DVI News 23 August 2010

23/Aug/2010

Tears as 40 persons roast to death in multiple auto crash
15 August 2010. Lagos.
IT was a black Sunday for several families in Lagos, yesterday, as no fewer than 40 persons allegedly perished in a multiple auto crash that occurred at a police check point near Otedola Housing Estate, a few metres away from Berger area on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
Firefighters from both the Federal Fire Service, Lagos State Fire Service and others from corporate organizations were at the scene to put off the inferno. Also at the scene were policemen from the Lagos State Police Command, officials of Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA, etc.
The Lagos State Police spokesman, Frank Mba, who could not confirm the exact numbers of lives lost and vehicles burnt, said policemen, officials of the FRSC and LASTMA were at the scene to clear the debris to pave way for the free-flow of traffic.
Full article at:
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/08/15/40-persons-perished-in-multiple-auto-crash/

Bosnian lab helps Iraq unearth war secrets
15 August 2010.
Amela Jamakovic is part of a team of six at the laboratory of the International Commission for Missing Persons in Sarajevo that's on a daunting mission: analyzing DNA from bones found in mass graves from atrocities or natural disasters around the world and matching it to lost lives.
The researchers try to restore identity to nameless remains by comparing the DNA to genetic material collected from living relatives. The detective work has been carried out on remains of victims from the 1990s Balkan wars, the Pinochet regime in Chile, Typhoon Frank in the Philippines, Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, and Asia's December 2004 tsunami.
Those efforts have been dwarfed by the commission's latest mission: helping Iraqis find and identify the victims of the Saddam Hussein regime and its aftermath.
Officials in Baghdad estimate that 350,000 human remains are hidden in mass graves throughout the country. Human rights groups say it could be close to a million.
For the past two years, the team has been bringing Iraqi forensic archaeologists, anthropologists, nurses and other experts to Bosnia for training on collecting blood samples, excavating mass graves and setting up labs in Iraq.
Full article at:
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/international/news/20100816p2g00m0in038000c.html

Death toll from fireworks factory explosion rises to 20 in NE China
17 August 2010.
The death toll from Monday's explosion at a fireworks factory in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province has climbed to 20, with four still missing and another 153 injured.
It killed nine of the factory's 51 workers and injured 35, while four are still unaccounted for. Eight other people were killed and 35 injured when the explosion hit the neighbouring Taiye Wood Factory. The blast also killed two pedestrians and injured 83 residents near the factory.
Full article at: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-08/17/c_13448127.htm

Medical team felicitated
17 August 2010. India.
“In the case of a mass disaster, we are not supposed to hand over bodies until all the bodies have been identified,” Assistant Commissioner Prabhulinga Kavalikatti said here on Monday.
He was speaking at a function organised by Manipal University to felicitate the medical team involved in the disaster management of the May 22 air crash here. As many as 35 people were felicitated on the occasion, most of them doctors from Kasturba Medical College and A.J. Hospital and Research Centre.
Full article at: http://www.bellevision.com/index.php?action=topnews&type=715

10 killed, 20 injured in building collapse in Thane
17 August 2010. India.
At least ten persons were killed and 20 people injured, some of them seriously, when a portion of a four-storeyed building in Kalva of Thane district collapsed this evening, police said.
Full article at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thane/10-killed-20-injured-in-building-collapse-in-Thane-/articleshow/6326756.cms

Eight Dead in Ecuador Bus Crash
17 August 2010.
At least eight people were killed and 22 others injured in a bus accident Tuesday in Cotopaxi, a province in Ecuador’s Andean region, media outlets said.
The bus, which was carrying some 60 people, went off a highway and plunged into a ravine around 2:30 a.m. in the Apagua district.
The bodies of the dead were taken to the morgue in La Mana, Cotopaxi.
Full article at: http://laht.com/article.asp?CategoryId=14089&ArticleId=363502

India Floods Cause School Building Collapse, 18 Children Killed
18 August 2010.
As the heavy monsoon rains of India cause devastating floods which have seriously disrupted the lives of those living in the northern state of Uttarakhand, at least eighteen children were killed by a school building which had collapsed in the mountain area, and rescuers are still searching for more.
A mudslide which was triggered by the heavy downpours demolished the single story building from which only eight children have been rescued. At least ten other children as well as teachers are still believed to be buried under the rubble, and at least eighteen children, between the ages of six and thirteen are confirmed dead.
Full article at:
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/india/india-floods-cause-school-building-collapse-18-children-killed_100414389.html

