More Than 70 Die In Egyptian Football Riot

At least 74 people have been killed and 1,000 injured after a football pitch invasion in Egypt, according to reports.

Clashes are said to have broken out as fans flooded the field seconds after the game in the northern coastal city of Port Said finished.
There were reports of rocks, bottles, flares and fireworks being thrown as politicians in the country criticised a lack of security at the match.
Doctors treating the victims said some had been stabbed to death. One player caught up in the rioting described it as "a war".
Troops have now been deployed on the streets and dozens of people have been arrested.

One player likened the scenes in Port Said to 'war'

Witnesses said most of the deaths involved people who had been trampled in the crush of panicked crowds, or who fell from terraces.

Deputy health minister Hesham Sheiha told state television: "This is unfortunate and deeply saddening. It is the biggest disaster in Egypt's soccer history."

Fans of the home team, Al Masry, swarmed the field after a rare 3-1 win against Al Ahly, one of Egypt's top teams.

Khalil Fahmy, Sky News Arabia correspondent, said police had been heavily criticised for doing nothing to intervene at the ground.He said: "Many people were crying for help, for police or army intervention. They spent almost an hour without any army or police protection - this resulted in the bad injuries of hundreds of people.

As details of the violence emerged, a football match in Cairo, 200km (125 miles) away, was called off in mourning and television footage showed sections of the stadium on fire. An announcer said the blazes had been started by fans angry over the cancellation.
Some players in Port Said were taken to a locker room for protection, reports said.

Military helicopters were reportedly sent in on an emergency evacuation to pull Al Ahly fans and players out of the confrontation amid fears they face attack.
A Port Said medic said some of the dead were security officers.

The country's football federation has now "indefinitely delayed" all premier league matches, the state prosecutor has called for an investigation and the country's parliament is to convene for an emergency meeting on Thursday.

There are suggestions of a political dimension to the incident, with Egyptian Islamists blaming supporters of Hosni Mubarak - who was ousted as president in Egypt revolution a year ago - for provoking the violence.

Albadry Farghali, a member of parliament for Port Said, accused officials and security forces of allowing the disaster, saying they still had ties to Mubarak's old regime.

He said: "The security forces did this or allowed it to happen. The men of Mubarak are still ruling. The head of the regime has fallen but all his men are still in their positions.
"Where is the security? Where is the government?"

Last updated: 2012-02-01 21:05:21
http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16161259

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Florida Pile-Up: 11th Body Found In Wreckage

An 11th body has been found in the charred wreckage of a deadly Florida pile-up after days of searching by investigators, it has emerged.

At least a dozen cars, six lorries and a motor home were involved in a series of collisions on the busy Interstate 75 early on Sunday.

Initially it was thought 10 people were killed, but a team sifting through wreckage found the newly-discovered victim in a crushed and badly-burned pick-up truck that crashed into a lorry.
Two other bodies had earlier been found in the vehicle.

The pile-up was blamed on heavy smoke from marsh fires and fog, which blinded motorists.
Some of the cars were crushed by trucks and others burst into flames near Gainesville, home to the University of Florida.

A further 18 people needed hospital treatment after the incident, which was described by one witness as "like the end of the world".

Officials have released the names of eight people killed in the crash.
Investigators enlisted anthropologists to help identify some of the bodies by their bones and
teeth.

1 February 2012
http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16161361

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Disclosure of 32 mass graves of al Qaeda in Diayala

Shafaq News/ The director of the Iraq organization Talib Khazraji said in a statement "Shafaq News" has been informed "The security forces in Diayala province found since 2008 till today 36 mass graves scattered in different parts of the province," he said, adding that "32 cemetery belong to the victims of terrorism who were killed by the hands of armed groups during the period of the security deterioration that has occurred between the years 2006-2008, ".

"The tombs contain some 360 bodies belonging to women and children, and their presence is concentrated in the south and east of Baquba," He said noting that " some of the tombs have been opened under the formal decision issued by the Iraqi judiciary."

"The security services in the province found three mass graves containing the bodies of other elements and leaders of al Qaeda in southern Buhriz, south of Baquba," Khazraji added ,pointing out that "these graves contain the bodies of more than 263."

The Ministry of Human Rights announced during last year that 400 mass graves have been found in Iraq after the fall of the former regime in 2003, pointing at the same time it can not open more than a dozen graves in a year because they need a great effort of exhumation and identification of their owners.

Tuesday, 31 January 2012 08:30

http://www.shafaaq.com/en/news/2273-disclosure-of-32-mass-graves-of-al-qaeda-in-diayala.html

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No probe for illegally disposed bodies of riot victims

Ahmedabad: Suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, on Monday, claimed the Supreme Court-appointed SIT has not made any efforts to probe into allegations of bodies of the Naroda Patiya riot victims being illegally disposed of in a well despite specific documents supplied by him.

The allegation was made in a letter written by Bhatt to SIT chairman RK Raghavan.

