City mourns as families bury fire victims

More news on the factory fire in Karachi..

As rescue teams concluded their efforts at the factory in Baldia Town on Thursday, around 40 relatives of the victims deposited their blood samples at hospitals for DNA tests that would enable the medical staff to identify some of the bodies of people who perished in the tragic fire.

Officials present at government hospitals said that 16 people had come forward at the Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK), while 24 deposited samples at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH) for DNA matching.

Moving scenes were witnessed as 57 burials took place in Baldia and Orangi towns.

Over at the site of the catastrophe, firefighters and workers from the private sector ended their efforts to recover bodies or rescue survivors. The fire, which lasted for more than 24 hours, claimed nearly 300 lives.

According to the Chief Fire Officer Ehtisham Sami, further rescue efforts were not required as the raging inferno had finally been extinguished and there was no chance of recovering bodies from the basement as the accumulated water had been drained. Meanwhile, the debris had also been cleared, he told The News.

He said that the body parts of 11 people were recovered during Thursday’s rescue work. “Most of the bodies were so badly burnt that only DNA tests could establish their identity,” the chief fire officer observed.

Meanwhile, The News also learnt that the frequent visits of government officials and political leaders would cause interruptions in the rescue efforts.

Although government officials said that 277 people were killed in the fire, sources claimed that the figure was actually higher. The officials said that at least 88 bodies were brought to the CHK, 117 to ASH and 72 bodies corpses were taken to the Jinnah Post Medical Graduate Centre (JMPC). They added that no bodies were sent to the Edhi Morgue. However, sources claimed that 105 bodies were brought to CHK, 118 to the ASH and 72 to the JPMC.

A medico-legal officer (MLO) of the one of the hospitals, who chose to remain anonymous, said he only examined that bodies that came as a whole and not those that were brought in parts. “The bodies of at least 25 to 30 people would be examined over the next 24 hours,” the MLO of the public-sector hospital told The News.

Meanwhile, a CHK official said that the body parts of two more people were received, who were later identified 25-year-old Kiran Ikhlaque and 26-year-old Habib Khan.

Kiran’s body was identified by her elder brother through a ring on the victim’s finger, while Habib’s father identified his son’s body through the betel-nuts found in his pocket.

The owner of the factory, whose name was nominated in the FIR, was declared an absconder and remained at large till the filing of this report.

Friday 14 September 2012

http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-4-131815-City-mourns-as-families-bury-fire-victims

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DNA samples being obtained from relatives

KARACHI, Sept 13: With bodies of 82 victims of the Baldia factory blaze still unidentified, the Sindh health department collected around 65 blood samples from the victims’ relatives for DNA analysis on Thursday.

A senior health official told Dawn that comparing the DNA was the best option to identify the victims.

DNA samples from the bodies will be compared to those of the grieving relatives to see which family they belong to.

The DNA samples were collected at camps set up specially for the purpose at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH), Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) and Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC).

The family members were required to provide photocopies of their national identity cards and also of the deceased members.

Paramedical staff and volunteers were present to guide them.

Javed Hassan, father of a young man who died at the factory, told Dawn that his 23-year-old son, Ahsan Javed, had left their home in Mujahidabad on Tuesday morning, never to return.

“I have inquired about his body at the JPMC and CHK, and also the Edhi morgue, but there is no trace,” he said. Then he came to know about the camps set up for DNA testing and I went there, he added.

Munawar George, the father of Saeed Munawar George, who had worked at the garment factory for the past two and a half years, said that he lived in Christian Colony, in Baldia Town, and had been unable to find his son’s body. He hoped that the DNA test would help identify has son’s body.

Another grieving man, Syed Hashmat Ali, who had come to the camp at the CHK, had lost his 20-year-old daughter, Zoya, in the fire. The family originally belongs to Kotri but has been living in Karachi for long.

Mr Ali said that Zoya had been working at the factory with four other women and a man, who were their relatives, for the past three to four years. All of them died.

“My daughter had recently said that she wanted to visit Kotri,” he said with tears in his eyes as the staff took his blood sample.

“Her wish will never come true now.”

Mr Ali condemned the factory management for negligence that resulted in so many deaths.

Till 8pm on Thursday, 39 samples had been collected at ASH, 16 at the CHK and 10 at the JPMC. Another official from the health department said that the collected samples would be sent through the police department to laboratories in Islamabad or Lahore.

The results would become available after 15 to 20 days.

According to the data provided by the health department, a total of 259 bodies were recovered from the inferno site, out of which 236 were of men and 23 were of women. Around 82 bodies, of which 72 are of men and 10 of women, have yet to be identified to be handed over to their relatives.

