Italy

First fatality linked to mad cow reported

A 27-year-old Sicilian woman died Wednesday of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, becoming Italy’s first victim of the brain-wasting malady linked to mad cow disease, doctors said.

Dr. Fabrizio Tagliavini, director of the division of neuropathology of the Carlo Besta National Neurological Institute in Milan, said the patient was Italy’s only diagnosed case of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Testing done in England confirmed the infection, he said by telephone. It was not known how the woman contracted the disease. She had been hospitalized in Milan for several months.

Experts say variant CJD appears to be contracted by eating meat tainted by bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease.

Mad cow disease has infected cattle in much of Europe, and variant CJD has killed more than 100 people worldwide, mostly Britons.

Afghanistan

German airline starts direct flights

A German airline flew civilians Wednesday directly from Western Europe to Afghanistan’s capital — the first such flights since the former Soviet Union invaded this country more than two decades ago.

An Airbus 330-200 with 101 passengers and 10 crew arrived in Kabul from Duesseldorf, where the German Lufttransport-Unternehmen air transport company is based, said the carrier’s flight operations director, Josep Moser.

“We intend to open a regular service between Germany and Kabul in order to connect Afghanistan to the heart of Europe,” Moser said.

The airline will fly from Duesseldorf to Kabul every Wednesday.

The international airport in Kabul is guarded by peacekeepers and Afghan soldiers. It is used by both military and civilian aircraft.

Iran

President defends nuclear program

Iran vowed Wednesday not to surrender its nuclear power generating program, as U.N. experts met with Iranian officials in an effort to arrange unrestricted inspections of its nuclear facilities.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will not give up nuclear technology as a basis for legitimate power, ” state television quoted President Mohammad Khatami as telling Iran’s most senior officials.

Khatami said Iran had no desire for nuclear weapons, as the United States maintains, “because we cannot use such weapons based on our Islamic and moral teachings.”

His comments at a meeting with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the country’s top military and political officials came as a three-member team from the International Atomic Energy Agency met with government officials to try to arrange unfettered inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Khatami hinted Iran may sign a protocol to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty allowing such access “if the world recognizes” his country’s right to the peaceful use of nuclear technology.

Brazil

Pension-reform protest turns into melee

Rock-throwing protesters clashed with riot police in front of Congress on Wednesday in a demonstration against a pension reform bill intended to save South America’s largest country billions of dollars.

The march in Brasilia by an estimated 50,000 government workers started peacefully, but ended in violence after hundreds broke through police barricades and hurled rocks toward Congress.

Brazilian media reported at least four protesters and two policemen were injured as the rocks shattered windows inside Congress. Police brought the melee under control after about an hour and the crowd dispersed.