Arrangements for asylum seekers who die at sea

What do authorities do when an asylum seeker dies while attempting to reach Australia? It’s a morbid and rather gruesome topic that Australian — and Indonesian — authorities regularly have to deal with, and not just when the public is outraged about the bodies of asylum seekers remaining in the water.

Around 1800 people are thought to have drowned while attempting to reach Australian since 2000, including a suspected 55 people who drowned following a boat sinking off Christmas Island last week. Another boat has gone missing overnight, and the number of asylum seekers aboard is unknown. In April, a boat sunk off the Javanese coast with over 70 on board, and just 14 people survived. In August 2012, another 100 asylum seekers drowned off a similar patch of Indonesia coast. Fifty people died in December 2010 after a boat crash off Christmas Island.

Authorities have been criticised for not retrieving the 13 dead bodies that were spotted in the water following the most recent Christmas Island disaster. But there is no obligation under international law for Australian authorities to perform search and rescue for deceased persons. Border Protection Control officials are currently aiding the fourth asylum seeker boat in just a few days, and resources are stretched. Indonesian authorities have also been slammed in the past for their delay in starting search and rescue operations for survivors after boats have sunk.

Experts say human remains usually decompose within 28 days at sea (at least in Australia’s warm water). Authorities are more likely to retrieve bodies if a boat sinks near a coast, in order to lessen the chances of a deceased person floating on to land.

But what happens once a body has been retrieved? Funeral arrangements are decided on a case-by-case basis, after consultation with family — if the body is able to be identified, says the Department of Immigration.

Identification isn’t always easy. The Australian Federal Police are responsible for identifying a body in accordance with a request from the coroner. The process can include compiling evidence from survivors, family members and friends (both overseas and in Australia) and others in Indonesia who were aware of who boarded the boat. DNA evidence is often used.

After the horrendous 2010 Christmas Island boat crash, where a boat laden with asylum seekers smashed into the island’s cliffs, dental records were obtained from the asylum seekers’ families and countries of origin, and these were compared with the dead to provide identification. In that instance, 30 bodies were recovered from the water. Another 20 bodies were never found, although the State Coroner recorded their deaths in the inquest into the crash. Clarifying the identities of the bodies that weren’t recovered proved extremely difficult, with the inquest report noting:

“In many cases there was evidence that the persons suspected of being deceased had left Iran or Iraq, but evidence as to their being on the boat in question was lacking. This situation was further complicated by the fact that many of the witness statements obtained had been obtained for other purposes and only dealt with the identity of the missing persons in an indirect and inconclusive way. A further problem related to the fact that many of those on the vessel were known by a number of different names and those names did not translate easily from the language of origin into English and spellings were inconsistent.

“WA Police officers were required to obtain a number of additional statements from family members, some of whom were able to identify those missing using photographs of passengers on the vessel taken by those on shore shortly before it sank.”

But not all boats sink next to a shore with cameras.

The responsibility of burial lies with the next of kin. If next of kin cannot be identified then the state, i.e. Western Australia for deaths off Christmas Island, will organise a burial. If the next of kin is also on Christmas Island or somewhere else within the Department of Immigration’s care, then the Department of Immigration will work with them to arrange a funeral.

Muslim burial customs indicate that a body should be buried as soon as possible, and Australian authorities will negotiate with religious organisations regarding burial customs. The Australian government also expatriates bodies back to their country of origin if the family requests it. After the 2010 Christmas Island boat crash, seven bodies were returned to Iraq, two to Iraq and 12 were buried in Sydney, where they had family.

The whole process is made more complicated by the number of authorities involved, including the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, Australian Customs and Border Protection, Australian Federal Police and the Department of Immigration.

Wednesday 12 June 2013

http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/06/12/what-happens-when-an-asylum-seeker-dies/?wpmp_switcher=mobile

continue reading

Aircraft recovery 'difficult, if not impossible'

A coronial inquest into the fatal crash of a Twin Otter Aircraft in Antarctica has found it will be "difficult, if not impossible to recover the aircraft for more information".

Three Canadian men, Captain Bob Heath, First Officer Mike Denton and engineer Perry Anderson were identified as being on board the aircraft when it crashed or made a forced landing on January 23.

The plane was on a repositioning flight from South Pole Station to Terra Nova Bay when it did not respond to normal communications.

New Zealand search and rescue personnel said the plane crash would not have been survivable and subsequent attempts to find the bodies were hampered by fierce weather and high altitude.

The incident occurred in the Ross Dependency region of Antarctica, which comes under New Zealand's jurisdiction. Canadian and New Zealand authorities have been cooperating during the investigation.

The coroner's evidence was presented in Auckland District Court this morning, which was live streamed to the victims' families in Canada.

After hearing evidence from Senior Sergeant Bruce Johnston, Chief Coroner Judge MacLean agreed it would be "extraordinarily difficult to recover the bodies" due to the "harsh" environment.

Any small chance of a future recovery would depend on "the next summer season and availability of resources".

He compared the situation to that of the Pike River Mine and Easy Rider tragedies.

"All three men died on the upper slopes of Mt Elizabeth [...] Without post-mortem it can be presumed the deaths were caused by multiple injuries in a high impact crash," he said.

The rescue and recovery attempts in such dangerous conditions were praised by Judge MacLean, who said it showed "extreme courage".

He also mentioned the excellent communication during the investigation between a wide range of agencies, including the Canadian High Commission, NZ Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the aircraft operator Kenn Borek Air Ltd.

Additional investigations are still underway by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada who aim to further determine the causes and contributing factors of the incident.

Wednesday 12 June 2013

http://www.3news.co.nz/Aircraft-recovery-difficult-if-not-impossible/tabid/423/articleID/301179/Default.aspx

continue reading

Sri Lankan Health Ministry to speed up postmortem of monsoon victims

The Health Ministry has made arrangements to speed up postmortems of fishermen to hand over their bodies to their families quickly, government media reported.

According to Health Ministry spokesman quoted by the government media steps have been taken to send a special team of judicial medical officers to Balapitiya Hospital to speed up the postmortems on 21 fishermen whose bodies are lying at the Balapitiya Hospital.

The team of judicial officers will complete postmortems and release the bodies to their families as soon as possible. The Injured fishermen are currently receiving treatment at state hospitals according to reports.

Tuesday 11 June 2013

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/latest/34395-health-ministry-to-speed-up-postmortem-of-fishermen.html

continue reading

Mumbai building collapse: rescue operations called off

After 24 hours, search and rescue operations at Mumbai's Altaf Manzil have been called off. Over this period, 10 lives were lost and five people are injured, recovering in hospitals.

The five-storey building came crashing down on Monday evening after heavy rains in the city. Teams from the Disaster Control Department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Mumbai Fire Brigade and the National Disaster Response Force were called in soon after.

The building housed the residence of noted criminal lawyer Rizwan Merchant. While Merchant's daughter and elder son survived, his younger son, wife and mother died. Their bodies were retrieved today from the debris.

24-year-old law student Gaylen Bowen considers himself lucky. He and his family missed death by a few minutes. They were out for dinner and were delayed in getting back home. "I am glad to have survived. I was convinced to stay on and have dinner with my family instead of coming back early to sleep. I feel very sad for those who couldn't make it through. It really breaks my heart that I grew up in this same building and now it's collapsed. I would like to thank the stars I am alive today because god knows how would I made it through had I come just 10 minutes when building collapsed," Gaylen told NDTV.

The civic body has declared 946 building in the city unsafe, after a pre-monsoon survey of dilapidated buildings. But it is at a loss to explain how a building that was not even on the list collapsed. Mayor Sunil Prabhu said "We will ascertain the cause of the collapse later. Saving lives is our top most priority." Locals claim that the collapse could have been caused due to an illegal construction in the lower floor of the building. However top sources in the BMC said, they weren't aware of any complaint against any illegal construction.

With the monsoons just starting, Mumbaikars are hoping that the season will pass off without any more tragedies. Meanwhile, Mahim, an area famous for its fresh kebabs is now in a shroud of gloom. Tuesday 11 June 2013

http://www.ndtv.com/article/cities/mumbai-building-collapse-rescue-operations-called-off-378339

continue reading

Mass grave found in Erbil

Official sources from the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) Ministry of Martyrs and Anfal Affairs announced on Monday June 3 in Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan region in north Iraq, excavating the remains of a mass grave, including five bodies, in a cemetery known as "Asphalt Plant". The date of killing the victims goes back to end of the 80s of the last century.

Official sources from the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) Ministry of Martyrs and Anfal Affairs announced on Monday June 3 in Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan region in north Iraq, excavating the remains of a mass grave, including five bodies, in a cemetery known as 'Asphalt Plant'. The date of killing the victims goes back to end of the 80s of the last century.

The KRG's Minister of Martyrs, Aram Ahmed, told Kurdish media outlets that: ?Five remains out of six have so far found. There are evidences that they were executed by the Iraqi former regime?s North Security Office in Erbil. There are also indications that they were tortured before shot to death and being executed. The remains go back to 1988.

The victims had been identified, the minister said, by their clothes and the bodies will be sent to forensic institution to take sample from their buns and DNA.

?Out of the five bodies, three were shot dead in the head. The excavating team will continue seeking more remains.