Dentist streamlines dental record ID system
18 August 2010. Japan.
Inspired by her father's painstaking efforts to identify victims of a 1985 Japan Airlines crash, a dentist in Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture, has spearheaded the development of a new computerized system to speed up the identification of crime and accident victims through dental records.
Eiko Kosuge, 38, remembers how her father, police dentist Mizuo Shinohara, worked to identify victims of the JAL crash that claimed the lives of 520 passengers and crew on Osutaka Ridge in the prefecture.
The new computerized dental identification system is expected to significantly speed up the process of identifying bodies--work her father did manually.
The system stores digital X-ray photos of teeth in a database, to be compared with dental images from unidentified bodies for identification.
Kosuge, who enrolled in dental college to succeed her father, began to study the identification system in 1999 after she graduated.
Full article at: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T100817004059.htm

Wreckage of Plane Crash from 2007 Found in Brazil
18 August 2010.
The wreckage of a small plane missing since January 2007 was found in the west-central Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, officials said.
Two bodies and 20 kilos of cocaine were found inside the aircraft’s wreckage.
A small plane piloted by Cleverson de Souza disappeared in the area three years ago, the press reported.
Police searched for the missing aircraft for several days, but the operation was called off due to the lack of results.
The human remains and property found at the crash site have been sent to the Federal Police for identification.
Full article at: http://laht.com/content.asp?CategoryId=14090

Rescue, medical team needed to work in tandem: Forensic experts
18 August 2010. India.
Forensic experts on Wednesday told the Court of Inquiry that better coordination between the medical faculty and search and rescue (SAR) team could have expedited identification of bodies.
Dr Ritesh G Menezes, associate professor, Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, KMC, suggested that if the SAR team had tagged the bodies from which part of the aircraft/ seat they were recovered from, the identification of the badly charred bodies would have been easier.
Menezes was making this point as the identification of the body of co-pilot H S Ahluwalia had been a Herculean task as it was completely charred. The identity was finally made by the long hair he sported along with the clue given by the kin that he had a congenital anomaly.
The body of Pilot Zlatko Gluscia was easily identified on the basis of the personal effects found on the body. Dr K R Nagesh, associate professor, Department of Forensic Medicine, Fr Muller Medical College, said he had multiple injuries, deformation of the face and the body was 90% burnt. Both the pilot and co-pilots' death have been attributed due to complications arising out of multiple injuries.
Menezes said like in the case of other victims, who were badly charred it could not be confirmed whether the deaths had occurred due to ante-mortem injuries (like asphyxiation) or due to postmortem injuries like burns.
Full article at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mangalore/Rescue-medical-team-needed-to-work-in-tandem-Forensic-experts/articleshow/6332506.cms
Further details at: http://civilaviation.nic.in/mangloreCrashCOI.html

Benguet bus crash death toll up at 42
19 August 2010. Philippines.
The death toll in the bus crash in Benguet province on Wednesday rose to 42, as authorities discovered that one of the passengers was apparently pregnant, a police spokesman said on Thursday.
In a press statement, Superintendent Leon Talleo, spokesman of Cordillera police, said Sheila Marie Mangilinan Estrada was discovered to be pregnant.
The number of those injured remains at nine, he said.
The Eso Nice bus (AYB 549) fell off a 35 to 50-metre deep ravine at 9:20 a.m. Wednesday while traversing the Naguilian Road in Sablan, Benguet.
Full article at:
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view/20100819-287653/Benguet-bus-crash-death-toll-up-at-42

Police try to identify 20 railway bodies
19 August 2010. UK.
Police are hoping to use artist's impressions to identify some of the unclaimed bodies found on Britain's rail network in the last 35 years.
None of them is believed to have been the victim of foul play and most were hit by trains.
Detective Chief Superintendent Miles Flood said: "It is likely there are still relatives who may recognise them and thought they had moved away."
About 200 to 300 people are killed on the UK's railways every year.
Chief Constable Peter Neyroud, the NPIA's chief executive, said: "The NPIA is the centre of expertise for the police service in cases of missing people.
"There are around 1,000 cases of unidentified bodies across the country, dating back more than 50 years.
Full article at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11014520

