Russian investigators uncover identity of Moscow bomber that kills 35 people

Russian investigators have said they now know the identity of the suicide bomber who claimed the lives of 35 people in an attack on Moscow's busiest airport last Monday.

Kremlin Fires Defiant Moscow Mayor Luzhkov

Long-time Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov accused President Dmitry Medvedev of leading the country back into Stalinism a day before he was sacked, a letter in a Russian magazine showed Wednesday.

Heat probably killed thousands in Moscow, says scientist

Several thousand Muscovites are thought to have died in July alone from this year’s unprecedented heatwave and August could add more fatalities to the grim statistics, a Russian scientist said today.

Moscow, a metropolis of over 10 million people, suffered from intense heat since late June, with day temperatures sometimes nearing 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

The crisis shrivelled a third of Russia’s grain crop, shaved billions off this year’s economic growth and killed at least 54 people in wildfires. The heat subsided today.

Citing a report by the Moscow Registry Office, Boris Revich, a senior demography and ecology researcher at Russia’s Academy of Sciences, said 5,840 more Muscovites had died in July than in the same month last year.

Revich said he believed the overwhelming majority of these additional deaths had been caused by the fierce heatwave.





“This situation was absolutely easy to forecast,” he told a news conference. “The only thing I blame myself for ... is that my estimate (of deaths) was too low at the start of the heat.”

“But we have never had experience estimating such monstrous heat, merely because we had never had such heat before.”

The State Statistics Committee (Goskomstat) is due to publish its data on the deaths around August 20, Revich said. Death rate figures for August will be available in September.

Breaking official silence over the adverse affects of the heat and smoke from forest fires which blanketed Moscow since late July, the head of Moscow’s health department, Andrei Seltsovsky, said on Aug. 9 that deaths had almost doubled to 700 a day, with heat being the main killer.

“Nature’s grim experiment”

Revich called the data provided by the Moscow Registry Office as “absolutely reliable”, adding he believed most of those who had died from heat were elderly people suffering from cardio-vascular and respiratory diseases.

He said that globally, Russia’s heat crisis was not a unique phenomenon, highlighting that in 2003 an estimated 45,000-50,000 people had died in a severe heatwave in the European Union.

“But what makes the situation in Moscow and other big cities of central Russia different, is this abnormal heat being coupled with a high level of air pollution as a result of forest fires,” Revich said. “Nature set up such a grim experiment on us.”

A total of 27,724 fires, including 1,133 at burning peat bogs, have been detected in Russia since July, Emergencies Ministry department chief Yuri Brazhnikov told reporters.

He said the fires had affected a total of 134 villages and towns and destroyed some 2,000 homes. Around 1,100 people have been moved to temporary shelters.

The weather is set to get colder by the weekend and Moscow’s air will get cleaner, but it remains unclear how fast the authorities will take steps to be prepared to fight a similar heatwave in the future.

Moscow ambulances, maternity houses and hospitals are not air-conditioned, as well as so-called social centres opened to provide proper shelter from heat to the sick and elderly. Masks and oxygen are in short supply in pharmacies.

“European countries have accumulated vast experience how to act during heat,” Revich said. “Regrettably, we are now just on our way to having such a national plan.” —

Russia's Red Square parade includes NATO countries for first time

British troops march through Russia's Red Square for the first time during Victory Day parade

Russian troops line up in perfect formation for the largest-ever post-Soviet military parade on Red Square

Vintage Soviet-era T-34 tank rumble through the square

Mr Medvedev, Chinese President Hu Jintao, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin watch the celebrations begin

A mobile launcher with a Topol-M missile travels along the route of the parade

British soldiers marched on Red Square in Moscow for the first time today to mark the 65th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Seventy-six soldiers from 2 Company 1st Battalion Welsh Guards were representing the UK at the invitation of the Russian Government.

