Tribe opens glass-bottom deck 4,000 feet above Grand Canyon floor

By: Associated Press | Tuesday, March 20, 2007 6:50 PM PDT ∞

HUALAPAI INDIAN RESERVATION, Ariz. -- Staring down through the transparent floor and walking very carefully, American Indian leaders, a former astronaut and invited guests walked beyond the Grand Canyon's edge Tuesday during opening ceremonies for a glass-bottom observation deck that lets tourists gaze deep into the chasm.

A few members of the Hualapai Indian Tribe, which allowed the Grand Canyon Skywalk to be built on the canyon rim, hopped up and down playfully on the horseshoe-shaped structure. At the top of the loop, the group peeked over the glass wall.

"I can hear the glass cracking!" Hualapai Chairman Charlie Vaughn said playfully.

Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin declared it a "magnificent first walk."

The Hualapai, whose reservation is about 90 miles west of Grand Canyon National Park, allowed Las Vegas developer David Jin to build the $30 million Skywalk in hopes of creating a unique attraction on their side of the canyon. The Skywalk extends 70 feet beyond the canyon's edge with no visible supports above or below.

"To me, I believe this is going to help us. We don't get any help from the outside, so, why not?" said Dallas Quasula Sr., 74, a tribal elder who was at the Skywalk. "This is going to be our bread and butter."

For $25 plus other fees, up to 120 people at a time will be able to look down to the canyon floor 4,000 feet below, a vantage point more than twice as high as the world's tallest buildings.

The Skywalk is scheduled to open to the public March 28.

To reach the transparent deck, tourists must drive on twisty, unpaved roads through rugged terrain. But the tribe hopes it becomes the centerpiece of a budding tourism industry that includes helicopter tours, river rafting, a cowboy town and a museum of Indian replica homes.

Robert Bravo Jr., operations manager of the Hualapai tourist attractions called Grand Canyon West, said he hopes the Skywalk will double tourist traffic to the reservation this year, from about 300,000 visitors to about 600,000. In later years, he hopes it brings in about 1 million tourists.

"It's a great feeling Tuesday. Once everybody sees this, and it's televised, they're going to know to come here," Bravo said.

Architect Mark Johnson said the Skywalk can support the weight of a few hundred people and will withstand wind up to 100 mph. The observation deck has a 3-inch-thick glass bottom and has been equipped with shock absorbers to keep it from bouncing like a diving board as people walk on it.

The Skywalk has sparked debate on and off the reservation. Many Hualapai (pronounced WALL-uh-pie) worry about disturbing nearby burial sites, and environmentalists have blamed the tribe for transforming the majestic canyon into a tourist trap.

Hualapai leaders say they weighed those concerns for years before agreeing to build the Skywalk. With a third of the tribe's 2,200 members living in poverty, the tribal government decided it needs the tourism dollars.

Jin fronted the money to build the Skywalk. According to the tribe, Jin will give it to the Hualapai in exchange for a cut of the profits.

Construction crews spent two years building the walkway. They drilled steel anchors 46 feet into the limestone rim to hold the deck in place. Earlier this month, they welded the Skywalk to the anchors after pushing it past the edge using four tractor trailers and an elaborate system of pulleys.

On the Net:

Skywalk: http://www.grandcanyonskywalk.com/

13-year-old Utah girl out-ranks 'em all in annual smelly sneakers contest

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- Thirteen-year-old Katharine Tuck's sneakers smell as bad as they look.

Now, at least, the Utah seventh-grader can afford some new ones.

On Tuesday, she out-ranked six other children to win $2,500 in the 32nd annual National Odor-Eaters Rotten Sneaker Contest, stinking up the joint with a pair of well-worn 1.5-year-old Nikes so noxious they had the judges wincing.

"I'm so proud of the little stinker," said her mother, Paula Tuck.

Ah, the foul smell of success.

Katharine has used the sneakers to play soccer and basketball, hiked in them, even waded into the Great Salt Lake, where they became infiltrated with brine shrimp.

The contest, founded in 1975 as a sporting goods store promotion and now sponsored by the manufacturer of anti-foot odor products, pits children from around the nation who have won state-level competitions for the generally cruddy condition of their footwear.

