South Korean Ferry Tragedy: Bodies Show Signs of Decomposition


South Korea ferry tragedy

A family member of a missing passenger who was on the ferry Sewol which sank in the sea off Jindo cries while waiting for news from a rescue team, at a port in JindoReuters



The bodies recovered from the sunken South Korean ferry Sewol are believed to have shown signs of decomposition even as searchers are hoping to find survivors underwater as more than 250 still remain unaccounted for.


The victims, whose bodies were recovered on Friday (18 April), are believed to have died shortly after the passenger ship went down.


It has been more than 72 hours since the 6,825-tonne vessel carrying 476 passengers, mostly school students, capsized and sank off the southern coast.


"It's difficult to tell exactly when they died because calculating the [exact time of death] for bodies found in the water and land are different," an expert with the Crime Scene Investigation (CSI), told Seoul's Korea Herald on condition of anonymity.


Noting the recovered bodies had begun to lose rigor mortis following demise, the investigator said: "The bodies show signs that rigor mortis has disappeared. We clean the bodies found on the scene out of respect for their families. So I suppose when the [victim's] parents see the body, they could think they had been dead for only a few hours."


No one has been found alive since the vessel sank while 29 people have been confirmed dead so far.


As many as 174 passengers have been rescued and 273 others are missing.


"We've yet to get any response from survivors underwater. Divers have continued all-out operations to enter cabins, while pumping air to help them breathe. Instead of dispatching two divers at a time, we are to send up to 10 workers at the same time to speed up the job We are working to install more guide lines," South Korean coast guard official Choi Sang-hwan told reporters.


Experts believe it is technically possible to survive inside the hull for 72 hours if there are enough air pockets, but hopes are fading.



China's Twitter Weibo Rockets 19% on Nasdaq Debut


China's Twitter Weibo Surges 19% in Nasdaq Debut

The Weibo logo is seen at the NASDAQ MarketSite in Times Square, New York, in celebration of its US IPO.Reuters



China's Twitter-like service Weibo surged 19% on its stock market debut in the US, suggesting Wall Street still has an appetite for loss-making technology firms.


Weibo shares rose from $17 to a high of $24.48 in intra-day trade on 17 April, briefly valuing the firm at some $4.7bn (£2.8bn, €3.4bn).


The stock finished 19.06%, or $3.24, higher at $20.24 on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.


Weibo raised $286m through the US initial public offering (IPO), falling short of expectations because the firm decided to sell 16.8 million American Depositary Shares from the 20 million planned earlier.


Weibo will use the funds raised to invest in its business and repay debt.


Shareholding Pattern


Weibo parent Sina Corp's stake has dropped to 56.9%, from 77.6%, after the IPO.


Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is a large Weibo investor. Alibaba, which paid $585.8m for an 18% stake in Weibo in 2013, will increase its holding to 32% and appoint a director to the board.


Weibo had a valuation of $4.05bn at 17 April's close while Twitter commanded a valuation of $26.53bn.


Alibaba's Mega IPO


The Weibo IPO comes as Alibaba prepares to file for an IPO in the US.


Alibaba could raise some $16bn through the proposed stock sale, which is expected to value the Chinese internet firm at as much as $120bn.


Alibaba will use the proceeds of the upcoming share sale to snap up a raft of companies, in a bid to expand its mobile phone services.


Weibo had 144 million monthly active users as of March. Weibo, which means "microblog" in Chinese, logged a $38.1m net loss in 2013.