The remains were found after two days of nonstop working in a drilling operation launched by a joint team which included the Iraqi Federal Ministry of Human Rights, the KRG's Ministry of Martyrs and Anfal Affairs as well as the Federal and Regional Ministries of Health. The initiated drilling process supervised by the International Committee on Missing Persons (ICMP).

The process of digging out the mass graves and identifying the victims, might take decades and it is because of its scope and difficult terrain that includes landmines and unexploded ordinance, requires a highly experienced personnel that does not exist in Iraq.

The bodies are believed to be the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan's (PUK) members. Son of one of the victims said that the families of the dead people informed the ministry about the grave. He added that they knew of the grave since a long time and they uncovered it in 1992 but they could not identify the bodies.

It is expected that the mass grave will be registered in Iraq's Supreme Court as one of the crimes committed by the Iraqi former regime against the Kurdish people.

?Uncovering such mass graves is internationally very significant. The government has to struggle to recognize such crimes in the international institutions in order not to be repeated once again,? the Minister said.

Parwin Nuri, a member of the joint team, said that on the first day of initiating the drilling process the team found some evidences that there might be more mass graves nearby.

A member of the team, which was from the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights, said that the families of the victims have to be financially and psychologically compensated.

A PUK official in Erbil said that the victims were his party's members and they were in charge of organizing the PUK's political secret activities at that time. He said the bodies belong to each Mohsen al-Khayat, Mohammed Jawhar , Nourddine , Tahsin Darkala and Hassan Abu Shwareb.

The Iraqi former brutal regime was accused of murdering hundreds of thousand Iraqis, especially the Kurds and Shiites, during its rule, lasting for approximately three consecutive decades. Many of whom were buried in mass graves, while, part of them have so far not found.

Saddam Husseins regime launched eight brutal campaigns under the name of Anfal against the Kurdish people. It begun in 1987 and ended in 1988. The number of the people murdered in the campaigns is estimated to be around 180,000. The regime also destructed about 3,000 Kurdish villages during the campaign. More than ten thousands of people displaced from their houses too.

Tuesday 11 June 2013

http://www.kurdishglobe.net/display-article.html?id=21A30116004D3E46ABD4076C56372AFD

continue reading

Australia justifies abandoning asylum-seeker corpses in ocean

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard defended her government's decision to leave the bodies of 13 drowned asylum-seekers in the ocean following criticism more would have been done had they been Australians.

An extensive three-day air and sea search for an asylum-seeker boat, which is presumed to have capsized near Christmas Island with at least 55 people on board last week, did not find any survivors. Up to 13 bodies were seen in the water, along with debris and life-jackets, but they were not recovered and customs officials said they were now too busy rescuing other boats, AFP reports.

“That is a very tough decision but it is an operational decision,'' Gillard said.

“As border command has made clear, they always put the highest priority on saving lives and I think we would all understand why that's got to come first in any tasking or any work that border command does.''

Australia's Tamil minority community criticized the move, saying there would be anger if the bodies of Australian victims were left in the remote waters off the Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island.

“If they were Australians I am sure that I would be angry,'' Bala Vigneswaran, executive officer of the Australian Tamil Congress, told the ABC.

“I'm sure that everybody here in Australia would be very disappointed and I don't think we would have treated Australians like this.''

Asked about this criticism, Gillard said Australia would “always put the highest priority on saving lives''.

The doomed vessel was one of several arriving over the past week, with seven boats carrying a total of about 500 people intercepted since Wednesday, including one carrying more than 90 people which sought assistance near Christmas Island.

Tuesday 11 June 2013

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking_news_detail.asp?id=37433&icid=a&d_str=

continue reading

All 121 victims of Jilin poultry factory fire identified

DNA tests of 121 victims of a poultry plant fire in northeast China's Jilin Province have been completed, with names of the victims being released, a local rescue command center said on Monday.

The victims died in the blaze, which broke out at the Jilin Baoyuanfeng Poultry Company on June 3.

The fire also injured 77 people, 26 of whom have been discharged from hospital. One person died in hospital.

As of Monday morning, 2,600 tonnes of poultry products stored in freezers at the scene have been safely disposed of and epidemic prevention and sterilization work has been completed.

Tuesday 11 June 2013

http://www.ecns.cn/2013/06-10/68042.shtml

continue reading

Fishing for corpses in Colombia's Sanquianga river

Located in a remote corner of Colombia's southern Narino province not far off the Pacific Coast, the village of Bocas de Satinga relies on its riverside location for transport.

Everything arrives at the village by water: food, petrol, clothing... and dead bodies.

"There were days in which I'd fish out two or three corpses," says local resident Angel Segundo Hernandez.

The 79-year-old, who is better known by his nickname, Chain, has been pulling bodies out of the Sanquianga river for more than a decade.

He says the worst period was between 2001 and 2004, when right-wing paramilitary groups first moved into the region to fight Marxist Farc guerrillas.

"During those four years... oh, boy, that was really sad. I swear I fished out more than 50 dead bodies," recalls Chain.

"And they still come down [the river]. They still come down."

Narino is the province in Colombia with the highest density of coca plants - the raw material for cocaine - and its Pacific coast is the main exit point for speedboats smuggling the drug to Central America, and on to the United States.

Its strategic importance to drug trafficking, a key source of income for both right-wing paramilitary gangs and the rebels, has made it one of Colombia's most dangerous places.

And it is not just the Farc and paramilitary gangs that operate in this region.

Colombia's second largest rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN) also has a presence in certain parts of Narino.

Gillian McCarthy of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says with so many armed groups, "there's always something happening" in the area.

"The most obvious one is the unidentified dead bodies in the cemetery," she says.

This is even more evident in the port city of Tumaco, a three-hour boat trip from Bocas de Satinga.

Here, word is that even the old ladies that rent mobile phones and sell sweets on the streets have to pay extortion money to either the Farc, the ELN or the paramilitary gangs.

And with a homicide rate of 136 per every 100,000 inhabitants - almost four times the Colombian average - the forensic team at the local morgue is never short of work.

Dr Antonio Sarama has had to examine hundreds of bodies in the morgue in Tumaco, mostly victims of drug-related violence "There was a year in which we had to practice 420 post-mortem examinations," says Dr Antonio Sarama, who has been working in the city for the last eight years.

"And the homicides are just the tip of the iceberg," he says. "You also have problems like extortion, kidnapping, rape."

Dr Sarama says he spent the last two days examining the bodies of land mine victims.

Mines abound in Tumaco's rural area, where they are planted by the owners of coca fields to prevent the security forces from eradicating them.

But he says most of the dead are victims of drug-related violence, murdered by hitmen in the service of the many armed groups fighting for control of this patch of land.

"You can tell because of the overkill," says Dr Sarama. "We're talking about bodies riddled with more than 20 gunshots."

The flow of dead is such that Tumaco's small cemetery can no longer cope. Gravediggers have started to remove the remains of unidentified bodies to make more room.

The remains are unceremoniously disposed of in white bags, further lessening the chance of relatives to ever find or identify their loved ones.



Thanks to the care taken by Mr Segundo Hernandez in Bocas de Satinga, the ICRC has been able to locate the remains of most of the unidentified bodies washed up during the past decade.

They have marked their location with white tombstones with the letters NN, for "ningun nombre", or no name.

A team from the Colombian Institute of Legal Medicine will soon be moving into a newly built morgue in Bocas de Satinga, to try to identify the 58 bodies recovered by Chain.

The move is part of a two-year project aimed at identifying Colombia's unnamed dead, of which there are estimated to be 40,000 scattered in cemeteries across the country.

It is a monumental task, taking in 65 graveyards in 13 different Colombian provinces. But the authorities argue the effort is warranted, as an identification of the victims of Colombia's armed conflict is part of paving the way for an eventual peace deal.

The rights of and compensation for the victims is one of the issues on the agenda at peace negotiations currently under way in Cuba between the government and Farc rebels.

Chain, who says he took it upon himself to recover and bury the nameless bodies washed up in his village because he could not bare the idea of them drifting all the way to the sea, welcomes the project.

While it is too late for those who died, he says their families may be given some solace by their identification, and any possible reparation payments.

"The government has said it will compensate the families, and that money will surely come handy," he says.

"Unfortunately, it will not be possible for all of them. But those who are identified…well, it will be great for their families," says the man who in his village has become known as the "fisherman of the dead".

Tuesday 11 June 2013

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22795977

continue reading

Forces hunt for missing monsoon victims

Naval boats and helicopters scoured seas off Sri Lanka Monday for dozens of missing fishermen, as the death toll from strong monsoon rains and winds rose to 31, an official said.

The dead fishermen were listed as missing since the monsoon hit the island early on Saturday, destroying more than 100 houses, according to the Disaster Management Centre (DMC).

"We continue to look for missing people," DMC spokesman Sarath Lal Kumara said. "The navy and the airforce are leading the search and rescue operations."

The death toll rose from 27 to 31, with all of those, except one, fishermen caught in rough seas, DMC figures show. Another 35 people have been injured, according to the DMC.

More than 100 houses have been completely destroyed and another 2,185 partially damaged due to strong winds, the figures show.

The weather has improved since Sunday, the department of meteorology said. The monsoon hits the country twice a year bringing much-needed rain, but also frequently causes loss of life and damage to property.

