Friday 18 January 2013

10 killed, 53 injured as bus, trailer truck collide in the Philippines


Ten people were killed while 53 others were injured last Wednesday afternoon when a trailer rammed a commuter bus on the national highway here.

The fatalities were identified as Lyle Carmita, 15, Almira Pamandanan, 36, Cayetana Fernandez, all of Toledo City; Julie Pajamutan and Dionny Pajamutan, of Naga City; Emmanuel Gaudise, 28, of Toledo City; trailer truck driver Antonico Omayag, 40, of Cebu City; Melvin Costanilla of Toledo City, Lilita Etang, 51, of Balamban town, and James Lee Carpentero of Toledo City.br>
Five of the victims died on the spot while the others died at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City.br>
The injured were rushed to Carmen Copper Hospital and the Toledo City Hospital.br>
Police said the truck, with license plate GUF-405 and driven by Omayag, rammed the BT bus with license plate GWH-253 that was driven by Jimmy Limoran.br>
The truck was cruising along the national highway in Barangay Uling in Naga City when it hit the bus that was traveling toward Toledo City from Cebu City.br>
Police said the trailer truck was hauling a bulldozer and going downhill.br>
Traffic investigator Police Officer 2 Cristino Canono said Omayag lost control of the vehicle when the truck’s brakes malfunctioned.br>
Canono said the bus tried to swerve away from the trailer truck that hit the left side of the bus.br>
The truck dragged the bus several meters and the vehicle fell in a canal.br>
Witness Terry Bacaro, 55, said that she was in a nearby store when she saw the speeding truck honking its horn before it rammed the bus.br>
Marilou Carpentero, 44, of Toledo City, one of the injured passengers, is the mother of one of the fatalities, James Lee Carpentero.br>
Mrs. Carpentero, who suffered a cut in the forehead, said she and her son were on their way home to Toledo.br>
She said they came from the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City where her son was earlier treated for wounds he suffered after he was hit by a tree that fell near their house.br>
Carpentero said they were seated at the back portion of the bus and James Lee was pinned by the metal bars of the bus.br>
Jing Firmeza, mother of injured victim Lyle Firmeza, said that her son was celebrating his 15th birthday that day.br>
She said that her daughter was also on the bus on her way home to Toledo City when she was knocked unconscious by the collision.br>
Friday 18 January 2013br>
http://www.222.philstar.com/headlines/2013/01/18/898290/truck-rams-bus-10-killed-53-hurt-cebu

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3 dead migrants found off Greek island


Greece's coast guard says the bodies of three male would-be migrants have been retrieved in the waters off the eastern Aegean island of Chios.

Two bodies were found Sunday morning by fishermen and the third later by a coast guard vessel. The men's national origins were not immediately clear, but they may have been trying to cross into Greece from Turkey.

A coast guard spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record to media, confirmed that an autopsy on the first two bodies showed they had drowned.

Tens of thousands of illegal migrants cross into Greece annually, most over the land and sea border with Turkey.

The sea crossing, brief but often through turbulent waters and involving overloaded boats, is sometimes fatal.

Friday 18 January 2013

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20130113/eu-greece-migrants/?utm_hp_ref=sports&ir=sports

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Granville train disaster remembered


The 83 victims of Australia's worst train disaster have been remembered in a moving ceremony that also honoured the victims of the Sandy Hook school massacre in the US.

The packed 6.09am train from Mount Victoria to Sydney derailed and crashed as it approached Granville station about 8.10am on January 18, 1977.

The train smashed into a bridge, which collapsed on two carriages. In addition to the death toll, 210 people were injured.

About 250 survivors, relatives, emergency service workers and dignitaries gathered near the crash site on Friday to mark the 36th anniversary.

"The thing that surprised me is that crowds are still very large, even after all these years," said John Hennessey, president of the Granville Memorial Trust.

"It's still very raw and you could hear that in their voices and the stories they tell you."

The ceremony was held around a large granite memorial stone with the names of all the victims inscribed on it.

