NATO air strikes for Afghan security forces must end: Karzai

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan security forces will be banned from calling for NATO air strikes in residential areas to help in their operations, President Hamid Karzai said on Saturday, three days after 10 civilians died in such a strike in the country's east.

NATO air strikes and civilian casualties have become a significant stress point in the relationship between Karzai and his international backers. The issue threatens to further destabilize a precarious international withdrawal, to be completed by the end of 2014.

Addressing a conference at Kabul's National Military Academy, Karzai expressed his anger about the strike and said he would issue a decree on Sunday preventing any resort to such measures by his forces.

"Tomorrow, I will issue an decree stating that under no conditions can Afghan forces request foreign air strikes on Afghan homes or Afghan villages during operations," Karzai told more than 1,000 officers, commandos and students.

If issued, such a decree would for the first time bar Afghan security forces from relying on NATO air strikes, and increase pressure on them as they increasingly assume control of security from international forces.

NATO and its partners are racing against the clock to train Afghanistan's 350,000-strong security forces, though questions remain over how they well the Afghans will be able to tackle the insurgency in the face of intensifying violence.

On Wednesday, a NATO air strike -- requested during an operation in eastern Kunar province involving Afghan and American troops targeting Taliban fighters linked to al Qaeda -- struck two houses in a village in the Shultan valley.

The strike killed 10 people, including five children and four women. Four Taliban fighters, who had links to al Qaeda, according to Afghan officials, were also killed.

STRIKES CRITICAL IN DIFFICULT AREAS

Foreign air power is crucial for Afghan forces, particularly in areas like Kunar and Nuristan, which are covered with forests and rough terrain, making ground operations difficult.

Nuristan and Kunar also share a long, porous borders with lawless areas inside Pakistan, known to be home to foreign fighters and al Qaeda members.

Karzai said he had been told that the air strike was requested by the Afghan spy agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS).

"If this is true, it is very regrettable and it is very shameful. How could they ask foreigners to send planes and bomb our own houses?" he said.

According to Kunar officials one of the dead insurgents was identified as a Pakistani citizen and Taliban leader named Rocketi. A second was identified as a Taliban commander called Shahpour.

A spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said there would be no comment on any presidential decree until it was actually issued.

In June last year, following the deaths of 18 civilians in a NATO air strike in the country's east, the ISAF commander at the time, General John Allen, issued a directive restricting their use against insurgents "within civilian dwellings".

In a meeting with ISAF Commander General Joseph Dunford following Wednesday's bombing, Karzai stressed Allen's 2012 directive and said such attacks must never recur.

Tensions have risen between Karzai and his foreign backers since his comments in October that the United States and its allies should target supporters of terrorism in Pakistan and stop fighting their war in Afghan villages.

The ISAF says it has reduced civilian casualties in recent years, and that insurgents such as the Taliban are now responsible for 84 per cent of all such deaths and injuries.

(Additional Reporting by Mohammad Anwar and Hamid Shalizi; Writing by Dylan Welch; Editing by Ron Popeski)

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Slain Pistorius girlfriend leaves haunting TV message

JOHANNESBURG: A celebrity television show on Saturday aired haunting footage of Oscar Pistorius' slain girlfriend speaking about the need to leave a positive mark on life, words laden with unintended poignancy two days after her shocking death.

"Not just your journey in life, but the way that you go out and make your exit is so important, you have either made an impact in a positive way or a negative way," Reeva Steenkamp said in the celebrity reality TV show.

The 29-year-old model and law school graduate was shot four times at Pistorius's home in the early hours of Valentine's Day on Thursday in a case that shocked the country and topped news broadcasts around the world.

Pistorius -- a national icon who inspired people around the world when he became the first double amputee to compete against able-bodied athletes in the Olympic Games last year -- remained in a police cell on Saturday, charged with murdering his girlfriend in cold blood.

His uncle on Saturday gave the strongest indication yet that the star athlete, who broke down sobbing during his initial court appearance the previous day, would plead not guilty to the charges against him.

"We have no doubt there is no substance to the allegation and that the State's own case, including its own forensic evidence, strongly refutes any possibility of a premeditated murder or indeed any murder at all," Arnold Pistorius said in a statement.

"We are all grieving for Reeva, her family and her friends," he said.

"Oscar -- as you can imagine -- is also numb with shock as well as grief."

The track star faces a life sentence if convicted of premeditated murder, as alleged by state prosecutors.

