BJP seeks disqualification of rebel MLAs in Karnataka

BANGALORE: Two BJP MLAs submitted a memorandum to assembly Speaker's office on Monday seeking the disqualification of former CM B S Yeddyurappa's 13 supporters.

The complainants — Belur Gopalakrishna and Sarvabhouma Bagli — want 13 MLAs disqualified for their 'anti-party activities.'

Along with the memorandum, they also submitted some evidence, both documentary and visual to prove the association of the 13 BJP MLAs with the KJP.

"The petitions have been given to the assembly secretary, as he is the authority to receive our petitions. They (Yeddyurappa loyalists) will not resign, but are only enacting a drama," said Belur Gopalakrishna.

Meanwhile, former PWD minister CM Udasi, a Yeddyurappa loyalist, said all the 13 MLAs would tender their resignations to the Speaker on Tuesday.

Sources said Yeddyurappa was trying to garner the support of more MLAs to topple the government. However, speaking to reporters, Yeddyurappa said his intention was not to bring down the government.

The resignation of MLAs would prompt the governor to direct CM Jagadish Shettar to prove his majority in the assembly.

Legal view

Former advocate general B V Acharya said the petition for disqualification was meaningless when the MLAs are voluntarily willing to give up their assembly membership.

"It is like preventing a person who wants to commit suicide by saying that he would be hanged after a trial. Meaningless. The disqualification takes a lot of time. The Speaker can't keep the resignations pending for long. After verifying the identity and ascertaining that the member is voluntarily giving up the membership, the Speaker has to accept the resignations," Acharya said.

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Soldier who lost 4 limbs has double-arm transplant


The first soldier to survive after losing all four limbs in the Iraq war has received a double-arm transplant in Baltimore.


His father says Brendan Marrocco (muh-ROCK-oh) had the operation on Dec. 18 at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Marrocco is 26 and lives in New York City. He was injured by a roadside bomb in 2009.


He also received bone marrow from the same dead donor who supplied his new arms. That novel approach is aimed at helping his body accept the new limbs with minimal medication to prevent rejection.


It is the seventh double-hand or double-arm transplant done in the United States. The military is sponsoring operations like these to help wounded troops. About 300 have lost arms or hands in the wars.


Surgeons plan to discuss the transplant Tuesday.


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Grand Jury Wanted to Indict JonBenet's Parents













A grand jury believed there was enough evidence in 1999 to indict John and Patsy Ramsey on charges relating to the still-unsolved killing of their beauty queen daughter JonBenet Ramsey, ABC News sources say.


Six-year-old JonBenet was found dead in the basement of her family's upscale Boulder, Colo., home Christmas Day 1996. Suspicion fell on her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, but they insisted an intruder was to blame and they were never prosecuted.


In an interview with ABC News' Barbara Walters after her death, both of the girl's parents denied that they had killed her. They were eventually cleared by prosecutors.








JonBenet Ramsey Case: New Grand Jury Report Watch Video









After meeting for more than a year, a grand jury found sufficient evidence to indict the couple on charges of child abuse resulting in death, as first reported Sunday by the Boulder Daily Camera newspaper and confirmed by two separate sources by ABC News.


"This grand jury, in effect, came up with a compromise finding, 'No, it's not murder,' but, 'Yes, we think they were responsible' for the death based on abuse," ABC News legal analyst Dan Abrams said.


PHOTOS: JonBenet Ramsey: Never-Before-Seen Photos


But District Attorney Alex Hunter refused to sign off on the grand jury's decision, saying there was too little proof.


"I and my prosecution task force believe we do not have sufficient evidence to warrant the filing of charges against anyone who has been investigated at this time," Hunter said then.


Hunter believed a conviction would be impossible. Abrams said that he agrees with the decision.


"I've seen the majority of the case files and I think Alex Hunter made the right call," he said. "I think there simply was not enough evidence to move forward."


Patsy Ramsey died in 2006 after a battle with ovarian cancer. John Ramsey remarried. His attorney told ABC News that Hunter is "a hero who wisely avoided a miscarriage of justice."


