Cyclone Nilam: Bodies of three missing sailors found

The bodies of three of the five missing sailors of ship MT Pratibha Cauvery, which was grounded by cyclone Nilam, have been found.

One of the bodies was washed ashore near the Chennai harbour while the other was found near Adyar Estuary. Another body was found at sea this afternoon. All the bodies are yet to be identified.

Meanwhile, the two other sailors remain

The ship had run aground near the Besant Nagar beach in Chennai on Wednesday. The five sailors went missing after a lifeboat they were using to leave the ship capsized.

So far, three sailors have lost their lives in the tragedy.

Coast Guard helicopters had on Thursday rescued 15 trapped sailors from the ship. The initial rescue operations on the day of the cyclone were carried out by fishermen.

When the cyclone made its landfall, the ship's captain had sent out a distress call, but got no response. The Coast Guard and the Tamil Nadu government's Coastal Security Group were unable to launch rescue operations immediately; they said the gusty winds and bad weather didn't allow it.

A Coast Guard official said: "We do not monitor ships at ports, not even on a cyclone day. We rescue only when there is a call."

Chennai Port officials said the ship's captain had ignored instructions to leave for safe waters following the cyclone alert.

Friday 2 November 2012

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/cyclone-nilam-bodies-of-three-missing-sailors-found-two-still-to-be-traced-287414

continue reading

Delay in DNA tests for Baldia factory fire victims

At the only morgue in Pakistan’s largest city lie the blackened remains of 32 people killed in one of the worst industrial accidents in the country’s history, wrapped in white plastic body bags waiting for DNA tests to determine who they are.

That means an excruciating wait — so far more than a month — for families whose relatives are believed to have been killed but have not been accounted for.

One of those in the morgue may be the daughter-in-law of Aisha Bano. Bano’s son and his wife both were working as stitching machine operators in the warehouse-factory producing jeans and other clothes when it was ravaged by a Sept. 11 blaze. The son is known to have died. His wife is still missing.

Bano says her grandchildren have continuous nightmares about their missing mother, dreaming that she’s trying to get home.

“Almost every midnight one of them wakes me up to tell me somebody is outside the house calling their names and pleading to open the door,” said Bano, tears rolling down her cheeks.

The fire horrified Karachi, and residents are still struggling to deal with the extent of the tragedy. According to official figures, 259 workers died in the fire, but there are indications the toll may be even higher. The inferno laid bare the dangerous conditions at some Pakistani factories, as well as the limitations of facilities in this port city of more than 18 million people.

It took rescue workers more than 36 hours to put out the blaze. Investigators haven’t determined what caused the fire but suggested that it might have been a short circuit that ignited material and wood. Between 300 and 400 workers were inside working. An investigation found that the emergency exits were permanently locked, and the main doors were locked after the fire broke out to prevent theft.

Many of the dead suffocated to death in the basement when it filled with smoke. Those on the top floors of the five-story building could be seen on television images desperately breaking through the metal bars blocking the windows and then jumping to the ground below.

When authorities were finally able to make their way into the blackened building, they found dozens of bodies, many charred beyond recognition.

Most of the dead have been identified and handed over to their families, many in the first couple of days because the bodies were intact.

Those remaining are at the Edhi Morgue, identifiable only by DNA.

There’s no place in Karachi to do the DNA tests, so samples have been sent to a laboratory in Islamabad, said officials. Despite reassurances from the government that the dead would be quickly identified, the turnover has been slow. The lab provided results on nine bodies so far, leaving 32 still at the morgue, said Inspector Jahanzeb Khan with the Karachi police.

“We sent a lot of reminders to the laboratory to expedite the DNA match process,” he said.

Bano’s family received the body of her son, Muhammad Javed, from the hospital the day after the fire. But his wife Samina’s has still not been identified. Bano and her other sons initially thought Samina might still be alive and visited all the city’s hospitals. When realization struck that she was likely dead, they began visiting the morgue.

“We checked all the unidentified bodies so many times. We visited the Edhi Morgue 17 days in a row,” she said, sitting next to her three grandchildren and younger son.

The doctors took a DNA sample from one of the relatives and told them it would take up to three days to confirm Samina’s body, Bano said. When they contacted the police, they were told the samples were sent to Islamabad and were told to wait.

The lack of identification has also made it difficult for families to receive compensation promised by the government.

Muhammad Siddiq lost his son Muhammad Shehbaz in the factory. His son came home for lunch that day with a fever but he brushed aside his mother’s urging to stay home and returned to work. Provincial government officials told the family they have to prove they have lost a family member before they can receive compensation. So they need confirmation of his body.

Siddiq said the compensation pales in comparison to the family’s need to bury their son.

“All I need is my son’s body so his soul can rest,” he said. “His mother has almost lost her senses.”

A recent survey by a Karachi union suggests even more people might have been killed.

The Hosiery Garment Textile Workers Union along with the Pakistan Institute of Labor Education and Research surveyed families in the neighborhood where the factory was located as well as another neighborhood nearby where many workers lived. They found 65 families who said they were still missing relatives after the blaze. Some of those could be among the unidentified at the morgue, but the numbers indicate many might not be.

“If they have died, the casualties are much higher than reported,” said Rehana Yasmin from the union.

Two of the owners of Ali Enterprises, which owned the factory, are in a Karachi prison awaiting trial on murder charges for allegedly telling guards to lock the doors after the fire started to prevent theft. A third owner was allowed to stay out of jail because of poor health. Police have also arrested the factory’s general manager and three private security guards on murder charges for carrying out the orders to lock the doors.

The Federal Investigation Agency, one of the country’s highest law enforcement agencies, was tasked with investigating the fire and recently submitted a report blaming the owners and relevant government departments for not following safety and labor laws.

The second floor, where most of the casualties were reported, was not even in the approved map of the factory, the FIA found. Water hydrants did not work, and workers had not been given rescue training by the city’s civil defense department, the FIA found. The factory was not registered with the provincial labor department, in violation of the country’s labor laws.

Friday 2 Novemebr 2012

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/delay-in-dna-tests-means-families-wait-for-bodies-of-loved-ones-after-deadly-pakistani-fire/2012/11/02/6979c45a-24b9-11e2-92f8-7f9c4daf276a_story.html

continue reading

Families await bodies after Pakistan factory fire

KARACHI, Pakistan—At the only morgue in Pakistan's largest city lie the blackened remains of 32 people killed in one of the worst industrial accidents in the country's history, wrapped in white plastic body bags waiting for DNA tests to determine who they are.

That means an excruciating wait—so far more than a month—for families whose relatives are believed to have been killed but have not been accounted for.

One of those in the morgue may be the daughter-in-law of Aisha Bano. Bano's son and his wife both were working as stitching machine operators in the warehouse-factory producing jeans and other clothes when it was ravaged by a Sept. 11 blaze. The son is known to have died. His wife is still missing.

Bano says her grandchildren have continuous nightmares about their missing mother, dreaming that she's trying to get home.

"Almost every midnight one of them wakes me up to tell me somebody is outside the house calling their names and pleading to open the door," said Bano, tears rolling down her cheeks.

The fire horrified Karachi, and residents are still struggling to deal with the extent of the tragedy. According to official figures, 259 workers died in the fire, but there are indications the toll may be even higher. The inferno laid bare the dangerous conditions at some Pakistani factories, as well as the limitations of facilities in this port city of more than 18 million people.

It took rescue workers more than 36 hours to put out the blaze. Investigators haven't determined what caused the fire but suggested that it might have been a short circuit that ignited material and wood. Between 300 and 400 workers were inside working. An investigation found that the emergency exits were permanently locked, and the main doors were locked after the fire broke out to prevent theft.

Many of the dead suffocated to death in the basement when it filled with smoke. Those on the top floors of the five-story building could be seen on television images desperately breaking through the metal bars blocking the windows and then jumping to the ground below.

When authorities were finally able to make their way into the blackened building, they found dozens of bodies, many charred beyond recognition.

Most of the dead have been identified and handed over to their families, many in the first couple of days because the bodies were intact.

Those remaining are at the Edhi Morgue, identifiable only by DNA.

There's no place in Karachi to do the DNA tests, so samples have been sent to a laboratory in Islamabad, said officials. Despite reassurances from the government that the dead would be quickly identified, the turnover has been slow. The lab provided results on nine bodies so far, leaving 32 still at the morgue, said Inspector Jahanzeb Khan with the Karachi police.

"We sent a lot of reminders to the laboratory to expedite the DNA match process," he said.

Bano's family received the body of her son, Muhammad Javed, from the hospital the day after the fire. But his wife Samina's has still not been identified. Bano and her other sons initially thought Samina might still be alive and visited all the city's hospitals. When realization struck that she was likely dead, they began visiting the morgue.

"We checked all the unidentified bodies so many times. We visited the Edhi Morgue 17 days in a row," she said, sitting next to her three grandchildren and younger son.