Cold Case Review of Unidentified Fatalities
19 August 2010. UK.
In the first exercise of its kind, the National Policing Improvement Agency and British Transport Police have launched a review into a series of unidentified fatalities dating back 35 years.
Twenty artist's drawings of dead people found on or near Britain's rail and Tube network since the mid-70s, but who remain unidentified, have been released as part of the review.
The BTP review is the first in a line of similar reviews the NPIA is conducting with other forces across the country. Its UK Missing Persons' Bureau maintains an unidentified body database for the police service.
Under operational name Kharon, the Bureau is now providing funding and dedicated operational support so forces can conduct cold case reviews to help identify those on the database.
Full article at: http://www.npia.police.uk/en/16420.htm

Bus accident kills 22 in Himachal
19 August 2010. India.
Twenty two persons were killed, and 31 injured, when an overloaded private bus skidded off the road and plunged into a 500 feet gorge at Sanai village in Shimla district of Himachal Pradesh on Thursday evening. The victims include three women and 19 men. Only eight bodies have been identified so far due to heavy slush on the spot, and most of them are from nearby villages. Even the rescue workers faced difficulty in shifting the injured from the spot to Indira Gandhi Medical College Hospital in Shimla, as Kufri township (located on the route) was full of traffic chaos due to movement of apple trucks).
District Police Chief, Shimla, R.M.Sharma said the rains hampered recovery of the bodies.
Full article at:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Bus-accident-kills-22-in-Himachal/Article1-589043.aspx

Six killed, 5 trapped in Mumbra chawl collapse
20 August 2010. India.
On Thursday afternoon, a couple of houses in Akshay Chawl at Mumbra came crashing down on shanties below, killing six persons.
Firemen fear at least five persons are still trapped under the debris, and the death toll could rise.
Full article at:
http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/2/20100820201008200227561098ca571ff/Six-killed-5-trapped-in-Mumbra-chawl-collapse.html

Torrential rain leaves 16 dead, 66 missing in SW China's Sichuan
20 August 2010.
Sixteen people have been killed and 66 others are still missing in rain-triggered floods and landslides in southwest China's Sichuan Province over the past week, a local official said Friday.
As of Thursday, the massive Aug. 8 mudslide in Zhouqu, Gansu Province, had left 1,364 people dead and 401 others missing.
Full article at: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-08/20/c_13454593.htm

Computer viruses may have contributed to Spanish 2008 plane crash
20 August 2010.
Computer viruses may have contributed to the Spanair passenger plane crash which killed 154 people in Madrid two years ago, the daily El Pais reported Friday.
Full article at:
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1578877.php/Computer-viruses-may-have-contributed-to-Spanish-2008-plane-crash

15 flood victims drowned by capsizing rescue boat
20 August 2010. Pakistan.
As many as 15 flood-affected people reportedly drowned when a rescue boat carrying 20 flood victims capsized near Dadu-Moru Bridge here in Nowshera-Feroz on Friday. The rescue boat owing to swept floodwater and overloading capsized near Dadu-Moru Bridge.
Full article at:
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/20-Aug-2010/15-flood-victims-drowned-by-capsizing-rescue-boat

Nearly 20,000 Murders in Venezuela Last Year, Government Says
20 August 2010.
Venezuela registered 19,133 murders in 2009, which places the rate of homicides in the country at 75 for every 100,000 inhabitants, according to a study by the National Statistics Institute, or INE, cited Friday by the press. Nearly 80 percent of last year’s murders in Venezuela were committed with firearms, according to INE data.
Full article at: http://laht.com/article.asp?CategoryId=10717&ArticleId=363879

Post-mortems on three who drowned at sea
21 August 2010. New Zealand.
Post-mortems on the bodies of the three fishermen who drowned at sea this week were expected to be carried out on Saturday.
The Indonesian men died when the fishing trawler on which they were working, the Oyang 70, capsized and sank in the Pacific Ocean east of Dunedin early on Wednesday morning.
Three other crew members - including the Korean captain - are missing and presumed drowned.
Full article at:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/54851/post-mortems-on-three-who-drowned-at-sea

Plea to exhume Hawley Crippen’s Body
22 August 2010. UK.
THE secrets of one of Britain’s most notorious killers may soon come to light in a dramatic twist to a 100-year-old crime.
Legal moves to have the body of “Dr” Hawley Crippen exhumed could lead to a posthumous pardon.
Crippen, the first fugitive to be captured by wireless telegraphy, was hanged after the remains of his wife Cora, 37, were discovered under the cellar at their home in Holloway, north London.
Recent DNA tests on samples taken at the time of the crime, in 1910, proved the body was a man.
Full article at:
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/194679/Plea-to-exhume-Hawley-Crippen-s-body

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