World in brief: President’s twin now prime minister

The president of Poland appointed his identical twin as prime minister Monday, putting the country’s most powerful jobs in the hands of 57-year-olds with virtually the same round faces, silver crops of hair and conservative outlooks.

President Lech Kaczynski formally appointed his brother Jaroslaw, a lawyer, member of parliament and chairman of the governing Law and Justice party, during an evening ceremony in an opulent hall of chandeliers and marble columns at the presidential palace. As they shook hands, the two were hard to tell apart, except for Lech’s black suit and his brother’s gray one.

The brothers are former activists in the Solidarity movement that helped topple communist rule in 1989-90. Both ran on a pledge to fight the cronyism that has since flourished, a message Jaroslaw stressed during brief remarks at the presidential palace.

Shanghai, China

Conjoined twin dies days after surgery

One of the 10-month-old conjoined twins who were separated in an unusually complex surgery last week died Monday, a Shanghai hospital official said.

Hu Jingxuan’s condition deteriorated over the weekend, and she died Monday afternoon, said an official at Fudan University Children’s Hospital.

Chen Jingni, the stronger of the twins, was in stable condition, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Doctors at the hospital had branded Thursday’s separation surgery a “miracle” but had cautioned that the girls, who also suffered from congenital heart disease and other problems, were in precarious conditions.

The babies, who were born to a farm family, shared a liver, spleen, gall bladder and digestive tract before the 13-hour surgery.

LA PAZ, Bolivia

Halt to religion in schools proposed

Bolivia’s education minister called for an end to religious education in the country’s schools, drawing criticism from the Roman Catholic Church, which could see its schools affected by the proposed change.

Education Minister Feliz Patzi said at an assembly on education reform that the government aims to make education secular in Bolivia, where Catholicism has been the official religion since the country’s founding in 1825.

“Secular means that there is no monopoly on religious teaching,” Patzi said. “Secular means that there is no indoctrination.”

Reforms drafted by the education assembly in Sucre, about 335 miles south of La Paz, eventually will be submitted to congress for approval. The assembly is made up of representatives from 26 government-linked organizations and has until Friday to develop proposals.

Patzi’s statements drew harsh criticism from Catholic leaders, who accused the government of being anti-religion under the guise of instituting the separation of church and state.

Some 75 percent of Bolivians are Catholic.