More than 100 killed in blaze at Russian restaurant

By Calvin Palmer

More than 100 people were killed yesterday when fireworks started a blaze in a restaurant in the Russian city of Perm.

The death toll is 102 and likely to rise. Seven people died later died from their injuries in hospitals.

The region’s health minister Dmitry Trishkin said: “Right now there are 140 people in hospitals, including 85 who are in a very serious state.”

The fire occurred at the Lame Horse restaurant, as 230 people, mostly employees and their families, celebrated its seventh anniversary. It is believed to have been caused by a firework going wrong, according to police.

Most of the victims suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning in the crush as people tried to escape the building.

“There were fireworks launched at the scene, and one hit the plastic ceiling, setting all ablaze. People panicked and succumbed to burns, general crush and gas poisoning,” the Perm region’s public security minister Igor Orlov said.

Officials have ruled out an act of terrorism.  FSB security service experts found no trace of explosive devices at the scene.

“The accident was due to a violation of instructions when launching fireworks,” the investigative committee’s spokesman Vladimir Markin said.

“There is no chance it was a terrorist act, I can say that 100 percent,” he added.

A government commission has been set up to tackle the tragedy, and two airplanes equipped to transport people with serious burns would be dispatched to the city, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Hospitals in Moscow were getting ready to receive the injured.

Perm, a city of 1.2 million people, lies near the Urals, about 700 miles east of Moscow.

[Based on a report by AFP.]

One killed in blast at Texas oil refinery

By Calvin Palmer

An explosion at a Texas oil refinery yesterday killed one person and injured two others.

The blast occurred around 9:30 p.m. at a Valero refinery in Texas City, according to a police spokesman.

Valero spokesman Bill Day said the explosion followed a boiler failure. The identities of the victims have been withheld until their families have been notified.

The extent of the damage and cause of the incident are under investigation.

The 245,000 barrel per day refinery, which employs 480 people, continued to operate after the boiler failure.

San Antonio-based Valero Energy Corp. is North America’s largest independent petroleum refiner and marketer.

[Based on reports by The Houston Chronicle and Reuters.]

Amanda Knox and former boyfriend found guilty of murder

By Calvin Palmer

American student Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito have been found guilty of the murder of 21-year-old British student Meredith Kercher.

Knox, 22, was sentenced to 26 years in prison. Sollecito, 25, received a sentence of 25 years.

Kercher, of Couldsen, Surrey, was an exchange student from  Leeds University and shared a flat with Knox in the Italian city of Perugia.

When she refused to take part in a drug-fueled sex game in November 2007, she ended up having her throat cut.

Police found her semi-naked body covered by a duvet. Her bedroom door was locked but the window had been broken.

Kercher’s body showed signs of bruising, and tests revealed evidence of sexual activity shortly before her death – but a post-mortem examination could not confirm she had been raped.

At first police believed Kercher had been killed as the result of a botched burglary but further investigation revealed the room had been made to look like a burglary had taken place.

Police arrested Knox and Sollecito whom prosecutors accused of killing Kercher because she had refused to take part in an extreme sex session.

A pathologist’s report said Kercher’s death was slow and painful because despite the fact that her throat was cut, the blow did not sever her carotid artery.

Prosecutors claimed that Knox’s DNA was found on the handle of the likely murder weapon – a kitchen knife found in Sollecito’s house – and that traces of Kercher’s DNA were on the blade.

Knox and Sollecito were remanded in custody shortly after the killing, when they gave conflicting statements over their whereabouts on the night of the murder.

Sollecito said he was at his flat in Perugia using his computer, and he did not remember whether Knox spent the whole night with him or just part of it.

Rudy Hermann Guede, 22, who has joint Italian and Ivory Coast nationality, was convicted last year of her murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He is appealing against his conviction.

Knox and Sollecito are also thought likely to appeal against their convictions.

[Based on reports by The Guardian and BBC News.]