Seven people were killed in the country last month when a tropical cyclone brushed the eastern coast.

Monday 10 June 2013

http://www.enca.com/world/forces-hunt-missing-monsoon-victims

continue reading

New safety system will track implants

The UK's medicines and technology watchdog has announced details of a new tracking system that will improve the monitoring of high risk medical devices such as breast implants, heart valves and pacemakers.

Four NHS trusts are trialling the new system which it is hoped will ultimately incorporate unique device identifiers into hospital patient electronic records and national Hospital Episode Statistics databases and analysis by the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD).

The MHRA says this will enable it to assess the performance of high-risk medical devices and to trace patients in the event of a device recall or safety alert, without the need for multiple device registries.

The project is one of 11 projects that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has established to strengthen the regulation of medical devices as part of its response to the review into PIP breast implants by Health Minister Lord Howe in May last year. Many of these projects are still in early development because of their complexity but the MHRA has made progress in these areas:

1) Adverse incident reporting: working with NHS England to improve levels of reporting of problems with medical devices in NHS trusts through enhanced Medical Device Liaison Officer roles. Adverse incident reporting increased by 25% in 2012 thanks to increased reporting by the public, manufacturers and private health organisations;

2) New National Breast Implant Registry: assisting the Department of Health with the re-establishment of a National Breast Implant Registry;

3) Review of UK and European notified bodies: the competence of UK notified bodies – who approve the safety of medical devices before they are sold – has been reviewed and joint audit programme for this year has been implemented to ensure that all European notified bodies are meeting consistently high standards when assessing high-risk medical devices;

4) Strengthening regulation in Europe: 116 responses were received in response to the MHRA’s public consultation on the European Commission’s proposals to improve medical device regulation. These were broadly supportive of the UK Government’s position that there must be tighter controls on notified bodies, better post-market surveillance of medical devices and more collaboration between national regulators;

5) New European reporting portal: leading on generating funding from other European countries to pilot new portal that will improve the safety monitoring of medical devices that are used in Europe.

John Wilkinson, the MHRA’s Director of Medical Devices, said: “The PIP breast implants episode is believed to be a case of deliberate fraud but it highlighted areas where medical devices regulation need strengthening in the UK and in Europe.

“The new tracking system for medical devices that we are piloting is still in the early stages of development, but we hope it will help us to improve the safety information we receive so that we can alert patients and healthcare professionals about potential safety problems faster.

“This is one of 11 projects we established in response to the recommendations made by Lord Howe. We have already made good progress in a number of these and establishing an audit programme that ensures that European notified bodies – which assess the safety of medical devices before they are sold - meet consistently high standards was a key aim for us. We are continuing to work hard to ensure that the regulatory system is protecting patients from unsafe medical devices.”

Lord Howe, Health Minister said: “Protecting the health and well-being of people who have been given medical devices is vitally important. Serious lessons need to be learned from the PIP scandal.

"The MHRA has identified new measures to help improve the monitoring of medical devices including implants. I hope its ongoing work, and the work of the Department, will reassure the public that we have identified the lessons and have taken steps to act on them.”

Monday 10 June 2013

http://www.onmedica.com/newsarticle.aspx?id=aefa1176-5900-4d55-9833-3342ba59a872

continue reading

Honduran officials search for more gang victims in clandestine grave

For the sixth consecutive day, Honduran authorities continued excavating a mass grave in the north of the country, where to date the remains of at least eight people, presumed to have been killed by gang members, have been recovered.

“The work continues,” Honduran Chief Prosecutor Marlene Banegas told AFP on Saturday. “We believe that there are at least five more people were buried here, which would bring the total to 13.”

The mass grave is 40 centimeters deep at a site with abundant vegetation, located outside the community of Las Glorias de El Calán, in the municipality of Villanueva, some 200 kilometers north of the capital.

“Forensic specialists found bodies with their hands and feet tied, and gunshot wounds to the heads, execution-style, common of gang-related murders,” a spokesman for the Prosecutor’s Office, Elvis Guzmán, said.

Exhumations began last Tuesday following reports from family members of the missing people and residents of Villanueva.

Guzmán said the remains are all male victims, and some have been there for up to two years.

“For the moment, we have been unable to identify the victims until DNA tests are performed,” Guzmán said, adding that, “the forensic work will continue until there are no more remains in this mass grave.”

The search for graves was begun a few days after an armed clash between police and suspected members of the Mara 18 gang, seven of whom were killed.

Police said residents of Ciudad Planeta began reporting the existence of common graves in the area, and that spurred authorities to launch the investigation.

The search team, consisting of about 25 people, is working in an area about 1 hectare (2.2 acres) in size where several graves have been discovered where initially it was thought that at least 15 people were interred.

However, Guzman said, other residents told authorities that as many as 40 people could be buried in the area.

Police suspect that two of their officers, who were murdered by suspected gang members, could be buried at Ciudad Planeta, where security forces have had to substantially increase their presence and vigilance to protect the local residents and the grave investigation team.

Guzman said that the majority of the houses located near the tract of land where the investigation is under way have been abandoned for some time, perhaps for fear of reprisals by the gang members who have controlled Ciudad Planeta.

Honduras is experiencing a significant wave of violence that is taking the lives of about 15 people each day, on average.


According to the United Nations, Honduras is the most violent country in the world outside of war zones, with a murder rate of 85.5 per 100,000 residents.

Monday 10 June 2013

http://www.ticotimes.net/More-news/News-Briefs/Honduran-officials-search-for-more-gang-victims-in-clandestine-grave_Sunday-June-09-2013

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=400661&CategoryId=23558

continue reading

Papua New Guinea witch hunts mask jealousy in nation with deep belief in black magic

On a tropical island in Papua New Guinea where most people live in huts, a mob armed with guns, machetes and axes stormed a wooden house by night. They seized Helen Rumbali and three female relatives, set the building on fire and took the women away to be tortured. Their alleged crime: Witchcraft.

After being repeatedly slashed with knives, Rumbali's older sister and two teenage nieces were released following negotiations with police. Rumbali, a 40-something former schoolteacher, was beheaded.

Her assailants claimed they had clear proof that Rumbali had used sorcery to kill another villager who recently died of sickness: The victim's grave bore the marks of black magic, and a swarm of fire flies apparently led witch hunters to Rumbali's home.

Violence linked to witch hunts is an increasingly visible problem in Papua New Guinea — a diverse tribal society of more than 800 languages and 7 million people who are mostly subsistence farmers. Experts say witch hunting appears to be spreading to parts of the country where the ruthless practices never took place before.

There is no clear explanation for the apparent uptick in killings in parts of the South Pacific nation, and even government officials seem at a loss to say why this is happening. Some are arguing the recent violence is fueled not by the nation's widespread belief in black magic but instead by economic jealousy born of a mining boom that has widened the country's economic divide and pitted the haves against the have-nots.

"Jealousy is causing a lot of hatred," said Helen Hakena, chairwoman of the North Bougainville Human Rights Committee, which is based in the area Rumbali was killed. "People who are so jealous of those who are doing well in life, they resort to what our people believe in, sorcery, to kill them, to stop them continuing their own development."

She said the witchcraft accusation against Rumbali was just an excuse.

"That was definitely a case of jealousy because her family is really quite well off," Hakena said.

She said villagers were envious because Rumbali's husband and son had government jobs, they had a "permanent house" made of wood, and the family had tertiary educations and high social standing.

The United Nations has documented hundreds of cases of sorcery-related violence in Papua New Guinea in recent years and many more cases in remote areas are thought to have gone unreported. It found the attacks are often carried out with impunity.

Until last month, the country's 42-year-old Sorcery Act allowed for a belief in black magic to be used as a partial legal defence for killing someone suspected of inflicting harm through sorcery. The government repealed the law in response to the recent violence.

"There's no doubt that there are really genuine beliefs there and in some circumstances that is what is motivating people: the belief that if they don't kill this person, then this person is going to continue to bring death and misfortune and sickness on their village," said Miranda Forsyth, a lawyer at Australian National University who has studied the issue.

But she said recent cases in Papua New Guinea don't appear to be motivated by a genuine belief in the occult, but instead are a pretext under which the wealthy can be attacked by poorer neighbours, and, many times, get away with it.

She and other experts on witchcraft in the Melanesia region believe Papua New Guinea's newfound prosperity and the growing inequality in its traditionally egalitarian culture is a significant cause of the violence. Neighboring Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, where belief in black magic is also widespread, haven't seen the same level of extreme violence against accused witches.

The difference, they say, is that Papua New Guinea has had the fastest economic growth.

A wealth of mineral resources and natural gas has transformed the nation's long-stagnant economy into one of the world's fastest growing over the past decade, increasing on average almost 7 per cent annually from 2007 to 2010. Growth peaked at 8.9 per cent in 2011 before slowing to 8 per cent last year.

The Asian Development Bank reported last year that Papua New Guinea has one of the highest levels of inequality, if not the highest, in the Asia-Pacific region.

These socio-economic problems have inevitably played into a cultural landscape that includes a belief in witches and black magic, said Kate Schuetze, a regional researcher for Amnesty International.

"There is always a reason for the accusation, whether it's jealousy, wanting to access someone else's land, a personal grudge against that person or a previous land dispute," Schuetze said.