The case is still officially open but, as in 1996, investigators seem no closer to solving the crime this year, when JonBenet would have turned 23.



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Nightclub fire kills at least 232 in Brazil


SANTA MARIA, Brazil (Reuters) - A fire in a nightclub killed at least 232 people in southern Brazil on Sunday when a band's pyrotechnics show set the building ablaze and fleeing partygoers stampeded toward blocked and overcrowded exits in the ensuing panic, officials said.


The blaze in the university town of Santa Maria was started by a band member or someone from its production team igniting a flare, which then set fire to the ceiling, said Luiza Sousa, a civil police official. The fire spread "in seconds," she said.


Local fire officials said at least one exit was locked and that bouncers, who at first thought those fleeing were trying to skip out on bar tabs, initially blocked patrons from leaving. The security staff relented only when they saw flames engulfing the ceiling.


The vast majority of the victims, most of them university students, died from asphyxiation, officials said. Others were crushed in the stampede.


"We ran into a barrier of the dead at the building's exit," Colonel Guido Pedroso de Melo, commander of the Santa Maria fire squad, said of the scene firefighters found on arrival. "We had to clear a path to get to the rest of those that were inside."


An estimated 500 people were in the Boate Kiss nightclub when the fire broke out at around 2:30 a.m., police said. Witnesses said the club, which has a 2,000-person capacity, was always busy on weekends but wasn't any more crowded than usual.


The death tally was lowered slightly, with police saying at midafternoon that 232 people had been killed, down from an initial figure of 245.


When the fire began, many revelers were unable to find their way out amid the chaos, confusing restroom doors for exits and finding resistance from bouncers when they did find an exit door.


"It all happened so fast," survivor Taynne Vendrusculo told GloboNews TV. "Both the panic and the fire spread rapidly, in seconds."


Once security guards realized the building was on fire, they tried in vain to control the blaze with a fire extinguisher, according to a televised interview with one of the guards, Rodrigo Moura. He said patrons were getting trampled as they rushed for the doors, describing it as "a horror film."


Television footage showed people sobbing outside the club before dawn, while shirtless firefighters used sledge hammers and axes to knock down an exterior wall to open up an exit.


SAFETY STANDARDS IN SPOTLIGHT


Rescue officials moved the bodies to a local gymnasium, where the deceased were segregated by gender. Male victims were easier to identify, they said, because most of them, unlike the women, whose purses were left scattered in the devastated nightclub, had identification on them.


One of the club's owners had already surrendered to police for questioning, GloboNews reported.


President Dilma Rousseff, who started her political career in the Rio Grande do Sul state where the fire happened, cut short a visit to Chile to return to visit the scene. Before leaving Chile, she broke out in tears as she pledged government help for the victims and their families.


"We are trying to mobilize all possible resources to help in the rescue efforts," Rousseff said. "All I can say at the moment is that my feelings are of deep sorrow."


The disaster recalls other incidents including a 2003 fire at a nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island, that killed 100, and a Buenos Aires nightclub blaze in 2004 that killed nearly 200. In both incidents, a band or members of the audience ignited fires that set the establishment ablaze.


Brazil's safety standards and emergency response capabilities are under particular scrutiny as it prepares to host the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament and the 2016 Olympics.


Santa Maria, with a population of more than 275,000, is about 186 miles west of the state capital of Porto Alegre.


Rio Grande do Sul state's health secretary, Ciro Simoni, said emergency medical supplies from all over the state were being sent to the scene.


(Additional reporting by Guillermo Parra-Bernal, Gustavo Bonato, Jeferson Ribeiro, Eduardo Simões and Brian Winter; Writing by Paulo Prada; Editing by Todd Benson, Kieran Murray and Eric Beech)



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Major floods sweep northeast Australia






SYDNEY: Two people were missing and the body of a third person was recovered from raging floodwaters as severe storms pounded northeastern Australia on Sunday, forcing more than 1,000 to flee their homes.