Police hunt for suspect in ‘domestic killing’ of women and young girls

By Calvin Palmer

Police in Wisconsin are a searching for a “person of interest” in connection with four fatal shootings of two women and two young girls last night.

Madison Police spokesman Joel DeSpain said Tyrone Adair, 38, had a relationship with both women found dead Thursday but declined to say if he had any connection with the girls.

“We believe these are somewhat domestic in nature,” DeSpain said.

Court records show Adair had paternity cases with two women and a criminal record in Dane County, including convictions for battery and bail jumping.

Police were called to a home on Madison’s southwest side around 6:00 p.m. and discovered a mother and her daughter shot to death inside a vehicle in the garage.

Around 8:30 p.m., Madison police asked officers in nearby Middleton to locate a vehicle that eventually was found in a parking lot with the bodies of a woman and a girl in the trunk.

Middleton Police Lt Noel Kakuske said both appeared to have been shot.

The victims’ names and ages have not yet been released.

Kakuse said the relationship between the woman and the child found in Middleton has not been established. The girl may have been two or three years old, he said.

Investigators believe they were killed elsewhere and the car abandoned in Middleton.

“It’s possible it was just a random location to leave the vehicle,” Kakuske said.

In 2008, Adair and Tracy Graser, of Middleton, reached a court settlement acknowledging that Adair was the father of a child named Deja Adair, who was born on Christmas Day, 2007. A family court commissioner ordered Graser and Adair to share custody of the child because they were living together in Middleton at the time.

Court documents also show that a woman sought a restraining order in 2006 against a Tyrone Adair after she said he stalked and threatened her for months.

The woman said Adair slashed her tires, broke into her apartment, destroyed her computer, phone and television, and repeatedly made threatening phone calls to her.

Dane County Circuit Judge James Martin granted the restraining order in July 2006, prohibiting Adair from contacting the woman or possessing a firearm until 2010.

At one point, she said she left her apartment because she was scared of him and went to live with friends.

[Based on a report by the Associated Press.]

Rolling Stone Wood accused of being a street fighting man with his girlfriend

By Calvin Palmer

Not so long ago trees fell victim to Dutch Elm disease. Now it appears that woods on both sides of the Atlantic are falling victim to foreign spouse syndrome.

After the widely-publicized auto accident suffered by Tiger Woods, as he was allegedly chased down the driveway of his Orlando home by Swedish wife Elin Nordegren, armed with a golf club, Rolling Stones lead guitarist Ronnie Wood has been arrested for allegedly assaulting his Russian live-in girlfriend  Ekaterina Ivanova.

Wood, 62, was arrested last night by police officers attending a “domestic incident” on Claygate High Street in Esher, Surrey.

After spending the night at a police station, he was bailed to return in January.

Ivanova, 20, claimed Wood attacked her during a row.

A Surrey Police spokesman said: “We can confirm that a 62-year-old man from Esher was arrested last night on suspicion of assault in connection with a domestic incident in Claygate High Street.

“He has this afternoon been released on bail until a date in January pending further inquiries.”

Last July, a tryst in Ireland between cocktail waitress Ivanova and Wood led to his wife of 23 years, Jo, issuing an ultimatum.

Wood chose to leave his wife, who was granted a divorce earlier this month on the grounds of her husband’s adultery.

Ivanova has denied that she is a gold-digger, only interested in Wood because of his £75 million ($124 million) fortune.

The relationship between her and Wood and is said to be tempestuous. I guess it is par for the course for an old rock’n’roller.

[Based on a report by The Daily Telegraph.]

Breast-feeding mother smothers baby during transatlantic flight

By Calvin Palmer

A four-week-old baby girl being breast fed during a United Airlines transatlantic flight was apparently smothered to death when her mother fell asleep for an hour.

The cabin crew were alerted by the 29-year-old Egyptian woman’s screams when she woke up in the business class. A doctor on board flight UA-982 tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate the girl.

The jet on its way from Washington DC to Kuwait and was was diverted to London’s Heathrow Airport.