Bhatt also reiterated his request to get his statement recorded before a magistrate under the provisions of Section 164(1) of CrPC in the missive.

Along with the letter, Bhatt has also annexed copies of the letters issued by State Intelligence Bureau (SIB) intimating the Ahmedabad Police Commissioner about reports of foul smell purportedly emanating from the decomposed bodies of the riot victims that were allegedly disposed of in the abandoned well on an open ground behind the State Transport Workshop in Naroda Patiya area.

"I had submitted detailed information and documents to the SIT regarding the illegal disposal of unaccounted dead bodies of the Naroda massacre of February 28/March 01, 2002," Bhatt stated in his letter to Raghavan.

"I believe that no genuine and sincere efforts have been made till date by any agency, including the SIT, to excavate the site for exhumation of the remains of the unaccounted and unidentified victims of Naroda (Patiya) massacre," he alleged.

"These documents were being submitted for sole purpose of ensuring that crucial evidence is not disregarded or concealed by the SIT with a view to screen powerful and influential offenders from legal punishment," Bhatt said.

Ninety-five people were killed at Naroda Patiya in the communal violence triggered by the Godhra train burning incident.

The documents annexed included a letter dated March 18, 2002 written by the then SIB chief GC Raiger to the Ahmedabad police commissioner asking for further information on reports that bodies of some of the riot victims of Naroda Patiya being disposed of in an abandoned well behind State Transport Workshop and then covered with rubble.

Raiger's letter further stated that the matter came to light after local people in the locality complained of foul smell coming from the well.

The other documents annexed by Bhatt included the follow-up SIB messages on the same day (March 18, 2002) to city police commissioner seeking thorough investigation into the matter and further stating that some people have tried to hamper police investigations by throwing a dead pig into the well also know as 'Tisra Kuva'.

The follow-up messages in Gujarati said that the site needed to be properly excavated and examined on the allegations that bodies of riot victims were illegally disposed of there.

Source: PTI | Last Updated 01:05(31/01/12)
http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/GUJ-AHD-no-probe-for-illegally-disposed-bodies-of-riot-victims-bhatt-2804355.html

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Remains of '17 roses' exhumed from mass grave in Spain

GERENA, Spain - Archaeologists are unearthing the remains of 17 women who were shot during Spain's 1936-39 civil war and dumped in a mass grave, one of the conflict's most notorious events.

Since the exhumation began last week, the remains of 14 of the 17 women have been discovered at the cemetery in the southwestern town of Gerena, said 25-year-old Lucia Socam, whose great-aunt Granada Hidalgo was among one of the victims.

The skeleton of one of the women was removed from the mass grave Monday so her descendants can give her a proper burial, she added.

The women, dubbed the "17 roses", were rounded up and shot by General Francisco Franco's forces in 1937 for being relatives of people on the opposing Republican side.

The exhumation, which is expected to take another week, comes as top Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon prepares to testify for the first time on Tuesday at his trial for abuse of power for trying to prosecute atrocities of the Franco regime.

Thousands of people marched through the streets of Madrid on Sunday in support of the 56-year-old judge, who won international fame with his attempt to extradite Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet from London.

"He is the only person who dared to attack the crimes of the Franco regime," said Maria Jose Dominguez, 45, the grand-daughter of another one of the 17 slain women.

Archaeologists working on the exhumation found bullets, buttons and a comb near the women's bones.

"It is hard because the grave raises many things: We can see how they were thrown into it, one on top of the other," said Socam.

"But we are happy of course because it is the end of such a long wait, it is more of a happy feeling than one of being bitter."

AFP - Tuesday, Jan 31, 2012

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Stay extended on exhumation case against Setalvad

The Supreme Court on Monday extended the stay on criminal proceedings pending before a Gujarat trial court against social activist Teesta Setalvad for her alleged role in exhuming the bodies of post-Godhra riot victims at Pandarwada and surrounding villages in 2006.

A Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Desai posted the matter for final hearing in July.

Earlier, Justice Alam asked the Gujarat Government how it annexed the statements of witnesses when the Supreme Court had granted a stay. However, counsel Hemantika Wahi clarified that “the witnesses' statements which supported the allegation of “fabricating” evidence, purportedly at the behest of Ms. Setalvad, were recorded prior to the stay on proceedings.”

Counsel said: “The investigation was carried out by the police and the statements of witnesses were recorded on the orders of the [Gujarat] High Court.”

Ms. Setalvad's appeal was directed against a May 27, 2011 High Court order, refusing to quash the First Information Report registered against her at the Panchmahal police station.

The FIR related to exhuming bodies of the 2002 riot victims from a graveyard near the Panam river. It alleged that Ms. Setalvad was the prime conspirator. She was implicated in the case by one of her former close aides, Rais Khan, who had been associated earlier with Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP). Mr. Khan alleged that the bodies were exhumed at her instance.

In its response, the State government annexed the statements of seven witnesses, who recorded their evidence between July 22 and 25 last before a senior police officer as per the orders of an Ahmedabad court.