They marched alongside more than 10,500 Russian troops and others from the U.S. and France.
The event - thought to be costing £26 million - also featured a 1,000-strong military band, 161 tanks and missiles and 127 aircraft.

The hour-long parade saw six types of defence equipment on show in a display of military prowess set to dominate the city's sky and roads.

Guardsman Ian Mundy said: 'There is a sense of pride to be in this massive parade on Red Square.

'It seems that everyone is interested in us as well and I'm proud to be a part of that.'

Lance Corporal John Sanigar added: 'It's a brilliant place to be at the moment for the Army and the Welsh Guards.'The Welsh Guards are staying at the Moscow Military Academy as guests of the Russian Army.


World War Two veterans salute as they watch troops march through Red Square

Russian Su-25 fighter jets fly over St. Basil's Cathedral

Russian military aircraft add to the spectacle in the skies above Red Square

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev speaks before the start of a military parade in Red Square in Moscow today

The crowds cheer as Russian soldiers, wearing replica uniforms, march to Palace Square in Saint Petersburg

Members of the French Army carry bayonets attached to their rifles

Polish troops make their way across the square, witnessed by crowds of thousands

U.S. military personnel were also among those to march

The British troops are staying at the Moscow Military Academy as guests of the Russian Army

Seventy-six soldiers from 2 Company 1st Battalion Welsh Guards represented the UK during Victory Day celebrations in Moscow's Red Square today

They were given a guided tour of the Kremlin, invited to concerts and took part in a cultural tour of the city via a boat trip up the Moscow River.

The Welsh Guards served in Afghanistan six months ago and lost its commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, during the tour.

Lt Col Thorneloe - the most senior British army officer to die in action since the Falklands conflict - was killed alongside Trooper Joshua Hammond by a roadside improvised explosive device.

'It was an emotional tour,' said Guardsman Thomas James, whose grandfathers both served in the Second World War.
'This is the first time I've been on official parade in my tunic since we've been back. It's an honour to be here.'

Commanding Officer of the Welsh Guards, Lieutenant Colonel Charlie Antelme, said the parade was a 'surreal' experience.

'(It is) a historic moment for the Welsh Guards and the British Army, and, of course, for the Russian people,' he added.

Foreign leaders including President Hu Jintao of China and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also watched the celebrations.
But Russia's Communists, still the country's biggest opposition party, pledged to hold a protest march in central Moscow after the parade.

They will chant slogans against NATO forces for marching over a hallowed square which is also home to the embalmed body of their revolutionary hero, Vladimir Lenin.

'Foreign troops have never appeared on Red Square. It's a violation of tradition,' said Sergei Obukhov, a member of the party's Central Committee.

'The presence of foreign troops with weapons in their hands is...an unnecessary reminder that we lost the Cold War'.

Obama, unable to come to Moscow because of a scheduling clash, praised the invitation to NATO troops.

'President Medvedev has shown remarkable leadership in honouring the sacrifices of those who came before us, and in speaking so candidly about the Soviet Union's suppression of elementary rights and freedoms,' he said in a statement.

Most Russians seem to back Medvedev's invitation to the NATO forces.

A poll by the independent Levada Centre last month showed that 55 percent viewed the presence of NATO troops at the parade as wholly or partly positive, with only 28 percent opposing it.

The result may reflect markedly better relations between Moscow and Washington since Obama's election and his 'reset' of relations. This has already brought a new treaty cutting nuclear weapons and a deal on helping supply NATO forces in Afghanistan.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi cancelled their attendance at the last minute, citing the need to deal with the crisis surrounding the euro currency.

Continuing a tradition begun by Stalin, Soviet and then Russian troops have marched in Red Square every year on May 9 to mark the capitulation of Nazi forces in Berlin.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin revived two years ago a Soviet-era tradition of parading tanks, missiles and military vehicles across the square and flying helicopters, fighters and bombers low overhead.