Twenty-six roses were laid on the stone to commemorate the teachers and children who died in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in the US in December.

The lord mayor of Parramatta, John Chedid, described the Granville tragedy as a "very, very sad day".

The national secretary of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, Bob Nanva, said the lessons of the crash must never be forgotten.

"The Granville Rail Disaster will live in our memories forever," he said in a statement. "We must ensure we never see another disaster on the same scale."

He urged the NSW government to put more funding into rail maintenance.

A report into the Granville crash concluded that a derailment was "inevitable" because the condition of the track was poor.

Friday 18 January 2013

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/granville-train-disaster-remembered-20130118-2cz0l.html#ixzz2IMNfETAX

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Eleven dead in Jakarta floods, 18,000 evacuated: Disaster agency


Eleven people have died in flood-related incidents in Jakarta, and more than 18,000 people were forced to leave their homes, Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigation Agency said on Friday.

"Floods are occurring still and since January 15, 11 people have died, five of whom from electrocution," said agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.

Friday 18 January 2013

http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/se-asia/story/eleven-dead-jakarta-floods-18000-evacuated-disaster-agency-20130118

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Foreigners still caught in Sahara hostage crisis


More than 20 foreigners were still either being held hostage or missing inside a gas plant on Friday after Algerian forces stormed the desert complex to free hundreds of captives taken by Islamist militants.

More than a day after the Algerian army launched an assault to seize the remote desert compound, much was still unclear about the number and fate of the victims, leaving countries with citizens in harm's way struggling to find hard information.

Reports on the number of hostages killed ranged from 12 to 30, with anywhere from dozens to scores of foreigners still unaccounted for.

Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, eight of whose countrymen were missing, said fighters still controlled the gas treatment plant itself, while Algerian forces now held the nearby residential compound that housed hundreds of workers.

Leaders of Britain, Japan and other countries expressed frustration that the assault had been ordered without consultation. Many countries were also withholding information about their citizens to avoid helping the captors.

Night fell quietly on the village of In Amenas, the nearest settlement, some 50 km (30 miles) from the vast and remote desert plant. A military helicopter could be seen in the sky.

An Algerian security source said 30 hostages, including at least seven Westerners, had been killed during Thursday's assault, along with at least 18 of their captors. Eight of the dead hostages were Algerian, with the nationalities of the rest of the dead still unclear, he said.

Algeria's state news agency APS put the total number of dead hostages at 12, including both foreigners and locals.

Norway's Stoltenberg said some of those killed in vehicles blasted by the army could not be identified. "We must be prepared for bad news this weekend but we still have hope."

Northern Irish engineer Stephen McFaul, who survived, said he saw four trucks full of hostages blown up by Algerian troops.

The attack has plunged international capitals into crisis mode and is a serious escalation of unrest in northwestern Africa, where French forces have been in Mali since last week fighting an Islamist takeover of Timbuktu and other towns.

"We are still dealing with a fluid and dangerous situation where a part of the terrorist threat has been eliminated in one part of the site, but there still remains a threat in another part," British Prime Minister David Cameron told his parliament.

A local Algerian source said 100 of 132 foreign hostages had been freed from the facility. However, other estimates of the number of unaccounted-for foreigners were higher. Earlier the same source said 60 were still missing. Some may be held hostage; others may still be hiding in the sprawling compound.

Two Japanese, two Britons and a French national were among the seven foreigners confirmed dead in the army's storming, the Algerian security source told Reuters. One British citizen was killed when the gunmen seized the hostages on Wednesday.

Those still unaccounted for on Friday included 10 from Japan and eight Norwegians, according to their employers, and a number of Britons which Cameron put at "significantly" less than 30

France said it had no information on two Frenchmen who may have been at the site and Washington has said a number of Americans were among the hostages, without giving details. The local source said a U.S. aircraft landed nearby on Friday.

The attackers had initially claimed to be holding 41 Western hostages. Some Westerners were able to evade capture by hiding.