Papua New Guinea Deputy Public Prosecutor Ravunama Auka doesn't buy that jealousy has been behind a significant number of the sorcery-related slayings he had dealt with. While he did not have statistics, he said most victims were slain due to a genuine belief that they had killed through sorcery.

Auka had no doubt sorcery-related slayings were increasing, but could not explain why.

"There are all sorts of reasons, not only because some people are wealthy and some are not," Auka said.

Another possible explanation is the spread of particularly vicious sorcery beliefs that before were just seen in the highland province of Chimbu, said anthropologist Philip Gibbs, a sorcery specialist and Roman Catholic priest who has lived in the wilds of Papua New Guinea for the past 41 years.

In Chimbu, people bury their dead in concrete so that the bodies will not be eaten at night by small demonic animals that they believe can possess the living. Villagers pay witch doctors to divine who among them are possessed by these demons, which they believe leave the person's body at night and take on the form of any small animal.

Gibbs said those suspected of being possessed are often tortured to make confessions and are sometimes killed.

"That form is spreading to other provinces where it's never existed before and we're asking the question why," Gibbs said.

Accused families abandon their small farms in a hurry, usually taking only what they can carry in a bag. The villagers must then decide who occupies the vacant land.

"That's where the jealousy and the greed can come in," Gibbs said.

Papua New Guinea is under growing international pressure to respond to the violence after a series of high-profile cases made world headlines.

In February, a mob stripped, tortured and bound a woman accused of witchcraft, then burned her alive in front of hundreds of horrified witnesses in Mount Hagan, the country's third largest city. In July, police arrested 29 people accused of being part of a cannibal cult in Papua New Guinea's jungle interior and charged them with the murders of seven suspected witch doctors.

In the case of Rumbali, which took place in April, no arrests have been made, but police said they are treating it as "first degree murder."

Police Senior Inspector Cletus Tsien would not speculate on the motive for the crime.

"We know that this family was wealthy. We know that maybe there were bits and pieces of jealousy. We know they were accused of sorcery ... but there's no concrete evidence as to which factor contributed to the death of the late woman," Tsien said.

Monday 10 June 2013

http://www.windsorstar.com/life/Brutal+Papua+Guinea+witch+hunts+mask+jealousy+nation+with+deep/8501965/story.html

continue reading

Sri Lanka: Monssoon death toll rises to 31; another 31 still missing

The Disaster Management Center stated that the death toll of the fishermen hit by wind storm has risen to 31.

The center also stated that 31 more fishermen are still missing.

29 persons were injured and 101 houses were damaged by the windstorm which hit the areas along the Southern coastal belt on Saturday.

Police stated that 2 more bodied believed to be of the missing fishermen were found near the beach at Bambalapitiya Railway Station.

Police also said the Navy was informed of the bodies which are not identified yet.

Monday 10 June 2013

http://www.hirunews.lk/60691

continue reading

Asylum seeker search: no survivors from sunken asylum boat near Christmas Island

The search for more than 40 asylum seekers missing feared drowned after their boat sank near Christmas Island was abandoned late on Sunday night.

The boat sank about 65 nautical miles north-west of Christmas Island after about 55 people were seen aboard last Wednesday.

The search and rescue operation sighted 13 bodies in the water on Saturday; no further bodies were seen since.

Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare said those bodies already seen in the water had not been recovered, as the focus was on finding survivors.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority suspended the search and rescue operation after receiving medical advice on Sunday night ruling out the likelihood of survival of those on board.

Despite three vessels and five aircraft being involved in the three-day search and rescue operation, no survivors were found.

Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare said the incident was "another terrible tragedy" and showed the perils of travelling in open seas in often unseaworthy boats.

The latest deaths of asylum-seekers hoping to make it to Australia come after the deaths of more than 100 on board a vessel that sank last July.

Drowned bodies of asylum seekers to be left in the water by authorities

The bodies of up to 60 asylum seekers who drowned off Christmas Island will be left in the water, with Australian authorities deciding their retrieval is not a priority.

While an investigation has been launched into the several delays it took to begin a full-scale search after the boat was first spotted on Wednesday afternoon, Australian Customs and Border Protection have decided not retrieve the bodies.

“No attempts to recover the deceased will be made today,” a spokeswoman said.

“Vessels and aircrafts are involved in a range of high priority operations in the waters near Christmas Island and elsewhere.

“Our priority in these operations remains the protection of life, responding to water rescues which may prevent any further loss of life.”

The Australian Customs and Border Protection may try to recover the bodies at a later date but the spokeswoman said the likelihood of “successful recovery” diminishes over time.

When asked if home affairs minister Jason Clare agreed with the decision, a spokesman said it was an operational decision.

Refugee advocates have expressed dismay that bodies will be left in the ocean, saying the asylum seekers deserve some dignity.

Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul said retrieving the bodies would be a comfort to the families left behind.

“We’re always in favour of retrieving their bodies. There are families in refugee communities who look at these episodes with anguish and it can provide closure to get a better idea of who was on the boat and letting people know what has happened to relatives and loved ones,” he said.

Rintoul said the nationalities of people on the boat should emerge over the next few days when families and friends do not hear from those who should have arrived at the island.

He also criticised the time it took for a proper search to be launched, saying it was almost two days after the boat was first seen.

“When the plane first spotted the boat it was stationed in the water, that in itself should have set off alarm bells for people in that plane and the rescue authorities,” he said.

“These kind of boats when they are in the water and stationary are unstable.

“That boat was only a few hours, at the most, from arriving at Christmas Island - when it did not arrive it should of set off immediate alarm bells for a wider search. But all we saw was a navy boat.

“There was no mayday call until Friday. There is clearly a need for an inquiry into this particular boat in distress and we need to know the protocol and procedures the navy and rescue authorities were operating in.”

The boat was first noticed by an air force plane on Wednesday afternoon about 52km north of Christmas Island. It did not seem to be in distress, but it was not moving.

The crew of the plane counted 55 people on the deck. Most of the asylum seekers were men but women and children also appeared on board.

A navy ship was sent out about seven hours later to intercept the boat and arrived where the boat was last seen upright in the early hours of Thursday morning.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) did not send out a PAN-PAN (Potential Assistance Needed) call until 10am on Friday. The capsized boat was not found until Friday afternoon.

Rintoul said as far as the refugee advocates had been told, only a corridor was searched on Thursday and he wanted a far reaching inquiry, not just the standard investigation which was taking place.

“We’ve got a situation where there simply has not been an adequate response,” he said.

Phil Gendinning from the research and awareness organisation, the Edmund Rice Centre, supported Rintoul’s calls for a full investigation into the timeframe of the search and said the bodies should not be left in the ocean.

“This is an unmitigated tragedy of every proportion,” he said.

“Our preference would be retrieving the bodies so they can be given the chance of a dignified farewell without putting lives at risk.

“We also need to make sure this does not happen again.

“... a bipartisan effort needs to be made to assist people to be processed safely and securely.

“They need to be protected, not punished.”

The search was called off on Sunday night with no survivors found and the discovery of 13 dead bodies.

Border Protection Commander Rear Admiral David Johnston said on Sunday none of the bodies spotted in the search were pulled from the water.

"The recovery of bodies is complex and time-consuming, so all the surface vessels are continuing [the search] because it remains possible that there are survivors in the water," he said.

Two planes and two ships searched for survivors from Friday until Sunday night.

Home affairs minister, Jason Clare, said the search will be the subject of a “standard” review by Customs and Border Protection.

Monday 10 June 2013

http://www.gattonstar.com.au/news/Bodies-found-after-asylum-seeker-boat-sinks/1900450/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/10/asylum-seekers-bodies-christmas-island

continue reading

Abandoned bodies prove cops' apathy

How seriously do police investigate cases after recovery of abandoned bodies?

When inspector general GL Meena tried to find the answer to this question the reality of the 'seriousness' of police towards abandoned bodies came to the fore. Meena said: "A report on abandoned bodies recovered in a period of one year had been sought from all 10 districts of Varanasi zone." When the districts sent their reports after repeated reminders, he was taken aback to see that the cops of Varanasi had shown the recovery of only three abandoned bodies while Ghazipur cops had shown recovery of 10, Jaunpur five, Azamgarh two, Mau five, Mirzapur one and Bhadohi had shown two recoveries of abandoned bodies. The Ballia police showed that no abandoned body was recovered in the district in a period of one year.

Only Chandauli and Sonebhadra police showed some realistic figure by mentioning recoveries of 46 and 23 abandoned bodies respectively. The figures of abandoned bodies mentioned in the reports by other districts were found fake as on an average, the recovery of three to four abandoned bodies is published even by newspapers in three to four days. Taking a serious note of it, Meena decided to cross-examine the report by seeking the figures of abandoned bodies recorded in the register of postmortem house of Varanasi district only.

This move of IG exposed the working of junior cops as the numbers mentioned in the register of postmortem house showed the recovery of over 80 abandoned bodies only in Varanasi district in a period of one year. The cops had also not taken pains to show the cause of death as mentioned in postmortem report. The district police also avoided telling the number of cases in which the identity of abandoned bodies had been ascertained. These ground realities were sufficient to reveal that most of the bodies had been disposed without proper investigation despite the fact that after recovery of large number of bodies, the possibility of murder had been suspected in past.