Friday 14 September 2012

http://dawn.com/2012/09/14/dna-samples-being-obtained-from-relatives/

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Dana Crash: Lagos issues 89 death certificates to victims’ families

Ikeja – No fewer than 89 families of victims of the June 3, ill-fated Dana plane crash have been issued death certificates.

Gov. Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State disclosed this on Thursday while speaking to newsmen shortly after holding a closed-door meeting with some of the families at the Government House, Ikeja.

He said that those who were issued certificates were families of 141 victims whose bodies had been successfully identified so far, adding that 51 families were yet to collect the certificates.

The governor also said nine bodies were yet to be identified, explaining that the DNA samples of five were not initially supplied by their families while the remaining four could not be identified immediately.

“We have, however, taken fresh samples of the five bodies and have in fact sent them abroad.

“If that is successful, it will leave us with how to proceed with the remaining bodies because we cannot identify them,” he said.

Fashola said talks were in progress with the families on holding a memorial service to honour the victims and build a cenotaph around the crash site or any other site to immortalise them.

He praised the understanding and patience of the victims’ families, saying even in their moments of grief, they worked with the government in resolving the problem of identification of the bodies.

“The crash, though very regrettable, should make the nation ponder about all that is wrong about the aviation sector and do the right things to reposition it,” the governor said.

Speaking with newsmen, family members of some of the victims demanded a total overhaul of the aviation sector to forestall a recurrence of the mishap.

One of them, Mr Seke Somolu, urged the Ministry of Aviation to publish the findings of the investigation into the crash.

He said if the report was not published and the whole process was not made transparent, it could mean that the authorities and the airline were unwilling to inform Nigerians about the actual cause of the incident.

Somolu also queried what he described as “the hasty restoration of Dana’s operating licence”, saying, “it portrays insensitivity of what families of the victims are going through.”

Mrs Onyinye Okocha, who lost her husband to the crash, said the only thing that could provide some consolation to the families was for the government to make the country’s skies safer.

She said the country’s aviation sector was bedevilled by many problems, calling on the Federal Government to take radical steps to address the problems.

Okocha commended the Lagos State Government for the `compassionate way’ it had handled the unfortunate incident so far, and for DNA analysis of victims, which she said was highly appreciated.

Dana’s aircraft carrying 153 passengers crashed at Iju-Ishaga, a suburb of Lagos, on June 3, killing everyone on board.

Friday 14 September 2012

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/09/dana-crash-lagos-issues-89-death-certificates-to-victims-families/

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Death toll rises to 18 as search for bodies called off

KARACHI - The search for the bodies of drowned fishermen of Al-Rahman fishing trawler was called off on Wednesday after the volunteers found two more bodies from the sea, bringing the total death toll to 18 people.

The boat, carrying around 37 fishermen, had capsized after being hit by a huge wave off Ibrahim Hyderi at around 9pm on Sunday. Eighteen fishermen were rescued soon after by another passing boat and out of them three later died in at the hospital.

Of the remaining, 18 bodies were recovered by the volunteers involved in the search and recovery operation later, while one body remains at sea.

Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum’s media coordinator, Sami Memon, told Dawn that the all efforts of volunteers have been exhausted in the search for drowned fishermen. “They were able to find two more bodies on Wednesday,” he said. “Only the body of Mohammad Yusuf, the boat-guard who also worked as a fisherman, hasn’t been found.”

Yusuf’s brother, Faisal, a tailor master, has been waiting for news at the Jamote Jetty in Ibrahim Hyderi since Sunday night, when he first heard about the unfortunate accident.

“Who will find my son now? I think only God can help us,” said his mother, while speaking to Dawn on Wednesday. Earlier, Faisal had said on Tuesday that though he knew that there were no chances for Yusuf’s survival but they wanted his body to be found so they could at least give him a proper burial.

Al-Rahman’s captain also said, “All human efforts to recover Yusuf have failed. Now it is up to the sea to give him up and bring him to the surface.”

Friday 14 September 2012

http://dawn.com/2012/09/13/death-toll-rises-to-18-as-search-for-bodies-called-off/

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Nigeria: 10 Drown, Three Missing in Taraba Boat Mishap

Kano — Ten teenage girls drowned while travelling by canoe to a wedding in Taraba, a region hit by severe seasonal flooding, Red Cross said, yesterday.

Three others, who were in the canoe that capsized on the Karim River, are still missing, said the head of the Red Cross in Taraba State, Manja Agwe Mathew.

He said: "The bodies of 10 passengers in the canoe were recovered by local fishermen, while search for the remaining three is still on."

He added that the accident occurred, late Tuesday, while the group was travelling "to a wedding ceremony in another village across the river."