Arnold Pistorius added that the couple "had plans together."

"Oscar was happier in his private life than he had been for a long time."

On Saturday, television offered the world a small glimpse of the less well-known half of the doomed couple.

A one minute tribute before "Tropika Island of Treasure" showed Steenkamp appearing contemplative and at ease with herself, sitting beneath a beach-front palm, dressed in a strappy top and a yellow, black and dotted bikini, with her blonde hair tied back.

Looking deep into the camera, she also offered some advice to the up to three million people who watch the show every week.

"Just maintain integrity and maintain class and just always be true to yourself," she said in what now sounds like a soliloquy on a life cut short.

"I'm going to miss you all so much."

But there were plenty of more light-hearted moments.

Steenkamp is seen swimming with dolphins and smiling broadly as she floats down the jungle-flanked Martha Brae River on a punted bamboo raft.

The model blew kisses, laughed and splashed across an aquatic obstacle course with other contestants trying not to be voted off the show.

The reality show, shot on location in Jamaica, featured the slain model as well as 13 other local personalities competing for one million rand ($113,500) prize money.

Producers defended their decision not to shelve the show, instead painting its broadcast as a tribute to Steenkamp.

"She was happy, healthy, beautiful and vibrant and that's the way she should be remembered," said executive producer Samantha Moon.

In an earlier statement Moon said the decision to broadcast Tropika Island of Treasure 5 was taken after "much deliberation."

"This week's episode will be dedicated to Reeva's memory."

The show was broadcast on state television channel SABC1, which said Steenkamp's mother had given the showing her blessing.

Many more than the three million South Africans who normally watch the show were expected to tune in.

Many found it bitter sweet.

"It's so painful watching Reeva smile at us on TV, while knowing she's no longer with us" MotsoPitsi wrote on Twitter.

"Tragic loss of Reeva Steenkamp-she looked so vibrant, sweet, young and beautiful. So said for her family," wrote Cavil Shepherd.

Born in the southern city of Port Elizabeth, Steenkamp moved to Johannesburg six years ago to pursue her modelling career. She had been dating Pistorius since at least November.

Elsewhere forensics teams are still working at Pistorius' home to try and establish what took place before and after Steenkamp was shot in the head and hand.

And the medal winner was expected to receive visits from family and from members of his defence team, who are preparing for a bail hearing that will begin Tuesday ahead of what is expected to be a lengthy trial. The state is expected to strongly oppose bail.

Meanwhile unconfirmed details of Steenkamp's last hours appeared in the South African press.

Beeld, an Afrikaans newspaper which initially broke the story of the murder, reported that two hours before the shooting neighbours complained to complex security over the loud fighting at the house.

Beeld had initially said Steenkamp was shot having been mistaken for an intruder, but this claim has been dismissed by police and prosecutors.

The daily also reported that Steenkamp was shot through the bathroom door while on the toilet.

Using unnamed and unquoted sources the paper said Pistorius carried Steenkamp in his arms downstairs and tried performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

When guards arrived Steenkamp was breathing, but was gargling blood because of her injuries.

The paper also reported that aside from the weapon used to kill Steenkamp, Pistorius had pending licence applications for seven other guns, including .223 semi-automatic -- the same type of weapon used to kill 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in the United States in December.

- AFP/fa

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Rs 20 lakh Red Fort replica for Mayawati

NAGPUR: Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati's state-level rally scheduled at Kasturchand Park on Sunday will also reflect the extravagant display of money power.

The Bahujan Samaj Party chief would address the rally from the stage which would be a replica of the historic Red Fort at Delhi. The stage will be built at a cost of Rs 20 lakh.

BSP workers in Nagpur roped in local decorator Digambar Bagde to erect the monument's replica.

Bagde said the replica has been built in such a way that it withstands rain. To recreate the backdrop, Bagde used two trucks of thermacol and to build the set, he and his team of 25 artists from Chitrakala Mahavidyalaya worked almost 16-18 hours a day since February 5.

Bagde spent more than a week doing preparations. "I have never visited New Delhi, so I downloaded images of the Lal Qila. It was of great help. Two huge elephants will be erected on both the sides of the stage," he said.

Bagde used water colours to paint the fort and also sprayed sand on the wall to give an authentic look of a fort wall. The Rs 20 lakh expense for creating the replica Bagde's biggest contract yet.