While Medvedev greeted war veterans on Saturday, accompanied by Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovich and Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko, Putin hosted a special meeting and dinner at his country retreat outside Moscow for China's Hu.

The Kremlin, which is eager to shore up its influence and tighten ties two decades after the Soviet breakup, is using this year's parade to stress bonds among the former republics, many of whose leaders will attend.

Among the weaponry on show this year will be Russia's latest S-400 air defence system, which claims to be capable of shooting down up to six missiles or aircraft simultaneously at a distance of up to 400 km (250 miles).

China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates are said to be interested in buying the system.

Meanwhile Russian police are on alert for possible attacks ahead of the celebrations, following a car bomb explosion near a military base in the southern Dagestan region this morning.

Two people were killed in the blast, while another soldier has been killed in a separate blast in the city.

Hunt for 'Black Widow' terror gang after female suicide bombers kill at least 38 in bomb attacks on Moscow trains -NYC activates security plan after Moscow bombings

--------

--------

----------

-----------

--------------


Detectives and scenes of crime officers examine the aftermath of the blast at Park Kultury metro station

At the site of the other attack, the city's Lubyanka station officials examine the scene. The station lies beneath the headquarters of the Federal Security Service

Desolate: A wounded woman covered in dust with her left eye blackened outside Park Kultury metro station

A hospital helicopter lands at Zubovsky Boulevard to evacuate the victims from the Park Kultury metro station

Splattered with blood, a wounded man makes a phone call on his mobile outside the Park Kultury metro station shortly after a female suicide bomber blew herself up

In this image from Russia Today television an injured man is treated in an ambulance

Passengers try to make their way out of Prospekt Mira subway station. The attacks happened at the height of the morning rush hour

Desperate: Dead bodies are scattered in the walkway at one of the stations

Massacre: A bloodied passenger is treated on the side of the road

Firefighters carry a body from Lubyanka metro station in Moscow after a female suicide bomber blew herself up during rush hour this morning

A woman breaks down outside Lubyanka station after at least 37 people were killed in two separate suicide bombings in the city

MAP BLAST







* Two bombs, 40mins apart, detonated during morning rush hour
* At least 37 people dead, 65 injured
* No group claims responsibility so far. Rouble falls

Police in Moscow were tonight searching for female accomplices of two women suicide bombers who killed at least 37 people and injured 65 by targeting two packed tube trains during the busy rush hour.

Analysis of CCTV footage inside the Red Arrow underground trains of the two suicide bombers has revealed they were accompanied by two other women.

Their faces were not destroyed in the explosion, increasing the chance of successfully identifying them, and video from other cameras in Moscow Metro stations has also helped identify the faces of the two women who accompanied them and a man.

President Dmitry Medvedev declared Russia would act 'without compromise' to root out terrorists as he ordered airports to be put on alert and security to be stepped up throughout the country.

The two bombs are the worst attack on the Russian capital for six years and no group has yet claimed responsibility.

But suspicion has fallen on Muslim militants from the North Caucasus, where the Kremlin is fighting a growing Islamist insurgency spreading from Chechnya to neighbouring Dagestan and Ingushetia.
Alexander Bortnikov, head of Russia's Federal Security Service, said the terrorists were likely to have been 'black widows', Muslim women radicalised by the situation in the North Caucasus.

'Body parts belonging to two female suicide bombers were found and, according to initial data, these persons are linked to the north Caucasus,' he said.Analysts said the involvement of women was similar to the 'black widows' in Checnya - women who had lost brothers or husbands to Russian forces in the Chechen conflict.

News reports have linked the women, also known as Shahidka, to embattled northern Caucuses and the Shahidka movement that first emerged in 2000.

The term is a feminine derivative of shahid, Arabic for 'witness' or 'martyr'.

They are generally young, often teenagers, and are dressed from head to toe in black mourning clothes.

Police are tonight expected to publish CCTV images of the suicide bombers, along with two women of 'Slav appearance' who accompanied them.

