Thousands of angry Russians took to the streets in the Siberian city of Kemerovo demanding a full investigation into a shopping mall fire that claimed the lives of 64 people — 41 of them children.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who flew to the city to offer his condolences to the victims’ families, declared three days of national mourning beginning on Wednesday. He blamed the blaze on “criminal negligence” and promised that those responsible would be held accountable, Sputnik news agency reported.

Deputy Emergencies Minister Vladlen Aksyonov said that rescue workers recovered the bodies of all 64 victims and they were handed over to Russia’s Investigative Committee.

However, relatives said as many as 85 people were still missing, most of them children, according to Interfax news agency.

The deadly blaze swept through the four-storey Winter Cherry shopping mall on Sunday, the first weekend of school holidays, trapping many families who had gathered at a children’s play area and cinema hall there.

Russian investigators said the mall’s fire exits were blocked and a fire safety technician at the complex “switched off the alarm system” after being alerted about the fire.

The cause of the fire was not yet known, but Russia’s Investigative Committee spoke of “serious violations” at the shopping mall.

It said a criminal investigation into the cause of the fire had begun, although reports suggested that it could have been started by a child misusing a cigarette lighter or malfunctioning electrical wires.

A video released by Putin’s press office showed him laying roses at a makeshift memorial scattered with candles and toys. “What is happening here?”, Putin said after laying a wreath at the scene. “This is no battle or an unexpected methane outburst in a mine.”

“People, children came to relax. We are talking about demography and are losing so many people because of what? Because of criminal negligence, sloppiness,” he said.

Putin did not meet with demonstrators in Kemerovo, who had gathered in front of the local administration office to call for a full probe into the fire. They also demanded that officials be sacked over the fire safety shortcomings.

Members of the distraught crowd cast doubt on the official death toll and demanded that the Forensic Examiner’s Office verify the number, TASS news agency reported.

Footage from the scene showed riot police standing between protesters and the municipal building. “A lot of children died. They died because of irresponsibility of management,” said one protester Svetlana Shestakova.

The main slogans were “Truth!” and “Resign!” — directed at local officials. Dozens of people vowed to stay on the square until Kemerovo’s Governor Aman Tuleyev resigns.

However, Putin said “it was not right to apportion blame right away.” He added that officials at every level will be closely investigated.

Out of 64 bodies, 25 were identified which included 13 children. An official in the emergency services said that another 68 people were injured and poisoned with combustion products. Putin also visited the injured in Kemerovo’s regional hospital.

Meanwhile, the head of the city’s fire department Sergei Yakovlev said that the blaze had spread via flammable thermal insulation that complicated the process of extinguishing the inferno.

(Ians)

The US Federal Trade commission has confirmed that it was investigating Facebook after the leak of personal and other data on some 50 million users to political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.

The FTC said on Monday that it “takes very seriously recent press reports raising substantial concerns about the privacy practices of Facebook”.

“Today, the FTC is confirming that it has an open non-public investigation into these practices,” Efe news quoted Acting FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director, Tom Pahl, as saying.

Pahl emphasized that the agency is committed to using “all of its tools” to protect the privacy of consumers and that the main such tool is “enforcement action” against companies that do not fulfill their promises in the data privacy area or that violate the law.

He explained that the FTC is acting against firms that do not abide by the “Privacy Shield” agreement regulating data transfer with the European Union and against companies that undertake “unfair acts” that harm consumers or violate the FTC Act.

“The FTC is firmly and fully committed to using all of its tools to protect the privacy of consumers. Companies who have settled previous FTC actions must also comply with FTC order provisions imposing privacy and data security requirements,” a statement said.

“Accordingly, the FTC takes very seriously recent press reports raising substantial concerns about the privacy practices of Facebook.”

Rob Sherman, Facebook’s deputy privacy chief, said in a statement last week that the social networking firm remains “strongly committed to protecting people’s information,” adding that “we appreciate the opportunity to answer questions the FTC may have”.

