SINGAPORE : Stocks in Singapore ended on a mixed note on Tuesday ahead of upcoming earnings reports.
The Straits Times Index declined 0.43 per cent, or 14.16 points, to end at 3,259.75.
Volume was 5.73 billion shares.
In the broader market, gainers led losers 273 to 211.
Noble Group was down 2.8 per cent at S$1.215, Thai Beverage rose 8.8 per cent to S$0.495, Fraser and Neave was unchanged at S$9.55, while IHH Healthcare fell 3.27 per cent to S$1.33.
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They, however, told reporters this afternoon that they would go ahead with their move and reach New Delhi tomorrow to submit their resignations to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
The MPs said they received a call from Congress leader and Union minister Vayalar Ravi asking them to come to the national capital to discuss the Telangana issue.
"Reports that there are differences among us and also with the ,inisters from Telangana are not true. Our sole aim is to secure statehood for the region and we shall go forward with our plan unitedly," MPs Ponnam Prabhakar, Gutta Sukhender Reddy and others maintained.
The MPs announced yesterday that they would forward their resignation, along with a letter explaining the reason for it, to Gandhi today.
But, some of the parliamentarians were said to have disagreed with the decision as leaving the party would not serve any purpose and could even prove counter-productive.
The ministers' decision not to quit their posts now also prompted the MPs to do a re-think, party sources said.
Amid these reports and also the decision of Telangana Joint Action Committee to target the Congress leaders, the MPs met at the residence of former MP K Keshava Rao for the second day today.
They later came out with the announcement that they have decided to take the "harsh step" as the party was still dithering on the statehood issue.
"There is no way we can continue in the Congress party. There is a reason for our resignations. The reason is our party and its top leaders," Keshava Rao said.
Prabhakar pointed out that they remained loyal to the party all through but now felt totally let down.
"If the party government in AP is surviving today, it is only because of the MLAs from Telangana. They remained loyal to the party even while fighting for a separate state. But now we are compelled to take a harsh decision.
BALTIMORE (AP) — A soldier who lost all four limbs in an Iraq roadside bombing has two new arms following a double transplant at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Twenty-six-year-old Brendan Marrocco along with the surgeons who treated him will be at the Baltimore hospital on Tuesday to discuss the new limbs.
The transplants are only the seventh double-hand or double-arm transplant ever conducted in the United States.
The infantryman was injured by a roadside bomb in 2009. The New York City man also received bone marrow from the same dead donor. The approach is aimed at helping his body accept the new arms with minimal medication to prevent rejection.
The military is sponsoring operations like these to help wounded troops. About 300 have lost arms or hands in the wars.
Sarai Sierra, the New York mother who disappeared in Turkey while on a solo trip, took several side excursions out of the country, but stayed in contact with her family the entire time, a family friend told ABC News.
Turkish media reported today that police were trying to establish why Sierra visited Amsterdam and Munich. Police were also trying to establish the identity of a man Sierra, 33, was chatting with on the Internet, according to local media.
Rachel Norman, a family friend, said the man was a group tour guide from the Netherlands and said Sierra stayed in regular touch with her family in New York.
Steven Sierra, Sarai's husband, and David Jimenez, her brother, arrived in Istanbul today to aid in the search.
The men have been in contact with officials from the U.S. consulate in the country and plan to meet with them as soon as they open on Tuesday, Norman said.
After that, she said Sierra and Jimenez would meet with Turkish officials to discuss plans and search efforts.
Family of Sarai Sierra|AP Photo
Sarai Sierra was supposed to fly back to the United States on Jan. 22, but she never showed up for her flight home.
Her two boys, ages 11 and 9, have not been told their mother is missing.
Sierra, an avid photographer, left New York on Jan. 7. It was her first overseas trip, and she decided to go ahead after a friend had to cancel, her family said.
"It was her first time outside of the United States, and every day while she was there she pretty much kept in contact with us, letting us know what she was up to, where she was going, whether it be through texting or whether it be through video chat, she was touching base with us," Steven Sierra told ABC News before he departed for Istanbul.
But when it came time to pick her up from Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, Sierra wasn't on board her scheduled flight.
Steven Sierra called United Airlines and was told his wife had never boarded the flight home.
Further investigation revealed she had left her passport, clothes, phone chargers and medical cards in her room at a hostel in Beyoglu, Turkey, he said.
The family is suspicious and said it is completely out of character for the happily married mother, who met her husband in church youth group, to disappear.
The U.S. Embassy in Turkey and the Turkish National Police are involved in the investigation, WABC-TV reported.
"They've been keeping us posted, from my understanding they've been looking into hospitals and sending out word to police stations over there," Steven Sierra said. "Maybe she's, you know, locked up, so they are doing what they can."