Police boarded the aircraft when it landed and Scotland Yard’s Child Abuse Investigation Team is investigating the incident, which occurred on November 24.

A police source said: “This appears to be a tragic accident. The girl comes from a loving family. Her mum was going to Kuwait to show her to relatives.”

Police are awaiting the results of a post-mortem examination performed at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. In the meantime, the death is being treated as “unexplained”.

After a delay of more than five hours, the plane continued on its journey to Kuwait.

[Based on reports by the Melbourne Herald Sun, The Aviation Herald and Daily Mail.]

Brain surgery sinks to the level of kitchen design

By Calvin Palmer

Have you got a brain tumor? I know just the man to help.

Yesterday if you had asked me, I would not have had a clue. But today I received a flyer in the mail from a doctor in Arlington, Texas, advertising that world-class brain and spine surgery was now available to me.

The doctor informed me that he was “excited to bring his passion and skill of world-class brain and spine care to the Metroplex”. It is a great shame that I no longer live there.

I get excited when the Dallas Cowboys win or at the prospect of a trip overseas, a new car or a new camera. Brain surgery, I am sorry to say, just leaves me cold.

World-class brain and spine care, who says so? This doctor does not appear to have any links with any of the great teaching hospitals of the world, although he did do a fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh. I guess that counts for something.

And within the Metroplex, the hospital where the doctor is plying his profession does not have the greatest of reputations. When I needed surgery back in Texas, I opted for Medical City in Dallas rather than the hospital where he practices.

Only in America can a highly-valued profession, in terms of the life-saving skills it embraces, be reduced to the level of thermal insulation or a kitchen makeover for your home.

Unlike the rest of the world where health care is mostly a service; in America, it is a commodity and, as with any commodity, there is money to be made, ergo the doctor’s need to advertise.

I could perhaps understand the logic of this doctor’s marketing strategy if he were dealing with elective surgeries, women who require bigger boobs, a nose job or stomach tuck. But why would a doctor feel the need to advertise surgery for a life-threatening condition?

Surely, if someone is diagnosed with a brain tumor they would be referred to a neurosurgeon by their GP. It’s not like people sit round and say, “Darling, let’s not bother going on a cruise this year, why don’t we both have brain surgery instead? I hear Dr X is very good. He has a passion for world-class brain care.”

And in Black Friday mode, how about an ad that reads: “Let us remove your brain tumor and get a lobotomy at no extra charge.” That has got to be the deal of the century.

American advertising is problematic for me to say the least. TV ads advertise goods and services the like of which would never appear on British TV.

One law firm advertises with the slogan “power to the people”, which roughly translates into “money in our pockets”.

Prescription drug ads always end, after the list of side effects that are ten times worse than the complaint the drug is treating, with “ask your doctor”. I always thought doctors recommended drugs for patients not the other way round.

But again, there is money to be made from prescribing drugs. And the pharmaceutical companies need all the money they can get to pay off the damages awarded against them in various lawsuits.

Strangely, ads for hard liquor do not appear on the network TV channels. At this time of year, I miss the clever and amusing British TV ads for Famous Grouse and Gordon’s Gin. I guess the ghost of prohibition still haunts the psyche of the American establishment. Alcohol is right up there with drugs and tobacco as a big no-no.

And it will take a cold day in Hell before women in tight white jeans prance around on roller-skates or skateboards to advertise Tampax on the American networks.

Clearly in the Disney-inspired mentality that seems to holds sway in America, women do not have periods but they can be prone to brain tumors.

Gators star arrested on DUI charge

By Calvin Palmer

Top-ranked college team Florida could go into Saturday’s crunch football game in the Southeastern Conference against Alabama, ranked number two, without the services of defensive end Carlos Dunlap.

The 20-year-old junior from North Charleston, South Carolina, was arrested in Gainesville, in the early hours of this morning, and charged with driving under the influence.

The Gators coach Urban Meyer said: “We are aware of the incident and are currently gathering more information.”

