Zambia: 18 die in truck accident in Mazabuka

Eighteen people have died in Mazabuka after the Monze bound Fuso fighter truck they were in rammed into Mazabuka Shoprite checkers building around 01:00 hours on Monday Morning.

The eighteen people including ten males, five females and three children died on the spot.

Both Southern Province Police Commissioner Mary Chikwanda and Mazabuka Acting District Commissioner Wilson Siadunka confirmed the death in separate interviews with ZANIS in Mazabuka.

Ms. Chikwanda says the driver of the Fuso Fighter truck Registration number ACT 2439 identified as Manuel Kabole is also among the dead .

Ms. Chikwanda says the driver of the truck lost control of the vehicle due to over speeding and careered off the road before hitting into Shoprite checkers building.

And Mr. Siadunka has disclosed that according to authorities at Mazabuka General Hospital 17 people were taken to the hospital dead while one passenger died upon arrival at the health institution.

Mr. Siadunka has further disclosed that five other passengers have been admitted to the hospital in a critical condition.

He says the hospital is planning to evacuate the five casualties who sustained broken bones to the University Teaching Hospital for specialist treatment.

Mr. Siadunka has revealed that the 23 passengers on board the Fuso truck all of whom are residents of John Laing compound in Lusaka were travelling to Lochinvar fishing camp in Monze District where they were going to buy fish.

A check by ZANIS at Mazabuka Shoprite checkers found part of the building where the truck managed to stop from completely razed with employees clearing the rabble.

The bodies of the 18 accident victims are laying in Mazabuka General hospital mortuary.

Monday 6 April 2015

http://ukzambians.co.uk/home/2015/04/06/18-die-in-a-crash/

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37 killed in Bangladesh storms

At least 37 people were killed when powerful storms swept Bangladesh at the weekend and left a trail of devastation in the northwest, officials said Monday.

Rescuers and villagers recovered the bodies of victims after the storms flattened thousands of houses, uprooted trees and electricity poles and damaged paddy fields across a large area on Saturday night and Sunday.

Nineteen people died in the northern district of Bogra, government administrator of the district Shafiqur Reza Biswas told AFP, adding that more than 100 people were injured.

"They died mostly after they were hit by falling trees or collapsed houses and walls," he said, adding that authorities have sent emergency relief to thousands of villagers.

In neighbouring Rajshahi district, at least five people were killed and 27 injured as the storm hit a large stretch of low-lying land, another administrator said.

"At least 6,960 mud and tin-built houses were completely damaged by the storm," said Mejbah Uddin Chowdhury.

In the western district of Kushtia two people died and around 100 houses were flattened on Sunday. Two died from lightning strikes as the storm hit the southern port city of Chittagong on Monday, government officials told AFP.

There were also fatalities in at least nine other districts, officials told local media, bringing the death toll to 37.

Storms known locally as Kalboishakhi often hit Bangladesh during the early summer in the lead-up to the monsoon, which usually begins about the first week of June.

Monday 6 April 2015

http://www.newsmax.com/world/asia/bangladesh-weather-storms/2015/04/06/id/636577/

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Brazil: Little help for families of the missing

Searches for missing loved ones, families say, are complicated by Sao Paulo's troubled morgues. In the last 15 years, 3,000 bodies, all identified, were buried in unmarked graves in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

ra Lucia Marchioro recalls a morgue employee clicking through photos on a computer screen until a face appeared that could have been Luiz, her 25-year-old son who had disappeared the day before. She wasn't sure, she said, because of the swelling.

"Does he have any tattoos?" Marchioro asked.

When the employee said no, the grief-stricken mother decided to continue her search at the five other government-run morgues spread across Sao Paulo. Luiz had several tattoos, so the face on the screen that made her heart twinge couldn't be him, she thought.

Little did she know, but the 60-day search ahead of her would eventually lead back to the same morgue and body. More than a year later, however, her travails have yet to end. Morgue employees called her last March to identify the body using a photo of a tattoo on the arm, but the remains had already been buried in an unmarked grave, which authorities have refused to open.

"From what [morgue employees] have told me up until today, I don't know what I should believe," Marchioro said recently.

Government officials say they don't know how many people without identification are buried each year in Sao Paulo. In the last 15 years, the bodies of 3,000 people who had identifying documents were buried in unmarked graves here, according to the state's missing persons program.

Bodies that cannot be identified or have suffered a violent death — with or without ID — are sent to the closest Forensic Institute morgue. But regardless of where the bodies end up, members of several families in Brazil's largest city expressed frustration in interviews over the lack of resources and information they ware afforded during their searches.

Bodies held at a city morgue are usually buried after 72 hours, officials say. At the coroner's office, where there is more space, authorities try to keep corpses for 10 days, according to the agency's vice director, Dr. Carlos Augusto Pasqualucci.

The city's morgues came under fire last July when a news station broadcast images of 15 bodies lying side by side on metal tables at one morgue because all 38 refrigeration units were occupied. The situation has not only taken the dignity of the dead, family members say, but could also cause a public health problem. Hospital das Clinicas, home to the University of Sao Paulo's medical school and the central coroner's office, is less than half a block away, leaving patients there susceptible to disease-carrying flies.