The IG said that taking serious note of the ground realities, another directive was issued to the SSP/SPs of zone to conduct fresh exercise. This time a format has been prepared, said Meena adding, the districts would give their report on it by mentioning the actual number of abandoned bodies sent for postmortem, cause of death as mentioned in postmortem report, remarks of the doctors who conducted postmortem, result of efforts made for ascertaining identity and result of investigation.

The officials have become compelled to conduct this exercise seriously due to different reasons. In the areas through which highways and railway lines pass, the recovery of abandoned bodies in large number is not very surprising.

But, the recoveries had also been made from other areas like remote jungles and fields after it was suspected that the bodies were thrown after killing. The IG said that the next report will bring many facts on fore after which fresh strategy would be prepared to tackle these cases.

Monday 10 June 2013

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/varanasi/Abandoned-bodies-prove-cops-apathy/articleshow/20511918.cms

continue reading

Twelve dead, 13 injured in Philippines as bus falls off cliff

A bus carrying supporters of a local politician fell off a cliff in the mountainous northern Philippines on Saturday, killing 12 people, a police spokesman said.

The victims were supporters of the mayor of the town of Buguias, Melchor Diclas, and were being ferried home from a victory party he hosted after he retained his post in last month’s elections, police said.

Rescuers found 10 bodies at the bottom of an 80-metre (262-foot) ravine and two others were declared dead on arrival at nearby hospitals.

Seven passengers were treated for injuries, said local police spokesman Vicente Lim-mong

Sunday 9 June 2013

http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/06/10/12-dead-as-bus-falls-off-philippine-cliff/

continue reading

Police, army rescuers abandon search for Taplejung landslide victims

Hopes of finding the three missing, including two children, alive have been exhausted after the rescue and salvage operation was called off Friday in the face of continuous mudslides.

All rescue teams of the Nepal Army (NA), Nepal Police and Armed Police Force (APF) returned to their own bases, saying continuing landslips made rescue impossible. Now only the locals are left to search for their missing neighbors.

The locals who gathered to rebuild the pathway wiped out by the landslide at the Thukima area, where a landslide killed nine people on Wednesday, said a putrid odor of rotting flesh has permeated the area.

The locals surmise that the stench is from the bodies of the dead and the livestock carcasses buried in the rubble.

“There is a putrid smell along the way,” said Nani Bahadur Kedem, a local.

Locals said there is no hope of even recovering the bodies of the missing a rescue team from the Nepal Army and police has returned to base at district headquarters and the locals are unable to continue with the salvage work.

Nine people, eight from one family, were killed in the landslide trigged by incessant downpour at Thukima-6 in Taplejung, Wednesday. Tej Bahadur Siba, 28, Kaji Siba, 10, and Ashika Siba, 4, are still missing in the landslide. Over a dozen cattle and other livestock also vanished in the landslide.

The bodies of all nine people were cremated Friday. While the eight dead bodies of the same family were buried in one single grave, Sukmaya Sawa was cremated elsewhere.

Meanwhile, over 250 students from six local VDCs are unable to attend school as the way to school is blocked by the landslide. According to Ishowari Prasad Bhattarai, principal of Tribhuvan Higher Secondary School, the students cannot put their lives at risk as the landslide has destroyed the pathway leading to their school.

Sunday 9 June 2013

http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=55894

http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=55833

continue reading

13 dead as truck falls into ravine in Benguet

Thirteen people were killed when a truck fell into a ravine in Buguias, Benguet Saturday afternoon.

Authorities said the truck swerved out of control and fell into an 80-meter deep ravine at around 2 p.m. on Saturday. Ten of the victims were declared dead on arrival at the Abatan Emergency Hospital and Abatan Luthern Hospiral, while the two others died while being treated at the Benguet General Hospital.

Five more passengers were injured, while another, identified as Jerry Bisaya, managed to escape by jumping out of the truck before it fell into the cliff.

The victims were reportedly on their way to Abatan, Benguet when the accident occurred.

The victims were supporters of the mayor of the town of Buguias, Melchor Diclas, and were being ferried home from a victory party he hosted after he retained his post in last month’s elections, police said.

Initial investigations showed there was zero visibility along the road due to strong rain fall.

The driver of the vehicle may face charges of multiple homicide and multiple physical injuries, although the family of the victims have yet to file any charges against him.

All of the victims’ remains have been identified and brought to their families.

Sunday 9 June 2013

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/regions/06/08/13/10-dead-truck-falls-ravine-benguet

continue reading

Fifteen killed as heavy rains lash China

At least 15 people have been killed and another two missing as a bout of torrential rains lashed several parts of China.

According to a statement issued by the National Commission for Disaster Reduction on Saturday, flash flooding caused by heavy rains has affected 4.68 million people, and displaced 62,000 people.

The agency added that floods have also destroyed 2,500 houses, and significantly damaged 21,400 hectares of farmlands.

The natural disaster has also inflicted an economic loss of 1.7 billion yuan (about $280 million).

Rains have so far battered nine regions in southern and eastern China, including Anhui, Hubei, Hunan and Jiangxi provinces since June 5.

Authorities said relief supplies have been sent to the disaster-stricken areas, but local residents are still in need of more relief supplies.

Sunday 9 June 2013

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/06/08/307838/heavy-rains-leave-15-dead-in-china/

continue reading

8 years on, Sarojini blast victim’s kin yet to get dues

It was on October 29, 2005 that Ram Jivan, an employee of the hugely popular Shyam Juice Corner located inside Sarojini Nagar picked up the bomb-laden suitcase lying near the shop. His employer, Lalchand Saluja, suspected something "fishy" in the bag and insisted he pick it up and raise an alarm. Seconds later, Jivan, Saluja and another employee - Babloo were blown to pieces in what remains to be till date one of the worst terror attacks in the city.

Seven years later, when the kin of every other victim has received the mandatory "non-traceable" certificate from the Sarojini Nagar police, Jivan's brother Ram Kishore is still running between the Sarojini Nagar police station and the local SDM office.

Kishore lives in Hardoi in Uttar Pradesh with his family. The certificate can fetch him Rs 4.5 lakh, a huge compensation for a family who work as bonded agricultural labourers. "I waited for the mandatory seven years to pass before the government could declare him dead. Each day has been a battle during which I lost my parents. I found four other families going through the same ordeal. These included the families of Sayan Mukhopadhaya and S Ganeshan. After the high court order was passed certificates were given to everyone but me. How can the police be so negligent," asked Kishore.

Kishore said he had applied in January on behalf of his brother. "Everytime, I visit the police station, they tell me that my case is pending either with the Special Cell or Special Branch and they have no role in it,'' claimed Kishore. The Special Cell denied any pendency regarding the Sarojini Nagar blast case. "As per our records, we have cleared all applications,'' said a senior officer.

Earlier, in the non-traceable report prepared by the SHO of the Sarojini Nagar police station in the case of Sayan Mukhopadhaya, it was stated by cops that the Special Cell has told them that all deceased have been identified except for four dead bodies.

Meanwhile, back at Sarojini Nagar, the mini-market association president Ashok Randhawa said he wants to hand three photographs — those of the juice shop owner Lalchand Saluja and his employees Ram Jivan and Babloo — so as to bolster Kishore's case.

Neighboring shopkeepers remembered the three victims being "good friends." "I am alive because of them. He picked up the bag with the bomb and was about to throw it when it exploded," said Premji, owner of Vicky Selection, a store in the area.

Sunday 9 June 2013

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/8-years-on-Sarojini-blast-victims-kin-yet-to-get-dues/articleshow/20500784.cms

continue reading

Bodies of Russian Mi-8 helicopter crash victims taken to morgue

Five bodies recovered on the site of Thursday’s Mi-8 helicopter crash in a mountainous region of far-eastern Russia were taken to a morgue in Khabarovsk on Sunday, an emergencies service spokesman said.

The MI-8 helicopter, which belonged to Russia’s Voluntary Association of Assistance to the Army, Air Force and Navy (DOSAAF), went missing on Thursday The aircraft was carrying four crewmembers and one passenger. Its wreckage was located on Saturday morning. The cause of the crash is unknown.

“The bodies of the victims were taken to a morgue in Khabarovsk early on Sunday. Investigators are now charged with identification and forensic tests,” the source said.

Investigators have launched a criminal investigation into suspected violation of aviation rules.

This is the fourth deadly crash of this type of aircraft in Russia this year.

In the most recent accident, a Mi-8T helicopter, owned by an Air Force training center crashed while performing a scheduled training flight in the Volga Area in late May. The aircraft’s pilot in command and his trainee, who parachuted before the helicopter crashed, survived. The third crew member, a flight engineer, was unable to leave the cockpit and died.

The Russian defense ministry grounded all its Mi-8 helicopters after the accident.

Sunday 9 June 2013

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20130609/181582935/Bodies-of-Mi-8-Crash-Victims-Taken-to-Morgue.html

continue reading

Nineteen dead as monsoon lashes Sri Lanka, 36 fishermen still missing

Monsoon rains and strong winds in Sri Lanka have killed at least 19 people with dozens more missing, most of them fishermen caught in rough seas, officials said on Sunday.

The navy and airforce are searching for 36 fishermen who have been missing at sea since the monsoon hit early on Saturday, Sarath Kumara Gunaratne, deputy minister of disaster management, told reporters.

