Video of Russian Night Club Fire.

Deathtoll in Russian nightclub fire reaches 109
(AP)

MOSCOW — Russia's top investigative body says the number of people who died in a nightclub fire in the Urals city of Perm has risen to 109.

The Investigative Committee says 98 died on the spot and 11 others later died in hospitals.
The victims crushed each other to death and suffocated after the fire tore through the popular Lame Horse nightclub in Perm late Friday, filling the crowded barracks-like building with thick black smoke.
The Investigative Committee said Saturday that some 130 people were injured and many remain in critical condition.

Panicked clubgoers crushed each other to death in a popular Russian nightspot as they tried to flee a fast-moving fire that one eyewitness told The Associated Press was started by pyrotechnic fountains set up on the stage.

Officials said 103 people died when the fire tore through the popular Lame Horse nightclub in the city of Perm late Friday, filling the crowded barracks-like building with thick black smoke. Authorities said they arrested the registered owner of the club and the manager.

Officials said the club managers ignored repeated demands from authorities to change the club's interior to comply with fire safety standards. "They have neither brains, nor conscience," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said, urging a tough punishment for the culprits.

Officials said most of the dead suffocated or were crushed at the exit.

"The fire spread very quickly," said Marina Zabbarova, chief investigator for the local prosecutor's office. "Panic arose which led to a mass death of people."

News footage shot later outside the Lame Horse showed charred bodies lying in rows on the ground amid a light snowfall. Rescue workers carried bodies on stretchers into waiting vans.

Svetlana Kuvshinova, who was in the nightclub when the blaze broke out, told the AP it started after three fireworks fountains spewed sparks, igniting the plastic ceiling.

"The fire took seconds to spread," she said. "It was like a dry haystack. There was only one way out. They nearly stampeded me."

Another clubgoer said panic spread quickly through the crowd.

"There was only one exit, and people starting breaking down the doors to get out," said a woman who identified herself only as Olga, smeared with soot and wearing a filthy fur coat. "They were breaking the door and panic set in. Everything was in smoke. I couldn't see anything."

A video recorded by one of the clubgoers and run by Russian television stations showed flames engulfing the ceiling decorated with willow twigs as a host shouted in a casual tone: "Ladies and Gentlemen, guests of the club, we are on fire. Please leave the hall!"

People reluctantly and slowly began heading toward the exit, some of them turning back to look at the burning ceiling, but then rushed away in panic as flames quickly spread around seconds later.

Authorities set about identifying bodies Saturday morning, as ambulances delivered some of the more than 130 injured to planes waiting at the airport, where they were being evacuated to Moscow hospitals.
Medical authortities said nearly 90 of the injured were in critical condition.

Firefighters were on the scene in downtown Perm one minute after the alarm was called in, the Emergency Situations Ministry said, and they took less than an hour to put the fire out.

Zabbarova, the top investigator, said that there was no suspicion of a terrorist attack.

Russia has been on edge since last week's bombing of the high-speed Nevsky Express passenger train midway between Moscow and St. Petersburg, which killed 27 in the first deadly terrorist attack outside Russia's restive Caucasus republics since 2004. Chechen rebels claimed responsibility for the blast.

Perm, a city of around 1 million people, is about 700 miles (1,200 kilometers) east of Moscow in the Ural Mountains.

Enforcement of fire safety standards is notoriously lax in Russia and there have been several catastrophic blazes at drug-treatment facilities, nursing homes, apartment buildings and night clubs in recent years.
Medvedev, who summoned top officials to report on the fire and rescue efforts, urged changes in the law to toughen punishment for violation of fire safety standards.

Russia records nearly 18,000 fire deaths a year, several times the per-capita rate in the United States and other Western countries. Nightclub fires have killed thousands of people worldwide.

Ten people died when an entertainer's clothing was ignited during a so-called "fire show" at a Moscow club in March 2007.

In February 2008, a fire in the Golden Rock nightclub in the Siberian city of Omsk killed four people. Officials said the blast might have been caused by natural gas.

A nightclub fire in the U.S. state of Rhode Island in 2003 killed 100 people after pyrotechnics used as a stage prop by the 1980s rock band Great White set ablaze cheap soundproofing foam on the walls and ceiling.

Swiss Ban Minarets, Obama Looks At Washington Monument And Goes "Hmm"

GENEVA – Swiss voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on minarets on Sunday, barring construction of the iconic mosque towers in a surprise vote that put Switzerland at the forefront of a European backlash against a growing Muslim population.

"The Swiss have failed to give a clear signal for diversity, freedom of religion and human rights," said Omar Al-Rawi, integration representative of the Islamic Denomination in Austria, which said its reaction was "grief and deep disappointment."

Admiral Mike Mullen on Afghan Surge

Well Done Honduras! Score one for the good guys.

Mr Zelaya says the Congress session would have no legal basis. He is wrong of course. The effetes from Spain, Brazil and Argentina do not want to recognize Honduras.