Kyle Underwood, 9, from Las Cruces, N.M., entered with his low-cut black Starters, the ones with the blown-out toe on the right foot. "These are bad," sighed judge Andy Brewer. "Ooh, these are really bad."

Michael Nduka, 9, of White Plains, N.Y., sported ratty black-and-white low-cuts, which -- like the others -- were passed from judge to judge for inspection. Judge William Fraser held one up using the tip of a pen.

Contestants had to jump in place once and make one full turn in place before taking off their shoes and handing them to the judges. It was 24 degrees outside, but only one of the kids wore socks -- foot sweat is a boon, not a bane, in this game.

Katharine and her father missed a connecting flight and had to drive part of the way to Vermont. Their luggage still hadn't arrived Tuesday.

Her mother had the foresight to warn her not to ship her prized shoes in her checked baggage. Mercifully for airport security screeners, she didn't wear them, either, opting to carry them in her purse.

Purdue student missing since Jan. found dead in high-voltage utility room, door was unlocked

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) -- A body found slumped over machinery in a dormitory's high-voltage utility room was identified Tuesday as a 19-year-old Purdue University student who vanished in January, school officials said.

A maintenance worker investigating a "pinging" sound on Monday discovered the body of Wade Steffey, a freshman who was last seen in the area Jan. 13 after he left a fraternity party. The Tippecanoe County coroner identified the body Tuesday.

It appeared he tripped and fell onto a power transformer, Purdue spokeswoman Jeanne Norberg said.

"He is believed to have died instantly," she said.

The maintenance worker had unlocked the utility room from inside the Owen Hall on Monday, Norberg said. Afterward, police discovered that the room's exterior door was closed but that it was unlocked, she said. Officials had said Monday that the ground-level utility room wasn't accessible from Owen Hall and was locked with two sets of keys, one each for two sets of doors.

Officials have removed the exterior door's lock assembly for a forensic examination to determine whether the mechanism works. Norberg said Purdue will conduct an independent investigation to "to find out all we can about this accident occurred."

"We're going to find out. The search for Wade Steffey is over but the search for answers continues," Norberg said.

Steffey's father, Dale, said he was confident Purdue would thoroughly investigate.

"That door should be locked, absolutely," he said.

The area around Owen Hall had been repeatedly searched after Steffey was reported missing, and maintenance staff had opened the utility room, but Norberg said they didn't fully inspect the interior because of the risk posed by the high-voltage equipment.

Power was cut to the coed residence hall that houses about 700 students while the body was removed.

"We have the answer now, the big answer, to where our son is," said Steffey's mother, Dawn Adams, who said she and her husband had felt before the body's discovery that their son was dead.

"Now everyone who was praying for us can have a measure of peace," she said. "This affects so many more people than us. Now there is grief."

Campus officials had organized several searches for Steffey, the most recent a ground search in the area on Sunday. Anna Hirst, an area resident who helped with the searches, described the community's emotion on hearing the news.

"It's absolutely devastating," she said.

Car driven by Keanu Reeves 'grazes' photographer, authorities say

RANCHO PALOS VERDES - A car driven by actor Keanu Reeves "grazed" a photographer in Rancho Palos Verdes, authorities said Tuesday.

The accident occurred about 7:30 last night in the 30100 block of Avenida Tranquila, said Sgt. Diane Hecht of the Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau.

Paramedics took the photographer to a hospital for treatment, but it was unclear what injuries he suffered, Hecht said. Reeves was not injured. No citations were issued.

According to a sheriff's department statement:

"The incident occurred ... when Mr. Reeves pulled out of a parking space parallel to the curb and grazed a paparazzo," according to a Sheriff's Department statement. "The paparazzo was standing in the street in front of Mr. Reeves' 1996 Porsche when he was grazed by the car.

"The man fell to the ground. Paramedics were summoned and treated the man at the scene. He was then transported via ambulance to a local hospital for further treatment."

An investigation was under way.

---- North County Times wire services

San Francisco bar workers thwart man who drugged date's beer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A bartender and waitress have been hailed as heroes for thwarting an attempt by a former school employee to drug his date after slipping sedatives into her beer.