On Monday, the Red Cross said at least 137 people in Nigeria have died since July from flood-related incidents. Water levels have surged on the River Benue, which feeds the Karim, causing at least 30 deaths.

Officials have urged thousands of people in the south and centre of the country, who live on the plains of the River Niger, to evacuate their homes, fearing it will overflow.

Friday 14 September 2012

http://allafrica.com/stories/201209131065.html

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30 bodies recovered from flood-hit areas in Balochistan

QUETTA: Rescue workers recovered 30 bodies washed away in heavy floods from different locations in the Naseerabad and Dera Murad Jamali districts of Balochistan on Wednesday.

The heavy rains triggered a flash flood in Balochistan and Sindh, causing widespread devastation across the two provinces as some 500 villages in Naseerabad district were submerged under water, according to reports.

So far, the flood has affected 7,361 people, damaged 3,357 acres of agriculture land and about 2,300 houses in various districts of Balochistan, Sindh and the Punjab.

Provincial governments, PDMAs, Army and Frontier Corps have launched joint rescue and relief operations for people trapped in the rain-battered areas of the provinces, said Balochistan focal person on floods and Secretary Information Technology Akbar Hussain Durrani here at the DPR office on Wednesday.

He said that 11 districts, including Qilla Saifullah, Lorali, Zhob, Shirani Musa Khail, Khuzdar, Jhal Magsi, Jaffarabad, Naseerabad, Dera Bugti, Sibi and Lasbella, were badly affected by the flash floods caused by the heavy downpour.

Referring to the inconvenience caused to private and public transporters due to the suspension of the road network, Durrani said that restoration of damaged portions of roads was the government’s top priority. After repairing the damaged portions, the Quetta-Zhob-Dera Ismail Khan Road and Quetta-Lorali, Dera Ghazi Khan Road linking Balochistan with the Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa had been restored while work was underway on the Och National Highway in Notal to restore the road that connects Balochistan with Sindh.

Meanwhile, gushing water breached the embankment of seasonal Nullahs following heavy rains, inundating several villages near the Rajanpur area. The flood damaged the standing crops and residential settlements, a private news channel reported.

Thousands of homeless people took shelter along the roadside after losing their homes.

A 14-year-old boy died when a rescue boat carrying affected families capsized. A rescue operation was kicked off in the Rojhan area of Rajanpur where several villages were inundated by the floodwater. Rescue 1122 teams were shifting the affected villagers to safer places.

Meanwhile, two children died when the roof of their house collapsed. According to the local police, the incident occurred in the limits of the Sibi city police station. A man was also injured in the incident.

Meanwhile, the ISPR said that the Pakistan Army had rescued over 1,200 flood-affected people and shifted them to safer places through MI-17 and boats in Naseerabad and surrounding areas in the last two days. The army has employed 860 troops, 6 Army Aviation helicopters, 60 motor boats, 12 dewatering pumps and engineering equipment for rescue and relief activities at the flash flood-affected areas of Dera Ghazi Khan, Sukkur, Larkana, Kandhkot, Kashmore, Zhob, Kalat, Sibi, Dera Murad Jamali and Naseerabad. Troops were immediately moved to the flood-affected areas on the request of the civil administration.

Army engineers have plugged six breaches in Dera Ghazi Khan. As many as 200 tents and 20,000 dry food packets were distributed in Naseeraabad and adjacent areas of Dera Murad Jamali through six sorties of MI-17 on Wednesday. Food was also provided to over 5,000 affected people in Dera Murad Jamali, Rajanpur and Rojhan.

Friday 14 September 2012

http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-13-17436-30-bodies-recovered-from-flood-hit-areas-in-Balochistan

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Karachi factory fire: Out of 259 dead, only 140 identified as yet

KARACHI: With over 200 dead in country’s worst industrial disaster, only 140 bodies had been identified by Thursday morning, while 115 bodies have been handed back to families for burial, city police chief Iqbal Mehmood told AFP.

According to Sindh police surgeon Dr Kamaluddin Shaikh, around 259 people have died because of the fire.

Workers were suffocated or burnt alive at the Ali Enterprises garment factory in Karachi, which made ready-to-wear clothing for Western export, when a massive fire tore through the building during the evening shift on September 11.

Up to 600 people were working inside at the time, in a building that officials said was in poor condition without emergency exits, forcing dozens to jump from upper storeys to escape the flames, but trapping dozens in the basement where they perished.

Mohammad Bakhsh, 60, burst into tears and hugged his teenage grandson outside the Civil Hospital morgue when he was informed that son Mohammad Ashraf’s body had been identified.

“We are doomed, it is doomsday for us, Allah will help us to survive,” he sobbed. Even 36 hours after the disaster began, several families still gathered outside the gutted factory hoping for news of their loved ones.

