Migrant boat capsizes off Australia's Christmas Island, 144 rescued

A boat carrying about 150 suspected asylum seekers has capsized off Australia's Christmas Island, with four people confirmed dead.

Border authorities said two naval vessels had rescued 144 people from the water after the capsize on Tuesday.

The vessels were escorting the boat to a detention centre on Christmas Island but the ship overturned in rough seas.

Many asylum seekers try to reach the island, hoping then to move on to the Australian mainland.

Christmas Island, located about 1,600 miles (2,575km) north-west of the mainland, is the closest part of Australia to Indonesia - the key transit hub for people-smugglers.

Life rafts

"Overnight, our officers have rescued 144 people from the sea and recovered the bodies of four other people," Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare said.

Australia's rescue co-ordination centre received a phone call from people on the vessel on early on Tuesday, after the boat's engine reportedly stopped, he said.

However, the "weather conditions and the high sides of the vessel" prevented rescue personnel from boarding the boat.

Navy vessel HMAS Albany reported that one of the two engines on the boat was not working and began escorting the boat, he said.

"At approximately 18:00, the vessel began to lean to one side and passengers began jumping into the water. At approximately 18:40, [HMAS] Albany reported that the vessel had rolled and capsized," Mr Clare said.

"A total of six life rafts were deployed" to rescue the passengers as well as an overhead Orion aircraft and small boats from the naval vessels, he said, thanking rescuers for their "tough, hard, difficult and dangerous work".

Customs said it had now suspended rescue efforts as there were no further signs of life.

The boat overturned 70 nautical miles from Christmas Island.

Customs said in a statement: "HMAS Warramunga rescued 76 people from the water and HMAS Albany rescued 68 people from the water. Tragically, four deceased persons were recovered."

David Johnston, commander for Australia's Border Protection Command, said: "It is a dreadful feeling in the stomach when we hear that a vessel has capsized, or that it is in some difficulty."

"Recovering 144 people in the conditions they had yesterday was extraordinary work."

Thousands of asylum seekers arrive in Australia by boat every year.

Several boats carrying migrants heading for Australia have disappeared in recent months.

In a separate incident on Saturday, 88 asylum seekers were rescued after their boat sank off the same island.

A baby boy died in the accident and eight people were missing and presumed dead. The boat, which set off from Indonesia, was reportedly carrying asylum seekers from Iran, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.

New Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is expected to announce new asylum policies in advance of Australia's general election, which must be held by November.

Refugee tribunals have been told to use new country assessments by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade when assessing asylum seeker claims, Australian broadcaster ABC reported.

Critics say this will lead to genuine asylum seekers being classed as economic migrants and being sent back to their original countries.

Wednesday 17 July 2013

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23332634

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‘Body Worlds’ challenged to provide DNA

The dead human bodies preserved by being injected full of plastic by German anatomist Gunther von Hagens have toured the world for decades, and made their author a very wealthy man. For years, too, the Body World exhibitions have also been a rich source of controversy, dogged by claims that the bodies of executed Chinese prisoners—including prisoners of conscience—have been splayed open and put on display for a paying public.

Now, von Hagens has been challenged to put to rest some of those allegations, by supplying DNA samples of the specimens currently on display at the Naturhistorisches Museum in Wien, Austria.

Ethan Gutmann, a researcher who has written extensively about organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience in China—primarily practitioners of Falun Gong, a persecuted spiritual discipline—said on July 12, standing in the Maria-Theresien-Platz outside the museum, that DNA samples would effectively resolve the controversy.

“We now have a show which is traveling around which may have the DNA of murdered prisoners of conscience,” Gutmann said in an interview with NTD Television, putting emphasis on the word “may.”

“The legs on some of the female specimens appear to be unnaturally short,” Gutmann said, based on observations he made when he visited the exhibition in Wien recently. “The frames are a little frail; the skulls are a little fine. I’m not an expert, but these look Chinese.”

Gutmann’s suspicion is not based only on the anatomical features he observed. In 1999 von Hagens set up shop in Dalian, a city in northeast China, and acquired an unknown number of bodies, some of which were used for his exhibitions.

At that time, Bo Xilai, the now-disgraced Chinese official, was mayor. Bo is now under detention and awaits trial for violation of Communist Party discipline and a range of other offenses, but was known to have been a protégé to the former leader of the Chinese Communist Party, Jiang Zemin, and an early proponent of Jiang’s campaign to persecute Falun Gong.

According to a 2004 investigative report in the German newspaper Der Spiegel, by the year 2001: “Around von Hagens’ corpse factory in Dalian, there were already three labor camps and prisons. Among them were the ‘No. 3 Provincial Prison’ and the ‘[Dalian City] Reeducation Through Labor Camp.’ In the notorious ‘[Dalian] Yaojia Detention Center,’ political prisoners are detained, among them adherents of the spiritual movement Falun Gong.”

Later, von Hagens won an injunction that forbid Der Spiegel from making the claim that he used the corpses of executed prisoners.

In an interview with the New York Times two years later, though, von Hagens said: “When I came here, [Sui Hongjin] said we’ll have no problem with Chinese bodies… He said we can use unclaimed bodies. Now it’s difficult, but then it was no problem at all.”

Sui Hongjin was von Hagen’s former apprentice who split from von Hagen’s operation in 2002 and began operating his own plastination factory, supplying, among others, the plastinated body touring company called “Bodies: The Exhibition.” While von Hagens denies using executed Chinese prisoners any longer, “Bodies: The Exhibition” carries a disclaimer saying that some of its bodies came from the Chinese police.

Gutmann says his approach to calling on DNA samples from von Hagens is two-pronged: first, it will establish whether Chinese bodies were used in his exhibits, which allows for the next step, of collecting the DNA of family members of Falun Gong practitioners who were killed in China, so as to test for any relationship. Secondly, it will put pressure on the exhibitition that Sui is associated with, to also provide DNA about the bodies that it has.

The rivalry between von Hagens and Sui should propel him to cooperate, Gutmann said in a telephone interview.