Witnesses spoke of panic at the two underground stations this morning after the blasts as people fell over each other in dense smoke and dust, trying to escape.

In scenes that will have been chillingly familiar to Londoners after the July 7 bombings in 2005, bloodied and injured passengers emerged onto the streets looking bewildered.

The first explosion tore through the second carriage of a metro train just before 8am as it stood at the Lubyanka station, close to the headquarters of Russia's main domestic security service FSB. It killed at least 23 people.

About 40 minutes later, another blast in the second carriage of a train waiting at the Park Kultury metro station, opposite Gorky Park, killed 12 to 14 more people.

Both bombers wore explosive belts packed with bolts and iron rods to maximise casualties.

'It was very scary. I saw a dead body,' said Valentin Popov, a 19-year-old student travelling on a train to the Park Kultury station.

'Everyone was screaming. There was a stampede at the doors. I saw one woman holding a child and pleading with people to let her through, but it was impossible.'

A commuter said: 'I was in the middle of the train when somewhere in the first or second carriage there was a loud blast. I felt the vibrations reverberate through my body.'


The female suicide bombers are believed to have boarded the train at Yugo-Zapadnaya station in southwest Moscow.

One passenger told the RIA news agency: 'I was in the middle of the train when somewhere in the first or second carriage there was a loud blast. I felt the vibrations reverberate through my body.

'People were yelling like hell. There was a lot of smoke and in about two minutes everything was covered in smoke.'

Another called Alexei added: 'I was moving up on the escalator when I heard a loud bang, a blast. A door near the passage way arched, was ripped out and a cloud of dust came down on the escalator.

'People started running, panicking, falling on each other,' he said.

Some of the injured were airlifted to emergency hospitals in helicopters. Dozens of commuters were helped from each station to waiting ambulances.

Surveillance camera footage posted on the internet showed several motionless bodies lying on the floor or slumped against the wall in Lubyanka station lobby and emergency workers crouched over victims, trying to treat them.
Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov told reporters that female suicide bombers had carried out the attacks.

Prosecutors said they had opened a 'terrorism investigation' after forensic experts found the remains of a female bomber.
The Russian rouble fell to 34.25 from 34.13 against the central bank's euro-dollar basket, on concern the blasts could indicate the start of a bombing campaign against Russian cities.

Russian equity markets were little changed, with the rouble denominated MICEX index up 0.04 percent.

Medvedev ordered officials to fight terrorism 'without hesitation, to the end'.

In a nod to accusations of Russian troops acting with brutality against civilians in Chechnya, he said human rights must be respected during police operations.

The President will make a statement to the nation later today, according to a Kremlin source.

Russian President Vladimir Putin cut short a visit to Siberia and vowed that everything would be done to catch the killers.

He said: 'A crime that is terrible in its consequences and heinous in its manner has been committed.

'I am confident that law enforcement bodies will spare no effort to track down and punish the criminals. Terrorists will be destroyed.'

U.S. President Barack Obama condemned the bombings as did European Union leaders.

'The American people stand united with the people of Russia in opposition to violent extremism and heinous terrorist attacks that demonstrate such disregard for human life, and we condemn these outrageous acts,' Obama said.

Gordon Brown was 'appalled' by the attacks and has sent a message of 'condolence and support' to Medvedev, Downing Street said.

The current death toll makes it the worst attack on Moscow since February 2004, when a suicide bombing killed at least 39 people and wounded more than 100 on a metro train.

Chechen separatists were blamed for that attack and suspicions are likely to focus on the North Caucasus where rebel leader Doku Umarov, who is fighting for an Islamic emirate embracing the whole region, vowed on Feb 15 to take the war to Russian cities.

'Blood will no longer be limited to our (Caucasus) cities and towns. The war is coming to their cities,' the Chechen rebel leader said in an interview on the unofficial Islamist website.
The Chechen rebellion began in the 1990s as a largely ethnic nationalist movement, fired by a sense of injustice over the transportation of Chechens to Central Asia, with enormous loss of life, by dictator Josef Stalin.

