Official: Cadaver dogs search in Kansas City blast

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Cadaver dogs searched through the smoldering rubble of a Kansas City restaurant after a gas explosion sparked a massive blaze Tuesday evening in an upscale shopping district.

More than a dozen people were injured in the blast and resulting fire, which occurred just after 6 p.m. and completely destroyed JJ's restaurant. There were no reports of fatalities by Tuesday night, though authorities cautioned that could change because it was unclear how many people were inside at the time of the blast.

Kansas City Fire Chief Paul Berardi said cadaver dogs were called to the scene because of the size of the conflagration.

"I would always fear there are fatalities in a scene like this," Berardi said.

He said results of the search would take hours and that he expected his crews would be working the scene through the night.

City Manager Troy Schulte said it appeared an accident by a utility contractor had caused the blast, and a statement from utility Missouri Gas Energy late Tuesday reiterated that possibility, butBerardi and others cautioned that the cause was still being investigated.

"This investigation is ongoing," Berardi said. "We do have reports that there was an odor of gas earlier. But, again, this investigation needs to be concluded before we want to speculate on any of that."

Indeed, the smell of gas was very strong in the area hours after the blast. Berardi said the utility stopped the flow of gas about 8 p.m., and utility crews could be seen working in the area after the blast.

Witnesses noted street signs indicated utility work was being done in the area, and a JJ's employee said the restaurant was open but undergoing renovations.

Mayor Sly James was at the scene after the blast, praising the work of first responders.

"The first thing we need to be concerned about is the people that are injured," James said.

Police Sgt. Tony Sanders said the manager of JJ's restaurant was unable to account for three people, but it was unclear whether they were caught in the blaze or had left earlier.

The University of Kansas Hospital was treating six people injured in the blast, said spokesman Bob Hallinan. He said one person was in critical condition, two were in serious condition and two others were expected to be released. He said all of those injuries were traumatic, such as broken bones, rather than burns or smoke inhalation. The final patient there was a burn victim who was transferred from Truman Medical Center, Hallinan said.

Dr. Marc Larsen, medical director of the emergency room at St. Luke's Hospital, which is near the scene of the fire, said they had treated eight people, six of whom were walk-ins with minor injuries. He said two males were in critical condition and would be kept overnight. He said one had extensive burns and another had facial trauma.

Jim Ligon, a JJ's bartender, said he wasn't working Tuesday night but started getting texts and calls from co-workers minutes after the explosion. He said the incident happened during the peak of weekday happy hour, when there is typically anywhere from 15 to 45 people in the bar area as well as three to five tables of diners at the restaurant.

"JJ's has a small staff, a family feel," said Ligon, 45, of Kansas City, Mo. "You see the same 100 people all the time — a bar and restaurant for regulars. We're just really hoping we come out of here OK in terms of injuries."

Ligon said he was on his way Tuesday night to meet up with co-workers at another bar in town to talk about the incident.

The shopping area was established in 1922 by J.C. Nichols. Based on the architecture of Seville, Spain, it includes retail, restaurants, apartments and offices.

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Syria "Scud-type" missile said to kill 20 in Aleppo

Bulgaria government resigns amid growing protests

Protesters lie on the ground after clashes with riot police during a protest against high electricity prices in Sofia February 19, 2013. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov

Bulgarian riot police is seen amidst smoke coming from a firecracker, thrown by demonstrators during a protest against high electricity prices in Sofia February 19, 2013. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov

SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria's government resigned on Wednesday after violent nationwide protests against high electricity prices, joining a long list of European administrations felled by austerity after Europe's debt crisis erupted in late 2009.

Many Bulgarians are deeply unhappy over high energy costs, power monopolies, low living standards and corruption in the European Union's poorest country and protesters clashed again with police late on Tuesday.

Tens of thousands of Bulgarians have rallied in cities across the country since Sunday in protests which have turned violent, chanting "Mafia" and "Resign".

Prime Minister Boiko Borisov had tried to calm protests by sacking his finance minister, pledging to cut power prices and punishing foreign-owned companies - risking a diplomatic row with EU partner the Czech Republic - but the measures failed to defuse discontent.

"I will not participate in a government under which police are beating people," Borisov said as he announced his resignation on Wednesday. Parliament is expected to accept the resignation later in the day.

Borisov, a former bodyguard to communist dictator Todor Zhivkov, can now try to form a new government, using his rightist GERB party's strong position in parliament. If he fails an election scheduled for July may be brought forward.

