 An Indonesian toddler who died this week has tested positive for bird flu, officials said on Thursday, a day after wealthy nations promised almost $2 billion to tackle the spread of the lethal virus. The boy's 13-year-old sister died last week after being infected with the H5N1 avian flu virus, according to local tests. Both cases still need to be confirmed by outside laboratories recognised by the World Health Organization (WHO).Wealthy nations pledged $1.9 billion to fight bird flu at a conference in Beijing on Wednesday. The money will be spent on measures to detect and eradicate a virus which is endemic in poultry in parts of Asia.As experts weigh how to allocate the funding, the human toll from the virus is ticking higher....
http://news.yahoo.com
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Editor - 13:15:00 01-19-06
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 Plea fails to halt Ivorian unrest |
A plea for calm by President Laurent Gbagbo has failed to halt anti-UN protests in Ivory Coast. Some 2,000 youths are burning tyres and throwing stones outside a UN base in the main city, Abidjan, while UN troops have responded with tear gas. Protests by Gbagbo supporters erupted on Monday after UN-backed mediators recommended dissolving parliament, whose mandate has expired. Ivory Coast, the world's largest cocoa producer, hosts about 7,500 UN troops. The country has been split in two since a failed coup in 2002. A UN spokesman said the protesters had set fire to a car and were trying to provoke the peacekeepers. There are also protests outside other UN bases in the loyalist south, he said. The BBC's James Copnall in Abidjan says the pro-Gbagbo group, the "Young Patriots", are in control of virtually all the main streets in the city. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4627118.stm
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Editor - 13:10:00 01-19-06
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| Feds after Google data RECORDS SOUGHT IN U.S. QUEST TO REVIVE PORN LAW |
The Bush administration on Wednesday asked a federal judge to order Google to turn over a broad range of material from its closely guarded databases.The move is part of a government effort to revive an Internet child protection law struck down two years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court. The law was meant to punish online pornography sites that make their content accessible to minors. The government contends it needs the Google data to determine how often pornography shows up in online searches.In court papers filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Justice Department lawyers revealed that Google has refused to comply with a subpoena issued last year for the records, which include a request for 1 million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches from any one-week period....
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/13657303.htm
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Editor - 12:58:00 01-19-06
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| Russia Weathering Deadly Cold Spell |
Arctic temperatures gripped most of Russia for a fourth day Thursday, pushing the death toll across the frozen country to more than 30 people and even hardy Russians struggled to cope with the big freeze. Electricity use surged to record levels and towns and cities struggled to keep indoor temperatures up as temperatures in Moscow plunged overnight to as low as minus-24 Fahrenheit. Seven people died of exposure in the Russian capital over the previous 24 hours, city emergency officials said, pushing the nationwide death toll from the Siberian cold wave that swept into Moscow late Monday to at least 31. At a zoo in Lipetsk, south of Moscow, director Alexander Osipov said monkeys would be given wine three times day, "to protect against colds," the RIA-Novosti news agency reported. ...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/19/world/main1221430.shtml?CMP=OTC-RSSFeed&source=RSS&attr=World_1221430
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Editor - 11:27:00 01-19-06
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| Nepal cracks down on opposition |
The Nepalese authorities say they have arrested scores of opposition leaders and activists ahead of planned pro-democracy demonstrations on Friday. All telephone services in the capital, Kathmandu, were cut off for a time, and mobile phones are still not working. The government has also declared an all-day curfew on Friday. Opposition parties have been planning a big demonstration in Kathmandu on Friday, despite a recent ban on rallies in the city. The indefinite ban on all rallies follows rebel attacks last weekend. The BBC's Charles Haviland in Kathmandu says the arrests and the cutting of phone lines appear to be aimed at foiling Friday's planned rally that was called in protest at government plans for local elections next month. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4626852.stm
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Editor - 11:19:00 01-19-06
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| Nigeria to outlaw same-sex unions |
Nigeria's government is planning a specific ban on same-sex marriages, with 5 years in jail for anyone who has a gay wedding or officiates at one. Information Minister Frank Nweke told the BBC the government was taking the "pre-emptive step" because of developments elsewhere in the world. "In most cultures in Nigeria, same-sex relationships, sodomy and the likes of that, is regarded as abominable." Homosexual sex is already illegal and in the north offenders can be stoned. Justice Minister Bayo Ojo said the law would also ban "any form of protest to press for rights or recognition" by homosexuals, the AFP news agency reports. 'Unnatural and un-African' Archbishop Peter Akinola, the head of Nigeria's Anglican Church, has been a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage and allowing openly gay men to be priests. President Obasanjo has publicly supported the country's Anglican leadership's stance on homosexuality. "Such a tendency is clearly un-Biblical, unnatural and definitely un-African," ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4626994.stm
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Editor - 11:16:00 01-19-06
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