The doctors took a DNA sample from one of the relatives and told them it would take up to three days to confirm Samina's body, Bano said. When they contacted the police, they were told the samples were sent to Islamabad and were told to wait.

The lack of identification has also made it difficult for families to receive compensation promised by the government.

Muhammad Siddiq lost his son Muhammad Shehbaz in the factory. His son came home for lunch that day with a fever but he brushed aside his mother's urging to stay home and returned to work. Provincial government officials told the family they have to prove they have lost a family member before they can receive compensation. So they need confirmation of his body.

Siddiq said the compensation pales in comparison to the family's need to bury their son.

"All I need is my son's body so his soul can rest," he said. "His mother has almost lost her senses."

A recent survey by a Karachi union suggests even more people might have been killed.

The Hosiery Garment Textile Workers Union along with the Pakistan Institute of Labor Education and Research surveyed families in the neighborhood where the factory was located as well as another neighborhood nearby where many workers lived. They found 65 families who said they were still missing relatives after the blaze. Some of those could be among the unidentified at the morgue, but the numbers indicate many might not be.

"If they have died, the casualties are much higher than reported," said Rehana Yasmin from the union.

Two of the owners of Ali Enterprises, which owned the factory, are in a Karachi prison awaiting trial on murder charges for allegedly telling guards to lock the doors after the fire started to prevent theft. A third owner was allowed to stay out of jail because of poor health. Police have also arrested the factory's general manager and three private security guards on murder charges for carrying out the orders to lock the doors.

The Federal Investigation Agency, one of the country's highest law enforcement agencies, was tasked with investigating the fire and recently submitted a report blaming the owners and relevant government departments for not following safety and labor laws.

The second floor, where most of the casualties were reported, was not even in the approved map of the factory, the FIA found. Water hydrants did not work, and workers had not been given rescue training by the city's civil defense department, the FIA found. The factory was not registered with the provincial labor department, in violation of the country's labor laws.

Friday 2 November 2012

http://www.lcsun-news.com/ci_21911686/families-await-bodies-after-pakistan-factory-fire

continue reading

Jnaneswari victims' kin to move court

KOLKATA: Miffed over delay in issuing death certificates, members of 16 families, who lost their kin in the Jnaneswari Express accident on May 28, 2010, are planning to move the court. According to them, they can't even claim their jobs and succession documents in the absence of the death certificates.

Of the 150 victims of the tragedy, about 40 bodies were heavily mutilated and later many were identified through DNA matching. Still 23 bodies are still of the train accident are lying in the morgues for identification. As several DNA profiles did not match, the state, in June, 2012, the state government's home (political) department issued a missive to the relatives of 11 victims of the Jnaneswari express advising them to take legal route. The state had said that under the provision of law it's not permissible to issue death certificates unless the bodies are identified.

Juthika Atta, whose husband Prasenjit was in the S-3 compartment, is shattered. "His body could not be traced. DNA test didn't help. I got Rs 10 lakh as compensation. But I need a job to take care of my daughter Poulami (7) and the ailing in-laws. So, I need the death certificate.",the railways won't give me a job."

The compensation package included Rs 5 lakh from the railways, Rs 2 lakh from the PM's Relief Fund and Rs 3 lakh from the CM's Relief Fund.

For Rajesh Kumar Bathra, life came to a halt, as his wife Indu Devi, daughter Sneha (17) and son Saurav (13) were in the train on the fateful day. While Sneha could not be found, an injured Saurav died in a hospital on May 31,2010. He received his wife's body on December 26, 2010. "I visit Midnapore and Kharagpur regularly to find out Sneha."

Surendra Singh, who lost his wife Nilam (37) and sons Rahul (17) and Rohit (15), goes to Midnapore every month to find traces of missing Nilam and Rahul. Rohit was found dead on the spot. "My younger son Raju gave samples thrice for the DNA test. But Nilam and Rahul are still untraced. Raju had applied for a job in the railways, but they turned it down stating that he was only eligible in his father's absence."would have if the father had died then he would have been eligible."

Unnati Mondal lost her husband Swapan Mondal and with one-year old niece Latikais yet to get their death certificates.

Hisabuddin Sheikh is lobbying with the railway officials for a job for his nephew Selim Sheikh (19), as his brother Ayajuddin died in the accident. on his way to the middle-east.

But the death certificate is an impediment.

65-year old Suresh Gajbhiy's son Amit (31) and daughter-in-law Sunita died in the accident. "It is difficult for me to come from Nagpur for the death certificate." Similarly, Pankaj Upadhyay of Madhya Pradesh finds it difficult to come frequently to Kolkata for his brother Pradip's death certificate.

For 73-year-old Sushil Kumar Sil and his 65-year-old wife Mallika, life is of little value as they lost their son Tapas (42), daughter-in-law Chaitali (31), daughter Sujata Das (35), son-in-law Shyamal Das (38) and grandsons Srijit (10), Srinjay (3) and Siddhartha (7). They shifted to Sodepur from their Dunlop residence as it was impossible for them to stay in the same house.

Former chief justice of Calcutta high court Chittatosh Mookerjee said a petition before the court can help the kin get death certificates. He said that under the Evidence Act, a person, who had not been heard of for seven years, is presumed to be dead. "But the court, through inference, can direct for providing a death certificate, if it is proved that they had died due to the accident."

It is unending wait for 16 family members, who lost their dear ones in the Jnaneswari Express on May 28, 2010. They are yet to get death certificates of their relatives and so they are now moving high court for relief. Without it many are unable to claim jobs or get succession certificate.

Friday 2 November 2012

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Jnaneswari-victims-kin-to-move-court/articleshow/16998964.cms

continue reading

Six Indian ship crew missing after cyclone crash

Rescuers in southern India searched Thursday for six tanker crew that went missing after their lifeboat capsized as a cyclone slammed into the coast overnight, forcing thousands to flee and killing eight.

The crew of the Pratibha Cauvery oil tanker was forced to abandon ship when it ran aground on the southern edge of Chennai, and one sailor was confirmed to have drowned.

The ship, which had unloaded its oil in Chennai port, was stranded on a beach close to the shore on Thursday as three helicopters and small vessels took the 15 remaining crew members ashore.

"One sailor is dead and we are searching for six other crew members," said Jayraman, a disaster management official in Chennai.

Shipping authorities had reported that the Pratibha Cauvery was not badly damaged and that a plan to refloat it was being drawn up, he said.

The overall death toll from the cyclone reached eight, with thousands of people also forced to flee from coastal towns to seek shelter in schools and government buildings.

One other person drowned, two were killed when a wall collapsed, one person was electrocuted and three died when a tree fell on their hut.

"We have managed to restore power in all districts after the storm," Jayraman said. "Food and drinking water have been provided to all the 5,000 people who have been evacuated from their homes."

Government authorities on Thursday said the storm had weakened substantially though heavy rains continued to lash some parts of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka states.

Friday 2 November 2012

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/741820.shtml

continue reading

Pinoy among 22 dead in tanker blast in Riyadh

At least one Filipino was killed while ten others were hospitalized in a fuel truck explosion that killed at least 22 people in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Thursday, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.

In an update posted on his Twitter account, DFA spokesman Raul Hernandez indicated three more Filipinos were injured but have been discharged.

"One Filipino was killed in the Riyadh fuel truck explosion, nine (are) in hospitals, three (have been) discharged," he said.

In Riyadh, Vice Consul Redentor Genotiva said there is a tenth injured Filipino also being given medical attention.

The gas tanker truck exploded on a main road in the Saudi capital on Thursday, killing at least 22 people, including one unnamed Filipino. The explosion also injured about 111 others—eleven of them Filipinos—and left a trail of destruction, officials said.

The lorry veered into a bridge pylon at a junction on Khurays Road in Riyadh at about 7:30 a.m., causing a gas leak that spread out and then burst into flames, destroying nearby cars and a business, the officials told AFP.

An injured man after an explosion in eastern Riyadh on November 1. At least 10 people were killed when a fuel truck crashed into a flyover in the Saudi capital Riyadh, triggering the blast that caused the collapse of an industrial building. Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera television stations reported that aside from the fatalities, at least 50 people were injured.

Philippine Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Ezzedin Tago, in an interview on GMA News' "State of the Nation," cited initial reports indicating the deceased was brought to a morgue but was not immediately identifiable. He added they are coordinating with the deceased's kin.

He also expressed condolences with the family of the deceased, and assured the families of the injured the embassy is coordinating with Saudi authorities.

In a radio interview Friday, Vice Consul Genotiva said they will coordinate with the victim's employer for the repatriation.

"Makikipag-ugnayan tayo sa employer para mapadali ang pag-uwi ng labi sa Pilipinas," he said in an interview on dzBB radio.

He said the fatality was identified by a brother-in-law.

While he withheld the name of the fatality for the moment, he described the fatality and the brother-in-law as workers for a tractor company.

