World in brief
Human-to-human bird flu reported
The World Health Organization on Friday reported the first lab-confirmed case of avian flu spreading from one person to another – a 10-year-old boy in Indonesia who infected his father.
But health experts said there’s no immediate cause for concern. Although this flu strain’s unique genetics made it relatively easy to trace from person to person, it died with its victims and was no more likely to spread between humans than other strains.
“If anything, it appears we have ducked another bullet,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an avian flu expert and chairman of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Kandahar, Afghanistan
Taliban claim they beheaded ‘spies’
A purported spokesman for the Taliban said Friday that the militant group had beheaded four Afghans it accused of spying for U.S.-led forces.
The men were abducted at gunpoint by armed men and their headless bodies were dumped in the southern province of Zabul and found Thursday and Friday, said Ali Khail, a spokesman for the provincial governor.
A man who identified himself as a Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousof Ahmadi, contacted the Associated Press by telephone and said the Taliban beheaded the four men because they had been spying for Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces. Khail denied the victims were spies, saying they were civilians with no links to the Afghan government or coalition forces.
Mexico City
Presidential race front-runners tied
Mexico’s two leading presidential candidates are running about even nine days before the election, according to two polls released Friday, the last day voter surveys are permitted.
The two polls published by the newspapers Reforma and El Universal showed that leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party was backed by 36 percent of registered voters while Felipe Calderon of the conservative governing National Action Party was backed by 34 percent.
Roberto Madrazo of the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party remained in third place, where he has been since the beginning of the race, with 25 percent in the Reforma poll and 26 percent in El Universal.
Hanoi, Vietnam
Top three leaders submit resignations
Vietnam’s top three leaders submitted their resignations today, a move that was expected after they were not re-elected to the all-powerful Politburo in April, an official said.
Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, 72, President Tran Duc Luong, 69, and National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Van An, 68, officially tendered their resignations to the lawmaking National Assembly to make way for younger leaders, the official from the assembly’s office said.