A week ago, after the controversial leak of private information on millions of users came to light, press reports said that the FTC was investigating whether Facebook violated the terms of a 2011 consent agreement requiring user consent for sharing data by providing use data to Cambridge Analytica in 2014.

The London-based political research organization, which collaborated with the election campaign of Donald Trump in the runup to the 2016 vote, used the leaked information to develop a computer programme to predict the decisions of US voters and influence them.

In 2011, Facebook promised to ask for the consent of its users before making certain changes in their privacy preferences, as part of an agreement with the government, which accused the firm of abusing consumers by sharing with third parties more information than users had authorized.

Breaking that agreement could result in the tech firm facing a fine of $40,000 per violation, the CNBC financial network said.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on March 21 admitted that it was a “breach of trust” to allow an app developed by Cambridge University professor Aleksandr Kogan to collect data for Cambridge Analytica, and he added that the firm will “fix” the problem by, among other things, investigating all apps that could access users’ personal data before 2014 and banning any developer that “does not agree to a thorough audit”.

After Monday’s announcement, Facebook shares fell by as much as 6 per cent on Wall Street.

Last week, the firm suffered significantly in the markets as its stock price plunged, reducing the value of outstanding shares by some $50 billion.

(IANS)

Grindr, the worlds largest gay dating app, is set to change its software this week to urge millions of users to get frequent HIV tests, in an an effort to shrink the global epidemic, the media reported.

Grindr, which claims to have 3.3 million daily users from every country in the world, will send men who opt into the service a reminder every three to six months, and simultaneously point them to the nearest testing site, The New York Times reported.

It will also let clinics, gay community centres and other testing sites advertise for free.

The company is making the move to “reduce HIV transmission and support our whole community – regardless of HIV status – in living long and fulfilling lives”, Jack Harrison-Quintana, Grindr’s director for equality, said on Monday.

HIV experts greeted the announcement enthusiastically.

“Wow, that’s great! For a company of this magnitude to do this is groundbreaking,” said Jeffrey D. Klausner, a former chief of sexually transmitted disease prevention in San Francisco who has used Grindr to promote testing.

Perry N. Halkitis, dean of the Rutgers School of Public Health and an expert in gay male behaviour, called the decision “excellent”.

Jonathan Mermin, chief of AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said many men who use location-based phone apps to find other men nearby are considered at high risk of getting infected.

Therefore, “all effective efforts to increase testing are welcome”, The New York Times quoted Mermin as saying.

The Centre recommends that sexually active gay men get tested at least once a year and those at highest risk get tested every three to six months.

More than 107,000 gay and bisexual men in the US have HIV but do not know it,

according to Mermin.

(IANS)

Car bomb explosion near stadium hosting wrestling match kills at least 14 and wounds 40, health official says.

At least 14 people have been killed and dozens wounded in a car bomb explosion near a sports facility in southern Afghanistan, a health official has said.

Omar Zwak, spokesperson for the governor of Helmand province, said Friday’s blast in the city of Lashkar Gah took place close to the Ghazi Muhammad Ayoub Khan stadium, where a wrestling match was taking place.

Aminuallah Abed, chief of the provincial public health department, said that 40 people who were wounded were receiving treatment at a local hospital.

The death toll is expected to rise, with hospital sources telling Al Jazeera that a number of wounded people were in serious condition.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The Italian NGO Emergency said that they had heard the sound of the explosion from their surgical centre.

“35 wounded already taken to our hospital, another four were dead on arrival,” the NGO said in a Twitter post.

Al Jazeera’s Abdullah Shahood, reporting from the capital, Kabul, said a “suicide car bomber detonated his explosives just outside the stadium’s entrance.”

“A number of security officials who were possibly watching the match were among the casualties,” he added.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack, saying in a statement that “the enemies of Afghanistan cannot prevent the celebration of traditional, religious and cultural events in the country.”

