Preliminary tests detect BSE in cow
A suspected case of mad cow disease has been discovered in Canada, potentially the country’s sixth case, officials said Friday.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said preliminary tests detected the disease known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, in a mature cow in Manitoba.
Canada has had five confirmed cases of mad cow out of an estimated national herd of 17 million cattle.
The food agency said the cow in Manitoba was born well before the 1997 ban. The agency also said more tests were being done, and a full investigation would be carried out if the results come back positive.
KINSHASA, Congo
12 protesters shot, killed by troops
Troops fired into a crowd and killed 12 protesters in retaliation for the death of a soldier Friday while campaigning began for Congo’s first multiparty elections in more than four decades.
A human rights worker, Christian Malidini, said soldiers opened fire after demonstrators in the western city of Matadi attacked and killed the soldier. He had no further details, and officials in the city 250 miles southwest of Kinshasa, the capital, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
The elections will mark the first democratic vote after more than four decades of coups, war and corrupt military rule. The official start of campaigning coincided with the anniversary of Congo’s independence from Belgium in 1960.
Kandahar, Afghanistan
Taliban rocket hits base in Kandahar
A Taliban rocket exploded Friday inside the main coalition base in Kandahar, Afghanistan, wounding 10 people, including soldiers and civilians, the Canadian Press news agency reported.
The rocket blew up inside a tent complex, showering soldiers and civilian employees with shrapnel, said the agency, which has a reporter embedded with Canadian troops.
Two Canadian soldiers were injured, one of them critically, Canadian forces spokesman Maj. Mark Theriault said.
MOGADISHU, Somalia
Government vows to resist militia
Somalia’s weak interim government said Friday it will resist attempts by an increasingly powerful Muslim militia to assert authority across the Horn of Africa country that Osama bin Laden calls a battleground in his fight against the U.S.
The hard-line Muslim leaders, who have seized control of much of southern Somalia, claimed authority throughout the country Thursday in another slap at the interim government, which sits powerless at its base in Baidoa.
The rise of the Islamic group has caused particular concern in the West, which fears Somalia will become a haven for bin Laden’s terrorist organization.