Forensic experts identify 127 victims of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17

Half of the number of victims of the Malaysia Airlines MH17 plane crash have been identified, the Dutch National Forensic Investigation Team stated through a private forum for relatives, national broadcaster NOS reported on Saturday.

In total, identities of 149 victims is now known for their relatives, which is exactly half the number of the 298 people who were on board flight MH17. Of the crash victims were 196 Dutch nationals.

On July 23, the first aircraft with remains and bodies of the victims arrived at Eindhoven Airport, followed by several other flights. The coffins were brought to the Corporal Van Oudheusden barracks in Hilversum for the identification of the victims.

The flights were part of the recovery and repatriation mission led by the Netherlands. The mission was stopped ten days ago until further notice due to the deteriorating security conditions at the crash site in eastern Ukraine.

On July 17, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, a Boeing 777 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, went down in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board. The cause of the incident remains unknown and the investigation cannot go smoothly due to the armed conflict in the region.

The forensics team of more than 100 specialists, working at a military base in Hilversum, southeast of Amsterdam, have instituted a regime of weekly updates about their own painstaking work aimed at giving names to the human remains collected so far—amid a vacuum of information about the cause of the disaster.

Remains of two more MH17 Malaysian victims identified

The remains of two more Malaysian victims have been identified by the Netherlands authorities, bringing to date 26 Malaysians identified in the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH17 tragedy.



Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Dr Wee Ka Siong said this latest development had been relayed by the Netherlands government to the Malaysian Embassy and Malaysia Airlines (MAS).

“I was informed of the matter in a meeting with our ambassador to the Netherlands Datuk Dr Fauziah Mohamad Taib and MAS Services Operation vice-president Datuk Baharom Mohd Yatim on Saturday.

“The families have also been informed. The documentation process is being carried out and will be completed as soon as possible before funeral arrangements are carried out,” Wee told Bernama here late yesterday.

“Also, both governments are working hard to ensure the remains of the two victims can be sent back quickly.”

On Aug 14, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had said the remains of 24 Malaysian victims of the MH17 tragedy had been identified by the authorities in the Netherlands, namely of 14 passengers and 10 crew.

He also said the remains of 16 of these victims, including that of a non-Malaysian, would be sent back to Kuala Lumpur in a special aircraft and expected to arrive at the KL International Airport (KLIA) at 10am Friday.

The date had also been announced as a day of national mourning and a ceremony in honour of the victims would be held on that day at the Bunga Raya Complex at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

In the meantime, Wee, who prior to this had been appointed to handle the process of managing the remains of Malaysian victims who are Buddhists, said all ashes and remains of those already identified would be collected on Thursday for the process of sending back to Kuala Lumpur.

According to Wee, continuous discussions were being held with the government of the Netherlands and updated to ensure all standard operation procedures and documentation were done correctly and smoothly.

Commenting on the presence of numerous non-Muslim heads of religions who were specially brought from Malaysia to manage the remains in the religious context, Wee said he was satisfied with the good response given to the matter.

“We do not know when the remains of more non-Muslim Malaysian victims would be placed under them after this and as such we will continue to discuss and cooperate to ensure the ceremonies run smoothly.

“We also received very good response from the Buddhist association here to voluntarily hold their own or join in the ceremonies to manage the remains.”

It is reported that the Buddhist religious head Reverend Sing Han, Tao Daozhang religious head Tan Boon Sin, Hindu religious head S. Mohanshan and Sikh religious head Sardar Harcharan Singh were specially flown from Malaysia several days ago for the management of the religious ceremonies for non-Muslim bodies in the Netherlands.

Flight MH17, carrying 298 people, including 15 crew, crashed in the Donetsk region, east of Ukraine and close to the Russian border, on July 17. The plane is believed to have been shot down.

Sunday 17 August 2014

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-08/17/c_126880260.htm

http://www.therakyatpost.com/news/2014/08/17/remains-two-mh17-malaysian-victims-identified/

continue reading

Looting of Ebola clinic in Liberia sparks fresh infection fears

A quarantine centre for suspected Ebola patients in the Liberian capital Monrovia has been attacked and looted by protesters, police say.

Liberian health officials are worried the deadly Ebola virus will spread after mattresses and sheets with suspected patients’ blood stains were stolen from a quarantine center late Saturday.

The incident happened in the densely populated West Point township on Saturday evening.

At least 20 patients who were being monitored for signs of the illness have left the centre.

Officials said blood-stained bedding looted from the centre posed a serious infection risk.

The protesters were unhappy that patients were being brought in from other parts of the capital, the assistant health minister said.

Other reports suggested the protesters believed Ebola was a hoax and wanted to force the quarantine centre to close.

The centre was set up to observe suspected Ebola patients and then transfer them to a main treatment centre if they prove positive, assistant health minister Tolbert Nyenswah told.

It is not known if those at the centre were infected with the virus, though one report suggested they had proved positive.

A senior police officer said blood-stained mattresses, beddings and medical equipment were taken from the centre.

"This is one of the stupidest things I have ever seen in my life", he said.

He said the looting spree could threaten to spread the virus to the whole of the West Point area.

Described as a slum, there are an estimated 50,000 people in the West Point neighbourhood.

The Ebola epidemic began in Guinea in February and has since spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

On Friday, the death toll rose to 1,145 after the WHO said 76 new deaths had been reported in the two days to 13 August. There have been 2,127 cases reported in total.

The attack at the Monrovia centre is seen as a major setback in the struggle to halt the outbreak

Health experts say that the key to ending the Ebola outbreak is to stop it spreading in Liberia, where ignorance about the virus is high and many people are reluctant to cooperate with medical staff.

More than 400 people have already died of Ebola in the country, according to the World Health Organization. The “looting spree,” as one police official described it, has raised concerns about the country’s ability to contain the virus.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the continent, Kenya has barred the entry of passengers traveling from certain countries in West Africa, where the virus has had a recent outbreak. The ban, effective Tuesday at midnight, applies to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Kenya Airways previously announced it would suspend flights to some of those countries.

Sunday 17 August 2014

http://time.com/3131025/ebola-looting-kenya-flights/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+timeblogs%2Ffashionweek+(TIME%3A+Fashion+Week+)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-28808832

continue reading

Nepal flooding and landslides kill scores

Thirty-three more bodies were recovered on Saturday in various districts of the mid-western region.

