Australian DJs Behind Prank Call Under Fire

An outpouring of anger is being directed today at the two Australian radio hosts after the death of a nurse who was caught in the DJs' prank call to hospital where Kate Middleton was treated earlier this week.

Lord Glenarthur, the chairman of King Edward VII's Hospital - the U.K. hospital where the Duchess of Cambridge was receiving treatment, condemned the prank in a letter to the Max Moore-Wilton, chairman of Southern Cross Austereo, the Australian radio station's parent company.

Glenarthur said the prank humiliated "two dedicated and caring nurses," and the consequences were "tragic beyond words," The Associated Press reported.

DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian, radio shock jocks at Sydney's 2Day FM have been taken off the air, but the company they work for did not fire them or condemn them.

"I think that it's a bit early to be drawing conclusions from what is really a deeply tragic matter," Rhys Holleran, CEO of Southern Cross Austereo told a news conference in Sydney. "I mean, our main concern is for the family. I don't think anyone could have reasonably foreseen that this was going to be a result."

Nurse Jacintha Saldanha was found dead Friday morning after police were called to an address near the hospital to "reports of a woman found unconscious," according to a statement from Scotland Yard.

Circumstances of her death are still being investigated, but are not suspicious at this stage, authorities said Friday.

Following news of Saldanha's death, commentary on social media included posts expressing shock, sadness and anger.

Nurse Duped by 'Queen's' Prank Call Found Dead Watch Video

Jacintha Saldanha, Nurse at Kate Middleton's Hospital, Found Dead Watch Video

A sampling of some of the twitter posts directed at the DJs included: "you scumbag, hope you get what's coming to you" and "I hope you're happy now."

The hospital said that Saldanha worked at the hospital for more than four years. They called her a "first-class nurse" and "a well-respected and popular member of the staff."

The hospital extended their "deepest sympathies" to family and friends, saying that "everyone is shocked" at this "tragic event."

"I am devastated with the tragic loss of my beloved wife Jacintha in tragic circumstances, she will be laid to rest in Shirva, India," Saldanha's husband posted on Facebook.

The duchess spent three days at the hospital undergoing treatment for hyperemesis gravidarum, severe or debilitating nausea and vomiting. She was released from the hospital on Thursday morning.

"The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are deeply saddened to learn of the death of Jacintha Saldanha," a spokesman from St. James Palace said in a statement.

On Friday, Greig and Christian had been gloating about their successful call to the hospital, in which they pretended to be Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles and were able to obtain personal information about the Duchess's serious condition.

"You know what they were the worst accents ever and when we made that phone call we were sure a hundred people at least before us would have tried the same thing," said Grieg on air. She added with a laugh, "we were expecting to be hung up on we didn't even know what to say [when] we got through."

"We got through and now the entire world is talking, of course," said her co-host Christian.

When the royal impersonators called the hospital, Saldanha put through to a second nurse who told the royal impersonators that Kate was "quite stable" and hadn't "had any retching."

The hospital apologized for the mistake.

"The call was transferred through to a ward, and a short conversation was held with one of the nursing staff," the hospital said in a statement. "King Edward VII's Hospital deeply regrets this incident."

"This was a foolish prank call that we all deplore," John Lofthouse, the hospital's chief executive, said in the statement. "We take patient confidentiality extremely seriously, and we are now reviewing our telephone protocols."

The radio station also apologized for the prank call.

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Egyptian military says only dialogue can avert disaster

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's military said on Saturday only dialogue could avert "catastrophe", stepping into a crisis pitting Islamist President Mohamed Mursi against opponents who accuse him of grabbing excessive power.

State broadcasters interrupted their programs to read out an army statement telling feuding factions that a solution to the upheaval in the most populous Arab nation should not contradict "legitimacy and the rules of democracy".

That sounded like a swipe at protesters who have besieged the palace of the freely elected president and called for his removal, going beyond mainstream opposition demands for him to retract a decree that expanded his powers.