"There are fewer refrigeration units than necessary, there are putrid bodies kept outside these units, there are fly catchers — I don't know how they are authorized by health inspectors — that are just like an electrified wire that zaps them," said Eliana Vendramini, the prosecutor who runs the missing persons program, which is investigating conditions in the city morgues. There's nowhere for doctors [who work overtime] to sleep."

The "identified indigents" were found following an inquest by São Paulo State's Public Ministry coordinated by Eliana Vendramini, a Public Prosecutor dedicated to finding the whereabouts of missing people in São Paulo.

It took her some time to believe that the State's own funeral system may have been responsible for the "disappearance" of thousands of people in the State capital.

The State assigns corpses to unmarked graves that are not claimed by relatives after 72 hours, even if the deceased carried identification, according to State regulation created in 1993, in Luiz Antônio Fleury Filho's State administration (PMDB - Brazilian Democratic Movement Party).

The State does this without contacting the relatives, despite having information of the deceased, leaving entire families to search endlessly for their loved ones.

Burials are carried out in partnership with the Municipal Funerary Service in two cemeteries at Vila Formosa, in the east of the city - where bodies are delivered bare, in wooden boxes with cardboard lids.

The corpses used to be buried in the Dom Bosco cemetery in Perus, in the north of the city.

Cases investigated by the Public Ministry are the responsibility of the Death Verification Service (DVS) linked to the University of São Paulo's Faculty of Medicine

The service reviews cases of natural death, where there is no suspicion of violence but that require an investigation into the cause of death.

The Public Ministry wants to find out why the State government did not look for the families of the identified deceased.

Contrary to the Prosecutors, the board of the DVS understands that the law does not require the family to be contacted.

Furthermore, it states it does not have enough staff to carry out this task and that it is willing to cooperate with the Public Ministry investigation.

The Prosecutors and the DVS affirm they did not have enough information to locate the families. "However it is possible to locate the families and this is precisely what we are doing", the prosecutor said.

Vendramini also said that, as well as the Federal Constitution, which goes over "the dignity of the human person" in its first article, the Civil Code demands the service to communicate the death to the relatives, because the body belongs to the family.

"This is obvious. Do we need a law to state the obvious? Do we need a law that says: 'Do not bury an identified body without letting the family know'?", the prosecutor questioned.

Another problem is the fact that the DVS is unknown to most of the population, who look for missing relatives through the Coroner - in charge of dealing exclusively with violent deaths or unidentified bodies.

The Public Ministry wants to end unnecessary searches and put an end to burials without notice.

First of all, the Ministry is trying to find matches for the 3,000 "identified indigents" that have gone through the DSV against the list of missing persons in the State of São Paulo.

The aim is to find out how many families are still looking for relatives to notify them of the death and clear the list of missing persons.

João Rocha was in this list and his family was the first to be contacted by the prosecutor.

In the last few weeks, Folha located four more families. None were contacted by the State services and their relatives were buried in unmarked graves.

Police stations

The Public Ministry has also identified problems with the Civil Police.

According to the legislation, the police are required to register deaths before releasing the bodies to the DVS. The police also register the disappearance of a person when relatives report an occurrence at the police station.

However, in all cases reviewed by Folha, the logs of deaths or disappearances were not cross referenced, which could have put an end to many families endless search for their loved one.

Three out of five families contacted by Folha who reported relatives or friends missing said they were ignorant of the existence of the DVS, stating this reason for not requesting the service. In these cases, relatives were either still looking or had already given up.

In one case the relative had also passed away. In another, a daughter found her father 20 days after his death, buried in an unmarked grave.

She even resorted to the help of a Pai-de-Santo - an Afro-Brazilian priest that evokes deities during rituals - to find her father.

There are still an unknown number of identified people buried in unmarked graves by the Coroner's Office that were victims of violence or accidents.

Database

Vendramini has been working to help the families of missing people since she started the program in November 2013. There were 13,068 open cases that year. The program also assists in identifying bodies that haven't been claimed.

The biggest problem, she says, is the lack of communication among organizations involved in finding missing people. There is no way, for example, to cross-reference information held by different entities, including the six city morgues, the coroner's office, the police department and other organizations. She and her team are working on a database, scheduled to be ready in July, so that the agencies can share information.

For Marchioro, it's too late. Several of her questions are still unanswered, she says: Why didn't the morgue employee show her photos of her son's tattoos? Why was Luiz buried in an unmarked grave in Perus, a cemetery known for mass burials an hour north of the city center, 19 days after he was found when the standard is 72 hours? What happened to his body during those extra 16 days?

The treatment of bodies buried at the Perus cemetery, also known as Dom Bosco, has come into question, with one report of a casket falling open as it was tossed into a shallow grave. The city police's organized-crime unit is also investigating whether organs were illegally taken from unidentified bodies at the coroner's office to sell to medical researchers.

Marchioro says she wonders whether any of indignities could have happened to her son's body, which still lies in an unmarked grave in Perus. Government officials have refused to let Marchioro exhume the body and transfer it to the family plot.