In recent years, Russian officials say Islamic militants from outside Russia have joined the campaign lending it a new intensity.

Russian leaders had declared victory in their battle with Chechen separatists who fought two wars with Moscow.

But while violence subsided in Chechnya, it has spread and intensified in neighbouring Dagestan and Ingushetia, where clan rivalries overlap with criminal gangs and Islamist militants.

Vladimir Putin cemented his power in 1999 in launching an ultimately successful war to overthrow a separatist government lodged in the Chechen capital Grozny.

Russian leaders fear the loss of this region endangering energy transit routes could destabilise other areas in a country spanning 11 time zones.

The Moscow subway system is one of the world's busiest, carrying around seven million passengers on an average workday, and is a key element in running the sprawling and traffic-choked city.

The blasts practically paralysed movement on the city centre's main roads, as emergency vehicles sped to the stations.

Helicopters hovered overhead the Park Kultury station area, which is next to the city's renowned Gorky Park.

Passengers, many of them in tears, streamed out of the station, one man exclaiming over and over: 'This is how we live!'

ALL EYES ON CHECHNYA

Although no group has so far claimed responsibility, suspicion will fall on Chechen rebels and other separatist groups in the North Caucasus.

The last confirmed terrorist attack in Moscow was in 2004, when a Chechen suicide bomber blew herself up outside a city subway station, killing 10 people.

Chechnya lies to the south of Russia close to the border withe Georgia.
In February, the Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov warned on a website that 'the zone of military operations will be extended to the territory of Russia ... the war is coming to their cities'.

Russia has been involved in two bitter conflicts in the region in the past 20 years.

Prime Minister Putin has claimed the region is at risk from Islamic terrorism and that giving in to Chechen independence would cause further chaos on Russia's border in the region


New York police doubled patrols of the subway system and sent a battery of police cars to transit hubs as a precaution on Monday following the Moscow subway bombings.

In Washington, police sent bomb-sniffing dogs to random Metro stations and rail yards as part of heightened security associated with the Moscow attacks, in which two female suicide bombers killed at least 38 people on packed metro trains during rush hour on Monday.

Though the Moscow bombings appear related to the conflict in the North Caucasus and New York's greatest threat is seen as coming from al Qaeda, police enacted the same security detail that they roll out after any attack elsewhere in the world.

This time it closely follows one man's admission he was plotting a suicide bombing of New York subways with al Qaeda training.

"We don't have any information suggesting that it's related (to al Qaeda) but as a precaution we are increasing coverage," police spokesman and Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said.

The city's fleet of "critical response vehicles" that guard sensitive locations were sent to mass transit hubs such as Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station, Browne said.

Officers patrolling the subways overnight were kept on duty as the morning shift reported, practically doubling the number of officers.

The city may also send a detective to Moscow, as it often does following similar attacks around the world, Browne said.

The New York Police Department has detectives in 11 foreign cities working to prevent foreign extremists from hitting New York, which has been attacked twice -- on September 11, 2001, and in a 1993 truck bombing of the World Trade Center.

The New York subway system security came under intense scrutiny after the transit attacks on Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005.

On February 22, Afghan immigrant Najibullah Zazi pleaded guilty to plotting a suicide bomb attack on New York City subways with al Qaeda training for what would have been the worst attack on the United States since 2001.

"Whether they are related or not our standard operating procedure is to take precautions until more is known," Browne said.

Coincidentally on Monday, Washington's Metro was holding a planned drill simulating a bus explosion in the parking lot of a sports stadium. That coincided with the sweeps of train stations, the locations of which were not being announced in advance.

"When we opened the Metro system this morning, we did so with heightened security," Metro Transit Police Acting Chief Jeri Lee said in a statement. "We remain an open system and we do what we can to be as secure as possible."