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi declared a month-long state of emergency in three cities on the Suez Canal, where dozens of people have been killed in protests that have swept the nation and deepened a political crisis facing the Islamist leader.
Hundreds of demonstrators in Port Said, Suez and Ismailia turned out against the decision within moments of Mursi's announcement late on Sunday, which came after the death toll from protests and violence that erupted last week hit 49.
Mursi also called for a national dialogue with his rivals for later on Monday, but the early response from members of the main opposition coalition suggested they saw little point, saying the president only seemed to listen to his allies.
Most deaths have been in Port Said, where 40 were killed in just two days. Riots were sparked on Saturday when a court sentenced to death several people from the city on charges related to deadly rioting at a soccer match last year. Mourners at Sunday's funerals in the port, where guns are common, directed their anger at Mursi.
Violence in Egypt's cities has extended to a fifth day. Police fired volleys of teargas at dozens of youths hurling stones on Monday near Cairo's Tahrir Square, where opponents have camped for weeks to protest against Mursi, who they say betrayed the revolution that ousted Hosni Mubarak two years ago.
"We want to bring down the regime and end the state that is run by the Muslim Brotherhood," said Ibrahim Eissa, a 26-year-old cook, protecting his face from teargas wafting towards him from police lines near Tahrir, the cauldron of the 2011 revolt.
Propelled to power in a June election by the Brotherhood, Mursi's presidency has lurched through a series of political crises and violent demonstrations, compounding his task of shoring up a teetering economy and preparing for a parliamentary election to cement the new democracy in a few months.
"The protection of the nation is the responsibility of everyone. We will confront any threat to its security with force and firmness within the remit of the law," Mursi said, offering condolences to families of victims in the canal zone cities.
"WASTE OF TIME"
Appealing to his opponents, the president called for a national dialogue on Monday at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT), inviting a range of Islamist allies as well as liberal, leftist and other opposition groups and individuals to discuss the crisis.
The main opposition National Salvation Front coalition gathered in Cairo to discuss a response, but several members have already suggested they do not expect much from the meeting, raising the prospect of poor attendance.
"Unless the president takes responsibility for the bloody events and pledges to form a government of national salvation and a balanced committee to amend the constitution, any dialogue will be a waste of time," Mohamed ElBaradei, a prominent politician who founded the Constitution Party, wrote on Twitter.
Hamdeen Sabahy, a leftist politician and presidential candidate who is another leading member of the Front, said he would not attend Monday's meeting "unless the bloodshed stops and the people's demands are met".
Ahmed Said of the liberal Free Egyptians Party said Mursi's tone on Sunday night was more threatening than conciliatory. "Egypt is in danger and completely split," he told Reuters.
Egypt's politics has become deeply polarized. Although Islamists have swept to victory in a parliamentary poll and presidential vote, the disparate opposition has been united by Mursi's bid late last year to expand his powers and fast-track a constitution with an Islamist hue through a referendum.
Mursi's opponents accuse him of listening only to his Islamist friends and reneging on a pledge to be a president for all Egyptians. Islamists say their rivals want to overthrow by undemocratic means Egypt's first freely elected leader.
The Front has distanced itself from the latest flare-ups but said Mursi should have acted far sooner to impose extra security measures that would have ended the violence.
BLAMING MURSI
"Of course we feel the president is missing the real problem on the ground, which is his own policies," spokesman Khaled Dawoud said. "His call to implement emergency law was an expected move, given what is going on, namely thuggery and criminal actions."
Even in Tahrir, some protesters said violence and the high death toll in Port Said and other cities on the strategic Suez waterway meant there was little choice but to impose emergency law, although they, too, blamed Mursi for fury on the streets.
"They needed the state of emergency there because there is so much anger," said Mohamed Ahmed, 27, a protester walking briskly from a cloud of teargas spreading into Tahrir Square.
However, activists in the three cities affected have pledged to defy the curfew that will start at 9 p.m. (1900 GMT) each evening and last until 6 a.m. (0400 GMT).
Some opposition groups have also called for more protests on Monday, which marks the second anniversary of one of the bloodiest days in the revolution that erupted on January 25, 2011, and brought an end to Mubarak's iron rule 18 days later.
Rights activists said Mursi's declaration was a backward step for Egypt, which was under emergency law for Mubarak's entire 30-year rule. His police used the sweeping arrest provisions to muzzle dissent and round up opponents, including members of the Brotherhood and even Mursi himself.
Heba Morayef of Human Rights Watch in Cairo said the police, still hated by many Egyptians for their heavy-handed tactics under Mubarak, would once again have the right to arrest people "purely because they look suspicious", undermining efforts to create a more efficient and respected police force.
