SEATTLE – A Washington state man with underlying heart conditions became the third person infected with swine flu to die in the U.S., health officials said Saturday, while Costa Rica reported the first swine flu death outside North America.
Japanese authorities, meanwhile, scrambled to limit contact with their country’s first cases, and Australia and Norway joined the list of nations with confirmed cases of swine flu.
A Snohomish County man in his 30s died on Thursday from what appeared to be complications from swine flu, the state Department of Health said in a statement. The man had underlying heart conditions and viral pneumonia at the time of his death, but swine flu was considered a factor in his death, the statement said.
The man, who was not identified, reportedly began showing symptoms on April 30.
His death and the death of a 53-year-old man in Costa Rica on Saturday brings the global death toll to 53, including 48 in Mexico, three in the United States and one in Canada.
Like other deaths outside Mexico, the Costa Rican man suffered from complicating illnesses, including diabetes and chronic lung disease, the Health Ministry said.
Previously, U.S. authorities reported swine flu deaths of a toddler with a heart defect and a woman with rheumatoid arthritis, and Canadian officials said the woman who died there also had other health problems but gave no details.
180 suspected militants killed in past 24 hours
ISLAMABAD – The Pakistani army says at least 180 suspected militants have been killed in the past 24 hours in the northwest’s Swat Valley and surrounding areas.
The casualty figures given in the Sunday afternoon statement could not be independently verified. It also was unclear whether any of the deaths had been reported in army statements from Saturday.
The statement says some 50 to 60 militants were killed Sunday in Swat. But it says the majority of killings occurred in neighboring Shangla district, with about 140 militant bodies found.
It was unclear why the numbers given in the statement did not always add up.
Sri Lankan health official says at least 257 civilians killed by overnight shelling
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – A massive barrage of artillery in Sri Lanka’s northern war zone killed at least 257 civilians and wounded 814 overnight, a government doctor said Sunday, calling it the bloodiest day he had seen in the government’s offensive against the Tamil Tiger rebels.
V. Shanmugarajah, a physician working in the war zone, said he feared many more may have been killed since some bodies were being buried on the spot without being brought to the makeshift hospital he runs.
Shanmugarajah described seeing shells fly through the air, with some falling close to the hospital, sending many to take shelter in bunkers.
The rebel-linked TamilNet Web site said about 2,000 people are feared dead and accused Sri Lankan forces of launching the attack, a charge the military denied.
Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said it was only using small arms in its effort to wipe out the Tamil Tiger rebel group and there “is no shelling taking place.”
The hospital struggled to cope with the 814 wounded civilians brought to the facility, Shanmugarajah said.
The government had sent medical supplies into the war zone in the past days, but a shortage of physicians, nurses and aides has made treatment difficult, he said.
Pelosi discusses economic relations in Baghdad
BAGHDAD – U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a surprise one-day visit to Baghdad Sunday and discussed U.S.-Iraqi economic relations with the prime minister, the government spokesman said.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki asked Pelosi, a California Democrat, to shield Iraq from the demands for reparations from neighboring countries dating back to the actions by the previous ruler Saddam Hussein, spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said.
“Al-Maliki requested the United States protect Iraqi funds and put an end to the demands of other countries which feel they were harmed during the two Gulf wars of the former regime,” he added.
Kuwait still claims billions of dollars in war reparations from Iraq dating from the 1990 invasion and has refused appeals by Baghdad to reduce their demands and forgive about $15 billion in Iraqi debt.
A fierce critic of the U.S.-led Iraq war, Pelosi originally opposed the 2007 increase in U.S. troops credited with contributing to a substantial reduction of violence in much of country in the past two years.
She has praised President Barack Obama’s plans to bring home two-thirds of the 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq by August 2010.
In the past, Pelosi has pushed the Iraqi government to make greater efforts at political reconciliation.
Leno takes comedy show to jobless Ohio residents
WILMINGTON, Ohio – Comedian Jay Leno’s stand-up routine has drawn laughs from thousands of southwest Ohio residents whose lives have been affected by the recession and the pullout of a major employer.
Leno delivered jokes Sunday to 4,000 people in Wilmington at the Roberts Centre as part of his free “Comedy Stimulus” tour.
APComedian Jay Leno performs during the Jay Leno Comedy Stimulus Plan show at the Roberts Centre, Sunday, May 10, 2009, in Wilmington, Ohio.The host of “The Tonight Show” drew cheers from the crowd as he wrapped up, saying he was just trying to get a few laughs and cheer people up. He says, “We’re all brothers and sisters.”
Wilmington has about 12,000 residents. It has drawn national attention as an example of the economic struggles of small communities.
About 8,000 workers were employed at the Wilmington Air Park a year ago when delivery company DHL Express announced it was pulling out, and about 3,500 remain.
Obama entertains press corps with biting humor
WASHINGTON – It was the hottest ticket in town, a black-tie dinner gathering of Washington’s political and media elite but Dick Cheney couldn’t make it.
The former vice president was busy, President Barack Obama joked, working on his memoir “tentatively titled, ‘How to Shoot Friends and Interrogate People.'”
As the star attraction of Saturday night’s star-studded annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, Obama enjoyed poking fun at his critics and the Republican Party. But his own administration, in power for just over 100 days, was also a target of the president’s playful digs and one-liners.
“I believe my next hundred days will be so successful that I will be able to complete them in 72 days,” he said to a roar of laughter. “And on my 73rd day, I will rest.”
His chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, Obama observed, always has a hard time on Mother’s Day.
“He’s not used to saying the word ‘day’ after ‘mother,'” Obama said.
The chairman of Republican National Committee, Michael Steele, was “in the house tonight,” Obama noted. “Or as he would say, ‘In the heezy.'”
“Michael for the last time, the Republican Party does not qualify for a bailout,” Obama told Steele. “Rush Limbaugh does not count as a troubled asset, I’m sorry.”