They lived among hundreds of Algerian employees on the compound. The state news agency said the army had rescued 650 hostages in total, 573 of whom were Algerians.

"(The army) is still trying to achieve a ‘peaceful outcome' before neutralizing the terrorist group that is holed up in the (facility) and freeing a group of hostages that is still being held," it said, quoting a security source.

MULTINATIONAL INSURGENCY

Algerian commanders said they moved in on Thursday about 30 hours after the siege began, because the gunmen had demanded to be allowed to take their captives abroad.

A French hostage employed by a French catering company said he had hidden in his room for 40 hours under the bed, relying on Algerian employees to smuggle him food with a password.

"I put boards up pretty much all round," Alexandre Berceaux told Europe 1 radio. "I didn't know how long I was going to stay there ... I was afraid. I could see myself already ending up in a pine box."

The captors said their attack was a response to a French military offensive in neighboring Mali. However, some U.S. and European officials say the elaborate raid probably required too much planning to have been organized from scratch in the single week since France first launched its strikes.

Paris says the incident proves that its decision to fight Islamists in neighboring Mali was necessary.

Security in the half-dozen countries around the Sahara desert has long been a pre-occupation of the West. Smugglers and militants have earned millions in ransom from kidnappings.

The most powerful Islamist groups in the Sahara were severely weakened by Algeria's secularist military in a civil war in the 1990s. But in the past two years the regional wing of Al Qaeda gained fighters and arms as a result of the civil war in Libya, when arsenals were looted from Muammar Gaddafi's army.

Al Qaeda-linked fighters, many with roots in Algeria and Libya, took control of northern Mali last year, prompting the French intervention in that poor African former colony.

The Algerian security source said only two of 11 militants whose bodies were found on Thursday were Algerian, including the squad's leader. The others comprised three Egyptians, two Tunisians, two Libyans, a Malian and a Frenchman, he said.

The plant was heavily fortified, with security, controlled access and an army camp with hundreds of armed personnel between the accommodation and processing plant, Andy Coward Honeywell, who worked there in 2009, told the BBC.

The apparent ease with which the fighters swooped in from the dunes to take control of an important energy facility, which produces some 10 percent of the natural gas on which Algeria depends for its export income, has raised questions over the value of outwardly tough security measures.

Algerian officials said the attackers may have had inside help from among the hundreds of Algerians employed at the site. The attackers benefitted from bases and staging grounds across the nearby border in Libya's desert, Algerian officials said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said those responsible would be hunted down: "Terrorists should be on notice that they will find no sanctuary, no refuge, not in Algeria, not in North Africa, not anywhere.... Those who would wantonly attack our country and our people will have no place to hide."

WARNING OF MORE ATTACKS

The kidnappers threatened more attacks and warned Algerians to stay away from foreign companies' installations, according to Mauritania's news agency ANI, which maintained contact with the group during the siege.

Hundreds of workers from international oil companies were evacuated from Algeria on Thursday and many more will follow, said BP, which jointly ran the gas plant with Norway's Statoil and the Algerian state oil firm.

The overall commander of the kidnappers, Algerian officials said, was Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a one-eyed veteran of Afghanistan in the 1980s and Algeria's bloody civil war of the 1990s. He appears not to have been present.

Algerian security specialist Anis Rahmani, author of several books on terrorism and editor of Ennahar daily, told Reuters about 70 militants were involved from two groups, Belmokhtar's "Those who sign in blood", who traveled from Libya, and the lesser known "Movement of the Islamic Youth in the South".

Britain's Cameron, who warned people to prepare for bad news and who canceled a major policy speech on Friday to deal with the situation, said he would have liked Algeria to have consulted before the raid. Japan made similar complaints.

U.S. officials had no clear information on the fate of Americans. Washington, like its European allies, has endorsed France's military intervention in Mali.

