Cyprus: Hopes rise in bid to find mass grave containing bodies of Greek Cypriots

New efforts were underway in the occupied north yesterday to locate a mass grave thought to contain the bodies of dozens of Greek Cypriots missing since the Turkish invasion in July 1974.

This is the 12th attempt to locate the mass grave in question. The excavation is being carried out in the area of Trahonas in Nicosia.

“We started an excavation in a (Turkish) military area in a bid to locate a mass grave,” said Nestoras Nestoros, the Greek Cypriot member of the Committee on Missing Persons.

The case concerns Greek Cypriots killed in the Nicosia areas of Kaimakli, Trahonas, and Omorphita in July 1974.

In 1977, Turkey filed a document at the Council of Europe that around 200 bodies had been collected by Turkish Cypriot forces from those areas, loaded on trucks and taken to Ledra Palace hotel to be handed over to the Greek Cypriot side for burial.

But the bodies were not received and were eventually buried in a mass grave, the document claimed.

This has never been confirmed and the Turkish side has since revised the number downwards.

Nestoros said their information suggested between 40 and 45 Greek Cypriots were buried in the area.

Turkish Cypriot CMP member Gulden Plumer Kucuk said the excavation near the central prison started with the permission of the Turkish military.

Kucuk told BRT that around 40 to 50 Greek Cypriot fighters who died in separate areas in 1974 were gathered and an effort had been made to return them through the UN “however, the Greek Cypriot side rejected this” and the bodies were buried in the location.

Eleven previous attempts to find the grave did not yield any results.

But this time the CMP was optimistic.

Nestoros said there was testimony, which the Turkish Cypriots had looked into.

“The Turkish Cypriots intensified their efforts to see if there is something because we had always insisted on that area,” he said. “It is a huge area and we hope to find the location.”

The CMP employs a bi-communal forensic team of more than 60 Cypriot archeologists, anthropologists and geneticists, who conduct excavations throughout the island and anthropological analyses of remains.

Nicos Theodosiou, the Executive Secretary of the Committee of Relatives of Missing Persons, when asked by the Cyprus News Agency to comment on the development, also expressed hope for a successful outcome.

He said that the time that passes, makes the venture ever more difficult.

According to Theodosiou, the existence of witnesses at a burial site raises the chance for success. “In this case, the information coming from the other side indicates that there must have been witnesses during the burial, for them [the CMP] to be so optimistic,” he said.

He also said that only 30 per cent of the families of missing persons have received the identified remains of their loved ones. Tthe rest of the families were still waiting.

Theodosiou urged the Turkish Cypriot side to actively support the efforts to locate burial sites in line with the good will expressed by the Turkish Cypriot leader, Mustafa Akinci.

According to the CMP, to date, 1,508 Greek Cypriots and 493 Turkish Cypriots are on the missing list. At the end of last year, the number of identified remains of individuals returned to their families are: Greek Cypriots: 509 and Turkish Cypriots: 127, while 927 sites had been excavated. Another 35 people were identified in the first six months of this year.

It also emerged late last year that remains had been moved in the north to cover up mass executions. Around 280 of those identified to date were found buried in different places from where they had reportedly disappeared. The news was condemned in a European Parliament resolution last February that angered Turkey.

Tuesday 18 August 2015

http://cyprus-mail.com/2015/08/18/hopes-rise-in-bid-to-find-mass-grave/

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Rescuers stopped from reaching Indonesia plane crash site by bad weather

A plane that went down in eastern Indonesia two days ago was “completely destroyed” and 38 bodies have so far been found, officials said, after rescuers finally reached the remote crash site today.

There was little chance of finding survivors at the densely forested, mountainous location in Papua province where the Trigana Air plane went down in bad weather during a short flight on Sunday.

“The plane has crashed, it is completely destroyed,” Soelistyo said of the ATR 42-300 after rescue teams reached the site.

“Everything was in pieces and part of the plane is burnt. We could see burn marks on some pieces.” Photos of the site show a clearing in thick forest that appears to be fire-blackened and scattered with debris.

The plane was carrying 54 people -- 49 passengers and five crew. Transport ministry spokesman JA Barata said that 38 bodies, including one child, had so far been found at the crash site.

“We are unable to evacuate them as the weather is very bad,” he added. As well as checking for survivors, rescuers were also searching for the plane’s flight data recorders, or “black boxes”, which could shed light on what caused the twin-turboprop plane to crash, Soelistyo said.

There was no immediate news on the fate of 6.5 billion rupiah ($637,100) that were being transported by the plane in cash, intended for distribution to poor families as social assistance funds.

Thick fog and rain had hampered attempts by more than 250 rescuers and 11 aircraft to reach the wreckage on Monday, and they had been forced to turn back.

The disaster is just the latest air accident in Indonesia, which has a poor aviation safety record and has suffered major disasters in recent months, including the crash of an AirAsia plane in December with the loss of 162 lives.

The Trigana plane crashed as it flew from Papua’s capital Jayapura to Oksibil, a remote settlement in the mountains to the south.

The plane lost contact with air traffic control about 10 minutes before reaching its destination, soon after the crew requested permission to start descending in heavy cloud and rain to land.

Officials suspect bad weather may have caused the crash.

There was no immediate news on the fate of 6.5 billion rupiah ($637,100) that were being transported by the plane in cash, intended for distribution to poor families as social assistance funds.

Thick fog and rain had hampered attempts by more than 250 rescuers and 11 aircraft to reach the wreckage on Monday, and they had been forced to turn back.

The disaster is just the latest air accident in Indonesia, which has a poor aviation safety record and has suffered major disasters in recent months, including the crash of an AirAsia plane in December with the loss of 162 lives.

The Trigana plane crashed as it flew from Papua’s capital Jayapura to Oksibil, a remote settlement in the mountains to the south.