"I'll truly believe that is my son they buried there the day they let me have him back," she said.

Vendramini hopes her work can help prevent future mistakes.

"Everyone wants to work together. But when it comes to the past, no one wants to take responsibility," Vendramini said. "We have to care. We should care. One day it could be any one of us."

Monday 6 April 2015

http://www.latimes.com/world/brazil/la-fg-ff-brazil-indigents-20150405-story.html

http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/saopaulo/2014/04/1443680-3000-people-have-been-buried-in-unmarked-graves-in-the-state-of-sao-paulo-even-though-they-were-identified.shtml

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Bulgaria marks 11 years since Lim tragedy

On Saturday, April 4, Bulgaria marks 11 years since the tragic incident in the Lim River.

On April 4, 2004, 12 Bulgarian kids died in a heavy road accident of a tourist passenger’s bus, which fell down in the Lim River.

At around 10 p.m. the bus slips on the slippery road Prijepolje and Bijelo Polje and falls down into a 40-meter canyon at the border between Serbia and Montenegro, in the deep water of the Lim River.

The bus was transporting a group of schoolchildren from the Bulgarian town of Svishtov.

According to information of the Svishtov mayor’s administration, there were 41 schoolchildren aged 12-19, seven teachers, one guide and 2 drivers travelling in the bus.

The rescue operations were joined by policemen and firemen from Prijepolje and Bijelo Polje, as well as by many local residents from the village of Gostun.

12 kids died in the crash, while 22 of the rescued were hospitalised in Prijepolje and 17 were sent to a hotel in Bijelo Polje.

The bodies of two of the victims were missing for about a month. They were found by divers on April 25 and May 4.

Every year on this day the parents of the victims gather at the cemetery in the town of Svishtov to commemorate the children, while the Angels from Lim Foundation organises different events to raise awareness and sent a message to the drivers and institutions in charge of the road safety.

Monday 6 April 2015

http://www.focus-fen.net/news/2015/04/05/368580/bulgaria-marks-11-years-since-lim-tragedy-roundup.html

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Sewol tragedy: Grieving parents of Korean ferry victims start long march to mark anniversary

Newly shaven-headed and clad in white mourning robes the grieving parents of the victims of last year’s Sewol ferry disaster began a marathon march today to press for an independent inquiry into the tragedy.

More than 200 people are participating in the march from Ansan city to the capital Seoul, mostly the parents of the 250 students from the same high school who perished when the overloaded ferry sank off the southern island of Jindo on April 16.

With the first anniversary of the tragedy drawing near, the 35 kilometre march is being held to call for the sunken ferry to be brought to the surface to recover those bodies still unaccounted for.

The marchers started off from a public park in Ansan where a giant altar to the victims, complete with their black-ribboned portraits and flowers, has been in place over the past year.

Some wept as they set off carrying pictures of their daughters and sons. Before the march started, many parents shaved their heads in a show of grief and determination.

They chanted slogans and held banners alleging that the government was “insulting” victims’ families by “waving money under their noses” instead of seeking to ensure a thorough and independent investigation.

Over the past year, families have repeatedly staged street protests and sit-ins, demanding a meeting with President Park Geun-Hye and urging her to deliver on her promise to continue the search for those still missing.

“Almost a year has passed since the tragedy but the president has not delivered on her promise. We are going to Seoul to hear from her”, said Chun Myeong-Sun, a representative of the families.

The accident—blamed by many on regulatory failings, official incompetence and the ship’s illegal redesign—prompted Park to vow a complete overhaul of national safety standards.

Following months of political bickering, the South Korean parliament passed a bill in November initiating an independent investigation into the sinking.

But relatives have accused the government of seeking to hamper the probe and contain any political fallout by appointing government officials to key posts in the 17-member inquiry committee.

Committee chairman Lee Suk-Tae—one of the members nominated by the families—said this week that the government, which should be the very subject of the investigation, was seeking to lead the committee, something he labelled “unacceptable.”

More than 50 people have been put on trial on charges linked to the sinking, including 15 crew members—who were among the first to climb into lifeboats.

The Sewol’s captain was jailed in November for 36 years for gross negligence and dereliction of duty, while three other senior crew members were sentenced to jail terms of between 15 and 30 years.

The families plan to hold a candle-lit vigil when the protest march arrives in Seoul tomorrow.

Saturday 4 April 2015

http://www.themalaymailonline.com/world/article/sewol-tragedy-grieving-parents-of-korean-ferry-victims-start-long-march-to

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Germanwings flight 9525: 150 DNA profiles isolated

Brice Robin, the Marseilles prosecutor, said forensic scientists have isolated 150 DNA profiles from more than 2,000 samples collected at the crash site. These must now be compared to samples submitted by family members.

But it will take a long time for investigators to match the remains with DNA taken from families of the victims, the Associated Press reported.

More than 2,800 body parts have been found at the crash site, said Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin.

For these results, the investigators had to conduct DNA tests, imaging and 3D scanning all the pieces of the body they found while collecting DNA from the victim items such as jewelry, table cover, razors even the hairs found at the scene.

