Around the World

Latest EU bird flu

LJUBLJANA — Slovenia became the latest European Union country to detect H5N1 bird flu and others awaited results on Thursday as an EU medical expert said the virus was likely to spread further.

The virus was first confirmed in the European Union on Saturday, when Greece and Italy said they had found it in wild swans. Austria and Germany reported cases on Tuesday.

Hungary was awaiting results from a specialist laboratory in Britain to determine whether the H5 virus detected in three dead wild swans on Wednesday was in fact the H5N1 strain. If confirmed, it would be the country's first case.

BRAZIL

Police commander absolved in killings

SAO PAULO — Human-rights groups reacted with dismay Thursday to a Brazilian court's decision to absolve the commander of a police squad that killed more than 100 convicts in a notorious 1992 prison massacre.

The decision to annul the conviction of Col. Ubiratan Gui-maraes over the Carandiru prison massacre fed the sense that officials were immune from justice in Brazil, they said.

Guimaraes commanded the riot police squad that moved into Sao Paulo's Carandiru penitentiary to suppress an uprising by prisoners in October 1992. They killed 111 unarmed inmates, many of whom, according to survivors, had already surrendered and were summarily executed.

GERMANY

Iran asks apology for soccer cartoon

BERLIN — Even as Muslim rage continues over cartoons published in Europe that satirized Muhammad, another cartoon, in a German newspaper, likening Iranian soccer players to suicide bombers has provoked anger in Iran and an official demand for an apology.

The cartoon, published last Friday in Der Tagesspiegel, depicts Iranian soccer players with bombs strapped to their waists standing next to a group of German soccer players in the uniforms of the German army, or Bundeswehr. The caption reads: "Why the Bundeswehr absolutely has to be deployed at the World Cup."

Editors at the paper and the cartoonist, Klaus Stuttmann, said the cartoon was intended as a commentary on an ongoing debate in Germany about whether the army should be used as a security force when the World Cup is held here this summer.

On Tuesday, demonstrators in Tehran threw Molotov cocktails at the German Embassy.

ITALY

Ruling on recruiting bombers upheld

ROME — A panel of Italian judges upheld the November acquittals of three North Africans on international terror charges, ruling that recruiting suicide bombers to fight against U.S. soldiers is not terrorism, a lawyer said Thursday.

The verdict by the Milan judges, released Wednesday, echoes an earlier one in the case when a lower court judge ruled the actions of the three men were those of guerrillas, not terrorists.

Government officials condemned the latest ruling. Justice Minister Roberto Castell apologized to the victims of suicide attacks and their relatives, saying "there is in me a great feeling of shame, bitterness and powerlessness."

EGYPT

Sunken ferry found

CAIRO — The wreck of a ferry that sank in the Red Sea, killing around 1,000 people, has been found and a search for its "black box" is under way, Egypt's transport minister said on Thursday.

Minister Mohamed Loutfi Mansour said the Al Salam 98 had been found on the seabed in 2,600 feet of water 56 miles from Safaga, the Egyptian port it was heading for when it sank, the official Middle East News Agency reported.

Mansour said the Egyptian authorities were working with international experts. The team plans to start work to recover the black box Saturday using a robot and will take pictures to find clues as to how it sank.