Vladimir Putin in unseen situation as Russia's regions 'wake up' in nationwide protest
MOSCOW: Russia's national protests on Saturday saw thousands of activists of various stripes unite from the Pacific coast across Siberia and the Urals to voice distrust in the ruling party and its victory in polls.The protests kicked off in the Pacific port of Vladivostok, which saw one of the lowest votes for the ruling United Russia party, and spread into Siberia and the central Ural Mountains, taking place in dozens of cities.
Largely organised through social networking websites, the rallies crossed regional borders to spread across thousands of kilometres, drawing supporters of Communists, the liberal Yabloko and broad opposition movement Solidarity.
"It's the first time that there has been such a mass protest about an election problem that's shared by the whole country," said rights activist Lev Ponomaryov, a Solidarity leader.
"The fact that the people have woken up is an entirely new factor."
"For the first time in a long time, people feel that they are likeminded, brothers-in-arms doing something good and important," activist Konstantin Baranovsky told AFP after a rally in industrial Nizhny Novgorod.
The protests united opposition parties and movements under slogans calling for fair elections and an end to the rule of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his United Russia party.
Russia's most popular social networking site, Vkontakte, brought people together to organise protests in 69 different towns and cities, and an umbrella group "Against United Russia" gathered more than 46,000 members.
In Vladivostok, which is eight time zones ahead of Moscow, around 500 people gathered besides the harbour for a rally dominated by Communists and local group Tiger that lobbies for the region's vital car import business.
At a tense protest in Khabarovsk, north of Vladivostok, Communist activists taped up their mouths and shouted slogans such as "Unfair elections" and "Down with United Russia," local Communist chief Valentin Parchensky said.
Around 50 were detained at the unsanctioned rally on the central Lenin Square next to the city administration's offices, Parchensky said.
Police filled two buses with protesters, Kommersant FM radio station reported, with not all the detainees able to fit into the cells of the city's main police station.
Detentions also came in Kazan, the capital of the relatively prosperous Muslim region of Tatarstan, where around 20 people were arrested by riot police after around 600 gathered for another unsanctioned protest, said opposition activist Ramil Khairullin.
"Eighty percent of the protesters are young people. They have a very strong fighting spirit. And you can see that the detentions don't scare them in the slightest."
Some of the largest rallies took place in Siberian and Urals cities that rarely feature on national news.
In Siberia's Krasnoyarsk, around 3,500 people gathered in the main square, said activist Yevgeny Baburin of the Solidarity movement, despite the authorities playing loud music in an attempt to drown out the speakers.
In Chelyabinsk in the Urals district, around 5,000 people turned up for a two-hour rally in temperatures of minus 20 degrees, said Solidarity activist Valeriya Prikhodkina.
And in another Urals city, Yekaterinburg, up to 4,000 people attended, said Solidarity activist Larisa Buzunova.
"People are in a great mood. They have come to support each other."
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/Vladimir-Putin-in-unseen-situation-as-Russias-regions-wake-up-in-nationwide-protest/articleshow/11062089.cms
AMRI hospital fire in Kolkata: Blame game begins as toll mounts to 89, owners arrested
Even as the relatives of victims who lost their lives in the devastating AMRI hospital fire are coming to terms with the magnitude of the tragedy that has struck them, the process of blame game has begun.As the death toll mounted, there were allegations that firemen arrived late on the scene but the fire brigade maintained there was no delay.
Additional director general (Fire Services) D Biswas said that the fire brigade was informed at 4.10am and responded immediately, responding to complaints of delay by the kin of some victims.
The fire brigade personnel used snorkel ladders and other equipment to reach some of the patients and bring them down to safety, the ADG said.
The ADG raised questions about the fire safety measures in the hospital.
If proper fire fighting arrangements existed at the hospital, such a blaze could not have taken place, he said.
State disaster management minister Javed Khan also spoke on the same lines.
However, senior vice-president of AMRI claimed that the hospital followed strict fire safety measures and conducted regular fire drills. "All statutory safety and fire licences are in place."
Hospital sources also refuted charge of staff fleeing the scene and said, no employee fled at the time of the fire. "Not only the Dhakuria team but staff members of other branches reached within two hours to assist.
"The staff has been courageous saving many lives.. Its saddening that their service and commitment has come under doubt," a source said.
Meanwhile, the death toll in the devastating fire increased to 89. The dead included 85 patients and four staff of the hospital.
Earlier in the evening, noted industrialists SK Todi, RS Goenka and four other directors of the hospital were arrested and booked for several non-bailable offences, said the police.
"Six directors of the AMRI hospital have been arrested today in connection with the fire tragedy. Those arrested include SK Todi, RS Goenka and Ravi Todi. They have been booked for several non-bailable offences, including culpable homicide not amounting to murder," joint commissioner of police (Crime) Damayanti Sen said.
SK Todi is the chairman of the Shrachi Group while RS Goenka is the chairman of the Emami Group. They had co-founded the hospital, located in the fairly upscale Dhakuria neighbourhood, in 1996 along with the West Bengal government.
Of the six people arrested, only SK Todi had surrendered at the police headquarters here, Sen said.
The fire which started from the basement of the hospital spread fast, engulfing one ward after the other and trapping hundreds of people. While many patients died of burns, several others died due to suffocation caused by carbon monoxide accumulation all over the building.
The tragedy unfolded over many hours as patients were suffocated to death, some trapped in their beds, others dying in their sleep, too infirm to escape the smoke. The lucky few were brought down the side of the four-storey glass facade building, only six years old, using ropes and ladders as thousands looked on in horror.
The worst affected were the ICU patients who did not die of burns but due to asphyxiation. Experts have said that since the hospital building is surrounded by a glass facade, the accumulated gas could not escape causing so many deaths. Had there been an escape route for the gas, many deaths could have been prevented.
Through the morning, a steady stream of patients, blackened by soot, were brought out while enraged relatives and locals vented their ire at the state and hospital administration.
"What's the use of coming now? He is already dead. All are dead. The administration is hopeless, useless," shouted Pradeep Sarkar. His father-in-law had been admitted there Thursday night with a heart ailment.
He said the sky lift came only around 7 am.
"They (firemen) came with manual ladders. Had the sky lift come earlier, many people could have been saved. There are around 160 patients inside. All are dead...so is my father-in-law," said an anguished Sarkar.
Till late in the day the hospital looked like a morgue as bodies lay in rows, waiting to be sent to the SSKM Hospital for post mortem. Wails of relatives filled the air as they helplessly went looking among the bodies trying to identify their loved ones. Some sat staring at the bodies, while some repeatedly tried to wake them up from their everlasting sleep.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee rushed to the spot, but only stoked the rage of the people, leading to a near-stampede and police resorting to batons.
"Because Mamata is here, the ambulances cannot go towards the annexe building. Please ask her to shift to another road," shouted a distraught relative of a victim.
Banerjee tried to cool things down and shouted at police but it was of little help.
She went near the relatives and said 40 bodies have been kept at the SSKM Hospital. "Police will take you there. They will escort you there by forming a barricade around you."
The chief minister said photos of the unidentified victims would be displayed outside the SSKM morgue. "After identification, we will send the bodies in hearses to their homes."
The hospital has announced a compensation of Rs five lakh to families of the deceased. In addition to this the centre and the state governments have also announced separate compensation packages.
This is the second major fire in Kolkata in 20 months after the March 23, 2010 blaze at the landmark British-era Stephen Court in the heart of the bustling Park Street claimed 43 lives.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/AMRI-hospital-fire-in-Kolkata-Blame-game-begins-as-toll-mounts-to-89-owners-arrested/articleshow/11050232.cms