KHAN'S CLAIM

Mr. Khan had alleged that he was removed as a field co-coordinator of the NGO in January 2008, as he refused to “do certain acts which were not in the interest of communal harmony.”

He said he was facilitating witnesses in preparing affidavits at her behest. He said most of the victims and witnesses were poor and uneducated but still their affidavits were prepared in English, on the pretext that Gujarati was not accepted in the High Court and the Supreme Court, with the help of a particular advocate and court notary.

Denying the allegations, Ms. Setalvad said: “Far from being pathetic or aggrieved acts of an innocent former employee, these are actions well-heeled and motivated not simply to launch a vicious and vindictive campaign against an upright legal rights group aiding hapless victims but, in a sinister fashion, seek to curb the freedom of my movement.”

NEW DELHI, January 31, 2012
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2845549.ece

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Costa Concordia: Divers End Hunt For Bodies

Divers have officially abandoned their search for bodies still missing inside the wrecked Costa Concordia.

The decision has come despite there being 16 people unaccounted for after the cruise ship disaster - including a five-year-old girl and her father."We have definitively stopped the underwater search inside the ship," a fire brigade spokesman from the Tuscan island of Giglio has been quoted as saying. The Costa Concordia capsized on January 13

The decision to call off the search inside the ship was taken because conditions underwater have been deemed too dangerous for divers.

Italy's Civil Protection agency has said that technical studies indicated that the deformed hull of the ship created too many safety concerns to continue the search.

An underwater breach in the hull of the Costa Concordia

It said in a statement that relatives and diplomatic officials representing the countries of the missing have been informed of the decision.

The Concordia ran aground off the island of Giglio on January 13 when the captain deviated from his planned route and struck a reef, creating a huge gash that capsized the ship.

The number of bodies that have been recovered stands at 17.

4:11pm UK, Tuesday January 31, 2012

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16160191

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DNA analyzers to be installed at 4 police HQs

The National Police Agency has decided to install automatic DNA analyzers at four prefectural police headquarters offices to speed up the process of identifying victims in cases of large-scale disasters, NPA officials said Sunday.

The automatic analyzers, which can examine a massive number of DNA samples, will be introduced by the local police in Hokkaido, Saitama, Osaka and Fukuoka by the end of March after work had to be done to conduct a large amount of DNA analysis in the wake of last year's disaster.

The ability of the four analyzers roughly matches that of the existing analyzer at the National Research Institute of Police Science in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture.

OSAKA, Jan. 29, Kyodo

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2012/01/138866.html

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26 die in Peru rehab fire

(CNN) -- Twenty-six people were killed and 15 were rescued from a fire at a rehabilitation center in Lima, Peru, the state-run Andina news agency reported.

The fire was controlled by firefighters by Saturday afternoon.

The cause of the fire was under investigation, the fire department said, though witnesses said a mattress was set on fire during a melee inside the building.

The victims were trapped inside the building and died from asphyxiation, Peru's fire chief, Antonio Zavala said.

The building may have been a clandestine rehabilitation center, and many people were concentrated on the first floor, which lacked escape routes, Zavala said.

Some 40 people were housed in a small space with only one exit that was locked with a chain. Bypassing the heavy metal door was the biggest challenge in the rescue, he said.

January 28, 2012 - CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/28/world/americas/peru-rehab-fire/index.html

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Woman's body found in wrecked Italy cruise ship

Rome (CNN) -- A woman's body was found Saturday in the wrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship, Italian officials said, taking the number of people confirmed dead to 17.

Rescuers have been searching the site since the massive liner struck rocks and rolled onto its side in shallow waters off an island on Italy's Tuscan coast on January 13, leading to a panicked overnight evacuation. At least 15 people remain missing.

Efforts to remove 2,400 tons of fuel from the liner's tanks have been postponed until at least Tuesday because of bad weather conditions, Italy's civil protection agency said. The operation had been expected to begin Saturday or Sunday.

Franco Gabrielli, who is heading the rescue operation for the civil protection agency, said Friday that 14 of the bodies found had been identified.

The discovery of a 17th body came a day after a handful of surviving passengers of the wrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship filed a lawsuit against the cruise line.

Lawsuit filed in deadly cruise crash Training for maritime disasters Concordia captain admits 'mistake' Couple filmed chaos on cruise ship. Earlier, Costa had announced it was offering each of about 3,200 passengers who'd been aboard the vessel a lump sum of 11,000 euros ($14,400), in compensation for their loss of property and emotional distress, as well as a refund of costs associated with the cruise.

January 28, 2012 - CNN

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/28/world/europe/italy-cruise-ship/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn

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Uruguay to Pay $513,000 Settlement in Rights Case

Uruguay's president has approved a $513,000 payment to Macarena Gelman, who was illegally adopted during the dictatorship after her mother was tortured and disappeared.

The payment complies with an Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling that accuses Uruguay of delaying justice for crimes committed by its dictatorship in the 1970s, according to a brief statement posted Tuesday on the presidency's website.