“There is another Body show going around the world. It’s actually bigger. It’s run by Von Hagens’ former manager Sui Hongjin,” Gutmann said in his statement, which was read out to the press and public. “His bodies come from the PSB. His sponsor, Premier Exhibitions admits it. Sui has plastinated an estimated thousand bodies. We have a saying in English: every criminal makes one mistake. Could shipping murder victims loaded with DNA around the free world qualify as a mistake? It sounds crazy that someone would take that chance. But let’s find out.”

Gutmann continued: “If any samples are Chinese we can match them with DNA from Chinese families who lost a loved one because they were Falun Gong. That will take years. But it’s worth it, because the families have the moral authority in this case.”

Wednesday 17 July 2013

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/182902-body-worlds-challenged-to-provide-dna/

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School meals kill 22, villagers dig up graves of children after school meal deaths in Bihar

Villagers in Bihar dug up mass graves in the premises of a primary school to lay the bodies of their children who died after eating midday meal on Tuesday.

Heart-rending wails rent the air as the villagers took to the ritual of burial as several women fainted on the grounds, looking just not ready to part with the bodies of their near and dear ones.

A total of 22 children, all aged between four and 10, died and 25 other fell sick after eating free midday meal at a newly-created primary school at Dharmasati-Gandaman village in Saran district of Bihar, some 80 km north of the state capital Patna on Tuesday afternoon.

The poor children had been served rice with potato-soyabean curry but soon after eating several of them began feeling uneasiness and started vomiting. They were rushed to a local hospital but 22 died in course of treatment.

Soon after the bodies of the children were handed to the parents, the crowd of mourning villagers dug up mass graves almost in the premises of the primary schools and laid to rest the bodies of the kids who barely a days before were studying in the school. TV grabs showed the crowds of local villagers digging up graves with shovels and other earth-cutting tools and gently laying the bodies to rest as other groups of villagers shouted anti-government slogans, demanding resignation of the chief minister.

Footages also showed the abandoned books of the children wrapped in plastic bags lying on the ground in the ghostly class room. Also lay on the ground were the dirty plates in which the kid had eaten meal yesterday.

“We had been served rice with potato-soyabean curry in the midday meal but soon after eating we began feeling pain in stomach and started vomiting,” said bare-bodied Poonam with saline bottle attached to her hand. She had talked to the media persons after she came out of the bed to meet the nature’s call after feeling fine.

Angry villagers also set fire to four vehicles of the local police and damaged many others vehicles hitting them with woods and other stones to register protests during the day-long shut-down in Saran district called by the opposition parties. They also had violent clashes with the police.

“That is a criminal act and gross negligence on the part of the official who showed no sensitivity and rushed the sick children to the hospital in a bus which came to a stop midway as it ran short of fuel. By the time the fuel could be arranged, the condition of many children had deteriorated,” alleged local parliamentarian Prabhunath Singh from opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal.

The BJP spokesman Rajiv Paratp Rudy while expressing shock too blamed the callousness on the part of the state administration behind the incident, saying many lives could have been saved had the children been admitted to hospitals on time.

At local hospitals, parents cried with the bodies of the children and became hysterical after losing their near and dear ones. “How will we live the rest of our lives? We have lost both of our children,” cried Harendra Mishra. So was Upendra Kumar who lost three of his children.

State authorities found traces of poison in the food and do not rule out conspiracy. Another theory is that food poisoning may be the cause of death. “Preliminary investigation suggests the children died of poison. This is a matter of inquiry now as to how the poison reached the school kitchen,” asked Bihar’s education minister Prashant Kumar Shahi.

Social welfare minister Perveen Amanullah who rushed to the local Patna Medical College and Hospital to see the sick children admitted there too suspects conspiracy in the incident.

“We suspect the children died of eating poisoned food. Even after eating sub-standard food, the maximum could be that the children might have fallen sick, not died,” said the minister, adding the incident was being thoroughly probed.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has in the meantime ordered an inquiry into the incident while expressing deep grief over it. He has also announced a compensation of Rs 200,000 to each of the victim family.

Wednesday 17 July 2013

http://gulfnews.com/news/world/india/villagers-dig-up-graves-of-children-after-school-meal-deaths-in-bihar-1.1210009

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Kin of missing in Uttarakhand look up govt website for clues

With no news yet about their loved ones, who are still considered missing in Uttarakhand, the family members of the 15 victims from Hailey Mandi are now looking for some clues through the photos and other vital details that have been uploaded by the Uttarakhand police on the Zonal Integrated Police Network website.

These photos are of those whose bodies have been cremated by the state authorities.

With the Uttarakhand chief minister refusing to declare the missing as dead, some of these relatives are still hoping to hear some good news, even though it has already been a month since these 15 went missing.

"The entire village knows that the chances of survival of these 15 persons are extremely slim. But, we are still hoping for a miracle, especially after we got to know that yesterday a man was rescued after almost a month, albeit in a mentally unstable condition," said Purushottam Singla, whose parents and daughter are among the missing. "There is still no news about any of the 15, and now we are looking for some clues by looking at the photos uploaded by the Uttarakhand police," said Singla.

Apart from the photographs of those who have been cremated, the website, zipnet.in, also lists the belongings such as the ornaments and identity cards found on them, along with their pictures, and mentions the name of the place where these bodies were found. All the 15 victims from this village were last seen in Kedarnath. "In all, 19 people from our village had gone for the Char Dham yatra and four of them managed to survive because as they did not travel to Kedarnath and decided to stay back in Gauri Kund. We are scanning the website but still not able to get any information," Singla added.

Wednesday 17 July 2013

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/Kin-of-missing-in-Uttarakhand-look-up-govt-website-for-clues/articleshow/21111425.cms

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'missing' City Lights building collapse victim

A week after the ill-fated City Light Hotel crashed, fresh police investigation has revealed that Ashok Kamble, initially feared dead in the collapse, was not at the crash site, raising doubts about the family's claims.