Saturday 4 April 2015

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/germanwings-disaster-body-parts-150-victims-terrible-accident-have-been-identified-1494826

http://dantri.com.vn/the-gioi/nhan-dien-xong-2800-manh-thi-the-cua-nan-nhan-germanwings-1054770.htm

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Search operation for Russian trawler crew continues

Russian rescuers continued to search Friday for 13 crew members still missing from the trawler that sank in icy waters near Russia's Kamchatka peninsula earlier this week.

According to Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry, 56 people died when the trawler Dalniy Vostok sank Tuesday in the Sea of Okhotsk. Sixty-three crew members were rescued.

The ship's crew of 132 included 78 Russians. Another 42 were from Myanmar and the rest from Ukraine, Lithuania and Vanuatu.

U Aung Kyaw Moe, an official with Myanmar's embassy in Moscow, told the Voice of America’s Burmese Service that 22 Burmese crew members were rescued, according to Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry.

However, he said the Russian authorities did not know exactly how many Burmese crew members were missing or dead.

He also said that the process of identifying the bodies of those who died would take time, since rescue ships are not expected at the remote site of the wreck until Monday.

More than a dozen of local fishing vessels and some 2,000 people are involved in the rescue operation, Russian emergency services said.

The cause of the accident remains unknown, although officials said the ship may have hit an object in the water.

Russia's Investigative Committee has begun a probe into possible safety violations on board the ship, which sank in about 15 minutes and did not send a distress signal.

Saturday 4 April 2015

http://www.voanews.com/content/search-operation-for-russian-trawler-crew-continues/2705649.html

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Buriganga trawler capsize toll rises to 16

Divers have found five more bodies from the Buriganga River on Saturday.

This takes the death toll in Thursday’s trawler capsize near Dhaka’s Keraniganj to 16.

Fire service officials say the rescue operation will continue on Saturdaythough it is not clear if any more are reported missing.

Narayanganj Fire Service Assistant Director Md Momtaz Uddin said that five bodies were found after their divers resumed rescue operations on Saturday morning.

Two of the victims, hailing from Dhaka’s Lalbagh area, have been identified.

The other three are between 20 and 25 years of age.

A trawler, with nearly 80 passengers on board, capsized on Thursday after it was hit by a sand-laden cargo vessel near Narayanganj.

Keraniganj Police’s Inspector Abu Siddique said the trawler started for Dhaka from Chandpur’s Matlab Upazila.

It sank around 12:45pm at Aliganj of Keraniganj.

Most of the passengers managed to swim across the banks with the help of locals, but some were believed to be missing, said Inspector Siddique.

Naraynganj’s Deputy Commissioner Anisur Rahman Mia said Fatulla police and coastguards were conducting the rescue operations.

Eight bodies were recovered until Thursday evening and three more were found on Friday.

Saturday 4 April 2015

http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2015/04/04/buriganga-trawler-capsize-toll-rises-to-16

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Germanwings plane crash: Investigators finish recovering body parts from the site

Investigators have finished retrieving bodies from the site of the Germanwings crash in the French Alps, where 150 passengers and crew were killed.

The recovery project has been an arduous process as the plane hit the Alps at 430mph, meaning not a single body was found intact and some remains were buried below the ground by the force of impact.

A team of hundreds have been sifting through the pieces of wreckage to find even the tiniest remains, such as a shred of skin, in the hope of DNA matching them to the passengers, crew and pilots. By Friday, up to 600 remains had been found.

Dental and surgical records, tattoos, DNA from hair or toothbrushes will also be used to identify victims of the air disaster, which is believed to have occurred when co-pilot Andreas Lubitz descended the Airbus A320 into a mountain.

The cockpit voice recorder was recovered shortly after the crash, but the second black box has still not been found.

Francois Daoust, head of the France's IRCGN national criminal laboratory in Pontoise, said forensic teams based at the crash site and in Paris had isolated 78 distinct DNA profiles from the hundreds of samples recovered at the site, leaving 72 people unaccounted for.

Mr Daoust said the process of identification could take between two and four months. He said all the families will be informed at the same time who has been identified.

"If I announced an identification as soon as I had it to a family, psychologically it's an oppression and a pressure on those that don't yet have an identification," he added.

A special unit of mountain troops, with help from German investigators, is now clearing the crash site of debris and personal effects left strewn across the mountains.

Germanwings Thomas Winkelmann, left, and Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr visited the crash site on Wednesday Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr and the head of its low-cost airline Germanwings, Thomas Winkelmann, visited the crash site on Wednesday.

Thursday 2 April 2015

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/germanwings-plane-crash-investigators-finish-recovering-body-parts-from-the-site-10150765.html

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Russian trawler sinks off Kamchatka with 54 dead

A Russian trawler has sunk off the Kamchatka peninsula, with 54 sailors so far confirmed dead.

Sixty-three people have been rescued, many suffering from hypothermia, according to officials in Russia's Far East, but 15 are reported missing.

The Dalniy Vostok freezer trawler had 132 people on board when it sank.

Seventy-eight of those on board were Russian and 42 were from Myanmar. The remainder were from Vanuatu, Latvia and Ukraine.