Joseph Szlamnik was sentenced to one year in jail last week for transporting and furnishing a narcotic after bar workers reported he twice put substances in a date's drinks that were later found to contain a sleeping pill and tranquilizer.

Karri Cormican, 23, a waitress at Noe's Bar, said she saw Szlamnik shake white powder into his 34-year-old date's beer while the woman was in a restroom.

Cormican quickly replaced the beer, claiming it was from a bad keg.

When Szlamnik's date went outside for a cigarette, Bartender Hannah Bridgeman-Oxley, 27, said she saw him drop two pills into the new beer.

Szlamnik, then 43, fled when confronted by Bridgeman-Oxley, who called police.

The tainted drinks were turned over to police and a toxicologist testified that the powder was zalepron, a prescription sleeping drug sold as Sonata, while the pills were a tranquilizer commonly sold as Xanax.

The two drugs "are encountered frequently in drug-facilitated sexual assaults," said Dr. Nikolas Lemos, chief forensic toxicologist at the San Francisco medical examiner's office.

Judge Susan Breall said during a hearing in San Francisco Superior Court that the bar workers "were two heroic people who stopped this crime from happening."

Szlamnik lost his job as a senior management assistant with San Francisco Unified School District after he agreed to plead guilty on the drug charges and voluntarily entered jail in January.

More than 200 couples join during first month civil unions are offered in N.J.

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (AP) -- At least 219 gay couples applied to join in civil unions during the first month the legal institution was available in New Jersey, a state agency said in a report issued Tuesday.

Civil unions offer gay couples the legal benefits of marriage -- but not the title. New Jersey lawmakers created the institution last December in response to a state Supreme Court ruling two months earlier that said it was unconstitutional to deny gay couples access to the protections of marriage.

New Jersey's civil unions law took effect Feb. 19. The data reported Tuesday by the state Health and Senior Services Department covers the period from then until March 19. The data may not be complete, since some counties might not have yet submitted their records and some couples may have applied for licenses but have not yet joined.

The number was far smaller than activists had expected. By comparison, about 500 gay and lesbian couples registered on the day New Jersey's domestic partnership law went into effect in 2004. That law was simpler to take advantage of, but offered only a handful of the benefits extended in the civil union law.

The difference may be a result of couples hoping that they will be allowed to marry in the next few years, said Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality, a gay political advocacy group.

In the United States, only Massachusetts allows gay couples to marry. Vermont and Connecticut also have civil unions and California has domestic partnerships that offer benefits similar to the civil unions.

Gay rights advocates in New Jersey are promising to keep pushing for the right to marry, while some social conservatives are campaigning to amend the state constitution to ban gay marriage.

Civil unions can be officiated by judges, mayors or clergy -- the same people authorized to perform weddings.

The legal benefits include the right to file taxes jointly, inheritance and adoption rights, and the ability to make medical decisions on a partner's behalf. However, the federal government and most states do not recognize the unions.

Rescuers pull more bodies from Siberian mine after blast kills more than 100

NOVOKUZNETSK, Russia (AP) -- Rescuers pulled more bodies from a Siberian coal mine Tuesday as investigators tried to pinpoint what sparked a methane gas explosion that killed 107 miners in Russia's deadliest mining disaster in a decade.

Among those killed were 20 top mine staff, including its chief engineer, who had been inside checking a British-made hazard monitoring system, said regional Gov. Aman Tuleyev. A British citizen, identified as Ian Robertson, and his interpreter were also killed. Robertson worked for the British-German mining consultancy IMC.

Some 200 workers were in the Ulyanovskaya mine when the blast occurred early Monday nearly 900 feet underground. Three people remained missing; 93 had been rescued.

"There was a bang and smoke, then the rescuers came. We switched on our safety kits and started going to the surface. Five of us came out. First they helped me to walk then it was all normal and I came back to my senses," miner Alexei Loboda, told First Channel television.

Three days of mourning were called in the coal-rich region known as the Kuzbass where most of the population works in mining or related industries.

President Vladimir Putin sent Tuleyev a telegram asking him to convey his sympathy to relatives of the dead and support for the injured survivors, and said he was ordering an investigation.

