■ KenyaFire razes shopping mall
A huge fire razed a shopping mall in the Kenyan capital early yesterday, destroying property worth millions of shillings, according to a journalist who witnessed the event. Police said the fire, which hit Ushindi Expo Centre in the center of Nairobi, was started either by a electricity fault or was a result of sabotage. "We are investigating both leads," said a police officer from Nairobi's Central Police Division at the scene. Fire engines from Nairobi City Council, Kenya Army and private fire brigade firms arrived at the scene and managed to put off the fire after a long struggle. "Nobody was injured because nobody was in the building when the fire erupted at around 6am," police said. In March, a fire gutted three floors of City Hall, one of the Kenyan capital's oldest buildings.
■ Greece
Illegal immigrants drown
At least three illegal immigrants died yesterday when their boat capsized off the coast of the Greek island of Samos in the eastern Aegean Sea. The Greek coastguard found the three bodies near a beach on the island of Kokkari. Six people survived the accident and were rescued. They told authorities that 10 more people had been aboard the boat. Illegals immigrants from various countries in the Middle East had started the crossing in the Turkish Aegean Sea about 5.5km from Samos, but had been caught in a storm, a police spokesman told Greek radio.
■ United States
Doctors halt twins' surgery
Surgery to separate 1-year-old German twins joined at the tops of their heads was interrupted late Saturday after one of the girls suffered unstable vital signs, doctors said. The procedure for Lea and Tabea Block was halted after "metabolic complications" caused the problem in one of the twins, according to a statement issued by Johns Hopkins Children's Centre in Baltimore. The girls were in stable condition after the operation was "temporarily halted." Doctors had not yet decided whether or when the surgery might resume.
■ Czech Republic
Internet linked with health
Unlike those unfit couch potatoes planted in front of televisions, a Czech survey says most Internet surfers are inclined to be fit and sporty. The Prague marketing firm GfK says its survey of Internet users in the Czech Republic found 65 percent regularly participate in sports, and 64 percent try to follow a healthy diet. "Internet users like to spend their time in front of the screen and surf on the Net, but they also have a positive relation to an active and healthy, fit lifestyle," the survey's authors concluded. Cycling and swimming were found to be the most popular activities among Internet users. The Internet users most interested in sports are under 25 years old and over 50.
■ Zimbabwe
Coup case called weak
Sixty-eight suspected mercenaries including former British soldier Simon Mann begin serving jail sentences this week on various convictions related to a plot to stage a coup in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea. But analysts and observers who followed the six-week trial say that little hard evidence was introduced in court. "I think there is now more than clear evidence that there was a coup plot, although it suggests the coup was poorly planned," said University of Zimbabwe political science lecturer Joseph Kurebwa.
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