The bodies of 18 fishermen have so far been found, while the body of another person was discovered on land, the minister said.

“A joint rescue operation is underway,” the minister said.

“The navy and the airforce have deployed several craft to look for survivors. At least 21 injured fishermen have been rescued so far and admitted to hospital,” he said.

On Saturday, officials confirmed five people died as a result of the monsoon which hits annually, bringing much-needed rain, but also frequently causing loss of life and property damage.

Heavy showers were expected in many parts of the island on Sunday with winds already reaching speeds of over 70 kilometres (43 miles) an hour, the meteorological office said. Security forces were deployed to clear fallen trees and power lines strewn on several key highways, military spokesman Ruwan Wanigasooriya said.

Several trees at Sri Lanka's main zoo, just south of the capital Colombo, were also uprooted by strong winds, but the animals were unharmed, a zoo official said.

A 20-foot (17-metre) long whale washed ashore in Colombo on Saturday while a stranded giant sea turtle was rescued by locals at a suburb of the coastal capital, police said.

The authorities opened sluice gates of four major hydroelectricity reservoirs in central Sri Lanka late on Saturday to prevent damage to dams.

Seven people were killed in Sri Lanka last month when a tropical cyclone brushed the island's eastern coast.

Sunday 9 June 2013

http://beta.dawn.com/news/1017077/nineteen-dead-as-monsoon-lashes-sri-lanka

continue reading

More bodies found after asylum seeker boat sinks near Christmas Island

At least 13 people are dead after an asylum seeker boat capsized near Christmas Island.

Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare says authorities are continuing to search for survivors 74 nautical miles west of the island.

Speaking to reporters in Canberra, Mr Clare said about 55 people were earlier seen on the deck of the vessel in waters off Western Australia's north coast.

He said they were mostly adult men, but included a small number of women and children.

Mr Clare also revealed Australian Federal Police (AFP) had received a call for assistance from a second boat last night, but HMAS Warramunga has been unable to locate the vessel.

The suspected asylum seeker boat reported engine troubles about 110 nautical miles north of Christmas Island last night and HMAS Warramunga was sent to its location. Asylum seeker boat sinking timeline (times in AEST)

Mr Clare says 13 bodies from the first boat have been located, but they are yet to be recovered from the water.

"This is another terrible tragedy. Another terrible reminder how dangerous these journeys [are]," Mr Clare said during a press conference.

"Let me take this opportunity to thank the men and women of Border Protection command for their bravery and for the dangerous work that they do."

Authorities first spotted the boat on Wednesday, Mr Clare confirmed.

"The vessel was stationary but did not appear to be in distress. The advice to me is that Australian authorities did not receive a distress call from this vessel," he said.

"HMAS Warramunga was tasked that evening to intercept the vessel."

However, the Navy ship was unable to find the boat.

On Friday, a submerged hull was sighted in the water 65 nautical miles north-west of Christmas Island.

HMAS Warramunga arrived at the location later that afternoon.

Mr Clare said the crew were unable to find the hull, but they did find debris, including pieces of wood and a number of life jackets.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) are involved in the massive air and sea search.

Two merchant ships are also involved, along with two Border Protection planes and a private aircraft.

HMAS Warramunga has been retasked to search for a second boat approximately 110 nautical miles north of Christmas Island.

Mr Clare said that vessel has not yet been located.

New boat arrivals

This afternoon, 78 asylum seekers rescued from a stricken vessel 500 nautical miles west of Cocos Island three days ago arrived at Christmas Island.

A British merchant vessel picked up the people after the boat ran into trouble.

Meanwhile, another asylum seeker boat was stopped north-west of Christmas Island on Saturday.

The boat was picked up with 130 passengers on board, who are being sent to the island for initial checks.

Another asylum seeker boat was intercepted off Christmas Island with 69 people on board on Friday.

Sunday 9 June 2013

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-09/search-continues-for-survivors-of-capsized-asylum-seeker-boat/4742300

continue reading

Up to 70 asylum seekers feared dead after boat sank off Christmas Island

The bodies of nine asylum seekers have been found near Christmas Island, while another 60 are missing feared dead, after a vessel vanished last week.

During a search and rescue operation that will continue into the night, Border Protection sent a plane that found the dead bodies on Saturday afternoon.

A delay in starting the search-and-rescue mission has prompted renewed criticism of Australia's response to boats in distress.

Former Australian diplomat Tony Kevin asked why there was an almost 46-hour lag from the time the boat, with up to 60 people on board, was reported ''overdue'' on its journey from Indonesia and the mounting of a search-and-rescue operation.

A search was still under way on Saturday night for survivors from the boat, believed to have capsized on Friday. The alarm was raised with the Australian Maritime Safety Authority by Customs on Friday night - almost 12 hours after debris was reportedly spotted floating in the water from the boat, which had been reported days earlier as being ''overdue'' on its journey from Indonesia.

There was an unconfirmed report that one body had been seen in the water.

A spokesman for Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare said on Saturday afternoon that Border Protection Command was searching an area about 65 nautical miles north-west of Christmas Island for a possible foundered vessel. Mr Clare is travelling to Canberra for a briefing on the operation.

The navy frigate HMAS Warramunga was co-ordinating the search. Australia's Rescue Coordination Centre put out PAN-PAN (Potential Assistance Needed) calls at 10am on Friday asking for ships in the area to report sightings of a blue-hulled vessel carrying about 55 people.

The suspected sinking is the first since a boat went down near Java in Indonesia in April.

Only 14 survivors were plucked from the water from the vessel, which was carrying just more than 70 people.

The remaining passengers were never found with Indonesia conducting only a limited search.

A boat overturned in March, 14 nautical miles north of Christmas Island - killing a pregnant woman and a young boy - and two boats capsized last year killing more than 100 people. Eight asylum seeker boats have arrived in Australia this week with 639 passengers on board.

Ninety-three refugees, including a pregnant ill woman in her 20s and a six-year-old boy, were among the stranded passengers rescued.

In June last year, 90 people drowned and another 93 were rescued after their vessel capsized north of Christmas Island.

Saturday 8 June 2013

http://www.smh.com.au/national/nine-dead-after-asylum-boat-sinks-20130608-2nx36.html

continue reading

No survivors found in Russian helicopter crash

All those on board the MI-8 helicopter that crashed in a mountainous region of far-eastern Russia are now known to have died, Russian officials said on Saturday.

“The bodies of all five who died have been found,” a local official with Russia’s Emergencies Ministry in the Khabarovsk Territory told RIA Novosti.

The MI-8 helicopter, which belonged to Russia’s Voluntary Association of Assistance to the Army, Air Force and Navy (DOSAAF), went missing on Thursday.

Reports earlier on Thursday said the helicopter, which belongs to DOSAAF, was flying from Tugur to Briakan when it failed to establish contact with air controllers at the designated time. The Mi-8 helicopter was reportedly carrying about three tons of fish.

It was carrying four crewmembers and one passenger. The crash site was identified early on Saturday morning.

According to a spokesman, the remains of the crashed helicopter were discovered from air during a rescue and search operation and the nearest detachment of rescuers set off to the detected crash scene.

It is not yet known what caused the crash.

Saturday 8 June 2013

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20130608/181574170/No-Survivors-in-Russian-Helicopter-Crash--Official.html

continue reading

Polish institute says has found Stalin-era mass grave

Poland's Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) says it has found a mass grave containing the bodies of about 83 people thought to have been victims of a Stalin-era campaign of terror.

IPN said on Friday that the grave was uncovered at the edge of Powazki military cemetery in the Polish capital Warsaw.

The bodies are believed to be victims of the post-war Stalinist reign of terror against Polish anti-Nazi and anti-Soviet partisans during the 1940s and 1950s.

IPN's forensic specialists said the remains belong to the victims killed by a bullet to the neck and that they would use DNA testing to ascertain their identities.

The institute says nearly 50,000 people were killed during the reign of terror in Poland and many of the surviving family members still trying to locate their places of burial.

As part of a research project launched in 2011, digs are underway across the country to identify the victims of Stalinism.

Saturday 8 June 2013

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/06/08/307774/polish-institute-says-has-found-mass-grave/

continue reading

Digging for the IRA Disappeared: Moors Murders police officer searching peat bog for victims

On a remote hillside, a quarter of a mile inside the Irish Republic, diggers are scraping at peat in pouring rain.

Three yellow machines, bright against the dark bog.

There is no birdsong. The conifer forest has been felled. There is only the drone of the machines and the voices of investigators, labourers and forensic archaeologists watching the work.

“Imagine your final steps taken up here,” says Geoff Knupfer, the head of investigations for the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains – a tightknit team seeking the men and women the IRA “disappeared” during the Troubles.

“Your last view. It’s a dark, grim place.”

In nine days, the brave, new, peaceful Northern Ireland will host the G8 summit of world leaders at Lough Erne – while literally below the surface the country is still troubled.

Here, less than 30 miles from the summit venue, healing is still being hard-won through old-fashioned Irish toil on a peat bog.

Mr Knupfer, a retired detective chief superintendent, knows all about remote places.

He was the man who in the 1980s heard Myra Hindley’s confession to the Moors Murders, and led the search on Saddleworth Moor.