Ashok's wife K Meera gave a statement to the police that her husband was employed at the hotel for two months and was at work at the time of collapse. Though none of the 17 bodies that were recovered from the building was identified as Ashok's, the family insisted that he was present during the collapse. At the family's insistence that the rescue workers may have overlooked Ashok's body, the police along with volunteers sifted through the rubble on Monday, but to no avail.

What flies in the face of family's claims is that the owner, supervisor and the injured employees of City Light Hotel, failed to recognize Ashok. Also, analysis of call details of Ashok's cellphone helped the cops establish that his phone was switched off since July 4. A service message that was received by the number on July 10 helped the cops trace the signal to Warangal.

But his wife maintains that she spoke to her husband over the phone on July 6, though earlier she had claimed that she called him on July 7, a day before the mishap. However on careful questioning, some family members told the investigating officials on Tuesday that Ashok was working for a tent house on RP Road. The relatives added that Ashok was seen at his last employer's place a week before the crash.

The cops also learnt that Ashok was a welder by profession in his home town in Maharashtra and it is highly unlikely that he could have been employed in a kitchen. "The people of the hotel even identified one of the unclaimed bodies lying in Gandhi Hospital though they do not have the address of the deceased. When 17 bodies were extracted, how can one body go missing? The information we have gathered so far goes against the claims of Ashok's wife. We suspect the family seeks to make undue gains from the situation," said a police official.

To rule out all possibilities, investigating officials have now sent out the IMEI number of Ashok's dual sim phone to all service providers in order to determine if new sim cards are being used in the phone. Officials also said they would question the neighbours of Ashok's family.

Tuesday 17 July 2013

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Cops-smell-a-rat-in-missing-City-Lights-victim/articleshow/21111710.cms

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Indian relatives continue search for missing after ‘Himalayan Tsunami’

The pilgrims came seeking salvation and a place in heaven, but now their faces stare from banners and tatty flyers tacked to gates and walls of Indian villages and hill-towns.

Some are children, smiling as they pose between parents; others are elderly couples standing side-by-side looking into the camera. Many posters show groups from the same family and some offer rewards of up to 200,000 rupees ($3,340).

All carry the names of those pictured and a telephone number. All have one word in common: “Missing.”

A month ago, India’s Himalayan region of Uttarakhand was lashed by its heaviest rainfall on record, causing glacier lakes and rivers to burst their banks and inundate towns and villages.

Now authorities say there is little hope of finding alive the 5,748 people declared to be missing from the disaster, making it the deadliest ever in the mountainous region.

“Three generations of my family were there. What am I going to do now?” asked P.C. Kabra, a middle-aged civil servant searching for any sign of 15 relatives at the main police station in the hill-town of Dehradun.

Kabra, from the city of Lucknow, told how he lost contact with his family, including his mother, two brothers, sisters, their spouses and children, when the floods struck the Kedarnath Valley at the heart of the disaster.

“I last spoke to my elder brother on June 17 at 6 o’clock in the morning. He called me and was screaming, ‘There is water everywhere. We are in danger, please help us,’” said Kabra, who has been hoping against hope as he scours the area’s hospitals.

“The phone disconnected after that and I haven’t been able to get through since then,” he said, lifting black-rimmed glasses to wipe away tears.

The disaster affected not just inhabitants but the tens of thousands of devotees who flock each year on a pilgrimage to the temple towns of Kedarnath, Gangotri, Badrinath and Yamunotri.

Authorities say a significant percentage of the missing were pilgrims, like Kabra’s relatives, who came from other parts of India. Many pilgrims and residents were stranded for days but military rescuers pulled more than 100,000 of them to safety.

The flash floods and landslides washed away or damaged 5,000 roads, 200 bridges and innumerable buildings on river banks. But with many roads still blocked, some areas are only reachable by air.

The calamity was a “Himalayan tsunami” that brought death and destruction to a rugged terrain sprawling over 37,000 sq. km, said Vijay Bahuguna, chief minister of the state of Uttarakhand that suffered the brunt.

“We are not getting into the controversy whether the missing persons are dead or not,” said Bahuguna. “We are abiding by what the families of the victims say, and if they think that they haven’t come back and have no hope as well, [then] we are providing them monetary relief.”

Without a body, Indian law does not allow a person to be declared dead until seven years have elapsed, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a weekend interview.

Even so, the death toll is likely to be too low, say aid workers and people living in the disaster zone, who say more than 10,000 people were in the area when the floods struck.

Air force pilots, who were operating more than 40 helicopters at the peak of the search, have had to negotiate narrow valleys, sometimes flanked with dense forest, and unpredictable mountain weather. Two helicopters have crashed during the rescue and 20 servicemen killed.

While Bahuguna said it was still possible some of the injured had taken refuge in mountain villages cut off from telecommunications, air force officials did not think that was likely.

“Even if people had managed to climb up the mountains to avoid the deluge, there is no way they could have survived in these wild forests for a month,” said Air Commodore Rajesh Isser, who is heading air force operations.

Government officials say most deaths occurred in the narrow, 14-km Kedarnath Valley, with its temple town dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, whose role is to destroy the universe in order to re-create it.

At the time of the disaster, officials say there were about 5,000 registered inhabitants. But there are no records of the number of pilgrims and migrant workers, many from Nepal, who work in hotels, restaurants and as porters in the region.

The area is still only accessible by helicopters that have been flying in paramilitary and army personnel, medical experts and other officials trying to locate, identify and dispose of decomposing corpses buried in mounds of sludge.

Doctors have been photographing bodies, collecting any documents or personal possessions which can be used to identify them, and taking DNA samples.

But the final figures of the dead may never be known, with many bodies believed to have been carried away by the torrents and buried deep in mud and sludge.

Some relatives grieve that this will leave them no chance of performing last rites for their loved ones. The 500,000 rupees ($8,347) compensation from the government is scant comfort.

“The money is not important,” said Kabra. “It’s hard to accept that my relatives will be presumed dead. Whatever the government says, I will keep looking for them. I have to have hope, otherwise I have nothing.”

