A round-up of today's other world news in brief
Mexican killer flu strain now active in US
WASHINGTON – A strange new strain of flu that may have killed as many as 60 people in Mexico has also sickened eight people in the United States, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday.
Dr Richard Besser of CDC said: “We do not have enough info to fully assess the health threat posed by this new swine flu virus.”
He said seven of 14 Mexican samples had tested positive for the new and unusual strain of H1N1 swine flu. – (Reuters)
Palestinians shot by settlers
West Bank – Jewish settlers yesterday shot and wounded six Palestinians near a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, medics and residents said.
They said 20 Israelis from the settlement of Yitzhar opened fire at a group of Palestinian youths on the outskirts of Arif.
Palestinian medics in the city of Nablus said six Palestinians suffered serious and moderate gunshot wounds. – (Reuters)
Hitler paintings fetch £98,000
LONDON – A series of paintings believed to be by a young Adolf Hitler yesterday fetched nearly £98,000 (€108,482) at an auction in Britain, well in excess of pre-sale estimates.
Among them was a watercolour of a pensive figure sitting at the end of a stone bridge with the letters “A.H.” written beside it, which sold for £10,000. The work is dated 1908, at a time when Hitler was a struggling artist in Vienna. – (Reuters)
65,000 Tamils killed, says UN
COLOMBO – Sri Lanka’s civil war is killing civilians in greater numbers than the Gaza conflict earlier this year, according to UN figures released yesterday which indicated that almost 6,500 ethnic Tamils had been killed in the last three months.
Two UN officials privately confirmed that 6,432 civilians had died, with 14,000 injured, since the end of January. At least 2,000 people are understood to have been killed in the last month.
– ( Guardianservice)
Death of Annakin
Ben Annakin, the British-born director whose credits included the World War II epics Battle of the Bulgeand The Longest Dayand the family classic Swiss Family Robinson, has died at 94.
Annakin died on Wednesday night at his Beverly Hills home, said his daughter, Deborah Peters.
His health had been failing since he had a heart attack and stroke in February, she said. – (PA)