4,000 ill from norovirus in water

BARCELONA • More than 4,000 people fell ill with norovirus in north-eastern Spain after drinking bottled spring water from office water coolers contaminated with human faecal matter, local health officials said on Monday.

A microbiology professor who analysed the water said it is the first time that norovirus has been found in bottled water.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Junior doctors in England go on strike

LONDON• Junior doctors in England began their first strike in the nearly 70-year history of the National Health Service (NHS) yesterday, a dramatic escalation in a long dispute with the government over pay and working hours in a new contract.

NHS England said "military level" planning had gone into making sure patients in need of urgent care would be properly treated, with more senior doctors providing essential services.

REUTERS

Nobel-winning poet reburied in Chile

SANTIAGO • Chile paid homage to Pablo Neruda, a Nobel Prize-winning poet, as it prepared to rebury him yesterday, after examining his body to determine if he was assassinated in 1973 after General Augusto Pinochet seized power.

His former driver claimed the poet was given an injection in his chest at the Santiago clinic where the 69-year-old opponent of the regime was being treated for prostate cancer, officially blamed for his death.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Weatherman fired for breaking wind noises

BUDAPEST • A Hungarian TV weatherman has been fired after filling a windy forecast with recorded sounds of breaking wind.

Mr Szilard Horvath complained of double standards regarding fart sound effects.

The station swiftly removed the offending clip from its website.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE