■ Indonesia
Man dies of avian flu
A 44-year-old man has died of bird flu, the health ministry said yesterday. The man died last Wednesday at a hospital in East Jakarta and tests by the health ministry found he had the H5N1 virus, said health ministry official Joko Suyono. "The man had a history of contact with chicken," he said. If confirmed by a laboratory approved by the WHO, the man's death would bring the country's bird flu death toll to 42, equaling Vietnam. No one is known to have died from bird flu this year in Vietnam, which remains the country with the most human deaths from the disease.
■ Indonesia
Officer beaten to death
A mob beat a police officer to death in Papua Province after he allegedly shot and killed a girl during a drunken rage, a news report said yesterday. Another officer was seriously injured in the incident on Saturday in the highland town of Wamena, which has often sees fighting between security forces and local people sympathetic to the region's separatist movement, the state news agency Antara reported. Antara said the officer shot the girl and then asked to be taken to the police station, presumably to give himself up. On the way, a mob beat him to death, it said. The wounded officer was attacked when he intervened, Antara said, without giving more details.
■ China
Miners killed, again
Eighteen miners were killed and 57 others were trapped in two separate coal mine accidents, state media reported yesterday, the latest in a never-ending series of disasters to hit the beleaguered industry. An explosion occurred at around 4pm on Saturday at the Linjiazhuang coal mine in Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province, when 64 miners were working underground. Eighteen were killed and 39 trapped, Xinhua news agency said. Eighteen miners were trapped in a flooded coal mine in the southwestern province of Guizhou, Xinhua reported in a separate dispatch. The accident occurred at around 11:00pm Saturday in the Pianpoyuan coal mine in Ziyun Miao Buyi County, it said.
■ Philippines
Pope's man slams killings
The Papal envoy yesterday expressed alarm at the growing number of murders of journalists and activists, saying the country's reputation was suffering. "I am surprised to see that in the Philippines there is still an activity of high incidence of a moral and political violence against those who profess different political ideologies," said Papal Nuncio Archbishop Fernando Filoni. He told a forum that while the church was heartened by President Gloria Arroyo's recent abolition of the death penalty, the positive image created by this act was damaged by the rash of murders.
■ Hong Kong
SARS expert honored
The microbiologist who cracked the code that helped identify and control the SARS virus has been made a fellow of Britain's Royal Society, the world's most prestigious scientific academy, a newspaper reported said yesterday. Malik Peiris was inducted into the ancient academy on Friday in London. The Sri Lankan-born Peiris, a professor at the Hong Kong University, was honored for his work on SARS and other human viral infections that cause respiratory disease. The Royal Society was set up in November 1660 and counts among its fellows some of history's greatest scientists, including Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Stephen Hawking.
■ United Kingdom
Diplomats escaping justice
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