Friday 18 January 2013

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/18/us-sahara-crisis-idUSBRE90F1JJ20130118

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Seven dead in Foxconn bus accident


Seven people were killed after two company buses collided in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province, on Jan 17.

Both buses were owned by Foxconn Technology Group, a PR manager surnamed Cai from the company confirmed.

The accident occurred at a crossing at about 8:40 am, the website of Zhengzhou-based Dahe Daily reported.

More than 10 were injured and sent to hospital, said the report.

Foxconn Technology Group is the world's largest maker of computer components and an important supplier to Apple. Foxconn has about 1 million employees on the Chinese mainland. More than 100,000 of them work at its Zhengzhou factory.

Friday 18 January 2013

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-01/17/content_16134323.htm

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The Modern Magic in Africa's Witchcraft Industry


Witchcraft beliefs in Africa returned to the news cycle towards the end of 2012 following reports of mass exhumations in Benin. In the dead of night, over 100 corpses were dug up from a cemetery near Porto Novo and mutilated – reportedly so that body parts could be sold on the black market. In recent months, there has also been a string of UN and NGO reports linking African witchcraft beliefs to child abuse, killings and human trafficking.

In coverage of such stories, it is often suggested that witchcraft beliefs, and the abusive practices that can follow, are deeply rooted in African tradition and local cultural heritage. An Al Jazeera documentary about witchcraft accusations and infanticide in northern Benin, for example, stresses the role that witchcraft plays in Beninese tradition and the difficulties faced by authorities in eradicating entrenched superstitions. Similarly, some reports emphasise the “traditions” that inform witchcraft-related child killings.

But while the role played by cultural heritage is undeniable, it is critical to separate ‘traditional’ elements from more modern innovations. Studies suggest that witchcraft-related practices have undergone rapid transformations in the last 20 years. According to a UNICEF report, for example, witchcraft accusations directed at children only date back around 10 or 20 years; prior to this, the accused were typically elderly women.

Today’s witchcraft beliefs and practices are as much products of modern dynamics as they are informed by long-standing tradition. Witchcraft beliefs are not remnants of ‘pre-modern’ cultures but contemporary phenomena embedded in, and partly constituted by, specific and current cultural and socio-economic contexts.

One important factor in these modern witchcraft beliefs is the recent rise of Pentecostal churches and other evangelical religions in West Africa, facilitated by modern media technologies.

Several religious figures, for example, use television and the internet to advertise their usually expensive services as exorcists. Prior to his arrest, "Bishop" Sunday Ulup-Aya in Nigeria earned $261 for each child he delivered from demonic possession. Similarly, Helen Ukpabio and her African evangelical franchise, Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries, encourage witchcraft and demon-related fears, and call on people to subscribe to the organisation or pay hefty fees for exorcisms. On her website, Ukpabio sells publications and films including titles such as Married to a Witch, The Coven and Unveiling the Mysteries of Witchcraft, the last of which sells for $25.

The use of modern media is not limited to Christian churches however. Benin has also seen the emergence of evangelical Vodun priests such as Dah Aligbonon Akpochihala, who hosts his own radio show and frequently appears on television to dispel misconceptions about the Vodun religion.

Although it is clearly too simplistic to suggest these evangelical practitioners are primarily responsible for driving witchcraft beliefs, their pervasive presence and use of popular media has inevitably contributed to the continued infusion of such beliefs into the general cultural landscape and popular conscience. The magic of the market

Market forces are also central to today’s witchcraft beliefs. Again, although we must be careful not to over-emphasise the importance of such forces, economic dimensions are inextricable from, and central to, contemporary beliefs.

On the one hand, these influences can operate from a top-down perspective. Practitioners such as Helen Ukpabio have helped create a lucrative market in anti-witchcraft goods and services, thus subjecting beliefs to the kind of marketing strategies typical of any modern capitalist industry.

Demand for charms and services that supposedly protect against sorcery have led to some shocking events in West and Central Africa. The corpse mutilations in Benin are one example. “The desecration of graves is about money in this region”, commented Joseph Afaton, director of the cemetery in Dangbo, Benin, where the desecrations took place.