Gelman's parents were kidnapped in Argentina and taken to a torture center notorious for being a nexus of Operation Condor, the effort by South America's U.S.-supported dictatorships to combine forces and eliminate opponents in each other's countries.

Her father was then killed and her pregnant mother spirited to Uruguay, where she disappeared after giving birth in a military hospital.

Decades passed before Macarena Gelman learned her true identity, as the granddaughter of renowned Argentine poet Juan Gelman.

Macarena Gelman now works for Argentina's human rights agency. She declined to comment Tuesday on recieving the award from President Jose Mujica, and said she doesn't know if an ongoing study of human remains found inside an Uruguayan military facility has turned up any links to her missing mother.

About 30 people disappeared in Uruguay under the 1973-1985 dictatorship. In neighboring Argentina, more than 150 Uruguayans were killed as part of Operation Condor. Leftist Tupamaro guerrillas also had committed violent crimes, including 57 killings, according to a military tally, after taking up arms in 1963 against democratically elected governments. Many of the guerrillas died in confrontations or served long prison terms, including Mujica, a former Tupamaro who spent more than a decade behind bars.

Juan Gelman won the 2007 Cervantes Prize, the most prestigious award for Spanish-language literature. A journalist and left-wing political activist as well as a poet, he broke with the Communist Party and later with Argentina's Montoneros guerrillas over their violent tactics.

By RAUL O. GARCES
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay January 25, 2012 (AP)

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/uruguay-pay-513000-settlement-rights-case-15432535#.TyNM0bEaNBh

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Unidentified bodies at police depot

SEVERAL graves of unidentified people have been discovered at Ntabazinduna Police Training Depot in Matabeleland North.Police said yesterday they were making efforts to identify the remains with the view of locating relatives. They said they were not sure of the number of graves at the two sites at the training depot since some were not visible.

Some of the graves were first discovered in 2004 when the ZRP took over the area from the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture (now the Ministry of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment).

It was still not clear whether some parts of the sites have mass graves.
Speaking to the Governor for Matabeleland North Thokozile Mathuthu, Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri, Chief Neville Ndondo and acting Chief Ndiweni, the depot assistant commandant Superintendent Ben Chabata said they decided to protect the graves by fencing the two sites.
"As a cultured organisation, we decided that the areas be fenced to protect them from people and animals which graze in the area," he said.
"As of now we don't know how many graves there are."

Supt Chabata said they wanted to work with local leaders and the community to help in identifying the people buried in the graves.

He said they decided to plant trees near the graves to provide shade.Governor Mathuthu said people buried at the sites should be identified. She applauded the police for protecting the graves. "I feel very proud that we have a team of leaders. We want to thank them," she said.

Saturday, 28 January 2012 00:00
Freeman Razemba

http://www.herald.co.zw/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=32545:unidentified-bodies-at-police-depot&catid=46:crime-a-courts&Itemid=138

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Mass graves discovered in ZRP training centres

MASS graves have been identified in police training centers, it has been reported. The camps were previously used for national youth service.

The development was revealed by Matabeleland North governor Thokozile Mathuthu at a police pass-out parade in Ntabazinduna Police Training Depot, 32km north east of Bulawayo, on Thursday.

Superintendent Ben Chabata, the second in command at the training centre, asked the governor for resources to help identify who lies in the graves. He did not say when the discovery was made.

Superintendent Chabata said they had identified two mass graves, which they had fenced off, but said police had no idea how many people were buried there. Police also had no means of determining how old the graves were.

“After the discovery of the graves, and in an effort to build relations with the local community, we invited the local chief to come and view the place after we fenced it off,” Sup. Chataba said.

“It is our wish as the Zimbabwe Republic Police to identify who lies in these graves and resources permitting we can put name tags on the graves.”

The ZRP opened the training centre in 2004, taking over the site from the Ministry of Youth Development which was using it as a base for a controversial national youth service programme.

The youth service programme was condemned by opposition parties and human rights groups who accused President Robert Mugabe’s government of brainwashing youths, training them in torture and then unleashing them to brutalise opponents during election campaigns.

Appearing slightly shaken, governor Mathuthu ordered the district administrator, Ennety Sithole, to chair a meeting between the police, traditional leaders and medical experts to work out a programme of exhuming and identifying the remains.

She told Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri: “I am very grateful to you and your local commanders for fencing these graves off, and providing shade. That shows an appreciation for our culture and respect for the dead.”

The Matabeleland region has hundreds of mass graves from the post-independence military crackdown by President Robert Mugabe, ostensibly to flush out a dozen armed dissident supporters of ZAPU leader, Joshua Nkomo.

Human rights groups say a special army unit called the 5 Brigade, trained by North Korea and reporting directly to Mugabe, indiscriminately killed civilians between 1983 and 1987, leaving more than 20,000 people dead and thousands more wounded or displaced.

In October last year, authorities at a school in Lupane reported finding a large grave with up to 60 skeletal remains of people feared killed during the crackdown known as Gukurahundi.