The explosion comes just two days after a suicide bomber detonated himself near Kabul University in the Afghan capital, killing 29 people and wounding 52 others.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) claimed responsibility for that attack.

(Aljazeera)

While early detection is the key for successful breast cancer treatment, one in three women in rural India had not even heard of the deadly disease, finds a research led by a doctoral student of Indian-origin.

Breast cancer is the most common of the types of cancer occurring in India, followed by lung cancer and cervical cancer.

The findings showed that as many as 90 per cent of the women in rural areas are unaware of the possibility of self-examination of their own breasts.

A delay of more than three months in seeking care was observed in almost half of the women.

The delay in diagnosis and treatment was for more than twelve weeks in 23 per cent of the patients.

“Early detection may be crucial for successful breast cancer treatment. Therefore, it’s important to influence women’s awareness of the symptoms and their attitudes towards treatment,” said doctoral student Nitin Gangane in a statement released by the Umea University in Sweden.

“It’s urgent to have a national breast cancer programme in India, while at the local level, we need to raise awareness among women about breast cancer,” Gangane said.

The team performed two studies including over 1,000 women in the mainly rural-dominated district of Wardha in the state of Maharashtra in central India.

Hardly any women in the studies self-examined their breasts. Every third woman had not even heard of breast cancer.

On the other hand, most of the women showed a great deal of interest in learning more.

“Illiteracy, ignorance, poverty and superstition regretfully lead to many women delaying their contact with the health care system too long,” Gangane said.

In addition, no pain in the breast lump delayed a visit to the doctor.

Incorrect initial diagnosis or late referral for examination led to diagnostic delay, while the high costs delayed treatment.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) India is likely to have more than 17.3 lakh new cases of breast cancer and over 8.8 lakh deaths due to the disease by 2020.

A recently published study, in the Journal of Business Research showed that lack of early diagnosis of breast cancer may kill 76,000 Indian women in a year by 2020.

It also revealed that the average age of death from the disease has shifted from 50 years to 30 years.

(IANS)

Jerusalem, March 21 (IANS) The Israeli military on Wednesday acknowledged its involvement in airstrikes that demolished a suspected nuclear facility in Syria 11 years ago.

Israel said the air raid in the eastern Deir-al-Zour region in 2007 had removed “an emerging existential threat to Israel and the entire region”. It said the reactor was close to being completed.

Previously, Israel never admitted it was involved in the strikes. On Wednesday, the Israeli censor’s office lifted a long-held prohibition on publishing information on the attack, the BBC reported.

In a statement, the Israeli military said that in the assault, dubbed “Operation Out of the Box”, Israeli fighter jets attacked and destroyed an undeclared nuclear facility in Deir-al-Zour on September 6, 2007.

Several months after the strike, the US announced that intelligence indicated the site was a nuclear reactor with military purpose.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said in the past that the site was “very likely” to have been a nuclear reactor. It also suggested that it was being built with the help of North Korea.

Syria, which has joined the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, has denied this.

The attack was a result of an extensive intelligence effort. The collection of information began in 2004 and included cooperation with “parallel security forces”, the Israeli military statement said, hinting at top-level coordination between the Israeli government led by former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the George W. Bush administration ahead of the strike.

Commenting on the operation, Israel’s then Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi said the Army feared the strike would spark a war in the region and took steps to prevent an escalation as part of the preparations for the operation.

Israel’s Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot, who served as commander of the Northern Command during the operation, said: “The lesson from the 2007 attack on the reactor is that Israel will not accept the establishment of a capability that constitutes an existential threat to Israel. This is the message to our enemies in the near and far future.”

The issue recently resurfaced after Olmert compiled a memoir during his time in prison, where he served a 16-month corruption sentence.

The manuscript, which included a chapter about the attack and Olmert’s part in leading to the decision to execute it, was sent for review to the censor’s office.

(IANS)

People who are less emotionally stable and suffer from anxiety and depression are more likely to be addicted to their smartphones, according to a research.

