Nigerians showing bird-flu laxity

Nigeria ignored international recommendations for stopping bird flu, keeping poultry markets open on Sunday and letting people move their birds around most of the country unrestricted.

Officials were awaiting word on whether the virus already had infected people in Africa’s most populous nation. Test results were pending on two sick children near a farm where the H5N1 strain was first detected among poultry. Their families also were being tested.

Indonesia said on Sunday that the World Health Organization had confirmed two women there had died from the H5N1 strain. The two deaths are expected to bring Indonesia’s official human death toll from the virus to 18.

On Sunday, Slovenian authorities imposed strict controls in the area. Poultry there will be isolated, tested for the virus and killed if infected.

Italy and Greece put similar measures in place Saturday after the H5N1 strain was found for the first time inside the European Union.

Jerusalem

Comatose Sharon has more surgery

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has been comatose since suffering a massive stroke more than five weeks ago, was in critical but stable condition Sunday following emergency abdominal surgery, the hospital treating him said.

Though the surgery was successful, Sharon’s doctors said hope was fading for the premier to wake from his coma. Since the stroke, Sharon has been hooked up to a breathing tube. A feeding tube was inserted in his stomach on Feb. 1.

Sharon, 77, was rushed into surgery Saturday morning after an abdominal scan revealed dead tissue in his digestive system. Doctors removed 20 inches, or one-third, of his large intestine during the four-hour surgery, the seventh Sharon has undergone since suffering the debilitating stroke Jan. 4.

Muskegon, Mich.

86 vehicles crash in Michigan pileup

An 86-vehicle pileup along U.S. Highway 31 near Lake Michigan sent 25 people to the hospital with minor injuries on Sunday afternoon, officials said.

Some drivers began to slow as lake-effect snow created whiteout conditions, and they were rear-ended by vehicles behind them that were unable to stop, Muskegon police said.

Several cars caught fire, and one woman panicked as she tried to get her infant son out of the car, a witness said.

Police said they did not expect to issue any citations because it appeared everyone was driving as well as they could under the conditions.