Shocked pupils saw bones sticking out of the ground when a football pitch caved in. The school was used by the 5 Brigade as a detention centre during its reign of terror.

THURSDAY, 26 JANUARY 2012
http://www.zimdiaspora.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7587:mass-graves-discovered-in-police-training-centres&catid=38:travel-tips&Itemid=18

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Katyn families want remains brought back to Poland

Relatives of Polish officers murdered at Katyn in 1940 by the Soviet secret police (NKVD) have asked the Polish foreign ministry to request Russian authorites return their remains from Russia.

Witomiła Wolk-Jezierska, Wanda Rodowicz, Krystyna Krzyszkowiak, Stanislaw Drabczyński and several others want their relatives' remains returned from where they are buried at Katyn and Miednoje, in present-day Belarus.

The daily Rzeczpospolita reports that they sent a letter to foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski to this effect at the end of December.

“I want finally to bury my father, lieutenant Wincent Wolk, in Poland. The state has an obligation to its own citizens and should help me,” Wolk-Jezierska told the daily.
She says it is known exactly where her father is buried, at so-called Mogile IV in Katyn, a fact that was established when the German first exhumed the mass graves in 1943.

The Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) started its investigation in to the Katyn crimes in 2004. Prosecutor Malgorzata Kuzniar-Plota, undertaking the research for the IPN, says any decision on an exhumation will need to be taken by the Russian prosecutor.

"This is a sovereign decision of the Russian side,” she said, adding that an exhumation could only go ahead if the Russian side reopens the case, which was conducted between 1990 and 2004. (jh/nh)

27.01.2012
http://www.thenews.pl/1/10/Artykul/84530,Katyn-families-want-remains-brought-back-to-Poland-

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U.S troops killed in action have a last ally

Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii (CNN) -- There is a skull here, hundreds of fragments of bones there. Table after table is lined with human remains. One holds a near-complete skeleton, another has hundreds of tiny pieces of bone that could come from many different people. Together, it tells the story of life and death in the military.

At the world's largest skeletal identification laboratory more than 30 forensic anthropologists, archaeologists and dentists of Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command are working to put names to the remains.

Based at Hickam Air Force Base -- site of the Pearl Harbor attack -- in Honolulu, Hawaii, JPAC is made up of all branches of the U.S. military and civilian scientists, united in the goal of bringing back all 84,000 U.S. service members who went missing during war or military action.
The unit researches old war records and combs battle sites and aircraft crash sites in some of the most remote locations around the world.

Any recovered remains are brought back to JPAC's Central Identification Laboratory.
The mission is to bring answers to families who may have been waiting 60 years or more to hear anything about a loved one. They call it the most honorable mission in the military.

"I've been all over the world from Korea to South Africa, East Asia to South America and then, of course, in Iraq and my job is to defeat the enemy. I am proud of that," says Lt. Col. Raul Gonzalez, who works at JPAC managing 18 teams who search for remains.

"This job, though, has been one of the more healing jobs in a sense that instead of doing what I am normally planning on doing and training to do, I'm bringing people back together, bringing families back together, bringing closure and it is truly, deep down inside, one of the most rewarding experiences."

Dr. Robert Mann, a forensic anthropologist at CIL and head of the forensic science academy there. "The task is daunting. It's incredibly complicated. It goes to the peaks of the Himalayas, it goes to the jungles of Southeast Asia. It goes to the oceans of the Pacific. So from the highest point to the lowest point on the earth, we're looking for missing Americans."
The mission can start in many different ways, possibly a tip from a veteran who remembers where he lost a fellow soldier during a hectic battle, or even from someone finding remains while digging in their yard.

Most of the time, investigations begin with a researcher or historian who searches military records known as Individual Deceased Personnel Files.

The files include information about where a service member was lost and how that person may have died. It's the researcher's role to figure out if there is enough evidence to search a site.
"We'll look at all the evidence and say is it going to be worth it to actually go to the site?" explains historian Andrew Speelhoffer. "And if it is, the next time we're in that country, we'll put that on the list. And we'll go to the site and we'll locate and question any witnesses."
"I think one of the most interesting parts of my job is just learning these cases individually," Speelhoffer says. "I think one of the things about World War II is just the size of it, just the numbers you're talking about. We're missing upwards of 74,000 Americans.

"When you're dealing with those kinds of numbers, it's really interesting to look at these cases on an individual basis and learn little bits, little tidbits of information about these guys. You know, where they were from, what particular mission they were on, that kind of thing."
"I think one of the things about World War II is just the size of it, just the numbers you're talking about. We're missing upwards of 74,000 Americans."

Once a site is approved, an investigation team interviews possible witnesses and does a preliminary search of the grounds. If they find enough evidence that remains are present a recovery team is sent back to the site to dig for remains.

Recovery sites can be grueling. Wars are often fought far away from the comforts of home, and the recovery teams sometimes camp at a dig site for up to 60 days. The end result -- finding a service member who'd been lost for decades -- makes it all worthwhile.