The plane lost contact with air traffic control about 10 minutes before reaching its destination, soon after the crew requested permission to start descending in heavy cloud and rain to land.

Officials suspect bad weather may have caused the crash.

Relatives of passengers waiting at Jayapura airport have become increasingly frustrated at the lack of hard news since the weekend, with some shouting “We want confirmation!” and throwing a table at a crisis centre in angry scenes on Monday.

Small aircraft are commonly used for transport in remote and mountainous Papua and bad weather has caused several accidents in recent years.

Last week a Cessna propeller plane crashed in Papua’s Yahukimo district, killing one person and seriously injuring the five others on board. Officials suspect that crash was also caused by bad weather.

Trigana Air, a small domestic Indonesian airline, has experienced a string of serious incidents and is banned from flying in European Union airspace.

Last year’s AirAsia crash was one of two major air accidents that Indonesia has suffered in the past year alone.

In June, an Indonesian military plane crashed into a residential neighbourhood in the city of Medan, exploding in a fireball and killing 142 people.

The aviation sector in Indonesia is expanding fast but airlines are struggling to find enough well-trained personnel to keep up with the rapid growth in the archipelago of more than 17,000 islands.

Tuesday 18 August 2015

http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/rescuers-stopped-from-reaching-indonesia-plane-crash-site-by-bad-weather/story-fnizu68q-1227487694579

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Zimbabwe: SA Accident Victims to Be DNA Tested

The identification process of nine Zimbabweans who died in an accident last Thursday is expected to take time as most of the victims were burnt beyond recognition and would need to undergo DNA tests, South African police have said. The nine died when a commuter omnibus they were travelling in rammed into a stationary Zambian haulage truck near Naboomspruit along the N1 Highway in Limpopo Province, South Africa.

Limpopo police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Ronel Otto, said the identification process was ongoing at Naboomspruit government mortuary.

"The identification process is underway. DNA tests are also being done to confirm the identity because some of the bodies were burnt beyond recognition," she said.

Col Otto said the other victim was still hospitalised and in a stable condition at Naboomspruit Hospital.

The DNA profiling is expected to take more than 14 days.

She said they were working with the Zimbabwean Consulate staff in the identification process.

Col Otto said the truck driver and his passenger were not injured adding that the driver will appear at Naboomspruit Magistrate Court charged with culpable homicide today.

The accident comes shortly after seven other Zimbabweans were killed when a commuter omnibus they were travelling in collided with a haulage truck two kilometres from Beitbridge Border Post along the N1 Highway.

The N1 Highway is one of the busiest roads in South Africa as it links that country to the rest of Africa and it is a route that handles a lot of cargo movement.

The road has also become a death trap for Zimbabweans and citizens of countries north of the Limpopo and Zambezi Rivers

Tuesday 18 August 2015

http://allafrica.com/stories/201508170947.html

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Midnight killer: The 1976 Moro Gulf tsunami

It was 10 minutes past midnight of August 17, 1976, a Tuesday.

While most people were sleeping, a massive earthquake, registering magnitude 8.0 on the Richter scale, rocked most of Mindanao and parts of the Visayas.

The tremor was most strongly felt in the cities and towns surrounding the Moro Gulf, particularly in Cotabato City, which now hosts the regional center of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

What made the 1976 Moro Gulf Quake most devastating, however, was not just the degree of the earth shaking.

With its epicenter near the town of Lebak in Sultan Kudarat, in a region of the Celebes Sea where earthquakes frequently occur – the 1976 Moro Gulf quake brought with it one of the most terrifying natural forces known to man: a tsunami.

Without warning, about 2-5 minutes after the earthquake struck, waves as high as 9 meters reached the shore and inundated communities along the Moro Gulf.

The tsunami affected 700 kilometers of coastline, with Pagadian City, Cotabato City, Zamboanga City, and Lebak in Sultan Kudarat experiencing the highest waves.

About 8,000 people died, including those missing and were never found, making it the most disastrous tsunami to hit the Philippines.

It is more than the number of casualties recorded after Super Typhoon Yolanda, the strongest typhoon in the world, hit the country.

Midnight killer

Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) director Renato Solidum said the high number of deaths – many of whom were children – could be attributed to the time the tsunami struck and the number of people residing near the shore at that time.

"Many people lived near the coast. Also, it was very dark. [It was] past midnight… Why many [died]? It's because it was sudden. If it happened in the morning when children are in school, a lot of people would probably be able to run for their lives," Solidum explained.

It’s important to note the type of the tsunami, he added. "It was a local tsunami. The onset of the first event (wave) occurred 2 to 5 minutes after the earthquake. Definitely, the height of the wave would matter in terms of the number of deaths."

While the earthquake caused fire and some buildings to collapse, the tsunami caused most of the damage.

The massive devastation brought by the Moro Gulf earthquake and the tsunami that followed resulted in a change in the country's disaster preparedness plans. It also led then president Ferdinand Marcos to revise the provisions of the National Building Code a year after the tragedy.

In 1978, Marcos created the National Disaster Coordinating Council, the predecessor of what is now known as the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

Tsunami generators in PH

The Philippines is more vulnerable to geological hazards such as earthquakes and tsunamis, according to the Phivolcs, due to its geography as an archipelago located along the Pacific Ocean's Ring of Fire.

Located along every side of the Philippine archipelago are different trenches that can generate tsunamis should the trenches move enough to create an earthquake.

According to Solidum, tsunamis in the Philippines are more dangerous compared to those that occur in other countries such as Indonesia and Japan.

“The tsunamis in our country arrive much faster than those in Indonesia and Japan because the source of the earthquake or the trenches are closer to the shorelines. If the trenches are closer to the shoreline, then the source of the tsunami will be much closer to the shoreline, so the distance will only be short and the lead time will be shorter,” he explained.