Just a few fire tenders were still working. There was thick smoke in the basement and it was still too hot to go inside, where boiling water formed a pool after firefighters spent hours hosing the flaming building.

“The place is too hot and smoky, it is too risky to go inside and clear the building. We are waiting for now,” chief fire officer Ehtesham Salim told AFP.

Ambulances continued to ply back and forth to the factory, even as funeral prayers for some of the dead had already begun.

Mohammad Arshad, a labourer, erected a tent outside his house in an impoverished neighbourhood near the factory for the funerals of his brother and sister-in-law. “My elder brother and his wife worked in the factory and both have been missing since the incident. We’re not optimistic now and have arranged for their rituals once their bodies are identified,” he said, his eyes brimming with tears.

The couple’s children, a 13-year-old daughter and a nine-year-old son have not yet been informed their parents are probably dead, he said.

“They are too young and already confused. We’ll tell them once the bodies arrive.”

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, while speaking to media at the site of the incident, said that the owners have gone into hiding but cannot leave the country as their names have been placed in the Exit Control List (ECL).

“The owners must come forward and speak the truth, otherwise it can be assumed that they were responsible for the incident,” adding that the culprits wont be spared. Shah also announced a compensation of Rs 0.5 million for families of the dead, while Rs 0.2 million for the injured.

Earlier, Sindh Labour Minister Ameer Nawab claimed that Shah had stopped him from taking action against factories violating labour rules.

According to the initial inquiry report of the fire, negligence on the part of factory owners and government departments resulted in the incident, Express News reported.

The report states that there was no emergency exit in the factory which employed more than 400 labourers.

Entities held responsible for the incident include factory owners, management, share holders, and labour, building control, electric, environment, social security and civil defence departments.

Sindh government has requested all concerned authorities to submit a complete inquiry report within three days so that those responsible for the tragedy can be punished. ‘One of the worst disasters in the world’

Speaking to the media in Lahore, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Nawaz Sharif termed the factory fire in Karachi as one of the worst disasters in the world.

He demanded that both the owners and concerned government officials should be held responsible for the incident.

Thursday 13 September 2012

http://tribune.com.pk/story/436022/karachi-factory-fire-out-of-289-dead-only-140-identified-as-yet/

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Small plane crashes in Russia killing 10

A small propeller plane crashed in Russia's far east on Wednesday killing 10 of the 14 people on board, Russia's local emergency services said.

The Russian-design Antonov An-28 plane flown by two pilots was taking 12 passengers from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the provincial capital of Kamchatka, to the northern village of Palana when it crashed.

Heavy storm clouds and bad weather may have brought down the plane, a local air traffic control source told Interfax. The agency said one child was among the dead.

"Ten bodies were found at the scene of the crash and four injured passengers were being readied to be airlifted to the hospital," a spokeswoman for the local emergency services said.

Refuse from the plane crash was scattered across the wooded territory, Interfax reported.

Wednesday 12 September 2012

http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/small-plane-crashes-in-russia-killing-10-507642

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Overcoming the aftermath of flash floods

PANO – Flash floods, landslide and torrential rains have claimed several lives and damaged local people’s properties and crops from Lao Cai, Yen Bai to the Central region in recent days.

Local troops and militia have been joining hands with locals to overcome the aftermath of the calamities, attempting to help locals return to normal life soon.

Bodies of victims being sanitized before a burial service

Searching for the missing after the landslide in Trong Pao Sang village, La Pan Tan commune (Yen Bai) PANO’s reporters and collaborators have taken some photos of this assistance as follows.

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Unrelenting rains kill up to 37 more in Sindh, eight in Punjab

DERA GHAZI KHAN / SUKKUR: As rains and floods continue to lash Sindh, at least 37 people lost their lives across the province on Tuesday while access to hundreds of coastal villages was cut off as several roads were washed away.

Over the past five days, Sindh has been hit by widespread rains with Jacobabad receiving 481mm, Larkana 215mm, Sukkur 206mm, Chhor 137mm, Badin108 mm and Hyderabad and Dadu recording 90mm of rainfall.

Like the past year, monsoon has left many low-lying areas in Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Thull, Kashmore, Kandhkot, Sukkur, Khairpur, and Larkana submerged.

In Kashmore, 17 people, including women and children, were killed as hundreds of katcha houses collapsed when the flash floods hit the area around midnight. According to the Met office, more rains are expected in parts of lower Sindh and southeast Balochistan over the next 24 hours.

Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah has announced a grant of Rs5 million to each rain-affected district in the province.

Meanwhile, as floodwaters receded from the badly-hit Dera Ghazi Khan district on Tuesday, four bodies were recovered from Choti Zaireen over the last 48 hours. Small amounts of flooding continued to plague Rajanpur, Rojhan, Jampur and Dera Ghazi Khan.

