70 hostages seized at Cambodia school

Phnom Penh, Cambodia Six masked men, some armed with shotguns, took 70 students and teachers hostage at an international school in northwestern Cambodia but released about 30 of the hostages, a government spokesman said today.

An official said the men were still holding about 40 hostages at the school in Siem Reap province.

The assailants demanded $1,000, six AK-47 assault rifles, six shotguns, hand grenades and at least one car.

Officials were communicating with the hostage-takers by cell phone.

Executive says he never spoke of bid with Annan

United Nations A business executive who wrote an e-mail suggesting Kofi Annan may have known about a U.N. oil-for-food contract awarded to his son’s company denies talking to the U.N. secretary general about the bid.

The statement came from Michael Wilson’s lawyers.

The oil-for-food program, which ran from 1996-2003, has become a lightning rod for critics of the United Nations because of allegations of widespread corruption.

Worker tests positive for bird flu on island

Jakarta, Indonesia An Indonesian poultry worker has tested positive for bird flu in the country’s first human case of the disease that has so far killed 54 people in Southeast Asia.

The worker on the island of Sulawesi is showing no symptoms of the disease, but blood tests show he was exposed to the H5N1 strain and has produced antibodies to it, a health official said.