After Hindley told him she was prepared to show him “areas of interest to Ian Brady”, they found the body of 16-year-old Pauline Reade, although they never recovered 12-year-old Keith Bennett.

Now, Mr Knupfer’s team is searching Bragan Bog in the Republic’s County Monaghan for the body of Columba McVeigh, who was 17 when he went missing from Dublin on Halloween night in 1975.

He is one of 17 people acknowledged by paramilitaries as abducted, murdered and secretly buried during the Troubles.

Ten of the bodies have been found, with seven still to be discovered.

The IRA accused many of the victims of being informants, but their families ask why the bodies weren’t left at the border as a warning, like others accused of betrayal.

“There’s no peace process for me,” says Columba’s youngest brother, Oliver, at his home near Dungannon, 30 miles over the border.

“Execution was bad enough, but they buried them like dogs. Thousands have to accept they’ve lost loved ones in Northern Ireland, but thousands don’t have to accept what I’m going through.”

When Columba went missing, Oliver was 13. Now he is 51.

But he will not rest until he fulfils a promise to mum Vera who fought for decades to find and bury her son.

“My mum died six years ago this week,” Oliver says. “I promised her I’d carry on till it’s done. The people involved are the scum of the earth to me.”

For years a conspiracy of silence surrounded the Disappeared. Some families were threatened, others were strung along, even sent Christmas cards supposedly from their missing sons.

But in 1998, Margaret McKinney, who lost her son Brian in 1978, spoke so movingly to then US President Bill Clinton that he asked his Northern Ireland Special Envoy to help the families. Ten months later, the IRA issued a list of 10 names.

Oliver often relives that day. “It was Palm Sunday 1999,” he says.

“A man sat in my driveway in his car. He started reading a statement that contained Columba’s name. I told him to get off my property.”

With his voice rising, he adds: “The hardest thing I ever had to do was tell my mum.”

Armed and masked IRA gunmen give a show of strength at an Easter parade in the Ardoyne area of North Belfast Guns: IRA in Belfast during The Troubles

Columba had been Vera’s favourite, a happy-go-lucky teenager who took part in talent shows.

Recalling the moment he had to break the news to his mum that Columba had been executed and placed in an unmarked grave by the IRA, Oliver says: “I’ll never forget my mother’s words. She told me, ‘the bastards didn’t have the balls to come and tell me themselves’.”

Four searches for Columba have already taken place in Bragan Bog, but this time there is new detail from a well-placed source.

“We’ll find him if he is still here,” says Mr Knupfer.

It is a unique search party, set up by statute and paid for by North and South.

The team’s work never leads to arrests and they never ask a single question of the ex-paramilitaries helping them locate the bodies.

“We don’t even ask them their names,” Mr Knupfer says. “It’s recovery and repatriation, no questions asked. Evidence we recover is tainted. Even if we came across significant evidence we would be obliged by law to destroy it.”

The search team uses a mixture of hi-tech equipment and old-fashioned police work.

“It’s never been the case of X marks the spot,” says Jon Hill, a former senior Met police detective, now senior investigator for the Commission.

“We use geophysics, ground-penetrating radar, magnetometry, resistivity... We’re the best in the world at what we do.”

Still, the search team is battling near-impossible conditions. Difficult soil, disturbed earth, terrain that has changed dramatically in 30 years. The diggers have to work on mats and metal plates to avoid sinking into the bog.

“Peat is both alkaline and acid,” says Niamh McCullagh, 33, a forensic archaeologist from Cork. “If a body is in acid soil it could have eroded. If it’s in alkaline it could preserve it.”

IRA gunmen walk through a cheering crowd at an Easter Commemoration march and rally in the Ardoyne area of North Belfast in 1997 Sinister: IRA gunmen in the Ardoyne area of North Belfast in 1997 Photopress Belfast

The current team has been together since 2006 and has found four of the Disappeared.

Mr Knupfer says. “Finding someone is fantastic but there is always a sadness. You are giving a family the worst possible news. It takes away all hope of their loved one walking through the door again.”

Their work is full of contradictions. “Families often thank the people who have shown the bravery of providing information,” says Sandra Peake, from the WAVE Trauma Centre that works with the bereaved. “Even though they may also be thanking their loved one’s killer.”

In Columba’s last months alive, he was arrested and jailed after bullets were found in his house. Oliver believes they were planted by British intelligence.

After Columba was released, he went to stay in Dublin with his brother Eugene. “Then he went to the pub one night and never came back,” Oliver says.

Before mum Vera died, she received a call from a priest linked to the IRA.

Oliver says: “He said ‘the guy who buried your son is in a bad way – would you pray for him’?” Vera refused. “It was very hard for her. She was in torment,” Oliver says.

He shakes his head. “Even during World War Two, the British and the Germans gave time to lift their dead.

The paramilitaries put huge emphasis on their graves and getting their bodies back. The smallest piece of information, to them insignificant, could do it. It could be the final piece of the jigsaw.”

He has personally asked Martin McGuinness, the former IRA leader and now Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, to find out where Columba is. “I am still waiting for a reply,” Oliver adds.

The cost to the families of the Disappeared goes on. In Belfast, I met Philomena McKee, whose brother Kevin McKee disappeared from the city in 1972 with Seamus Wright. Philomena’s mum lost her mind with grief.

“They should have taken her that same day,” Philomena says.

Because of the IRA, Philomena’s life has been blighted by anxiety and depression.

“It’s like you’re stuck and you can’t move forward,” she says.

“It’s as fresh in my mind as the day he went missing. Did they let him die before they put him in the hole?

"How much did they torture him? Did he know these were his last steps? Things flash through my head. It gives you panic attacks.

“When they find his body it will be like starting a new life for me. Until that coffin’s put down and Kevin’s in it, I won’t rest.”

On June 16, as the world’s eyes turn to Lough Erne, the diggers will go on peeling back the peat. “Once I go, my children will carry on,” Oliver McVeigh says – a sentiment repeated family by family.

While their relatives have breath, the irony is the Disappeared did not and never will disappear.

Saturday 8 June 2013

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/digging-ira-disappeared-moors-murders-1939410

continue reading

Jilin: Investigators hunt for clues to fire, DNA samples taken from relatives

Process of identifying the dead is continuing slowly, report He Na and Han Junhong in Dehui, Jilin.

Police have cordoned off the road running up to the slaughterhouse in rural northeast China where the death toll climbed to 120 in a fire early on Monday morning.

Three checkpoints were set up at varying intervals along the road from Changchun, the capital of Jilin province, to the Baoyuanfeng Poultry Co in Dehui, where only a blackened, smoking shell remained of the huge workshop.

Vehicles and pedestrians without permission to enter the area had to make detours to continue their journeys.

By mid-morning, several dozen relatives of the dead and severely injured had gathered on the road. Some were clearly agitated as they poured out their experiences during the past two days.

Most of the charred wreckage has been cleared from the smoldering ruins of the factory and staff from the Changchun Disease Control Center have disinfected the entire area with peracetic acid and quicklime.

The disinfection period will last three days, according to Wang Yanhui, director of the center.

Sources from the State Council Investigation Team said 395 workers were in the plant when the fire broke out. Seventeen are still missing, according to a report from China Central Television.

The fire, one of China's worst industrial disasters of recent years, swept through two workshops at the processing plant within minutes of a blast triggered by a suspected chemical leak, leaving 77 people injured, 15 of them in a critical condition.

Although many media reports have claimed the fire was caused by a leak of ammonia - which was used in the plant's cooling system - an investigation team from the State Council said the cause is still under investigation.

DNA tests

By Tuesday, only 67 of the dead had been identified and their bodies claimed by family members. DNA extraction work has almost finished on the bodies of those too badly disfigured to be identified by sight, according to a senior government official from Changchun, who declined to be named.

DNA has been taken from more than 100 direct relatives of presumed victims and investigation teams will soon begin the task of matching the samples with those of the deceased.

The plant is rectangular, about 400 meters long and consisted of two workshops. Almost all the survivors complained that the exits had been locked.

According to survivors, the two workshops were located in adjoining buildings and workers usually entered them via gates at the southern end. They said that as far as they knew, none of the workers who attempted to escape the inferno via the south gate had survived.

Many of the victims were couples, husband and wife teams who lived locally and worked together at the plant because its convenient location allowed them to remain close to their families. It's estimated that around 90 percent of those who lost their lives were women. The fire didn't just claim 120 lives - it also changed the destinies of their families.

A number of labor-intensive factories have been established in Dehui during recent years to stimulate the local economy. The plants attracted many young and middle-aged people, who otherwise would have headed to the coastal regions or large cities in their quest for work and a better life, according to Liu Yunbo, 44, who is being treated at Dehui Huikang Hospital.

Baoyuanfeng Poultry Co, which began operations in 2009, was the largest poultry firm in Dehui, employing more than 400 workers. However, discipline was said to have been draconian and employees were not allowed to leave their workstations without permission.

Inadequate materials

A safety inspection campaign has been carried out across Jilin province in the wake of Monday's disaster. A source from a meeting of Changchun's standing committee said the fire exposed the problems that exist in some labor-intensive enterprises. The source said fire control measures and fire exits at Baoyuanfeng Poultry Co existed in name only. Moreover, the company's workshops were constructed using combustible materials, which allowed the fire to spread at a deadly speed.