Rajya Sabha MP and BSP national general secretary Veer Singh, who is also party incharge of Maharashtra, refused to divulge the amount being spent for Mayawati's visit in Nagpur.

However, party insiders told TOI that around Rs 1 crore was being spent for the success of the party's chief visit to Nagpur.

At least 10 huge cutouts will be erected at the venue. Besides, banners have also been erected in north Nagpur and in other areas where there is sizeable Dalit population.

Meanwhile, on the eve of Mayawati's rally on Sunday, over 1,000-odd BSP workers from across the state have already reached there.

Party workers from Nanded, Pune, Mumbai, Thane, Nashik, Aurangabad, Latur and adjoining districts are here to hear Mayawati.

Local party workers were deployed at the railway station and ST stand in Ganeshpeth to guide the incoming party workers, said BSP corporator Kishore Gajbhiye.

The party has a growing presence in the Nagpur Municipal Corporation with 12 of its candidates serving as corporators in the civic body.

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UN warns risk of hepatitis E in S. Sudan grows

GENEVA (AP) — The United Nations says an outbreak of hepatitis E has killed 111 refugees in camps in South Sudan since July, and has become endemic in the region.

U.N. refugee agency spokesman Adrian Edwards says the influx of people to the camps from neighboring Sudan is believed to be one of the factors in the rapid spread of the contagious, life-threatening inflammatory viral disease of the liver.

Edwards said Friday that the camps have been hit by 6,017 cases of hepatitis E, which is spread through contaminated food and water.

He says the largest number of cases and suspected cases is in the Yusuf Batil camp in Upper Nile state, which houses 37,229 refugees fleeing fighting between rebels and the Sudanese government.

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Uncle: Pistorius Is 'Numb With Shock as Well as Grief'

Oscar Pistorius is "numb with shock as well as grief" his uncle told reporters Saturday as the Olympian amputee spent his second night behind bars in a South African jail for the allegedly killing his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

"All of us saw at firsthand how close [Steenkamp] had become to Oscar during that time and how happy they were," he said. "They had plans together and Oscar was happier in his private life than he had been for a long time," said Pistorius' uncle Arnold Pistorius.

The 26-year-old athlete, known as the "blade runner" because of the carbon-fiber blades he runs on, was charged Friday with premeditated murder.

Pistorius' family is "battling to come to terms with Oscar being charged with murder," Arnold Pistorius said, and still believe "there is no substance to the allegation."

Oscar Pistorius is suspected of shooting Steenkamp, 29, four times with a handgun early Thursday morning at his home in a gated community in Pretoria.

PHOTOS: Paralympic Champion Charged with Murder

Prosecutors dismissed the reports that Pistorious mistook her for an intruder.

If convicted, Pistorius could face at least 25 years in jail.

According to South African newspaper Beeld, Steenkamp was killed nearly two hours after police were called to Pistorius' home to respond to reports of an argument at the complex.

Police said they have responded to disputes at the sprinter's residence before, but did not say whether or not Steenkamp was involved.

Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images; Mike Holmes/The Herald/Gallo Images/Getty Images

Oscar Pistorius Charged in Shooting Death of Girlfriend Watch Video

Oscar Pistorius: Inside Relationship With Slain Girlfriend Watch Video

Oscar Pistorius Murder Charges: Is He Capable of Killing? Watch Video

A memorial service for Steenkamp will be held in Port Elizabeth on Tuesday evening, reported SABC. Her body will be flown back for the service before being cremated, her family said.

"Her future has been cut short...I dare say she's with the angels," said Mike Steenkamp, Reeva Steenkamp's uncle.

Producers of the South African reality show Steenkamp competed in said the series will still premiere Saturday night on SABC as planned, but will now include a special tribute to the slain law school graduate whose modeling career was starting to take off.

RELATED: Reeva Steenkamp, Oscar Pistorius Girlfriend, Saw Self as 'Brainy, Blonde, Bombshell'

"This is the only time that you see the real Reeva," executive producer and director of "Tropka Island of Treasure" Samantha Moon told "Good Morning America." "She was kind and sweet and?so hard working.

"They will see the girl that we loved."

Meanwhile, the sprinter's sponsors ? including Nike, BT, Theirry Mugler, Oakley and Ossur, the Icelandic company that manufactures the prosthetic blades Pistorius races on ? are acting cautiously as the athlete awaits his bail hearing on Tuesday.

