WORLD DIGEST || Italy confirms 3 cases of new virus

Italy confirms 3 cases of new virus

rome

Three people were being treated Saturday for a new respiratory virus that is alarming global health officials, in the first cases in Italy, the country’s health ministry said.

The virus is related to SARS, which killed about 800 people in a global epidemic in 2003. The U.N. health agency said earlier Saturday that it had been informed of 51 confirmed cases of the new virus since September. Thirty of those cases were fatal, including that of a Frenchman who died earlier in the week. Cases in Britain and Germany also have been reported.

Most of those infected had traveled to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan or Pakistan.

Memorial held for mother of gunman

kingston, n.h.

More than 100 family and friends gathered at a church in a small New Hampshire town Saturday to remember the woman whose son massacred 20 first-graders and six educators in a Connecticut elementary school last year.

The mourners and a few musicians filed into the First Congregational Church in Kingston for the memorial of Nancy Lanza, the first victim of her 20-year-old son Adam’s rampage. She was shot dead in their home before he blasted his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on Dec. 14. He killed himself as police closed in. The motive for Adam Lanza’s killing spree is still unclear.

Thousands swarm after police clashes

istanbul

In a scene reminiscent of the Arab Spring, thousands of people Saturday flooded Istanbul’s main square after a crackdown on an anti-government protest turned city streets into a battlefield clouded by tear gas.

Though he offered some concessions to demonstrators, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan remained largely defiant in the face of the biggest popular challenge to his power in a decade in office, insisting the protests are undemocratic and illegitimate.

New Mexico crews battle 2 wildfires

albuquerque, n.m.

Fire crews in New Mexico on Saturday fought two growing wild blazes that have scorched thousands of acres, spurred evacuation calls for dozens of homes and poured smoke into the touristy state capital.

State officials said the uncontained blaze near Santa Fe had spread to 8 square miles, making it apparently the largest of several wildfires burning in the West as it placed the city under a blanket of haze. The thick smoke also covered the Gallinas Canyon and Las Vegas, N.M.

Syrian rockets hit Hezbollah stronghold

beirut

Eighteen rockets and mortars rounds from Syria slammed into Lebanon on Saturday, the largest cross-border salvo to hit a Hez- bollah stronghold since Syrian rebels threatened to retaliate for the Lebanese militant group’s armed support of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The rockets targeted the Baalbek region, the latest sign that Syria’s civil war is destabilizing Lebanon.

Lutherans elect 1st openly gay bishop

los angeles

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America elected its first openly gay bishop to a six-year term Friday at an annual assembly in Southern California, officials said.

The election of Rev. Dr. R. Guy Erwin comes after the church’s controversial rule change in 2009 that allowed gays and lesbians to be ordained in the nation’s largest Lutheran denomination.

Associated Press