Liu Nan, a project manager at Baishun External Wall Factory, said that there are two common types of wall-construction panels; those that are flame retardant and those that are fireproof. In his experience, most of the labor-intensive factories in the province used the flame retardant panels for the sake of economy.

"It's much cheaper and can produce huge savings for companies that choose the cheaper option. Generally, the wholesale price for flame-retardant panels is about 240 yuan ($39) per square meter, while fireproof panels cost an extra 100 yuan per square meter," said Liu.

Customers generally buy a small number of fireproof panels that will pass muster when the authorities inspect the plants, he said.

Compensation

The work of arranging compensation for the injured and the families of the dead has not yet started. China Daily reporters have interviewed relatives of more than 20 victims and many injured during the past two days. None of them had been contacted by the authorities.

Yuan Yueping, 24, is receiving treatment at Dehui Fuyang Hospital after inhaling toxic fumes. He said he feels lucky to be alive and right now compensation is the last thing on his mind.

Many relatives of those who died are still too numb to consider the issue. Wang Yuli's 17-year-old sister was working at the poultry plant when the fire broke out. Nothing has been heard of her since. "My little sister is still missing and my mind is totally blank now," said Wang, the tears streaming down her cheeks.

Friday 7 June 2013

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2013-06/06/content_16574078.htm

continue reading

Alleged dog remains from fire turn out to be human

In what must be one of the worst cases of “mistaken identity”, the remains handed over to relatives of a missing couple, at first announced to be of their two dogs, turned out to be human. The remains have not been positively identified as those of the couple but police assured them they are working on confirming the identity of the bodies.

A fire struck a house last June 2 in Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture and destroyed the house of the missing couple completely. A body part discovered inside the house, a piece of flesh from the pelvic region, is said to be that of an unidentified individual. So, the police assumed that the couple are still missing based on that recovered body part. They recovered another small part of flesh in the fire, and since the couple had two small dogs, they concluded that it was one of the dogs and handed over the remains to the couple’s relatives on June 4.

But officials from the facility where the remains were stored became suspicious that the remains were in fact from a human being. They contacted the relatives and informed them of their suspicion. They then asked the prefectural police to perform a legal autopsy, which confirmed the error made by the police officers at the scene. Tetsuya Harada, first investigation division chief from the Ibaraki Prefectural Police department, apologized to the family and blamed the error on “sloppy confirmation procedures”. They are now working double time to confirm the identities of the two sets of remains recovered from the fire.

Friday 7 June 2013

http://japandailypress.com/alleged-dog-remains-from-fire-turn-out-to-be-human-0730155

continue reading

Mexico’s institutions overwhelmed by scale of forced disappearances

Mexican police officer Luis Ángel León Rodríguez disappeared along with six other officers and a civilian on Nov. 16, 2009, in the western Mexican state of Michoacán. Six days later, his mother, Araceli Rodríguez, began her ceaseless search.

In the past three and a half years, she has knocked on every door, heard from her son’s killers how his body was dismembered and buried, supposedly under an avocado tree, and helped excavate twice in a fruitless search for his and the others’ remains.

But in April an official citation was delivered to her house from the internal affairs department of the federal police, summoning León Rodríguez to appear on May 15 “without his uniform and service firearm” and “with a lawyer” to respond to charges of dereliction of duty and abandoning his post.

His mother showed up with the same photo that she has taken to protest marches and caravans by the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity, to meetings with then conservative president Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), and to a number of interviews.

The head of the internal affairs department, Paul Aguilera, said the police do not have a complete up-to-date database making it possible to follow the precise circumstances of each officer, and that his office has 16,000 cases pending.

“What they did to me was cruel, and the worst thing is that if this can happen in my case, which is so visible, what about the thousands of others who have not drawn so much attention?” Rodríguez remarked to IPS.

Local and international human rights groups have been sounding the alert about the humanitarian tragedy in Mexico, where tens of thousands of people have been killed and forcibly disappeared since Calderón involved the military in the war on drugs. The violence has not let up since conservative President Enrique Peña Nieto took office in December.

There are 26,000 missing people in Mexico, according to a list released in February by the interior ministry. But the list does not include, for example, 86 of the 140 cases of forced disappearance documented by the New York-based Human Rights Watch in the report “Mexico’s Disappeared: The Enduring Cost of a Crisis Ignored”.

Nor does it include the victims of cases made public by the Movement for Peace in 2011, like those of environmental activists Eva Alarcón and Marcial Bautista, chess player Roberto Galván, or Yahaira Guadalupe Bahena, whose mother has held two hunger strikes to demand answers.

In a Jun. 4 report, “Confronting a nightmare: Disappearances in Mexico”, London-based rights watchdog Amnesty International talks about a “pattern of systematic disappearances and enforced disappearances largely ignored by the previous administration.”

It says “Some are the victims of enforced disappearances in which public officials are implicated. Others have been abducted by private individuals or criminal gangs.”

The rights group says that during several visits to Mexico since 2010, it documented 152 cases of disappearance, and adds that evidence of involvement of public officials was found in 85 of the cases.

It mentions cases of people apparently abducted by criminal groups for their professional skills, such as nine telephone engineers who went missing in June 2009 in the northern state of Tamaulipas.

But the available information is just the tip of the iceberg that the government of Peña Nieto risks crashing into.

Investigative reports by the daily newspaper Milenio published in October 2012, based on municipal reports, found that during the Calderón administration, at least 24,000 unidentified bodies were buried in common graves.

In Mexico there is no protocol for collecting information on missing persons, or for medical examiners to register information. Each state has its own system for identifying bodies, and the files on most unidentified corpses buried in common graves are, in the best of cases, incomplete, lacking fingerprints, photographs, dental X-rays or DNA samples. In other cases, the information in the files actually turns out to be wrong. And in some cases, unidentified bodies are even cremated.

There are only 25 forensic anthropologists in this country of 117 million people, and many mortuaries have no DNA lab. There are no standard procedures in place for exhuming and identifying bodies.

The government refuses to acknowledge that there is a humanitarian tragedy. But on Feb. 21 it signed an agreement with the International Committee of the Red Cross for advice on the creation of a protocol for the search for missing persons.

There are cases like that of Bárbara Reyes, who disappeared at the age of 17 in August 2011, and whose remains were found 18 months later in a common grave. To find her body, trenches were dug along 64 metres over the space of three days. “I only recovered my daughter’s bones,” her mother, Lourdes Muñiz, told IPS.

Alejandra Viridiana was kidnapped in November 2011 from a bar on the outskirts of Mexico City. After searching through morgues far and wide, her mother, Beatriz Mejía, finally found her last month – in the morgue where she had initially reported her daughter’s disappearance.

The young woman’s body had been there two months, from December 2011 to January 2012, on the list of unidentified bodies.

“They had her there for two months and put her in a common grave. Two months when I went there practically every day to ask if they had any news! How can that be?” Mejía complained.

There are innumerable stories of families who incessantly make the rounds of cemeteries and mass graves seeking bodies buried as “NN” or Jane or John Doe or who fight to revive investigations that have been shelved.

“They told me they had no more leads to follow and that they had shelved the case,” Brenda Rangel told IPS. Her younger brother, Héctor, disappeared in November 2009 with two other people in the northern state of Coahuila.

In response to the pressure from the families, the government announced May 17 the creation of a specialised unit to investigate and search for missing people, under the attorney general’s office.

But the unit, which has begun to operate, was only assigned 12 investigators.

To complete the bleak outlook, the crisis of forced disappearances has reached the capital, which up to now had seemed off-limits to the worst displays of violence.

On May 26, 11 young people from the poor suburb of Tepito were kidnapped from a bar in the centric tourist area of Zona Rosa. The police still have no leads.

Friday 7 June 2013

http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/06/mexicos-institutions-overwhelmed-by-scale-of-forced-disappearances/

continue reading

Dozens killed in China bus blaze

More than 40 people have died when an express bus burst into flames on an elevated road in south-eastern China, reports say.

The blaze occurred during the evening rush hour in the port city of Xiamen, the official Xinhua News Agency said. At least 42 people died and 33 were injured.

A local fire official said bodies were piled up inside the bus. He said the cause of the fire was being investigated.

Operations of the entire express bus system, known as Bus Rapid Transit, were suspended after the accident. A survivor said she smelled petrol and then saw a fire spreading rapidly.

Photos on Chinese social media showed huge clouds of black smoke rising from the burning bus. Victims were seen bleeding with torn clothes and burned skin.

Witnesses reportedly heard sounds of explosions after the fire had been burning for about 10 minutes.

Xiamen's BRT system began operations in 2008. It covers more than 80 kilometres (50 miles) and carries more than 250,000 people each day. The buses are often crowded during rush hour.

China's public transit has been expanding rapidly over the past decade, but there are worries that the country is sacrificing safety in its rush to roll out modern services.

In 2011, a high-speed train accident near the eastern city of Wenzhou killed 40 people. Later that year, a collision on a new subway line in the financial hub of Shanghai injured hundreds of people.

Friday 7 June 2013

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/dozens-killed-in-china-bus-blaze-29328687.html

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/world/bus-bursts-into-flames-in-china-kills-at-least-20/story-fni0xs63-1226659997416

continue reading