"I got here in 1992 and about the first five years I was in the jungles," Mann says, who with other anthropologists and archaeologists goes on recovery missions as well as working in the lab.

"I went native. I got out there and I didn't want to come back because it was so exciting. It was such an invigorating thing and I felt as though I was doing something really good to bring home these missing Americans.

"Once you do this, you get the bug, you realize what your contribution can be to science, what your contribution can be to the United States. And to these guys and gals who served and gave everything.

"I feel as though this is something that I can give back to those folks who served and to those families who are out there still that are looking for answers. I think it is the most exciting thing anybody could ever do."

Mann has been on digs with veterans who return to the site of terrifying battles to help them figure out where to find lost soldiers.

And when remains are brought back to CIL, Mann is one of the anthropologists trying to put a name to the remains -- a very long and intense process.

The work begins by identifying sex, age at death, racial or ancestral background, how tall the individual was, and what kind of trauma the person received.
Mann explains the process, starting with first knowing where the remains were recovered. "So you've narrowed it down geographically. Then you end up with say 20 individuals that are missing within a 20-mile radius of where these remains were recovered.
"And we're going to keep searching, we're going to keep trying, and we're not going to give up on these guys and gals who are missing."

"You've now got it down to 20 individuals. And now the biology, the anthropology is going to say "well this is a 20-24 year old white male." You've narrowed it down again. How tall is he? He's about 5'8 to 5'9. And you can see you keep narrowing and narrowing and narrowing it to where you get it down to where the dental says, it is this individual right here."

Dental records, when they're available, are often the key to making a final identification.
Lt. Col. Lisa Franklin is a forensic odontologist -- a dentist who compares dental remains to dental records to make an identification.

"If a body is found and there are different types of dental restorations in the mouth -- say a metal crown, maybe a white filling, a composite filling or a resin filling -- those are very unique things in individual mouths and it sets them apart from somebody else who does not have those things in their teeth. So the dental profile can be very unique to one individual."

But not all remains include the jaw or teeth, which is why the scientists at CIL are constantly looking for new technology. Another identification technique is comparing mitochondrial DNA found in bones -- not the same type that can be extracted through saliva or blood -- to DNA extracted from a maternal lineage.

The scientists are also testing out a new way to use the old method of photo superimposition. Using two cameras -- one on a photograph, the other on a skull -- they are trying to determine the accuracy of layering a photo over a skull to make identifications.
It is a mission this unit says it will never tire of.

"Technology changes, technology evolves and gets better," says Mann. "So what we can't do today with this one little piece of bone, we might be able to do tomorrow with DNA.
"And we're going to keep searching, we're going to keep trying, and we're not going to give up on these guys and gals who are missing."

By Misty Showalter, CNN, January 26, 2012
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/26/us/wus-us-identify-mia/index.html

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Brazil search of collapsed buildings intensifies; 7 dead

Sao Paulo (CNN) -- Brazilian rescuers intensified their search for victims in the rubble of three collapsed buildings in Rio de Janeiro Friday, though they are yet to find any survivors.
Seven bodies have been recovered and 20 people are reported missing, the Rio de Janeiro fire department said, according to the state-run Agencia Brasil news agency.

It was not immediately clear what caused the collapse of a 20-story building and adjacent 10- and 4-story buildings on Wednesday night. Officials said they were investigating both the possibility of a gas leak and a structural failure.

Sergio Cabral, the governor of Rio de Janeiro state, declared three days of mourning for the victims.

The city's medical examiner's office has begun identifying the victims.
Among those who died in the collapse was Cornelio Ribeiro Lopes, 73, who was the doorman for one of the buildings, Agencia Brasil reported. He lived there with his wife, Margarida Vieira de Carvalho, who is among the missing, the agency reported.

The crews at the scene were intensifying their search efforts Friday, according to Agencia Brasil.Rescuers said that one of the biggest challenges in finding people was the dust cloud that floats in the area.

The accident came at a delicate time for Rio de Janeiro as the city prepares to host the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games two years later.

January 27, 2012
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/27/world/americas/brazil-building-collapse/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

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Sixty feared dead as entire village wiped out in Papua New Guinea landslide

Sixty people are missing and feared dead after an entire village was wiped out in a landslide in the Commonwealth country of Papua New Guinea.

The flimsy village homes made of palm fronds and sticks were crushed by boulders the size of cars as the landslide destroyed an area more than half a mile long and up to 40 yards wide last night.

Former MP Sir Alfred Kaibe, pleading for foreign aid to help survivors, said: 'This is a tragedy of a magnitude the nation hasn't seen before.
Villagers today search the site of a landslide that struck villages in the Southern Highlands mountainous region of central Papua New Guinea

Villagers today search the site of a landslide that struck villages in the Southern Highlands mountainous region of central Papua New Guinea

The aftermath of a landslide, which wiped out an entire village, is seen in this aerial picture taken in Nogoli, Papua New Guinea

The aftermath of a landslide, which wiped out an entire village, is seen in this aerial picture taken in Nogoli, Papua New Guinea

'Those who have been displaced will need food, emergency supplies and tents.'