Tuesday 16 July 2013

http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/40129

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Forensic experts shed light on daunting task of recovering bodies in Lac-Megantic

Forget about the glamour suggested by such TV shows as "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and their high-tech gizmos. The most vital tools in Lac-Megantic include keen eyes, expertise and persistence.

Nothing is left to chance in the work to bring the dead back to their loved ones.

"Those poor guys are on their hands and knees, wading through soot," said Dr. Bill Inkster, an identification specialist with the British Columbia coroner's office.

"They look like 17th century coal miners by now, I'm sure, and brushing ashes (away) with paint brushes," he said in a telephone interview from Burnaby. "It's just plain hard work — meticulous, slow."

Search and rescue teams including specially trained police, firefighters and forensic anthropologists have been combing the debris in staggering heat for more than a week since Canada's worst railway disaster, so far resulting in the recovery of 37 bodies.

Of those, 11 have been identified at this point.

When searchers believe they've found remains a forensic anthropologist, such as seen in the TV show "Bones," is called in to determine it is in fact a body. Afterward, the coroner is notified so the process of removing it, then identifying it, can begin.

Crews have an array of equipment at their disposal.

Some is as simple as a basic shovel or a brush. In other cases, it can involve huge construction excavators that can gingerly pick apart buildings making it safe for search crews to enter.

A chunk of Lac-Megantic's downtown core, which was dotted with bars, stores and homes, was obliterated early on the morning of July 6 when a runaway train loaded with oil derailed and exploded.

A tense vigil has been maintained in the days since as relatives and friends await word of their loved ones, now mainly to confirm their worst fears.

"The initial search is beyond comprehension," said Inkster, who was part of the team of specialists that worked in Thailand in the wake of the 2004 tsunami.

"It's going to be incredibly complex."

The director of the forensic-science program at the University of Toronto says a carefully co-ordinated team approach is being used in Lac-Megantic.

"The approach that's going to be taken is very similar to an archeological excavation, where you go through layer by layer, sorting and screening and carefully removing each level of debris searching for the human remains that may be embedded within," Tracy Rogers said.

Rogers, who helped identify remains found at the notorious B.C. pig farm of serial killer Robert Pickton in 2002-2003, said crews working in Lac-Megantic have to proceed carefully — not just to preserve remains and evidence but to protect themselves.

"They've got toxic areas, they've got hot spots. They've got all sorts of different things they have to address that's important for the safety of the searchers. When you have something like buildings going down, you get levels and levels of debris."

While the digging goes on, other experts come at the task from a different angle.

Police, for example, build a detailed missing-person profile that looks not only at the person's description but habits, such as where they were last seen or had they frequented spots in the disaster zone such as a favourite bar.

Authorities have also urged families of the missing to provide such things as tooth and hair brushes so they could get DNA samples.

Biological samples are taken from other family members for comparison, said Inkster. Medical records are invaluable, particularly x-rays and dental records.

While DNA can be compromised, teeth "definitely tend to survive," Inkster said.

"The two things that degrade DNA quickly are exposure to water and heat," said Inkster. "(But) enamel's the hardest thing in the body."

Yet DNA can't be underestimated and can be drawn from very small samples, said Rogers.

X-rays can provide invaluable clues.

"There are parts of the skeleton that are unique to the individuals," Rogers said.

For example, she pointed to the frontal sinuses, where most sinus infection occur.

Those spaces in the bone of the forehead are particular to their owner, like a set of fingerprints. However, their use in identification would rely on matching them to an X-ray that was done when the victim was alive.

Depending on what part of the skeleton is recovered it can also reveal an age-range, sex, ancestry and height, she said, which helps add potential pieces to the puzzle.

Geographic analysis also plays a role.

Obviously clues can be drawn to a body's identity when it's found in a specific house — such as the victim's own — and when looking at a timeline of where people went and were last seen.

Another challenge in such a catastrophic scene is separating the debris from the remains.

Both scientists agreed it takes expertise to tell the difference.

"It is very difficult," Rogers said.

"Different materials burn differently, leaving different kinds of residue or appearances. Sometimes it's that experience of looking for the difference in the texture that helps signal (that) this is not charred wood."

Both experts stressed that nothing is taken for granted and when a formal identification is announced, it is only done when the coroner is 100 per cent sure.

"That's why the biological evidence is so important."

And they added that even when it's impossible to identify someone, DNA is kept on file and periodically retested in hopes that a fresh set of eyes or new technology might provide an answer.

Inkster, who with his partner helped develop Canada's first database for unidentified remains and missing persons, said the Lac-Megantic disaster is unlike anything members of the Quebec team have ever practised or expected.

He was unshakable in his confidence that they would prevail.

"They'll absolutely get the job done, one way or another," he said. "I know they will. They're just excellent people."

Tuesday 16 July 2013

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/national/Forensic+experts+shed+light+daunting+task+recovering/8664838/story.html

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Lac-Mégantic death toll climbs to 37

Quebec provincial police say they have recovered the bodies of two additional victims in Lac-Mégantic, bringing the total found to 37.

Sûreté du Québec Insp. Michel Forget said Monday that emergency crews have been searching the disaster site every day from early in the morning to sunset, working 15 minute shifts because of the extreme heat.

A combination of hot weather and heat radiating from the blast zone brought the temperature to 52 C today in certain areas where crews were digging, said Forget.

He said one emergency worker received medical treatment for a minor heat-related illness.

"The conditions were extremely difficult, but we still carried out the work," said Forget.

At a press conference, Forget said crews are searching for approximately 50 people missing and presumed dead, leaving about 13 bodies still not found.

He said they have completed their search of the site of the Musi-Café — a popular bar where many of the victims are thought to have been the night of the blast.

The Quebec coroner's office said it has confirmed the identity of another two victims and are currently notifying the families. The coroner's office spokesperson, Geneviève Guilbault, said it is impossible to know how long it will be before the bodies of the victims can be released to their families, because of the ongoing investigation.

The coroner's office says it has identified 11 victims so far.