Meyer was expected to address the situation in more detail after practice Tuesday.

According to reports, Gainesville police officer Robert Rogers came upon Dunlap’s Chrysler stopped at an intersection at 3:25 a.m. The officer found Dunlap  asleep in the  car with the engine running and in gear. Rogers reported he tried to rouse the driver.He eventually unlocked the car door and turned off the ignition.

The police report noted officers smelled alcohol. They also said Dunlap’s eyes were watery and bloodshot, he couldn’t maintain his balance and he did not do well on a field sobriety test.

Dunlap told officers he was going home from a “gathering.”

Dunlap was named defensive MVP of the last year’s BCS national championship game and is projected as a likely first-round NFL draft pick if he decides to leave after this season.

Saturday’s game at the Georgia Dome, in Atlanta, is regarded as the biggest game of the season so far. The winner will play in the BCS championship game in January.

[Based on reports by the Associated Press and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.]

Six-year-old girl one of four victims shot dead at Thanksgiving Day celebration

By Calvin Palmer

Four people were shot dead last night when a man opened fire at a Thanksgiving Day family gathering in Florida.

Palm Beach County Sheriff’s spokesman Sgt Scott Pascarella said 17 relatives were inside the home in Jupiter when the shootings were reported.

Police are searching for 35-year-old suspect Michael Merihige, of Miami.

The victims have been named as Merhige’s 33-year-old twin sisters — Carla Merhige and Lisa Merhige — Raymonde Joseph, 76, and Merhige’s cousin, six- year-old McKayla Sitton, who was asleep in bed when she was shot.

“It was a domestic disturbance. That’s all we know,” Pascarella said today. “What triggered the gunfire, we don’t know.”

Lisa Merhige’s husband, Patrick McKnight, 37, was wounded and is being treated at a hospital. Another cousin, Clifford Bebara, 52, was also injured. Their condition is unknown.

Makayla was due to perform today in The Nutcracker at the Eissey Theater in Palm Beach Gardens.

“She loved ballet and was so thrilled because this was the first time she was able to participate in The Nutcracker,” Colleen Smith, artistic director of the Classical Ballet Theater, said today.

“She was a delightful little girl,” Smith said. “She was luminous,” Smith said. “She never complained and always said, ‘Thank you.’ Makalya was always smiling and tried to make the other children feel better. She was such a dear child.”

Jupiter, a small coastal town about 90 miles north of Miami.

[Based on reports by the Palm Beach Post and Associated Press.]

Police say nurse videotaped sex abuse of patients under anesthesia

By Calvin Palmer

A nurse anesthetist in Georgia is being held in jail without bond after videotapes he took of patients under anesthetic showed one of his victims to be a juvenile.

Paul Patrick Serdula, 47, of Marietta, was arrested earlier this week on child molestation and sodomy charges after a juvenile was identified as an alleged victim, police said.

Serdula was initially arrested last week on three counts of unlawful surveillance of patients at a dental office.

The new charges include aggravated child molestation and aggravated sexual battery stemming from an alleged incident on July 29, and aggravated sodomy allegedly committed on September 16.

Sgt Dana Pierce of Cobb County police said the investigation is continuing and more charges are likely as additional victims come forward.

“We expect as many as 100,” Pierce said.

A search of Serdula’s home led to electronic recording devices and hundreds of videos being seized. The videos showed “inappropriate criminal conduct” against people who were under anesthesia at various offices.

The investigation began when a woman spotted a video recording device in the bathroom at her dental office. She immediately called 911.

“We are looking at tapes not only from the incident that occurred at the dental office, but also other incidents that are recorded that we are trying to find the location of that criminal activity as well as identify the victims,” Pierce said.

Serdula, a contracted nurse anesthetist, did not work directly for any dental or medical physician but may have been employed at numerous medical facilities.

He was issued with a nursing license in 1997, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office and was previously licensed in Florida.

[Based on reports by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Associated Press.]