Rescue workers were today making their way to the remote region in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, which lies to the north of Australia.

Continuing heavy rain has hampered rescued efforts - and added to fears that another landslide will follow.

Local people have blamed blasting from nearby quarries which sent hundreds of tons of earth crashing down on the village of Tumbi.

Last night thousands of people from nearby villages made their way to the disaster zone, many with faces smeared with mud as a sign of mourning.

Andrew Alphonse, a reporter from the Post Courier newspaper, said locals have already named 26 people they believe have been killed but the death toll is expected to rise dramatically to more than double.

He said: 'Rescue workers haven't been able to retrieve the bodies because of the difficult conditions.

'The engineers and the National Emergency teams from Port Moresby, they've moved into the area today and they'll access the site around there.

'And then from there they'll do some studies on how they can go about picking up the bodies..It is such a huge task.'

Local MP Francis Potape, describing the devastation as widespread, told of harrowing scenes.

He said: 'You have a mother crying on the site, a father crying, people crying - those are the ones who are sure that their relatives are buried in there and have died.'

Locals are blaming quarrying work being carried out at the US-owned Exxon-Mobil liquefied natural gas project.

Despite the disaster, a company spokeswoman said work had resumed at the £10 billion project near the landslide disaster.

By Richard Shears
26th January 2012

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2091971/Sixty-feared-dead-entire-village-wiped-Papua-New-Guinea-landslide.html#ixzz1kYwig9p3

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High-rise buildings collapse in Rio de Janeiro

Two buildings - one nearly 20 storeys high - have collapsed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, filling streets with masonry and covering cars with debris.

Officials say up to 11 people are believed to be inside the buildings and five people have been rescued.

The cause of the collapse remains unclear, but witnesses spoke of an explosion and a strong smell of gas.

City Mayor Eduardo Paes said that they were focusing on rescue efforts before looking into the incident's cause.

According to the BBC's Paulo Cabral, rescue workers were able to pull a cleaner from inside one of the elevators in the rubble after he managed to call a friend on his mobile phone.

The buildings - located near the Municipal Theatre and the headquarters of oil giant Petrobras - crushed a four-storey construction site on their way down.

The area surrounding the buildings is now covered in rubble, with several cars partially covered by debris.

Dozens of emergency workers are at the scene and police have cordoned off the area, our correspondent adds.

'Like an earthquake'

Electricity to the street has been cut off for safety reasons.

One witness, who identified himself as Gilbert, told Reuters news agency: "It was like an earthquake. First some pieces of the buildings started to fall down. People started to run. And then it all fell down at once."

The incident comes a little over three months after a suspected gas explosion at a restaurant in the city left three people dead.

Concerns have been raised about the state of Rio de Janeiro's infrastructure as Brazil prepares to host football's World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games two years later.

26 January 2012

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-16735556

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Batang Kali relatives edge closer to the truth about 'Britain's My Lai massacre'

Lawyers representing relatives of 24 unarmed victims who died at Batang Kali, Malaysia, in December 1948 have finally been provided with key Foreign Office correspondence about past investigations and Cabinet Office guidance on when inquiries should be held.

Even Buckingham Palace has been pulled into the furore surrounding the fate of the villagers, who were rounded up on a large rubber-tapping estate in the colonial government's counter-insurgency operation against communists, known historically as the Malayan Emergency.

A petition to the Queen about the deaths has been handed to the British high commissioner in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, and the royal household has replied. The palace, however, has declined to release the text of the letter.

The Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence have always insisted the villagers were shot while trying to escape detention. The incident has been described by some as the "British My Lai massacre", after the US troop killings in Vietnam.

The Malaysian relatives' hopes have been boosted by a group of Kenyan survivors, mostly now in their 80s, who won the right last summer to sue the British government for damages over claims of torture during the 1950s Mau Mau uprising. A judicial review of the government's repeated refusal to hold a public inquiry into the alleged massacre at Batang Kali is likely to be heard in the spring.

The Foreign Office has refused, so far, to release any additional documents from its still unreleased colonial-era archive. The depository at Hanslope Park, near Milton Keynes, contains thousands of files not yet handed over to the National Archives.

Previously unseen evidence of atrocities from Kenya did eventually emerge from the Foreign Office store, but the Malaysian files have so far remained closed despite repeated requests. The Foreign Office has promised to review the material, although it says it will take time.

Much of what occurred in Batang Kali is agreed. On 11 December 1948, a patrol of Scots Guards surrounded and entered the village, which lies north of the capital. The male villagers were separated. That evening, one of the men was shot by soldiers; the next day a further 23 died. None of the victims were armed and no weapons were found before the killings.