Genotiva also said their latest figures indicated 10 Filipinos, nine of them employees of the tractor company, were injured in the incident.

The injured were being treated in four hospitals in the Kingdom, he added.

Genotiva also said the Embassy will coordinate with the victims' employer to make sure the injured receive medical attention.

"Sila naman ay legal worker ng kumpanya. Under Saudi law sila ay required bigyan ng insurance ng employers," he said.

He said the Embassy will talk with the injured workers and ask them if they want to continue working in the Kingdom or be repatriated.

"Pag-uusapan natin batay sa decision ng worker kung gusto manatili o umuwi," he said.

An AFP photographer at the scene of the explosion reported widespread damage to the area, with dozens of cars mangled by the blast and burned out.

A bus that had been gutted by the fire stood idle on the flyover, with witnesses saying that the vehicle had been transporting workers whose fate remained unknown.

Another truck fell off the bridge due to the impact of the explosion, the witnesses said.

Amateur video footage posted on the Internet showed thick black smoke billowing from different spots around the flyover whose pylons were also damaged.

Civil defense personnel carried two "completely charred" bodies from the site.

"The death toll of the gas truck fire in Khurays has increased to 22 people, in addition to 111 wounded," a civil defense official said.

Earlier, a civil defense official who requested not to be named told AFP that at least 14 people were killed and around 60 others hurt "in the explosion of the truck when it hit a bridge pylon."

Civil defense spokesman in Riyadh, Mohammed al-Hammadi, said the explosion took place after gas leaked from the tank of the lorry, according to SPA state news agency.

"The explosion and fire happened after leaked gas filled the area. Huge damage happened, in addition to many traffic collisions," he said, adding there were fatalities without specifying how many.

Hammadi said a nearby show yard of construction machinery was severely damaged by the explosion.

Friday 2 November 2012

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/280584/pinoyabroad/news/pinoy-among-22-dead-in-tanker-blast-in-riyadh

continue reading

OR crime lab helps solve nameless mysteries

In murder investigations, detectives are usually searching for a killer. But in dozens of cases, the mystery also includes unidentified remains.

Clackamas County Sheriff's forensic artist, Joyce Nagy, helps identify those nameless victims.

"I need to do the best job I can to give (each victim) a voice," said Nagy. "It's a process, takes a lot of prayers and good intuition to make the drawings turn out the way they should look," she said.

To develop the drawings, Nagy uses information gleaned by Oregon State Police forensic scientist, Nici Vance.

"You'd be amazed by the things we can tell by the skeleton," said Vance. "When you have a truly unidentified individual, you're starting at a deficit," she said.

That's where Portland Police detectives found themselves last June, when park rangers discovered the remains of a young woman in Washington Park. Her face was decomposed beyond recognition, her fingerprints nowhere on file.

DNA ultimately led detectives to the victim's suspected killer, Mark Beebout. He's also a suspect in an unrelated Southeast Portland murder from July.

But they still didn't know who the victim was, so investigators turned to Vance and Nagy for help.

Vance used special tools to measure the victim's skull, cranium and jaw. She then used a formula to calculate the measurements which helped determine the victim was likely a teenage girl, possibly mixed race, likely Hispanic-- all critical clues.

Nagy used that information in her drawing. After photographing the victim's skull, she used a light table to trace over the photo and develop a sketch. As they do with all unnamed victims, Nagy and Vance submitted the sketch and case information into a national online database that tries to link unidentified human remains with missing persons cases.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System can be accessed at www.NamUs.Gov. Anyone can search it, including parents of missing people and law enforcement agencies.

Ultimately, dental records pointed investigators in the Washington Park case to 15-year-old Mayra Sophia Cruz Rodriguez, a reported runaway from San Diego County, California.

A photograph of Cruz Rodriguez revealed an uncanny resemblance to Nagy's forensic sketch.

"We have a truly exceptional forensic artist on our hands," said Vance. Nagy, said she's just thankful for closure in that part of the case.

"To allow the family to close that chapter on that life... It just brings a tear to your heart," Nagy said.

Vance said investigators are now trying to identify the remains of 81 other homicide victims in Oregon, hoping to bring some sort of closure to their families.

To accomplish that, she hopes more people will post missing persons information on NamUs.gov, which could help investigators identify more victims.

Friday 2 November 2012

http://www.kgw.com/news/local/Naming-the-nameless-victims-176705891.html

continue reading

Families remember missing loved ones

Erlinda Malicdem still remembers the last words her husband, Jimmy, uttered in Filipino before the urban poor leader disappeared on Oct. 8, 1987: “When the time comes, you’ll understand what I’m doing.”

“He was always there when they needed him,” she told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a phone interview. She was 29 when she last saw her husband, then 34, in Sucat, Parañaque City.

Now 54, Erlinda has been visiting Bantayog ng mga Desaparecido at Redemptorist Church in Baclaran, Parañaque, since the memorial was erected in 1994. Tomorrow (Thursday), she will be visiting with her three children and five grandchildren, and over 60 other families.

“The families come here every year because they have no tomb to visit on All Souls’ Day,” said Wilma Tizon, deputy secretary general of the Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance Inc. (FIND), an organization of families, friends and colleagues of the disappeared, as well as surfaced “desaparecidos” (disappeared).

FIND has documented 1,838 cases of disappearances since 1971. Nearly half of the cases (878) happened during the martial law regime of President Ferdinand Marcos. “Every All Souls’ Day, we make it a point to visit the memorial to remember our loved ones,” Erlinda said.

She remembers Jimmy as a man for others. “Before he disappeared, every time somebody called on him for help, that person becomes his priority.” “He’s been gone for a long time, but the pain is still there,” she said.

For families and friends of the disappeared, the Bantayog stands as common ground for remembrance. The memorial lists the names of Jimmy Malicdem and hundreds of other missing people etched in granite panels.

Unveiled in September 2004 in time for the 23rd anniversary of martial law, the memorial is the refurbished “Flame of Courage Monument,” which was originally unveiled by FIND on July 13, 1994, the ninth anniversary of the disappearance of Redemptorist priest Rudy Romano.

Romano, a well-known human rights activist, was abducted in Cebu in 1985, allegedly by military agents. To this day, he has not been found.

Designed and created by sculptor Lito Mondejar, the Flame of Courage features a mother carrying a torch, which symbolizes the courage of those left behind and continuing the struggle for justice.

A child holding the picture of his father represents hope that one day, the families will be reunited with their missing loved ones, according to FIND.

Tomorrow’s (Thursday) program will carry the theme “Paggunita at Pagdiriwang sa Buhay at Pakikibaka ng mga Desaparecidos” (Remembering and celebrating the lives and struggles of the Desaparecidos).

A thanksgiving ceremony will also be held for the passage of the Anti-Enforced Disappearance Bill earlier this month. “We will also again call for President Benigno Aquino III to sign the bill immediately,” Tizon said.

“Now that Congress has approved the bill and it is now in President Aquino’s hands, we hope he will sign it soon,” Erlinda said.

“We don’t want more disappearances. We don’t want more families experiencing the pain that these enforced disappearances cause,” she added.

The first in Asia to criminalize enforced disappearances, the bill was approved by the Senate and the House of Representatives on Oct. 16, It is now pending approval by the President.

The bill defines enforced or involuntary disappearance as “the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty committed by agents of the state or by persons or groups of persons acting with authorization or support from the state, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared.”

The maximum penalty for offenders is life imprisonment, or equivalent to 20 years and one day to 40 years in prison. Victims of enforced disappearance and their kin will also be entitled to compensation, restitution and rehabilitation.

The crime has no prescription period, unless the victim has surfaced. This means that the perpetrators can still be prosecuted regardless of how long the time of disappearance has passed.

“Every year, the families pray for justice to be served, and for their loved ones to be eventually found,” Tizon said.

Simultaneous rites will be held in FIND chapters in provinces in Central Luzon and Bicol, Cebu, Leyte, Negros, Panay, Northern Mindanao, Southern Mindanao and Western Mindanao.

Source: Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND), “Beyond Disappearance: Chronicles of Courage”

Friday 2 November 2012

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/299438/families-remember-missing-loved-ones

continue reading

Salvaging operation of Lionair flight wreck yet to begin

1 November: Due to choppy sea and cyclonic condition prevailing in the country, Sri Lanka Navy has decided to postpone the commencement of salvaging operation of the underwater wreckage of Lionair flight, that was found near the Iranativu island, north of Mannar.

Earlier, Navy Spokesman Comm. Kosala Warnakulasuriya said that the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) officials investigating the plane crash, have requested Sri Lanka Navy to salvage the underwater wreckage of the Lionair flight and it has been agreed to begin the salvage operation yesterday – 31 October.

Comm. Kosala Warnakulasuriya speaking to Asian Tribune said that the salvage operation has been postponed for ‘another day’ . He said at present the sea is very rough and diving operation cannot be done if the sea condition remains the same.

