Cycling: UCI disbands independent Armstrong commission

LONDON: The International Cycling Union (UCI) announced Monday it had disbanded the independent commission it had set up to investigate any alleged involvement by the global governing body in the Lance Armstrong doping scandal.

The UCI said it had pulled the plug on the commission, which only met in public for the first time last week, because both the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the United States Doping Agency (USADA) had refused to co-operate with its inquiries and thus any report it produced would be dismissed "as not being complete or credible".

UCI president Pat McQuaid said they had been left with little choice but to disband the three-member commission consisting of chairman Philip Otton, a former judge in England's Court of Appeal, British Paralympic champion Tanni Grey-Thompson and Australian lawyer Malcolm Holmes.

"As I said last Friday, we have listened carefully to the views of WADA, USADA, and cycling stakeholders and have decided that a truth and reconciliation process is the best way to examine the culture of doping in cycling in the past and to clear the air so that cycling can move forward," McQuaid explained in a statement.

"Over the weekend I spoke to John Fahey, president of WADA. He confirmed WADA's willingness to help the UCI establish a truth and reconciliation commission (TRC), as well as saying that WADA had no confidence in the existing independent commission process."

It was an investigation by USADA that led to Armstrong being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and comments in their decision regarding the UCI's alleged complicity in his drug-taking that led cycling chiefs to set up the independent commission.

- AFP/jc

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Telangana Cong MPs to send resignation to Sonia

HYDERABAD: At least seven Telangana Congress MPs precipitated matters on Monday saying that they would send their resignations to party president Sonia Gandhi, even as ministers from the Telangana region said they would wait before they take a similar step. Their decision to send their resignations to Sonia and not the Speaker is being seen as an ultimatum to the Congress high command to act before it's too late.

The decision by the MPs to quit was taken at a meeting organized by G Vivekananda, with other MPs, Madhu Yaskhi Goud, Ponnam Prabhakar, S Rajaiah, Manda Jagannatham, Gutha Sukhender Reddy and Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy present. The MPs said they would be faxing their resignations to Sonia.

"The resignation letter will be on the regular Lok Sabha format. These will be despatched to the party president with a request to forward them to the Speaker in case there is no decision on Telangana in the next few days," said Manda Jagannatham, MP.

The MPs said they will tell Sonia through their letter that it would be difficult for them to continue in the party considering the delay in forming Telangana. "Because of the Congress's inability to address the Telangana issue as per the commitment made to the people, continuing in the party will be difficult. This we will put on record in a separate letter to the party president. We will annex our resignations to this letter," Gutha said.

Indicating that Telangana Congress was not responding to TRS's call to quit, one MP said they would participate in the movement but join hands with forces who were fighting for social Telangana.

Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy said the Congress high command had "disappointed.. and shown disrespect to the people and humiliated all those who pinned their hopes on the Congress for a separate state."

Meanwhile, panchayat raj minister K Jana Reddy said they have confidence in the high command, because of which they are prepared to give it more time. He said they would quit and join people on the streets the moment Telangana was denied.

"We believe that Telangana is becoming a reality very soon. Our hopes will not be belied. If we fail to convince the party leadership on Telangana, we would join the movement as per the wishes of the people," Jana Reddy said.

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Urban Heat May Warm Faraway Places

The massive amounts of heat produced by cities may be heating up rural areas 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away, atmospheric researchers have found in a new modeling study.

Scientists have long invoked the "urban island heat effect" to explain why cities are generally hotter than suburban and rural areas. More people, as well as more cars, houses, and paved surfaces, turn energy into heat, which is radiated into the atmosphere.

But new modeling research from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, suggests that cities in the Northern Hemisphere can also increase the heat of faraway rural places up to 1.8ºF (1°C)—a substantial aggregate increase.

The reason comes down to global air flow.

Heat produced by cars and people travels about 2,500 feet (4,023 kilometers) into the atmosphere, where it disturbs part of the jet stream that continually circulates a belt of cool air around the top of the planet. When hot air intercepts the jet stream, it pushes the belt upward, allowing warmer air from the Equator to come farther north, warming parts of northern Europe and North America that normally would have been cooler.

Over the Northern Hemisphere, 86 major metropolitan areas cover only 1.27 percent of the Earth's surface. But those areas consume 6.7 terawatts of energy annually—representing 42 percent of annual global consumption.

Those cities' influence on global climate is therefore magnified, according to the study, published Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Until now, climate researchers have mostly pointed to greenhouse gasses as the sole cause of climate change. But the planet has been warming in some areas faster than models have predicted.

The impacts of urban heat produced by energy consumption may account for some of that extra warming, said Guang Zhang, a meteorologist at Scripps who conducted the study: "Essentially, we are now able to account for a missing part of the warming."