Mid West was hit hardest by the devastating rainfall, worst in years. Surkhet, Bardiya and Dang were greatly affected by floods and inundation.

According to our Surkhet correspondent, seven more bodies were found across the district, taking the total flood and landslide toll there to 25. As many as 119 people have gone missing.

Inspector Yogendra Hamal at District Police Office, Surkhet, said 14 of the 25 bodies were identified. He said that 2,932 people were displaced and 1,132 houses swept away. While seven school buildings were damaged 165 houses risk being swamped.

District Administration Office, Bardiya, confirmed 17 deaths and said the toll could rise. Fifteen people are out of contact. Chief District Officer Tej Prasad Poudel said more than 12,000 people were displaced and about 8,000 await rescue. He said two helicopters were used for rescue as the water level receded.

In Dang, seven people died and as many went missing while two persons were swept away by a swollen stream in Salyan. Nine and six persons are missing in Salyan and Banke districts, respectively.

The rains have damaged roads across the Himalayan country's western plains bordering India, forcing officials to use helicopters to rescue stranded people and deliver emergency supplies.

"We have found four more bodies today. We are still searching for 109 people missing," said home ministry spokesman Laxmi Prasad Dhakal.

As the weather cleared, improving visibility after three days of rain, army helicopters were able to evacuate about 20,000 people.

"We are concerned about a possible outbreak of cholera because of all the dead bodies and livestock lying underwater," Dhakal said.

Cholera is spread by eating or drinking food or water contaminated by the faeces of people infected with the disease, which can kill within hours if left untreated. It causes severe diarrhoea, vomiting and stomach cramps.

"We are on alert to make sure people don't consume contaminated water, now or after they return to their homes over the coming week," Dhakal said.

National disaster management chief Yadav Prasad Koirala said authorities had "mobilised health workers to set up camps and provide people with clean drinking water and dry food".

As water levels recede, rescuers have started moving people from their damaged homes into temporary shelters, but large areas remain submerged, preventing helicopters from landing to let workers search for those still missing, Koirala said.Villagers in Surkhet, the worst-affected district, described their horror at being awoken by news that the nearby Bheri river was overflowing early on Friday.

"My neighbours woke me up, I gathered my family and we just ran uphill to save ourselves … I didn't even have time to cut my cattle loose so they could flee," said farmer Prem Bahadur Pun.

"By morning, our house was gone, the cattle was gone, my land was gone. I have lost everything," Pun said.

About 150 people from his village managed to escape to safety by running uphill, Pun said, but many others were not as lucky. "So many people are missing … including one of my neighbours, his wife and two grandchildren," he said.

As the anxious villagers waited for help, many were already suffering from fever, though no symptoms of cholera had been observed yet, Pun said. "No one [from the government] has come here yet. Some people are getting sick … We have some medicine, but what will we do when it runs out?"

The deaths come two weeks after the worst landslide in more than a decade smashed into hamlets in the hilly north-east and killed 156 people.

Heavy rain in neighbouring India's Uttarakhand state has killed at least 24 people since Friday, reviving memories of a deluge last year that killed more than 5,000 people in the same region.

Media reports on Sunday said several districts in the northern Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh were also flooded after heavy rain near Himalayan rivers and the release of excess water from barrages in Nepal.

Sunday 17 August 2014

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/17/nepal-flooding-landslides-kill-scores

http://www.ekantipur.com/2014/08/17/top-story/33-more-bodies-found-in-mid-west-toll-63/393684.html

continue reading

Munshiganj ferry tragedy rescue operation called off: 46 bodies recovered, 61 still missing

Rescuers today called off their search operation for passenger launch Pinak-6 that went down in the Padma waters seven days ago near Mawa Launch Ghat.

Patrolling in different surrounding districts and local efforts will however continue in search for the victims who the authorities assume are no more alive.

Though the rescue operation was called off officially, the authorities decided to keep a rescue vessel, either Nirvik or Rustom, on standby.

"We have decided to call off the operation with considering all situations including bad weather. We could not identify the sunken launch yet," Deputy Commissioner of Munshiganj Saiful Hasan Badal said during a press briefing at Padma Bridge Rest House at Mawa.

"It is difficult for the divers to locate any object or the launch in the river due to the strong current," he added.

The meteorological department asked the maritime ports to hoist signal No. 3 due to the bad weather which is also one of the reasons to call off the operation, DC Hasan said.

According to the official calculations, 46 bodies of the victims have been found so far and 61 were still missing.

Of the recovered bodies, 28 were identified and 18 still remain unidentified, he said.

During the seven-day search, six vessels from the BIWTA, coast guard, the navy and fire service conducted an intensive search in around 50 square kilometres area, but could not find anything, DC Hasan said.

"And there is no possibility of getting anything from the 50 square kilometres area. So we have decided to withdraw the agencies after consulting the shipping minister and experts," he said.

Rescuers found a metallic object in the river that suspected to be of the sunken Pinak-6 but yet to identify whether it was of the sunken launch, he told reporters.

A survey vessel Kandari-2 from its side-scan sonar picked up signals of the "metallic object" on Saturday.

Beside Kandari-2, the Chittagong Port Authority earlier sent another survey vessel Jarip-10 to locate the sunken Pinak-6.

The Pinak-6 sank on August 4 with around 200 passengers onboard in the middle of the Padma river in Lauhajang upazila of Munshiganj.

A group of locals yesterday began searching the doomed launch in the mighty Padma and claimed to have “detected an object" around a kilometre off the capsize site.

They started on two boats from the accident spot around 11:00pm yesterday and moved downstream.

The object was detected around 4:00pm yesterday during a second search.

"This could be Pinak-6," Hasan told The Daily Star yesterday evening.

Around 15 people, who work for a mechanical parts shop at Mawa, tied some weight to the middle of a rope and sank it deep into the river to be dragged with the ends of the rope in two boats.

Asked whether they are doing it on their own, Hasan said the shipping minister and upazila chairman of Lauhajang had directed them to carry out the search following a meeting with the locals at Mawa terminal on Friday. He said they have done this type of work in the past.

Monday 11 August 2014

http://www.thedailystar.net/munshiganj-tragedy-rescue-operation-called-off-36662

continue reading

65 bodies from MH17 site identified

Dutch forensic experts have identified a total of 65 victims of downed flight MH17, the Dutch government said as the last of the investigators returned from eastern Ukraine.