In certain parts of West and Central Africa, people with albinism are said to have magical powers and an IRIN report estimates that a "complete set of albino body parts" – including all four limbs, genitals, ears, nose and tongue – can sell for about $75,000 in Tanzania.

Adding another economic layer to the issue, in many cases children accused of witchcraft end up as child labourers. Several industries in West Africa rely heavily on child labour, including cocoa farming in the Ivory Coast, and witchcraft beliefs are sometimes deliberately manipulated by human traffickers to silence victims and coerce them into accepting their fate.

From selling charms to child labour then, numerous parties stand to benefit from witchcraft beliefs and the human rights violations often facilitated by such beliefs. Toil and trouble

On the other hand, economic forces can be seen to affect witchcraft beliefs from a more bottom-up perspective.

Interestingly, the UNICEF report mentioned above suggests that child witch accusations often take place in circumstances where families are unable to support their own children. A comparative survey published in the report found that impoverished regions of Africa in which children were able to support themselves experience a far lower frequency of child witch accusations even in cases where witchcraft beliefs form part of local tradition.

Additionally, modern scares often enter into discourse about sorcery. For example, a Beninese student told Think Africa Press that, prior to a car journey, he never told anyone where or when he was travelling lest someone employ sorcery to try to kill or injure him in a car crash. Traffic accidents are indeed a significant modern danger in Benin, causing over 2% of all deaths. The UNICEF report also cites urbanisation and the dissolution of the traditional family as factors behind recent transformations in the nature of witchcraft accusations.

Sorcery in Africa is not a simple concept, as Joachim Theis, UNICEF’s child protector in West Africa, explains in an IRIN report: “It has spiritual, economic and social drivers... It gets blurred with all sorts of other beliefs, but it cannot always be put into one box”.

Witchcraft beliefs are complex, varied and dynamic. They are not purely tradition but nor are they merely a response to rapid modernisation. They overlap many areas of life and society, and are intertwined in modern processes and even legal institutions – performing witchcraft is a recognised crime in Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad and Gabon, and children can be imprisoned for it.

As well as being mindful of tradition therefore, NGOs and governmental bodies working to prevent child abuse and infanticide need to target these very modern and tangible realities: the explicit ‘witchcraft industry’, anti-witch legislation, child labour and human trafficking, poverty, urbanisation and family dissolution. If all they have left to face in the end is tradition, then they will have made considerable progress.

Friday 18 January 2013

http://thinkafricapress.com/society/african-witchcraft-modern-reality

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11 killed, scores injured as bus collide with truck


Eleven people died and scores seriously injured in a road accident along the Nairobi-Mombasa highway on Thursday night.

Police and witnesses said eight passengers died on the spot while three others succumbed to injuries at Moi District Hospital.

The bus and trailer drivers were among those killed in the Ndii area near Voi town. The stretch is a black spot.

On Friday, Taita OCPD Samson Kiine said 22 people were seriously injured in the 7pm incident.

“Nine people have so far died in the road accident and 22 others seriously injured and admitted to Voi District hospital,” said Mr Kiine.

A witness, who identified himself as Mwangi said he counted 10 bodies at the scene, while the eleventh victim reportedly died in hospital.

Mr Kiine said the bus belonging to the Star Ways Bus Company, was traveling from Mombasa to Nairobi, while the lorry was heading to Mombasa.

The police officer said the bus driver swerved to avoid hitting a stationary lorry along the highway but collided with truck.

“It appears the bus driver was speeding hence causing the accident. We are however still investigating the cause of the accident,” he told The Standard On Saturday.

He said careless driving was responsible for many road accidents and warned motorists found flouting traffic rules, would face the full force of the law.

The accident comes barely a month after 29 passengers, sustained serious injuries when their bus collided with a trailer at Taita village along the highway during the Christmas festive. More than 3,000 Kenyans die annually from road accidents.

