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World in brief

Deported Africans found abandoned in desert

By wire services
Published October 8, 2005

MELILLA, Spain - Hundreds of sub-Saharan immigrants were rounded up by Moroccan security forces near the Spanish enclave Melilla and taken out to the desert near Algeria, a doctor with the human rights group Medecins Sans Frontieres said Friday.

The immigrants - among thousands who have trekked in recent years across Africa to get to Europe - were removed after nearly a dozen mass charges in recent weeks on the razor-wire fences that separate the Cueta and Melilla enclaves from Morocco. More than a dozen have been killed in the border rushes, including several shot by Moroccan forces Thursday. Hundreds more have been injured.

Javier Gabaldon told Spanish cable network CNN+ that workers with ONG Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, found about 600 immigrants on Friday morning.

Morocco has promised shelter, medical care and humane treatment for deported immigrants, Morocco's official MAP news agency reported Friday, citing the Interior Ministry.

Amnesty International in Spain said there were signs of human rights violations, and that it would campaign for an investigation.

MOSCOW - Russia on Friday test-launched a collapsible minispacecraft, which is designed to carry cargo and even passengers from the international space station to Earth, a Russian space design bureau said.

The Demonstrator spacecraft blasted off on a rocket from a nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea at around 1:30 a.m. (5:30 p.m. EDT Thursday), and it descended toward the Kura test range on Russia's Far East Kamchatka Peninsula on schedule, the Interfax news agency reported.

The ITAR-Tass news agency reported that engineers had had no contact with the craft, and that workers planned to resume their search for it at daybreak.

The spacecraft's collapsible, cone-shaped body is made of light material that can withstand high temperatures and it can fly on a predictable trajectory without engines - making it a cheap alternative to the Soyuz spacecraft currently in use.

UNITED NATIONS - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Friday that he intends to start negotiations to determine whether the predominantly Muslim territory of Kosovo should gain independence or remain an autonomous part of Serbia-Montenegro, a remnant of the former Yugoslavia. Annan told reporters in Switzerland that he would appoint a special envoy to help lead the talks on Kosovo's future.

The move is intended to force major powers to confront the most politically sensitive issue in the region since 1999. Then, a U.S.-led air war forced Serbian forces out of the predominantly ethnic Albanian province, which was turned into a U.N. protectorate defended by tens of thousands of U.S., Russian and European troops.

TORONTO - An 89-year-old woman died Friday of an apparent outbreak of Legionnaires' disease at an Ontario nursing home, bringing to 17 the number of people fatally infected at the facility.

The investigation into the source of the outbreak has led health officials to examine water samples and the ventilation system at the Seven Oaks Home for the Aged. Results are not expected for another week.

Dr. David McKeown, the chief medical officer for Public Health Toronto, said there have been no new cases since Tuesday. Latest autopsies have shown Legionnaires' disease, a form of pneumonia, is the outbreak's likely cause.

Seventy residents, 18 employees and nine visitors to Seven Oaks were affected, and 42 have been hospitalized. Most are improving and some have been discharged from hospitals, McKeown said.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Coalition forces who were engaged in combat with militants opened fire on a vehicle carrying Afghan police, killing four and wounding one, the U.S. military said Friday.

The fighting occurred Thursday near Gereshk in Helmand province, the U.S.-led coalition said in a statement. The police were not in uniform at the time of the shooting, the statement said.

The coalition said it was investigating.

[Last modified October 8, 2005, 01:27:10]