"It is a classic knee-jerk reaction to think the emergency law will help bring security," she said. "It gives so much discretion to the Ministry of Interior that it ends up causing more abuse, which in turn causes more anger."
(Additional reporting by Yasmine Saleh in Cairo and Yusri Mohamed in Ismailia; Editing by Will Waterman)
INDIA: Protests are simmering on the streets of the Andhra Pradesh state capital, Hyderabad, in India. Anger is growing as the federal government deferred a decision on the formation of a new state.
In December, the central government had said it would decide within a month, on a proposal to form a separate Telangana state out of Andhra Pradesh.
It now says more time is needed for consultations on the issue.
Congress leader Nabi Azad said: "It's not the time. But we will invite them, as I said Chief Minister and PCC President, and senior leaders of Andhra Pradesh as early as possible."
Pro-Telangana activists launched a 36-hour protest on Sunday to mount pressure on the government to concede to their demand.
A university in the state capital saw violent protests and police used tear gas to disperse the students demanding a separate state.
"The governor of the state is doing nothing. Students are protesting for a separate state but he is not doing anything," said Karate Raju, a pro-Telangana protester.
The final decision on a new state lies with the Indian parliament. But the state assembly must also pass a resolution approving its creation.
K Tarakrama Rao, a pro-Telangana leader said: "It's extremely irresponsible. It's an insult to the democratic institution called parliament. It's an insult to Telangana as well."
The call for a separate Telangana state has been going on for some 40 years.
In December 2009, the government in the centre promised that Telangana would be formed.
With a population of 40 million, the proposed state comprises of 10 of Andhra Pradesh's 23 districts, including Hyderabad, India's sixth biggest city.
Anti-Telangana people fear that if a new state is carved out, India's IT hub of Hyderabad could become Telangana's new capital.
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SRINAGAR: An official on Monday said India and Pakistan have resumed a bus service in the disputed region of Kashmir near the area where their armies recently engaged in deadly skirmishes.
Kashmir's home secretary Suresh Kumar said nearly 120 passengers from both sides of Kashmir crossed the transit point in the Poonch region on Monday.
The bus service as well as trade between Indian and Pakistani controlled portions of Kashmir in Poonch was suspended on January 10 following the worst LoC violence in a decade.
However, another similar bus service at a different frontier crossing had continued unhindered.
Three Pakistani and two Indian soldiers were killed in the recent fighting. Both countries accused each other of starting the violence.
Kumar said trade between the two sides will also resume starting Tuesday.
New government figures show that flu cases seem to be leveling off nationwide. Flu activity is declining in most regions although still rising in the West.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says hospitalizations and deaths spiked again last week, especially among the elderly. The CDC says quick treatment with antiviral medicines is important, in particular for the very young or old. The season's first flu case resistant to treatment with Tamiflu was reported Friday.
Eight more children have died from the flu, bringing this season's total pediatric deaths to 37. About 100 children die in an average flu season.
There is still vaccine available although it may be hard to find. The CDC has a website that can help.
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CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/
The bodies of the young college students were found piled up just inside the entrance of the Kiss nightclub, among more than 230 people who died in a cloud of toxic smoke after a blaze enveloped the crowded locale within seconds and set off a panic.
Hours later, the horrific chaos had transformed into a scene of tragic order, with row upon row of polished caskets of the dead lined up in the community gymnasium in the university city of Santa Maria. Many of the victims were under 20 years old, including some minors.
As the city in southern Brazil prepared to bury the 233 people killed in the conflagration caused by a band's pyrotechnic display, an early investigation into the tragedy revealed that security guards briefly prevented partygoers from leaving through the sole exit. And the bodies later heaped inside that doorway slowed firefighters trying to get in.
"It was terrible inside — it was like one of those films of the Holocaust, bodies piled atop one another," said police inspector Sandro Meinerz. "We had to use trucks to remove them. It took about six hours to take the bodies away."
Survivors and another police inspector, Marcelo Arigony, said security guards briefly tried to block people from exiting the club. Brazilian bars routinely make patrons pay their entire tab at the end of the night before they are allowed to leave.
Germano Roratto/AFP/Getty Images
"It was chaotic and it doesn't seem to have been done in bad faith because several security guards also died," he told The Associated Press.
Later, firefighters responding to the blaze initially had trouble entering the club because "there was a barrier of bodies blocking the entrance," Guido Pedroso Melo, commander of the city's fire department, told the O Globo newspaper.
Police inspectors said they think the source of the blaze was a band's small pyrotechnics show. The fire broke out sometime before 3 a.m. Sunday and the fast-moving fire and toxic smoke created by burning foam sound insulation material on the ceiling engulfed the club within seconds.