Forty-two more victims were identified from remains taken from the crash site of the Malaysia Airlines jet, where an operation to recover body parts has been halted because of rising clashes between the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian separatists.

"Of the victims, 21 were Dutch and the other 21 another nationality," the Justice Ministry said in a statement.

"The specific nationalities of the other victims are not being revealed on the request of their countries' embassies," it added.

Forensics investigation coordinator Arie de Bruijn said on Friday that around 176 "more or less" complete bodies have arrived in The Netherlands as well as 527 other body parts.

"A team of specialists are working around the clock, but again, it could still take months before each victim has been identified," the Dutch government said.

Meanwhile, the last of the Dutch, Australian and Malaysian investigators were returning to The Netherlands, national news agency ANP reported.

The final flight of returning police investigators were expected to land at the southern city of Eindhoven late on Saturday night, including the head of the Dutch police mission in Ukraine, Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Wednesday that the search for body parts at the crash site was being suspended due to escalating violence in the area.

The Malaysia Airlines 777 exploded over Ukraine on July 17, killing all 298 on board, 193 of them Dutch.

Over 220 coffins have been flown back to the Netherlands, which is tasked with identifying the bodies.

Sunday 10 July 2014

http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0809/636173-mh17-bodies/

continue reading

Iran plane crash near Tehran kills 38 near Mehrabad

At least 38 people were killed but others survived when a small passenger plane crashed near the Iranian capital Tehran, state media reports.

The aircraft, which was heading to the eastern city of Tabas, went down after take-off in a residential area near Mehrabad airport on Sunday morning.

Passengers included at least five children, the aviation authority said.

Iran has suffered a series of plane crashes, blamed on its ageing aircraft and poor maintenance record.

Initial reports said all passengers on board the plane had been killed, but state media later reported that some passengers had been injured and transferred to hospital.

Iran is still flying planes bought before the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

International trade sanctions were imposed after the hostage crisis which followed, during which 52 Americans were held hostage in Tehran for 444 days.

Many Iranian planes are fitted with unofficial spare parts. There have been more than 200 accidents involving Iranian planes in the past 25 years, leading to more than 2,000 deaths.

Initial reports indicate the latest incident involved an Iran-140 plane carrying 48 people, including 40 passengers and eight crew.

An Iranian MP has blamed the aviation authorities for the crash, the state-run news agency Mehr reports.

Mehrdad Bauj-Lahuti, who sits on a parliamentary committee that deals with infrastructure, said officials should not have allowed the plane to fly after it suffered malfunction during test flights.

Sunday 10 July 2014

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-28730582

continue reading

Girl presumed dead in tsunami 10 years ago reunites with family

When the Indian Ocean tsunami hit a decade ago, an Indonesian family sifted through bodies believing one might have been their 4-year-old daughter, a search that finally ended this week.

Raudhatul Jannah was torn away from her family during one of the most destructive tsunamis in history and had been in the care of an elderly woman since then, according to DPA International, a German news agency.

The girl's uncle spotted her in June in an area nearly 75 miles from where she was lost.

However, there still remains a hole in the family. Older brother Arif Pratama also went missing and has not been located.

"We looked for them among bodies, of piles of bodies, but we didn't find them," father Septi Rangkuti told DPA. "After one month we resigned ourselves to the thought that they had probably died."

Raudhatul Jannah (she has no surname, common in Indonesian culture) has heard her brother lives in the Banyak Islands off the western coast of Sumatra, near the epicenter of the 9.1 magnitude earthquake that sparked the disaster.

The USGS reports is as the third-largest earthquake ever recorded.

The tsunami that hit on Boxing Day (Dec. 26) in 2004 was estimated to release energy equivalent to 23,000 atomic bombs released on Hiroshima.

It killed about 230,000 people and destroyed homes in 11 countries.

Saturday 09 July 2014

http://www.wafb.com/story/26235105/girl-presumed-dead-in-tsunami-10-years-ago-reunites-with-family

continue reading

China earthquake prompts debate on role of volunteers

Five days after an earthquake killed hundreds in southwestern China, a debate is swirling around the mob of volunteers who flooded into the disaster zone, demonstrating how the world's most-populous country continues to grapple with the role charitable groups should play in society.

After the 6.1-magnitude tremor struck the county of Ludian, in northern Yunnan province, on Sunday, thousands of volunteers rushed into affected areas, clogging roads and making it harder for authorities to send in supplies and remove the wounded. That sparked public criticism and led authorities to ramp up restrictions on private cars entering the area.

Yet some better-organized private groups have played an important part in handling unpleasant tasks such as digging survivors and the dead out of the rubble, residents and officials say. That has convinced some officials that civil-society groups and private volunteers—sometimes seen as threatening to the Communist Party, particularly when concentrating on national issues—should be encouraged to play a bigger role in relief efforts.

"Some were there the first night, pulling people out," said one member of China's People's Armed Police, who was among the first to arrive in the quake zone. "They've been a huge help."

There was still much work to be done on Friday, as the death toll rose to 617, with many more injured, according to state media. Aftershocks continued to shake the area as troops and volunteers pushed further into the mountains to help people in distant villages, while authorities began to contemplate longer-term efforts that will be needed to rebuild.

It wasn't clear on Friday exactly how many volunteers had entered Ludian. The local government official in charge of managing volunteers declined to comment.

The debate over how much leeway to give private aid groups is an important one for China. Authorities have long feared that domestic and international charitable groups could morph into political activism or foster more criticism of the government, as they have in other countries.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has led a crackdown on other parts of civil society recently, with authorities detaining or jailing dozens of activists and rights lawyers, while also ordering a nationwide investigation into foreign nongovernmental groups and their local partners which authorities worry could stir up trouble.

"The ambiguity with which Chinese authorities have faced civil society has always been profound and, of late, more evident," said Orville Schell, director of the Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations.

Yet there is also a growing recognition among many Chinese that private groups are needed to help respond to crises that stretch official resources. Although authorities have generally gotten good marks for their work in Ludian so far, experts say they may lack capacity for more-sophisticated relief such as psychological counseling or child protection.

"Our experience is that the government is starting to recognize the value-added that the NGOs can deliver," said Mike Bruce, a regional media and advocacy specialist for Plan International, a children's development group. He said provincial authorities granted Plan permission to send in an emergency response team on Monday morning, just hours after the quake occurred.