Zhang found that the areas most significantly impacted by this urban heat effect were Siberia and northern Canada, which can see temperatures rise 1.4º to 1.8°F (0.8° to 1°C) due to urban heat in faraway cities like New York or San Francisco.

Further south, areas like Minnesota and Michigan might see a 0.5°F (0.3°C) increase. The modeling was conducted with data from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a leading source of global climate data.

While it's true that the Earth's aggregate climate affects every spot on the planet, the impacts of city heat were most pronounced in the Northern Hemisphere, where nearly 90 percent of the global population lives. And the most dramatic cool usually comes in the fall, the researchers said, for reasons that can't yet be fully explained.

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Immigration Plan Includes Path to Citizenship

A bipartisan group of senators on Monday formally unveiled their proposal to drastically overhaul the nation's immigration system, with the hope of passing a bill out of the Senate by late spring or early summer.

"We believe this will be the year Congress finally gets it done," Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) one of the members of the so-called "Gang of Eight" said during a press conference on Capitol Hill.

See Also: Transcript: Framework for Immigration Reform

Five of the eight members of the group -- Schumer, Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and John McCain (R-Ariz.) -- appeared at the press conference intended to outline their immigration proposal. The proposal would provide a path to citizenship for many of the nation's 11 million undocumented immigrants while upping border security and cracking down on businesses that hire workers who are not legally present in the U.S.

Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) were the members not in attendance.

The senators all expressed optimism that their legislation could pass both the House and the Senate. Schumer added that he hopes to have an actual piece of legislation done by the end of March, and then have the Senate act on it right away.

Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

But while some conservatives have signaled support for the Senate framework, many others have resisted any plan that could grant a pathway to citizenship to undocumented immigrants, saying it amounts to amnesty for people who broke the law.

The Senate's plan does not grant undocumented immigrants automatic "amnesty," rather it requires them to go through an arduous process that includes undergoing a background check, paying fines, back taxes and learning English and American civics over the course of a number of years. The new law would grant eligible undocumented immigrants permission to live and work in the U.S. legally, but would not confer permanent legal status, or a green card, until the border is deemed to be secure. Young people brought into the U.S. illegally as minors and some agricultural workers would face an easier path to citizenship.

"We will never put these people on a path to citizenship until we have secured the border," Schumer said.

McCain, who helped lead the last effort on a comprehensive immigration bill in 2007 said, "We have been too content for too long to allow individuals to mow our lawns, grow our food, clean our homes, and even watch our children while not affording them any of the benefits that make our country so great."

Senators in both political parties suggested that the reason that some Republicans have had a change of heart was because of the results of last November's election, when seven in 10 Latino voters backed President Barack Obama over Republican Mitt Romney.

"The politics on this issue have been turned upside down," Schumer said. "For the first time ever, there is more political risk in opposing immigration reform, than in supporting it."

Perhaps more than anyone on the stage, McCain understands this. While he backed comprehensive immigration reform five years ago, he backed away from it during his 2010 run for Senate, just as his home state was considering the SB 1070 crackdown law on undocumented immigrants.

McCain went so far as to say that the current plan is a "testimonial" to bill he worked on with Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), the late liberal icon, in 2007.

Another member of the group, Marco Rubio, had not always voiced support for a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants during his Senate career. But on Monday, he said that Congress needs to "address the reality" of the massive undocumented population in the U.S.

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Fired workers protest at South Korean embassy in Iran

TEHRAN: Around 1,000 workers laid off by Iran's Entekhab group demonstrated outside the South Korean embassy in Tehran on Sunday after an acquisition deal for Daewoo Electronics fell through because of sanctions.

Entekhab had to let them go when it shut down a manufacturing line, the company said.

Three months ago, employees demonstrated at the embassy in the hope that Seoul would intervene to refund a downpayment of $70 million (53 million euros) Entekhab paid in 2011 to Daewoo.

In November 2010, the privately run Entekhab Industrial Group signed a contract sealing its acquisition of Daewoo for $518 million (397 million euros), the manufacturer maintains.

"Today, around 1,200 laid off workers from our company gathered again in front of the South Korean embassy after we did not get the money back," Entekhab's media spokesman Eshsan Fadaee said.

Daewoo Electronics, a former subsidiary of the now-defunct Daewoo Group, has been under a debt rescheduling programme since 1999 when its parent company collapsed.

Entekhab's deal to acquire Daewoo Electronics came unstuck in September 2010 when Seoul, reportedly under pressure from Washington, slapped sanctions on the Islamic republic over its controversial nuclear programme.

Entekhab, located in the central province of Isfahan, produces domestic appliances including refrigerators, washing machines and televisions under the brand names Snowa and Haier.

Under the punitive measures, South Korea has suspended the operations of Iran's Bank Mellat.

The United Nations, European Union, United States, and several other countries have imposed sanctions on Iran for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment, which world powers suspect masks an atomic weapons drive despite Tehran's denials.