The Dalniy Vostok went down in the Sea of Okhotsk, 330 km (205 miles) west of Krutogorovsky settlement, at around 06:30 local time (20:30 GMT Wednesday).

The captain was reported to be among the dead.

"The rescue operation is going on, we are still looking for 15 people," Viktor Klepikov, coordinating captain of the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky maritime rescue coordination centre, told Reuters news agency.

A captain of one of the 26 rescue ships taking part in the search said weather conditions were poor when the trawler went down, with snow, wind and waves of up to three metres (10ft) high. The water temperature was around freezing (32F).

A spokesman said survival in such waters was possible for up to 20 minutes.

"At this time we do not know what might have caused the tragedy."

Water flooded the engine compartment and the trawler then sank within 15 minutes, a local branch of the Russian Emergencies Ministry said.

The most likely theory, according to Russian investigators, is that the trawler may have hit some sort of obstacle because of damage near its engine room.

Emergency services suggested that drifting ice may have holed the vessel.

But a senior official in Kamchatka was quoted by Tass news agency as saying the boat foundered while trawling a 100-tonne dragnet.

Sergei Khabarov said that safety rules might have been flouted with cargo limits being exceeded.

The ship did not send out a distress call before sinking, according to local media.

The 15 people who are still missing are thought to have been in the ship's hold as the trawler sank, reported Tass.

Thursday 2 April 2015

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32157040

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15 bodies recovered from landslide in Kashmir

Emergency workers in Indian Kashmir have recovered 15 bodies, including that of a three-week-old baby, after a landslide triggered by heavy rains buried several houses.

The baby was found in his mother’s lap under tonnes of mud, police said Tuesday, as the grim task of searching for bodies continued.

The victims all belonged to two families who after the rains had moved into what they thought was the stronger of two houses in Ladden village, 35 kilometres west of Kashmir’s main city Srinagar.

“We have recovered 15 bodies. Efforts are on to find a missing boy who was also in the house,” local superintendent of police Fayaz Ahmed Lone told AFP.

He said a sole survivor of the landslide had refused to leave his house, and was now “so shocked that he is not able to talk”.

Monday’s landslide hit as authorities issued a flood warning for Kashmir after the River Jhelum which runs through Srinagar rose above the danger level.

Homes in Srinagar were flooded for the second time in less than a year, and one man was washed away when he tried to cross a flash flood in his car elsewhere in the state.

With more rain forecast in the next three days, authorities said the danger was not over.

The state’s top official Gazanfar Hussain said the river level was falling in most parts of the region but lakes downstream were already full, posing a possible flood danger.

Memories are still fresh of the devastating floods that hit Kashmir last September, killing hundreds.

Tens of thousands of people were left stranded when floods and landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains devastated parts of Kashmir and Pakistan’s neighbouring Punjab province.

On the Indian side of the border alone, the floods killed around 300 people, left thousands more homeless and destroyed property and infrastructure worth an estimated $16 billion.

Some Srinagar residents have accused authorities of not doing enough to prevent a repeat of that disaster, which many said was exacerbated by the state government’s failure to prepare for flooding.

On Tuesday police said a special team set up to deal with the floods had received 30,000 calls and messages, while plans had been put in place to evacuate people from Srinagar.

Relief camps have been set up in the city, which was severely hit by the 2014 flood disaster.

Many shops remained shut in Srinagar on Tuesday, while traders in the main commercial district had moved their goods to safer places.

The latest floods have largely spared Pakistan.

Akram Sohail, chairman of the Disaster Management Authority in the Pakistan-administered section of Kashmir, said it had issued warnings not to get too close to the river.

“We have also issued an alert for a further rise in water level because of heavy rains and flooding on the Indian side,” he told AFP.

Wednesday 01 April 2015

http://gulfnews.com/news/asia/india/15-bodies-recovered-from-landslide-in-kashmir-1.1482801

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Israeli search and rescue team heads to Germanwings crash site

An Israeli search and rescue unit has flown to the scene of the Germanwings plane crash disaster in the French Alps to assist in the mission to recover victims.

The delegation of eight ZAKA International rescue unit volunteers flew in the early hours of Monday morning, and will arrive later that day.

ZAKA is a voluntary organisation that specialises in search and rescue operations.

Lufthansa, the parent company of Germanwings, agreed to the request of the family of Israeli victim, Eyal Baum, to bring ZAKA from Israel.

They will look to recover and identify the remains of victims, including Eyal Baum, who it is hoped will be given a full Jewish burial in Israel.

The delegation will be led by ZAKA International Rescue Unit head Mati Goldstein and ZAKA International Rescue Unit Chief of Operations Chaim Weingarten.

Monday 30 March 2015

http://www.jewishnews.co.uk/israeli-search-and-rescue-team-heads-to-germanwings-crash-site/

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Painstaking search for bodies of 2,600 soldiers buried alive in Second World War caves gets underway

A painstaking operation to recover the bodies of thousands of soldiers left sealed in caves since the Second World War is underway.

More than 2,600 Japanese troops are believed to have been entombed in explosive-ridden underground networks on a remote coral island in the Pacific nation of Palau.

Local and Japanese archaeologists, guided by munitions experts, have begun a delicate search of about 200 sealed caves, which are littered with unexploded bombs.