Getting official buy-in for programs in China "has been a gradual process, but that is a gradual process that has been getting better," he said.

The emergence of more-active private aid efforts in China dates back to the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, when large numbers of residents spontaneously rushed to affected areas to help. Many volunteers were critical of the government response, and of the shoddy school construction that led to thousands of deaths in the area.

They also occasionally sowed chaos, burdening limited food supplies and getting in the way of rescue efforts.

Since then, private groups have become more sophisticated, with better equipment and logistics, and in some cases have tried working more closely with public officials to smooth over tensions. Some—sporting matching uniforms so that residents will take them more seriously—are now virtually indistinguishable from the troops and police they are helping.

Authorities have also become more organized about bringing volunteers under their wings, setting up check-in centers where officials can track them and disperse information. The result is a growing number of experienced rescue groups that function at times as an extension of the government, while also serving as an outlet for the swelling numbers of Chinese who want to participate.

One such group, from northern China's Hebei province, is managed and funded by Wang Wenzhong, a former soldier who went on to make millions in the clothing business in Beijing before returning to his hometown to serve as the local Communist Party Secretary.

Mr. Wang led a team of 10, all outfitted in army surplus fatigues, into Ludian on Tuesday, bringing with him a van filled with supplies worth 30,000 yuan, or nearly $5,000. Mr. Wang, who's been to seven earthquake zones, said he has modeled his life on Lei Feng, a fictional good Samaritan soldier held up by Mao Zedong as a moral model.

"I was helped by so many others when I was younger, so this is my way of giving back," he said.

On the drive into Ludian, Mr. Wang coordinated with the local state-run TV station and officials in the county seat to determine where the group was most needed, something he said he learned to do after Sichuan. After waiting for approval to enter the quake zone, his team spent three days passing out goods they brought and helping authorities distribute medicine.

Not all volunteers have been so experienced or conscientious. Many are students visiting a disaster area for the first time. Especially in the first few days after the earthquake, a number of them wandered aimlessly around the collapsed houses, snapping selfies in front of the wreckage.

"Authorities are reacting faster and behaving more professionally," so they don't need volunteers to rush in, said Zhang Haitou, a 21-year-old college student in Beijing who called the restrictions on traffic in Ludian "a good thing."

"Some people just want to run up the mountain by themselves to dig out bodies or see what an earthquake looks like," added Liu Yan, the manager of a volunteer service stand set up by the Communist Youth League next to the government's relief headquarters. "We don't have any place for them."

Still, she said, the Communist Youth League had registered more than 3,000 volunteers willing to forgo the glamour for grunt work like bringing supplies to earthquake victims, cleaning, and cooking.

In the first 72-hours—the time when survivors are most likely to be found—volunteers need to step aside and let the government take the lead, said Gu Linsheng, executive director of Sichuan University's Institute for Disaster Management and Reconstruction.

"But in the next stage of after-disaster resettlement, more social force should come in," he said. "In regards to the distribution of goods and mental assistance, only (the) government's efforts are not enough."

Saturday 09 July 2014

http://online.wsj.com/articles/china-earthquake-prompts-debate-on-role-of-volunteers-1407527469?tesla=y&mod=rss_about_china&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304070304580079840340375952.html?mod=rss_about_china

continue reading

21 more MH17 crash victims identified,

Dutch forensics experts have identified 21 more victims of flight MH17, the government said on Friday, while their colleagues at the crash site began arriving home from east Ukraine where fighting has stopped the investigation.

Only two bodies had previously been identified. The 21 new victims are made up of 16 Dutch, including a dual British national, two Malaysians, a German, a Canadian and a Briton, the Dutch justice ministry said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Dutch forensics investigation coordinator Arie de Bruijn said around 176 "more-or-less" complete bodies had been recovered from the crash site.

Another 527 body parts have also arrived at the forensic investigators' research facility southwest of Amsterdam, De Bruijn told the ANP news agency.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Wednesday that the search for body parts at the crash site was being suspended due to escalating clashes between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists.

Two military transporters arrived in the southern Dutch city of Eindhoven on Friday, carrying 142 police experts from the Netherlands, Australia and Malaysia plus sniffer dogs.

The Malaysia Airlines 777 exploded over Ukraine on July 17, killing all 298 on board, 193 of them Dutch, with the West accusing Russia-backed separatists of shooting it down.

Over 220 coffins have been flown back to the Netherlands, which is tasked with identifying the bodies.

Saturday 09 July 2014

http://news.yahoo.com/21-more-mh17-crash-victims-identified-experts-fly-172215043.html

continue reading

123 missing presumed dead in Nepal landslide

The 123 people missing in Saturday’s massive landslide in Sindhupalchok are now considered dead and the search operation has been stopped after Wednesday.

The missing, however, cannot be officially declared dead yet, said the home ministry. The law allows the disappeared to be certified dead only after 12 years from the time of the disappearance.

“The search and rescue team will now focus solely on draining the artificial lake formed by the landslide dam,” said Yadav Prasad Koirala, joint-secretary at the ministry. The team had recovered 33 bodies from the debris before the search was halted. Koirala said that it has become impossible and even dangerous for the team to look for bodies.

“The families of those presumed dead have begun receiving 40,000 Nepalese rupees (US$406.30) per dead,” said chief district officer of Sindhupalchok Gopal Parajuli. A Nepal Army team has been trying to drain the lake for the last five days. But its plan to explode a section of the dam to widen the channel created on Saturday failed for the second consecutive day.

According to the Army, the water has been flowing into the lake at the rate of 190 cubic feet per second and is flowing out at 210 cusec. A reading on Wednesday showed that the water level of the dammed lake has been reduced by 51 cm, said Jagdish Chandra Pokharel, NA spokesperson.

The Army and disaster experts, however, are unsure what the reduction means in terms of a possible outburst. No one has information on the exact depth and volume of the lake and the strength of the dam. “To the naked eye, the volume of water on the lake seems constant,” said Dhruba Devkota, a humanitarian programme coordinator at Save the Children, an international organisation, involved in providing immediate relief to the victims. Devkota was on the site of the disaster on Wednesday.

“The dam looks strong,” he said. “But there is a new danger to upstream localities from back flooding because we can see the landmass on the hill splitting again. Another landslide could occur at the same site.” According to the ministry, the last three months alone have seen landslides and flood affect ten districts, including Sindhupalchok.

Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) evaluation report says that 1.9 kilometer long slope of land percehed 1350 meters above the Sunkoshi River.

The administration evacuated nearly 5000 people living across the banks of the Sunkoshi River. They have been shifted to higher grounds. Sindhupalchowk is 120 km (75 miles) east of Kathmandu.

Landslides are common in Nepal during the June-September monsoon season. These landslides and flooding generally claims life dozens of people die every year. According to government records, since 1967, Nepal has experience over 14 large landslides. The landslide of May 2012 killed at least 26 people when it blocked the Seti River in northwestern Nepal.

Some massive floods and landslides have been experienced by the Sunkoshi Valley in 1982, 1987, and 1996.

Friday 08 July 2014

http://www.jagranjosh.com/current-affairs/massive-landslide-struck-sindhupalchok-district-of-nepal-1407410853-1

http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=249060

continue reading

Varanasi boat capsize: 5 more bodies recovered, 7 missing

The bodies of five more persons were fished out of the Ganga river while a search was on to trace the seven others who had gone missing after a boat capsized in the river near Shooltankeshwar area.

A total of 12 bodies have been recovered so far since the boat carrying over 42 persons capsized in the Ganga river in the middle of Varanasi and Mirzapur in Betawar ghat near on Tuesday.

23 of them managed to swim to safety while 19 went missing.

"Five bodies have been recovered since last night and search is still on for the missing 7 people. A total of 12 bodies have been recovered till date," said Ashok Kanojia, SDM of Chunar town in Mirzapur.

"The five bodies recovered since last night have been identified as Rahul, Raj Kumar, Bechan, Shivpujan and Parmanand," said Kanojia. A search is still on for the missing people in Mirzapur and Varanasi district.

A team of NDRF, Jal Police and PAC flood platoon along with river divers is carrying out search operations in Varanasi and Mirzapur district. The boat, heading towards Mirzapur from Varanasi, capsized in the river on Tuesday at Betawar ghat near Shooltankeshwar area.

Friday 08 July 2014

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/varanasi-boat-capsize-5-more-bodies-recovered-7-missing/490891-3-242.html

continue reading

33 dead, 131 still missing after Bangladesh ferry capsized

The confirmed number of dead in the Bangladesh ferry disaster is climbing steadily as rescuers recover the bodies of more victims far away from the site where the vessel sank four days earlier.

"The death toll of Monday's ferry capsizal has climbed to 33 on Thursday night after more than a dozen bodies were retrieved since morning," said Kaniz Fatema, an assistant superintendent of police in central Bangladesh district Munshiganj.

She said the number of missing persons has increased to 131 as of Thursday night.

The overloaded ferry Pinak-6, with some 250 passengers on board, capsized in Padma, one of the three rivers that form the Ganges Delta, at around 11:15 a.m. local time Monday in high winds and waves amid inclement weather.

After giving up hope of getting their relative back alive, most families of the missing passengers have already started searching for floating bodies in Chandpur, Barisal, Bhola and other areas in the Bay of Bengal on their own.

A very few of the relatives were seen at the Mawa ferry terminal yesterday as the authority concerned is yet to trace the sunken launch, Pinak 6, even four days after the accident.

As over a hundred passengers still remain unaccounted for, their families started searching for missing bodies by hiring trawlers in different areas where most of the bodies were found earlier.

It was alleged that most of the bodies drifted out with the strong current in the Padma. As of yesterday, the rescuers had recovered a total of 33 bodies, mostly from other districts.

The administration yesterday recovered 12 more bodies from rivers in Bhola, Shariatpur, Barisal, Madaripur and Lakshmipur.

Relatives and locals in Mawa told the Dhaka Tribune that most of the relatives are now gathering at the Pachchar Primary School ground in Madaripur where the district administration is keeping the bodies that are recovered by rescuers.

On the school premises, several hundred relatives were seen waiting for news about their dear ones in the evening while some were holding up photos of their missing relatives.

Jahid Matubbar had lost seven of his family members and relatives, but he had found only one body that of his niece Faiza.

“They (rescuers) have recovered the body from Bhola. We do not think that they can find any more bodies. So, I have asked my relatives to go to Bhola, Barisal and Chandpur points and search for others, hiring trawlers,” he told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

He said the families of the ill-fated passengers are now waiting at Pachchar in Madaripur as they have lost their confidence in the authorities working at Mawa ferry terminal.

Ali Jabbar, who lost his wife and daughter in the accident, said: “As like today (Thursday), I used to search Chandpur area with a trawler as the lack of initiatives for rescuing the bodies taken by the authorities concerned is quite clear,” he said.

Along with Jahid and Jabbar, several hundred families were searching for bodies in different areas, including Kawrakandi in Madaripur, Naria in Shariatpur, Haimchar in Chandpur, according to Dhaka Tribune correspondents.

Madaripur Deputy Commissioner GSM Jafarullah confirmed to Dhaka Tribune that relatives were searching for bodies in the Bay of Bengal and also Shibchar area.

“We have received 23 bodies and 12 of them were handed over to their relatives after identification. Meanwhile, three other bodies were received by the relatives mid way while they were coming to Madaripur from different areas including Bhola. Relatives, who were searching for the bodies of their near ones have taken three bodies midway,” he said at 8:00 pm.

When a body was being brought to the Pachchar Primary School ground, all relatives were running to see if the body recovered was of their near and dear ones.

Meanwhile, relatives staged protests in Madaripur with the only demand of- “return the bodies of near ones”.

Shahidul Islam, a survivor of the accident who has been roaming in the area for last four days to get her relative’s body said: “I have lost my pregnant wife, Ayesha Akhter, and daughter, Sarah Moni, in the accident. How I can live without them. Please give their bodies or kill me.”

Friday 08 July 2014

http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2014/aug/08/victims%E2%80%99-families-search-bodies-their-own

continue reading

Guinea concert stampede kills 24

At least 24 people have died in a stampede at a beach concert in Conakry, the capital of Guinea, to mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The president's office has declared a week of national mourning after what it called a "tragic drama" at a concert by the Guinean rap group Instinct Killers.

Dozens of people were injured, said police sources quoted by AFP.

The concert took place on Tuesday evening on a beach in Ratoma, a northern suburb of Conakry.

The authorities were "shocked by the tragic drama caused by mass movements at a cultural event," said a statement from the president's office.

Hospital sources said there were 13 girls among the dead.

