Bird-flu outbreaks in China, Kuwait
Beijing
China reported two new bird flu outbreaks in poultry and quarantined 116 people on Thursday, the same day Kuwait announced two cases of the disease were discovered there.
Chinese authorities quarantined 116 people after the latest outbreaks Sunday of the deadly H5N1 strain. The virus killed 1,100 chickens in Fuxin and Jinzhou, cities in northeastern Liaoning province, the Agriculture Ministry said.
A case there two weeks ago prompted officials to destroy more than 6 million birds.
No human case has been reported, but experts say it’s inevitable if China can’t stop outbreaks in poultry.
In Kuwait, a senior official said the country had found two cases of bird flu. He said the first case was an imported bird found at the Kuwait City airport, while the second was a migrating wild fowl found on a beach.
18th terror suspect arrested in Australia
Sydney, Australia
Australian police arrested an 18th suspect Thursday in an alleged terror plot that a lawmaker said involved a large quantity of explosives.
A lawyer for eight of the suspects — Muslims from Sydney — accused authorities of holding them in “shameful” conditions and said prosecutors have produced no evidence.
Police threw a security cordon around the Sydney courtroom where the men’s cases were being heard. The eight were expected to appear in court via video links.
Ten suspects have been charged with being members of a terrorist organization and eight with conspiracy to plan a terrorist act. The charges all carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
Southern Hemisphere gets huge telescope
Cape Town, South Africa
The Southern Hemisphere’s largest single optical telescope with the power to study the most distant galaxies was inaugurated Thursday — a giant eye in the sky that took five years to build and cost $20 million.
More than 1,000 guests gathered on a wind-swept hillside in the Karoo desert to marvel at the Southern Africa Large Telescope, or SALT, which can gather more than 25 times as much light as any existing telescope in Africa, allowing studies of distant asteroids and comets.
The telescope, 36 feet in diameter, can detect a candle flame as far away as the moon.
The Southern Hemisphere has other much smaller telescopes in Chile and Australia.
Aide says president will press Chinese
Washington
President Bush will press China to revalue its currency, reduce its trade surplus with the United States and curb the piracy of American movies, computer programs and other copyrighted material, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said Thursday.
Bush departs Monday on an Asian trip that will take him to Japan, South Korea, China and Mongolia — his second major overseas trip this month. He returned from Latin America on Monday.
The centerpiece of the meeting is the annual summit of Pacific Rim leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, held this year in Busan, South Korea. The leaders will try to give a boost to global trade talks and expand cooperation against the risk of a potential bird flu pandemic.