Asked when the Sri Lanka Navy will commence the salvage operation, Comm. Kosala Warnakulasuriya said that it all depends now again on the weather and also on an appropriate date for the Terrorist Investigation Division who has to be present when the operation commence along with Magistrate of Mannar.

The Lionair 602 which took off with 48 passengers, six crew members and two Ukranian pilots, from the Palali airport to Ratmalana, on September 29, 1998, went missing from the radar screen after 10 minutes.

Until April this year, when the TID officers apprehended a LTTE suspect who confessed to shooting down the airplane with a shoulder held missile, the disappearance of the plane remained a mystery.

Sivasubramaniam Thillaraj of the LTTE, confessed that an LTTE leader had ordered the shooting down, even though they were aware that it was carrying Tamil civilian passengers to Colombo.

The suspect in custody had identified the person who ordered the aircraft shooting down as one Gadafi, a close associate of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. Gadafi was killed during the final phase of fighting on the Vanni east front in early 2009.

But according to a report from the University Teachers’ for Human Rights, it was a boy of 17 years who shot down the plane!” The people of the area have identified him as ‘Arul’ who is in charge of the Sea Tiger base at Nachchikudah, as having executed the order to bring down the aircraft.

In the meantime, according University Teachers’ for Human Rights Information Bulletin No. 19 of 16th October 1998, “Jaffna daily 'Uthayan' quoting officials in the Mannar Kachcheri said that fishermen from Pesalai who were in the area had reported seeing an aircraft fall into the sea near of Iranativu, which is 15 miles north of Mannar Island.

It further said that at the request of the parents of two passengers from Vankalai, their parish priest Fr.Thevasahayampillai, was going to the LTTE controlled area to find out what had happened. The two passengers were young women, one of whom was studying in the University of Jaffna.

The following day (Friday 2nd October) the result of Fr.Thevasahayampillai’s visit appeared in the Uthayan, and he was interviewed over BBC(Tamil Service) late in the evening. He had talked to fisherfolk and a government official. Two of them had seen the aircraft on fire, nose-diving into the sea near Iranativu, and had at first run, thinking it was a bomber.

In all six bodies had been recovered in a state of decay around Valappadu north-east of Iranativu, and had been buried. They also handed over to the priest the identity card of Coomarasamy Ragunathan, a passenger resident in Negombo.

Further reports said that one body was washed ashore in Jaffna and another 20 or so near Kalmunai Point, a promontory along the coast just before Jaffna lagoon and the peninsula. It was further said that all the bodies reaching the mainland shore were buried with the knowledge of the LTTE.

The Ukranian crew of the shot down Lionair consisted of Lysaivanov Siarhei (co-pilot), Kozlov Sergei (navigator) and Anapryienka Siarhei (flight engineer). The two Lion Air cabin crew were Dharshini Gunasekera (chief stewardess) and Chrishan Nelson (steward) and Vijitha (labourer).

Thursday 1 November 2012 http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2012/11/01/salvaging-operation-lionair-flight-wreck-yet-begin

continue reading

In Mexico, the Day of the Dead brings memories of the thousands of missing

Maria Elena Salazar refuses to set out plates of her missing son's favorite foods or orange flowers as offerings for the deceased on Mexico's Day of the Dead, even though she hasn't seen him in three-and-a-half years.

The 50-year-old former teacher is convinced that Hugo Gonzalez Salazar, a university graduate in marketing who worked for a telephone company, is still alive and being forced to work for a drug cartel because of his skills.

"The government, the authorities, they know it, that the gangs took them away to use as forced labor," said Salazar of her then 24-year-old son, who disappeared in the northern city of Torreon in July 2009.

The Day of the Dead — when Mexicans traditionally visit the graves of dead relatives and leave offerings of flowers, food and candy skulls — is a difficult time for the families of the thousands of Mexicans who have disappeared amid a wave of drug-fueled violence.

With what activists call a mix of denial, hope and desperation, they refuse to dedicate altars on the Nov. 1-2 holiday to people often missing for years. They won't accept any but the most certain proof of death, and sometimes reject even that.

Numbers vary on just how many people have disappeared in recent years. Mexico's National Human Rights Commission says 24,000 people have been reported missing between 2000 and mid-2012, and that nearly 16,000 bodies remain unidentified.

But one thing is clear: just as there are households without Day of the Dead altars, there are thousands of graves of the unidentified dead scattered across the country, with no one to remember them.

An investigation conducted by the newspaper Milenio this week, involving hundreds of information requests to state and municipal governments, indicates that 24,102 unidentified bodies were buried in paupers' or common graves in Mexican cemeteries since 2006. The number is almost certainly incomplete, since some local governments refused to provide figures, Milenio reported.

And while the number of unidentified dead probably includes some indigents, Central American migrants or dead unrelated to the drug war, it is clear that cities worst hit by the drug conflict also usually showed a corresponding bulge in the number of unidentified cadavers. For example, Mexico City, which has been relatively unscathed by drug violence, listed about one-third as many unidentified burials as the city of Veracruz, despite the fact that Mexico City's population is about 15 times larger.

Consuelo Morales , who works with dozens of families of disappeared in the northern city of Monterrey, said that "holidays like this, that are family affairs and are very close to our culture, stir a lot of things up" for the families. But many refuse to accept the deaths of their loved ones, sometimes even after DNA testing confirms a match with a cadaver.

"They'll say to you, 'I'm not going to put up an altar, because they're not dead," Martinez noted. "Their thinking is that 'until they prove to me that my child is dead, he is alive."

Martinez says one family she works with at the Citizens in Support of Human Rights center had refused to accept their son was dead, even after three rounds of DNA testing and the exhumation of the remains.

"It was their son, he was very young, and he had been burned alive," Martinez said by way of explanation.

The refusal to accept what appears inevitable may be a matter of desperation. Martinez said some families in Monterrey also believe their missing relatives are being held as virtual slaves for the cartels, even though federal prosecutors say they have never uncovered any kind of drug cartel forced-labor camp, in the six years since Mexico launched an offensive against the cartels.

But many people like Salazar believe it must be true. "Organized crime is a business, but it can't advertise for employees openly, so it has to take them by force," Salazar said.

While she refuses to erect an altar-like offering for her son, she does perform other rituals that mirror the Day of the Dead customs, like the one that involves scattering a trail of flower petals to the doorsteps of houses to guide spirits of the departed back home once a year.

Salazar and her family still live in the same home in Torreon, though they'd like to move, in the hopes that Hugo will return there. They pray three times a day for God to guide him home.

"We live in the same place, and we try to do the same things we used to," said Salazar, "because he is going to come back to his place, his home, and we have to be waiting for him."

Mistrust of officials has risen to such a point that some families may never get an answer they'll accept.

The problem is that, with forensics procedures often sadly lacking in Mexican police forces, the dead my never be connected with the living, which is the whole point of the Mexican traditions.

"As long as the authorities don't prove the opposite, for us they're still alive," Salazar said. "Let them prove it, but let us have some certainty, not just the authorities saying 'here he is.' We don't the government to just give us bodies that aren't theirs, and that has happened."

Thursday 1 november 2012

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/10/31/in-mexico-day-dead-brings-memories-thousands-missing/#ixzz2AyvdLXNQ

continue reading

Rwanda: Heavy Rains Kill Kigali Family

At least 15 people including a family of four were killed and property destroyed in Tuesday's heavy rains in different parts of the country, local authorities said.

Gikondo residents marvel at the house where four family members died.

In Gikondo, a suburb of Kigali City, a family of four perished after a neighbour's wall fence caved in and buried their small house.

The deceased were identified as Irene Mukeshimana 31, her children, Yves Ndayisenga 9, Yvonne Isingizwe 5, and Better Emelyse 1and half years.

Neighbours say they discovered the death at around 8.00 pm after the heavy rain which lasted over three hours.

According to Nathan Kanyesigye, the Executive Secretary of Gikondo sector the water meandered from Rebero hill and in other areas and destroyed the mad and wattle fence.

"It is evident the main cause was poor infrastructure. The fence was weak and the deceased's house was built close to it. The house failed to withstand the impact of the wall and the force of the water," Kanyesigye said.

Mourners accused Ezekiel Kalisa, the owner of the house whose fence came down, of ignoring advice against digging a pit near the destroyed house which had weakened his fence.

The bodies of the deceased were taken to Kanombe Military Hospital for post-mortem pending burial today at Gatenga cemetery.

Meanwhile, in Rusizi district, the heavy downpour claimed four lives and destroyed property worth of millions, local authorities have said.

Six others were by press time reportedly missing as efforts to find them were underway, according to the District Mayor Oscar Nzeyimana.

Three other residents were admitted at a local hospital and health centres, with one of them in critical condition, the official said in a phone interview.

The identities of the victims were not readily available by press time.

According to local sources, many houses collapsed during the heavy rains characterised by strong winds and lasted for about four hours while others were swept away by flooding rivers.

Also destroyed were several gardens of crops.

