WORLD IN BRIEF
Thursday, June 1, 2006; Page A16
Bird Flu Death Rate Rising in Indonesia
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Indonesia averaged one human bird flu death every 2 1/2 days in May, putting it on pace to soon surpass Vietnam as the world's hardest-hit country.
The latest death, announced Wednesday, was a 15-year-old boy whose preliminary tests for the H5N1 virus were positive. It came as international health officials expressed growing frustration that they must fight Indonesia's bureaucracy as well as the disease.
"We're tying to fix this leak in the roof, and there's a storm," said Dick Thompson, a World Health Organization spokesman.
Indonesia has logged at least 36 human deaths in the past year -- 25 since January. There have been 42 deaths from the disease in Vietnam.
ASIA
· SEOUL -- South Korea's opposition won a crushing victory over President Roh Moo Hyun's ruling party in local elections, according to the election commission.
Riding a wave of sympathy for its leader, who was slashed in the face during the campaign, and disenchantment with the ruling Uri Party, the Grand National Party won 12 of 16 races to pick mayors and provincial governors.
· BANTUL, Indonesia -- The government raised the death toll in Saturday's 6.3-magnitude earthquake on Java island to 6,234, with more than 30,000 injured.
AFRICA
· KHARTOUM, Sudan -- Two Darfur rebel groups refused Thursday to sign a peace deal ahead of a deadline set by the African Union to end the three-year-old conflict in Sudan's western region. The accord was signed May 5 by the government and the main Sudan Liberation Movement, but a splinter group and the Justice and Equality Movement resisted.
EUROPE
· AMSTERDAM -- The Dutch immigration minister who set off a political firestorm by threatening to revoke the citizenship of Somali-born politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali lost a party leadership contest seen as a referendum on the country's tough immigration policies. Rita Verdonk had hoped to lead the free-market VVD party.
· PODGORICA, Serbia and Montenegro -- Final results from Montenegro's referendum last month confirmed victory for the pro-independence bloc, officials said. Final results showed 55.5 percent voted for breaking with Serbia, surpassing the 55 percent needed.
THE AMERICAS
· LA PAZ, Bolivia -- Bolivia's largest agribusiness group said it would form "self-defense" units to protect land it fears the new leftist government will confiscate to give to the poor. The National Farming Confederation said President Evo Morales "was trying to destroy the country's productive apparatus."
-- From News Services