The statement also called for a "serious" national dialogue - perhaps one more credible than talks convened by Mursi on Saturday in the absence of opposition leaders. They insist he must first scrap his November 22 decree, defer next week's popular vote on a new constitution and allow the text to be revised.

Deep rifts have emerged over the destiny of a country of 83 million where the end of Hosni Mubarak's 30 years of military-backed one-man rule led to a messy army-led transition, during which the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies won two elections. Many Egyptians crave a return to stability and economic recovery.

The spokesman for the main Islamist coalition demanded that the referendum go ahead on time on the constitution drafted by an Islamist-led assembly from which liberals had walked out.

The army, which ran Egypt for months after Mubarak fell in February 2011, again cast itself primarily as the neutral guarantor of the nation. A military source said there was no plan to retake control of the country or its turbulent streets.

"DARK TUNNEL"

"The armed forces affirm that dialogue is the best and only way to reach consensus," the statement said. "The opposite of that will bring us to a dark tunnel that will result in catastrophe and that is something we will not allow."

The instability in Egypt worries the West, especially the United States, which has given Cairo billions of dollars in military and other aid since it made peace with Israel in 1979.

The army might be pushing the opposition to join dialogue and Mursi to do more to draw them in, said Hassan Abu Taleb of the Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.

He discounted the chance of direct military intervention, adding: "They realize that interfering again in a situation of civil combat will squeeze them between two rocks."

However, the military did seem poised to take a more active role in security arrangements for the December 15 referendum.

A cabinet source said the cabinet had discussed reviving the army's ability to make arrests if it were called upon to back up police, who are normally in charge of election security.

According to the state-run daily al-Ahram, an expanded military security role might extend to the next parliamentary election and, at the president's discretion, even beyond that.

Mursi's office said the "national dialogue", chaired by the president, had begun with about 40 political and other public figures discussing "means to reach a solution to differences over the referendum...and the constitutional decree".

The army issued its statement while protesters were still camped out by the gates of the presidential palace.

The tens of thousands of Mursi foes who surged past tanks and barbed wire to reach the palace gates on Friday night had dispersed. But a hard core stayed overnight in a score of tents.

"LEAVE"

Some had spray-painted "Down with Mursi" on tanks of the elite Republican Guard posted there after clashes between rival groups killed at least seven people and wounded 350 this week.

Others draped the tanks with posters of Mursi and the word "Leave" scored across his face in red letters.

"We are no longer calling for scrapping the decree and delaying the referendum," Samir Fayez, a Christian protester at the palace, said. "We have one demand in five letters: leave."

Nearby, a Mursi supporter named Mohamed Hassan was quietly observing the scene. He suggested that the Muslim Brotherhood and its ultra-orthodox Salafi Islamist allies could easily overwhelm their foes if they chose to mobilize their base.

"The Brotherhood and Salafis by themselves are few but they have millions of supporters who are at home and haven't taken it to the streets yet," murmured the 40-year-old engineer.

The Muslim Brotherhood's supreme guide, Mohamed Badie, denounced opposition protests that have swirled around the walls of Mursi's palace, saying they "ruin legitimacy".

Badie said eight people, all of them Brotherhood members, had been killed this week and urged the interior minister to explain why police had failed to prevent assailants from torching the organization's headquarters and 28 other offices.

"Get angry with the Brotherhood and hate us as much as you like, but be reasonable and preserve Egypt's unity," he told a news conference. "We hope everyone gets back to dialogue."

The well-organized Brotherhood, which thrust Mursi from obscurity to power, remains his surest source of support, with over 80 years of religious and political struggle behind it.

In the referendum, due to be followed by a parliamentary election, Islamist proponents of the constitution may benefit from the votes of millions of Egyptians desperate for the country to move on and revive its crippled economy.

(Additional reporting by Edmund Blair, Omar Fahmy and Yasmine Saleh; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

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Italy's Berlusconi announces fresh run for PM

ROME: Silvio Berlusconi on Saturday ended weeks of speculation by announcing he would run again for the job of prime minister, the post he was forced out of last year.

"I am running to win," the leader of the right-wing populist People of Freedom (PDL) party told journalists in Milanello, near the northern city of Milan.