Bugarama and Muganza sector were the most affected in the district.

By press time, the extent of the damages was still being assessed but information filtering from local authorities and residents indicates that about 400 houses were destroyed in Bugarama sector alone.

It is not yet clear how many people were left homeless but the mayor told this paper that local leaders are working to establish the affected residents and destroyed properties to mobilise help for them.

The Bugarama-Cimerwa road was also affected, with the Cyagara Bridge swept away.

“We have sent our sincere condolences to those who lost their relatives and friends and consoled those whose property was destroyed. We are working with our partners and the concerned ministries to organise the support for the affected,” he added. The heavy rains also destroyed ten classrooms at Groupe Scolaire Murira in Muganza sector.

Obed Nkundumukiza, an official from Groupe Scolaire Murira told this paper that the school has been closed indefinitely.

He said that when the rain started, some students were still at school.

“Some had already gone home as they had finished their examinations. And those who were still at school started leaving as the rains intensified,” he said.

The Permanent secretary in the ministry of Disaster Management Antoine Ruvebana told this paper that his ministry has sent a team of officials to Rusizi to assess the extent of the damage caused by these torrential rains.

“After the assessment, that’s when we should know the needs and organise support accordingly”, Ruvebana said.

He, however, added that the ministry has set up districts’ “First Responders Team’ which acts to provide first aid to victims of disasters across the country.

Last month, a heavy downpour destroyed at least 88 houses in Bugarama sector, leaving so many families homeless.

Elsewhere, seven people were reported killed following the heavy downpour in Rubavu district.

One person was left dead in Rugerero sector of Rubavu district, Western Province, after a house collapsed on an entire family. Three other members of the family sustained injuries.

The deaths were due to heavy flooding of local rivers.

Meanwhile, a Cabinet meeting yesterday expressed condolences to the breaved families and called for speedy relief services, including sensitisation on disaster preparedness.

Thursday 1 November 2012

http://allafrica.com/stories/201211010030.html

continue reading

32 fatalities from Hurrican Sandy in New York city, and still counting

At his Wednesday afternoon briefing, Mayor Michael Bloomberg put the number of fatalities from Hurricane Sandy in New York City at roughly 30.

Nobody doubts that number will rise, including the mayor, who said, "We may find a few more bodies."

A Daily News report, updated at 1:00 this morning, put the number at 32.

The number is unlikely to remain there, not only because the situation is still dynamic, but also because because the totals in large-scale disasters like this one can be calculated in different ways.

"If an elderly person survives the event itself, but they're displaced, they lose track of their medication, their displacement is stressful, they may have a heart condition, respiratory condition, if they die in the process of being displaced, do you count that as a disaster victim?" asks John Mutter, the professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University who compiled a death list for Hurricane Katrina. "Well I think you do. And there's a question of whether official numbers actually count that or not. There's no rules."

Another example of a death that might not be counted?

"If you were trying to evaccuate in the path of the storm and you had an accident and died, are you a storm victim?" he continued. "Well, probably. You wouldn't be doing that otherwise."

I asked the mayor's spokesman how the city is counting fatalities but haven't received a response yet.

Even without including those arguably more tangential fatalities, Mutter, like the mayor, expects that the number of storm-related deaths will continue to rise before it crests and then, possibly, recedes.

"I think what you'll find is the count will go up in the next few days as they find people, as neighbors will say 'Gee what happened to Old Mary who lived down the street, we haven't seen her, is she all right?'" he said. "And progressively it will be discovered that there's more fatalities than you think.

The heartbreaking lead of that News report, for example:

Hurricane Sandy added seven bodies to its lethal legacy Wednesday, boosting the killer storm’s city death total to 32 as searchers scoured a Staten Island marsh for two toddlers swept from their helpless mother’s arms on a flooded street. Little Connor and Brandon Moore disappeared Monday in the floodwaters, leaving their terrified mom to swim for her life and pray for theirs. But two days later, there was still no sign of the pair despite an increasingly desperate hunt. More bodies were uncovered inside homes once the storm departed as the hurricane increased its body count long after the 90-mph winds and surging waters receded. An 87-year-old man, Hugo Senpo, was found face down in his flooded Coney Island living room -- and at least 10 other New Yorkers drowned inside their residences.

"There's dead and missing, and some of the missing are probably dead," Mutter said.

But some of them might also just be missing.

"What often happens in these big things is the numbers go up and up and up and up, and then they come back down, as some people who left town come back," he said. "You discover people in a shelter who you didn't know were there. It will peak at some number and then come back down."

Thursday 1 November 2012

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/politics/2012/11/6538894/32-fatalities-hurricane-sandy-new-york-city-and-still-counting

continue reading

Fishermen search for bodies after Bangladesh sinking

Bangladeshi fishermen in the Bay of Bengal on Thursday searched for about 130 people missing after a boat sank while carrying Rohingya refugees heading for Malaysia.

The boat went down off the coast near Bangladesh’s border with Myanmar and about 13 passengers were reported to have survived, according to police and a Rohingya advocacy group.

Hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingya have fled Myanmar in past decades to escape persecution, and recent unrest has led to further exiles trying to reach Bangladesh and Malaysia.

“Thousands of boats go out to sea for fishing every day. We have asked them to watch out for bodies,” Lieutenant Badruddoza, a coastguard commander in Teknaf on the southeast tip of Bangladesh, told reporters.

“The desperate families of the missing passengers have also been searching for bodies,” he added.

Badruddoza, who only uses one name, said no sign of any wreckage or bodies had been found, and no coastguard rescue operation could be launched because the location of the sinking was not known.

One survivor being held by Bangladesh police told officers that the boat had 135 passengers on board and was heading south towards Malaysia.

Police said five other survivors had also been reported in Bangladesh, while The Arakan Project, a Bangkok-based Rohingya advocacy group, said seven survivors had reached Myanmar.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) expressed its dismay at the sinking and said people fleeing Myanmar and Bangladeshi migrant workers often paid smugglers for the chance of a better life in Southeast Asia.

“This is a tragedy,” said UNHCR co-ordinator James Lynch. “Unscrupulous smuggling networks are exploiting the desperation of people facing violence and poverty.”

The agency also appealed to Bangladesh and Malaysia to keep their borders open and accept refugees from the Rohingya minority trying to escape bloody communal violence in Myanmar.

At least 89 people have been killed and tens of thousands have fled their homes in a new wave of unrest sweeping Myanmar’s western Rakhine state, where violence between Rohingya and Buddhists in June left dozens dead.

Since the unrest erupted, Bangladesh has been turning away boatloads of fleeing Rohingya, saying it is already burdened with an estimated 300,000 of the minority group.

Accounts differed on the date of the sinking, with police saying the accident occurred on Sunday but The Arakan Project saying its sources reported it happened overnight Monday to Tuesday.

Myanmar’s 800,000 stateless Rohingya, described by the UN as among the world’s most persecuted minorities, are seen by the government as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Human Rights Watch warned this week of a potential “dramatic increase in the number of Rohingya taking to the sea this year” in the wake of the conflict.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said “the entire region could be destabilised” by the bloodshed in Myanmar.

The UNHCR in Malaysia has registered some 24,000 Rohingyas as refugees but community leaders estimate actual numbers in the country could be double that.

Malaysia largely turns a blind eye, allowing them into the country but denying them any sort of legal status that would allow access to health care, education, jobs and other services, activists say.

Thursday 1 November 2012

http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1074354/fishermen-search-bodies-after-bangladesh-sinking

continue reading

Dead bodies floating in sea near Maungdaw south

Maungdaw, Arakan State: Dead bodies were floating in the sea near Udaung Village of Maungdaw south on October 28, at about 4:00 pm, according to a villager from Udaung, who denied to be named.

“Villagers believe that the dead bodies are probably from boat people who fled from Kyaukpru tried to enter and to land at Maungdaw south for shelter.”

“But, the authorities are not giving them to land and kept on the boat around three to four days. The boat load Rohingyas backed to the sea for save as they were not getting any foods, water and medicine. Even, they are not allowed to meet anylocal Rohingyas from Maungdaw south by Nasaka.”

“Maybe, on the way, one of the boats was sunk for the cause of bad weather or was sunk by the concerned authority,” said a fishing man from Maungdaw south.

According to fishermen, they saw many dead bodies were floating in the sea. There are many wounded people on the boats. The dead bodies that were died in the boats were also thrown into the sea.

Villagers informed to the local Nasaka camp about the dead bodies and a group of Nasaka went to the spot and asked the villagers to push the dead bodies into deep sea, said a local elder from the village.

The boat will be one of those which was attacked by Burmese Navy while they fleeing from Kyaukpru and trying to enter to the Akyab coastline, according to sources.

“Seven boats were seized by Burmese Navy and kept in their camp and released only four after keeping four boats.”

Similarly, a boat which had 130 people who are trying to go Malaysia from Shebrang village of Teknaf union, Bangladesh ,on 28 night which sank in the mount of Naf River for entering water in the boats, according to fisher men from Sharpordip.