Wednesday 30 July 2014

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-28558081

continue reading

Boat capsize in padma: 12 missing victims

Rescuers have failed to locate the bodies of 12 people who went missing in a boat capsize in Padma river in Daulatpur upazila of Kushtia yesterday.

The missing people include five chilrden, reports our Kushtia correspondent.

“Among the 12 missing people, nobody was recovered till 10:30am,” Syed Belal Hossain, deputy commissioner of Kushtia told journalists on the spot.

The boat sank near a shoal that emerged recently into the middle of the river from Bairagir Char to celebrate Eid day around 3:15pm, said Ashraful Islam Sentu, boatman of the capsized boat.

Hearing hue and cry, locals rushed to the spot and rescued eight people so far while the rest were missing.

Later the divers from Khulna rushed to the spot to rescue the missing 11 people.

The five-member diver team started to search them around 9:30pm in the river near Bairagir Char where the boat capsized.

Local administration, Fire Service and Civil Defence and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) of Kushtia sectors are giving the logistic support to the rescue team.

Wednesday 30 July 2014

http://www.thedailystar.net/no-whereabouts-of-12-missing-victims-35235

continue reading

At least 20 migrants dead, dozens missing in shipwreck off Libya

More than 20 migrants have died and dozens are missing after their makeshift boat sank off the Libyan coast, the navy has said.

"A navy patrol on Monday rescued 22 clandestine migrants who were clinging to debris from their boat," spokesman Colonel Ayoub Kassem told AFP yesterday, adding that more than 20 bodies were retrieved from the water.

Survivors said some 150 people had been aboard the vessel, which sank some 100 kilometres east of the Libyan capital Tripoli.

Search operations for other possible survivors continued today.

The migrants from south of the Sahara desert had sought to reach the Italian coast or nearby Malta after crossing restive and lawless Libya.

Hundreds of would-be immigrants die in the process every year, while others are detained by Italian police once they reach the southern EU member-state's territorial waters or the islands of Sicily or Lampedusa.

This year nearly 80,000 migrants have landed in Italy so far, many more than the 2011 record of a total of 63,000, according to authorities in Rome.

Wednesday 30 July 2014

http://www.outlookindia.com/news/article/At-Least-20-Dead-Dozens-Missing-in-Shipwreck-Off-Libya/852173

continue reading

Costa Concordia: Divers begin search for missing Indian waiter

The search is on for the missing body of an Indian waiter who died while helping passengers escape from a sinking cruise liner near an Italian island in January 2012.

Russell Rebello, 33, had been ushering passengers off the doomed Costa Concordia and never made it off the ship alive.

Thirty-two people died after the Costa Concordia capsized and sank after smashing into rocks off the Italian island of Giglio on the night of Jan. 13, 2012. Two-and-a-half years since the disaster, all of the bodies have been recovered except Rebello’s.

The wrecked vessel pulled into the Italian port of Genoa on July 27 to be scrapped after a four-day journey from the disaster site, according to the Times of India.

The top priority of officials will be to begin the search for Rebello’s body, which may have been trapped in a previously inaccessible part of the ship.

Investigators are hopeful of finding his remains as the ship salvage operation has now begun in full force, added the report.

The Concordia was one of the most luxurious cruise ships to sail the ocean and had many restaurants, bars, a spa and a casino onboard. At 290 meters, it was longer than the Titanic.

Divers are now beginning the search for Rebello’s remains, which have become entombed in the ship.

According to the Daily Mail, Rebello was last seen ushering passengers to safety in rescue boats.

The ship had 4,229 passengers and crew from 70 countries, many of whom jumped into the sea as lifeboat pulleys failed.

Monday 28 July 2014

http://www.indiawest.com/news/global_indian/divers-begin-search-for-missing-indian-waiter/article_ddcb0110-1685-11e4-8b31-0019bb2963f4.html

continue reading

Air Algérie crash bodies to be brought to France

All the bodies of passengers on Air Algérie flight AH5017 are to be brought to France, President François Hollande announced after meeting families of the 54 French victims on Saturday. Burkina Faso's President Blaise Compaoré met families of Burkinabé families in Ouagadougou.

Flags throughout France will be at half-mast for three days starting Monday in a gesture of mourning for those killed when the plane crashed near Gossi in northern Mali shortly after leaving Ouagadougou for Algiers.

"As soon as possible all the bodies will be brought to France," Hollande said. "I mean all the bodies of passengers on this flight."

The families are owed solidarity, compassion and support but also the truth, the president said as French and UN investigators started examining the site of the accident.

Families in Ouagadougou told RFI they wanted to bury their loved ones.

"Each family that you see in this room desperately hopes to have the remains of their relatives to begin to mourn them," Traoré Alima said.

But that might be difficult, according to Burkina Faso General Gilbert Diendéré.

"I don't think we can reconstitute the bodies," he said. "They have been scattered, dispersed ... let's hope we can at least have the ashes."

Representatives of Burkinabé, Lebanese and French families who have visited the site agreed.

"There's not much to see," one of them, Eugène Somda told RFI. "The wreckage of the plane, small pieces, not much to recognise an airplane. Now I know where my brothers. It's pretty hard. We won't to go and find out but can we live with what we've seen. It's going to be very hard."

The rainy season in the region may also add to the investigators' problems in establishing the cause of the crash.

Monday 28 July 2014

http://allafrica.com/stories/201407280481.html

continue reading

Fighting blocks MH17 site mission

Australian Federal Police officers were forced last night by fierce fighting to delay their search of the MH17 crash site for the still-missing remains of some of those who died aboard the Malaysia Airlines jet.

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe said last night the operation was too risky to go ahead, with the Agence France Presse news agency reporting that the fighting was only 1km away from the crash site in eastern Ukraine.

“There is fighting going on. We can’t take the risk,” said ­Alexander Hug, deputy chief monitor of the OSCE special mission in Ukraine.

Earlier complex negotiations had cleared a temporary path through the war zone.

Tony Abbott had announced earlier that the unarmed police would be deployed as part of a Dutch-led international human­itarian mission.

The first team of 49 police that was to be sent to the site included 11 Australians, the Prime Minister said.

“I expect there will be considerably more on-site in coming days,’’ he said. “This is a risky mission, no doubt about that.

“But all the professional advice I have is that the safest way to conduct it is unarmed, as part of a police-led humanitarian mission. Our objective is to get in, to get cracking and to get out.”

