FRANCE: More than 200 passengers were yesterday evacuated from a French ferry after water began flooding into its engine room during a trip from the western Brittany coast to an island vacation hot spot.
The 226 passengers aboard the Atlante, heading from the port of La Turballe to the popular island of Belle-Ile, were taken in lifeboats and private boats to the Ile d'Houat, east of their original destination, maritime officials said.
No one was reported missing or injured following the incident. Junior Transport and Maritime Affairs Minister Ms Dominique Bussereau called for an inquiry into the incident.
The Atlante's captain alerted rescue services to the problem about 45 minutes after leaving La Turballe in good weather conditions, when crew members discovered water flowing into the engine room. - (AFP)
Five deaths may be linked to diet pills
YAMANASHI - Japanese officials said yesterday they had identified a dangerous substance in diet pills being taken by a man in his 30s who died of a heart attack, bringing to five the possible deaths linked to China-made diet aids in Japan.
Officials said the man had been taking a Chinese brand of diet pill containing fenfluramine, which was pulled from the US market in 1997 after it was shown to damage heart valves when consumed with other slimming products.
Other brands of Chinese diet pills have been linked to four deaths in Japan and more than 500 cases of illness.
"This man had no history of health problems, and his family said he had been taking the pills," said a health official in Yamanashi prefecture, west of Tokyo. He added that the product was not one of 20 Chinese diet aids that the Health Ministry has placed on a warning list.
"However, we do not have enough information at this time to say if they had any connection to his death," the official said. - (Reuters)
Legionnaires' cases start to decrease
BARROW-IN-FURNESS - The number of people testing positive for Legionnaires' Disease in Cumbria is starting to tail off, following a peak of 150 suspected cases and the death of an 88-year-old man, a health trust said yesterday.
So far 150 people have undergone hospital treatment for the Legionnella antigen bacteria during the biggest outbreak of the bug in the UK in around a decade, which occurred in Barrow-in-Furness.
Out of the patients who were treated, 106 tested positive for the disease, while the remaining 44 unconfirmed cases were treated after showing symptoms.
Cumbrian pensioner Mr Richard Macaulay, also known as Gerry, became the bug's only victim in the coastal town when he died last Friday. - (PA)
Truck drivers save girl in road accident
MONTELIMAR - A three-year-old German girl who fell from a car onto a busy French motorway was saved from being run over when two truck drivers used their vehicles to form a protective shield around her, police said yesterday.
Police said the child opened a door and fell onto a lane of the A7 motorway - one of the main routes to France's southern coast - as her parents sped along at 70 m.p.h. near the town of Montelimar.
A trucker driving behind managed to brake and position his vehicle so it protected her from traffic behind. As a second truck driver helped form an impromptu shield around her, the injured child managed to scramble on to the hard shoulder. - (AFP)
Early warning could save lives
NEW YORK - Natural disasters ranging from earthquakes to cyclones kill some 90,000 people a year but many lives could be saved with better precautions, a UN report said yesterday.
The UN hopes the report, Living with Risk - A Global Review of Disaster Reduction Initiatives, will be endorsed by the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which it will host in Johannesburg this month, and be a blueprint to save lives. - (Reuters)