Putin also ordered an inquiry into a second disaster to strike Russia in less than 24 hours -- a fire that swept a nursing home in southern city of Kamyshevatskaya and killed 62 people.

Nikolai Kultyn, an inspector with federal industrial regulator Rostekhnadzor, said there were no gas monitors where the pocket of methane gas had accumulated. He said the high number of deaths was likely due to the fact that many people were in a small area at the time of the blast.

"The explosion wasn't so strong as to destroy the mine's equipment," Kultyn said in televised comments. "This was a coincidence of circumstances -- so many people gathered so close to the epicenter."

In a statement, Rostekhnadzor said it was unlikely that faulty equipment had caused the explosion, and that investigators were looking into soil subsidence or human error as possible causes. The agency also said mine operators had passed recent safety tests and the mine had all necessary operating licenses. Tuleyev ruled out human error, though he did not explain why.

Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu also said the mine had modern equipment.

The mine in the city of Novokuznetsk, about 1,850 miles east of Moscow, is operated by Yuzhkuzbassugol, an affiliate of Russian coal and steel company Evraz Group SA, which acquired a 50 percent stake in the company in 2005.

Labor union officials blamed the explosion in part on quota systems that encourage miners to work faster and harvest more coal, potentially leading to carelessness.

Russia's mining industry fell into disrepair when government subsidies dried up after the Soviet collapse. At least 30 workers died in Russian mining accidents last year, including 25 killed in a fire at a Siberian gold mine.

In 2004, a blast at a mine on the outskirts of Novokuznetsk killed 47 workers, and in 1997, a methane explosion at a mine in the city killed 67.

The ITAR-Tass news agency said Monday's explosion was the deadliest mine accident in the Kuzbass region in 60 years.

In recent years, conglomerates such as Evraz SA have bought up coal mines and similar enterprises and consolidated operations, selling raw and semi-processed material to steel smelters, electricity producers and other major industry. But some government officials have accused private companies of cutting corners on safety measures to save money.

Yuzhkuzbassugol is Russia's leading producer of coking coal, with an output of 14 million tons in 2005, the Evraz Web site said.

Rescuers find body of boy whose boat was swept over dam spillway in central Illinois

CLINTON, Ill. (AP) -- Searchers found the body of a missing 8-year-old boy in water below a dam Tuesday, nearly a week after his grandfather's boat was swept over the spillway.

Kalin L. Hunter disappeared Wednesday when the 17-foot-aluminum fishing boat apparently ran out of gas on Clinton Lake. The bodies of his grandfather, Richard L. Hunter, 59, and uncle, Jason C. Hunter, 29, were found Thursday.

Rescuers used underwater cameras to locate the boy's body because the water was too rough for divers.

Chris McCloud, a spokesman for the Department of Natural Resources, said he did not know how long it would take for rescuers to remove the boy's body, saying turbulent water and debris hindered efforts.

Autopsies showed the boy's two relatives drowned, and officials said alcohol was not a factor.

Clinton Lake is a 5,000-acre reservoir in central Illinois.

L.A. court screens prospective jurors for record producer Phil Spector's murder trial

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A defense lawyer in another Southern California celebrity case was among those dismissed Tuesday in the second day of jury selection for record producer Phil Spector's murder trial.

One prospect identified himself as an attorney representing a defendant in the prosecution of private eye Anthony Pellicano, who is accused of wiretapping Hollywood stars and a billionaire's ex-wife.

Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler excused him and several stay-at-home mothers who said serving on Spector's case, which is expected to last four months, would be a hardship.

Spector is accused of killing cult movie star Lana Clarkson, who was shot in the foyer of his castle-like home Feb. 3, 2003. She was working as a hostess at the House of Blues when she went home with Spector that night.

The initial phase of jury selection began Monday with 150 prospects screened for availability. A new panel of 75 prospects was brought in Tuesday.

The next phase involves filling out an 18-page questionnaire, which includes a category called "Attitudes about celebrities and high-profile people." The completed forms will be given to prosecutors and defense lawyers to study before in-court jury questioning begins April 16.