In addition, another four people died in Rajanpur when a clash broke out between panicked residents trying to divert floodwater from a rural area, Sukhera. Police were unable to reach the spot and intervene in time because ground routes were blocked.

Although D G Khan’s urban area has been drained of water, inundated rural areas are still being cleared out by the district administration in coordination with the flood victims themselves. As many as 50,000 people have returned to the city in the last 24 hours after evacuating earlier. Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) confirmed that more troops had arrived to rescue people in the flooded regions.

Meanwhile, the D G link canal was in the process of being repaired. Three major breaches have been fixed while the other four are expected to be repaired by today at noon (Wednesday). Agricultural losses are estimated to have affected around 20,000 acres of rice, wheat, cotton, maize and other crops, according to the provincial agricultural minister. Makeshift medical camps have been set up on the National Highway since the major hospitals of the city, including the District Headquarters hospital, remain inundated.

According to district officials, as many as 2,000 houses have been affected in D G Khan, including those which have been completely destroyed – but losses are still building up. Heritage sites, including the mausoleums of Hazrat Bukhari and Jamalallah in Rajanpur, have also been badly damaged.

D G Khan’s tribal area has experienced the biggest devastation, where necessities are being provided via helicopters.

Infuriated residents, however, organised separate protests across the district to demonstrate over not being provided relief items. Demonstrators chanted against political leaders and complained that they needed aid, not statements and visits accompanied by a cohort of security vehicles.

In Balochistan, meanwhile, thousands remain stranded due to the disruption of electricity and communication lines, especially in Naseerabad and Jaffarabad. Blocked routes have led to a massive shortage of food and medicine while crops over thousands of acres have been destroyed and livestock lost. One man drowned in Bolan district’s Machh Nullah.

Moreover, cracks have appeared in the banks of the Pat Feeder canal at five different places which has exacerbated the flooding. The breaches have inundated dozens of low-lying villages, forcing hundreds of families to move to higher ground. The floodwater has also entered the Uch Power Plant due to which half of the plant has been closed, sources told The Express Tribune.

Railway tracks and highways in Jaffarabad and Naseerabad were inundated, cutting off rail links between the province and the rest of Pakistan for the third consecutive day.

While the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) has already dispatched some trucks carrying tents and other food items to the affected areas, it is unable to match the needs of the affected people.

“We are stuck in Dera Murad Jamali and there’s water everywhere. We are sitting in the district commissioner’s office in stagnant water that’s two feet deep,” said a PDMA driver talking to The Express Tribune. He added said that some of the PDMA drivers were stranded in Jhal Magsi and contact couldn’t be established with them due to the disruption of phone networks.

According to Inter-Services Public Relation (ISPR) sources, the army has also kicked off relief efforts on a large scale following the orders of the Southern Command.

Wednesday 12 September 2012

http://tribune.com.pk/story/435267/unrelenting-rains-kill-up-to-37-more-in-sindh-eight-in-punjab/

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Floods in South Sudan suspected to have killed 15 people

Around twelve people in Western Equatoria State and three people from Awerial County in Lakes State are believed to have died due to floods and fast flowing rivers over the last two days, according to officials.

Western Equatoria State’s minister of information and communications, Charles Barnaba Kisanga, said in a statement on Tuesday that a whole vehicle - registration number CE515R - traveling from Yambio to Juba had been washed away at the at the Luri Bridge crossing of the Luri River at 8pm on Monday. All 12 passengers are believed to have died.

"We are deeply saddened by such event which shows the dangers of driving on our roads these days”, Kisanga said.

Heavy rains across South Sudan are making roads impassable and cutting off commercial activities and supplies from reaching towns and rural areas.

Minister Kisanga explained there was nothing much the state government could do to improve the situation since there was a lack of funds due to the austerity measures introduced after South Sudan stopped oil production in January as part of a transit fee dispute with Khartoum.

The cuts have crippled government plans to link the area to Juba and other towns and areas with well maintained roads.

“They have been cut and we can only advise drivers to take extra care. The Western Equatoria Government is currently mobilizing some resources for the part between Madebe and Ibba but it may not provide any immediate solution”, he said.

“We only advise drivers to exercise maximum care especially if deciding to use the Jambo-Juba Road. The advice is to use [the] Yei-Juba Road even though this is also in bad state and takes longer. Luri has become very hazardous”, he explained.

“The driver Joseph Peter survived the accident. We are still waiting on news update from Juba on the recovery of bodies. Our condolences to all relatives and friends of those who might have perished in the accident”, he said.

