compensation to the bereaved families.

On Monday, Justice Maqbool Baqir, heading a two-member bench, was hearing five similar petitions filed by different non-governmental organisations seeking judicial inquiry of the garment factory inferno that claimed 258 lives on September 11.

The petitioners’ lawyer, Faisal Siddiqui, moved a miscellaneous application to call complete details from the Sindh government of how many government departments or private bodies had announced compensation and who had so far given the money to the victims’ families or the survivors.

He added that nearly 70 bodies of people killed in the tragedy have still not been identified and the court should direct the government departments to accelerate the process of DNA testing.

Allowing the plea, the court gave 10 days to the authorities to provide the complete details of the victims and survivors of the tragedy and the amount of compensation, if paid, to anyone.

The judges also ordered the government to speed up the identification of unidentified victims and submit its report on the next hearing date.

Tuesday 9 October 2012

http://tribune.com.pk/story/448855/factory-fire-govt-told-to-speed-up-victims-identification/

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19 troops killed in Egypt accident

EL-ARISH, Egypt, Oct 8 AP - An Egyptian official says a troop carrier has overturned on a mountain road in the Sinai Peninsula, killing at least 19 members of the security forces stationed on the border with Israel.

Health Ministry official Tarek Khater says the vehicle was transferring troops of the paramilitary Central Security Forces to their camp early Monday.

Khater says six others are in critical condition. A security official however says the injured number at least 48. He spoke anonymously because he was not authorised to speak to the press.

It was a different part of the Sinai from where the military is conducting a sweep against Islamic militants.

Road accidents are common in Egypt due to badly maintained roads and poor enforcement of traffic laws. Police estimate they kill about 6,000 people annually.

Tuesday 9 October 2012

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/breaking-news/troops-killed-in-egypt-accident/story-e6freoo6-1226490980119

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Three dead, 13 missing in French accident

THREE people were dead and 13 missing on Monday after a boat carrying illegal immigrants capsized in the Indian Ocean off the French overseas territory of Mayotte, the local prefect's office said.

Eight others survived the accident on the boat, which had departed from the Comoran island of Anjouan, about 100 kilometres from Mayotte.

The boat capsized 300 metres off the coast and the search was continuing for other potential survivors, the office said.

Such accidents are common in the area, with several in the last few months including a shipwreck on September 8 that left six dead and 27 others missing and one in July in which seven people died and four went missing.

Mayotte is part of the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Comoros. While the three other islands chose independence from France in 1975, it opted to remain under French rule.

Many Comorans hoping to find work or medical care in Mayotte board rickety fishing boats to attempt the risky voyage, often foundering on coral reefs.

Some two-fifths of Mayotte's 200,000 inhabitants are thought to be illegal immigrants

Monday 8 October 2012

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/breaking-news/three-dead-13-missing-in-french-accident/story-e6frea7u-1226490926240

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Lack of information adds to trauma of ferry tragedy

Hong Kong's deadliest maritime disaster in four decades brought the city to a standstill a week ago.

While most of us were touched by rescuers who did their best to save more than 100 lives, the tragedy exposed the government's failure to disseminate information to the public, leaving many questions unanswered.

It is fair to say that the government reacted quickly to the disaster, in which a public ferry collided with a private motor launch last Monday night. Under Chief Executive Leung Chung-ying, departmental co-ordination was swiftly in place. But measures to provide updates about the victims were grossly inadequate.

Such information is particularly crucial not only to the rescue operation but also the subsequent investigation. This was glaringly obvious when no one, including the police, could get hold of the number of passengers on board the sunken motor launch, Lamma IV.

The lack of timely information forced distraught relatives to rush around hospitals looking for their loved ones.

Hongkong Electric, the owner of the Lamma IV, has been vague about its passenger list. It was not until the third day after the accident that it said it did not have a list of people on board.

On the same day, the government released just 11 names of the 38 who died, accounting for less than a third of the total. This was later increased to 39.