- AFP/de

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Pictures: The Story Behind Sun Dogs, Penitent Ice, and More

Photograph by Art Wolfe, Getty Images

If you want the beauty of winter without having to brave the bone-chilling temperatures blasting much of the United States this week, snuggle into a soft blanket, grab a warm beverage, and curl up with some of these natural frozen wonders.

Nieve penitente, or penitent snow, are collections of spires that resemble robed monks—or penitents. They are flattened columns of snow wider at the base than at the tip and can range in height from 3 to 20 feet (1 to 6 meters). The picture above shows the phenomenon in central Chile. (See pictures of the patterns in snow and ice.)

Nieve penitente tend to form in shallow valleys where the snow is deep and the sun doesn't shine at too steep an angle, said Kenneth Libbrecht, a physicist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena who studies ice crystal formation.

As the snow melts, dirt gets mixed in with the runoff and collects in little pools here and there, he said. Since the dirt is darker in color than the surrounding snow, the dirty areas melt faster "and you end up digging these pits," explained Libbrecht.

"They tend to form at high altitude," he said. But other than that, no one really knows the exact conditions that are needed to form penitent snow.

"They're fairly strong," Libbrecht said. "People have found [the spires] difficult to hike through."

—Jane J. Lee

Published January 25, 2013

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Brazil Nightclub Fire: 232 Dead, Hundreds Injured

Flames raced through a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, killing more than 230 people as panicked partygoers gasped for breath in the smoke-filled air, stampeding toward a single exit partially blocked by those already dead. It appeared to be the world's deadliest nightclub fire in more than a decade.

Witnesses said a flare or firework lit by band members started the blaze in Santa Maria, a university city of about 225,000 people, though officials said the cause was still under investigation.

Television images showed smoke pouring out of the Kiss nightclub as shirtless young men who had attended a university party joined firefighters using axes and sledgehammers to pound at windows and walls to free those trapped inside.

Guido Pedroso Melo, commander of the city's fire department, told the O Globo newspaper that firefighters had a hard time getting inside the club because "there was a barrier of bodies blocking the entrance."

Teenagers sprinted from the scene desperately seeking help. Others carried injured and burned friends away in their arms.

"There was so much smoke and fire, it was complete panic, and it took a long time for people to get out, there were so many dead," survivor Luana Santos Silva told the Globo TV network.

The fire spread so fast inside the packed club that firefighters and ambulances could do little to stop it, Silva said.

Germano Roratto/AFP/Getty Images

Another survivor, Michele Pereira, told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that she was near the stage when members of the band lit flares that started the conflagration.

"The band that was onstage began to use flares and, suddenly, they stopped the show and pointed them upward," she said. "At that point, the ceiling caught fire. It was really weak, but in a matter of seconds it spread."

Guitarist Rodrigo Martins told Radio Gaucha that the band, Gurizada Fandangueira, started playing at 2:15 a.m. "and we had played around five songs when I looked up and noticed the roof was burning"

"It might have happened because of the Sputnik, the machine we use to create a luminous effect with sparks. It's harmless, we never had any trouble with it.

"When the fire started, a guard passed us a fire extinguisher, the singer tried to use it but it wasn't working"

He confirmed that accordion player Danilo Jacques, 28, died, while the five other members made it out safely.

Police Maj. Cleberson Braida Bastianello said by telephone that the toll had risen to 233 with the death of a hospitalized victim — he said earlier that the death toll was likely made worse because the nightclub appeared to have just one exit through which patrons could exit.

Officials counted 232 bodies that had been brought for identification to a gymnasium in Santa Maria, which is located at the southern tip of Brazil, near the borders with Argentina and Uruguay.

Federal Health Minister Alexandre Padhilha told a news conference that most of the 117 people treated in hospitals had been poisoned by gases they breathed during the fire. Only a few suffered serious burns, he said.

Brazil President Dilma Roussef arrived to visit the injured after cutting short her trip to a Latin American-European summit in Chile.

"It is a tragedy for all of us," Roussef said.

Most of the dead apparently were asphyxiated, according to Dr. Paulo Afonso Beltrame, a professor at the medical school of the Federal University of Santa Maria who went to the city's Caridade Hospital to help victims.

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Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) won’t seek reelection

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), a five-term senator and one of his party’s most outspoken liberals, will not seek reelection in 2014, presenting Democrats and Republicans with key tests of their midterm electoral strategies.

Harkin’s surprise announcement Saturday makes him the third senator up for reelection this cycle to announce his retirement. Sens. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) have said recently that they will not seek another term.

The race to succeed Harkin likely will be one of the most competitive Senate contests next year and key to either party’s chances of controlling the chamber. Democrats hold a 55-seat majority but will be defending 20 of the 34 seats up for grabs, mostly in rural and western states; Republicans need to gain six seats to retake the majority.