Tuesday 16 July 2013

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/story/2013/07/15/quebec-lac-megantic-rail-disaster.html

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Search for survivors after asylum seeker boat capsizes near Christmas Island

At least two asylum-seekers are dead and grave fears are held for up to 60 others after an asylum boat carrying as many as 180 people sank north of Christmas Island as Customs and Border Protection crews were trying to assist it.

About 120 people were successfully pulled from the water in a major rescue operation by HMAS Albany and HMAS Warramunga after the vessel floundered at 7pm, AEST.

The Australian understands HMAS Albany raced to the aid of the boat, which had issued distress calls about 60-70 nautical miles north of Christmas Island.

In seas described as "rough", authorities were assisting the boat when it gradually began to sink.

It is understood Customs and Border Protection retrieved the bodies of at least two asylum-seekers and rescued about 120 people from the water.

The search and rescue operation is continuing.

The incident comes five days after nine asylum-seekers, including a one-year-old boy, died when their asylum boat sank off Christmas Island.

It was not clear what caused tonight's sinking. However, the large number of passengers suggest the boat may have been overloaded. In recent weeks, people-smugglers have been loading up their vessels with larger numbers of passengers in an apparent bid to bid to get as many customers to Australia ahead of a possible crackdown.

The latest boat emergency came as both sides of politics seized on comments by Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa about the Coalition's policy of turning back asylum-seeker boats.

The opposition's immigration spokesman, Scott Morrison, said a Coalition government would not need Indonesia's co-operation to turn back asylum-seeker boats.

"The Coalition is not seeking the agreement of Indonesia," Mr Morrison said. He added that Kevin Rudd had effectively handed Jakarta veto powers on Australia's border protection policy. Mr Morrison accused Foreign Minister Bob Carr of "standing over" his Indonesian counterpart, by using "union-style, Sussex Street-style diplomacy" to persuade him to declare on Monday night that Indonesia would not support the opposition's plan to turn back boats because that would be unilateral action.

Earlier in the day, Dr Natalegawa had indicated that Indonesia would be willing to discuss the Coalition policy.

Asked on the Ten Network late on Monday to clarify his position, Dr Natalegawa, who appeared alongside Senator Carr, responded: "Now, if I was asked whether we support or not support the push-back-the-boat policy, clearly in our perspective such a policy would constitute a unilateral type of measure that we do not support."

Mr Morrison said Dr Natalegawa was entitled to his opinion but it was not up to Indonesia to set Australia's foreign policy.

A spokesman for Senator Carr said: "Mr Morrison's suggestion is false (and) patronising and shows he has no respect for or understanding of Indonesia."

The government hopes to announce within weeks a package of border protection measures involving regional nations.

Earlier today, the Australian Navy responded to another high-seas emergency off Christmas Island as the captain of a vessel rescued after 12 hours in the ocean was delivered safely to Christmas Island.

Immigration officials on the Australian territory were preparing for a busy day of arrivals when the Australian Maritime Safety Authority's Rescue Co-ordination Centre issued a mayday call that a fishing vessel carrying 120 people was "holed and requiring immediate assistance" en route to Christmas Island. Detention facilities there have been operating above contingency capacity for weeks.

Tuesday 16 July 2013

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/two-dead-and-60-missing-as-another-boat-goes-down/story-fn59niix-1226680415495

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Jewelry, rubber bands used to identify dead

One of the women killed in flash floods and landslides in the Indian Himalayas last month was found clutching a thin rubber band with a few safety pins.

Police are using these items to help identify the woman, aged 55-60. Her body was found near Kedarnath Temple, a pilgrimage site in Uttarakhand and one of the places hardest hit by the mid-June floods.

Investigators are trying to identify nearly 200 bodies recovered from the floods. State government officials Monday said more than 5,700 people are still missing. Search and rescue operations are continuing but the missing are presumed dead.

Bodies that have been recovered have been cremated, because of lack of adequate storage, but police hope personal belongings, mostly jewelry, could provide clues about their identity. DNA samples were collected before bodies were burnt, Shashidhar Reddy, vice-chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority, told a news conference Monday.

Nilesh Anand Bharne, superintendent of police at Uttarakhand’s disaster management division, said valuables removed from the bodies of the deceased will be handed over to family members once they are identified.

Any that remain will be kept by the police for records, he added. “There’s been so much devastation. In some cases, bodies have been buried under buildings and debris and are unidentifiable,” he said. “In these cases, their ornaments and personal belongings are the way for family members to identify them.”

A new list of unidentified bodies is put online every two days, replacing previous lists.

The latest list has 18 individuals; nine men, eight women and one 12-14 year-old boy. He was about four feet 10 inches tall, had black hair and a very thin body, police said. He was found wearing a blue jacket and yellow sweater over black jeans and a blue nylon belt.

Another entry shows a photograph of two pink bracelets, a couple of rings and a black and gold nose stud. The items belonged to a female in her mid-to-late fifties who was around five foot three inches tall, according to the police. She was wearing a red sweater with white and blue stripes and a sky blue petticoat. Her body was also recovered from Kedarnath.

According to Mr. Bharne, 63 people from the overall list of 192 bodies have been identified. It was unclear how many of these identifications were a result of the list of personal effects and information on the state police website.

Tuesday 16 July 2013

http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2013/07/16/jewelry-rubber-bands-used-to-identify-dead/

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DNA test on kin of missing Andhra pilgrims

DNA testing would be the primary tool to be used for confirming whether the missing pilgrims from Andhra Pradesh were among the unidentified bodies found after floods abated in Uttarakhand.

It has been a month now since the rains and flood had devastated the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand and left thousands dead and many more missing.

Among those missing in Uttarakhand, 87 people are from Andhra Pradesh, of which 13 have been announced dead, based on the information provided by the family members and relatives, who witnessed their death.

The search for the 74 missing persons from the state had so far yielded no result.

Several thousands of people from the state went on ‘Char Dham’ pilgrimage to Uttarakhand and of them several got stranded in different parts of the state. The official figures for those, who got stranded was put at 2,800. After a mammoth rescue effort by the Army and para-military forces for nearly a fortnight, majority of the stranded pilgrims from the state were rescued and shifted back to their native places.