While chances of tsunamis are higher in large bodies of water, inland seas like in Bohol and Cebu can also generate tsunamis and landslides.

In Metro Manila, which lies near the Manila Trench and beside Manila Bay, a magnitude 6.5 earthquake can generate a tsunami as high as 4 meters, which could kill about 3,100 people. This is based on the 2004 Metro Manila Earthquake Impact Reduction Study conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

Communities need to be prepared

In 2004, more than 200,000 people died after an earthquake and tsunami struck off the Sumatra Coast near Banda Aceh, Indonesia, where more than half of the casualties came. The tragedy painfully highlighted the need for reliable tsunami early-warning systems along coastal areas.

Following the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, Phivolcs developed a tsunami detection system by setting up dry and wet sensors in 10 sites all over the Philippines.

The agency also produced tsunami hazard maps for coastal areas.

Phivolcs has also set up 19 tide gauges to warn communities of a coming tsunami. “The sensors are to confirm if the earthquake did or did not generate a tsunami. Or if there is a tsunami, the sensors will also be used to tell us if the tsunami waves are over,” Solidum said.

But Solidum emphasizes that the agency can only do so much. While the Phivolcs is ready to monitor and give warnings, nothing can compare to the vigilance and readiness of local communities.

“The issue here is how people will respond. Remember, it’s a local tsunami event - we cannot beat the two minutes," Solidum said.

Solidum adds that the 1976 Moro Gulf tsunami serves as a lesson for local communites to prepare for any disaster.

“It is a very good example of a threat of a sudden onset of an event after an earthquake that people need to know... People need to know which areas will be affected, where they will go if they will be evacuated and where the safe evacuation centers should be located.”

Tuesday 18 August 2015

http://www.rappler.com/move-ph/issues/disasters/102827-1976-moro-gulf-earthquake-tsunami

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South Africa taxi collides with train near Ballito

A minibus taxi has collided with a train near Ballito in South Africa, killing at least 14 people, according to KwaZulu-Natal emergency services.

The BBC's Milton Nkosi says it is believed the taxi was carrying 20 passengers when it went over a bridge and hit a train as it plunged onto a railway line below.

South Africa has an exceptionally high accident rate on its roads.

At least 10,000 people die on the roads a year, mostly due to reckless driving.

No-one on the train was injured, according to ENCA news.

Tuesday 18 August 215

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-33967398

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Death toll in latest Mediterranean migrant tragedy put at 49

The number of migrants who died in the hold of an overcrowded fishing boat rescued on Saturday has risen to 49, the coast guard said on Sunday.

The bodies of the victims, along with the 312 survivors plucked from the boat off the coast of Libya, were due to arrive at the Sicilian port of Catania on Monday morning aboard the Norwegian ship Siem Pilot.

On Saturday the Italian navy said at least 40 migrants had died, probably from suffocation after inhaling fumes from fuel. . What is expected to the final tally was determined after all the survivors and victims were transferred to the Siem Pilot during the night.

Hundreds of other migrants were rescued from other boats on Saturday and were being taken to ports in Sicily, navy and coast guard officials said. More than 2,300 migrants and refugees have died so far this year in attempts to reach Europe by boat, compared with 3,279 deaths during the whole of last year, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Friday. IOM spokesman Joel Millman said nearly a quarter of a million migrants and asylum seekers had arrived in Europe via the Mediterranean so far this year, compared to 219,000 for all of 2014.

Monday 17 August 2015

http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report-death-toll-in-latest-mediterranean-migrant-tragedy-put-at-49-2115117

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Indonesian plane crash: Debris spotted in mountains

Indonesian searchers believe they have located debris from an airliner that crashed in a mountainous area with 54 people on board.

A search plane spotted the wreckage Monday, but a ground team hasn't yet been able to reach it, said Raymond Konstantin, an official for Indonesia's search and rescue agency.

Authorities had said earlier that villagers in a remote area of Indonesia's eastern Papua province reported seeing the passenger plane crash into a mountain.

It's the Southeast Asian nation's third air disaster in less than eight months.

The ATR42-300 turboprop aircraft operated by Trigana Air Service was carrying 44 adult passengers, five children and five crew members when it went missing during a short domestic flight Sunday. All of those on board were Indonesian, authorities told CNN Indonesia.

Ground team heading to area

The search over rugged, densely forested terrain was halted overnight because poor weather and a lack of light made an already dangerous landscape even more challenging.

A second search plane has been dispatched to verify the debris spotted Monday, Col. I Made Susila Adyana, an Indonesian Air Force official in Papua, told the national news agency Antara.

He said a ground team is heading to the area from the town of Oksibil, the intended destination of the Trigana flight.

The flight lost contact with air traffic control in Papua on Sunday afternoon, the search and rescue agency said on Twitter. It had left Sentani Airport in Jayapura at 2:22 p.m. and was scheduled to land in Oksibil at about 3:16 p.m., officials said.

The plane lost contact at about 2:55 p.m., Transportation Ministry spokesman J.A. Barata told CNN Indonesia.

Barata said there was no indication that a distress call was made from the plane. He said he would be flying from Jakarta to Papua along with investigators and search and rescue officials.

Thunderstorms in the mountains

There are many possible reasons for the apparent lack of a distress call, CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo said. It could indicate that flight crew members were too busy dealing with whatever situation arose to have time to send one, or that they simply didn't realize they were in trouble.

Officials said the weather was clear when the plane took off in Jayapura, but CNN meteorologist Ivan Cabrera said there were some thunderstorms over a mountainous area in the flight path.

The weather could get worse in the coming days, possibly impeding rescue efforts in an area with mountain peaks as high as 3 kilometers (10,000 feet).