M-Net movies, a subscription-funded South African television channel has already pulled their ad campaign featuring Pistorius, tweeting, "Out of respect & sympathy to the bereaved, M-Net will be pulling its entire Oscar campaign featuring Oscar Pistorius with immediate effect."

Nike, who's ad featuring the double-amputee reads "I am the bullet in the chamber," released a statement saying the company is "continuing the monitor the situation closely."

Still, the athlete's' friends and colleagues said the murder charges have yet to sink in.

"When I heard, I was in shock and I'm just still trying to process it," Jamaican gold medal sprinter Usain Bolt told the Associated Press Friday night after the NBA All-Star celebrity game in Houston, Tex.

"I would just like to say, I have dated Oscar on and off for 5 YEARS, NOT ONCE has he EVER lifted a finger to me, made me fear for my life," his ex-girlfriend Jenna Edkins tweeted on Friday.

ABC News' Colleen Curry contributed to this report.

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Meteor explodes over central Russia, over 1,000 injured

CHELYABINSK, Russia (Reuters) - A meteor streaked across the sky and exploded over central Russia on Friday, raining fireballs over a wide area and causing a shock wave that smashed windows, damaged buildings and injured more than 1,000 people.

People heading to work in Chelyabinsk heard what sounded like an explosion, saw a bright light and then felt the shock wave, according to a Reuters correspondent in the industrial city 1,500 km (950 miles) east of Moscow.

The fireball, travelling at a speed of 30 km (19 miles) per second according to Russian space agency Roscosmos, had blazed across the horizon, leaving a long white trail that could be seen as far as 200 km (125 miles) away.

Car alarms went off, thousands of windows shattered and mobile phone networks were disrupted. The Interior Ministry said the meteor explosion, a very rare spectacle, also unleashed a sonic boom.

"I was driving to work, it was quite dark, but it suddenly became as bright as if it were day," said Viktor Prokofiev, 36, a resident of Yekaterinburg in the Urals Mountains.

"I felt like I was blinded by headlights."

The meteor, which weighed about 10 tons and may have been made of iron, entered Earth's atmosphere and broke apart 30-50 km (19-31 miles) above ground, according to Russia's Academy of Sciences.

No deaths were reported but the Emergencies Ministry said 20,000 rescue and clean-up workers were sent to the region after President Vladimir Putin told Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov to ease the disruption and help the victims.

The Interior Ministry said about 1,200 people had been injured, at least 200 of them children, and most from shards of glass.

EXTREMELY RARE

The region of Chelyabinsk has long been a hub for the Russian military and defense industry, and it is often the site where artillery shells are decommissioned.

A local Emergencies Ministry official said meteor storms were extremely rare and Friday's incident may have been connected with an asteroid the size of an Olympic swimming pool that was due to pass Earth.

But an astronomer at Russia's Academy of Sciences, Sergei Barabanov, poured doubt on that report. He said there was no evidence to support the theory that the meteor had travelled with the asteroid or had broken off from it.

The European Space Agency, on its Twitter microblog, also said its experts had confirmed there was no link.

The regional governor in Chelyabinsk said the meteorite shower had caused more than $30 million in damage, and the Emergencies Ministry said some 300 buildings had been affected.

One piece of meteorite broke through the ice of nearby Cherbakul Lake, leaving a hole several meters wide.

Despite warnings not to approach any unidentified objects, some enterprising locals were hoping to cash in.

"Selling meteorite that fell on Chelyabinsk!" one prospective seller, Vladimir, said on a popular Russian auction website. He attached a picture of a black piece of stone that on Friday afternoon was priced at 1,488 roubles ($49.46).

WINDOWS BREAK, FRAMES BUCKLE

The early morning blast and ensuing shock wave blew out windows on Chelyabinsk's central Lenin Street, buckled some shop fronts and rattled apartment buildings in the city center.

"I was standing at a bus stop, seeing off my girlfriend," said Andrei, a local resident who did not give his second name. "Then there was a flash and I saw a trail of smoke across the sky and felt a shock wave that smashed windows."

Chelyabinsk city authorities urged people to stay indoors unless they needed to pick up their children from schools and kindergartens.

A wall was badly damaged at the Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant but a spokeswoman said no environmental threat resulted.

In 1908, a meteorite is thought to have devastated an area of more than 2,000 sq km (1,250 miles) in Siberia, breaking windows as far as 200 km (125 miles) from the point of impact.