NightClub fire 112 dead due to firecracker inside clun.Anger rising.Bad management blamed.200 stampede cause deaths.

Russian investigators blamed management negligence for a blaze at a provincial nightclub that killed 112 people as relatives gathered at a central morgue on Sunday to identify the charred remains of loved ones.

Eyewitnesses said sparks from fireworks set fire to wicker coverings on the walls and ceiling of the packed club on Friday, and that a stampede broke out as more than 200 guests rushed towards a single narrow exit.

An initial investigation found the club was not equipped with automatic fire extinguishers and that fireworks should not have been used there, Marina Zabbarova, head of the Russian Prosecutor General's Investigative Committee for Perm region, said.

'When will this complacency end?' Zabbarova asked at a news conference in Perm, an industrial city 1,150 km (720 miles) northeast of Moscow. 'It was impossible to save anyone there.'

Four people have been arrested, including the nightclub's management and the director of the company that supplied the fireworks, Zabbarova said.
Roughly three dozen locals stood in the snow outside the morgue on Sunday, while a small crowd laid red carnations and lit candles in front of the gutted Lame Horse nightclub.

'The authorities are directly to blame, along with corruption and the criminality of the firemen,' 51-year old Leonid Ryabov said while buying flowers near the club. 'They have been carrying out inspections for eight years...'


In addition to the dead, roughly 130 people are suffering from smoke inhalation and extensive burns. About 80 of the victims have been flown to hospitals in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Chelyabinsk.

'It was monstrous, young people died there, the future of Russia,' said Sergei Prokofiev, an 18 year-old student and a stepbrother of one of the victims.

An all-day memorial service was also under way at the Holy Trinity cathedral in Perm.

Flags were flying at half mast in the city, and President Dmitry Medvedev has declared Monday a national day of morning.

Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the Russian Prosecutor General's Investigative Committee told the Itar-Tass news agency that prosecutors planned to charge the four suspects with causing reckless death by violating fire safety standards.

'This is not a premeditated murder, but this does not lessen the gravity of the crime,' Medvedev said on Saturday.

The Prosecutor General's office also said that the fireworks used at the nightclub were not authorised for indoor use.

Friday's fire was Russia's deadliest in decades, emergency officials said, and the worst nightclub fire worldwide since nearly 200 people died at a party in Buenos Aires in 2004.

Russian officials have in the past blamed poor fire safety standards for high death tolls in fires at orphanages, hospitals other institutions. More than 15,000 Russians died in fires last year, according to government figures.


Relatives carry out the coffin of a victim of a night club fire from a morgue in Perm

A relative of a victim of a fire cries outside the Lame Horse nightclub where the fire took place in the centre of Perm

A photo of a nightclub fire victim attached to flowers seen at the site of the tragedy

In this combination of images from amateur video, customers, some still carrying their drinks, press towards the exit, as fire and smoke start to fill a packed nightclub

Nightclub tragedy: An orthodox priest reads lists of the injured during the night club fire, plastered on a wall at a hospital in Perm

City in mourning: People light candles in front of the Lame Horse nightclub where a fire took place on Friday in the centre of Perm

Stretcher-bearers carry a body near a morgue in Perm

Grieving relatives of Timur Parfiliev, a victim of a nightclub fire seen at a cemetery in Perm, about 700 miles east of Moscow

The death toll from a blaze that swept through a Russian nightclub early on Saturday rose to 112 and dozens remained in critical care

Police officers and investigators work at the Lame Horse nightclub where a fire broke out late Friday and into the early hours of Saturday

Shocked residents of the Urals city of Perm laid carnations Sunday at the snowy scene of a cordoned-off nightclub where officials say at least 112 people died in a fire.

The blaze, in the early hours of Saturday, was thought to be sparked by fireworks that shot into the decorative twig ceiling of the Lame Horse nightclub during a pyrotechnics show. Nearly 100 were killed on the spot, and some 130 were hospitalized, many in critical condition.