"The terrain is going to be an issue as well, as we have some pretty steep slopes here," Cabrera said.

Trigana banned from flying in Europe

The Trigana Air Service plane is the third Indonesian aircraft to crash in the past eight months.

In December, AirAsia Flight QZ8501 went down in the Java Sea while headed from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore. All 162 people on board were killed.

And in June, an Indonesian military transport plane crashed soon after taking off from the city of Medan, killing at least 135 people.

Trigana Air Service is one of a large number of airlines banned from operating in European airspace "because they are found to be unsafe and/or they are not sufficiently overseen by their authorities," according to the European Commission.

It has been on the list since 2007.

Monday 17 August 2015

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-indonesia-missing-plane-20150816-story.html

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Rescuers find seven bodies after China landslide

At least seven people have died and 57 remain missing more than four days after a landslide hit a mining company in northwest China, the official Xinhua news agency said.

On Sunday (Aug 16) evening seven bodies were retrieved from debris covering employee dormitories in Shanyang county in the northern province of Shaanxi, the news service quoted local rescue officials as saying.

The rescue operation follows a landslide on Wednesday which buried the living quarters of the mining company under one million cubic metres of earth.

The mine's operator was identified by Xinhua as the Wuzhou mining company, which according to its parent company is mainly a vanadium producer. Search efforts had been hampered by a huge volume of mud and rubble, combined with the risk of a second landslide, rescuers told the news agency.

China - the world's largest producer of coal - is grappling to improve standards in the sector, where regulations are often flouted and corruption enables bosses to pursue profits at the cost of worker safety. Accidents in Chinese coal mines killed 931 people last year, a top work safety official said in March.

Monday 17 August 2015

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/rescuers-find-seven/2054578.html

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Tianjin blasts death toll rises to 114, 70 missing

Death toll for the massive Tianjin blasts rose to 114 after rescuers found two more bodies in the debris, a municipal publicity official said on Monday.

Gong Jiansheng, deputy head of Tianjin's publicity department, told the press the identities of 54 bodies have been confirmed, adding another 70 people are still missing.

Among the bodies, 39 were firefighters and five were policemen. The number of missing was previously 95, before 25 people were identified among the bodies found.

Most of the missing are firemen, he added.

Rescuers have made four comprehensive search efforts through what they call "a maze of containers", and the search is still underway.

"Navigating through the blast zone is extremely dangerous, because of the burning chemicals and twisted containers, which could collapse at any minute. We had to make marks in order not to get lost," said Wang Ke, who led a group of chemical specialist soldiers.

Two massive blasts, which occurred before midnight on Aug. 12, wreaked havoc several kilometers away.

By Monday, a total of 698 people remain in hospital, of whom 57 are still in critical condition.

A minor explosion occurred on Monday morning at the blast site, located in Binhai New Area. Dark smoke has abated, but flames can still be seen.

Bao Jingling, chief engineer of the city's bureau of environmental protection, said about 700 tonnes of sodium cyanide were stored at the blast site and they remain intact.

The blasts have affected 17,000 households and 1,700 enterprises. At least 6,000 residents have been displaced.

Monday 17 August 2015

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-08/17/c_134525611.htm

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Search is on to identify ‘unknown’ sailors at Pearl Harbor

As the sun broke from behind the clouds over Oahu’s Koolau mountains one recent morning, a seven-member detail of military personnel transferred five coffins, disinterred from two graves marked “unknown,” at the Punchbowl, the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific here.

Off to the west was Pearl Harbor, where the men in the coffins died nearly 75 years ago.

The detail draped each coffin with a U.S. flag, saluted and placed the coffins into trucks.

“We’re not ‘mission complete’ until we return them home,” Lt. Col. Melinda Morgan, a director of public affairs for the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, said of the remains of 388 sailors who died aboard the battleship Oklahoma during the Pearl Harbor attack.

Eventually, 61 coffins from 45 graves will be dug up, Morgan said, and taken to laboratories that over the next five years will use DNA and dental records to identify the remains, the names of which have long been engraved on a memorial near Pearl Harbor.

The process of searching for and identifying service members missing from World War II has been going on since the fighting ended 70 years ago, but the latest efforts have taken on a sense of urgency as the number of those who served and are still alive dwindles.

“There are unknowns around the world,” said James Horton, director of the national cemetery in Honolulu, where 2,760 unidentified service members, 1,061 from Pearl Harbor, are buried. “What makes identification very difficult is the severity of what happened, which may have made things messy, and how much more fighting there’s going on in those areas.”

“The reason they went for the Oklahoma unknowns is there is a known set of them, a fairly finite set,” he said.

Of the eight battleships attacked that Sunday in 1941, only the Oklahoma and the Arizona were damaged beyond repair. The Arizona rests below its memorial at Pearl Harbor. The Oklahoma, which capsized, was brought up two years later.

The bodies recovered from the Oklahoma were buried throughout Oahu and later transferred to the Punchbowl in 1949, after it was dedicated. Some of the remains ended up in separate coffins.

The push to identify the Oklahoma unknowns began as a quest by a Pearl Harbor survivor, Ray Emory, for better grave markers.

When Emory, 94, who was on the light cruiser Honolulu during the attack, visited the Punchbowl in 1990, a cemetery worker could not tell him where to find the sailors from the Oklahoma.

That began a quest for headstones that would distinguish Pearl Harbor unknowns from those who died in other wars or other battles. Emory then wondered if he could single out the name and grave for one Oklahoma victim.

His curiosity sent him on what would become a venture through stacks of burial records.

One file contained information about 27 service members before their reburial at the Punchbowl. Using that information, Emory located the graves of those men, and in 2003 the military agreed to exhume five of the bodies he had identified.

