World briefs 07/22/03

Former Ugandan dictator in deteriorating condition

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- Former Ugandan President Idi Amin, exiled in Saudi Arabia after an 8-year rule marked by extreme brutality, was in a coma and in deteriorating condition Monday, a hospital official said.

The official said late Sunday that Amin's condition had stabilized. But Monday morning, the official told The Associated Press, "his condition has deteriorated again." He would not elaborate.

Three of Amin's sons were at his bedside Sunday in the intensive care unit of the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in the Red Sea port city of Jiddah, where Amin and relatives have lived for years. Amin, believed to be 80, was on a respirator. He was admitted to the hospital Friday suffering from high blood pressure, medical staff said.

Health chief pledges to boost fight against AIDS

GENEVA -- The new head of the United Nations health agency took office Monday, pledging to boost the fight against AIDS and other global killers.

World Health Organization director-general Dr. Jong-wook Lee also said he wanted to improve international monitoring to help tackle outbreaks of diseases such as SARS.

Lee, a South Korean tuberculosis expert, was elected in January by the executive committee of the 192-nation agency. He replaced Gro Harlem Brundtland, a former Norwegian prime minister, who announced last year that she did not want a second five-year mandate.

Brundtland, 60, stepped down after successfully transforming WHO from a disillusioned and badly managed organization to a high profile agency.

Encephalitis death toll rises to 140 in India

HYDERABAD, India -- Mosquito-borne encephalitis has killed five more children in a southern Indian state, taking the death toll to 140, officials said Monday.

At least 257 other children have been affected across Andhra Pradesh state over the past eight weeks, Health Minister K. Sivaprasada Rao said in the state capital, Hyderabad.

Five more deaths were reported Sunday, state health official Dr. P Laxmi Raqjyam said.

U.S. repatriates 12 Cubans picked up at sea

HAVANA -- U.S. officials on Monday repatriated 12 Cubans who were intercepted at sea after allegedly hijacking a government boat and taking three Cuban security guards hostage.

American officials said they decided to return the Cubans home after receiving assurances they alleged hijackers wouldn't be executed. The Cuban government praised the move, calling it "a valuable contribution" in the fight against illegal migration.

The three abducted security guards were also returned to Cuba.

U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said American authorities determined the Cubans were ineligible for amnesty because they had committed acts of violence in Cuba as well as against Coast Guard personnel who boarded the boat Wednesday.

The U.S. Coast Guard stopped the boat in international waters in the Straits of Florida on Wednesday. The Cuban government said its coast guard chased the 36-foot vessel into Bahamian waters Tuesday.

-- From wire reports