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World in brief

Health officials frustrated as bird flu deaths soar in Indonesia

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesia averaged one human bird flu death every 2½ days in May, putting it on pace to soon surpass Vietnam as the world's hardest-hit country.

The latest death, announced Wednesday, was a 15-year-old boy whose preliminary tests were positive for the H5N1 virus. It comes as international health officials express growing frustration that they must fight Indonesia's bureaucracy as well as the disease.

"We're tying to fix this leak in the roof, and there's a storm," World Health Organization spokesman Dick Thompson said. "The storm is that the virus is in animals almost everywhere and the lack of effective attention that's being addressed to the problem."

Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands with a population of 220-million people, has a patchwork of local, regional and national bureaucracies that often send mixed messages. The impression, health officials said, is often that no one is truly at the helm.

"I don't think anyone can understand it unless you come here and see it for yourself," said Steven Bjorge, a WHO epidemiologist in Jakarta. "The amount of decentralization here is breathtaking."

Hitler's globe part of German museum display

BERLIN - The globe that Adolf Hitler gazed upon while contemplating world domination is in remarkably good condition but for one blemish - the bullet hole directly through Berlin, inflicted by a Soviet soldier after the Nazi dictator's defeat in 1945.

The oversized orb is among more than 8,000 artifacts in the German Historical Museum's new permanent display on the country's 2,000-year history, which seeks to help Germans rediscover their identity.

Many Germans have shunned the study of their past. Museum director Hans Ottomeyer hopes the exhibit can contribute to changing that.

"It is a history that has been shaped by dramatic wars and long periods of peace," Ottomeyer said. "We attempt to show what strategies are used to generate hate, to vilify others, and start wars. On the other hand, we show how reasonable policies form the basis for prosperity and times of peace."

In addressing the Holocaust, the museum augments artifacts with art and photographs, but focuses on a haunting all-white cutaway model of the gas chambers and crematoria at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

The more than 80,000-square-foot exhibition will be officially opened Friday by Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Report clears U.N. in Milosevic death

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Slobodan Milosevic defied doctors' orders to quit smoking and took unauthorized medication smuggled to him in prison, a U.N. war crimes tribunal report into his death said Wednesday.

In the most complete survey of events leading to the former Yugoslav president's death in March, the report cleared U.N. authorities of giving inadequate medical care and said the fatal heart attack probably could not have been prevented.

Milosevic's brother, Borislav, disputed the report, saying the tribunal "bears responsibility for my brother's death" because it "denied him the opportunity for treatment."

The Serb leader was found dead March 11 in his cell.

Annan says fight against AIDS is falling short

UNITED NATIONS - The world has fallen far short of its promises five years ago to fight HIV/AIDS, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned leaders meeting Wednesday to find new ways to tackle the virus.

A day after a major U.N. report found the disease had slowed in its spread, Annan told delegates that efforts to fight AIDS among women and children had failed and that young people still have little understanding of AIDS.

The virus "has spread further, faster and with more catastrophic long-term effects than any other disease," Annan said.

Annan's words were meant to impart a sense of urgency to the first day of the three-day General Assembly High-Level Meeting on AIDS.

Hamas says thousands of salaries can't be paid

RAMALLAH, West Bank - The Hamas-led Palestinian government does not have enough money to pay tens of thousands of employees, the finance minister said Wednesday, raising fears of more unrest in the chaotic West Bank and Gaza Strip.

International economic sanctions against the militant group Hamas have left the government unable to pay the salaries of its 165,000 employees for three months. Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Tuesday the government planned to begin paying the overdue salaries.

On Wednesday, Finance Minister Omar Abdel Razek said 40,000 workers would receive one month's salary. He said only the lowest wage earners, those who earn up to $333 a month, would be paid. The others would have to wait.

Separately Wednesday, Palestinian militants fired three rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot. One of the projectiles landed in a home a few dozen yards from the home of Defense Minister Amir Peretz. No one was hurt.

Bolivian farmers plan to form 'self-defense' group

LA PAZ, Bolivia - Bolivia's largest agribusiness group said Wednesday it would form "self-defense" units to defend land it fears the country's new leftist government will confiscate to give to the poor.

The National Farming Confederation said in a statement that it rejected President Evo Morales' land reform policy.

The Morales administration rejected the idea.

"The government cannot accept their announcement because these groups are illegal and border on being criminal," said Alfredo Rada, a deputy minister in charge of coordinating between the government and the country's civil organizations.

In other parts of Latin America, the term "self-defense'' groups has been used to describe armed citizens.

[Last modified June 1, 2006, 06:27:51]