The Emergencies Ministry described Friday's events as a "meteor shower in the form of fireballs" and said background radiation levels were normal. It urged residents not to panic.

Simon Goodwin, an astrophysics expert from Britain's University of Sheffield, said that roughly 1,000 to 10,000 tons of material rained down from space towards the earth every day, but most burned up in the atmosphere.

"While events this big are rare, an impact that could cause damage and death could happen every century or so. Unfortunately there is absolutely nothing we can do to stop impacts."

The meteor struck just as an asteroid known as 2012 DA14, about 46 meters (yards) in diameter, was due to pass closer to Earth - at a distance of 27,520 km (17,100 miles) - than any other known object of its size since scientists began routinely monitoring asteroids about 15 years ago.

(Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska in Moscow; Writing by Timothy Heritage and Thomas Grove; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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US mulls calls to restore N. Korea to terror list

WASHINGTON: The United States has not decided whether to put North Korea back on a blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism, but its status is regularly reviewed, a top US official said Friday.

The comments came as the US House of Representatives Friday overwhelmingly passed a resolution condemning North Korea's nuclear test earlier this week, and urging the administration to apply all available sanctions to Pyongyang.

North Korea will also likely be raised in talks next week in Washington between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and US President Barack Obama.

The White House said in a statement Friday that Obama was looking "forward to in-depth discussions" with Abe on a range of bilateral and global issues as well as "the US-Japan security alliance, economic and trade issues."

North Korea was added to the State Department's blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism on January 20, 1988, following the bombing by its agents of a KAL plane on November 29, 1987 which killed all 115 on board.

But it was removed in October 2008 under then president George W. Bush, when the State Department said the North was not known to have sponsored any terrorist acts since that bombing.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told journalists Friday there was nothing new to reveal, but stressed the US constantly reviews intelligence "to determine whether the facts would put them back in that category."

"Countries that have a track record of past terrorist activity, that have been removed from the list, are regularly reviewed to check whether that kind of behaviour has resumed," she added.

Under US law a country can only be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism if the secretary of state determines that the government "has repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism," she said.

Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen put the bipartisan draft bill before the House which implicitly calls for Pyongyang to be redesignated a state sponsor of terrorism -- an exclusive club which includes Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un "has made his priorities clear: to obtain a nuclear weapon and to proliferate nuclear technology with rogue regimes, such as Iran and Syria," Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement.

"I call upon the administration to take the appropriate action necessary to designate North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism and stand in solidarity with our South Korean and Japanese allies," Ros-Lehtinen said.

- AFP/fa

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IAF saddled with 3 Agusta choppers with limited spares

NEW DELHI: Three helicopters that have spare parts to fly for just a few months, pilots who are not fully conversant with the new VVIP helicopters, almost 45% of the money already paid and a huge consortium that may have to be blacklisted out of India for a decade.

Friday's decision to cancel the controversial deal for the three-engine AW-101 helicopters from UK-based AgustaWestland, a subsidiary of scandal-hit Italian consortium Finmeccanica, was taken amid several uncertainties, admit senior sources involved in the process.

The first steps, once the contract is cancelled, would be to invoke the 5% earnest money deposit, which is part of the integrity pact, and the performance bond (guarantee). This would be followed by a formal request to AgustaWestland to repatriate the extra money paid to them, after deducting the price of three helicopters and related costs.

Foremost among the challenges cited by senior IAF officers is the maintenance and operability of the three helicopters already delivered. "The three helicopters have come with some initial spares so they can fly only for a limited period. Long-term maintenance would not be possible unless the situation is retrieved. For now, both MoD and IAF are slightly clueless about what should be the future course of action," an officer said.

Once the contract is cancelled, the process of blacklisting the firm would begin, and once it is blacklisted for 10 years, then the government cannot enter into any contract with it. This would have an adverse impact on spare parts, maintenance, upgrade and the like.

The blacklisting process itself is not clear for now. While Finmeccanica and its subsidiary AgustaWestland seem to be involved in this scandal, there are several questions about blacklisting, including if all the subsidiary companies of Finmeccanica will be blacklisted because of the consortium's behaviour.

In the past, when Indian has blacklisted a defence firm, it has had a deadly backlash. India abruptly cancelled the HDW submarine contract with the German firm in the 1980s. For spare parts, the Indian Navy kept paying exaggerated prices to third party contractors. Even a normal nut-bolt then worth about Rs 20 was procured at approximately Rs 25,000, later investigations showed.