Officials said they could not release names without the victims' families' consent, despite the fact that the privacy law does not cover dead people.

Such a lack of information is unusual, with reporters normally being given the age, sex and names (sometimes not in full) of accident victims.

For tragedies such as the Manila hostage crisis in 2010 and the fire in Fa Yuen Street, Mong Kok, last year, the release of information was prompt. In both incidents, a list of people injured and their condition, along with those who died - with full names - were made available the next day.

As of today, the public is still confused about the scale of last Monday's tragedy. While Hongkong Electric revised its first-day figure of 124 passengers to 127, the casualties from various government departments show 131 in total.

Despite the confusion, the government seems to have made premature conclusions about the crash, raising questions as to the truthfulness of the investigations. Officials told the public on Tuesday the vessels were not overloaded. They also said all victims had been accounted for and rescuers had stopped the search.

Journalism academics agreed that more transparency would make investigations easier and fairer.

A full list of the names would allow the public to help identify the missing. Knowing the number of passengers on board will also tell investigators if the vessel was overloaded.

On the downside, the families of those who died could be upset by such aggressive reporting. But there has to be a balance between protecting privacy and the public interest.

Two days after the collision the government assembled rescuers from the disciplined services to share brave tales with the public.

While some officers dismissed the exercise as "propaganda" held at an inappropriate time, the Security Bureau said it was arranged at the media's requests.

It could be argued that the government has selectively released information, or could it be a more worrying sign of sheer incompetence. But the fact remains that an accurate death toll is still unclear today.

It is in the public interest for a thorough probe to be conducted so the government must release as quickly as possible full details of those who have died.

Monday 8 October 2012

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1056081/lack-information-adds-trauma-ferry-tragedy

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11 dead in Central China ship collision, one missing

CHANGSHA - Eleven people have died after two ships collided Friday afternoon in central China's Hunan province, the local government said Saturday.

One person remains missing, said Liu Lanping, a spokesperson with the city government of Yuanjiang.

A steel ship carrying 22 people collided with an unloaded sand carrier around 4 p.m. Friday on a river in Yuanjiang. All 22 people onboard the steel ship fell into the river. Ten people were rescued, while another 11 perished, Liu said.

A search for the missing person is under way. The cause of the accident is under investigation.

"Around 4 p.m. Friday, I heard a sudden crashing sound," said 50-year-old fisherman Zhong Lepeng, who witnessed the collision.

Zhong said he saw the smaller of the two ships turn on its side, and its bow was submerged.

Zhong and other fishermen rushed to rescue those who had fallen off of the boat. The survivors are receiving medical treatment.

A preliminary investigation by the local government indicated that the steel ship was not certified to carry passengers.

Monday 8 October 2012

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-10/06/content_15798356.htm

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Tough questions on way for Key on body recovery

Prime Minister John Key will face tough questioning today from Pike River families desperate for the Government to restart body-recovery efforts.

Key is due to meet several Pike River family members and their lawyers this afternoon in Greymouth.

It comes as the second anniversary looms of the November 19, 2010, explosion that killed 29 men.

Their bodies remain entombed at the West Coast underground coalmine and no-one has been further than 300 metres along its 2.4-kilometre entry tunnel since the disaster.

The spokesman for some of the victims' families, Bernie Monk, said he planned to ask Key to put up money for recovery efforts as promised because the mine's new owner, Solid Energy, had told families it would be unlikely to start before 2014.

Monk, whose son Michael, 23, died in the blast, said experts hired by the families had given the Government a proposed body-recovery plan, including a staged re-entry into the tunnel up to a large rockfall at about 2.1km.

However, Solid Energy's financial woes meant it was unlikely to push ahead with reclaiming the tunnel, the first stage of re-entering the mine's main working section, where the bodies were believed to lie, he said.

"I believe the reason is they're waiting for coal prices to go up. It's not a top priority for them. That's not good enough for us."