The Australian government has also sent a group of unarmed defence force personnel to ­Europe to help with logistics and medical care.

Bill Shorten has assured the Prime Minister of Labor’s full support for the Ukraine mission.

Mr Abbott said the agreement to allow the police to carry out the search ordered by the UN had been carefully negotiated ­directly with the Ukrainian government and with the Russia-backed rebels who controlled the site, through the OSCE.

“That is absolutely critical,’’ Mr Abbott said. “Our objective is principally to recover the bodies. Our intention, under the auspic­es of local people, is to take over the site to ensure that recovery of remains can go ahead as swiftly and as ­effectively as possible.”

He said the police would stay as long as necessary to do a professional job, and that should take no longer than two to three weeks. “This is contested ground and we don’t want to be there any longer than is absolutely necessary,” he said. “Frankly, we need to be prepared to take some risks in order to do the right thing by our dead and by their grieving families.”

It is understood that debris from MH17 — believed to have been brought down on July 17 by a Russian-made surface-to-air missile with the loss of 298 lives — is scattered in five major sites covering more than 35sq km. It is about 11km long and fans out to 5km across at its widest point.

AFP Commissioner Tony Negus said there were now 190 AFP members in Europe, with all but 20 in Ukraine. Others were in The Netherlands, helping identify the bodies already flown there. The officers would be sent to the site as required, Mr Negus said.

Mr Abbott said some unarmed Defence personnel were in Europe helping with logistics. It is also believed that some Australian Defence Force medical staff are available as a standard precaution.

In Kiev, it appeared that one issue preventing the immediate full deployment of investigators has been the difficulty of finding the right people to sign off on the foreign presence. The Ukrainian government is in a dysfunctional caretaker state after its parliament was dissolved last week.

It appeared to have sent hundreds of military vehicles south to the outskirts of the eastern city of Donetsk, close to the crash site that is in the hands of the rebels, to prepare for a full-blown assault to blast the Russian-backed separatists out of the area.

Mr Abbott said the goal was to bring back the bodies of those who died, to help investigate what happened and to obtain justice as far as was humanly possible.

He said he had been advised by former ADF chief Angus Houston, who is in Ukraine, that “this is eminently doable’’.

And the Office of National Assessments security agency had told him that, while there were risks, they could be managed.

“This is a police mission. It is not a military mission,” the Prime Minister said.

Speaking to The Australian, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said that the security of Australian police in Ukraine was her only priority.

She said the mission to recover the remaining bodies from the Boeing aircraft downed on July 17 had no immediate time limit, although Prime Minister Tony Abbott wanted as quick a resolution as possible.

Ms Bishop said: “We have to remember our objective and our objective is to ensure that we have thoroughly inspected the site for any remains. And experts can tell us whether there is a point beyond which there is no point, but they haven’t told us that, so we will continue to seek to undertake this mission for as long as we have to.”

Ms Bishop has flown to Ukraine’s capital, Kiev, with the Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans to ratify a formal agreement with the Ukrainian government to allow a small contingent of Australians to bear arms to provide protection for the much larger team of international forensic experts.

The Netherlands, Australia and a small team from Malaysia are charged with sweeping the extensive crash site to collect body remains and personal possessions to return to bereaved families.

Monday 28 July 2014

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/mh17/fighting-blocks-afp-mh17-site-mission/story-fno88it0-1227003574323

continue reading

Better management of dead and missing migrants needed in Europe

As the number of migrants and asylum seekers reaching southern Europe’s shores this year continues to climb - to about 75,000 at last count - so too does the death toll from attempts to cross the Mediterranean in over-crowded, unseaworthy boats.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that more than 800 migrants have died trying to make the treacherous crossing from North Africa since the beginning of the year.

Last week alone, the bodies of 29 migrants were found in the packed hold of a fishing boat where they are thought to have been overcome by engine fumes. According to survivor accounts, 60 others who tried to escape from the suffocating hold were stabbed and thrown overboard by five fellow passengers. A day earlier, the Italian navy rescued 12 people after their rubber dinghy capsized off the coast of Libya. Another 109 who were on the boat are missing.

An unknown number of other migrants who attempt the journey disappear without a trace, their bodies presumably claimed by the sea, leaving families back home desperate for news of their loved ones that never comes.

Yafet Gibe, an Eritrean refugee living in Sudan, last heard from his wife, Brikti, who was trying to reach Europe with their 20-month-old daughter, over a month ago. She called him from Libya, the departure point for most migrants and asylum seekers trying to reach Europe, on 20 June and told him that she would be boarding a boat on 28 June. Both a friend of Gibe’s based in Libya and the smuggler who had charged US$1,600 for the journey from Sudan to Libya and another $1,700 for the Mediterranean crossing, confirmed that Brikti and her child left on the boat as planned.

But Gibe, who had planned to join his wife in Europe with their other child at a later stage, has not heard from her since and he learned that about 250 other migrants and asylum seekers travelling on the same boat have also failed to make contact with their families. The smuggler insists that they are all in an Italian prison, but as the weeks pass with no word from any of them, this seems increasingly unlikely.

“Now I’m in Sudan and there’s no one that can help me,” Gibe told IRIN over the phone from Khartoum. “Some of my friends in Europe have contacted the Red Cross and they’re checking the names of those arriving in Italy, but there’s no news.”

No system for identifying dead migrants

Currently, Europe has no centralized system for identifying the bodies of migrants, who often travel without documentation, nor for informing their families in origin countries. Where there is no dead body available to collect DNA samples and other identifying data, the task of helping families to trace missing relatives is even harder. Now there is mounting pressure from migrant and human rights advocates who argue that migrants’ families have a right to know the fate of missing relatives and European governments should be doing more to help them.

“There’s an inability to grieve when you don’t have closure; entire lives become focused on the return of a loved one and family relations can disintegrate,” said Simon Robins, a researcher with the University of York’s Centre for Applied Human Rights, who recently co-authored a briefing paper on how Europe could better deal with the migrants who die or go missing on its southern frontier.

He and his co-authors argue that “there is a humanitarian imperative and a moral and legal responsibility” to attempt to identify the bodies of dead migrants, inform their relatives and treat their bodies with dignity. However, based on research they conducted on the Greek island of Lesbos, this rarely happens. The researchers found “a gray zone where no authority assumed responsibility” for dealing with the bodies of migrants retrieved by the island’s coast guard. Nor is there any national or EU budget allocated for their burial. The result is that “unidentified migrants are hastily buried in unmarked graves” making it impossible for families to locate their remains.