Meanwhile, an aspirant for the TNA nominations in Ndaragwa died after he was involved in an accident along Nyahururu-Nyeri road.

Kennedy Wambugu, who was vying for Kiriita pondo county ward representative died after his vehicle rolled at Kianugu area.

Wambugu,30, was heading to Leshau from Ndaragwa tallying center in preparation for the TNA nominations. He was following up the ballot papers from the station.

According to Nyandarua OCPD Benjamin Onsongo, the vehicle he was in had a tyre burst and rolled.

Two people who he was with, among them his brother, sustained minor injuries and were treated and discharged from Nyahururu District Hospital.

The incident has caused shock among voters who expressed sympathy to his family.

“It is a big loss to us since he is the person that we were voting for. We are now confused on who to vote for the seat,” said Lucy Njoki, a voter.

Friday 18 January 2013

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000075351&story_title=Kenya-11-killed,-scores-injured-as-bus-collide-with-truck

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Dana Air Crash: Bodies Of Pilot and Co-Pilot Not Found


The bodies of the two pilots of the crashed Dana Air’s MD-83 Plane which crashed and claimed the lives of 153 passengers were not found at the site of the crash as they were completely incinerated by the post-crash inferno.

153 body bags were recovered from the site of the Dana Crash of the 3rd of June, 2012. Of that figure, the Pathologists conducting an inquest into the cause of the crash were able to identify the bodies of 148 persons.

These details were given in court on Friday when the Chief Medical Examiner and Consultant Pathologist of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Prof. John Obafunwa, testified before a Coroner Court sitting at the Lagos High Court, Ikeja.

The American Pilot, Mr. Peter Waxtan, 55, and his Indian Co-Pilot, Mr. Mahendra Rathore, 34, whose bodies were not found were among the 153 persons aboard the plane and other persons on the ground, were killed in the crash.

Prof Obafunwa, who along with other experts conducted series of postmortem tests on the bodies recovered from the crash site, said a total of nine persons among the 153 persons aboard the plane could not be identified.

He said the team of experts could not identify the bodies of the Pilot and the Co-Pilot after exhaustive deliberation and consultation.

“Bodies of other crew members were however identified.”

He said apart from Waxtan, and Rathore, who were certain to be on the plane, the other seven names of passengers on the manifest whose bodies were not found, might actually not have boarded the plane.

The consultant testified that “it is either these individuals were not on board the plane or some other passengers used their names to get on board.

“It is also possible some of them were completely incinerated” he added.

According to Prof Obafunwa, among the 148 bodies identified with their names, three of them were identified through the DNA analysis carried out in the United Kingdom and the three were discovered to be among the bodies of those who died on the ground.

Bags of body parts

Led in evidence by the counsel for the state’s Attorney General, Mr Akinjide Bakare, the pathologist said three unidentified bodies were still being kept in the mortuary

He said among the 153 body bags received by his team, two among the bags contained different parts of the body of the same person.

The pathologist also tendered in court the final report of the series of tests carried out on the bodies.

The autopsy reports on the 148 identified bodies with their names and 170 CDs of images also formed part of documents admitted as exhibits at Friday’s proceedings.

The images in the CDs, part of which were shown during the proceedings contained the X-rays, dental structure, bodies of the identified victims and bone samples of some of the victims.

Prof Obafunwa said two-thirds of the bodies removed were burnt beyond recognition, some suffered “heat fracture”, a situation whereby some limbs were completely burnt out, and some were decapitated.

Magistrate Oyetade Komolafe has adjourned till January 25 for lawyers representing Dana Air and other parties to cross-examine the Pathologist.

Friday 18 January 2013

http://www.channelstv.com/home/2013/01/18/dana-air-crash-bodies-of-pilot-and-c0-pilot-not-found/ Note by blogger: Pictures of the alleged (relatively intact) body of Captain Peter Waxtan are circulating on the Internet. If this is indeed the body of the captain, what happened to his remains? Can anyone shed light on this?

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