“All the boat people are missing in the sea.”

“The people are from Bangladesh who tried to go Malaysia which organized by trafficker. The trafficker and boat people are taking advantage from clashing between Rohingya and Rakhine in Arakan. They all will be saying Rohingya, but only a few are Rohingya there and other all Bangladeshi.”

"The boat was heading to Malaysia illegally and we have spoken to families of missing passengers," said Mohamed Farhad, police inspector of Teknaf.

“A 24-year-old survivor was being held in custody and he does not know what happened to the others as it was dark and he was desperate to save his own life."

Thursday 1 November 2012

http://www.kaladanpress.org/v3/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3940:dead-bodies-floating-in-sea-near-maungdaw-south-&catid=155:october-2012&Itemid=2

continue reading

Fuel truck crash in Riyadh sparks explosion that destroys building

At least 10 people have been killed after a fuel truck crashed into a flyover in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, triggering an explosion that caused the collapse of an industrial building, witness and television reports say.

Al-Arabiya and al-Jazeera television stations reported that at least a further 50 people were injured. They said 10 were dead and a witness at the scene told Reuters he had seen that many bodies.

The building, several storeys high, was almost levelled by the blast, with only one corner left standing. Several adjacent buildings were damaged and nearby vehicles, including a minibus on the flyover, were set on fire, witnesses said.

Television footage of the disaster and pictures posted on social media showed a body lying by burnt-out vehicles, and at least two charred bodies seated in a car.

A civil defence official at the scene, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a petrol tanker had crashed into a concrete flyover. He and other officials were unable to give further details of the incident.

"I was inside the building when the blast came. Then boom, the building collapsed. Furniture, chairs and cabinets blasted into the room I was in," said Kushnoo Akhtara, a 55-year-old Pakistani worker, who was covered in dirt and bleeding from multiple cuts over his body.

"My brother is still inside under the rubble. There are lots of people in there."

More than 100 emergency personnel were combing the wreckage on the flyover and searching for victims in the rubble of the building, which housed Zahid Tractor, a distributor of heavy machinery.

There was no immediate suspicion of terrorist links based on witness accounts, which suggested the fuel tanker exploded after striking part of a highway underpass.

Officials said rescue crews had not finished the search and the death toll was still not final.

All the officials and witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Thursday 1 November 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/01/fuel-truck-riyadh-explosion-building

continue reading

Approximately 28 people disappear daily in Italy

An interior ministry commission report released on Wednesday on disappearances in Italy said that 28 people go missing daily throughout the country.

The figure is 10% higher than 2011 numbers.

Since 1974 when the missing persons databank was founded, 25,453 people have vanished without trace. Of these, 9,396 were Italians and 16,057 foreigners, 14,855 adults and 10,598 minors.

Compared to December 31, 2011, the report said that 541 more men, women and children were declared missing and have yet to be found. The total number of missing persons increased between the period of June 30, 2011 from 105,092 to 115,366 in June 30, 2012. The largest increase in disappearances was recorded over the last six months, up 4.78%.

Commission head Michele Penta said that the only data lower than recorded by last year's report were the number of unidentified bodies. On January 30, 2012 there were 831 unidentified corpses, one less than the last 2011 survey.

Wednesday 31 October 2012

http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/english/2012/10/31/Approximately-28-people-disappear-daily-Italy_7722239.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

continue reading

3 more bodies recovered from Gayari

ISLAMABAD: Due to continued efforts by the Pakistan Army, three more bodies of soldiers were recovered from Gayari Sector of Siachen on Wednesday, bringing the total number of bodies recovered so far to 101.

According to a spokesman of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), 140 soldiers, including some civilians, were buried under an avalanche on April 7 in Gayari Sector near Skardu.

According to an ISPR press release, since then, over 300 soldiers and 50 engineering plants are employed at a search operation.

Wednesday 31 October 2012

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012\11\01\story_1-11-2012_pg7_7

continue reading

130 missing in Rohingya boat sinking, say police

About 130 people are missing after a boat carrying Rohingya refugees who were headed for Malaysia sank off Bangladesh, according to Bangladesh police and a Rohingya advocacy group on Wednesday.

Hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingya have fled Myanmar in past decades to escape persecution, often heading to neighbouring Bangladesh, and recent unrest has triggered another exodus.

Mohammad Farhad, police inspector at Teknaf on the southeast tip of Bangladesh, told AFP that one survivor from the sinking on the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar reported that the boat had about 135 passengers on board.

“The boat was heading to Malaysia illegally,” Farhad said, adding that the 24-year-old survivor was being held in custody. “He does not know what happened to the others as it was dark and he was desperate to save his own life.”

Farhad said a total of six survivors were reported to have been picked up by a fishing vessel after the refugee boat left Sabrang village in Bangladesh on Saturday.

"We have spoken to families of missing passengers," he said.

There were conflicting reports about whether all those on the boat were Rohingya and also over the time of the sinking, which Bangladesh police said occurred early Sunday.

"We learned that an overcrowded boat with 133 people on board, which was leaving for Malaysia, sank," Chris Lewa, the Bangkok-based director of The Arakan Project, a Rohingya advocacy group, said.

"Six survivors have been rescued by fishing boats. The others are missing," she told AFP.

Lewa however said her organisation had been told that the accident happened overnight Monday to Tuesday.

At least 89 people have been killed and tens of thousands have fled their homes in a new wave of communal unrest sweeping Myanmar's western Rakhine state, where violence between Rohingya and Buddhists in June left dozens dead.

Since the unrest erupted, Bangladesh has been turning away boatloads of fleeing Rohingya.

The policy has been criticised by the United Nations but Bangladesh said it was already burdened with an estimated 300,000 Rohingya.

Many Rohingya refugees now try to head to Muslim-majority Malaysia for a better life. Officials said Bangladesh coastguards had yet to find any bodies after the sinking. "We could not start a search and rescue operation as the survivor could not confirm to us the position of the accident," acting administrator of Cox's Bazaar district Jasim Uddin told AFP.

"The coastguard is on alert to watch for bodies on the shore."

Myanmar's 800,000 stateless Rohingya, described by the United Nations as among the world's most persecuted minorities, are seen by the government and many Burmese as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.

Wednesday 31 October 2012

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/world/130+missing+in+Rohingya+boat+sinking+say+police/-/1068/1608462/-/t003e1/-/index.html

continue reading

Why dead body management in disasters matters

Dead body management is a key element of disaster response: How corpses are dealt with can have a profound impact and long-lasting effect on the mental health of survivors and communities, say experts.

“Their proper management is a core component of disaster response, together with the rescue and care of survivors and the provision of essential services,” Morris Tidball-Binz, a forensic adviser at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva, told IRIN.

Large-scale natural disasters may result in many tens of thousands of fatalities which can overwhelm local systems, and the absence of mass fatality planning can result in the mismanagement of dead bodies.

In the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, which killed more than 200,000 people, lack of coordination resulted in corpses being piled up outside morgues and hospitals, while thousands were buried unidentified in mass graves.

But there are also misconceptions about the management of dead bodies. Despite popular belief, cadavers resulting from a disaster do not spread disease.

According to the latest guidelines by the Pan American Health Organization and World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), there is no evidence that corpses result in epidemics, as victims of natural disasters generally die from trauma, drowning or fire - not infectious diseases such as cholera, typhoid, malaria or plague.

Certain infectious diseases like tuberculosis, hepatitis B and C, and diarrhoeal diseases last for up to two days in a dead body. HIV may survive for up to six days. All these infections pose only a slight risk of contamination, say the guidelines.

“There is no existing evidence that dead bodies pose a significant public health risk for diseases outbreaks,” said Kouadio Koffi Isidore, a researcher on infectious diseases and public health risk management in disasters at the UN University International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH) in Kuala Lumpur. “Any source of disease transmission will merely be among the affected disaster survivors,” he added.

While there is a potential risk of diarrhoea from drinking water contaminated by faecal material from dead bodies, routine disinfection of drinking water is sufficient to prevent waterborne diseases, experts say.

Nevertheless, death as a result of infectious diseases like cholera, typhus or plague may represent a health risk requiring appropriate disposal of corpses, said Isidore. “Certain precautions should be taken when disposing [of] corpses immediately after death, especially in a context of infectious diseases outbreak.”

PAHO/WHO guidelines recommend disinfection with chlorine solution, rather than lime powder which is commonly used but which has a limited effect on pathogens.

Awareness and training

There is also a need to raise awareness among communities on the risk of infection from practices such as the washing and shrouding of a dead body (an obligatory duty for Muslims), as well as large gatherings during funerals.

According to the PAHO/WHO guidelines, the empowerment and training of local communities is a major part of the management of cadavers, as local residents are typically the first to arrive to help rescue people.