Authorities said band members who were on the stage when the fire broke out later talked with police and confirmed they used pyrotechnics during their show.
Meinerz, who coordinated the investigation at the nightclub, said one band member died after escaping because he returned inside the burning building to save his accordion. The other band members escaped alive because they were the first to notice the fire.
The fire spread so fast inside the packed club that firefighters and ambulances could do little to stop it, survivor Luana Santos Silva told the Globo TV network.
"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," she said.
Most victims died from smoke inhalation rather than burns. Many of the dead, about equally split between young men and women, were also found in the club's two bathrooms, where they fled apparently because the blinding smoke caused them to believe the doors were exits.
There were questions about the club's operating license. Police said it was in the process of being renewed, but it was not clear if it was illegal for the business to be open. A single entrance area about the size of five door spaces was used both as an entrance and an exit.
CAIRO (Reuters) - Police fired tear gas at dozens of stone-throwing protesters in Cairo on Sunday in a fourth day of street clashes that have killed at least 41 people and compounded the political challenges facing President Mohamed Mursi.
In the worst violence, security sources said 32 people died in Port Said on Saturday when protests erupted following a court verdict sentencing 21 people, mostly from the city, to death for their role in a deadly stadium disaster last year.
Mursi's opponents have also taken to the streets across Egypt since Thursday, accusing him and his Islamist allies of betraying the uprising that overthrew Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
"Till now, none of the revolution's goals have been realized," said Mohamed Sami, a protester in Tahrir Square on Sunday. "Prices are going up. The blood of Egyptians is being spilt in the streets because of neglect and corruption and because the Muslim Brotherhood is ruling Egypt for their own interests."
On a bridge close to Cairo's Tahrir Square, youths hurled stones at police in riot gear who fired tear gas to push them back towards the square which was the cauldron of the uprising that erupted on January 25, 2011 and toppled Mubarak 18 days later.
The latest protests were initially timed to mark Friday's second anniversary of that revolt.
The U.S. and British embassies, which are both close to Tahrir, said they were closed for public business on Sunday.
The spasm of violence adds to the daunting task facing Mursi as he tries to fix a beleaguered economy and cool tempers before a parliamentary election expected in the next few months which is supposed to cement Egypt's transition to democracy.
It has also exposed a deep rift in the nation. Liberals and other opponents accuse Mursi of failing to deliver on economic promises and say he has not lived up to pledges to represent all Egyptians. His backers say the opposition is seeking to topple Egypt's first freely elected leader by undemocratic means.
DIVISIONS
The army, Egypt's interim rulers until Mursi's election in June, were sent back onto the streets to restore order in Port Said and Suez, another port city on the Suez Canal where at least eight people have been killed in clashes with police.
Although scuffles continued in Cairo, there was no immediate sign of the kind of deadly escalation of previous days in the capital or elsewhere.
In Port Said, residents heard gunshots overnight and shops and many workplaces were shut on Sunday. Residents said the city was tense and there was a risk of further unrest later in the day when the dead were due to be buried.
Many Egyptians are frustrated by the regular escalations that have hurt the economy and their livelihoods.
"They are not revolutionaries protesting," said taxi driver Kamal Hassan, 30. "They are thugs destroying the country."
The National Defence Council, headed by Mursi, has called for a national dialogue to discuss political differences.
That offer has been cautiously welcomed by the opposition National Salvation Front. But the coalition has demanded a clear agenda and guarantees that any agreements will be implemented.
The Front, formed late last year when Mursi provoked protests and violence by expanding his powers and driving through an Islamist-tinged constitution, has threatened to boycott the parliamentary poll and to call for more protests if a list of demands is not met, including having an early presidential vote.
Egypt's transition has been blighted from the outset by political rows and turbulence on the streets that have driven investors out and kept many tourists away, starving the economy of vital sources of hard currency.
Egypt's defence minister who also heads the army, Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, called for the nation to stand together and said the military would not prevent peaceful protests. But he called on demonstrators to protect public property.
Clashes in Port Said erupted after a judge sentenced 21 men to die for involvement in 74 deaths at a soccer match on February 1, 2012 between Cairo's Al Ahly club and the local al-Masri team. Many of the victims were fans of the visiting team.
There were 73 defendants in the case. Those not sentenced on Saturday will face a verdict on March 9, the judge said.
Al Ahly fans cheered the verdict after threatening action if the death penalty was not meted out. But Port Said residents were furious that people from their city were held responsible, triggering wild rampages through the streets.
(Additional reporting by Shaimaa Fayed in Cairo and Yusri Mohamed in Ismailia; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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