ITALY
Premier reportedly contracts scarlet fever
ROME — Italian news reports said Monday that Premier Silvio Berlusconi will skip an event in the quake-stricken Abruzzo region due to a mild case of scarlet fever. A doctor said risks are limited and can be controlled with antibiotics.
Berlusconi's office declined to comment.
The ANSA news agency and newspaper Corriere della Sera said Berlusconi was skipping today's event because of the disease — caused by the bacteria streptococcus. The event was canceled as a result.
Corriere said the 73-year-old Berlusconi apparently contracted scarlet fever from a grandchild.
BRITAIN
Gadhafi apologizes for '84 officer's death
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LONDON — Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said Monday that he is sorry about the death of a British policewoman shot outside Tripoli's embassy in London 25 years ago.
But he said he does not know who killed Yvonne Fletcher with shots from inside the embassy. No one has been convicted of the 1984 killing, though the Libyan government has accepted that its agents were responsible.
Gadhafi told Sky News he is sorry Fletcher died doing her job protecting the embassy. He said the case is "a problem which should be solved. But who did it? That's the question."
FRANCE
Court says boys unsafe prior to police crash
PARIS — A French magistrate has dropped a manslaughter investigation into a crash involving a motorbike and a police car that killed two teenagers and sparked riots in 2007, a lawyer for the boys' families said Monday.
The magistrate did so after a prosecutor said the boys were riding without helmets on a motorbike that had no brakes or lights, and that they did not respect right of way rules at an intersection.
A lawyer for the boys' families, Jean-Pierre Mignard, told TV station I-Tele that he would appeal, arguing that the police shared responsibility for the crash because of their vehicle's speed and lack of a siren.
Riots broke out in the working-class suburb of Villiers-le-Bel in November 2007 after the teens were killed, and the unrest spread. A police investigation into the case also absolved the officers of any responsibility in the deaths of Lakamy Samoura, 15, and Mohsin Sehhouli, 16. The officers were not charged.
While police insisted the crash was accidental, many youths blamed the officers and rioted.
GERMANY
New coalition pledges health, tax reforms
BERLIN — Three German party leaders announced a coalition agreement Monday night, pledging to form a government led by Chancellor Angela Merkel that would reform health care and cut up to $36 billion in taxes.
The parties approved the coalition deal nearly a month after general elections, after negotiating government policy and ministry portfolios.
"We are addressing the citizens of Germany with this agreement," Merkel said at the signing ceremony. "We have the courage and the intention to bring Germany forward with our coalition."
The new parliament on Wednesday will formally elect Merkel and swear in the new Cabinet — including members from the three coalition parties, Merkel's Christian Democrats, their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union and the pro-business Free Democrats.
Different HIN1 vaccines spark debate
BERLIN — A debate over two different H1N1 flu vaccines overshadowed Germany's launch of a public inoculation program against the pandemic on Monday.
Critics warned the vaccinations campaign could be a "million-euro flop" as many people might refuse to participate after learning they would receive a different shot than one being given to politicians, high-ranking government employees and soldiers.
German authorities ordered 50 million doses of H1N1, or swine, flu vaccines, and began inoculating physicians, nurses, rescue workers and the chronically ill this week.
However, most Germans will be getting Pandemrix, a vaccine by GlaxoSmithKline PLC that contains an adjuvant, while Germany's politicians, government employees and troops will get Celvapan, made by Baxter International without an adjuvant.
Adjuvants — or chemical compounds that boost the human body's immune response and stretch the vaccine's active ingredient so more doses can be made — are relatively new in flu vaccines, and there is limited data on how safe they are in certain population groups, such as pregnant women and children. No flu vaccines with adjuvants are licensed in the U.S..
PAKISTAN
Iranian security cops arrested near border
QUETTA — Pakistan arrested 11 Iranians Monday near the countries' border amid tensions over a deadly suicide attack in Iran that Tehran alleges has links to Pakistani intelligence officials.
Authorities first said the 11 were members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, but then reversed course and identified them only as security officers. They were arrested after shooting out the tires of a car carrying smugglers, Pakistan authorities said.
The arrests could add to the strain between the two volatile nations triggered by the Oct. 18 attack on the Iranian side of the border. They came a day after the Pakistani president met Iran's interior minister and vowed to track down the perpetrators of the blast.
Pakistan has been accused of supporting militant activities in two other neighboring countries, Afghanistan and India, greatly complicating relations with both of them. Strains in its relationship with another regional power would only add to Pakistan's problems as it battles al-Qaida and the Taliban within its borders.
The Associated Press
