Bird flu prompts mass chicken kill in Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong authorities announced Wednesday that they planned to kill all chickens in the territory's retail markets because of fears of a dangerous bird-flu outbreak.

Health officials said they detected the deadly H5N1 virus last week in chickens at a stall in the Kowloon area and slaughtered about 2,700 animals in that neighborhood to prevent its spread. But more cases were uncovered this week at four markets in the New Territories and Hong Kong island, leading to the order to get rid of all remaining live chickens in retail markets, stalls and stores.

The order does not affect sales of pre-slaughtered chickens sold packaged in supermarkets, as is common in much of the world. But Hong Kong residents have a long tradition of buying live chickens, and these are the ones to be targeted. Hong Kong, a densely populated city of 7 million, has been particularly sensitive about contagious diseases since the severe acute-respiratory syndrome, or SARS, epidemic broke out in 2003.

Johannesburg, S. Africa

Mugabe allies divert aid for kids

Zimbabwean authorities confiscated a truck loaded with 20 tons of American food aid for poor schoolchildren and ordered that the wheat and pinto beans aboard be handed out to supporters of President Robert Mugabe at a political rally instead, the American Ambassador James McGee, said Wednesday.

The government ordered all humanitarian-aid groups to suspend their operations last week, charging that some of them were giving out food as bribes to win votes for the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, in a June 27 presidential runoff against Mugabe.

The seizure of the truck occurred Friday in an area called Bambazonke near the town of Mutare in eastern Zimbabwe. The truck was hired by one of three nongovernmental organizations — CARE, Catholic Relief Services and World Vision — that form a consortium and contract with the U.S. Agency for International Development to distribute food aid in Zimbabwe.

Kabul, Afghanistan

Biggest drug bust made in Afghanistan

Afghan counternarcotics officials said Wednesday that they uncovered 260 tons of hashish hidden in 6-foot-deep trenches in southern Afghanistan in what one DEA official said appears to be the world's biggest drug bust.

The hashish, found in the southern province of Kandahar on Monday, was worth more than $400 million and would have netted the Taliban about $14 million in profits, NATO forces said.

Also

Coptic to Cleveland: Egypt's Coptic Church says its pope has been flown to Cleveland for treatment after breaking his thigh in an accident. The official Middle East News Agency says Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ordered his government to provide a special ambulance plane for Pope Shenouda III, 84, after he fell in his bedroom on Monday evening.

Slap at Japan government: Japan's upper house of parliament approved an unprecedented no-confidence motion against embattled Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on Wednesday, embarrassing his troubled government but not posing an immediate threat to his tenure. The current impasse was over Fukuda's support for a health-insurance plan that the opposition said hurt the country's growing ranks of elderly.

Tel Aviv bombing: A car-bomb blast in central Tel Aviv on Wednesday killed prominent Israeli lawyer Yoram Hacham, police said, in what they called a criminal bombing and not an attack by Palestinian militants. Hacham, 53, reportedly represented figures in Israel's underworld.

Seattle Times news services