Spector, 66, and his wife watched proceedings with three burly bodyguards who accompany them everywhere.

The jury will consider conflicting evidence about what happened before police found Clarkson, 40, slumped dead in a chair, her teeth blown out by a gunshot to her mouth.

The coroner's office called it a homicide, but also noted that Clarkson had gunshot residue on both of her hands and may have pulled the trigger.

In an e-mail to friends, Spector called the death "an accidental suicide." He has pleaded not guilty and has been free on $1 million bail since his arrest. If convicted, he could face life in prison.

Spector, who created the "Wall of Sound" that revolutionized how rock music was recorded, produced the Beatles' "Let It Be" album and George Harrison's "Concert for Bangladesh," and has been cited as an influence by Bruce Springsteen and countless other artists.

He also wrote such rock classics as "Da Doo Ron Ron," "Be My Baby," "You've Lost that Lovin' Feeling" and "River Deep-Mountain High," although his name is rarely mentioned along with the artists who recorded the songs.

Holocaust survivors awarded $300 million in insurance claims

WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than $300 million in previously unpaid insurance claims were awarded to 48,000 Holocaust survivors for harm they suffered during World War II, an international commission said Tuesday.

The International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims concluded its claims and appeals process after a worldwide outreach campaign began in 1998 to ensure that insurance companies fulfilled their obligations.

Its review was able to match those survivors submitting claims with more than 70 European insurance companies and businesses.

"I fully recognize that no amount of compensation can redress the suffering inflicted during the Holocaust," said Lawrence Eagleburger, who chaired the commission. Still, the panel, he said, "has achieved its goal of bringing a small measure of justice to those who have been denied it for so long."

The group was charged with expeditiously addressing, at no cost to claimants, unpaid insurance policies issued to Holocaust victims.

On the Net:

International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims: http://www.icheic.org

Dutch heavy metal bands to rock the heck out of religious town

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- A heavy metal rock festival hoping to hold an open-air concert in an area known as the Dutch Bible Belt received a permit on one condition: no cursing.

The Elsrock festival caused an uproar last year when it was held for the first time outside the small, heavily religious town of Rijssen, 75 miles east of Amsterdam.

Two religious political parties complained that heavy metal "is typified by lyrics about death and decay, and vocals that change between a hellish wail and deep grunts."

Churches protesting a new concert this year were pacified only by "the stated readiness of the organizers to make sure that no blasphemous words are used, and that the honor of God's name is not besmirched," Mayor Bort Koelewijn wrote in a letter granting the permit, made public on Tuesday.

"Should there in practice be any blasphemy, I'll ask the district attorney to prosecute."

A spokeswoman for the town said the concert was scheduled for Aug. 25, and as many as 1,200 people were expected to attend.

One of the concert's organizers, who asked not to be named because he feared he might lose customers at his regular business in Rijssen, said the bands invited were not known for Satan-worshipping lyrics and would be instructed to "keep it cool" during the concert.

"But that someone might swear somewhere on the concert grounds -- you can't prevent that. It's not realistic in this day and age," he said.

He said a church delegation had come to the concert last year and "found out the music was not their cup of tea," but agreed the event was well-run.

The lineup so far includes several Dutch bands and one Brazilian band called Thessera.

Overloaded truck overturns in Guinea, 65 killed

CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) -- An overloaded truck overturned while crossing a bridge, sending people, bags of cement and sacks of rice into the river below and killing as many as 65 people, state radio reported Tuesday.

The truck was ferrying merchandise and passengers back from a local market near the southeastern town of Gueckedou when the accident occurred Sunday, state-run RTG radio reported.

The truck became unbalanced and tipped over while crossing the bridge. Many of the dead drowned, suffocated under the heavy cargo, RTG said.

At least 20 people were injured and taken to hospital, the radio station said.

Guinea, a country of 10 million on Africa's West Coast is deeply impoverished despite having half the world's supply of bauxite -- the raw material used to make aluminum -- as well as iron ore, gold and diamonds. Unable to afford the price of a bus ticket, many Guineans hitch rides on crowded trucks.

