■EGYPT
Pig herds to be slaughtered
Egypt, hit hard by bird flu, has ordered the slaughter of every pig herd in the country as a precaution against swine flu, a step the UN said was a mistake. The H1N1 swine flu virus is spread by people and is not present in Egyptian animals, but culling pigs, largely viewed as unclean in Muslim Egypt, could help quell any panic. Twenty-six people have died in Egypt from the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus and experts fear any flu pandemic could have a devastating impact in a country where most of the roughly 80 million people live in the densely packed Nile Valley, many in crowded slums in and around Cairo. But the UN said the mass cull of up to 400,000 pigs was “a real mistake.”
■SPAIN
Aged drug mules arrested
Police said on Wednesday they had smashed a drug trafficking ring which used senior citizens as drug mules on luxury trans-Atlantic cruises to smuggle cocaine into the country. “The group included members of an advanced age who boarded luxury transatlantic cruises to pick up the narcotics in South America. The ‘mules’ would pass themselves off as tourists to try to elude police controls,” police said in a statement. It is the first time that this method has been used to introduce cocaine into Spain, the statement added. Police said they had detained two of the group’s “drug mules,” two older women, just as they were about to unload cocaine, which they had picked up in Brazil, at the southwestern Spanish port of Cadiz. They also seized 27kg of highly pure cocaine from the women’s cabin.
■UNITED STATES
Lifer to be set free
A Texas man who spent 22 years in prison for a rape that forensic tests now suggest he did not commit is expected to be freed. Gary Alvin Richard was expected to be released yesterday after prosecutors and his defense attorney asked a judge to set him free on bail. Lawyers will then weigh what to do with Richard’s case. Defense attorney Bob Wicoff says the new tests based on blood-typing prove Richard’s innocence. Prosecutors agree the results contradict crime lab evidence, but say they do not know if Richard is innocent. If cleared, Richard — who is serving a life sentence for a 1987 rape — would be the fourth Harris County man to have his conviction overturned because of faulty forensics.
■NETHERLANDS
Karadzic’s argument rejected
A judge at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal has rejected challenges by Radovan Karadzic to the UN court’s jurisdiction to try him on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. The former Bosnian Serb leader objected to several parts of his 11-count indictment in motions filed since his arrest last July in Belgrade. Pretrial judge Iain Bonomy said in a 33-page ruling released on Wednesday that none of Karadzic’s arguments persuasively challenge the court’s jurisdiction.
■NIGERIA
Canadian hostage freed
A Canadian woman kidnapped two weeks ago in northern Nigeria was released late on Wednesday, the Canadian government said. An unidentified source close to the situation told Reuters earlier that Julie Mulligan was freed unharmed in the northern city of Kaduna. The 45-year-old was kidnapped on April 16 while visiting Nigeria for a conference. “We are greatly relieved to confirm that Ms Mulligan has been released and is now safe with Canadian officials,” a spokesman with Canada’s Foreign Affairs Department said.
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