The soldiers were trapped underground during heavy bombing as US forces invaded the six-mile long island to take a strategic air field in one of the deadliest battles of the war.

Japanese forces used the caves as a base to defend the island and connected the underground shelters with a network of tunnels and passageways.

More than 10,000 Japanese troops were killed during the ten-week invasion but the bodies of 2,600 were never recovered.

Palau officials have now agreed to open about 200 sealed caves to try and locate the remains ahead of a visit early next month by Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Gaining access to the caves, located in thick forest littered with explosives, is proving difficult and experts took five days to break into just a small seven-foot opening last week.

But archaeologists have already recovered a set of bones which are believed to be human and are due to be sent to Japan for testing.

"They found some bones while they were clearing the entrance of the cave," Bernadette Carreon, a local journalist, told ABC Radio. "They did not use heavy equipment because they have to make it clear of heavy ordnance. When it's clear, the archaeologists can go in and start bone collection."

Families of the missing soldiers have sent representatives to assist with the search and officials in Palau have worked closely with Japan in the past to return any discovered remains home.

Sachio Kageyama, from a group representing families and fellow soldiers of those who fought on the island, told The Japan Times: "I hope the forthcoming visit by the emperor will pave the way for [further] collection of remains."

Experts searching for the missing soldiers are also hoping to locate a long-lost mass grave on the western side of the island.

Documents indicating its location were found in a US naval museum two years ago, including a map pointing to a "Japanese cemetery" in the centre of the island.

US officials have also been searching coral reefs, lagoons and islands surrounding Palau for planes that were lost in the bloody conflict.

Monday 30 March 2015

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/painstaking-search-bodies-2600-soldiers-5424638

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Flood in J&K: 8 bodies recovered from Budgam District; rescue operation intensified

After battling massive floods last September, Jammu & Kashmir once again finds itself submerged as heavy rainfall lashed several parts of the state causing deaths and destruction. To make matters worse, the water level in river Jhelum has crossed the danger mark in Srinagar and Sangam region.

Eight dead bodies were recovered from Budgam district even as the state government has intensified the rescue operation in the flood-hit regions of Jammu & Kashmir. Over 21 people are still missing and the state authorities have very little hopes of finding them alive, according to an ANI report.

Two houses at Chadoora area in Kashmir's Budgam district have sunk into the ground and 16 people are feared trapped inside them, Hindustan Times reported.

Following the heavy rainfall on Friday that continued till Sunday, the water level in Jhelum at 6am crossed the danger level of 21 feet at Sangam and reached the 22.4-ft mark. In Ram Munshi Bagh, the water level has reached 18.8 ft against the danger mark of 18 ft, a senior official said, according to PTI.

The state administration has evacuated people living on the banks of river Jhelum and in the view of the increasing water level, residents of low-lying areas have been asked to move to safer places.

Though the rain has subsided since Monday morning, an alert has been sounded as in the eventuality of water level crossing the 23-ft mark, massive rescue and evacuation operation will be required, a government spokesperson said.

Two teams of at least 100 personnel, 50 each, of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed in Srinagar. Flood relief camps are also being set up in the affected areas.

"The administration is on full alert following heavy rains in the Valley and the situation is being monitored continuously," deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh told the J&K Assembly. Chief minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed visited Srinagar on Sunday and will again pay a visit to the affected regions to monitor the situation.

The rainfall had earlier caused massive damage in parts of the state. At least 44 structures, including 26 residential buildings, were destroyed. The heavy unseasonal downpour has worst affected the farmers, who have suffered immense loss of winter crops.

Last September, more than 200 people were killed and over 300 villages were submerged in flood water while several thousands were affected.

Monday 30 March 2015

http://www.ibtimes.co.in/flood-jk-river-jhelum-crosses-danger-mark-srinagar-627584

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Searchers make roadway to remote France air crash web site

French investigators hope to speed up identification of the 150 individuals killed in last week's Germanwings plane crash by digging a roadtrack that will enable direct access to the disaster zone higher on a remote Alpine mountainside.

Earthmovers are ploughing a track to the remote crash region that really should be completed by Tuesday or Wednesday, stated Xavier Vialenc, spokesman for 350 military police involved in the search for bodies and components of the pulverized Airbus A320.

"We'll get some time with that," stated Vialenc, adding that physique parts with 78 diverse DNA prints had so far been found.

Up to now, a group of about 15 military police with the process of combing by way of debris have had to be helicoptered into the rocky Alpine ravine or make their way there on foot, but bad weather has hampered helicopter drops, slowing the approach.

Bad weather has halted helicopter flights to the site, forcing investigators to get there on foot.

An access road to the remote site is being dug by a bulldozer to provide all-terrain vehicles with access to the area and could be completed by Monday evening.

An improved route will help investigators bring heavier recovery equipment to the scene.

Vialenc confirmed that the second of the plane's "black box" flight recorders had yet to be found. They hope that will build on the facts from a 1st flight recorder that has led judicial investigators to think the plane was deliberately driven into the mountainside by co-pilot Andreas Lubitz.

