Costa Rican president says he has swine flu

Costa Rican president says he has swine flu

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — Nobel Peace laureate and Costa Rican President Oscar Arias said Tuesday that he has swine flu, showing that not even a head of state is safe from the virus that has caused worldwide concern but relatively few deaths.

The 69-year-old Arias said in a statement that he was quarantined at home and is being treated with the anti-flu medicine oseltamivir.

“The pandemic makes no distinctions,” Arias said. “I am one more case in this country, and I am being submitted to the recommendations that health authorities have established for the entire population.”

Arias suffers from asthma and is at higher risk than most but was in good enough health to continue working.

Clinton pledges aid for rape victims in Congo

GOMA, Congo — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday was visibly moved by firsthand evidence of the brutality of war in eastern Congo, delivering an impassioned appeal for action to end to rampant sexual violence that she called “evil in its basest form.”

Clinton announced a new package of $17 million in American aid to respond to an epidemic of rape and other sexual crimes directed mainly at women and girls by government troops and rebel groups fighting in the region.

Her offer came after a harrowing meeting with victims of violent gang rapes in a crowded refugee camp on the outskirts of Goma where 18,000 men, women and children have sought shelter from revenge attacks raging in the countryside.

“It is almost impossible to describe the level of suffering and despair,” a shaken Clinton said afterward.

Testimony: Rove had key role in attorney’s ouster

WASHINGTON — Former White House political adviser Karl Rove played a central role in the ouster of a U.S. attorney in New Mexico, one of nine prosecutors fired in a scandal in 2006 over political interference with the Justice Department, according to transcripts of closed-door testimony released Tuesday.

Harriet Miers, then White House counsel, said in testimony June 15 to House Judiciary Committee investigators that Rove was “very agitated” over U.S. Attorney David Iglesias “and wanted something done about it.”

The committee released more than 5,400 pages of White House and Republican National Committee e-mails, along with transcripts of closed-door testimony by Miers and Rove. Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., said the documents reveal that White House political officials were deeply involved in the firing of Iglesias and the other U.S. attorneys.

U.N. debate on Myanmar

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council began debating a U.S. draft statement Tuesday seeking to condemn Myanmar for continuing its house arrest of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Any action was delayed for at least a day because of skepticism from China, Russia, Vietnam and Libya.

France called the emergency session, conducted behind closed doors for less than an hour. “There has to be an urgent reaction by the council,” said Deputy French Ambassador Jean-Pierre Lacroix.

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said the United States sought a unanimous statement by the 15-nation council condemning Myanmar for extending the 64-year-old Nobel Peace laureate’s house arrest by 18 months.

Iraq bombings kill 8

BAGHDAD — Several bombs exploded nearly simultaneously Tuesday in a mainly Shiite area in Baghdad, killing at least eight people and raising fears of a sustained insurgent campaign aimed at provoking new sectarian tensions.

The five-day death toll rose to 123 in the worst spasm of bombings the country has suffered since U.S. forces left the cities at the end of June, turning over urban security to Iraqi troops.

Boy, 6, saves tot from fire

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — Police say a 6-year-old boy rescued a 2-year-old girl from a fire at a Long Island house where three adults later were found dead.

They say the two women and one man found in the burned Central Islip house had been shot, but it’s unclear if they died from gunshot wounds or the fire, which has been ruled an arson.

Homicide Detective Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick says firefighters were called to the blaze Tuesday morning. The two-story house was engulfed in flames.

The boy and girl were found outside the home and are doing OK. They’ve been taken to a hospital.

Associated Press