World

A tribe living on the edge Around the World

REPUBLIC OF CONGO

Deadly outbreak may be Ebola

BRAZZAVILLE - Medical experts are investigating whether a disease that has killed several people in northern Republic of Congo could be an outbreak of the Ebola virus. At least seven people have died, and three have become infected by the disease in the Cuvette West region, Health Minister Alphonse Gondo said. Gondo told reporters he is awaiting results of tests this week to determine if victims died from Ebola, which causes rapid death. Last year, 120 people died of Ebola in the same Cuvette region, bordering Gabon. Although it is called Ebola hemorrhagic fever, bleeding occurs in only about 40 percent of cases and is often not the cause of death. The affliction is so named because when there is hemorrhage, it is dramatic. The disease most often involves a shock syndrome where multiple organs shut down at once. MEXICO

Alleged instigator held in mob attack

MEXICO CITY - A woman considered to be one of the main instigators of a mob that killed two federal agents last year on the outskirts of Mexico City was taken into custody Friday, the federal Attorney General's office said. Guadalupe Perez faces charges of homicide and causing injury, the Attorney General's Office said in a statement. In November, two agents were burned alive and a third was nearly beaten to death by a crowd on the outskirts of Mexico City. The killings were broadcast on live television and prompted widespread criticism of federal and local authorities who failed to arrive in time. A federal judge ordered her arrest months ago, but she went into hiding. She was arrested at her sister's house in eastern Mexico City. She is among 35 people detained in connection with the killings. BRAZIL

Landless protesters headed to capital

INGENUO DAS LAJES - Thousands of landless Brazilian peasants marched toward the capital Friday to protest against President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's slow land reforms and U.S. plans for Americas-wide free trade. The 12,000 Landless Workers Movement activists have occupied eight ranches on their 14-day trek from the city of Goiania and are now within 24 miles of the capital. Protesters will target the U.S. Embassy and Brazil's central bank and finance ministry Tuesday in a call for "social revolution" against Lula's market-driven economic policies and "U.S. imperialism," leaders said. The workers group is among the populist Latin American movements backing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's alternative trade plans that counter the U.S.-sponsored Free Trade Area of the Americas. ECUADOR

Volcano erupts

QUITO - A volcano has begun to erupt on one of the Galapagos Islands, but authorities said Friday that the few unique animal species on the island were not in immediate danger. The Cumbre volcano on Fernandina Island, which has no human inhabitants, started to erupt early Thursday, sending a mile-wide column of vapor and ash four miles into the sky, Hugo Yepez, director of Ecuador's Geophysics Institute, told Radio Quito. Unlike several of the other islands in the chain, Fernandina, on the western side of the archipelago, has few rare birds and iguanas and is not a main tourist attraction. COLOMBIA

More than 13 tons of cocaine seized

BOGOTA - More than 13.5 tons of cocaine stored in underground chambers and apparently belonging to outlawed paramilitaries was seized near Colombia's southwest coast, authorities said Friday. The cocaine was discovered Thursday in the jungle in Narino state, which lies along the Pacific coast and the Ecuador border. Five people were arrested. The seizure - one of the largest in recent years - represents more than 3 percent of what the U.S. government says is Colombia's annual potential cocaine output of 430 tons. KENYA

Baby rescue case takes new turn

NAIROBI - An unmarried Kenyan woman detained in the case of the baby apparently abandoned in a forest and rescued by a stray dog said she had an abortion, but she may face a criminal offense if investigators can't account for the fetus, police said Friday. The case has highlighted the problem of Kenya's unwanted infants, who are frequently abandoned, with poverty and failed relationships often to blame. Weak law enforcement and social security systems mean most people who dump their babies are never caught. Investigators tried to locate the doctor who the 25-year-old woman says performed the abortion but were unable to find him Friday, said Lang'ata District Police Commander Joshua Omukata. INDIA

Dogs befriended

HYDERABAD - Police officers in India's Andhra Pradesh state have discovered what many have known for centuries - dogs are man's best friend. Police in the turbulent region are using rice and meat to lure and befriend street dogs after the barking of one helped them fend off an attack by rebel fighters this week. "The street dogs will become our ears and eyes and function more effectively as our sentries," Swaranjit Sen, director general of Andhra Pradesh police, told Reuters in Hyderabad, capital of the largely rural southern state. A dog's barking in Durgi village, 210 miles south of Hyderabad, woke up police this week at a station, warning them of an impending raid by Maoist rebels who were later beaten back.