Tue, Aug 22, 2006 page7

• World News Quick Take

  • AGENCIES
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  ■ China
  Child has rare virus

  Scientists have diagnosed a child suffering from respiratory illness as being infected with the human bocavirus, which was only identified last year, the Guangming Daily reported yesterday. The child, from Chenzhou, Hunan Province, had been admitted to hospital with a severe respiratory infection, the paper said. DNA tests then confirmed the child had contracted the virus, the daily said. A group of Swedish researchers were the first to identify the previously unknown virus last August. They said that it may cause many cases of serious respiratory infections in children.

  ■ China

  Snail-eaters struck ill

  At least 50 people have been diagnosed with parasite-caused meningitis after eating raw or half-cooked snails at Beijing restaurants, China Daily reported on its Web site yesterday. The first case of what now looks like a city-wide problem involved a 34-year-old man who complained about severe headaches and nausea in June after eating a dish of cold snail meat, the report said. While no deaths have been reported yet, five of the patients identified at different hospitals are in a serious condition, the paper said. The actual number of patients might be higher than 50, as it takes up to a month for symptoms to appear.

  ■ China

  Top official to visit Africa

  A member of the Chinese Communist Party's nine-man Standing Committee will visit four African countries beginning next week, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. Wu Guanzheng (吳官正) will visit Rwanda, Madagascar, Botswana and Gabon on the trip that lasts from next Sunday through Sept. 10.

  ■ Sri Lanka
  Ex-Tamil politician killed

  A former Tamil politician and newspaper chief was killed outside his home in Jaffna Peninsula, police said yesterday. Sinnathamby Sivamaharajah, 68, was fatally shot on Sunday night, police and members of the former lawmaker's party said. Sivamaharajah was a member of the Tamil National Alliance, a political party widely believed to be a proxy of the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels.

  ■ Thailand

  Thaksin sues critic

  The criminal court yesterday agreed to hear a suit by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra against a staunch critic who accused him of using black magic to maintain his political fortunes. Thaksin filed the defamation suit against Sondhi Limthongkul, a media tycoon who led months of street protests in an effort to oust the prime minister. Sondhi has publicly charged that Thaksin was deeply superstitious, believed in black magic and had resorted to the black arts in his political battles. "The court has accepted the charges and set Oct. 2 for the first hearing," said Chatree Klipasaro, Thaksin's lawyer.

  ■ India

  Music icon dies

  Music legend Bismillah Khan, who enthralled generations with his shehnai, an Indian wind instrument, died yesterday of a heart attack, hospital officials said. He was 90. Khan, a recipient of India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, or Jewel India, had been ailing for months and was hospitalized last month in Varanasi City after his condition worsened. Khan suffered a heart attack late on Sunday, said Dr. P.S.R. Aiyar at Heritage Hospital. Khan was to be given a state funeral later yesterday, said Nitin Gokaran Ramesh, a spokesman for the state of Uttar Pradesh, where Varanasi is located. All schools and colleges in the state were to be closed and the national flag was to fly at half-staff, he said.

  ■ Cambodia

  `Molester' tries to escape

  A German man accused of sexually abusing young girls jumped from his one-story apartment and injured himself in a failed bid to escape arrest, a police official said yesterday. Karl Heinz Henning, 61, accused of sex offenses involving underaged girls, has been hospitalized in Phnom Penh, said Keo Thea, a municipal anti-trafficking police officer. He said police watched Henning bring young girls to his apartment for some time before arresting him on Sunday. They found four ethnic Vietnamese girls aged 10 to 13 in the apartment and confiscated 18 pornographic video cassettes and bondage material during the raid. It was not clear when Henning would be taken to court to face formal charges.

  ■ India

  Diphallus man opts for one

  An Indian businessman born with two penises wants one of them removed surgically as he wants to marry and lead a normal sexual life, a newspaper report said on Saturday. The 24-year-old man from the state of Uttar Pradesh checked into a New Delhi hospital last week with an extremely rare medical condition called penile duplication or diphallus, the Times of India said. "Two fully functional penes is unheard of even in medical literature. In the more common form of diphallus, one organ is rudimentary," the newspaper quoted a surgeon as saying. The surgery was expected to be challenging as both organs were well-formed and full blood supply to the retained penis had to be ensured to allow it to function normally, he added.

  ■ United Kingdom
  Hezbollah goggles probed

  Officials are investigating Israeli military allegations that night vision goggles uncovered in a Hezbollah hideout were manufactured in Britain, a Foreign Office spokesman said on Monday. "The Israeli Defense Forces have told us that they have found some night vision equipment in southern Lebanon that they believe to have been manufactured in Britain," the spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity, in line with policy. Britain's Times daily reported yesterday that Israeli officials believe the goggles may be from a consignment sold by Britain in 2003 to Iran to combat heroin smuggling across the Iran-Afghanistan border.