Supreme Court blocks execution of Ohio inmate who scattered victim's remains

LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked the execution of a man who killed a woman and scattered her remains across two states, agreeing with other courts that said he can continue arguing that Ohio's method of lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment.

Kenneth Biros had waited for the decision hours past his 10 a.m. scheduled execution time at Ohio's death house.

Prisons director Terry Collins said the execution would not happen Tuesday. The execution team had been waiting while the court debated, and was ready to administer the lethal injection if the court granted the state's request to proceed with the execution.

The justices' one-sentence decision agreed with two lower courts that had delayed the execution, including the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which refused earlier Tuesday to allow a hearing before the full court to consider a state appeal.

Biros, 48, acknowledged that he killed Tami Engstrom, 22, in 1991, but he said he did it during a drunken rage.

A panel of judges on the 6th Circuit in Cincinnati on Monday upheld a lower court's order blocking the execution, saying Biros should be able to continue appealing a lawsuit with other inmates arguing cruel and unusual punishment.

Biros' attorney, Timothy Sweeney, had said that if the Supreme Court allowed the execution, Biros still had an appeal before the 6th Circuit that claims he was not convicted of an offense that merits the death penalty.

Biros and Engstrom met after work in 1991 at a tavern in Masury in northeast Ohio. Police believed she fled his advances and fell or was struck or was strangled when Biros tried to quiet her.

A search based on Biros' information led to body parts near Masury and in adjacent areas in northwest Pennsylvania. Her head, right breast and right leg had been severed, intestines were found in a swampy area in Ohio, a leg was broken over a railroad track, the torso was found in a rural area of Pennsylvania and part of a liver was found in Biros' car.

Mentally ill father's letters reveal he killed sons, self in W. Va. to spare family pain

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. (AP) -- A mentally ill father who fatally shot his two sons and himself at their university last year had thought someone was planning to kidnap, torture and kill his youngest son, according to the man's notes.

The Sept. 2 murder-suicide shootings outside a dormitory at Shepherd University stunned the small school, about 80 miles northwest of Washington, D.C.

Students witnessed Douglas Pennington, 49, shoot Logan, 26, and Benjamin, 24, multiple times, then shoot himself once in the chest.

Notes found inside the car that Douglas Pennington drove to the college and in a notebook found at his home in Scherr talked about his internal battles, his love for his family, and the feelings of guilt and pain that surrounded his life.

State Police recently released them in response to a request filed by The Journal in Martinsburg under the Freedom of Information Act.

Pennington wrote about his fear that Benjamin was going to be taken from the family, "taken somewhere and tortured and killed."

To spare them that pain, Pennington wrote, "I must do the unthinkable."

His mother, Mary Pennington, told police that her son had been under the care of a mental health physician in Cumberland, Md., but had missed two appointments. She also said his medication had made him senile for months.

The family tried to hospitalize him without success, she said.

In one note, the father wrote: "I see what I've done and I see what's coming for my family and I can't let that happen to them. I lose any way I turn, and so do they."

In notes to his wife, Becky, Pennington wrote that he loved her and urged her to "Please understand. I can't explain."

Fire kills at least 62 at nursing home in Russian town an hour from nearest fire station

KAMYSHEVATSKAYA, Russia (AP) -- It was a firefighter's nightmare. The call for help came in the middle of the night -- and the burning nursing home was 30 miles away. When fire crews arrived an hour later, there was little they could do other than douse the flames.

They were too late to do anything for the 62 people who died inside -- feeble, helpless elderly people whose lives ended in final moments of terror.

Maxim Movchan, one of the rescue workers, entered what was left of the building and saw the body of a man with head ablaze. "When I saw those who suffocated ... I thought they were more lucky," he said hours after the fire Tuesday.

Coming a day after an explosion killed more than 100 miners in Siberia, the disaster raised troubling questions about how much newly prosperous Russia has recovered from post-Soviet deterioration: Did the local fire station have to be closed last year? Why did the home's watchman ignore two fire alarms? Why were staff members away from their posts, slowing the evacuation?

"The authorities have forgotten about us," residents shouted at President Vladimir Putin's regional representative when he showed up at the charred wreckage in Kamyshevatskaya, a village on the Azov Sea in southern Russia.