Encouraged, Emory reached out to family members of the remaining 22 unknowns, asking them to pressure state and national lawmakers. A letter to the Pentagon in 2014 from Sens. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., urging the disinterment and identification of the Oklahoma unknowns went nowhere.

But a similar letter sent in February paid off. And in April, the deputy secretary of defense, Robert Work, announced plans to disinter and identify the unknown remains from the Oklahoma. The work began in June.

There are limitations. A grave with commingled remains may be dug up, the announcement said, only if it is likely that evidence can determine identities for 60 percent of the remains. A grave with a single unknown may be disinterred only if there is a 50 percent likelihood that the remains can be identified.

Remains that cannot be identified will receive a full military honors burial, Morgan said. Near the time of that burial, Morgan said, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency will determine what to do with remains without surviving or identifiable relatives.

Sunday 16 August 2015

http://www.expressnews.com/news/us-world/article/Search-is-on-to-identify-unknown-sailors-at-6446789.php

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Italy finds dozens of migrants dead in hold during ship rescue

At least 40 migrants died Saturday in the hold of an overcrowded smuggling boat in the Mediterranean Sea north of Libya, apparently killed by fuel fumes, and some 320 others on the same boat were saved by the Italian navy, the rescue ship's commander said.

Migrants by the tens of thousands are braving the perilous journey across the Mediterranean this year, hoping to reach Europe and be granted asylum. They are fleeing war, persecution and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

"The dead were found in the hold," Cmdr. Massimo Tosi, speaking from the navy ship Cigala Fulgosi while the rescue was still ongoing. Asked by RaiNews24 how the migrants died, Tosi said "it appears to be from inhaling exhaust fumes."

"They are still counting the victims," Interior Minister Angelino Alfano told reporters.

Tosi said the survivors included 45 women and three children.

When rescuers stepped aboard, the bodies of migrants were "lying in water, fuel, human excrement" in the hold, Tosi said, adding that among the survivors, "women were crying for their husbands (and) their children who died in the crossing."

Prior to Saturday's disaster, at least 2,100 migrants died at sea this year trying to make the crossing from the shores of Libya, where human traffickers are based, to Italy. Migration organizations say the Libya-to-Italy crossing is by far the deadliest. The exact toll of dead will never be known, as some boats are believed by authorities to have gone down at sea without rescuers being aware of them.

The number of migrants trying to reach Europe by sea is on track to hit a record this year, according to the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration.

Greece has reported 134,988 arrivals from Turkey this year, the group said, while Italy recorded more than 100,000 migrants rescued at sea by mid-August. Along with other migrants landing in Spain and Malta, that makes over 243,000 people crossing so far this year - compared to 219,000 for all of 2014.

Sunday 16 August 2015

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/italy-migrants-ship-rescue_55cf40b9e4b055a6dab08330

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China blasts death toll rises to 112

The death toll from two massive explosions in the Chinese port of Tianjin has risen to 112, an official says.

More than 700 people have also been hospitalised as a result of Wednesday's blasts - which triggered a huge fireball - as well as a fire that emergency workers have struggled to put out since then and fresh explosions on Saturday.

"By 9am on August 16, the total number of deaths was 112," Gong Jiansheng, the deputy chief of the city's propaganda department, said at a news conference.

"We have already identified 24 bodies, and there are 88 to be identified."

At least 21 firefighters are among the dead, according to state media.

Authorities on Saturday moved to relocate anyone within three kilometres of the blast site in the northern city over fears of toxic contamination, but have insisted that the disaster did not release dangerous levels of chemicals into the environment.

Officials have struggled to identify the substances present at the scene, sparking fears and scepticism among residents of Tianjin, which has a population of 15 million.

Sunday 16 august 2015

http://www.9news.com.au/world/2015/08/16/01/47/chinese-blast-death-toll-hits-104

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Death toll from Chinese port blasts hits 85, including 21 firefighters

The death toll from an inferno and huge explosions in the Chinese port city of Tianjin climbed to 85 on Saturday with hundreds of people injured and some still unaccounted for.

The count includes 21 of the more than 1,000 firefighters who responded to the fire and blasts, according to The Associated Press.

A rapid succession of explosions late Wednesday - one equal to 21 tons of TNT - were sparked by a fire at what authorities said were shipping containers containing hazardous material at a warehouse, and they struck a mostly industrial zone late at night - otherwise the death toll could have been much higher. But the warehouse was close enough to residences to appear out of compliance with safety regulations, raising questions about whether the facility had properly been authorized.

The toll included at least 21 firefighters among the more than 1,000 sent to the disaster, local officials told a news conference Saturday. Firefighters initially responded to a fire at the warehouse and many of them apparently were killed by a series of explosions triggered 40 minutes after the fire was reported.

Tianjin Fire Department head Zhou Tian said at a news conference Friday that the explosions occurred just as reinforcements had arrived on the scene and were just getting to work."There was no chance to escape, and that's why the casualties were so severe," the fire head said. "We're now doing all we can to rescue the missing."

NPR's Robert Siegel spoke Friday with David Leggett, a consultant on hazardous chemical risk assessments, about the chemicals involved in the explosion and the ongoing risks they might pose.

"There are three chemicals that are confirmed: calcium carbide, potassium nitrate and sodium nitrate. And those three together if left alone and not in the presence of fire are relatively stable. "However, in the presence of a fire — a very big fire, as we believe there was — the first thing that probably happens is that the containers of the calcium carbide probably start to fail; at the same time one can expect to see that the water supplies in the warehouse may be beginning to fail. And if we get calcium carbide — especially if it's hot — mixed with water, we form a very, very flammable and highly explosive gas called acetylene."

Leggett said Chinese authorities — unlike their U.S. counterparts — may have lacked thorough documentation of the chemicals moving through the country's transit facilities, and that the detection of sodium cyanide in a nearby sewer could be concerning.