GERB's popularity had held up well until late last year because austerity measures were relatively mild compared with many other European countries, with salaries and pensions frozen rather than cut. In the last opinion poll, taken before protests grew last weekend, the opposition Socialists were nearly tied with GERB.

Many Bulgarians are feeling frustrated with unemployment hitting a 10-month high of 11.9 percent and the average salary stuck at 800 levs ($550) a month. Frustrations boiled over when heating bills rose during the winter.

Bulgaria raised the costs of electricity - politically sensitive since bills eat a huge part of modest incomes - by 13 percent last July, but the real impact was not felt until households started using electrical power for heat in winter.

"The resignation is the only responsible move," said Kantcho Stoychev, an analyst with pollster Gallup International. "It also gives Borisov some legitimacy to stay in political life in the future, despite the violent police actions last night."

Borisov has said the electricity distribution license of central Europe's largest listed company, Czech-based CEZ will be revoked, setting Bulgarian on a collision course with the Czech Republic, which owns 70 percent of the company.

The Czech government has already stepped into a row between the company and Albania, which revoked the company's license last month. Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas said Bulgaria's move was highly politicized and asked for an explanation.

Since the onset of the debt crisis in 2009, more than of the EU countries have elected new governments.

(Additional reporting by Angel Krasimirov; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

Article: Bulgarian ruling party opens way for early election

Greece's weakened workforce starts to crack

FILE - In this Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013, file photo people reach out for fresh produce handouts from fruit and vegetable street market stall holders during a farmers' protest outside the Ministry of Agriculture in Athens. Researchers from Greece's largest labor union, the GSEE, say the country's three-year crisis has left nearly two-thirds of private sector employees without receiving their regular salaries. GSEE has called a general strike for Thursday, Feb. 20. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis, File)

In this photo made Thursday, Feb. 18, 2013, unemployed worker Maria Kanga chants slogans using a loudspeaker during a protest in central Athens. Kanga, a mother of two, was laid off when a record store chain went out of business last year but is still owed five months' pay and severance money. Researchers from Greece's largest labor union, the GSEE, say the country's three-year crisis has left nearly two-thirds of private sector employees without receiving their regular salaries. GSEE has called a general strike for Wednesday Feb. 20. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Looking out across a room full of reporters gathered to welcome French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday, Greece's President Karolos Papoulias gave a stark warning about the state of the country after three harsh years ofgovernment spending cuts, joblessness and tax hikes.

"We are faced with a societal explosion if any more pressure is put on society," he said.

Not only are Greece's 1.35 million unemployed unable to make ends meet, but a growing number of those still employed are struggling to feed, heat and clothe themselves — and pay the increasingly hefty taxes the government is relying on to turn the economy around.

Greece's largest union, the GSEE, has called a general strike Wednesday to protest a new series of austerity measures. It warns that the labor force — which includes a large public sector — has been too badly weakened to help the battered country recover.

Since it was priced out of the international debt markets in 2010, Greece has relied on emergency loans from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund. To continue receiving these loans, Athens has had to agree to harsh spending cuts and tax hikesto try and lower public debt. These measures, however, have also put the brakes on Greece's economy.

The country, of nearly 11 million people, is stuck in a five-year recession. Greece now has the highest unemployment rate in the 17-strong group of European Union countries that use the euro, with 27 percent out of work — 60 percent of those aged under 24.

The crisis has left 450,000 households with no one working, while a one-year limit on unemployment benefits — and strict rules to qualify for them — mean just 225,000 jobless Greeks are currently receiving monthly state assistance.

Maria Kanga, an unemployed mother of two, is worried about what she'll do when her assistance runs out this summer.

She was fired from a chain of record stores that went out of business last year. Along with more than 150 other employees, she was left unpaid for five months and then received no severance money.

Protesting outside a Eurovision Song Contest event hosted by a company co-owned by her former employer, Kanga summed up her situation: "We've cut back on everything ... My daughter is 12 years old. She has one pair of shoes. If they get wet, there are no spares."

"Greece is not a country of bright lights and flashy events. It's a country with people committing suicide, of those unable to feed their kids properly, or who steal from the supermarket ... It's happening to everybody. We are these people."

Normally, those left in employment would be able to help support a government and the economy by spending and paying their taxes. But in Greece, as jobs continue to vanish at an alarming rate, hundreds of thousands of workers are no longer paid regularly, with struggling businesses unable — or sometimes unwilling — to pay their payrolls.

According to union researchers, two-thirds of employees in the hammered private sector no longer receive regular pay. Adding to these problems are the large increases in taxes that Greeks have to pay.