In Lakes State, the Awerial County commissioner David Mayom Riak, has reported that more than 2,000 people have been displaced and three people, including a nine-year-old child have died due to flooding.

Heavy rain caused the Gel River, which is located at the eastern part of the county, to overflow, Mayom said, adding that the floods had been a surprise.

Commissioner Mayom said that Dor, Bunagok, Alel and Magok payams [districts] were affected, asking humanitarian organizations, the state government as well national government in Juba to quickly intervene.

This is the first time serious floods have hit the county since South Sudan became independent last year.

Wednesday 12 September 2012

http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article43864

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Pakistan factory fires kill 125

Factory fires have broken out in two major cities in Pakistan, killing 125 people and injuring dozens more, including some who had to break through barred windows and leap to the ground to escape the flames.

Workers recounted how their colleagues were trapped behind blocked exits, and firefighters said that one reason why the blazes were so deadly is that the buildings a shoe factory in the eastern city of Lahore and a garment factory in the southern port of Karachi lacked clear escape routes.

Such safety issues are common throughout Pakistan, where buildings also lack emergency equipment like alarms and sprinklers and municipal rules are rarely enforced.

The most deadly blaze came in Karachi, the country's economic heart, killing at least 100 people.

Firefighters could be seen pounding on the metal grates covering some of the windows and pulling out smoke-covered bodies. Many of the workers were injured when they jumped from the burning building, said a doctor at the Civil Hospital in Karachi, Karar Abbasi.

An injured factory worker, Mohammad Ilyas, speaking from the hospital, said he was working along with roughly 50 other men and women on one of the floors when suddenly a fireball came from the staircase.

"I jumped from my seat as did others and rushed toward the windows, but iron bars on the windows barred us from escaping. Some of us quickly took tools and machines to break the iron bars," he said. "That was how we managed to jump out of the windows down to the ground floor."

Fire fighters were still trying to subdue the deadly blaze that broke out on Tuesday evening, and senior police official Amjad Farooqi.

"There were no safety measures taken in the building design. There was no emergency exit. All the people got trapped," Farooqi said.

In Lahore, the fire swept through a four-story shoe factory and killed 25 people, some from burns and some from suffocation, said senior police officer Multan Khan. The factory was illegally set up in a residential part of the city.

It broke out when people in the building were trying to start their generator after the electricity went out. Sparks from the generator made contact with chemicals used to make the shoes, igniting the blaze. Pakistan faces widespread blackouts, and many people use generators to provide electricity for their houses or to run businesses.

One of the workers, Muhammad Shabbir, said he had been working at the factory for six months along with his cousin. He said all the chemicals and the generator were located in the garage, which was also the only way out of the building. When the fire ignited, there was no way out. Shabbir said he had just gone outside the factory when the fire started, but his cousin was severely burned and died at the hospital.

A firefighter at the scene, Numan Noor, said the reason most of the victims died was because the main escape route was blocked.

"The people went to the back side of the building but there was no access, so we had to make forceful entries and ... rescue the people," said Noor.

Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf in a statement expressed his shock and grief over the deaths in both cities.

Woensdag 12 September 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/12/pakistan-factory-fires-karachi?newsfeed=true

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Rain, flash floods kill 78 in Pakistan

Heavy monsoon rains which began falling last week destroyed more than 1,600 houses while damaging a further 5,000, Irshad Bhatti, a spokesman for the country’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) told AFP.

“A total of 78 people have died and 68 injured in rains and flash floods in the country so far,” he said, adding that the casualties were caused mostly by houses collapsing and people being caught in floods.

The worst-hit region was Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where 32 people have died and 26 were injured in several districts, he said, adding that 83 houses were totally destroyed and another 4,200 were partially damaged, he said.

In the northwestern district of Swabi eight Afghan refugees were killed when the roof of their mud house collapsed overnight, police official Mohammad Ali said.

The dead, who were members of the same family, included two women and six children aged between one and 12 years he said.

In Pakistan-administered Kashmir, flash flood killed at least 31 people, Bhatti said. Rains killed at least 26 people in that region last month.

Monday 10 September 2012

http://www.thefrontierpost.com/news/8012/

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29 killed in landslides and flooding in Vietnam

Landslides and flooding caused by heavy rains have killed 29 people and left four missing in northern and central Vietnam.

Disaster official Ngo Van Hung of northern Yen Bai province said that 16 villagers from the mostly poor Hmong ethnic minority group died in a landslide while they were illegally collecting tin ore from a mine operated by a private company.

Authorities are searching for two other people missing from the incident, he added.

The government disaster agency said flooding killed another 13 people and left two missing in central Vietnam over the past week.

The agency says on its website that flooding caused by heavy rains has caused an estimated 22 million US dollars in damage to rice crops and infrastructure.