Some of the Scots Guards involved in the incident approached a Sunday newspaper in the 1970s with accounts that disputed the official version of a thwarted escape. Scotland Yard detectives subsequently interviewed the men but were prevented from flying out to Malaysia.

Solicitors have, unusually, been given access to the police files. Soldiers have also been contacted again by the lawyers but none is expected to give evidence unless a public inquiry is ordered.

John Halford, of Bindmans solicitors in London, who is representing the Batang Kali families, said: "We are not asking for anyone to be prosecuted. The surviving soldiers are too old for it to be considered appropriate. But the families want the state to take responsibility for the actions. It's necessary to get to the bottom of what happened. Extrajudicial executions by British troops have not ceased. There are recent examples [Iraq]. These are people who have been wronged and had no remedy at all.

"There should be some resolution. These were extrajudicial killings of civilians that were pre-planned. The Dutch government has now agreed to pay families from Indonesia reparations for a colonial-era massacre that occurred around the same time, in 1947.

"Although [government] solicitors have confirmed that there is material relating to Batang Kali in their secret archives, they say it's not relevant. They won't let us look at it. There was an announcement that it would be publicly accessible, but that commitment hasn't been honoured."

The Foreign Office said: "This event happened over 60 years ago. Accounts of what happened conflict and virtually all the witnesses are dead. In these circumstances it is very unlikely a public inquiry could come up with recommendations which would help to prevent any recurrence."

The FO added: "The families of those who died have chosen to take legal action to challenge this decision and so it would be inappropriate to comment further now that legal proceedings are under way."

On the question of making public the relevant files at the Hanslope Park archives, it said: "The Foreign Office … holds 8,800 files from 37 former British administrations, including Malaya. The government plans to make as much of this material as possible available to the wider public, and has confirmed that the files will be reviewed. This review process may take some time."

Owen Bowcott
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 25 January 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/25/malaysia-military

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Spanish families unearth their civil war dead

GERENA, Spain, Jan 24 (BSS/AFP) - The old people of the village still remember hearing the screams and gunshots through the olive trees of the cemetery one evening in 1937, at the height of Spain's civil war.

Seventeen women, relatives of people on the Republican side, were shot by the forces of Francisco Franco and tipped straight into a mass grave.

Now, 74 years on, their bodies are being exhumed so that their descendants can bury them properly.

In a dark coincidence, the exhumation began on Monday, on the eve of the start of the trial of Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon who is accused of breaking an amnesty by investigating just such atrocities in the Franco era.

"It's paradoxical to say the least. It's also incomprehensible," said Lucia Socam, 25, whose great-aunt Granada Hidalgo was among the women buried in the mass grave.

"They're going to try Judge Garzon for precisely this, for wanting to shed light on these crimes, which were crimes of humanity, so that justice could be done for the victims."

Maria Jose Dominguez, 45, holds a photograph of her grandmother, Manuela Mendez Jimenez, a young blonde woman in a beret, from the neighbouring village of Guillena.

She was a 25-year-old mother of two working in an olive- processing factory when local pro-Franco leaders arrested her, sheared off her hair and locked her in the village prison.

Later they trucked her to Gerena with 16 other women, aged up to 70, all accused of links to members of the Republican cause fighting against the revolt launched by Franco a year earlier.

In the cemetery there they were gunned down and cast into the grave.

Villagers heard "screams and lots of shots", says Manuela's grandson, Manolo Dominguez, 47.

Then for decades there was silence.

As Spain moved to democracy following nearly 40 years under Franco, an amnesty was agreed in 1977, two years after his death, which ruled out airing the bloody events of the war and dictatorship in the courts.

In Gerena, Manolo and his sister were the first to break the code of silence over the events of the war. They launched a search more than a decade ago for the bodies of their grandmother and those killed with her.

"We just want to give them a dignified burial," said Maria Jose.

Other families joined their search in 2005. Their efforts received a boost from a law on "historical memory" passed in 2007 by the then Socialist government, aimed at recognising the victims of the Franco era.

But public funding for the search was still not forthcoming, so volunteer archaeologists from the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory, a campaign group, helped with the excavations.

"It is we, the families, who have to go with pick and shovel to search for our dead," said Socam.

The families questioned survivors from the time of the killings to locate the grave and lobbied to gain authorisation to dig for it, defying complaints from fellow villagers who accused them of opening past wounds.

"It has been a hard road," said Maria Jose.

The former Socialist government published a map last year showing the site of 2,000 suspected graves of people killed during the civil war and dictatorship.

The association says there are many more graves and that 5,000 bodies have been dug up from such sites over the past decade.

Garzon stands accused of breaching the amnesty agreement by ordering investigations between 2006 and 2008 into the disappearances of 114,000 people.

He argues they were victims of crimes against humanity, not subject to the amnesty.

"He is the only person who has dared to take on the crimes of fascism" in Spain, said Marie Jose Dominguez. "It is unjust. They
should try those who deserve to be tried."

http://www1.bssnews.net/newsDetails.php?cat=3&id=222814&date=2012-01-24

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