Honduras stood its ground and the despicable Zelaya diminishes by the day holed up like the rat he is in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa.

Excellent. Score one for the good guys



This clip is in Spanish, but subtitled and with some amusing comments. Enjoy it. It is so refreshing to see the people of a country be able to overthrow a repressive regime and to have the guts to do so with world pressure against them.

_______________________


Honduran Congress votes down Zelaya's reinstatement

BBC

Congress in Honduras has voted overwhelmingly against allowing ousted President Manuel Zelaya to serve out the last two months of his term.

Of the 125 members of Congress present, 111 voted against his reinstatement.

Mr Zelaya, who was ousted in June, had told the BBC that he would refuse reinstatement in any case because he did not want "to legitimise a coup".

Conservative politician Porfirio Lobo won Sunday's presidential elections, which were condemned by Mr Zelaya.
As well as Brazil, several other nations, including Argentina and Venezuela, have refused to recognise the vote, arguing it was held under an illegitimate government.

The US cautiously welcomed the polls, and Peru, Panama, Colombia and Costa Rica also voiced their support.

'Honduran reality'

After Congress voted not to reinstate him until his term ends in January, Mr Zelaya said: "This decision ratifies a coup and condemns Honduras to continue living in illegality."

On Monday, he had said the election of Mr Lobo as the next president had served only to intensify the political crisis.

Speaking to BBC Mundo from inside the Brazilian embassy where he took refuge in September, he said: "Will the elections change the military leadership that conducted the coup that ousted me? It remains the same. Will the elections change the composition of the Supreme Court that issued an arrest warrant [against me] without due cause? It remains the same," Mr Zelaya said.

Mr Lobo, who lost to Mr Zelaya in the 2005 election, has pledged to form a unity government and seek dialogue.
Mr Lobo, who is due to take office on 27 January, also urged the international community to "understand the Honduran reality and stop punishing the country".

Mr Zelaya was forced into exile on 28 June after trying to hold a vote on whether a constituent assembly should be set up to look at rewriting the constitution.

His critics said the vote, which was ruled illegal by the Supreme Court, aimed to remove the current one-term limit on serving as president and pave the way for his possible re-election.

Mr Zelaya has repeatedly denied this and pointed out that it would have been impossible to change the constitution before his term in office was up.

Obama's Afghanistan Mission Impossible

Obama says 30,000 troops are vital to our national interest. That national interest has an announced shelf life. It expires in 18 months.

The plan calls for a rapid building of an Afghanistan army and police force. This stated goal has not happened over the last 8 years, but we are asked to believe it will happen over the next 18 months.

Assume you are a new recruit, prepared to grab a paycheck as a future Afghan soldier. Your local Taliban representative shows up and reminds you that in 18 months the Americans are leaving and that the Taliban is not.

I don't care if they get 250,000 in uniforms, the week the Americans pull out, that army will evaporate.

Obama also says that he can reduce corruption which is in the Afghani DNA. That is absurd. Anyone on the take today, will grab as much as he can as fast as he can and do so before the money train leaves town. Corruption will go up not down.

Obama knows he has painted himself into a corner. This is not about winning. It is all about leaving. It is the political cover for a politician that has been trying to be all things to all people.

The future of Afghanistan will not be much different from its past. The best we can hope for is that will be the distant past not the recent past.

Is there a sensible alternative? Probably not. Obama didn't create this mess. George Bush tested the limits of US military power and Obama is charged with facing the consequences of the overreach.

Obama goes to "enemy camp" at West Point: says Chris Matthews, loathsome loadstone of MSNBC

West Point is ‘The Enemy Camp’
Posted by Erick Erickson Redstate
Tuesday, December 1st at 10:52PM EST

After a week of media ridicule over Barack Obama calling everything he does from flushing the Oval Office toilet to sneering at the press “unprecedented,” he wisely did not use that word in front of West Point graduates — soldiers who have been trained to repel the invading hordes of British soldiers, fight a Civil War, two world wars, etc.

Nonetheless, there was an interesting word choice used by one of Obama’s sycophants in the media. NewsBusters notes Chris Matthews of MSNBC referred to West Point as “the enemy camp.” Matthews said, “He went to maybe the enemy camp tonight to make his case. I mean, that’s where Paul Wolfowitz used to write speeches for, back in the old Bush days. That’s where he went to rabble rouse the “we’re going to democratize the world” campaign back in ‘02. So, I thought it was a strange venue.”

Cop killer goes back for seconds

Seattle police officer Benjamin L. Kelly is being hailed as a hero for his actions early Tuesday morning, in which he single-handedly shot and killed Maurice Clemmons, the man wanted in Sunday's killings of four Pierce County officers.

After an intense, two-day manhunt for Clemmons, Kelly had stopped to check out a stolen car parked on the side of a road in Rainier Valley. Clemmons was outside the car. Kelly recognized him from police bulletins and ordered him to put up his hands, police said. When he refused, Kelly shot Clemmons.

Seattle police officers said they believed that the South Seattle incident - in which Clemmons had the hood up and motor running of a stolen car - may have been an attempted ambush of police officers by Clemmons.

