World in brief: Cambodian heads contract swine flu

Phnom Pehn, Cambodia – Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and three other Cabinet ministers have contracted swine flu and the premier is recovering after several days of medical care, the health ministry said.

Hun Sen, 59, required “urgent treatment” after Friday’s weekly Cabinet meeting, the Public Health Ministry said in a brief statement released late Tuesday.

The statement also said that Yim Chhay Ly, one of several deputy prime ministers, and two other Cabinet-level ministers – Chhay Than and Tao Senghour – had caught the H1N1 virus. It did not give details about their condition.

Iraq attacks kill 13 including general

Baghdad – A series of bombings and shootings around Iraq Tuesday claimed 13 lives, including four policemen and an Iraqi army general, Iraqi officials said.

The four policemen were killed when an explosives-laden car detonated next to a police patrol in the town of Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, said Iraqi police officials.

A brigadier general with the Iraqi army was killed when a bomb attached to his car exploded in Kazimiyah, a primarily Shiite district in northern Baghdad, police and hospital officials said.

Roadside ambush kills at least 26

New Delhi, India – Gunmen believed to be Maoist rebels killed at least 26 paramilitary personnel on Tuesday during a roadside ambush in the eastern Indian state of Chattisgarh, authorities said.

The gunfight, which lasted for about three hours, occurred at around 3 p.m. in the state’s heavily forested Bastar region as the 63-member Central Reserve Police Force patrol was returning from a “road-opening mission” ahead of a threatened two-day rebel strike expected to start today.

Maoist rebels, who control a large swath of Indian territory, often erect roadblocks in jungle areas they control, which the government tries to raze to reassert its authority.