The pilots of the newly-inducted helicopters are undergoing "conversion and consolidation training" to be eligible to fly VVIPs since a certain amount of proficiency is required on the new machines even if they are experienced in flying the Russian-origin Mi-17s and Mi-8s. So, these pilots have to be certified as 'A-Master Green' pilots, which requires about 100 hours of flying on the new machines.

Sources said the government has already paid over 45% of the total contract value of Rs 3,546 crore. Further tranche of payments were linked to deliveries, through letters of credit. The next payment was coming up, ahead of the March delivery of the next three helicopters. The last two batches of three helicopters were to follow in May and July.

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Study: Fish in drug-tainted water suffer reaction

BOSTON (AP) — What happens to fish that swim in waters tainted by traces of drugs that people take? When it's an anti-anxiety drug, they become hyper, anti-social and aggressive, a study found. They even get the munchies.

It may sound funny, but it could threaten the fish population and upset the delicate dynamics of the marine environment, scientists say.

The findings, published online Thursday in the journal Science, add to the mounting evidence that minuscule amounts of medicines in rivers and streams can alter the biology and behavior of fish and other marine animals.

"I think people are starting to understand that pharmaceuticals are environmental contaminants," said Dana Kolpin, a researcher for the U.S. Geological Survey who is familiar with the study.

Calling their results alarming, the Swedish researchers who did the study suspect the little drugged fish could become easier targets for bigger fish because they are more likely to venture alone into unfamiliar places.

"We know that in a predator-prey relation, increased boldness and activity combined with decreased sociality ... means you're going to be somebody's lunch quite soon," said Gregory Moller, a toxicologist at the University of Idaho and Washington State University. "It removes the natural balance."

Researchers around the world have been taking a close look at the effects of pharmaceuticals in extremely low concentrations, measured in parts per billion. Such drugs have turned up in waterways in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere over the past decade.

They come mostly from humans and farm animals; the drugs pass through their bodies in unmetabolized form. These drug traces are then piped to water treatment plants, which are not designed to remove them from the cleaned water that flows back into streams and rivers.

The Associated Press first reported in 2008 that the drinking water of at least 51 million Americans carries low concentrations of many common drugs. The findings were based on questionnaires sent to water utilities, which reported the presence of antibiotics, sedatives, sex hormones and other drugs.

The news reports led to congressional hearings and legislation, more water testing and more public disclosure. To this day, though, there are no mandatory U.S. limits on pharmaceuticals in waterways.

The research team at Sweden's Umea University used minute concentrations of 2 parts per billion of the anti-anxiety drug oxazepam, similar to concentrations found in real waters. The drug belongs to a widely used class of medicines known as benzodiazepines that includes Valium and Librium.

The team put young wild European perch into an aquarium, exposed them to these highly diluted drugs and then carefully measured feeding, schooling, movement and hiding behavior. They found that drug-exposed fish moved more, fed more aggressively, hid less and tended to school less than unexposed fish. On average, the drugged fish were more than twice as active as the others, researcher Micael Jonsson said. The effects were more pronounced at higher drug concentrations.

"Our first thought is, this is like a person diagnosed with ADHD," said Jonsson, referring to attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder. "They become asocial and more active than they should be."

Tomas Brodin, another member of the research team, called the drug's environmental impact a global problem. "We find these concentrations or close to them all over the world, and it's quite possible or even probable that these behavioral effects are taking place as we speak," he said Thursday in Boston at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Most previous research on trace drugs and marine life has focused on biological changes, such as male fish that take on female characteristics. However, a 2009 study found that tiny concentrations of antidepressants made fathead minnows more vulnerable to predators.

It is not clear exactly how long-term drug exposure, beyond the seven days in this study, would affect real fish in real rivers and streams. The Swedish researchers argue that the drug-induced changes could jeopardize populations of this sport and commercial fish, which lives in both fresh and brackish water.

Water toxins specialist Anne McElroy of Stony Brook University in New York agreed: "These lower chronic exposures that may alter things like animals' mating behavior or its ability to catch food or its ability to avoid being eaten — over time, that could really affect a population."

Another possibility, the researchers said, is that more aggressive feeding by the perch on zooplankton could reduce the numbers of these tiny creatures. Since zooplankton feed on algae, a drop in their numbers could allow algae to grow unchecked. That, in turn, could choke other marine life.

