India, Europe grapple with new bird flu cases

India, Europe grapplewith new bird flu cases
NAVAPUR, India -- Health officials and farm workers in protective clothing began slaughtering hundreds of thousands of chickens in western India on Sunday, hoping to prevent the spread of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus. Europe stepped up its battle against bird flu as the European Union's top poultry producer, France, grappled with its first reported case of the lethal virus. European poultry farmers said consumption has fallen and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. The number of deadly flu cases in Italy rose to 16. Indian officials reported a 27-year-old poultry farm owner had died of bird-flulike symptoms, though tests had yet to determine what killed him.
Mexican miners trapped
PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico -- A gas explosion Sunday in a northern Mexico coal mine trapped at least 66 miners below ground with a limited supply of oxygen, government and company officials said. Twelve miners were rescued and were being treated in a local hospital with burns and broken bones. The trapped miners were in extreme danger, said Ruben Escudero Chavez, director of the mine owners Grupo Industrial Minera Mexico, a subsidiary of mining giant Grupo Mexico. Escudero said 66 miners were still underground, but Consuelo Aguilar, a spokeswoman for the National Miners Union, said 69 miners were trapped.
Chertoff's assurancesnot enough for lawmaker
WASHINGTON -- U.S. terms for approving an Arab company's takeover of operations at six major American ports are insufficient to guard against terrorist infiltration, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee said Sunday. "I'm aware of the conditions and they relate entirely to how the company carries out its procedures, but it doesn't go to who they hire, or how they hire people," Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., told The Associated Press. King spoke in response to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's comments Sunday about conditions of the sale. King said he learned about the government's terms for approving the sale from meetings with senior Bush administration officials. Chertoff defended the security review of Dubai Ports World of the United Arab Emirates, the company given permission to take over the port operations. Chertoff said the government typically builds in "certain conditions or requirements that the company has to agree to make sure we address the national security concerns."
Bus rollover injures 39
RAWLINS, Wyo. -- A Greyhound bus rolled onto its side on snowy Interstate 80 early Sunday, injuring 39 passengers, after the driver was temporarily blinded by snow thrown up by a passing truck, authorities said. There were no fatalities. The bus, carrying 45 people, started out in Salt Lake City and was bound for Denver with stops in Wyoming.
Iran bends a bit on plan
TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran said Sunday that if certain conditions are met it could consider a Russian proposal for moving the Iranian uranium enrichment program, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. The comments by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki came a day before negotiations were to begin in Moscow on a Kremlin proposal to move Iran's uranium enrichment facilities to Russia to allay fears that Tehran is trying to build nuclear weapons. "If the Russian plan, with supplementary indicators, leads to a comprehensive proposal, then we could say it will have Iran's interest," IRNA quoted Mottaki as saying.
Kosovo talks begin
VIENNA, Austria -- Kosovo's rival Serbs and ethnic Albanians staked out tough positions Sunday before the start of U.N.-mediated talks aimed at resolving one of the last disputes remaining from the Balkan wars of the 1990s -- the future status of the province. The closed-door talks begin today over the disputed province, which has been administered by the United Nations since 1999, after a NATO war to stop the crackdown of Serb forces on independence-minded ethnic Albanians.
Associated Press
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