All 150 on board, largely German and Spanish, have been killed in the March 24 crash of the plane that was flying from Barcelona to Duesseldorf.

As investigators continued their search, staff from German airline Lufthansa and its Germanwings low-price subsidiary had been deployed to assistance 325 relatives of victims who are getting housed at a hotel in the southern French port city of Marseille, from exactly where they can be ferried closer to the disaster zone.

Monday 30 March 2015

http://www.sentryreview.com/politics/reuters-news-searchers-make-roadway-to-remote-france-air-crash-web-site-h8340.html

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Şanlıurfa traffic pile-up leaves 12 dead, 11 injured

A traffic accident involving a minibus, a car and a concrete mixer truck killed 12 people and injured 11 others in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa on Sunday.

The accident took place on the Şanlıurfa-Akçakale Highway, with heavy fog and rain negatively affecting driving conditions. A minibus reportedly changed lanes without warning and crashed into a concrete mixer coming from the opposite direction. A car travelling behind the concrete mixer then smashed into the collided vehicles.

A total of 12 people were killed and six others critically injured. Four Syrian nationals were reported to be among the casualties, in addition to young children. The injured were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment, while the bodies of those killed were taken to the morgue of the Şanlıurfa Council of Forensic Medicine, where autopsies will be carried out.

Deadly traffic accidents are a common occurrence on Turkey's highways. In the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri, a bus crash recently claimed the lives of 21 passengers and injured nearly 30 others.

A report released by the National Police Department's Road Services Directorate in late December revealed that at least 3,253 people died at the scene of road accidents in Turkey while 262,193 were injured and taken to hospital between January and November of 2014. During this period, a total of 343,855 accidents occurred due to drivers not following traffic laws, according to the report.

The report also says that in urban areas, on average 28,301 road accidents occurred per month, of which an average of 146 people died at the scene of the accident and 17,794 were taken to hospital for treatment.

The death toll for the number of people who died despite being taken to hospital was not included in the statistics but is estimated to exceed 5,000 per month. According to the report, the main cause of road accidents is driver error. Drivers were estimated to be at fault in 130,522 accidents, while 15,729 accidents were caused by pedestrians.

Sunday 29 March 2015

http://www.todayszaman.com/national_sanliurfa-traffic-pile-up-leaves-12-dead-11-injured_376627.html

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Germanwings Flight 4U9525: more on the forensic identification effort

A leading professor who is helping to identify the 600 body parts belonging to the victims of the doomed Germanwings flight says he will be haunted forever by the grim task - as it was revealed the remains of killer co-pilot Andreas Lubitz have already been found.

Professor Michael Tsokos, Germany's most prestigious forensic scientist, said experts are working around the clock to identify the remains of the 150 passengers and crew who were killed when Lubitz deliberately flew the Airbus A320 into the French Alps.

Investigators at the Germanwings crash site have so far retrieved about 600 body parts and have managed to isolate 78 distinct DNA strands from the remains.

Mr Tsokos admitted that Lubitz's remains were among those which had been found and said DNA testing had confirmed the body parts were his. It is hoped his remains may provide clues on any medical treatment he was receiving.

Scientists are now continuing the grim and gruelling task of identifying the rest of the remains which involves photographing and 3D scanning each and every body part.



Police have asked friends and families of the deceased to provide DNA samples and experts hope to match them against the remains and material objects found at the crash site.

Items with vital traces of DNA, such as toothbrushes, razors, jewellery and hair have been collected from the scene and given to scientists at a laboratory in Barcelona. Forensic officers have also been testing samples at a mobile laboratory in Seyne-les-Alpes - the nearest town to the crash site.

It is hoped the findings will provide some clues which will help identify the victims.

Families are also being asked if they can remember what clothes their loved ones were wearing when they boarded the ill-fated flight, in the hope the details could help with the identification process.

They have also been asked about any distinctive marks, such as tattoos, their loves ones might have as well as their dental status and whether they wore dentures.



Mr Tsokos, director of the Institute of legal medicine and forensic sciences, said it is hoped such findings will help identify the remains which will then be cross-examined with the flight's passenger list.

He said each body part would be photographed and scanned in 3D before being placed in a morgue. Once the body has been identified it will be placed in a closed coffin ready for a funeral.

He told German newspaper Bild: 'Radiologists with mobile devices will take CT images of body parts, so as to recognise for example, medically-implanted foreign bodies such as a pacemaker or artificial hip joints.

'Specially trained forensic scientists take [samples] of fingers and palms fingerprints and everything is photographed. 'Every little piece of fabric will be tested on the DNA so that it can be assigned to a particular person.'

He said that within the next three weeks, up to 95 per cent of all victims should be identified. But, he added that it was a haunting task for experts, saying: 'These images will never go out of my head.'

And he said the bodies will strictly be kept in closed coffins because the 'sight of battered corpses can inflict on anyone'. It comes as guards continue to keep 24-hour watch at the crash site, with teams sleeping on the mountainside overnight.



The guards have been on standby at the scene in the province in the southern French Alps since the flight crashed on Tuesday. Philippe Thomy, deputy chief of the High Mountain Gendarmerie, said: 'We sleep next to a cemetery for 150 people.'