Many victims were trapped in a panicked crush for the exit as they attempted to escape the flames and thick black smoke.

Emergency Ministry spokeswoman Darya Kochneva said Sunday the latest victim was a man who died of severe burns in a Moscow hospital where he was flown for treatment after the fire.

Mourning residents are indignant over what they call negligence on the part of the club's management, which President Dmitry Medvedev also criticized in a nationally televised videoconference on Saturday.

Officials said club managers had ignored repeated demands from authorities to change the interior to comply with fire safety standards. Authorities quickly arrested two registered co-owners of the club, its managing director and two other suspects. One other suspect was injured in the fire and remains in critical condition.

Medvedev demanded that lawmakers draft changes to toughen the criminal punishment for failing to comply with fire safety standards.

Enforcement of fire safety standards is infamously poor in Russia and there have been several catastrophic blazes at drug-treatment facilities, nursing homes, apartment buildings and nightclubs in recent years. The nation records up to 18,000 fire deaths a year, several times the per-capita rate in the United States and other Western countries.

Monday has been designated a national day of mourning, with entertainment events and television programs cancelled.

-----------

---------------

------------------
RELATED POSTS:-

• Crocodile die eating by group of Hippo.Shocking photos.
• Paedophile to be beheaded and crucified in Saudi Arabia for string of sex attacks where he left toddler to die in desert
• Executed in broad daylight: The chilling moment a Mafia hitman strikes outside a Naples bar... but no-one saw a thing
• Authorities Raid Office of Jackson's Doctor , Dr Conray Murray
• Michael Jackson - a childlike, shy genius
• Pop star Michael Jackson dead at 50
• NightClub fire 112 dead due to firecracker inside clun.Anger rising.Bad management blamed.200 stampede cause deaths.
• Deathtoll in Russian nightclub fire reaches 109-Club goers crushed each other while running away from smokes inside club
• Cold murder sentenced 26years in prison.Amanda Knox found guilty-4.4 euro million in compensation
• Somali suicide bomber detonate bom inside doc graduation ceremony.Murder 23 people.
• Ohio serial killer suspect pleads insanity-Ohio suspect faces arraignment on 11 murder counts
• Police shoot dead fugitive Maurice Clemmons suspected of gunning down four officers in a Seattle coffee shop .
• 4 cops were shot dead in coffee shop. Criminal targeting cop.Cop killer on the loose.
• India remembers Mumbai attacks when gunman storm Mumbai bus station and hotel to shot people
• Lawyer: Mental-illness defense possible for Ft. Hood suspect
• 21 Filipinos killed on way to file election papers
• Hospital hearing set for Fort Hood suspect-Fort Hood shooter faces bedside hearing: lawyer-Murder 13 wounded 31
• First picture of heroine of Fort Hood who took down gunman-Confront the Maj Hasan directly and open fire.Stopped carnage gun rampage.
• PM gordon apologize to soldier mom for various wrong spelling in condolence letter.
• Detecting glimpses of humanity in DC sniper-Is to Be Executed on Tuesday

Deathtoll in Russian nightclub fire reaches 109-Club goers crushed each other while running away from smokes inside club

Relatives of a victim of a fire embrace after taking part in a corpse identification procedure at a local morgue in Perm

Rescuers walk near bodies on stretchers gathered outside the club. Most people died from smoke inhalation

Rescuers, right, carry the body of a victim outside a nightclub in Perm, Russia, early Saturday, Dec. 5, 2009. An explosion and fire apparently caused by pyrotechnics tore through the nightclub early Saturday, killing more than 100 people, according to emergency officials quoted by state television.


n this image made from RTR Russian Channel, rescuers carry the body of a victim outside a nightclub in Perm, Russia, early Saturday, Dec. 5, 2009. An explosion and fire apparently caused by pyrotechnics tore through a nightclub in the Russian city of Perm early Saturday, according to news reports.