Monday 10 September 2012

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/29-killed-in-landslides-and-flooding-in-vietnam-8120967.html

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Tractor full of workers hit by train. Eight people killed

Eight people were killed and one was severely injured on Saturday in an accident neat Chilieni, Covasna County. A tractor with trailer carrying 12 people was hit by a train. Upon impact, the people in the trailer were thrown 30 meters away. The vehicle was hit by a train going between Targu Mures and Brasov.

A spokesperson for the Covasna Police, Iulia Grigoras, told Mediafax Saturday afternoon that there were seven people killed in the accident. The injured woman who had goine into cardiac arrest could not be resuscitated, despite intervention teams’ efforts. Grigoras said the tractor driver, 78, failed to check for incoming trains, although the railway crossing was properly signaled.

Grigoras added that the driver was not injured in the accident. One of the injured people was taken by a SMURD helicopter to Targu Mures and another was to be taken to Sfantu Gheorghe Hospital by ambulance.

A total of eight people, six women and two men, were killed in the accident. Railway traffic was stopped in the area for several hours.

Saturday 9 September 2012

http://www.bucharestherald.ro/dailyevents/41-dailyevents/36733--terrible-accident-tractor-full-of-workers-hit-by-train-eight-people-killed

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Argentina torture victim identified as Chilean

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA -- Forensic scientists have finally identified a mutilated corpse that washed up on the shore in 1976 as that of a Chilean leftist who was among the first victims of the Argentine dictatorship.

The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team used genetic evidence and fingerprints taken by Uruguay's military government at the time to identify the body as Luis Guillermo Vega Ceballos, an activist with Chile's Revolutionary Workers Party.

Vega Ceballos had been detained in Buenos Aires on April 9, 1976, along with his pregnant Argentine wife Laura Gladis Romero, whose body has never been found. The human rights group Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo believes she was among hundreds of dissidents killed after giving birth in captivity, and whose babies were raised by military or police families. The child would be turning 36 years old this month.

The discovery was announced Thursday night in Uruguay, where Peace Commission Secretary Graciela Jorge said "it closes a small chapter" in the history of the dirty wars that right-wing militaries fought against leftist revolutionaries in the 1970s.

Vega Ceballos' corpse showed clear signs of torture when it washed up on the coast of neighboring Uruguay, which also was ruled by a dictatorship, from 1973-1985. He had been mutilated and his hands were tied. Still, Uruguayan authorities followed their laws and took fingerprints that eventually enabled forensic scientists to identify the body.

In all, eight bodies that had washed up on the coast and been buried in a cemetery in Colonia, Uruguay were sent this year to the forensics team in Argentina. Of them, three others have been identified: Argentines Horacio Adolfo Abeledo and Roque Montenegro, and Uruguayan Alberto Mechoso Mendez, she said.

Abeledo was a 22-year-old salesman who was detained on July 21, 1976, according to Argentina's official registry of the disappeared. Montenegro disappeared along with his wife, Hilda Torres Montenegro, six weeks before Argentina's March 24 coup.

Their daughter, Victoria Montenegro, learned in May that her birth father had been identified. She recovered her true identity in 2000 with the help of the Grandmothers, and it was her blood that provided the match to her father's remains.

"No word exists to describe my feelings," she wrote in an open letter months ago. She described "the sadness of knowing my father's final destiny," along with "this feeling of peace that only comes with the truth."

She thanked the rights activists and forensics team for enabling her to recover her father's dignity, "so that he would no longer be an unknown body in a grave on the coast of Uruguay," and pleaded with other relatives of the disappeared to donate their blood to Argentina's genetic database.

"It makes us better, as Argentines, each time we can identify them and sing more strongly, 'we have not been beaten'," she wrote.

Rights activists suspect the victims were thrown from Argentine military planes into the wide Rio de la Plata that separates Uruguay and Argentina. Witnesses in Argentina have described torture victims being drugged and flown alive into the sea on the so-called "death flights."

Alberto Breccia, secretary to Uruguayan President Jose Mujica, said the identifications disprove critics who complain of misspent efforts to identify dirty war victims. He said Uruguay's program includes 35 people whose work includes unearthing cadavers, updating archives and adding to a database that now includes genetic information from 85 percent of the families of Uruguay's disappeared.

Saturday 8 September 2012

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/07/3802021/argentina-torture-victim-identified.html#storylink=cpy

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10 miners die in latest China coal mine accident Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/08/3803259/10-miners-die-in-latest-china.html#storylink=cpy

BEIJING -- Ten miners have died after a platform overturned in a coal mine in northwest China.

China's official Xinhua News Agency says the accident happened Thursday night in Gansu province in a mine that was under construction.