Army aircraft were deployed in the northern state of Queensland, where storms generated by former tropical cyclone Oswald unleashed punishing rains and localised tornadoes and floodwaters threatened several major towns.

One woman was plucked to safety in Biloela, 600 kilometres northwest of the state capital Brisbane, after she spent eight hours clinging to a tree.

At Gympie, north of Brisbane, three families waited on the roofs of their homes for seven hours before rescue helicopters, hampered by high winds, managed to reach them, town mayor Ron Dyne said.

A 27-year-old man was missing after he tried to cross a swollen creek near Gympie, and state Premier Campbell Newman said there were serious concerns for another young woman.

"Emergency services are searching for a young woman who reportedly drove into waters near Pacific Haven this morning, and we have grave fears for her safety," Newman told reporters.

Separately on Sunday, police said the body of an elderly man who went to check on a yacht had been recovered from waters north of Bundaberg, where the engorged Burnett River broke its banks and was expected to engulf 300 homes.

Bundaberg was among dozens of towns devastated by floods in Queensland two years ago that claimed 35 lives. Newman said residents there were bracing for the river to peak above nine metres, well in excess of the 7.92 metres seen in 2011.

Further north at Gladstone, about 900 homes were evacuated and several towns in the region were already isolated by the rising waters.

Across the state some 58,000 homes were without power and that number was growing by the hour, according to Newman.

"We are right in the middle of this now, I can hear it bucketing down on the roof as we speak," he said.

Authorities warned residents in New South Wales to prepare for possible flash floods and strong winds of up to 100 kilometres per hour on Monday as the storm system moves further south, the AAP news agency reported.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the emergency had revived "memories of the floods of two summers ago", which she said were "still fresh".

The Insurance Council of Australia declared a statewide catastrophe, noting that there had already been "severe inundation... in several towns and cities" and that major flood warnings had been issued.

"Unfortunately, this catastrophe declaration is the result of the first cyclone to come close to the coast this season, and the weather bureau has warned it's highly possible we will see more before the end of summer," said council chief Rob Whelan.

At least one international flight was diverted from Brisbane to Sydney due to the high winds and Qantas cancelled a number of domestic services, with the Sunshine Coast regional airport shut down.

A staggering 1-1.5 metres of rain was estimated to have fallen since the storms began.

Cyclones and floods are common in Australia's northeast during the warmer summer months. A massive inundation of Queensland in 2011 killed 35 people and brought Brisbane to a standstill for several days, swamping some 30,000 homes.

Brisbane was expected to be spared the kind of flooding seen two years ago, with officials predicting 3,600 homes and 1,250 businesses will be inundated, none in the central city.

- AFP/de



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The missing deadline, T-Congress leaders to face heat

HYDERABAD: While AICC general secretary Gulam Nabi Azad's re-iteration on going back on Telangana deadline did not come as a surprise for them on Sunday, the T-protagonists including Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and Telangana Political Joint Action Committee (T-JAC) sought to step up the pressure on Telangana Congress leaders and yet again urged them to quit the party.

Even as TRS Chief K Chandrashekar Rao has already called upon the T-Congress leaders to leave their party to join hands with him, his son and Sircilla MLA K Taraka Rama Rao, reacting to Azad's Sunday-statement, said the onus now was on the Congress leaders from Telangana.

"Now that it is even more clear that the Congress is not to respect democratic principles and honour its self-declared deadline on Telangana. But, this would test the sincerity of Telangana Congress leaders. We have already urged them to quit the party to strengthen the movement, if they are honestly committed to the cause of Telangana. If they don't do it, then the TRS and T-JAC would intensify the agitation mainly targeting the Congress ministers, MPs, and MLAs," said KTR.

However, the T-Congress MPs sought to place the blame on chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy for sabotaging the process of the formation of Telangana state. In a scathing attack on the CM, Peddapalli MP G Vivekanand said, "The main culprit is the chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy. He has misled the Congress high command saying there was no mass support for the demand of Telangana. Unless we overcome such elements, we cannot achieve the separate statehood for Telangana."