The psychological aspect is also extremely important. Proper and dignified management of the dead can help ease the trauma of losing loved ones. Rapid retrieval of corpses should be a priority: It aids identification and reduces the stress on survivors. Another challenge is that the sight and smell of dead bodies can often distress survivors.

According to the Asian Disaster Preparedeness Centre (ADPC), in the aftermath of a disaster, this is key in addressing the psychological trauma of losing a loved one and witnessing death on a large scale.

“Priority should be placed on helping people recreate social networks to avoid isolation, and to give people an appropriate opportunity to mourn,” International Medical Corps child psychiatrist Lynne Jones told IRIN in an earlier interview.

Religion and customs Religious and community leaders can play a major role in helping relatives to better understand and accept the recovery and management of dead bodies, ADPC guidelines say.

Local communities should be encouraged to carry out traditional ceremonies and grieving processes and observe whatever cultural and religious events they normally practice.

“If deaths are not dignified - that is, lacking proper burials or mourning ceremonies - this denies people the means to accept and come to terms with their loss,” Jones told IRIN after the Haiti earthquake.

Body disposal

Under international best practice Sphere standards, corpses should be disposed of in a manner that is dignified, culturally appropriate, and based on good public health practices.

Rapid cremations, the use of bulldozers to gather dead bodies, or the lack of a place in which to bury a corpse, can cause a lot of stress.

Sphere standards require graveyards to be at least 30 metres from groundwater sources used for drinking water, with the bottom of any grave at least 1.5m above the groundwater table; surface water from graveyards must not enter inhabited areas.

ICRC advises that the cremation of unidentified bodies should be avoided since there are no health advantages: Burials are preferred in emergencies unless there are religious or cultural reasons for another course of action.

Moreover, cremation can destroy evidence needed for future identification, requires large amounts of fuel that can result in smoke pollution, and can cause logistical problems for recovery teams having to deal with a large number of corpses.

Wednesday 31 October 2012

http://www.irinnews.org/Report/96673/Analysis-Post-disaster-dead-body-management

continue reading

'Celebratory' gunfire at Saudi wedding brings down electricity cable killing 23 women and children

More than 20 women and children have died and dozens others were injured when traditional celebratory gunfire at a Saudi wedding brought down an electric cable causing a fire to break out.

A total of 23 people - believed to be mostly women - were electrocuted when bullets caused the high-voltage power line to fall on to a metal door at the wedding in eastern Saudi Arabia.

According to local news reports sparks from the cable caused an electrical fire in a women's only marquee at the wedding party in Ain Badr, near Abqaiq.

Strict rules of gender segregation in the conservative Islamic kingdom mean women are typically kept separate from men at weddings. Children at the wedding would have been with the female guests.

The tragedy at the party near Abqaiq - which left at least 30 more guests injured - occurred less than a month after Saudi Arabia banned the shooting of firearms at weddings, a popular tradition in tribal areas of the conservative Islamic kingdom.

Hundreds of people are understood to have been inside the courtyard of the home in Ain Badr when the blaze broke out.

Eastern Province official Abdullah Khashman said all those killed were from the same tribe.

A further 30 wedding guests were injured in the incident near Abqaiq, a centre of the Saudi energy industry.

'At the wedding, the cable fell on a metal door and the 23 people who died were all electrocuted,' Mr Khashman said.

Eastern Province governor Prince Mohammed bin Fahd ordered an investigation into the incident, the official Saudi Press Agency said.

Earlier this month Saudi officials introduced a zero-tolerance policy on the culturally accepted practice of shooting firearms at weddings and other special occasions, following previous accidental deaths.

Interior Minister Prince Ahmad Bin Abdul Aziz assigned police to monitor palaces, wedding halls and relaxation areas to ensure full compliance with the law, the Saudi Press Agency reported at the time.

The announcement was made following an increase in fatal and serious injuries as a result of celebratory gunfire, the agency said.

Wednesday 31 October 2012

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2225691/Celebratory-gunfire-Saudi-wedding-brings-electricity-cable-killing-23-women-children.html#ixzz2Asx3h0Tc Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

continue reading

Prosecutor confirms second burial mix-up of Smolensk victims

Military prosecutors have confirmed that the last president of Poland's Cold War-era government-in-exile was laid to rest at the wrong site following the 2010 Smolensk air disaster.

According to Ireneusz Szelag, Chief Warsaw Military Prosecutor, the mistake occurred due to incorrect identifications made in Russia following the April 2010 plane crash.

President Ryszard Kaczorowski's family did not take part in that initial identification process.

A second male victim, whose name has not been disclosed to the media owing to the family's wishes, was mistakenly entombed at Warsaw's national pantheon, the Temple of Divine Providence, in place of the late president.

“DNA tests have led to the conclusion that due to misidentification, the bodies were buried in the wrong graves,” Szelag said at a press conference on Tuesday.

“The bodies were not changed,” he claimed.

Szelag noted that the families have already been informed of the mistake.

The exhumations took place on Monday 22 October.

They follow the confirmation last month that two other crash victims, including the late Solidarity activist Anna Walentynowicz, were also buried in the wrong graves.

Seven victims of the April 2010 crash have now been exhumed, and it has been confirmed that two more exhumations are due to occur this year

President Kaczorowski was the last leader of the Polish government-in-exile in London, which remained in Britain following World War II owing to the installation of a communist regime in Poland.

Tthe presidential insignia was finally returned to Poland in December 1990 by Kaczorowski himself, following the collapse of the Iron Curtain.

Wednesday 31 October 2012

http://www.thenews.pl/1/9/Artykul/116948,Prosecutor-confirms-second-burial-mixup-of-Smolensk-victims

continue reading

Two Baldia fire victims identified

Two more victims of the Baldia factory incident were identified on Tuesday. DNA tests confirmed the identities of Rafaqat Liaquat, a resident of Ittehad Town, and Shahbaz Mohammad, a resident of Baldia Town.

Both men worked in the stitching room of the ill-fated Ali Enterprises factory. Investigations have confirmed that the highest number of deaths took place in that room. The bodies, which were at the Edhi morgue, were handed over to the families of the victims. An Edhi official said that around 29 more unidentified bodies remain at the morgue.

DNA reports for around 28 unidentified victims are still pending

Wednesday 31 October 2012

http://tribune.com.pk/story/458515/baldia-fire-tribunal-report-ready-to-be-made-public-once-cm-decides/

continue reading

Bahawalpur road accident leaves 26 dead

BAHAWALPUR - A passenger van crashed into a pick-up truck at a busy highway intersection near Bahawalpur on Tuesday, leaving 26 people, including women and children, dead.

Sohail Tajik, Bahawalpur district police officer, told the media that the accident took place when a passenger van collided with an oncoming truck on highway near Bahawalpur, a private television channel reported.

Highway Patrolling Police Inspector Amir Sahazad said that the wagon, coming from Mubarikpur, was moving on the Bahawalpur bypass when it slammed into the truck, which was going on the bypass, as both did not slow down on the turn.

He said that the wagon driver died on the spot and the truck driver and two more people on the truck got critically injured. The Rescue 1122 rescuers cut the truck body to pull the men out of the truck and shifted them to the Bahawal Victoria Hospital in Bahawalpur.

An eyewitness said that both the drivers were driving so fast that they could not stop their vehicles.

The local Rescue 1122 chief Dr Asif Rahim Channer said: “We received a call at 11:40 am about the accident by police and we send the six ambulances to the sight of the accident. The rescuers found 20 dead bodies at the spot, while 7 critically injured and 3 people with minor injuries who were shifted to the Bahawal Victoria Hospital. One injured woman died on her to the hospital.”

He told the media that the rescue operation continued for 90 minutes in which six ambulances and 30 rescuers took part.

The doctor, in charge of the Emergency Unit of Bahawal Victoria Hospital, said that doctors were doing their best to save the life of the injured people.

The Bahawalpur DPO said that 14 bodies were identified and the process was underway to hand over the bodies to their relatives.

He also confirmed that at least seven women and four children were among the dead.

Pakistan has a high rate of fatal traffic accidents, most of which are blamed on reckless driving, poorly maintained vehicles and bad road conditions.

Wednesday 31 October 2012

http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/national/31-Oct-2012/bahawalpur-road-accident-leaves-26-dead

continue reading

Hurricane Sandy kills at least 18 in New York

At least 18 New Yorkers were killed during superstorm Sandy -- including an off-duty cop who drowned in his basement while rescuing his family.

And the toll could still rise: two little boys, ages 2 and 4, were listed as missing nearly 24 hours after they got separated from their mother after her car was submerged on Father Capodanno Blvd. on Staten Island.

Across the city, fallen trees, downed power lines and flooded streets were a deadly combination for people in and out of the evacuation zone.

-- The off-duty officer, whose name was not released, got his father, girlfriend and baby to the attic of their Dorty Ave. home on the southern end of Staten Island.

He then went downstairs and never returned. Fellow officers found him in the basement about 5 a.m. Tuesday.