This guy was walking around for two days with a gut shot that had been covered by amateurs with gauze and duct tape.

He was the subject of the most intense manhunt in recent Pac Northwest history.

He was leaving behind a long trail of friends and family who will now all go to jail for aiding and abetting a fugitive (all of whom were too stupid to call it in and collect the $100,000 reward money, which would have at least compensated for the $19,000 they scraped together to bail him out of jail in the first place).

But what was his priority? Get out of Dodge? No, it was to pull over with a perfectly good stolen car, put up the hood, and get ready to shoot the first cop that offered assistance.

Obviously Clemens was a victim, it was racist "justice" in a white society that made him act out and do those things. And all his friends and family who helped him are being harrassed by the Man with charges pending. Expect Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton to rush to their defense.

Lyndon Baines Obama to run Afghanistan?

US bid to bypass Karzai's Afghan government upsets allies
Appointment of 'high representative' in Kabul forms part of Barack Obama's latest strategy

Julian Borger, diplomatic editor
guardian.co.uk,

Monday 30 November 2009 17.58 GMT

The US is seeking to extend its control over the day-to-day running of Afghanistan with the appointment of an international "high representative" in Kabul in an attempt to bypass Hamid Karzai's much-criticised government.

The initiative, being pushed by the US special envoy, Richard Holbrooke, has caused a split between Washington and its closest Nato allies, who believe it could further undermine the Afghan president's legitimacy and the United Nations' role in the country.

The proposal is part of a political strategy designed to accompany the dispatch of US reinforcements due to be announced tomorrow night by Barack Obama and ultimately provide an exit strategy.

The political package under discussion includes the installation of an Afghan chief executive at Karzai's shoulder in the government and closer international cooperation by a permanent "contact group".

The measures are designed to overcome the weakness and corruption of the Afghan government that the troops will be fighting to support. The British foreign secretary, David Miliband, has said the government would fall within weeks if Nato pulled out now.

Some European officials, including senior British figures, argue that the gains in efficiency achieved by appointing an international envoy with vice regal authority would be outweighed by the Kabul government's further loss of legitimacy.

"This has to be Afghan-owned or it's not going to work," a top European official said. European states and Canada have a more positive view of the UN's performance than the US.

Following his re-election in fraud-ridden elections, Karzai has promised his Nato backers he will a take a tougher line against corruption and has made greater efforts in supplying recruits for the Afghan army and police force whose training and deployment represent the core the exit strategy to be outlined by Obama.

Western governments are sceptical about whether Karzai will be able to reform as quickly as they would like to enable them to withdraw troops, and they are beginning to discuss contingency plans to improve Afghan governance by bypassing the president if necessary.

Foreign ministers from the countries with most troops involved – the US, Britain, Germany, France and Canada – discussed the next steps at Karzai's inauguration on 19 November.

Holbrooke pursued the issue in visits to Berlin and Paris, and in conversations with British officials last month. Final decisions will be taken at the London conference on Afghanistan in late January.

Holbrooke in particular believes the UN mission is ineffectual and soft on the Afghan government's alarming record of corruption. He is pushing for the appointment of a high representative for the international community, modelled in part on the post of the same name in Bosnia.

He has met resistance from European states and Canada that have more faith in the Norwegian head of the UN mission, Kai Eide.

"This is something Holbrooke is pushing but it's not set in stone yet," said a senior defence official from a country with troops on the ground. "It is a way of getting around Kai Eide but some of the allies have a lot of time for Kai. He has achieved a lot. He persuaded Karzai to hire some of his better ministers. He just goes about it in a quiet way."

A European diplomat portrayed the initiative as an attempt to restore US influence at the heart of the international co-ordination effort after Peter Galbraith, an American diplomat, was forced out of his job as the second-in-command at the UN mission in September because of a personality and policy clash with Eide.

"In a way, the idea of this is to replace Galbraith, " the diplomat said.

The Holbrooke-led campaign against Eide drew support last week from the International Crisis Group. In a report on Afghanistan's "crisis of governance" on Wednesday, the independent organisation recommended Eide's resignation "since he has lost the confidence of many on his staff and the necessary trust of many parts of the Afghan polity".

Eide's term ends in March and some European countries have suggested he could be replaced then by a "super-envoy", perhaps combining the UN post with a Nato civilian role.

The former Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown was initially approached for such a job in early 2008 but his appointment was blocked by Karzai. The appointment of Ashdown or another leading British figure in such a powerful role is still seen in Kabul and some capitals as problematic because of Britain's imperial history.

Another name mentioned as a possible international high representative is the current US ambassador in Kabul, Karl Eikenberry, but he has recently clashed with the American Nato commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, over whether Washington should send more troops.

Nick Horne, a former UN official in Afghanistan who resigned at the end of October over the failure to achieve political reform, said the new international representative "would have to be someone of international stature".

"He has to have the full support of the international community, and the confidence of the Afghan people", Horne said.