To compound the problem, Greece's government has imposed emergency taxes on workers to help pay down its debts. Last summer, all but the lowest-paid employees were slapped with an emergency bill in additional taxes, often for several thousand euros. Meanwhile, further charges were levied on electricity bills, with households that failed to pay disconnected from the power grid. And another round of tax hikes took effect this year.

That pressure is pushing Greece toward a tipping point at which too many demands placed on a shrinking tax base, argues Savas Robolis, a professor of economics and public policy at Panteion University in Athens and lead researcher at the GSEE union.

According to government data analyzed by the GSEE, 3.6 million people out of a population of 11 million are working, with 1.6 million employed by private-sector companies — that's down from around 2.5 million before the crisis broke in 2010.

"Out of them, about 600,000 are left who still work an eight-hour day and are paid regularly," Robolis says. "The remainder — a million workers — have had their hours cut or are getting paid late, four or five months late. They are in a state of desperation."

"In other words, Greek workers and unemployed people may soon not have enough money left to pay taxes while covering their basic needs. If that happens, it would be the worst possible outcome for the Greek economy and Greek society."

That, he argues, could leave the government unable fully cover its own commitments — including wage and pension payments — causing even greater poverty.

Early signs from 2013, suggest high taxes may be backfiring: January revenues sank €572 million ($765 million) from last year's figure to €4.42 billion ($5.91 billion), despite a raft of additional demands on tax payers.

When contacted by the Associated Press, officials the government's powerful new Department of Public Revenue refused to confirm widespread local media reports that 2.5 million tax payers will be sent notices starting next month demanding overdue payments.

"The question is when the tax capacity is used up ... Up until now, the state has fallen behind on payments to suppliers but it is able to pay wages and salaries," Robolis said.

"But if the situation gets worse I'm not certain it will be able to. If you look at other countries that went through a crisis ... when then they reached a certain point and the state told them they could not pay them, that's when the tension flared up."

UN: Drones killed more Afghan civilians in 2012

FILE - In this Sunday, Jan. 31, 2010 file photo, a U.S. Predator drone flies over the moon above Kandahar Air Field, southern Afghanistan. The number of U.S. drone strikes in Afghanistan jumped 72 percent in 2012, killing at least 16 civilians in a sharp increase from the previous year, the U.N. said Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013 in a sign of the changing mission as international forces prepare to withdraw combat forces in less than two years. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

The top U.N. envoy in Afghanistan, Jan Kubis, presents the annual U.N. report on civilian casualties at a press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013. The number of Afghan civilians killed in U.S. and NATO airstrikes dropped by nearly half last year to 126, the U.N. said Tuesday. The report came a day after President Hamid Karzai banned government forces from requesting foreign air support during operations in residential areas. (AP Photo/Ahmad Jamshid)

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The number of U.S. drone strikes in Afghanistan rose sharply last year compared with 2011, the United Nations said Tuesday. The increase was a sign that unmanned aircraft are taking a greater role as Americans try to streamline the fight against insurgents while preparing to withdraw combat forces in less than two years.

Drones have become a major source of contention between the U.S. and countries like Pakistan, where covert strikes on militant leaders have drawn condemnation and allegations of sovereignty infringements as family members and other bystanders are killed.

They have not been a prominent issue in Afghanistan, however. While drone attacks have occurred, they have largely been in support of ground troops during operations and have not been singled out by President Hamid Karzai's administration in its campaign against international airstrikes.

The steep rise in the number of weapons fired from unmanned aerial aircraft — the formal term for drones — raises the possibility that may change as U.S. forces become more dependent on such attacks to fight al-Qaida and other insurgents as combat missions are due to end by the end of 2014.

The U.N. mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said 506 weapons were released by drones in 2012, compared with 294 the previous year. Five incidents resulted in casualties with 16 civilians killed and three wounded, up from just one incident in 2011.

Georgette Gagnon, the head of human rights for UNAMA, said it was the first year the U.N. had tried to document civilian casualties from drones.

The U.S. Air Force Central Command also recorded an increase, giving the numbers of weapons released by drones as 243 in 2009, 277 in 2010, 294 in 2011 and 494 in 2012.

Drones are highly effective and most nations have given Washington at least tacit agreement to carry out the attacks.

Peter Singer of the Washington-based Brookings Institution noted that the drone program in Afghanistan is run by the Pentagon, and therefore is more transparent than the CIA drone counterterrorism program in Pakistan.

