Gates contributes to polio effort

In one of its largest grants ever, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donated $255 million Wednesday toward the push to eradicate polio, a goal that has eluded world health agencies for decades.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates announced the grant to Rotary International at a meeting in San Diego. The World Health Organization, in collaboration with other groups, has spent 20 years and $6 billion trying to eradicate the polio virus, aided by $600 million raised by Rotary members.

Since 1988, the number of countries that still harbor the virus has dropped from more than 125 to four – Nigeria, India, Pakistan and, to a lesser extent, Afghanistan. These countries accounted for 1,488 of the 1,625 polio cases reported in 2008. Another 15 countries in Africa and Asia that had eliminated the disease reported a total of 137 cases of polio after the virus was reintroduced by travelers or immigrants.

Polio is caused by a highly infectious virus that invades the nervous system.

Islamabad, Pakistan

Al-Qaida suspect captured in raid

Two Pakistani security officials say police have arrested an al-Qaida suspect who was allegedly linked to the 2005 bombings of London’s transit system.

The officials said today they believe the man is Zabi ul Taifi and that he is from Saudi Arabia.

They say Taifi was among seven suspects captured during a raid Wednesday near the northwestern city of Peshawar. The officials say the raid stemmed from a tip from U.S. officials.

The 2005 bombings on London’s transit system killed 52 people.

New York

Fire forces move of 600 patients

A fire at a major hospital sent smoke pouring through an emergency room Wednesday, injuring at least six firefighters and forcing 600 patients to be moved across the sprawling complex.

The fire began shortly before 6:30 p.m. in a second-floor mechanical room at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan and spread to a first-floor emergency room, Fire Department spokesman Frank Dwyer said. The cause of the fire was not known.

Dwyer said patients were moved from the east wings to the west wings of the 12-story hospital, which has nearly 1,200 beds, as firefighters searched the building. The patients had been on the third through 11th floors.

There were no reports of injuries among patients.

Flames from the Manhattan building were visible from the adjacent Madison Avenue, said Janet Montero, a manager at a nearby restaurant.

Mount Sinai, which occupies four square blocks on the city’s Upper East Side, was founded in downtown Manhattan in 1852.