“Gathering data from bodies is crucial where there is a body, but clearly a significant fraction of bodies are at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea and will never be found,” said Robins, adding that there are still ways of reconstructing who was on a boat.

Interviewing shipwreck survivors

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) interviews survivors of shipwrecks and other disasters at sea who are brought to Italian ports in an effort to compile a list of migrants whose bodies were lost or dumped at sea. The list is then passed on to the Italian authorities.

“What happens in practice is that as soon as a new shipwreck is reported, we’re immediately called by the families. We would then put them in touch with someone who was on the boat to determine if their relative was there,” explained Simona Moscarelli, a migration law expert with IOM in Rome. “In some cases, we’ve also accompanied migrants’ relatives to the police so they can report the missing.”

The shipwreck that claimed the lives of more than 350 mainly Eritrean asylum seekers off the coast of Lampedusa in October 2013 shocked the world and provided the impetus for the Italian navy’s search-and-rescue mission, Mare Nostrum, which has rescued tens of thousands of migrants since it launched. The incident was unusual in that it occurred so close to shore that divers were able to retrieve the bodies. However nine months later, more than half of those bodies remain unidentified and the families of those that have been identified are yet to be officially notified, according to the Italian Red Cross.

Local authorities have taken DNA samples from all of the bodies, but without comparison samples from close relatives (known as ante-mortem data) that would allow a match to be made, the samples have little value. The 50 percent of the bodies that have been identified were mainly as a result of linking up relatives (who called organizations like the Red Cross and IOM in the days following the tragedy) with survivors who could confirm whether or not their family members were on the boat.

Both the Red Cross and IOM have a presence in Eritrea and potentially could collect DNA samples from relatives, but according to Lourdes Penados, regional forensic advisor with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), not many of the immediate family in Eritrea have made contact and asking them to present themselves for DNA collection presents considerable diplomatic and security challenges in a country where emigrating without the permission of the state is forbidden and severely punished.

Lack of centralized databases

ICRC hosted a conference in November 2013 on the issue of how Europe’s Mediterranean countries could better manage and identify dead migrants.

“We found that the problems are similar in most of these countries,” Penados told IRIN. “There’s a lack of databases for unidentified bodies and a lack of communication between institutions at the national and regional levels.”

A number of recommendations came out of the conference, including that there be standardized practices for collecting and managing information on dead migrants and that the data be recorded in centralized databases accessible to all relevant institutions. However, Penados said progress on implementing the recommendations had so far been very slow despite the ICRC’s efforts to lobby the European Union (EU) on the issue.

“It’s a regional issue so the EU has to get involved and also allocate resources for this centralization to happen,” she said.

One of the major impediments remains the lack of any mechanism to link post-mortem data from European countries where dead migrants are found with ante-mortem data from their countries of origin all over the world.

“It’s potentially a hugely complicated logistical problem,” admitted Robins, who nevertheless argued that with sufficient political will, the obstacles could be overcome.

Andreas Kleiser of the International Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP) agreed that tracing dead migrants back to their families in various origin countries would take “a sizeable effort” but that similarly complex efforts to identify the dead in the wake of natural disasters and conflicts had yielded results.

“If you go back to the [2004] tsunami in Thailand, you had about 8,500 victims, among them many tourists from all over the globe. So you had to find the family members and get the DNA references and that was done. Interpol and national police forces cooperated to ask family members for DNA samples.

“So it can be done, but it takes a mechanism to coordinate these things and you need money.”

Last year, ICMP and IOM signed a cooperation agreement that aims to draw on ICMP’s long experience in using DNA testing to trace the missing and its sizeable database of reference and victim profiles and align this with IOM’s presence in origin countries where it could collect missing person information and DNA samples. However, concrete programmes have yet to be put in place and there is widespread agreement that leadership and funding needs to come from the EU.

“It involves EU member states and EU border protection systems,” pointed out Klesier. “It needs to be addressed at an EU-wide level and in the external relations of the EU as well.”

Monday 28 July 2014

http://www.irinnews.org/report/100403/better-management-of-dead-and-missing-migrants-needed-in-europe

continue reading

2nd 'black box' found from Air Algerie crash in Mali, French forensic experts on site

France has declared a three-day mourning period to commemorate the victims of the Air Algerie Flight 5017, French President Holland declared on Saturday.

Following a meeting with families of the victims of Air Algerie President Holland said flags across France will fly at half-mast on government buildings from Monday thru Wednesday next week, in solidarity to pay tribute to the passengers and crew who were killed on Thursday's crash. Fifty-four of the 118 victims were French nationals.

The second flight data recorder from an Air Algerie flight that crashed in Mali has been found, a spokeswoman for the U.N. mission in Mali said Saturday.

A team from the U.N. mission to Mali, known as MINUSMA, is assisting the Malian authorities, at the request of that country's government, spokeswoman Radhia Achouri said.

There were no survivors of the crash early Thursday, which took off from Burkina Faso bound for Algeria.

Accounts of the number of people on board continue to differ. Air Algerie says 117 passengers and six crew were on the plane, but France says there were 118 victims in total. The Algerian government said there were 116 passengers and six crew.

French officials say 54 of those on board were French nationals.

French President Francoise Hollande and other ministers are meeting with the families of French victims Saturday in Paris. They will brief the grieving relatives on what has been discovered so far.

The wreckage was found in what Hollande said Friday was a "disintegrated state" in Mali's Gossi region, not far from the border with Burkina Faso.

The first data recorder, or black box, was found at the crash site on Friday. The cause of the crash is not yet confirmed but weather may have been a factor.

Less than an hour into the flight, the aircraft, an MD-83, disappeared from radar after changing its flight path because of bad weather, officials said.

The U.N. mission's support includes logistics, transportation, technical and scientific expertise, as well as help securing the crash site, which is in a remote and inaccessible location.

"Our experts assists the Malians and the French in the search of the site, collecting bodies, providing body bags and in securing the site aiming to speed up the work," said Achouri.

As part of French efforts to assist, 33 French forensic experts arrived at the crash site Saturday.

Saturday 26 July 2014

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/26/world/africa/air-algerie-crash/

continue reading