More tainted milk turns up in Vietnam

Hanoi, Vietnam

Vietnam's health ministry has discovered the industrial chemical melamine in 18 food products imported from China and three other countries and has ordered them recalled and destroyed, officials said Friday.

Russian news agencies reported that food inspectors found nearly 2 tons of Chinese dry milk believed to be contaminated with melamine. And Philippines health officials found melamine in two of 30 milk products from China, while Australian food regulators recalled China-made Kirin Milk Tea after tests in found the drink contained melamine. It is the fourth product withdrawn from the country's stores in the wake of China's tainted-milk scandal.

Chinese authorities believe suppliers trying to boost output diluted their milk, adding melamine because its nitrogen content can fool tests aimed at verifying protein content.

Mogadishu, Somalia

Thousands at risk as fighting surges

Hundreds of thousands of Somalis have been left without basic health care after Islamic insurgents forced one international aid group to suspend some operations and threatened another on Friday, as the war-devastated country's civilian death toll mounted.

The United Nations estimating that more than 80 civilians have been killed in the last two weeks in the capital of Mogadishu alone. Somalia is torn between a growing Islamic insurgency and a weak and corrupt U.N.-backed government propped up by Ethiopian troops. In recent months the insurgents have mounted a series of hit-and-run attacks on several towns and now hold Somalia's third largest city.

On Friday, Sheik Muqtar Robow accused Western aid agencies CARE and the International Medical Corps of committing "crimes against Islam and the jihad" and warned them to leave areas controlled by the Islamists. IMC spokeswoman Margaret Aguirre said the agency suspended work in southern Somalia last week when insurgents looted four IMC offices in Somalia's Bakool and Bay regions. IMC clinics in the affected region serve more than 370,000 people, 53,000 of them children under 5 years of age.

Washington

U.S. plans to sell arms to Taiwan

The Bush administration announced plans Friday to sell $6 billion in arms to Taiwan, a decision sure to anger Taiwan's rival China and one that could complicate stalled North Korean disarmament efforts.

China opposes the U.S. provision of weapons to Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory and threatens to invade should the self-governing island ever formalize its de facto independence.

The United States and China are part of multinational negotiations to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons. China, which hosts the talks, is seen as having economic and political leverage with the North.

Also

Chávez critic: Gen. Raul Baduel, a former Venezuelan defense minister who is a prominent critic of President Hugo Chávez, was detained by military-intelligence agents on Friday. Baduel has been under investigation for alleged corruption.

Haiti toll: The official death toll from four storms that ravaged Haiti this summer has nearly doubled to some 800 people, authorities said Friday.

Seattle Times news services