Emotional stability is characterised by being emotionally resilient. The study found that being less emotionally stable was associated with problematic smartphone behaviour.

People who struggle with their mental health are more likely to intensively use their smartphone as a form of therapy and that the less conscientious individuals are, the more likely they are to be addicted to their phones.

As levels of anxiety increase, problematic smartphone use also increases, the findings showed.

“Problematic smartphone use is more complex than previously thought and our research has highlighted the interplay of various psychological factors in the study of smartphone use,” Zaheer Hussain, Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Derby in Britain, said in a statement.

“This is because people may be experiencing problems in their lives such as stress, anxiety, depression, family problems, so in that state they are emotionally unstable, meaning they may seek respite in very excessive smartphone use. This is worrying,” Hussain said.

For the study, a team of psychologists conducted an online study with 640 smartphone users, aged between 13-69 years, to find out the association between smartphone use and personality traits.

The results showed that people who are “closed off” or less open with their emotions are more likely to have problems with smartphone use.

“They may be engaging in passive social network use, where you spend a lot of time on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, browsing other peoples’ comments, pictures, and posts, and not posting anything of your own and not engaging in discussion with others, so there is no real positive social interaction while social networking,” Hussain noted.

(IANS)

Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen on Thursday lifted a widely denounced state of Emergency after a period of 45 days, stating that the situation in the atoll nation had returned to normal.

“Upon the advice of the security services and in an effort to promote normalcy, the President has decided to lift the state of Emergency,” President Yameen’s office said in a statement.

The President’s international spokesperson Ibrahim Shihab said all departments had been notified.

The state of Emergency was declared by Yameen on February 5 for a period of 15 days due to a “threat to the national security” following a Supreme Court ruling ordering the release of detained opposition leaders including self-exiled former President Mohamed Nasheed.

It was extended via a resolution of Parliament on February 20 for 30 days following a request by the President.

During the 45-day state of Emergency, the government said day-to-day activities of the citizens had not been affected and tourists could continue to visit the island nation.

Meanwhile, several members of Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) detained under Emergency powers were released without charge, the Maldives Independent reported.

MDP Vice President Mohamed Shifaz, former MP Ilyas Labeeb and several council members were arrested in the build-up to the March 16 mass protest after police alleged there were plans to overthrow the government by inciting unrest and violence in the capital.

With constitutional due process rights suspended, the detainees were not informed of charges or taken against them. Their release came ahead of the expiry of the 45-day state of Emergency on Thursday night.

According to the opposition, around 60 people were arrested since the declaration of Emergency on February 5. The Emergency was widely condemned internationally including by the US and India.

(IANS)

At least 26 people killed and 18 others wounded in attack close to Kabul University and Ali Abad hospital.

At least 26 people have been reported killed and 18 others wounded in a mid-day explosion in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Tolo News reported that the attack on Wednesday happened close to Kabul University and Ali Abad hospital.

News reports said an interior ministry spokesman confirmed the number of casualties.

The explosion is believed to have been a car bomb.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

But the Taliban and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group have launched a series of deadly attacks across the country, killing more than 200 people in Kabul alone since the beginning of 2018, according to an Al Jazeera tally.

Htin Kyaw, Myanmar’s first civilian president in more than a half-century, has resigned from office, according to an official statement Wednesday.

A loyal and longtime aide to State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, he was elected president after Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party won a landslide victory in the 2015 general election.

The statement from the Myanmar President’s Office said Htin Kyaw resigned from office as he no longer wants to perform the duty.

Myint Swe, the military-nominated vice president, will act in the role until parliament can confirm a replacement in seven days, it said.

Htin Kyaw is seen as a proxy of Suu Kyi as she is barred from the presidency by the country’s military-drafted constitution.

She was later elected to the newly-invented post of State Counselor, officially answering to the president but in reality occupying a powerful spot at the top by the NLD-dominated parliament despite opposition from the military.

PTI