With deadline to locate the missing persons ending Monday, Uttarakhand government has decided to initiate the process of dispensing the ex gratia announced. However, Uttarakhand chief minister Vijay Bahuguna refused to declare the missing as dead and said the search will continue.

A higher official from the department of disaster management said that the bodies found in Uttarakhand were subjected to autopsy and the data of the DNA of each body is being cataloged. The bodies were also videographed for reference purpose.

Now, once the list of the missing persons is sent to Uttarakhand government, the officials might seek DNA sampling of the immediate family members of the missing pilgrims.

It is to confirm if the missing pilgrims from the state were among the thousands of bodies found.

‘’DNA would be the main tool used to authentically establish the identity of the person. The other means of identifying the bodies like identity marks on the person, any personal belongings found on the body, when it was found etc would also be of much help,’’ the official said.

Tuesday 16 July 2013

http://newindianexpress.com/states/andhra_pradesh/DNA-test-on-kin-of-missing-Andhra-pilgrims/2013/07/16/article1685960.ece

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Uttarakhand: Machines to dig out hundreds of buried bodies

A month has passed since Uttarakhand was swamped by the rain-flood tragedy, and hundreds of bodies and animal carcasses still lie buried under several feet of silt and rubble in the Kedarnath Valley. The authorities will now deploy machines to dig out these remnants.

State Health Minister Surinder Singh Negi told IANS Monday that the state government will use special machines to dig out the bodies buried deep in the debris in the flood-affected areas of the state.

"The machines have already been air-dropped in the Munsiyari area Sunday and will soon be dropped in the Kedar Valley as well," he said. Munsiyari is over 100 km from Kedarnath.

Negi said they have removed almost all the bodies which were lying strewn around on the surface in the aftermath of the floods, but the bodies buried in the silt are difficult to be removed.

"Since it is impossible to dig out all the bodies manually, we are using machines," he said, adding that two machines are being sent to the Kedar Valley.

Negi said inclement weather and a damaged helipad have hindered and delayed the process of airlifting the machines earlier.

"The issue we are facing in Kedarnath is bad weather. One other factor is the helipad is badly damaged and not equipped for landings as of now," the minister said.

To prevent the putrefying bodies from causing infection and spreading disease, the authorities have scattered tonnes of bleaching power in the flood-hit areas and also sprayed disinfectants, including from helicopters.

"We have also provided lakhs of fluoride tablets to people to make their drinking water safe," he said.

Negi said there have been no health issues in the affected areas so far.

"We have made efforts to ensure that there are no outbreaks of diseases," he said, adding that a team of 80 doctors from the central government is camping in the state.

The state government Monday declared 5,748 people are still missing, and that it would start disbursing compensation to the next of kin. But the government clarified that search for the missing would continue.

Monday 15 July 2013

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/1861451/report-machines-to-dig-out-hundreds-of-buried-bodies-a-month-since-the-uttarakhand-disaster

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Sichuan: Landslide victims identified by DNA

Ten victims of a landslide in Dujiangyan, Sichuan province, last Wednesday have been identified by DNA comparisons. "Medics collected 162 DNA samples from people who are looking for missing relatives and 37 DNA samples from landslide victims," said Dujiangyan's executive vice-mayor Chen Yangjie.

The landslide occurred on Wednesday in Sanxi, a village in Zhongxing, Dujiangyan, after the most severe rainstorm Dujiangyan has experienced since it began keeping meteorological records in 1954. Eight rural resorts were buried. Forty-three people perished and another 118 are missing.

"As all the bodies recovered from the site are mixed with mud and sand, it is impossible to identify them without DNA tests," said Yang Weiping, a rescuer on the scene.

Search operations have proved extremely difficult in the mountainous village as the affected area is 2 kilometers long, and contains about 1.5 million cubic meters of mud, rock and debris.

"Very often, rescuers have to use their own hands rather than excavators to dig out victims in order not to disfigure them. As roads leading to the village have been ruined, rescuers have to set up temporary bridges with ropes to transport boards on which victims' bodies lie," Yang said.

According to the Sichuan provincial department of civil affairs, the stormy weather, which started in Sichuan on July 7, has affected 15 cities and autonomous prefectures with a combined population of nearly 2.5 million.

In Wenchuan, a county ravaged by a magnitude 8.0 earthquake in 2008, all townships have been affected by the storm.

"Rainstorm-triggered floods and landslides have caused 14 deaths and 15 people are missing," said county Party chief Qing Lidong. The Wolong Nature Reserve in Wenchuan has experienced the most damage since the 2008 earthquake, in which nearly 70,000 died.

"Rainstorms have caused 38 landslides. More than 6,000 people have been affected. Roads, agriculture, communications, power and water supply facilities as well as many infrastructure facilities rebuilt after the earthquake have been damaged. Economic losses total 140 million yuan ($22.8 million)," said Zhang Hemin, chief of the administrative bureau of the Wolong Nature Reserve.

In the Wenchuan earthquake, one of the reserve's pandas died, one went missing and 13 panda dens were damaged. After the earthquake, many pandas from Wolong were transferred to the reserve's Bifengxia base in Ya'an, Sichuan. Wolong has only 10 pandas being trained for reintroduction to the wild.

"All the pandas in Wolong are safe. But the road leading to Yingxiu town in Wenchuan from Wolong has been damaged. It hinders the transportation of production materials and daily necessities to the reserve where more than 5,000 people live," Zhang said.

The pandas at the Bifengxia base are 260 km from Wolong and also safe as the mountainous base is 1,100 to 1,200 meters above sea level and the rainstorm had a minimal impact on it.

Monday 15 July 2013

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-07/15/content_16775335.htm

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Canada rail disaster official death toll hits 35

Two more bodies were found on Sunday in downtown Lac-Megantic, the Quebec town devastated when an oil tanker train derailed and exploded, bringing the body count to 35 of the 50 presumed dead.

