More world news in brief.
Nuclear theft prevention group launched
LONDON -An international organisation aimed at preventing the theft of nuclear material, which could be used in a terrorist attack, from reactors around the world has been launched in Vienna.
The independent World Institute for Nuclear Security is initially funded by the US energy department, American businessman Peter Peterson and the Norwegian government.
It will seek to bring nuclear experts, governments and private companies together to improve security at nuclear facilities.
Roger Howsley, former head of security for British Nuclear Fuels, will serve as its first executive director. - (Guardian service)
Two die in Indian bomb blasts
NEW DELHI -Two bomb explosions have killed at least two people and injured several others in western India, according to officials and local media.
One of yesterday's blasts, which appeared to be caused by a crude bomb, killed one person and injured several at a market in the town of Modasa in the state of Gujarat, officials said.
The other bomb killed at least one person in the communally sensitive town of Malegaon in the state of Maharashtra, local television said. - (Reuters)
US diplomat to visit North Korea
NEW YORK -US diplomat Chris Hill will try to re-engage North Korea on how to verify its nuclear claims and rescue a crumbling disarmament- for-aid deal in Pyongyang this week, say US officials.
Mr Hill's trip to Pyongyang tomorrow on the invitation of the North Koreans is a concerted effort by the Bush administration in its waning months to revive a six-nation deal after Pyongyang reversed its promises and said it would restart its Soviet-era Yongbyon nuclear plant. - (Reuters)
Fire at Great Ormond Street
LONDON -More than 20 sick children, some of them about to undergo surgery, were evacuated from Great Ormond Street children's hospital in London yesterday after an explosion and fire.
The hospital's chief executive, Dane Collins, said the incident - thought to involve a gas cylinder - had been in the cardiac wing of the central London hospital.
No staff, patients or visitors were injured in the incident, but all yesterday's outpatient and daycare appointments were cancelled. - (Guardian service)
30,000 to seek compensation
ABIDJAN -Up to 30,000 people from Ivory Coast will seek tens of millions of dollars in compensation from Dutch-based oil trader Trafigura for illness they suffered after toxic waste was dumped in 2006.
The class action suit will be heard in a London court in October 2009, lawyer Martyn Day of British law firm Leigh Day Co said yesterday. - (Reuters)
Dinosaur remains found in Argentina
CHICAGO -Scientists have unearthed the remains of a large meat-eating dinosaur with a breathing apparatus much like a modern bird, fortifying the link between birds and dinosaurs and helping to explain the evolution of birds' unique system of breathing.
Pulled from 85-million- year-old rock along the banks of Rio Colorado in Argentina's Mendoza province, this 10-metre, two-legged predator weighed as much as an elephant and probably had feathers, the scientists said.
But its method of breathing makes this dinosaur stand out, said Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago.
Instead of lungs that expand and contract, Mr Sereno thinks this beast had air sacs that worked like a bellows, blowing air into its stiff lungs, much like modern birds. - (Reuters)