Prosecutor Brice Robin revealed today that an access road was currently being built for all-terrain vehicles to reach the site to help with the removal of large parts of the plane.

Mr Robin said the operation could be completed by Monday night, with all body parts and remains being removed from the site within the next seven days.

Sunday 29 March 2015

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3016622/The-hellish-task-identifying-149-victims-600-body-parts-removed-site-emerges-killer-pilot-s-remains-found.html

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More flight MH17 victims' remains flown to Netherlands for burial

Three coffins carrying victim's remains from the MH17 disaster have been flown from Ukraine to the Netherlands. A farewell ceremony including a guard of honour was held in Kharkiv on Saturday, before the Royal Netherlands Air Force plane took off, bound for Eindhoven. Representatives from the Australian and Dutch embassies attended the ceremony.

More wreckage of the Boeing 777 has been found at the crash site by investigators, who are arranging to transport it by road to the Netherlands.

"As of today, we have identified 296 bodies from all 298 people onboard meaning it is one of the highest numbers in the history of this kind of identification".

Flight MH17 was en-route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17 last year, when the plane was hit by a missile fired from territory controlled by Russian-backed militants. All 298 onboard died. Officials thanked the Kharkiv authorities for helping transfer the bodies.

Sunday 29 March 2015

http://uatoday.tv/politics/more-flight-mh17-victims-remains-flown-to-netherlands-for-burial-418214.html

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12 bodies recovered in Indonesia landslide

Rescuers have found 12 bodies after a landslide hit Sukabumi district in Indonesia's West Java province on Saturday night, an Indonesian official said on Sunday.

Soldiers, volunteers and policemen were engaged in searching for the missing people under the debris of the damaged houses. With the discovery of all the victims, the operation was terminated, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesperson of the national disaster management agency.

"All the 12 bodies have been found," Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.

Heavy downpour triggered the collapse of a hill in Tegal Panjang village around 10.30 p.m. on Saturday and buried 11 houses, said the spokesperson.

The landslide also buried a road and as many as 300 people fled their homes to take shelter elsewhere, he said.

Landslides are common in Indonesia during heavy downpours.

Sunday 29 March 2015

http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/12-bodies-recovered-in-indonesia-landslide-115032900533_1.html

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DNA from 78 Germanwings crash victims found

Forensic teams have isolated 78 distinct DNA strands from body parts at the Germanwings crash site in the French Alps, while investigators continued their grim task in the arduous mountain terrain.

As well as trying to identify and return bodies to their families, search teams were also hunting for a second "black box" that has yet to be found six days into the search.

The challenges of working on the steep and remote mountainside have been compounded by the violence of the impact -- the plane is said to have crashed into the mountainside at a speed of 700 kilometres (430 miles) per hour, killing all 150 people on board.

"We haven't found a single body intact," said Patrick Touron, deputy director of the police's criminal research institute.

He said the difficulty of the recovery mission was "unprecedented".

"We have slopes of 40 to 60 degrees, falling rocks, and ground that tends to crumble," said Touron. "Some things have to be done by abseiling."

Search teams on the mountain were attached at all times to specialist mountain police.

So far, forensic teams have isolated 78 DNA strands from recovered body parts, said prosecutor Brice Robin, one of the lead investigators.

He said an access road was also being built to the site to allow all-terrain vehicles to remove some of the larger parts of the plane.

Helicopters have been going back and forth to the nearby town of Seynes -- around 60 trips a day.

"Since safety is key, the recovery process is a bit slow, which is a great regret," Touron said.

Most body parts were being winched up to helicopters before being transported to a lab in the nearby town of Seynes where a 50-strong team of forensic doctors and dentists and police identification specialists is working.

Between 400 and 600 body parts were currently being examined, Touron said.

The smallest details can prove crucial: fingerprints, jewellery, bits of ID card, teeth.



"In catastrophes, normally around 90 percent of identifications are done through dental records," Touron added, but in the case of flight 9525, DNA was likely to play a greater role than normal.

Once DNA samples have been taken, they are sent to another lab outside Paris, where they are compared to samples taken from family members this week.

The other top priority is finding the second "black box".

"You have to be there to understand what we're dealing with," said one policeman, returned from the site.

"There is an engine turbine that was thrown 400 metres up from the point of impact."

The debris of the plane is spread across some two hectares (five acres) of mountainside.

The rescue teams, however, are not giving up.

"The teams are highly motivated," said Stephane Laout, from one of the mountain brigades.

The second black box is also known as the "Flight Data Recorder", which logs all technical data from the flight.

"It has been the priority from the start. It's essential for the investigation," said Captain Yves Naffrechoux, another mountain ranger.

"If it has not been completely destroyed or pulverised, the black box will be under the rubble and debris. We must work with caution and a lot of precision."

The black box -- which is actually orange in colour and weighs around 10 kilos -- was originally in a protective casing, but the empty casing has already been found.

"We have to look under every last bit of plane and lift every rock," said Naffrechoux

Sunday 29 March 2015

http://news.yahoo.com/dna-78-germanwings-crash-victims-found-prosecutor-130828029.html

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