Officials blamed the disaster on safety violations at the nursing home, toxic building materials used in a renovation, negligence by the staff and the nearest firehouse being so far away.

Many of the 93 elderly residents of the home were too frail to escape on their own, and nearly all of those who did get out suffered injuries.

"I didn't have time to get frightened. I opened the door, there was smoke and the acrid smell of plastic. I shut the door and immediately jumped out of the window. I have survived by a real miracle," one survivor, Vasily Kondratko, told NTV television.

Some residents banged on windows pleading for help, according to a local man who said he helped evacuate some people from the two-story brick building before firefighters arrived.

"I rushed here, saw the flames and started to help people get out from the second floor," Yevgeny Solomin told NTV. "But what could we do? Do you know how hard it is to get someone down a ladder from the second floor? If only firefighters had been here."

Emergency officials said a night watchman ignored two fire alarms before reporting the blaze around 1 a.m. and it took firefighters in Yeisk almost an hour to get to Kamyshevatskaya, where the fire station was closed last year to save money. The blaze was reported out around 5 a.m.

Thirty-five people were injured, said Sergei Petrov, a regional emergency official. Acting Krasnodar Gov. Murat Akhedzhak said 30 people were hospitalized.

Officials said a fire alarm system that had not been fully installed signaled three times, but a watchman ignored the first two alarms and reported the fire only after he saw flames.

In addition, nursing home staff were absent from their posts, slowing efforts to find keys and open an emergency exit, officials said. The officials also said the nurse and three orderlies on duty weren't enough to quickly evacuate the building.

President Vladimir Putin declared Wednesday a national day of mourning for those killed in the fire and Siberian mine catastrophe as well as a plane crash Saturday that killed six. He ordered Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and the Cabinet to conduct thorough investigations and Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika said he would take personal control over the probes.

Russia's economy has surged in recent years, fed mainly by high world prices for oil and other natural resources that have stuffed government coffers and trickled down to bring a sense of prosperity among average people. The growth has contributed to Putin's wide popularity despite problems like persistent corruption, a slump in population and poor state services.

The country has suffered a number of deadly blazes at schools, dormitories, hospitals and other state facilities that have revealed rampant violations of fire safety rules and official negligence. A fire at a Moscow drug treatment facility in December killed 45 women trapped by gates and barred windows.

Russia records nearly 18,000 fire deaths a year, several times the per capita rate in the United States and other Western countries.

Tatyana Naboka, 20, who lives across the street from the nursing home in Kamyshevatskaya, said she was appalled that the village of 5,000 people doesn't have a fire station or an ambulance.

"If there were a fire in a private house, there wouldn't be any help from the authorities," she said.

Minnesota teenager rescued after terrifying ride down Mississippi River on giant ice slab

ANOKA, Minn. (AP) -- A teenager got an unexpected, terrifying ride down the Mississippi River on a giant slab of ice that broke off as he stood along the shoreline.

Amos Benjamin Cohen, 19, stood frozen with fear as the six foot by 15 foot ice chunk swirled in the water, floating toward shore then drifting back to the middle of the river, witnesses and rescuers said.

"He stood there so still," like the Statue of Liberty, said Sue Hillberg who spotted him from her mother's kitchen window.

Ellie Ghostley said she yelled to the boy that she was calling 911, then hopped in her car to see if he would get out all right.

"I don't want to ever see that again," she said.

A rescue team from the Anoka-Champlin Fire Department sent three firefighters in survival suits into the water. As Cohen approached, one of the firefighters managed to hop up onto the ice with him. The other two pulled them to safety, Fire Chief Charlie Thompson said.

David Luna, who witnessed the rescue, said Cohen "was just shaking and shaking and shaking" after he was brought to shore. He was taken to a local hospital for observation but later released.

First name only. Comments including last names, contact addresses, e-mail addresses or phone numbers will be deleted. Attempts to misrepresent your identity or impersonate any person will not be approved. All comments are screened before they appear online, so please keep them brief. Comments reflect the views of those commenting and not necessarily those of the North County Times or its staff writers. Click here to view additional comment policies.