Monk said it had been "very convenient" for the Government that the state-owned enterprise had bought the mine.

"The Government can wipe their hands of it," he said.

"Now everything has come to a standstill. We want the Government to come back and finish what they left."

After Key met Pike families in September last year he said the mine's owners could talk to the Government if funding for body recovery was an issue.

Monday 8 October 2012

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/7785613/Tough-questions-on-way-for-Key-on-body-recovery

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20 Die in Accident on Way to Wedding

No fewer than 20 people were reported dead in auto crash yesterday along Kobape-Abeokuta. The accident occurred at Ototo village located between Paramount F.M Radio Station and Police Computer College, Abeokuta around 7.30 a.m.

The accident was reportedly caused by a truck with registration number, Lagos, JJJ 489XB, which allegedly veered off its lane and rammed into a fully loaded Hiace passengers bus conveying the victims.

It was gathered that the victims, all members of the African Church Solution Camp, Ewang Estate, Abeokuta, had left for Lagos to attend a wedding ceremony of one of their members when tragedy struck.

The driver of the truck was said to have lost control and killed the bus passengers. Many of the victims, according to an eye witness account, died on the spot following the impact of the collision, while others died in hospital.

Two infants, including a two-year-old, were said to be among the victims.

An eye witness claimed the survivors were taken to a state hospital for treatment. Ogun State Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Mr. Ayobami Omiyale, confirmed the accident,but said only nine died.

He however said that sympathisers took some corpses away before rescue team arrived the scene.

Also, the coordinator of the Ogun State traffic management outfit, TRACE, at the scene, Sola Bamidele, said the accident was caused by the truck driver.

Bamidele pointed out that the passengers took off from Abeokuta less than 30 minutes before the auto crash occured.

He added that the body (TRACE) was still trying to get in touch with the transport company which owned the ill-fated bus to get the manifest of the passengers.

When Sunday Vanguard visited the State Hospital Ijaye, where the victims were allegedly taken, worried relations were seen, asking for the victims whereabouts.

A doctor coordinating Ogun State Ambulance Services, Hassan Adelakun, said some of the victims died at the scene of incident while others died at the hospital.

Adelakun added that some of the victims corpses were deposited at State Hospital while others were taken to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Idi-Aba, Abeokuta.

Meanwhile, at the African Church Solution Camp, which the victims attended, members wore a pensive mood when Sunday Vanguard visited the place last night.

Monday 8 October 2012

http://allafrica.com/stories/201210070344.html

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Sudanese military plane crashes near Khartoum

Thirteen Sudanese military personnel died and nine others were injured when their transport plane crashed on its way to conflict-plagued Darfur, the army told official media.

"Thirteen were killed instantly, and nine were taken to hospital," Sawarmi Khalid Saad, the Sudanese army spokesman, was quoted as saying by the state SUNA news agency.

The plane was traveling from Khartoum to El Fasher in the country's strife-torn Darfur region, Khalid told Reuters news agency, adding that the Antonov 12 transport plane was also carrying military equipment.

"The pilot informed the airport that he had a problem with one of his engines," before the plane went down west of Jebel Aulia, Khalid said.

Jebel Aulia is a popular recreational area about one hour's drive from the capital.

There have been several crashes in Sudan in recent years, where years of US sanctions have made it harder for airlines to get spare parts for their fleets.

In August, 32 people including a government minister died when a plane taking them to an Islamic festival in a southern border state crashed. State media blamed that accident on bad weather.

A military helicopter crashed in the country's North Kordofan state in December because of a technical failure, killing six crew members, the military said at the time.

Government forces have been battling an insurgency in Darfur since rebels took up arms in 2003, accusing the central government of neglecting the remote region.

Monday 8 October 2012

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/10/201210791124752382.html

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Bali's worst brought out the best

BALI introduced terrorism to Australians in an unforgettable way. It destroyed the lives of hundreds of families and left the nation numb with shock.

