LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY “To love the church means also to have the courage to take difficult, painful decisions,
always keeping the good of the church in mind, not oneself.” Pope Benedict XVI Article, this pageFire in 6-story India market fatal to 19
KOLKATA, India - A fire broke out at an illegal sixstory plastics market in the Indian city of Kolkata early Wednesday, killing at least 19 people, police said.
The blaze, which started before 4 a.m., was likely caused by a short circuit, said West Bengal fire minister Javed Khan. The fire was under control by midmorning, he said, but toxic gases being released by the blaze were hampering rescue efforts.
A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said at least 19 people had died. He said police were looking for the owner of the building, which was filled with dozens of small shops selling various plastic products.
Another 10 people were hospitalized in critical condition, and the death toll was expected to rise, Khan said.
He called the scene of the fire “an illegal, unauthorized market.”
However, local residents said the market had been operating in the building for nearly 40 years. They said there was only one entrance to the building, which made rescue efforts difficult. Kolkata is formerly known as Calcutta.
Shark kills swimmer off New Zealand
AUCKLAND, New Zealand - A shark possibly 14 feet long killed a swimmer near a popular New Zealand beach Wednesday, then disappeared after police attempting to save the man fired gunshots at the predator.
Muriwai Beach near Auckland was closed after the fatal attack, one of only about a dozen in New Zealand in the past 180 years.
Police recovered the body of the victim, identified as Adam Strange, a 46-year-old television and short-film director, the New Zealand Herald said. Strange won a Crystal Bear award for best short film at the 2009 Berlin Film Festival, according to his company’s website.
The newspaper said his relatives issued a statement expressing their shock and requesting privacy.
Pio Mose, who was fishing at the beach, told the Herald that he saw the swimmer struggle against the shark. He told the man to swim to the rocks, but it was too late.
Czech president focus of treason push
PRAGUE - A group of 28 Czech senators submitted a request to file treason charges against President Vaclav Klaus over an amnesty that he granted to thousands at the start of the year.
The upper house of parliament, controlled by the opposition Social Democrats, will vote on the request if the chamber’s administrative committee rules that the proposal is valid, the Prague-based Senate said on its website Wednesday. If approved, the charges would be filed at the Constitutional Court.
The Social Democrats, the most popular party in opinion polls and the largest in both houses of the legislature, has criticized Klaus’ amnesty of convicted criminals and suspects, and last month initiated a no-confidence vote against the government over the president’s move. Klaus has repeatedly said the amnesty was in line with legislation.
Klaus, the Czech Republic’s highest-profile critic of the European Union and its common currency, will leave his post next week when his second and the final term expires March 7.
Egypt balloon-crash inquiry continues
CAIRO - Investigators are collecting information on the cause of the fire that broke out in a hot-air balloon in the ancient Egyptian city of Luxor, killing 19 tourists, the head of the probe said, as relatives of some of the Western and Asian victims arrived Wednesday to identify the victims.
The 19 tourists died when the hot-air balloon they were riding in caught fire and plummeted about 1,000 feet Tuesday in Luxor in southern Egypt. One British tourist survived along with the Egyptian pilot of the balloon, who was badly burned.
The lead investigator, Walid el-Moqadem, said the investigation in Luxor is in the phase of collecting data and documentation about the crash and the balloon. He said the pilot is hospitalized in Cairo, and authorities have not yet been able to question him.
According to initial reports, the balloon over Luxor, 320 miles south of Cairo, was landing just after 7 a.m. when a cable got caught around a gas tube, and a fire broke out.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 02/28/2013