DISEASE OUTBREAK IN MEXICO
MEXICO CITY - A DEADLY strain of flu never seen before has killed as many as 61 people in Mexico and has spread into the United States, where several people were reported ill.
Mexico's government said on Friday that at least 16 people have died of the disease in central Mexico and that it may also have been responsible for 45 other deaths.
WASHINGTON - THE Federal Reserve on Friday said the US government is prepared to rescue any of the banks that underwent 'stress tests' and were deemed vulnerable if the recession worsened sharply.
The Fed, in outlining the tests' methodology, said the 19 companies that hold one-half of the loans in the US banking system won't be allowed to fail - even if they fared poorly on the stress tests.
PESHAWAR (Pakistan) - TALIBAN militants who had seized a district just 100 kilometers from Pakistan's capital began pulling out on Friday after the government warned it would use force to evict them.
The withdrawal from Buner, if completed, eliminates the most immediate threat to a peace agreement in the neighboring militant-held Swat Valley that the US government worries has created a haven for allies of al-Qaida.
CANBERRA - AUSTRALIAN police released on Friday a shocking x-ray photo showing the skull of a murdered Chinese immigrant shot 34 times in the head and neck with a high-power nail gun.
The body of Chen Liu, 27, was found by two children last year in marshland in south Sydney, wrapped in a carpet and bound with electrical wire.
