World

BEIJING confirmed on Saturday that a seven-year-old girl has been infected by H7N9-related avian influenza, the first such case in northern China.

The girl, whose parents were live poultry traders in a township in Beijing's northeastern suburbs, was admitted to Beijing Ditan Hospital after suffering from developed flu symptoms, including fever, cough, sore throat and headache on Thursday morning, Xinhua news agency reported.

The case was confirmed following a test by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention early on Saturday.

CHINESE capital Beijing reported on Saturday its first suspected case of a new strain of bird flu, state news agency Xinhua said, which would be the first time it has been found in a human outside of eastern China.

The seven-year-old child is in a stable condition in a Beijing hospital and samples have been sent to the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention for further tests, the report said.

Two people who have had close contact with the child have shown no signs of being infected so far, Xinhua added.

AUSTRALIAN Federal Police (AFP) played a key but unspecified role in the Pakistani police bust of a people-smuggling syndicate responsible for an overloaded boat which sank with the loss of 94 passengers.

Pakistani police arrested four men who operated out of a travel agency which had branches across the country.

The AFP provided assistance to the Pakistani Federal Investigations Agency (PFIA) and the Indonesian National Police to identify the organisers and facilitators responsible for the vessel.

DEFYING a president from your own party can be politically risky for a US senator.

But it may be less hazardous than defying the wishes of your constituents.

That seemed to be the message on Thursday as two Democratic senators, Mark Begich of Alaska and Mark Pryor of Arkansas, joined 29 Republicans in voting not to allow debate on Democratic President Barack Obama's gun-control package.

PRESIDENT Barack Obama wants NASA to start work on finding a small asteroid that could be shifted into an orbit near the moon and used by astronauts as a stepping-stone for an eventual mission to Mars, agency officials said on Wednesday.

The project, which envisions that astronauts could visit such an asteroid as early as 2021, is included in Obama's US$17.7 billion (RM53.71 billion) spending plan for the US space agency for the 2014 fiscal year.

A FOX News reporter returned to a Colorado courtroom on Wednesday for a hearing on whether she should be compelled to reveal anonymous sources cited in a story about the July 2012 massacre of a dozen people in a suburban Denver movie theater.

The outcome of the proceedings were inconclusive, however, and the judge put off a decision on the matter for at least four more months.

AN immigration bill being written in the Senate aims to wipe out nearly all illegal crossings along the southwestern border with Mexico while maintaining a 13-year timetable for existing illegal residents to win citizenship, sources said on Wednesday.

The carefully crafted language is intended to attract Republican support in Congress for comprehensive immigration legislation this year, while accommodating Democrats' desire to help the estimated 11 million foreigners living in the United States illegally.

CUBA decided Tuesday to hand over to US authorities an American couple accused of kidnapping their two sons from their grandmother in Florida before fleeing to Cuba.

The Cuban Foreign Ministry told the US Interests Section in Havana it was willing to turn over Joshua Michael Hakken and his wife Sharyn Patricia and their sons, four-year-old Cole Travis and two-year-old Chase Julian.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday voiced his sadness at the loss of life and destruction in the wake of an earthquake in southern Iran, which had killed at least 32 people, China's Xinhua news agency reported.

"The secretary-general is saddened by the loss of life and destruction in Iran caused by Tuesday's earthquake in Bushehr," said a statement issued here by his spokesperson.

"He extends his sincere condolences to the Iranian government and people, particularly the families of those who have died," said the statement.

THE United Nations Special Rapporteur Magdalena Sepulveda is on an official eight day visit to Mozambique during which she will be looking at the human rights situation of people living in poverty, Mozambican news agency AIM reported.

Sepulveda will assess efforts to protect the rights of those in poverty, government measures to reduce poverty and the obstacles faced at both national and international levels.