Harkin’s departure “immediately vaults Iowa into the top tier of competitive Senate races next year,” said Rob Collins, executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Acknowledging the challenge his party faces, Sen. Michael F. Bennet (D-Colo.), chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in a statement, “I appreciate that Senator Harkin has made this decision so early in the cycle, giving us ample time to recruit a strong Democratic candidate for this seat.”

Harkin, 73, said in an interview Saturday that the recent death of his friend, Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii), was a factor in his decision to retire.

“It begins to bring home that life is fleeting,” he said of Inouye’s death. “I’ve had the privilege of 40 years in the House and Senate. I thank my Iowans for the privilege, but it’s somebody else’s turn.”

Harkin said he plans to remain active in policy debates and also spend more time with his wife, Ruth. He said he will finally learn how to dance and maybe participate in RAGBRAI, the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, a seven-day event that is one of the state’s quirkier traditions.

Harkin was first elected to the House in 1974 and won his Senate seat in 1984. He was a champion of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, ran unsuccessfully for president in 1992 and was a key supporter of President Obama’s health-care law.

As for potential successors, both parties have several prospects.

Republicans, eager to avoid the missteps of the more outspoken conservative candidates nominated in recent years, may coalesce around Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds or U.S. Rep. Tom Latham, who represents Des Moines and is a close friend of House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). But U.S. Rep. Steve King, a staunchly conservative tea party favorite and frequent cable news guest, has openly discussed a Senate campaign.

U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley is expected to be a front-runner on the Democratic side but has also talked of running for governor in 2014. Other potential Democratic candidates include Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, a former Iowa governor, and his wife, Christie Vilsack, who unsuccessfully challenged King in 2012.

Aaron Blake and Sean Sullivan contributed to this report.

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Sailing: Olympic sailing champion visits Singapore

SINGAPORE: Xu Lijia, the 25 year old who became the first Chinese to win a gold medal in the dinghy class after finishing first in the laser radial class at the 2012 London Olympics, is in town.

The Chinese athlete shared her experiences with local sailors at a talk, which attracted 500 participants. The talk also saw the launch of the Character Development Through Sailing programme.

The Shanghai native, who won bronze in the same class at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, said that it was not just about winning, but also enjoying the journey.

She had to beat many odds including injuries, physical limitations and the lack of a proper support structure for the sport in China.

"It is about promotion, promoting this sport not only in Singapore, China but... in whole of Asia. I hope that Asia can become stronger and stronger and (compete) with the European countries," she said.

- CNA/jc

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Prescribe generic drugs: MCI to doctors

MUMBAI: The Union government and regulatory bodies appear to be serious in ending the pharma-doctor nexus and curb unethical marketing practices. In its latest effort, the Medical Council of India has directed doctors, hospitals and medical colleges to prescribe generic medicines as far as possible. Generic medicines are more affordable versions of branded medicines sold by companies.

In its directive dated January 21 to the principals of medical colleges, director of hospitals and presidents of all state medical councils, the MCI has said that every physician should, as far as possible, prescribe drugs with generic names and ensure that there is a rational prescription and use of drugs. All doctors registered under the MCI act have been asked to comply with the directive.

Over the past couple of years, there have been a slew of efforts to curb unethical marketing practices followed by pharma companies, end the use of branded drugs and bring down the prices of medicines.

MCI chairman K K Talwar said, "The directive is a bid to educate the medical community, including doctors and make them aware about the increased availability of generic drugs and to make them more affordable as well. We need to instill confidence in people about the use of generic versions."

Though the government has opened the retail store, which market generic medicines, "Jan Aushadhi" in certain states, availability of quality generic medicines is a huge concern.

Doctors are of the view that the focus should be on the quality of the drugs prescribed. Says Dr Anoop Misra chairman of Delhi-based Fortis Centre of excellence for diabetes: "For the benefit of patients and to get the best possible results, highest quality drugs with best possible pharmacological properties should be used by all doctors. If the quality of generic drugs is up to high standards, doctors should prescribe generic medicines."

Industry experts, however, said the move may not benefit patients as it may not lead to a significant price reduction. Says Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance, secretary general D G Shah: "If the government is able to ensure the quality of generic medicines, then it will be beneficial. Patients do not know about the quality of medicines and will have to depend on chemists. It may lead to a chemist-pharma nexus from the much-discussed nexus between pharma companies and doctors".

Last year, in a bid to promote generic medicines, the health ministry ordered states to stop issuing licenses in brand names. The move has not benefitted patients much as companies continue to market the medicines in brand names. Also, concerned with increasing complaints of unethical marketing practices, the department of pharmaceuticals initiated an exercise to introduce a code of conduct for the pharma industry, which is yet to be finalized.

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