Until October 12, 2002, Australia had been untouched by the violent war being waged by Islamic fundamentalists across the Western world, leaving death and destruction in its wake.

That all changed when two bombs destroyed the Sari Club and Paddy's Pub in the middle of bustling Kuta, which was heaving with partygoers on a steamy Saturday night.

There were 202 people killed, and another 240 were seriously injured. Among the dead were 88 Australians and 34 Indonesians.

The mutilated bodies were taken to a makeshift morgue at Sanglah Hospital in Bali's capital, Denpasar, where they were laid on tiles and grass in an open courtyard.

As the hospital struggled to deal with the wounded, many with horrific burns and missing limbs, volunteers of various nationalities responded to text messages calling for their help.

Most were foreign expatriates living on Bali among them were an art dealer, furniture exporter, teacher, organic farmer, restaurateur and real estate investor.

For the next 72 hours they were plunged into a hellish ordeal as they worked to identify the scorched remains lying in parallel lines in the morgue's courtyard.

With scant official support they established a crisis centre, writing names of the missing or dead on sheets of butcher paper scanned by desperate relatives and friends.

They took photographs of the bodies and any identifying features such as tattoos, jewellery, underwear, T-shirts and watches.

The photographs were printed out and a database was developed with details extracted from charred wallets and purses.

Other volunteers sorted through the remains, placing legs, arms, hands and feet into black plastic bags. The bulging bags were stored in a dilapidated refrigerated truck parked beside the morgue.

In its crowded courtyard, ice from large blocks was chipped and placed on the bodies, many of them headless, as they steadily decomposed in the sweltering heat.

With body bags in limited supply, most were wrapped in sheets, quickly becoming stained as melting ice mixed with blood and other fluids, creating a slippery film across the tiles.

As the Indonesian, Australian and American governments squabbled over who would take jurisdictional control of the bodies and the investigation into those responsible for the bombings, the volunteers at Sanglah Hospital continued their grisly task.

Within 24 hours of the bombings their database had grown to contain more than 150 possible names of those who had been killed.

Relatives and friends of the missing were escorted through the morgue and shown the photos as they searched for their loved ones, many collapsing in grief when their worst fears were realised.

Among them was Adelaide father, John Golotta, who recognised his daughter, Angela, 19, by the pair of underpants she had put on in front of her brother's girlfriend before they went to the Sari Club.

Sturt Football Club stalwart Bob Marshall was identified by his two sons by an amputated finger and a watch he had bought in Bali.

One of his charges, young Sturt footballer Josh Deegan, 19, was found through a credit card in his blackened wallet.

Much has been written and spoken about the victims of the Bali bombings over the past 10 years but very little has been said about the work done by those volunteers at Sanglah Hospital.

Dispatched to the Indonesian island soon after the bombings, I found myself at the hospital as the wounded were still being taken away in ambulances and the bodies carried into the morgue.

I count myself very fortunate that I met these people and for five long and incredibly traumatic days, witnessed first-hand their selfless efforts to help others when the easiest option would have been to walk away.

Having covered the gun massacre at Port Arthur and the Thredbo ski lodge disaster beforehand, I can say with some justification that I have never seen such an incredible group of people perform such difficult tasks in such awful circumstances.

There are hundreds of stories to be told about the Bali bombings and the 10 years which have since passed many of which will never emerge because they are too painful, too traumatic, too sad.

Among them is the plight of the volunteers who worked tirelessly until they were exhausted, emotionally spent and drained of any tears.

What has happened to them or how they have coped is, sadly, something I have no idea about but I often think about them, what they went through and how much they would have suffered, mentally and emotionally.

While all of us who directly experienced the aftermath of Bali have had our own personal struggles, very little has been said about those who responded to those first text messages calling for help.

The psychological toll on them must have been horrendous. Their lives would have been irrevocably changed, damaged and ruined by what they saw and what they did.