"Somehow he got trapped in his basement and he drowned in the basement,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

The name of the cop, who was assigned to the 1st Precinct in Lower Manhattan, was not immediately released.

-- In Richmond Hill, Queens, a 23-year-old woman taking cellphone photos of a power line that had caught fire suffered a horrific death after she stepped on a live wire on the sidewalk and fell to the ground, screaming.

"She was right on top of the live cables and they were just frying her," said neighbor Renny Bhagretta, 44, who watched from his window on 134th St. Monday night. "She couldn't move. She didn't have a chance."

Police, firefighters and Con Edison workers couldn’t get near the victim for almost two hours because cables strewn all over the road were still sparking.

"Her body was burning," said neighbor Asha Bhagaretti, 43. "It was just horrifying."

-- In Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, a teacher and a grad student were crushed by giant trees that came crashing down on the street of stately Victorian homes at the height of the storm on Monday night.

The bodies of Jessie Streich-Kest, 25, and longtime pal Jacob Vogelman, 24, were discovered the next morning on Ditmas Ave. and E. 19th St.

Streich-Kest had called her parents -- her father is labor activist Jon Kest -- just before going out to walk her beloved pitbull-mix Max, who was rescued from a shelter a year ago.

"Her mom had said, 'Don't go out,'" said family friend Susannah Laskaris.

But Streich-Kest, who taught at the Bushwick School for Social Justice, wouldn't skimp on Max's care. "She loved the dog greatly," said a neighbor.

"She was actually a very cautious person. All I can think is the winds seemed like they were dying down."

Vogelman heart-broken mother said the Brooklyn College theater design student went to Streich-Kest’s house to keep her company during the storm.

"He was an incredible son," said Marcia Sikowitz, 60, who lived with her son in Park Slope. "He had an old soul and he was always helping people."

-- At 92 Laight Street in Tribeca, a middle-aged parking garage worker was killed when he got trapped in the basement by flash flooding.

Good Samaritan Kevin Gouche, 53, said he and a neighbor saw water pouring into the garage and two attendants stuck inside.

"The water was raging like a river. We told them to get out. I couldn't understand why they were still messing around down there,” Gouche said.

One of the men apparently escaped while the second stayed behind. Thirty minutes later, the water in the garage had gone from knee-level to ceiling height.

Cops told Gouche the victim was found in a vehicle when rescuers were able to get to him about 9:30 am Tuesday.

-- The body of a 55-year-old man was found in an empty retail space at 90 Broad St. in lower Manhattan on Tuesday morning. Police said it appears he was carried into the building by a four-foot-deep river of water that smashed the glass front of the building.

-- A 13-year-old girl was found dead under a pile of debris in the Tottenville section of Staten Island where four beachfront homes were washed away. Her mother, a church worker, was critically injured and her father, a plumber, was missing, neighbors said.

“They wanted to stay. We tried to convince them to leave. They said they didn’t think it would be that bad,” said John Alleva, 47, who live near the family on Yetman Ave.

-- In Flushing, Queens, a tree crashed into a house at 47-36 166th St. and killed St. John’s University grad student Anthony Laino.

“He was in his bedroom on his couch,” said Heather Valente, mother of Laino’s fiancee. “How do you deal with such a cataclysmic happening?...How do you explain something this horrible? You can’t.”

An off-duty cop and an off-duty firefighter ran into the house but couldn’t save Laino, whose body was discovered by one of his two older brothers.

“They had been begging the city to take down this tree,” neighbor Joann Evangelista said. “It was a sick tree.”

-- A 75-year-old Manhattan woman died after her oxygen machine lost power. Herminia St. John’s grandson ran to nearby Bellevue Hospital for a manually operated oxygen tank -- and paramedics rushed back to the apartment at 444 Second Ave. But St. John had already gone into cardiac arrest and died.

-- Cops asked to check on a family on Fox Beach Ave. on Staten Island discovered a 51-year-old man and his 20-year-old son in the basement of their badly damaged home, buried under debris.

-- Police discovered a 70-year-old woman floating in water inside a home at 164-25 98th St. in Queens about 1 a.m. Tuesday morning after her family couldn’t reach her.

-- Two deaths were reported on Long Island. John Miller, 39, a father of two was killed while standing near his car outside his Lloyd Harbor home, waiting to evacuate, police said. Safar Shafinoori, 84, of Roslyn was killed by a falling tree. A Garden City man blew off his hand when he lit a firework that he mistook for a candle.

-- At least three people were killed in northern New Jersey: a man and a woman whose pickup truck was hit by a tree in Mendham Township and a 77-year-old man whose home was struck by a tree.

Wednesday 31 October 2012

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/sandy-kills-18-new-yorkers-article-1.1194971#ixzz2AsU7aPT5

continue reading

Lagos Boat Mishap: Missing Bodies Recovered

Hours of thorough search of the Imude community lagoon, Otto-Awori Local Council Development Area, LCDA, Lagos, has paid off as the remaining three bodies out of the 10 that drowned in a boat mishap on Sunday, were finally recovered yesterday by the community search and recovery team.

According to reports, one of the three missing bodies was recovered from the lagoon by the team at about 7:00 p.m. on Monday night while the two other bodies were recovered from the lagoon on Tuesday.

Five bodies had been recovered immediately after the incident occurred last Sunday. And on Monday, two other bodies were recovered.

Baale of Imude community, Oto-Awori Local Council Development Area, (LCDA) Chief Ajayi Ashade while confirming the recovery said that the ten bodies have been recovered from the lagoon, adding “the last two were recovered from the lagoon at the early hours of today (yesterday).”

Speaking on the recovery, the leader of the community search and recovery team, Apostle Kehinde Akerele said that they commenced their exercise as early as 6:00 a.m., which has been their practice since the ugly incident occurred in the community.

Akerele emphasized that the search and recovery of the three remaining bodies was done by his team late on Monday and at the early hours of Tuesday. He however commended the Commissioner for Rural Development, Mr. Cornelius Ojelabi for releasing the fund to secure the services of a speed boat which he said made the search easier.

Baale of Imude community after the recovery of the bodies said yesterday that the community would commence rituals to cleanse the community and to appeal to the gods of the land in order not to experience such an incident again.

“The rituals will take place at the river bank. Within the nine days of the rites, there will not be restriction of movement within the community,” Ashade said.

Wednesday 31 October 2012

http://www.informationnigeria.org/2012/10/lagos-boat-mishap-missing-bodies-recovered.html

continue reading

Hurricane Sandy knocks down tree, turns up skeleton

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — In addition to being one of the more devastating storms ever to hit the east coast, Hurricane Sandy can now be counted as a gravedigger.

The storm knocked a tree down in New Haven, and inside was a human skeleton, according to TV station WTNH.

"I noticed what I thought was a rock at first, I kind of poked it and a piece came off in my hand, and I noticed it was bone fragments," said Katie Carbo, according to WTNH. "So I took a stick and knocked some of the dirt away and noticed it was an entire skull and body and vertebrae, ribs."

Carbo found human remains under that tree.

The area used to be a cemetery.

All of the headstones were moved, but the bodies were not.

Wednesday 31 October 2012

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/10/hurricane_sandy_knocks_down_tr.html

continue reading

Hurricane Sandy forces coffins of the dead to rise up from the ground

After having leveled huge swathes of New York City and the East Coast as it rampaged through the region on Monday night, superstorm Sandy inflicted a final indignity as it caused coffins to rise from their graves.

At one cemetery in Crisfield, Maryland, two caskets, one silver and the other bronze, rose up from the ground as the sheer force of the water unleashed by Sandy swelled the ground.

Powerful enough to dislodge the cement slabs that covered the graves, the sad sight indicated the indiscriminate bombardment that mother nature brought to reign over the U.S. Atlantic coastline.

The most devastating storm in decades to hit the country's most densely populated region upended man and nature as it rolled back the clock on 21st-century lives, cutting off modern communication and leaving millions without power as thousands who fled their water-damaged homes wondered when, and if, life would return to normal.

Superstorm Sandy killed at least 50 people, many hit by falling trees, and still wasn't finished. It inched inland across Pennsylvania, ready to bank toward western New York to dump more of its water and likely cause more havoc last night.

Behind it: a dazed, inundated New York City, a waterlogged Atlantic Coast and a moonscape of disarray and debris - from unmoored shore-town boardwalks to submerged mass-transit systems to delicate presidential politics.

'Nature,' said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, assessing the damage to his city, 'is an awful lot more powerful than we are.'

More than 8.2million households were without power in 17 states as far west as Michigan.

Nearly two million of those were in New York, where large swaths of lower Manhattan lost electricity and entire streets ended up underwater - as did seven subway tunnels between Manhattan and Brooklyn at one point.

Wednesday 31 October 2012

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2225611/Hurricane-Sandy-2012-Superstorm-forces-coffins-dead-rise-ground.html#ixzz2AsOMmIk9 Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

continue reading