  ■ Israel

  Resume talks: minister

  Israel should resume negotiations with Syria and, in exchange for peace, give up the Golan Heights, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter said yesterday. It was not immediately clear whether Dichter expressed his personal views or spoke for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Asked by Israel Army Radio whether Israel should surrender the territory in exchange for a peace deal, Dichter referred to treaties with Egypt and Jordan in which Israel handed over all war-won land. "What we did with Egypt and Jordan is also legitimate in this case," he said. Asked whether that meant Israel should return to its international border with Syria, he said: "Yes."

  ■ Egypt

  Dozens killed in train crash

  At least 43 people were killed yesterday when two trains traveling on the same track collided north of Cairo in Egypt's deadliest train crash in four years. Two carriages were derailed in a tangle of torn metal as one train slammed into the back of another. More than 100 passengers were injured in the crash in Qaliub, 20km north of the capital, which also set one train ablaze. Rescue workers dragged at least 43 bodies from the twisted remains of the two carriages as cranes were brought in to help lift the wreckage.

  ■ Hungary

  Two killed by tree

  A tree fell on a crowd of people watching fireworks on the banks of the Danube River in Budapest on Sunday, killing two people and injuring several others. The fireworks were part of Hungary's yearly celebration of St. Stephen's Day, honoring the country's first king. The incident took place at the foot of the Chain Bridge, one of the city's principal landmarks, when a sudden rainstorm with very strong winds began shortly after the fireworks started. Two people were killed when the tree fell, two others were taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries and two suffered serious injuries, a Budapest Fire Brigade spokesman said.

  ■ Sweden

  Scientists warn of scarcity

  Scientists yesterday called for radical action to improve global water management, saying one-third of the world's population faces water scarcity. A new report released at the start of the World Water Week in Stockholm said more efficient use of the world's water resources was needed to reduce poverty and environmental damage. The five-year study led by the International Water Management Institute said a key priority was improving water management in agriculture in developing nations. Its recommendations included building more water storage, better irrigation systems and developing drought-resistant crops.

  ■ Russia
  Market bomb blast kills 10

  A bomb killed 10 people and wounded about 40 at a market in eastern Moscow yesterday. Prosecutors said the attack was likely linked to organized crime, though terrorism could not be ruled out. Moscow's chief prosecutor Yuri Syomin said the blast was caused by a homemade bomb of a force equivalent to up to 1.2kg of TNT explosive. "We are not excluding that it was a terrorist attack ... [but] most likely it was a business or criminal settling of scores that was behind the explosion," he told reporters at the market. Police detained two people on suspicion of involvement in the bombing, Interfax news agency quoted an officer as saying.

  ■ United States

  Officers hurt in shootout

  Three police officers and a state trooper in Midlothian, Texas, were shot and wounded and the alleged gunman died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, ending a standoff that lasted more than eight hours, police said. Police said the siege began on Sunday afternoon when officers were called to an apartment complex because of a report of a broken window. They determined it was shot out, and when they went to the apartment where the gunfire appeared to have come from, someone opened fire on them. Trooper Rick Smith was shot as he responded to the report of three officers being wounded, said Lisa Block, a Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman. Midlothian police spokesman Britt Snipes identified the dead gunman as Richard Wayne Miles, 25.

  ■ Venezuela

  Chavez applauds Castro

  President Hugo Chavez called for a round of applause in honor of Fidel Castro during his weekly radio and TV show on Sunday. Chavez paused to wish Castro well during a six-hour edition of Hello President dedicated to the inauguration of a children's cardiology hospital. "I imagine you must be happy watching Hello President and seeing how the Bolivarian Revolution is advancing, following the example of the Cuban Revolution," Chavez said, referring to his socialist movement named after South American independence hero Simon Bolivar. "You should feel proud to be the father of the Cuban Revolution," Chavez said, urging a round of applause from the audience outside the hospital.

  ■ United States

  Inmate kills security guard

  An inmate escaped from a hospital after wrestling a pistol away from a deputy and fatally shooting an unarmed security guard, officials said. William Charles Morva, 24, remained at large on Sunday, as officials searched for him. Morva, who was jailed on charges of robbing a deli, was taken to the Montgomery Regional Hospital emergency room in handcuffs and leg irons after he suffered a sprained wrist and ankle, Sheriff Tommy Whitt said. He overpowered a deputy and took his pistol. Shots were fired, killing hospital security guard Derrick McFarland, 26, as he tried to help the deputy.

  ■ Cuba

  Revolutionary hero dies

  Revolutionary Miguel Brugueras has died, the Communist Youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde reported on Sunday. Brugueras fought for the Cuban revolution in the 1950s as part of a movement inspired by now President Fidel Castro's 1953 assault on the Moncada military barracks. He died on Saturday of "a sudden illness," the daily said. Brugueras was detained and tortured twice before fleeing to Mexico, Juventud Rebelde said. He came back and joined the Cuban government after Castro came to power in 1959.
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