As the 10th anniversary of the Bali bombings approaches and we all reflect on our loss, grief, sense of security and place in the world, all I ask is that we take the time to pause and say thanks to the Sanglah Hospital volunteers.

For they were the guardians of 202 poor souls who would have lain in the sun largely uncared for and unwatched until professional help arrived and the long but necessarily tedious process of official identification began.

Sunday 7 October 2012

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/balis-worst-brought-out-the-best/story-fndo471r-1226490142755

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Couple, six children killed in Kenya school blaze

Eight people, all members of the same family, have been killed in a fire that hit a school in a coastal town in Kenya.

Eight members of a family were killed in a fire at their house at Malindi High School, Kilifi County, , nearly 120 km northeast of Mombasa.

The school’s Deputy Principal Kilatya Kituku and his family were in the house when the three-bedroom house caught fire.

Detectives took away the bodies to Malindi District Hospital mortuary amid speculation the family could have died from suffocation.

The victims, who moved into the ill-fated house last Sunday, were burnt as students made desperate attempts to rescue them.

Rescue fighters recovered the bodies of the school’s deputy headmaster, Godfrey Kituku, his wife and four of their children at the blaze site. Two other children died on the way to hospital.

When the local fire brigade arrived, their efforts came to naught when their engines ran out of water. Principal Emannuel Kitsao said he was sleeping when he had screams an explosion and screams.

The cause of the explosion was not known, but reports indicate there were two motorcycles with fuel in their tanks and a gas cylinder in the house.

Mr Kitsao told The Standard On Saturday yesterday that on hearing the explosion, he rushed out of his house only to see fire in the deputy principal’s house.

He said he rushed to the dormitories and alerted the students who rushed to the scene with other teachers.

The students attempted to put of the fire before the fire fighters from Malindi Municipal Council arrived.

Students broke into one of the rooms and rescued two children who were rushed to Tawfiq hospital but died upon arrival.

Doctors said the two children died due to suffocation.

In a separate incident, a gas cylinder exploded at a restaurant at Nairobi’s Ngara area, causing a fire that raged through the building in no time.

At least 18 people were rushed to the Kenyatta National Hospital to receive treatment for the burns they suffered in the fire.

Saturday 6 October 2012

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000067734&story_title=Teacher,-his-family-of-7-die-in-Malindi-house-fire

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China Landslide: Bodies Of 18 Children Found

Chinese state media has confirmed all 18 schoolchildren buried in a landslide in the country’s southwest are dead.

The landslide toppled an elementary school building in a mountainous area of China on Thursday.

Eighteen students were buried at the Tiantou Primary School and a 19th victim was buried in a house, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing local officials.

Another person was seriously injured in the landslide, which occurred in an area ravaged by a deadly earthquake last month.

About 2,000 local people, medics, police and military personnel tried to rescue the victims, the Yiliang county government said.

The landslide hit the school and two farmhouses in Zhenhe village at around 8am local time.

More than 800 people living near a river blocked by the landslide were ordered to leave the area.

Rescuers rushed from the Yiliang county seat to Zhenhe three hours away to dig out the students, said Peng Hong, an official with the county foreign affairs office.

Peng said the cause of the landslide was not yet known, but Yiliang was struck by an earthquake last month that killed 81 people and devastated several villages.

In addition, rain has lashed the region of mountains and sheer valleys.

Thursday was a holiday across China, however students were in school to make up for days missed after the quake, Peng said.

Friday 5 October 2012

http://feeddoo.com/n/2038162-china-landslide-bodies-of-18-children-found

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Five more bodies recovered from Gayari

RAWALPINDI: Five more bodies of Shaheed soldiers were recovered from Gayari sector of Siachen Sunday evening bringing the total number of bodies recovered so far to 88.

According to a spokesman of Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) here, identity of the body was under process.

It may be mentioned here that 140 soldiers including some civilians of 6 Northern Light Infantry Battalion came under a huge snow slide early Saturday morning (April 7, 2012) in Gayari sector near Skardu.