Reacting to the demand of the Telangana activists that the T-Congress must quit the party, Vivek said they would take an appropriate step after assessing the situation. He said the T-Congress MPs would meet on Monday to deliberate on the future course of action and they would consider writing to AICC president Sonia Gandhi.

While speculations are rife on the T-Congress MP's quitting the party either to form their own political outfit or join TRS, senior Congress leader K Keshava Rao said they would take some more time before taking a final call.

"It is very unfortunate that the Congress high command allowing people like Azad to speak so irresponsibly on a sensitive issue like Telangana. But, we still trust the high command, and hope that the Centre would announce the process for the formation of Telangana state. We would wait for a week so before deciding on the further course of action," KK said.

Seeking to assuage the grimness of the situation, panchayat raj minister Jana Reddy said there was no need for the Congress leaders to think of extreme step, as he still believed that the party high command would initiate a forward movement on Telangana.

"The Congress high command is never against Telangana, and I hope a positive announcement would be made very shortly. It is the time for us to be patient, and co-operate with the government to take appropriate steps," Jana Reddy said.

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CDC: Flu seems to level off except in the West


New government figures show that flu cases seem to be leveling off nationwide. Flu activity is declining in most regions although still rising in the West.


The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says hospitalizations and deaths spiked again last week, especially among the elderly. The CDC says quick treatment with antiviral medicines is important, in particular for the very young or old. The season's first flu case resistant to treatment with Tamiflu was reported Friday.


Eight more children have died from the flu, bringing this season's total pediatric deaths to 37. About 100 children die in an average flu season.


There is still vaccine available although it may be hard to find. The CDC has a website that can help.


___


CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/


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Brazil Nightclub Fire: 232 Dead, Hundreds Injured













A blaze raced through a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, killing 232 people as the air filled with deadly smoke and panicked party-goers stampeded toward the exits, police and witnesses said. It appeared to be the world's deadliest nightclub fire in more than a decade.



Witnesses said that a flare or firework lit by band members may have started the fire.



Police Maj. Cleberson Braida Bastianello said by telephone that officials counted 232 bodies that had been brought for identification to a gymnasium in the city of Santa Maria, at the southern tip of Brazil near the borders with Argentina and Uruguay.



Another 117 people were being treated at hospitals, he said, and President Dilma Roussef arrived to visit victims after cutting short participation at a Latin American-European summit in Chile.



Bastianello said the recount lowered the toll from 245 earlier believed killed.



Television images showed smoke pouring out of the Kiss nightclub as shirtless, young male partygoers joined firefighters in wielding axes and sledgehammers, pounding at windows and walls to break through to those trapped inside. Teenagers sprinted from the scene desperately trying to find help. Others carried injured and burned friends away in their arms.



"There was so much smoke and fire, it was complete panic and it took a long time for people to get out, there were so many dead," survivor Luana Santos Silva told the Globo TV network.






Germano Roratto/AFP/Getty Images








Silva added that firefighters and ambulances responded quickly after the fire broke out, but that it spread too fast inside the packed club for them to help.



Michele Pereira, another survivor, told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that she was near the stage and that the fire broke out after members of the band lit flares.



"The band that was onstage began to use flares and, suddenly, they stopped the show and pointed them upward. At that point the ceiling caught fire. It was really weak but in a matter of seconds it spread," Pereira said.



Most of the dead apparently suffocated, according to Dr. Paulo Afonso Beltrame, a professor at the medical school of the Federal University of Santa Maria who raced the city's Caridade Hospital to help victims.



He said survivors, police and firefighters told him a flare set off by a band member set the ceiling's soundproofing ablaze. "Large amounts of toxic smoke quickly filled the room and I would say that at least 90 percent of the victims died of asphyxiation," Beltrame told The Associated Press by telephone.



"The toxic smoke made people lose their sense of direction so they were unable to find their way to the exit. At least 50 bodies were found inside a bathroom. Apparently they confused the bathroom door with the exit door."