Xinhua says the last body was pulled from the mine Saturday morning. It says the miners were plunged into water when the platform overturned. No other details were given.

China has the world's deadliest coal mine industry. Safety improvements have reduced deaths in recent years, but safety rules are often ignored and accidents are still common.

Saturday 8 September 2012

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/08/3803259/10-miners-die-in-latest-china.html#storylink=cpy

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China earthquake death toll rises in Yunnan and Guizhou

At least 80 people are now known to have died in a series of earthquakes in south-western China, as rescuers struggle to reach remote areas.

More than 730 people were injured after the quakes hit Yunnan and Guizhou provinces on Friday, state media say.

The tremors struck mostly mountainous areas, causing landslides that blocked some roads.

The US Geological Survey registered the two strongest of the quakes at 5.6 magnitude.

Premier Wen Jiabao is expected to arrive in the area shortly.

China's Xinhua news agency quoted officials in Yunnan as saying 6,650 houses had been destroyed in the province and 430,000 others damaged.

More than 100,000 people have already been evacuated, said Xinhua, and the Red Cross has sent 650 tents and 3,000 quilts to the region.

The authorities have deployed the army to assist rescue teams in the rough terrain.

"Roads are blocked and rescuers have to climb the mountains to reach hard-hit villages," Li Fuchun, head of Yunnan's Luozehe town, was quoted as saying.

Mobile and regular phone service in the area was experiencing disruption, according to reports.

Most of the deaths were in Yunnan's Yiliang county, said officials.

Television footage from state-run broadcaster CCTV showed hundreds of local residents gathering on streets littered with bricks and rocks.

Users of the Twitter-like wesbite Weibo reported people rushing out of shaking office buildings, and photos posted online also showed streets strewn with rubble.

Aid agencies said they were concerned about the plight of children in the two provinces following the quakes.

"We are especially worried about those who may have been separated from their parents, as more aftershocks are expected to hit the area," Save the Children in China Country Director Pia MacRae said.

The largest of the quakes was also felt in the neighbouring province of Sichuan, where a 7.8 magnitude quake in 2008 left tens of thousands dead.

Saturday 8 September 2012

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-19527695

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Police use sketches to ID disaster bodies

Facial sketches have helped identify some of the people killed in the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami, with 15 people identified since May from sketches drawn by police based on photos of the bodies.

According to the National Police Agency, 223 of the 15,802 bodies found in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures after the Great East Japan Earthquake remained unidentified as of Sept. 5.

The identities of 2,814 bodies--about 20 percent--were confirmed through DNA examination. Police are utilizing traditional techniques as well as modern scientific methods to identify the bodies about 1-1/2 years after the disaster.

The identities of 15,576 bodies, or 98.6 percent of those found in the three prefectures as of Aug. 8, have been confirmed. Soon after the disaster, bodies were identified mainly through their physical characteristics. About six months after the disaster, it became difficult to identify bodies through examination, so police have had to rely more on DNA tests.

However, it was difficult for the police to secure DNA samples of missing people for verification, such as hair or oil left on combs, as most of the missing people's houses were washed away. Samples from only 120 missing people have been obtained from items left in houses.

Since May 2011, the NPA has beefed up efforts to secure DNA samples through other channels, such as asking the Japanese Red Cross Society to provide blood samples of missing people who had donated blood. The NPA also asked medical institutions to provide cells from missing people collected during biopsies.

For those who left no DNA samples, the NPA has collected cheek swabs from relatives of missing people in hopes of a DNA match. Combining the results with other clues, such as teeth and other bodily characteristics, the agency has succeeded in identifying some of the unidentified bodies.

Since May, the prefectural police headquarters of Miyagi and Iwate have released 96 sketches of dead people, which were drawn from pictures of the dead bodies. Many of the bodies' eyes were closed and their faces were damaged, but police artists recreated the faces as if they were alive. The sketches were decisive in identifying the bodies of 15 people.

In June, a man from Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, was able to identify the body of his father-in-law, who was 79 years old when he was killed, from a facial sketch posted on a Miyagi prefectural police website.

"I visited the morgue where his body was many times, but I couldn't identify it and even seeing a picture didn't help. However, the facial sketch was identical to his face when he was alive," the man said.

A senior NPA official said: "People seem more comfortable looking at the sketches rather than shocking pictures of dead bodies. We can also alter the the sketches if we don't receive many tips."

About 1 million police officers--counting those who made multiple visits--from around the country have visited the three prefectures to search for those missing after the disaster. However, only 16 bodies were discovered in the six months up to Aug. 31. According to police, 2,925 people remain missing.

Friday 8 September 2012

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120907003565.htm

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