The Swedish team said it is highly unlikely people would be harmed by eating such drug-exposed fish. Jonsson said a person would have to eat 4 tons of perch to consume the equivalent of a single pill.

Researchers said more work is needed to develop better ways of removing drugs from water at treatment plants. They also said unused drugs should be brought to take-back programs where they exist, instead of being flushed down the toilet. And they called on pharmaceutical companies to work on "greener" drugs that degrade more easily.

Sandoz, one of three companies approved to sell oxazepam in the U.S., "shares society's desire to protect the environment and takes steps to minimize the environmental impact of its products over their life cycle," spokeswoman Julie Masow said in an emailed statement. She provided no details.

___

Online:

Overview of the drug: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/meds/a682050.html

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Cruise Ship Now Faces Expected Wave of Lawsuits

Despite having their feet back on solid ground and making their way home, passengers from the Carnival Triumph cruise ship are still fuming over their five days of squalor on the stricken ship and the cruise ship company is likely to be hit with a wave of lawsuits.

"I think people are going to file suits and rightly so," maritime trial attorney John Hickey told ABCNews.com. "I think, frankly, that the conduct of Carnival has been outrageous from the get-go."

Hickey, a Miami-based attorney, said his firm has already received "quite a few" inquiries from passengers who just got off the ship early this morning.

"What you have here is a) negligence on the part of Carnival and b) you have them, the passengers, being exposed to the risk of actual physical injury," Hickey said.

Click Here for Photos of the Stranded Ship at Sea

The attorney said that whether passengers can recover monetary compensation will depend on maritime law and the 15-pages of legal "gobbledygook," as Hickey described it, that passengers signed before boarding, but "nobody really agrees to."

One of the ticket conditions is that class action lawsuits are not allowed, but Hickey said there is a possibility that could be voided when all the conditions of the situation are taken into account.

One of the passengers already thinking about legal action is Tammy Hilley, a mother of two, who was on a girl's getaway with her two friends when a fire in the ship's engine room disabled the vessel's propulsion system and knocked out most of its power.

"I think that's a direction that our families will talk about, consider and see what's right for us," Hilley told "Good Morning America" when asked if she would be seeking legal action.

While she said that she does not want to be greedy or exploit the situation, she does not feel that Carnival's $500 compensation is enough for the trauma passengers suffered.

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"You talk about the emotional trauma and just last night, feeling what we went through last night while we were on land with our families and our insides just trembling," she said. "I don't think it begins to even say what is needed here."

In addition to the money, passengers will receive a full refund for the cruise, transportation expenses and vouchers for another cruise.

"We made our own nest [on deck] because we were just too terrified to go inside because of the smells and the germs, so we just banded together and made our own little nest and just survived," Hilley's friend Ann Barlow said.

Her friend Carolyn Klam said she got a stomach virus from drinking bad water once the power went out and friend Tammy Hilley said her cell phone was stolen this morning as the boat came into port.

"I think going back to our room was kind of traumatic and seeing that from day one we had no home, we were homeless," Hilley said. "We would go downstairs below deck and your feet could feel the sludge that you were walking through. The smells and the liquids draining from the ceiling and the stories of people sleeping in the hallways and the sanitary bags in the hallway, that was traumatic to just watch it start piling up."

The more than 4,000 passengers and crew began to disembark from the damaged ship around 10:15 p.m. CT Thursday in Mobile, Ala., amid cheers and tears. The last passenger left the ship at 1 a.m. CT, according to Carnival's Twitter handle.

Passenger Brandi Dorsett was thankful to be home, especially for her mother who was with her on the ship. Dorsett said she wasn't pleased with the doctor on staff.

"My mother is a diabetic, and they would not even come to the room because she cannot walk the stairs to help her with insulin. She hasn't had insulin in three days," Dorsett said.

The Carnival Triumph departed Galveston, Texas, last Thursday and lost power Sunday.

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After power went out, passengers texted ABC News that sewage was seeping down the walls from burst plumbing pipes, carpets were wet with urine, and food was in short supply. Reports surfaced of elderly passengers running out of critical heart medicine and others on board squabbling over scarce food.

"It's degrading. Demoralizing, and then they want to insult us by giving us $500," Veronica Arriaga said after disembarking the ship.

As the ship docked, passengers lined the decks of the Triumph, waving and whistling to those on shore. "Happy V-Day" read a homemade sign made for the Valentine's Day arrival, while another sent a starker message: "The ship's afloat, so is the sewage."

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