Two damaged and unstable buildings in the disaster zone were demolished on Sunday afternoon, police added, to allow searchers safer access to the area as the search for corpses continues.

"Temperatures are very high, which slows down the operations. Three firefighters were lightly wounded on Sunday, but they were cared for on the scene," said provincial police spokesman Michel Forget.

The train, made up of 72 tanker cars loaded with crude oil, derailed in the early hours of July 6 in Lac-Megantic, a town of 6,000 near the Canada-US border. Waves of fire gutted several streets in the town centre. The disaster appears to have been caused by an engineer's failure to properly set the hand brake on the runaway, the railway's chairman said this week.

Monday 15 July 2013

http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/world/story/canada-rail-disaster-official-death-toll-hits-35-20130715

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Uttarakhand floods: When accounting for the missing is not such a disaster

The 15 officials at the missing persons cell, set up on June 27 in the wake of the disaster that swept through Uttarakhand, knew that their work was akin to looking for a needle in a haystack.

With just five phone lines, they were entrusted with the task of taking down complaints 24X7 of those missing in the rain-ravaged state and feeding them into the National Informatics Centre’s data bank. To ensure a watertight system, the cell, set up under the charge of Ajay Kumar Pradyot, secretary of youth affairs ministry, roped in several agencies, like the Integrated Child Development Services that has presence across the country.

It even referred to data from FIRs, Google Person Finder — an open source web application that provides a registry and message board for survivors, family, and loved ones affected by a natural disaster to post and search for information about each other’s status and whereabouts — Facebook, Twitter, television channels, the army as well as the Indo-Tibetan Police Force.

Soon enough, though, the team hit a wall. With information coming in by the hour from various sources, duplications began creeping in: the figure of those reported missing crossed 25,000 by July 5. This made it nearly impossible to cross-check names manually or even through established computing procedures.

That’s when software giant IBM lent a helping hand. It helped the cell programme a spreadsheet application that collated data under several parameters, like name, father’s name, spouse’s name, address, photograph and cellphone number. All agencies involved in the work were then asked to fill as much data as possible under each category.

“The idea was to quickly get figures from all places. The basic strategy was to come up with a list of persons actually missing, untraceable or dead so that beneficiaries could get their compensation. But with tonnes of data pouring in, this became difficult. Thankfully, IBM volunteered to help deduplicate,” says Pradyot.

IBM sent a team of six professionals to the cell from its various centres in India. To make the task easier, the cell gave each reported missing person a unique identity (eg UP/MC/0001) and then fed in all possible parameters in each.

The data compression technique has been a huge success. Together, the teams have helped narrow down the figure of missing persons to 5,000-6,000. The cell also opened a call centre and roped in the 108 (emergency) service to cross-check identities. So far, it has made over 10,000 calls.

Leaving nothing to chance, it simultaneously asked all mobile service providers to provide call data records of people who had made calls or sent SMSes from Uttarakhand from June 14 to June 21. Besides, it asked them to provide information of cellphones in Uttarakhand that were disconnected between June 16 and June 23.

“This mammoth exercise was, perhaps, the first in the world. The idea was to get numbers of phones that had died, establish identities of their subscribers and then connect with their families or friends to check if they had reached home.

That was difficult too since in Uttarakhand, the telecom service provider changes as one moves from one circle to another even in a day. We hope to finish the task by July 15,” assures Pradyot.

The Uttarakhand government has asked all states to furnish a list of people who went missing in the state during the deluge. Following this, the list of those presumed to be dead will be handed over to a special committee looking into compensation, which is expected to be over Rs300 crore.

Sunday 14 July 2013

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/1860799/report-uttarakhand-floods-when-accounting-for-the-missing-is-not-such-a-disaster

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11 Somalis drown in smuggler's boat tragedy

Eleven Somalis drowned and another 34 are missing after a smugglers' boat headed for Yemen capsized in the Gulf of Aden earlier this week, the UN refugee agency said on Friday.

A total of 58 passengers were on board the vessel which set sail on Saturday before capsizing in rough seas near Elayo on Wednesday. Survivors told how the three smugglers crewmen forced 22 people overboard when the boat's engine failed soon after departure, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said.

"UNHCR is deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life," the agency said in a statement.

An investigation is under way, it added. "We hope that the perpetrators will be brought to justice."

The bodies of the 11 dead were recovered on beaches around Ceelaayo village, about 30 kilometres west of the Somali port town of Bossaso.

Locals found 13 survivors, including two women and a teenage boy and girl, most of whom were treated for skin burns caused by fuel inside the boat.

Last year a record 103,000 refugees, asylum seekers and migrants crossed the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea from the Horn of Africa — mainly Somalis and Ethiopians. A reported 130 drowned.

Sunday 14 July 2013

http://somalilandsun.com/index.php/community/3327--11-somalis-drown-in-boat-tragedy

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Dead identified in Russian bus tragedy

Russian authorities say the bodies of 18 people who were killed in a horrific road accident in Moscow have been identified by their relatives.

The victims were killed, and another 20 injured, when a gravel truck collided with a commuter bus on July 13 near the village of Oznobishino close to Podolsk on the outskirts of Moscow.

Police have also opened a criminal investigation into the accident, which occurred when the gravel truck turned onto a main road and collided with the bus.

Sunday 14 July 2013

http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-bus-tragedy-dead-identified/25045898.html

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Death toll of floods in Sichuan province rises to 43, 150 missing

Floods triggered by some of the heaviest rain in decades have cut off access to several villages in central Sichuan province since early yesterday morning, trapping hundreds of people.

More than 40 people have been killed and 150 more are missing in Sichuan as a result of the floods and landslides, Xinhua reported. The southwestern province is still reeling from a major earthquake in April. Two million residents were affected as of last night, CCTV reported. Most of the deaths occurred in a landslide in Dujiangyan , where 25 more bodies were found, taking the death toll there to 43, Xinhua reported.

Downpours were blamed for a mudslide that left 100 tourists stranded in Gansu province's Wenxian county on Friday night. Another landslide killed two in Yanan city, bringing the death toll from recent storms in Shaanxi province to 23.