Since then, over 300 soldiers and 50 engineering plant are employed at search operation.

Friday 5 October 2012

http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-70220-Five-more-bodies-recovered-from-Gayari:-ISPR

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Body of Quebecer's guide found in Nepal

MONTREAL – The body of one of the three missing men from the Sept. 23 avalanche in Nepal has been found, according to reports. It was not the body of Quebec cardiologist Dominque Ouimet. He and another French national are still missing.

Sherpas found the body of French guide Rémy Lécluse in a crevice about 600 metres from one of the camps destroyed when the avalanche roared down Mont Manaslu in the early morning hours while the climbers slept. Because of below-zero temperatures and the extreme terrain, a full-scale search with helicopters and extensive ground patrols was called off last week after any hope of finding the missing men alive had passed. Groups of climbers still attempting to ascend the peak have promised they will keep looking when they are in the area where the men disappeared.

Friday 5 October 2012

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/health/Body+Quebec+cardiologist+guide+found+Nepal/7344362/story.html#ixzz28RBgDdAJ

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Rescue work continues overnight in Yunnan

The search and rescue operation is continuing in Yunnan, to find the last person buried by the landslide. Around two thousand people, including medical staff, police and military personnel, were dispatched to the scene, soon after Thursday's accident.

8 o’clock Thursday morning and a devastating landslide hits the village of Zhenhe, in Yiliang county. More than 60 military personnel rushed to the scene, searching for signs of life. And as more and more rescuers joined them, a race against time began.

Liu Zhaowen, Political Commissar of Zhaotong City Fire Prevention Crew, said, "First we moved a large amount of dirt and stones using an excavator. Then we divided our crews into several groups to clear the mud with small tools. Now we’re focusing on this area, where we found the bodies of three students. That’s one of the school gates. Some of the children were caught there trying to escape the landslide"

Access to the landslide site was already difficult. It was made worse by heavy rainfall. As the clock reached midnight, soldiers had found the bodies of 17 children. But there were 2 more people still to find. The city's mayor said the rescue would go on.

"As long as there is hope, we will never give up. We will do our best to find these two people."

The Mayor says the children attended Shangba Primary School, in Longhai Township. It had been destroyed by an earthquake in September. 37 of the school's 115 students had been relocated to Tiantou Primary School, to make up for lessons missed after the quake.

1:40 am on Friday, another child's body is found. No time to grieve, the rescue team continues their search for the last missing person. Meanwhile, medics, specialist equipment operators and villagers stay on site, ready to offer help... in the hope of one remaining miracle. The search is continuing on Friday.

Meanwhile, the local government says it's drawn up an initial compensation plan for victims, and launched an investigation into the accident.

Friday 5 October 2012

http://www.china.org.cn/video/2012-10/06/content_26711368.htm

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Days to recover bodies from plane crash site

It could be days before the bodies of six people killed in a plane crash north of Brisbane can be recovered, police say.

The wreckage of a 1934 De Havilland Dragon was found in dense bushland near the town of Imbil in the Sunshine Coast hinterland yesterday, two days after it crashed.

Police and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau are leading investigations into the crash as the operation shifts from a rescue to recovery mission.

Chief Superintendent Mike Keating says victim identification officers will visit the crash site today.

They will begin the task of recovering the bodies of pilot Des Porter, 68, his wife Kath, 61, and two Brisbane couples, Les D'evlin, 75, and wife Janice, 61, and John and Carol Dawson, both 63.

Superintendent Keating said the remoteness of the crash site was making recovery efforts difficult.

"That will take a few days I think," he told reporters in Imbil about 160 km north of Brisbane.

"This is a difficult environment, a tough situation and we'll work our way painstakingly through that until we've completed our scene investigation."

Superintendent Keating said the crash site would be guarded from the public and media while investigations were undertaken.

"It's a preserved site," he said.

"We have orders to preserve it and nobody will get anywhere near it other than those that need to from the investigation parties."