"In the hospital I saw desperate friends and relatives walking and running down the corridors looking for information. It was one of the saddest scenes I have ever witnessed," he added.



Rodrigo Moura, identified by the newspaper Diario de Santa Maria as a security guard at the club, said it was at its maximum capacity of between 1,000 and 2,000, and partygoers were pushing and shoving to escape.



Beltrame also said he was told the club was filled far past its capacity during a party for students at the university's department of agronomy. The event featured a group called Gurizada Fandangueira, which plays a driving mixture of local Brazilian country music styles. It was not immediately clear if the band members were among the victims.





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At least 26 die in Egyptian clashes over death sentences


PORT SAID, Egypt/CAIRO (Reuters) - At least 26 people died on Saturday when Egyptians rampaged in protest at the sentencing of 21 people to death over a soccer stadium disaster, adding to bloody street turmoil confronting Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.


Armored vehicles and military police fanned through the streets of Port Said after the violence. The state news agency quoted a general as saying the military aimed to "establish calm and stability in Port Said and to protect public institutions".


Unrest flared with nationwide rallies on Friday to mark the second anniversary of the overthrow of autocrat Hosni Mubarak, a democratic revolution that protesters now accuse Mursi of betraying by ramming through an Islamist-hued constitution.


While anniversary-related violence subsided, a new outbreak hit Port Said after a court sentenced 21 men to die for involvement in the deaths of 74 people after a local soccer match on February 1, 2012, many of them fans of the visiting team.


Residents ran wildly through the streets of Port Said, outraged that men from their city had been blamed for the stadium disaster, and gunshots were reported near the prison where most of the defendants were being held.


Security sources said 26 people, at least two of them policemen, had been killed in the Mediterranean coastal city. State television reported more than 200 people had been wounded.


Witnesses said some men stormed two police stations in Port Said, where protesters lit tires in the street, sending black smoke funneling into the air.


At least nine people were killed in clashes with police on Friday, mainly in the port of Suez where the army has also deployed. Hundreds were injured as police rained down tear gas on protesters armed with stones and some with petrol bombs.


The schism between Islamists and secular Egyptians is hurting efforts by Mursi, freely elected in June, to revive an economy in crisis - deprived of fresh investment and tourism due to political upheaval - and stem a slide in Egypt's currency.


The political strife and lack of security that has blighted the Arab world's most populous country over much of the post-Mubarak era is casting an ominous shadow over a parliamentary election expected to start in April.


DIVERSITY


Highlighting tensions, the opposition National Salvation Front coalition called for a government of national unity and an early presidential vote among other demands. It said it would call for more protests next Friday and could boycott the parliamentary election if its demands are not met.


Mursi's opponents say he has failed to deliver on economic pledges or be a president representing the full political and communal diversity of Egyptians, as he pledged.


His supporters say his critics do not respect the democracy that has given Egypt its first freely elected leader.


The Muslim Brotherhood, which propelled Mursi to office, said in a statement that "corrupt people" and media who were biased against the president had stirred up anger on the street and incited violence.


At the Port Said soccer stadium a year ago, many spectators were crushed and witnesses saw some thrown off balconies after the match between Cairo's Al Ahly and local team al-Masri.


Families of victims in court cheered and wept for joy when Judge Sobhy Abdel Maguid read a list of 21 names "referred to the Mufti", a phrase used to denote execution, as all death sentences must be reviewed by Egypt's top religious authority.


A total of 73 people have been standing trial. Other rulings will be issued on March 9, the judge said.


One relative in the court shouted: "God is greatest." Outside the Al Ahly club in Cairo, fans also cheered. They had threatened more violence unless the death penalty was meted out.


Thousands took to the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and other cities on Friday to protest against what they call the creeping authoritarianism of Mursi's rule. Protesters in Cairo were again hurling stones at police lines in Cairo on Saturday.