In Sichuan, rain and floods cut off electricity and phone lines, reported China News Service, while roads were impassable in parts of Yaan county.

At least four bridges and 13 mining sites were severely damaged across the county. More than 400 villagers were still stranded in isolated Heping village.

Rescuers did manage to reach 170 residents trapped in Mao county's Caolu village, where they had been stuck for two days, the Sichuan Daily reported.

Sunday 14 July 2013

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1282133/floods-sichuan-province-leave-40-dead-150-missing

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Five more bodies found in Lac-Megantic, raising death toll to 33

Five more bodies were recovered in Lac-Megantic, Que. Saturday as crews continue to search the area devastated by last week’s deadly train derailment.

The official death toll in the town now stands at 33, while 17 others remain missing.

Nine of the 33 dead have been identified, and authorities are expected to release some of their names soon.

“The conditions are absolutely awful, and they’ll continue to be,” Michel Forget, an investigator with Quebec’s provincial police, told reporters during a news conference on Saturday.

Forget said search crews are required to wear specialized equipment due to the toxic fumes at the crash site. He said the recovery effort is expected to continue for weeks.

Earlier Saturday, the community honoured the victims with a moment of silence.

Under clear skies, Lac-Megantic residents held a full minute of silence as the bells of the Ste-Agnes church rang 50 times at noon. That number was intended to honour the 50 individuals whose bodies have been recovered and the missing who are, by now, presumed dead.

As the bells tolled, residents gathered on the church steps with their heads bowed in silence. Some held photos of loved ones and quietly wiped away tears.

Search crews also suspended their efforts for the moment of silence.

“All worked stopped and it was a very emotional moment for them,” Forget said.

Residents of the small community of around 6,000 said the tribute comes at a critical time.

"Think of the people who are enduring this, who are in mourning," Jean-Denis Martel said, as he sat in the church on Friday. “It's good to take a moment of silence, for those with loved ones. It's not easy. It hurts bad." It’s been one week since the devastating train derailment.

On July 6, just after 1 a.m., a Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Inc. train came barrelling into Lac-Megantic, skipped the tracks and exploded into a series of massive fire balls. The 72-car train was carrying crude oil destined for New Brunswick.

The train had been parked in the nearby town of Nantes, about 12 kilometres away. It was left unattended, with the engineer at a hotel for the night.

Throughout the week, as the death toll rose each day, residents who were still missing loved ones came to the heart-breaking realization that their missing family members were likely dead.

A candlelight vigil was held Friday night on the steps of the Lac-Megantic church, despite town officials asking residents to stay home.

With much of the town’s downtown core still considered a crime scene, Quebec provincial police said they couldn’t spare the resources to monitor a large crowd or vigil.

Still, small groups of families and friends came together to mourn and find comfort in their community. "In one way or another, we're all affected," Bianca Fillion said.

West of Lac-Megantic in Montreal, a group mounted a small shrine in front of the Notre-Dame Basilica to show their support for the town.

"Solidarity,” resident Richard Lafontaine said. "We're participating in a movement of solidarity for the region and especially the town."

Vigils were also held in communities throughout Quebec including Sherbrooke, Quebec City, Trois Rivieres and Gatineau. Winnipeg also held a vigil for Lac-Megantic.

Next week, three benefit concerts are scheduled for Montreal, Quebec City and St-Georges-de-Beauce.

The past week has also seen anger building in the town as residents struggle to understand how the disaster could have happened. Quebec provincial police have cordoned off a large part of the town’s downtown as they continue their investigation. The federal Transportation Safety Board has said its own probe into the derailment will likely take months.

"This may well be the most devastating rail accident in Canadian history," board chairwoman Wendy Tadros told a news conference recently.

Sunday 14 July 2013 http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/five-more-bodies-found-in-lac-megantic-raising-death-toll-to-33-1.1365668

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18 dead as passenger bus collides with truck in Moscow

More than a dozen people were killed, including a child, and over 60 injured as a truck crashed into the side of a passenger bus in Moscow, tearing the back half off.

Russia’s Emergencies Ministry has confirmed the deaths of 18 people, with the youngest victim being a six-year old girl. Initially Moscow medical authorities reported 14 deaths, but later four of the injured died in hospitals.

At least 25 others have been taken to hospital with nearly a dozen of them in a critical condition. Two of those hospitalized include children between eight and 10 years old.

A truck carrying roadbase crushed into bus N1033, which was carrying 60 people.

Earlier reports said there were 41 passengers on board, but later the number was corrected and confirmed by Moscow's acting deputy mayor, Pyotr Birukov.

By 5:15pm local time (13:15 GMT) some of the bodies have been recovered from the mangled bus.

At least five of them have been identified, including the little girl and her 38-year-old mother. The main difficulty for rescuers is that some of the victims appeared to be buried under layers of roadbase, which spilled from the truck.

Dashcam video of the crash shows that the truck driver deliberately overtook front cars that were waiting at the intersection with the main road. He left two cars behind him, and kept moving, hitting the bus at speed. One witness told RIA Novosti that the driver was moving on the wrong side of the road.

"The KAMAZ [truck] was moving at high speed on a separate lane on his road while at the time the bus was just leaving the stop where it took on passengers. The KAMAZ could have avoided the collision, but tried to pass the bus, hit it and almost cut its back off,” one witness told RIA Novosti.

The truck driver was thrown out of the vehicle and is seen looking at the accident in shock.

Thirty ambulance crews were dispatched to the site in southern Moscow.

Helicopters with medics on board also attended the crash scene. Four helicopters were used to transport the injured.

The driver has survived the collision and was identified as a 46-year-old Armenian citizen, who was fined seven times this year alone for traffic violations, Moscow police stated. The driver is currently in a hospital being questioned by police.

The accident happened in an area referred to as “new” Moscow, as the southern suburb was recently included within the city’s borders.

Monday has been declared day of mourning in Moscow.

Saturday 13 July 2013

http://rt.com/news/bus-children-dead-moscow-050/

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