"Depending upon the amount of sodium cyanide that is there, I would be concerned about the residues of sodium cyanide that may have been distributed across the area, and how that cleanup will be managed," he says.

Chinese police are clearing everyone within three miles of a fire in the port city of Tianjin over fears of chemical poisoning.

Police confirmed that highly toxic sodium cyanide was present near the site, raising fears that spread of the chemical could cause more casualties.

Fire broke out and more explosions were heard Saturday morning at the site of Wednesday's massive explosions. Searchers on Friday night uncovered more bodies in the warehouse district of Tianjin, China, state media reported, raising the death toll to 85.

"Out of consideration for toxic substances spreading, the masses nearby have been asked to evacuate," Xinhua is quoted in The Guardian.

Saturday 15 August 2015

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2015/aug/14/death-toll-from-chinese-port-blasts-hits-85/

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China blasts: Tianjin explosions death toll reaches 55, relatives looking for the missing

Chinese rescue teams say they have located a survivor more than 30 hours after the city of Tianjin was rocked by a devastating chemical explosion that killed at least 55 people and has forced thousands from their homes.

Rescuers discovered a 19-year-old firefighter – named as Zhou Ti – at 7.05am on Friday morning, according to Xinhua, China’s official news agency.

Zhou was taken to Tianjin’s Teda hospital and is in a stable condition, according to The Paper, a Shanghai-based news website.

The discovery offered a rare glimmer of hope as authorities battled to help those left injured or homeless when a warehouse storing hazardous chemicals caught fire and exploded on Wednesday sending a mushroom cloud rising into the night sky.

With acrid black smoke still billowing from the disaster zone, more than 1,020 firefighters continued to battle “raging” fires in the area, Zhou Tian, Tianjin’s fire chief, told Xinhua on Friday.

The official death toll rose to 55 after five more bodies were found, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

As the body count rose, displaced residents took shelter in the homes of relatives or in makeshift government camps set up in local primary schools. At least 6,000 people were expected in such shelters on Thursday night, a local official said.

By Friday morning, around 200 volunteers and family members looking for lost relatives were milling around outside the primary school opposite the GSK Glaxo Smith Kline Tianjin headquarters.

At the front of the gate, volunteers had erected a tent where they were maintaining long lists and posters featuring the names, descriptions and contact details of some of the missing.

“We have a group on WeChat where volunteers circulate the names of the missing and inform each other if anyone has been found” Xie said.

Asked why the government wasn’t doing this work, Xie said: “They’re focussing on the explosion. That’s more important than this. They don’t have extra energy to deal with this as well.

“Of course this is important too, but while they direct their energy to that, common people like us can offer our help in this way.”

Relatives of Tianjin residents missing after the blasts hold up information about their loved ones. At the Vantone Central Park – which is around 2km from the scene of the disaster – signs of the blast were everywhere.

The glass façade of the Jingcheng Real Estate company had been completely shattered. From a fourth-floor apartment a man peered down from a pane-less window at a carpet of glass.

A bright red banner hanging at the heart of the compound read: “It is everyone’s duty to report crimes involving guns and explosives.”

“Look at this damage – it’s like an earthquake hit,” said Zhang, who said her relatives had fled with their young child following the explosion. “I’ve come because they’re still too scared to come back,” she said. “Young children can’t really comprehend these kinds of things.”

Others were refusing to leave the area around the blast site, despite government calls to evacuate and fears that volatile chemicals could trigger secondary explosions.

Authorities admitted they had still not been able to determine which chemicals were being stored in the warehouse at the time of the disaster, blaming “major discrepancies” in company and customs records.

Liu Yandon, a top Communist party leader, visited Tianjin on Friday morning and ordered officials there to provide the best possible medical care to the wounded, especially the 71 people reported to be in a critical condition. Liu said psychological support and counselling should be offered to families of the dead and injured as well as rescue workers.

Friday 14 August 2015

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/14/china-explosions-thousands-seek-refuge-55-killed-tianjin-blasts

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13 dead in Guizhou coal mine accident

The death toll from a coal mine gas outburst in Guizhou Province rose to 13 after authorities found bodies of three people previously reported missing.

Another five people were injured and authorities have wrapped up search and rescue. The cause of the investigation is still ongoing.

The outburst occurred at around 7:50 p.m. Tuesday at the coal mine in Louxia Township of Pu'an County. A total of 56 people safely moved out of the mine.

Friday 14 August 2015

http://www.ecns.cn/2015/08-14/177205.shtml

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Nigeria: 30 unidentified corpses lying at Mararaba Medical Centre

The management of Mararaba Medical Centre in Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State has said that 30 unidentified corpses are in its mortuary.

Dr Ibrahim Adamu, the Medical Director of the centre, made the fact known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Mararaba on Thursday.

Adamu said that the situation was unhealthy and worrisome to both the patients and members of staff of the centre.

"These corpses have been here since 2013 with no record of ownership.

"They were brought or dumped here by the police as most of them happen to be victims of accidents or armed robbery.

"We are appealing to Karu Local Government authorities and the police to arrange for their burial.

"Evacuation of these corpses will promote, not only the health of our workers, but also health of our patients, especially those on admissions," he said.

Friday 14 August 2015

http://allafrica.com/stories/201508131889.html

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DNA of Kullu bus accident victims to be preserved

With the bodies of the July 23 Kullu bus accident victims now being retrieved from the Parvati river too decayed to be recognised, the Kullu district administration in Himachal Pradesh will preserve the DNA from these to avoid identification issues later.