Superintenden Keating said police were providing support to the victims' families.

Thursday 4 October 2012

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/days-to-recover-bodies-from-plane-crash-site-20121004-270fa.html#ixzz28Ks6aLEq

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Taiwanese victims ID'd in Ha Long Bay ship collision

Five Taiwanese tourists have been confirmed dead in a collision on Wednesday between two ships in Ha Long, a bay in the northern province of Quang Ninh.

A passenger boat with the five victims on board capsized after colliding with the Dong Phong 2 tourist boat in the afternoon, said Nguyen Van Doc, Chairman of the Quang Ninh People's Committee

The victims have all been identified.

Their bodies have been sent to Bai Chay, a local hospital for necessary formalities.

By the time of the accident, there were 18 tourists on the passenger boat. The survivors were then taken to Cai Lan Hospital after being rescued.

Past incidents

On May 8, 2011, a tour boat numbered QN 2070 with 28 French nationals, one Vietnamese tour guide and 12 sailors aboard sank in Ha Long Bay.

The boat began to sink at around 3:15 pm at a berth situated at Sung Sot Cave, 300 meters away from Ti Top Island, where 12 tourists from 9 nations had died around three months earlier when their tour boat was wrecked.

It cracked after being hit by another. After the incident, many ships nearby immediately came to their rescue.

On February 17, 2011, 12 tourists from 9 nations died after a tourist boat overturned in the same picturesque bay.

There were 26 people aboard the ship at the time, including one captain, four crew members, one tour guide, and 20 foreign tourists.

Local police said the accident was caused by a crack in a wooden board in the engine room, letting sea water in, causing the boat to capsize.

Colonel Vu Chi Thuc, director of the Quang Ninh police said 27-year-old Do Van Thang, a crew member in charge of the engine, forgot to close the valves that allowed water in to cool the machinery on both sides of the boat.

Thursday 4 October 2012

http://www.tuoitrenews.vn/cmlink/tuoitrenews/society/taiwanese-victims-id-d-in-ha-long-bay-ship-collision-1.87853

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Lamma IV passengers 'buried' under falling debris

Detached seats and fallen ceiling panels trapped passengers on the upper deck of the doomed cruiser Lamma IV after it collided with a ferry, turning the cabin into an underwater grave for more than 20 people.

As well as falling on the victims, the debris blocked the only exit from the cabin.

This emerged yesterday as the search for bodies went on and fire services officers checked the wrecked vessel, beached at Nga Kau Wan on Lamma Island.

"Seats broke off from their fixtures and fibreboards dropped from the ceiling," a government source said. "Debris slid on to the victims and buried them."

The victims rolled to the rear end of the upper-deck cabin when the 24-metre boat sank vertically to a depth of 15 metres with only its bow above the surface.

Rescuers had to break windows to pull survivors out of the cabin.

"Divers discovered more than 20 bodies buried under debris on the upper deck. They included children," the source said.

"External wounds such as head and arm injuries were found on the victims. They were not wearing lifejackets."

At least three other bodies were discovered in the lower cabin of the vessel, one entangled in damaged railings.

Divers from the police elite team the "Flying Tigers" and the Fire Services Department found 28 bodies in the wreckage of the Lamma IV.

Another two bodies, trapped under the sunken vessel, surfaced when the boat was raised by three crane barges on Tuesday afternoon.

The 30 victims were among 38 people, including five children, killed in the city's deadliest sea disaster in four decades.

Another source said the Lamma IV, with a nine-square-metre hole ripped in the left rear of its hull, sank within two minutes after the collision.

Yesterday, divers from the Fire Services Department checked the wreckage and the seabed at the site of the collision, but no more bodies were found.

An air and sea search continued yesterday as it remained unclear how many people, if any, were missing. A Marine Department officer said the search was expected to continued for the next two days.

Thursday 4 October 2012

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1053346/lamma-iv-passengers-buried-under-falling-debris

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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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