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World News Quick Take

■ Japan
Mind your language: PM
A question in parliament on Wednesday peppered with English financial terms had Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi warning a lawmaker to mind his language. "Who understands [English] words like `compliance' and `governance'?" Koizumi asked. "Use words that ordinary people can understand," he said to loud cheers and laughter. "Some members know English, I've studied a bit, but debates shouldn't be limited to those who understand English. Debates are for everyone," he said.

■ Myanmar
H5N1 outbreak confirmed
Independent tests have confirmed an outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus in Myanmar's central Mandalay Division, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said yesterday. A Bangkok laboratory confirmed the findings of Myanmar officials, who announced the country's first outbreak on Monday, said He Changchui, the FAO's representative for the Asia-Pacific region. The news came as Myanmar's state-controlled media yesterday finally broke the news that outbreaks of avian flu had been detected in the country, days after it had been reported in the foreign press.

■Indonesia
Tsunami aid under probe
International aid group Oxfam has suspended some of its tsunami-relief operations in Aceh Province, while it investigates suspected financial irregularities there, Douglas Keating, a spokesman for the group, said yesterday. Relief organizations in the country have pledged to carefully audit their funds amid concerns that aid money could be stolen by corrupt officials or contractors in the country, which is rated as one of the world's most graft ridden.

■ United Kingdom
Clinical trial goes wrong
Two men were critically ill in hospital on Wednesday and four others serious in intensive care after suffering violent reactions to a drug they took as part of a clinical trial. Police said they were working with the co's medicines watchdog to establish the circumstances. The US company running the trial said they had operated within industry guidelines but a girlfriend of one of the volunteers said they had been told to pray for a miracle. The drug, known as TGN 1412, was being developed for a German company to treat chronic inflammatory conditions and leukemia.

■ United Kingdom
Honors scandal looms
The ruling Labour Party faces an investigation into claims it accepted loans from millionaire supporters in return for titles given under Britain's honors system, a party official said late on Wednesday. Labour Treasurer Jack Dromey said he had been "kept in the dark" over last year's undeclared loans, which have sparked accusations that peerages are for sale under Blair's government. "The Labour Party needs to put its house in order to restore public and party members' confidence," Dromey said in a statement. The row blew up after three Labour supporters were recommended for honors after lending the party money.

■ russia
Envoy urges diplomacy
Russia and China are urging a diplomatic solution to the crisis over Iran's nuclear ambitions, Russia's ambassador to China said yesterday. Iran was reported to the Security Council, which has the power to impose sanctions, after the UN nuclear watchdog found that Tehran was not cooperating with inspectors seeking to assess its nuclear program. "We both believe we need to seek political solutions to the issues through diplomatic channels," Ambassador Sergei Razov said in Beijing. "Russian and Chinese cooperation has played an important role in keeping the Iran nuclear issue on the track of a diplomatic solution," he added.

■ West Bank
Israeli soldier shot dead
Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli soldier taking part in a West Bank operation yesterday in which five wanted men were detained, the Israeli army said. Elsewhere in the occupied territory, gunmen shot and wounded two Israeli motorists. Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants battled for more than an hour at a building the troops surrounded in the West Bank city of Jenin. "One of the wanted men emerged running from the building and an exchange of fire immediately erupted between the forces and the gunmen during which one of the soldiers was killed," the army said in a statement.

■ Germany
Migrants face culture quiz
They are questions that would test the mettle of even the most ardent German patriot. Name three German philosophers, a poem by Goethe, a German Nobel prize winner and the doctor who discovered the cholera virus. Stuck? Then you would struggle to qualify for German citizenship under new plans by the state of Hesse to test would-be citizens on their German cultural knowledge. There are also questions on the constitution. Applicants who get more than half the questions wrong will not get a passport, Hesse's Christian Democrat interior minister, Volker Bouffier said.

■ United States
Man kills two in a Denny's
A man armed with two handguns opened fire inside a Denny's restaurant in Pismo Beach, California,during the lunch hour, killing two people and wounding a married couple before taking his own life, police said. As many as 15 people were inside the restaurant at the time and some fled or hid in bathrooms for safety. "The shooter randomly and calmly walked down the aisle and started shooting," said police Chief Joe Cortez, describing a surveillance video. The gunman was identified as Lawrence Woods, 60, who had been living in his car, Cortez said.

■ United States
Fossil thief pleads guilty
An Australian mineral dealer pleaded guilty on Wednesday to smuggling fossilized dinosaur eggs from China to the US, authorities said. Tamas "Thomas" Kapitany, 45, is to be spend a year on criminal probation and pay a US$20,000 fine in a plea bargain made to avoid trial, officials said. Kapitany also agreed to forfeit fossils seized by US investigators. US officials will coordinate with Chinese authorities to determine what to do with the fossils. As far back as 1999, Kapitany snuck eggs into California by labeling them minerals or geological specimens, prosecutors said. Federal agents seized more than 140 boxes of smuggled eggs from a warehouse in El Cajon, California.

■ United States
Woman pleads guilty to rape
A 37-year-old Georgia woman accused of child molestation after marrying a 15-year-old friend of one of her sons pleaded guilty on Wednesday to statutory rape and was sentenced to nine months in jail. Lisa Clark also was forbidden by the judge from having contact with her young spouse -- the alleged father of her one-month-old son -- until at least his 17th birthday. Clark will get credit for the two months she's already been in jail. After her release, she will be on probation until 2010. A few days before she was arrested last November on charges of statutory rape, child molestation and enticing a minor, she married the boy under a 1962 Georgia law that allows children of any age to get married if the bride-to-be is pregnant.

■ United States
Adoptive mother gets time
A Texas woman who left her seven adopted children in Africa, where they were found malnourished at a Nigerian orphanage, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud. Mercury Liggins, 49, pleaded guilty to theft for accepting US$443,000 in federal and state benefits for which she didn't qualify, Harris County prosecutor Carl Hobbs said. Liggins, who was sentenced Tuesday, faced up to life in prison. Liggins has said she trusted her brother-in-law to care for the children, who now range in age from 10 to 18, in Nigeria in 2003 while she took a job in Iraq.

■ United States
Jackson reaches deal on pay
Michael Jackson has made arrangements to pay employees at his shuttered Neverland Valley Ranch for the first time since December, avoiding legal action by California authorities. But Neverland, which effectively was closed by the state last week because Jackson allowed his workers' compensation insurance to lapse, will remain shut down until the singer obtains the proper insurance, officials said. California's labor commissioner had fined Jackson US$100,000 and threatened to sue the 47-year-old singer unless he made good on at least US$306,000 in back wages dating to December.

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