The DNA samples from three bodies fished on Tuesday have been collected. The bodies of a woman and two men extracted on Wednesday could not be identified. “Knowing what would be the condition of the bodies that have remained under water for so long, we decided three-four days ago to preserve the DNA from the bodies to be retrieved from now,” said Kullu subdivisional magistrate (SDM) Rohit Rathore.

“The families that claimed the bodies retrieved on Tuesday had identified the victims from their clothes and other belongings; but we have kept the DNA samples as well to avoid controversy later as we find more victims. The DNA samples will be sent to the forensic laboratory at Junga in Shimla district,” said the SDM.

Identification issues had cropped up in June last year when 24 students from Hyderabad were swept away in the Beas river near Thalot in Mandi district. On July 23, a private bus carrying pilgrims from Bathinda, Barnala and Mansa districts of Punjab had fallen into a swollen Parvati river on the Bhuntar-Manikaran road. So far, 20 bodies have been retrieved, while 26 victims are still missing. In the accident, 23 passengers were injured.

Kullu Deputy Commissioner Rakesh Kanwar said still search is going on to recover bodies from river. A anonymous body recovered from river which is not in passengers list.

National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), and Himachal Pradesh Police continue to search for bodies and possible survivors.

Thursday 13 August 2015

http://www.hindustantimes.com/bathinda/dna-of-kullu-bus-mishap-victims-to-be-preserved/article1-1379587.aspx

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Japan: Ashes of thousands of wartime dead still unclaimed

The remains of thousands of civilians killed during World War II still remain unclaimed by relatives and languish in storage at temples and other sites across the country, an Asahi Shimbun survey shows.

The families of more than 7,400 people have yet to claim ashes stored in eight cities across Japan, even though the deceased have been identified based on name tags and other items attached to their clothing.

Many of the victims were killed in U.S. air raids. But in Okinawa, the victims were caught up in shelling and fighting.

In an effort to tally the unclaimed remains, The Asahi Shimbun contacted local governments, private-sector organizations, temples and other parties. The study covered Okinawa and 71 cities where 100 or more people are said to have died in connection with the war.

Although the central government has been diligently working to return the remains of Japanese soldiers killed in the war to their families, there had been no detailed research on the uncollected remains of civilians killed in U.S. air raids and other means.

According to the survey results, the ashes of 3,701 people stored in Tokyo have been identified but remain unclaimed by relatives. The figures for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which were both leveled by atomic bombing in 1945, are 815 and 122, respectively.

Each of the three cities annually receives several inquiries and ashes have been returned in some cases. But in many instances, ashes that have been identified cannot be claimed because all family members perished in the war, according to the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum.

The ashes of more than 2,700 identified civilians remain unclaimed in Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, Yokohama, Hamamatsu, Osaka and Sakai, Osaka Prefecture. Because the bodies of victims were cremated and buried together in those five cities, relatives are now unable to collect the remains.

The Hiroshima and Nagasaki city governments publicly disclose names of the identified victims. In the case of Hamamatsu and Sakai, bereaved families can view lists of remains that have been identified by contacting the temples and private groups storing them. Tokyo and Osaka do not publicly disclose the identities of remains.

The Asahi Shimbun also learned that unidentified remains of more than 300,000 people were buried together at temples and other facilities in Okinawa, Tokyo and 11 other cities.

More than 500,000 civilians are thought to have perished in Japan in World War II, mainly as a result of U.S. air raids.

One reason behind the large number of unclaimed remains is that it was difficult for Japanese officials during the war to identify victims and locate their families in the face of intensified aerial attacks by the United States.

According to records on damage to Tokyo during the war and other source material, the police were responsible for examining and identifying those killed in airstrikes.

But police were overwhelmed by the number of victims in the Great Tokyo Air Raid of March 10, 1945. Corpses were laid out on city streets for several days so people could find their families. The bodies were later transferred to nearby parks and elsewhere for tentative burial because it was thought that leaving them laid out on the ground for a prolonged period could undermine the people's fighting spirit.

Victims of the Great Tokyo Air Raid were exhumed and cremated after the end of the war so they could be enshrined at a Tokyo government-run memorial facility.

Although some of the victims of the air raid were identified, those remains could not be returned to relatives because the bereaved families did not know where or even if the ashes were being stored.

Interviews with bereaved families showed they could not afford to claim their relatives’ ashes as they were caught up on the task of rebuilding their own lives. In some cases, ashes were not returned because authorities mixed up names.

“The wartime authorities prioritized hiding corpses rather than identifying them so as not to lower citizens’ morale,” said Katsumoto Saotome, director of the Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage. “If the authorities had actively sought bereaved families of the remains immediately following the war, more ashes may have been returned to their relatives by now.”

Thursday 13 August 2015

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201508120070

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At least 44 dead, hundreds injured as blasts from hazardous materials warehouse rock Chinese city of Tianjin

Huge explosions at a warehouse for dangerous materials in the northeastern Chinese port of Tianjin killed at least 44 people, including 12 firefighters, and injured hundreds of others.

The massive blasts late on Wednesday night sent fireballs into the air forming a mushroom cloud in the sky.

About 520 people are receiving treatment in hospital, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported. Sixty-six of them are said to be in a critical condition.

The explosions late on Wednesday blew doors off buildings in the area and shattered windows up to several kilometers away.

Twelve firefighters were killed tackling the blaze, Xinhua said. Thirty-six are missing, according to an earlier report from The Beijing News.

The authorities suspended firefighting efforts at the warehouse on Thursday morning due to a lack of clarity about what dangerous goods are inside and how much is stored, according to a local government statement issued on Thursday.

Fire staff will survey the scene and efforts made to find out what is inside the complex before firefighters return, state television reported.

It said the risk of hazardous chemicals remaining on the site was high.

The city’s fire brigade said its personnel were sent to the warehouse at about 10.50pm on Wednesday night, 40 minutes before the first large explosion occurred.