He had called a meeting of the PDL for Sunday and had opened talks with his former coalition allies the Northern League to try to agree on a joint campaign backing a single candidate, he added.

"When I did sport, when I worked and studied, I never entered into a competition to be well-placed but always to win," he said.

"I hope to be in a position to be able to explain to Italians that there is a need for a force that enjoys a majority to change the rules of the constitution."

In the coming campaign he wanted to present several new faces, "because there are numerous people who have the right to feel tired," he added.

He had been in contact with a number of figures in the world of business, sport and university, he said.

"I hope to be in a position to be able to explain to Italians that there is a need for a force that enjoys a majority to change the rules of the constitution."

A general election is expected to be held in March or April of next year but the precise date has not been set, nor is there any agreement on a reform of an election law widely seen as unsatisfactory.

Berlusconi's announcement confirmed comments by leading members of his party and strong hints that he had himself made over the past few days.

In October, he had said that he would not run again for the premiership. On Wednesday evening however, the 76-year-old media tycoon said he had been assailed by requests to return to the field as soon as possible."

This will be his sixth bid to become prime minister, a post he has already held three times over a political career spanning two decades.

A parliamentary revolt forced him from office in November last year as he was fighting a series of scandals that had damaged his reputation and, said critics, the country's standing. The financial markets had reacted so badly that Italy was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.

Mario Monti took over as prime minister at the head of an unelected government of technocrats. He set about introducing a policy of tax rises and austerity measures to get the economy under control.

On Thursday, PDL lawmakers abstained from confidence votes in the government to protest Monti's policies, but stopped short of bringing down the executive they have supported until now.

The renewed political tension has once again spooked the financial markets and Pier Luigi Bersani, the newly-nominated leader of the centre-left Democratic Party accused Berlusconi of "incoherence".

"It's clear that you have not reflected on past mistakes and that for you the Monti government has not been a transition but a parenthesis that opens and closes and everything is like before," he told PDL lawmakers in parliament.

"You are being irresponsible!" he said.

Responding on Saturday however, Berlusconi dismissed the criticism.

"Bersani has already started his election campaign and, so far as I am concerned, we have acted in a very responsible manner."

Bersani was voted in as the leader of the Democratic Party only last weekend. Recent opinion polls put him comfortably ahead in the run-up to the spring election.

Monti's government is in any case due to end its term of office next spring, but the PDL's change of tack has raised the possibility that it might not last that long.

President Giorgio Napolitano was due to meet Monti later Saturday for talks.

Napolitano has sought to reassure the public, describing recent developments as "pre-election tensions".

But it has been enough to shake the markets: the yields between benchmark Italian and German 10-year sovereign bonds at one point on Friday widened to 330 points, from around 300 points on Monday.

- AFP/fa

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Gift ideas for the audiophile in your life

The tiny Firestone Audio Fireye Mini headphone amplifier

(Credit:
Firestone Audio)

While audiophile gear can be quite expensive, picking out a selection of terrific gift ideas that won't break the bank is still doable. Here you'll find books, music, gear, and even a free download that will put a smile on any audiophile's, or music lover's, face. The Audiophiliac had a self-imposed price limit of $100 max and easily met that goal. Seven of the 10 gift ideas are under $50!

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Man charged in subway push death blames voices

Naeem Davis stands in front of Judge Lynn Kotler during his arraignment on murder charges Dec. 5, 2012, in New York. / AP Photo/New York Post

NEW YORK The man who police say pushed another man to his death in front of an oncoming New York City subway train says he was high on drugs and trying to combat voices in his head.

Authorities have charged 30-year-old Naeem Davis with second-degree murder in the Monday death of 58-year-old Ki-Suck Han.

Davis tells the New York Post in a jailhouse interview that Han had grabbed his arm and threatened him earlier.

He says he was coaxed into shoving Han by voices in his head that he couldn't control.

Davis tells the newspaper he didn't attempt to pull Han to safety because "it happened so fast" and he was "under the influence."

He says he didn't mean to kill Han.

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