SEEKING CHANGE


"We want to change the president and the government. We are tired of this regime. Nothing has changed," said Mahmoud Suleiman, 22, in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the cauldron of the 2011 anti-Mubarak revolt and near where youths stoned police.


Ahmed Salama, 28, a protester camped out with dozens of others in Tahrir, said: "The protests will continue until we realize all the demands of the revolution - bread, freedom and social justice."


Ismailia and Suez, cities which like Port Said lie on the Suez Canal, witnessed some of the worst violence on Friday. But a canal official said the unrest on Friday and Saturday had not disrupted traffic in the waterway vital to international trade.


In a statement in response to Friday's violence, Mursi said the state would not hesitate in "pursuing the criminals and delivering them to justice". He urged Egyptians to respect the principles of the revolution by expressing views peacefully.


The president met on Saturday with the National Defence Council, which includes senior ministers and security officials, to discuss the spate of violence.


In a televised statement, the National Salvation Front said it was holding Mursi responsible for the disturbances.


The Front was formed from disparate groups last year when Mursi awarded himself extra powers and fast-tracked an Islamist-flavored constitution to a referendum, opposed by the Front although the document was passed in the popular vote.


"Egypt will not regain its balance except by a political solution that is transparent and credible, by a government of national salvation to restore order and heal the economy and with a constitution for all Egyptians," prominent opposition politician Mohamed ElBaradei wrote on his Twitter account.


Until the Front was formed, the opposition had struggled to unite and their vote had been split at presidential and parliamentary polls, helping Islamists. The last parliament was dissolved based on court order, demanding a new vote this year.


Mustapha Kamal Al-Sayyid, a professor of political science at Cairo University, said the latest violence reflected the frustration of many liberal-minded Egyptians and others.


"The state of polarization between Islamists and others is most likely to continue and will have a very negative impact on the state's politics, security and economy," he said.


Inspired by the popular uprising in Tunisia, Egypt's revolution spurred further revolts across the Arab world. But the sense of common purpose among Egyptians two years ago has unraveled, triggering bloody street battles last month.


(Additional reporting by Omar Fahmy; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Mark Heinrich)



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10 police killed in Afghanistan suicide attack: official






KABUL: At least 10 policemen were killed and 18 others, mostly civilians, were wounded in a suicide attack Saturday in a crowded area of the northeast Afghan city of Kunduz, provincial authorities said.

The attacker, who was on foot, detonated his explosives next to a group of police officers, according to several sources.

"We have 10 dead, including the counter terrorism police chief and head of traffic police and their bodyguards," Sayed Sarwar Hussani, Kunduz police spokesman told AFP.

Thirteen civilians and five policemen were wounded in the blast, Hussani said, adding that the final death toll may rise.

The attack was "the work of the enemies of Afghanistan", he said, using a phrase common among Afghan officials to describe Taliban insurgents.

AFP could not immediately reach the Taliban for comment on the attack, which has so far not been claimed by any group.

Afghanistan's interior ministry and the provincial governor spokesman Enayatullah Khaleeq confirmed the toll.

According to the head of the Kunduz health department, Saad Mukhtar, 19 people in total were wounded in the attack, which police officials said took place around 5:20 pm, 12:50 GMT.

Such attacks have in the past been blamed on Taliban insurgents who are leading an 11-year insurgency against the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.

Taliban militants have stepped up their fight against Afghan troops as the country's forces are increasingly taking over security responsibility from US-led NATO troops.

Earlier Saturday, a suicide attacker on a bicycle killed two civilians in southeastern Afghanistan's Ghazni province, and on Friday a suicide bomber in a car attacked a NATO convoy in Afghanistan's strategic Kapisa province, killing at least five civilians and wounding 15 others.

Also this week a squad of Taliban suicide bombers attacked Kabul traffic police headquarters in the heart of the city, killing three police officers and wounding dozens others.

The attacks come at a crucial juncture for Afghanistan as US-led NATO troops are preparing for their withdrawal from the country by the end of 2014. Afghan and international observers have predicted a civil war could grip the country once foreign troops have pulled out.

- AFP/jc



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