Emergency doctors carry a victim of a night club fire to a plane at an airport in Perm. Many of the injured were sent for treatment to Moscow's top emergency hospitals

Rescuers stand by the bodies of the fire victims

Anxious relatives read lists with names of injured in a nightclub fire at a hospital in Perm

A heavily wounded victim of the fire in the night club Lame Horse in Perm is brought to the Sklifasovsky hospital in Moscow

Medical workers help the victims of a fire in Perm on board a flying hospital on the way to Moscow. President Dmitry Medvedev has demanded tough punishment for the owners of a Russian nightclub

Police stood guard outside the club where flowers were left in tribute to the victims this morning

Two injured men standing in front of the Lame Horse nightclub in the centre of Perm, a city 720 miles east of Moscow

Many of the victims were crushed to death in the scramble for the exit (left); The aftermath (right)

Rescuers carry a victim outside a nightclub in Perm, Russia, early Saturday, Dec. 5, 2009. An explosion and fire apparently caused by pyrotechnics tore through the nightclub early Saturday, killing more than 100 people, according to emergency officials quoted by state television. Most died from smoke inhalation.



In this image made from RTR Russian Channel, rescuers carry the body of a victim outside a nightclub in Perm, Russia, early Saturday, Dec. 5, 2009. An explosion and fire apparently caused by pyrotechnics tore through a nightclub in the Russian city of Perm early Saturday, according to news reports.

Investigators and relatives of the victims gather outside the club. A top investigator said that there was no suspicion of a terrorist attack

Russian police officers guard outside a nightclub in Perm, Russia, early Saturday, Dec. 5, 2009. An explosion apparently caused by pyrotechnics tore through the nightclub early Saturday, killing more than 100 people, according to emergency officials quoted by state television.


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.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

PERM, Russia (AP) — 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.


-------------

-----------------

------------------

--------------------
RELATED POSTS:-

• Detecting glimpses of humanity in DC sniper-Is to Be Executed on Tuesday
• U.S. had al Qaeda intelligence on Fort Hood shooter-Fort Hood suspect was reportedly e-mailing al-Qaeda supporter
• Office shooting suspect's life spiraled downward-Mentality ill and in heavy debts-Kill 1 wounds 5
• Terrifying moment crowd is engulfed by 20ft fireball at family festival after 'yob threw aerosol can into flames'
• Feds didn't clear brush in wildfire area alleged can prevent the current disaster.
• Athens on Fire..Thousands home affected.
• Summary of Fire in USA now ,Arizona,California,Colorado,Hawaii,Oregon,Utah,Washington
• 2 firefighter dies in California forest fire. Vehicle Crash kill 2. Reason crash unknown
• Terrorists Attack at Russian Train 26 dead 100 injured.Bom derail train at 130kmph.
• Deathtoll in Russian nightclub fire reaches 109-Club goers crushed each other while running away from smokes inside club
• Cold murder sentenced 26years in prison.Amanda Knox found guilty-4.4 euro million in compensation
• Somali suicide bomber detonate bom inside doc graduation ceremony.Murder 23 people.
• Ohio serial killer suspect pleads insanity-Ohio suspect faces arraignment on 11 murder counts
• Police shoot dead fugitive Maurice Clemmons suspected of gunning down four officers in a Seattle coffee shop .
• 4 cops were shot dead in coffee shop. Criminal targeting cop.Cop killer on the loose.
• India remembers Mumbai attacks when gunman storm Mumbai bus station and hotel to shot people
• Lawyer: Mental-illness defense possible for Ft. Hood suspect
• 21 Filipinos killed on way to file election papers
• Hospital hearing set for Fort Hood suspect-Fort Hood shooter faces bedside hearing: lawyer-Murder 13 wounded 31
• First picture of heroine of Fort Hood who took down gunman-Confront the Maj Hasan directly and open fire.Stopped carnage gun rampage.