About 1,000 firefighters were deployed before teams were pulled out on Thursday morning.



About 400 members of China's paramilitary forces are helping with the relief and rescue efforts, the PLA Daily reported.

Roads around the complex have been sealed off and a rail link to the affected area has been suspended.

Tianjin resident Zhang Siyu, whose home is several kilometers from the blast site, said she thought the explosions last night were an earthquake.

“Only once I was outside did I realise it was an explosion. There was the huge fireball in the sky with thick clouds. Everybody could see it.”

Zhang said she could see wounded people weeping. She said she did not see anyone who had been killed, but “I could feel death".

A 28-year-old man told the South China Morning Post that he was driving on a bridge about 1km from the warehouse when the first explosion occurred.

"The first blast was like setting off fire crackers and we were watching it from the car, but when the second one happened the shock wave was much stronger.

"It was like shooting stars. There were also balls of metal falling from from the sky. We had to leave our car and escape at once leaving all of our personal belongs behind," the driver said.

The force of the blast was so strong it buckled metalwork on the car and blew out all of its windows, he added..

Police in Tianjin said an initial blast took place at shipping containers in a warehouse for hazardous materials owned by Ruihai Logistics, a company that says it’s properly approved to handle hazardous materials. State media said senior management of the company had been detained by authorities.

It is part of an industrial park, with some apartment buildings nearby.

Among the chemicals the company handles are sodium cyanide, often used in the mining industry to help extract gold; plus toluene diisocyanate, a toxic organic compound, the China Youth Daily reported, citing the firm's website.

The state-run Xinhua news agency said an initial explosion triggered other blasts at nearby businesses. The National Earthquake Bureau reported two major blasts before midnight, the first with an equivalent of 3 tonnes of TNT and the second with the equivalent of 21 tonnes.

China’s President Xi Jinping has told the city authorities to contain the fire and rescue the injured, the China News Service reported. He also ordered them to fully investigate the cause of the explosions and hold people accountable if they were found to be responsible for the disaster, the report said.

Photos taken by bystanders and circulating on microblogs show a gigantic fireball high in the sky, with a mushroom-cloud. Other photos on state media outlets showed a sea of fire that painted the night sky bright orange, with tall plumes of smoke.

About 2 km from the explosion site is the luxury Fifth Avenue apartment complex on a road strewn with broken glass and pieces of charred metal thrown from explosion. Like surrounding buildings, the Mediterranean style complex had all its windows blown out and some its surfaces were scorched.

“It’s lucky no one had moved in,” said a worker on the site, Liu Junwei, 29. “But for us it’s a total loss. Two years hard work down the drain.”

“It had been all quiet, then the sky just lit up brighter than day and it looked like a fireworks show,” said another worker on the site who gave just his surname, Li.

In one neighborhood about 10 to 20 km from the blast site, some residents were sleeping on the street wearing gas masks, although there was no perceptible problem with the air apart from massive clouds of smoke seen in the distance.

“It was like what we were told a nuclear bomb would be like,” said truck driver Zhao Zhencheng, who spent the night in the cab of his truck. “I’ve never even thought I’d see such a thing. It was terrifying but also beautiful.”

At the nearby Taida Hospital as dawn broke, military medical tents were set up. Photos circulating online showed patients in bandages and with cuts.

One woman spent the night on the street after she was blown from her bed by shock waves from the explosions.

"Even the elevator doors in our block were buckled," she said.

Ruihai Logistics says on its website that it was established in 2011 and is an approved company for handling hazardous materials. It says it handles 1 million tonnes of cargo annually.

Tianjin, with a population of about 15 million, is about 120 km east of Beijing on the Bohai Sea and is one of the country’s major ports. It is also one of China’s more modern cities and is connected to the capital by a high-speed rail line.

Thursday 13 August 2015

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1849118/blast-explosives-shipment-rocks-chinese-city-tianjin

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Nepal: Kin of quake missing want relief, compensation

Sange Sherpa of Khijiphalate-5 in Okhaldhunga district had gone missing in a landslide triggered by the April 25 earthquake in Langtang, Rasuwa. His body has yet to be recovered four months after the disaster.

Three months into his disappearance, Sange’s family gave up hope of finding him alive and performed his final rituals. Now his wife Kami and two children are struggling with their lives. “Our house was destroyed in the quake and we are staying under tarpaulins now,” said Kami, adding that they hardly have enough to eat. Some social organisations did provide them some food stuffs but they were insufficient.

“We are in pitiful condition and don’t know how to lead our lives,” she said. The kin of Lucky Sherpa of Khijiphalate-6 too have similar story to tell. Lucky, who went to work in a Langtang hotel, has been missing since the day of the devastating quake. As Lucky was the sole bread winner in her house, the family has found itself in lurch. Lucky’s father, Pasang, said they have not received government relief till date.

Seventeen people from Okhaldhunga had gone missing in the avalanche on that fateful day in Langtang. Of them, nine were from Patle, three from Khijiphalate, four from Khijikatika and one from Bhusinga in Okhaldhunga district. But victims’ families are unable to retrieve the bodies of those missing. The victims’ families demanded that the government declare them as deceased persons and provide relief and compensation amount. Rinji Sherpa, a relative of one of the missing persons, said the government should provide facilities as their family members are no more alive. “The authorities are dilly-dallying in providing compensation,” he said.

When asked to clarify the situation, Assistant Chief District Officer of Okhaldhunga Nagendra Poudel said the Home Ministry had not sent a letter of missing persons in the district. “We have not received the list of missing persons even from Rasuwa,” he said, adding that eight of the missing persons had been identified in the district.

Thursday 13 August 2015

http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2015/08/12/news/kin-of-quake-missing-want-relief-compensation/279485.html

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