Wednesday, April 5, 2006; A18

U.N. Official: Spread Of Bird Flu Accelerating

BEIJING -- The deadly bird flu virus has spread at lightning speed in the past three months, infecting birds in 30 new countries -- double the number previously stricken since 2003, the U.N.'s point man on bird flu said Tuesday.

"This is a really serious global situation," David Nabarro, the U.N.'s chief coordinator for avian influenza, told reporters in Beijing. "During the last three months globally, there has been an enormous and rapid spread of H5N1."

Thirty new countries and territories in Africa, Europe, the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East have reported the deadly H5N1 strains of the infection in birds this year, he said. Only 15 countries -- mostly in Asia -- reported bird flu during the previous 2 1/2 years.

China was Nabarro's first stop on a tour that includes Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia.

· MINSK, Belarus -- President Alexander Lukashenko appeared briefly on state television for the first time in a week, but the silent footage did little to dispel rumors that he is in ill health following protests over his reelection. He appeared tired and pale.

· ROME -- Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi used an Italian obscenity to describe those planning to vote for his rival, drawing criticism from opposition parties who called the leader "vulgar and coarse." The word he used is a vulgar equivalent for "idiot" or "cretin." Italians will go to the polls Sunday and Monday.

· LONDON -- A jury cleared two brothers of murdering a 10-year-old Nigerian boy as he walked home in London more than five years ago, a killing that shocked Britain. The brothers, 12 and 13 at the time of the stabbing death, could still face retrial on manslaughter charges.

· LOS CRISTIANOS, Canary Islands -- A boatload of 52 dazed, exhausted African men arrived in Spain's Canary Islands, the latest in a stream of migrants risking everything on the open sea for a slim chance at life in Europe.

· JERUSALEM -- Ariel Sharon has a respiratory infection that forced doctors to delay surgery on the comatose Israeli leader, officials said. He was to have had surgery Tuesday to reattach a portion of skull removed after his Jan. 4 stroke.

· GAZA CITY -- Israeli missiles hit a Palestinian security compound in Gaza, the first such airstrike in two years, and Israeli shells killed a Palestinian in the strip's north after rocket attacks on the Jewish state.

· NAIROBI -- The conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region has worsened, with 200,000 additional people being forced from their homes, said Jan Egeland, the U.N.'s emergency relief coordinator, who was barred this week from visiting the zone by Sudanese authorities.

· SEOUL -- A South Korean trawler fishing off Somalia was seized and its crew of 25 taken captive, South Korea said. Pirates from Somalia frequently attack ships off the coast.

-- From News Services