Man fends off shark that attacked twice

Bernie Williams, 46, was diving for crayfish off a beach in Perth, Australia, on Sunday when the shark attacked him from below, biting his arm.

"I never even saw it coming," Williams told Australian television. "I stabbed it on the nose with a speargun, but it was just like hitting a lump of steel." Williams suffered deep puncture wounds to his left arm.

The 9-foot shark returned and attacked Williams again, dragging him through the water. Williams managed to swim to the surface and climb into a boat.

Benisede, Nigeria

Fighting follows oil-platform attack

Nigerian troops battled militia fighters in swamps around a Royal Dutch Shell PLC oil platform that militants attacked at dawn Sunday, the third assault on Shell oil facilities in less than a week in the troubled region.

Shell confirmed the attack on the Benisede oil platform in the southern oil-rich Niger Delta and said some of its staff had been injured and taken to a hospital. The company also said it had begun evacuating personnel from vulnerable facilities in the region due to worsening security.

Shell said "heavily armed persons" in speed boats attacked the platform early Sunday, burning down staff accommodations and damaging the facility.

Soldiers guarding Benisede returned automatic-weapons fire, but it was unclear if they had lost control of the oil platform, said Brig. Gen. Elias Zamani, commander of a special task force charged with security in the volatile oil region.

Helsinki, Finland

President faces re-election runoff

Voters gave Finnish President Tarja Halonen a victory in the first round of a presidential election on Sunday, but the country's first woman president faces a runoff against a conservative challenger for a second term.

The left-leaning incumbent won 46.3 percent of the vote with a campaign emphasizing her common touch and promising to preserve the welfare state.

But her failure to secure a majority pits her in a second round on Jan. 29 against former Finance Minister Sauli Niinisto for a final six-year term.

Van, Turkey

Bird flu suspected in death of girl, 12

A girl whose younger brother tested positive for bird flu died on Sunday, and Turkish authorities were trying to determine whether she was the latest victim of the virus.

Fatma Ozcan, 12, had been in contact with sick birds, but preliminary tests came back negative for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, the Health Ministry said. Authorities nonetheless suspected that the virus caused her death and were conducting further tests.

Dr. Huseyin Avni Sahin said the girl and her 5-year-old brother, from the nearby town of Dogubayazit, were admitted to his hospital in the eastern city of Van five days earlier. Both children had been in contact with fowl and apparently ate a sickened chicken, Sahin said.

Compiled from The Associated Press and Reuters