Singer, who has written extensively about drones, said the number of operations in Afghanistan is increasing, but most are performed in support of troops on the ground.

"This is just another sign of how drones are becoming the new normal," he said.

The U.N. figures were released as part of its annual report on civilian casualties in Afghanistan. Overall, the full-year toll of civilian deaths in 2012 declined to 2,754, a 12 percent decrease from 3,131 in the same period a year earlier. It was the first time in six years that the civilian death toll dropped.

But the toll spiked in the second half of the year as weather improved, compared with the same period in 2011, suggesting that Afghanistan is likely to face continued violence as the Taliban and other militants fight for control following the impending withdrawal of U.S. and allied combat forces.

The population also faced a sharp increase in assassinations and other insurgent attacks targeting government supporters.

Conflict-related violence struck more women and girls last year as well, with 301 killed and 563 wounded — a 20 percent increase from 2011, the report said.

The findings come as the war is reaching a turning point, with international troops increasingly taking the back seat in operations and Afghan government forces in the lead.

The total number of civilian deaths by airstrikes fell for the year after the U.S.-led coalition implemented stricter measures to prevent innocent people from being killed.

The U.N. said most civilian casualties from drone strikes appeared to be the result of weapons aimed directly at insurgents, but some may have been targeting errors. It cited the example of four boys killed Oct. 20 in Logar province when a drone struck after a clash between pro-government forces and insurgents a few kilometers (miles) away from the area.

UNAMA called for a review of tactical and operational policy on targeting to ensure compliance with international humanitarian law "with the expansion of the use of unmanned combat aerial vehicles" in Afghanistan.

George Little, a Pentagon spokesman, said the U.S. works hard to protect civilians.

"We take great care with our unmanned systems to conduct very precise targeting in Afghanistan, and we will continue to do so. When there are mishaps, we take steps to work closely with the government of Afghanistan and the affected individuals to express our concerns," he said in Washington.

UNAMA said civilian casualties rose 13 percent to 4,431 in the second half of the year, including more from roadside bombs in public areas, compared with the same period in 2011.

That included 1,599 people killed and 2,832 wounded from July 1 to Dec. 31, a jump from 1,556 and 2,832 respectively in the same period the previous year.

It cited a growing number in civilian casualties from roadside bombs even as fewer bystanders were hurt in ground engagements in the country's troubled south and east.

An Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman pledged to do everything possible to stop the insurgents from attacking civilians.

"They're still using suicide bombers, they still use IEDs (roadside bombs) in the very populated areas and they still use civilians as a shield in the villages," Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said. "The important thing is that civilian casualties should be decreased to zero."

Most of the victims were killed by Taliban militants and other armed groups, while the number of civilian casualties at the hands of U.S. and allied forces dropped by nearly 50 percent, according to the report.

"The situation for civilians is still very difficult in many communities and many thousands of Afghans are still affected by the armed conflict, so we are again calling on all concerned to redouble their efforts, increase their efforts to protect civilians," UNAMA's Gagnon told reporters in Kabul.

The UNAMA report attributed the overall drop in civilian casualties for the year to a decline in suicide attacks, reduced numbers of airstrikes and "an unseasonably harsh winter which impeded insurgent movements and effects of earlier military operations against anti-government elements."

But it expressed concern about the spike in targeted killings and human rights abuses by armed groups, a worrisome trend as the Afghan government works to assert control beyond its seat in Kabul.

The Taliban and other insurgents were responsible for 81 percent of the civilian casualties last year, the U.N. said. The report said so-called anti-government elements killed 2,179 civilians and wounded 3,952, a 9 percent increase in casualties from 2011.

Of those, 698 were killed in targeted attacks, often against government employees. That was up from 512 in 2011.

The number blamed on U.S. and allied forces, meanwhile, decreased by 46 percent, with 316 killed and 271 wounded in 2012. Most of those were killed in U.S. and NATO airstrikes, although that number, too, dropped by nearly half last year to 126, including 51 children.

The death of civilians in military operations, particularly in airstrikes, has been among a major source of acrimony between Karzai's government and foreign forces.

The U.S.-led military coalition said in June it would only use airstrikes as a self-defense weapon of last resort for troops and would avoid hitting structures that could house civilians.

The report came a day after Karzai banned government forces from requesting foreign air support during operations in residential areas amid anger over an airstrike that killed at least 10 civilians in northeastern Kunar province last week.

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Associated Press writers Heidi Vogt and Amir Shah contributed to this report.

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Follow Kim Gamel at http://twitter.com/kimgamel