South Korea

N. Korean fighter jet provokes missile unit

A North Korean fighter jet today briefly crossed the western sea border with South Korea, and a South anti-aircraft missile unit went into battle position, a South Korean military official said.

The North Korean jet retreated without incident after two South Korea fighter jets went to the area, said Maj. Lee Dong-chan, a spokesman for the South Korean air force.

The incident came three days after North Korea threatened to abandon the armistice keeping the peace between the two Koreas.

The North does not recognize the so-called Northern Limit Line maritime border that was drawn up by the U.S.-led U.N. Command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, and the border has been a site of tensions in the past.

Republic of Congo

Officials work to contain outbreak of Ebola

U.N. health officials confirmed Wednesday that a disease outbreak killing scores of people in the Republic of Congo was Ebola and warned the highly lethal hemorrhagic fever could still be spreading.

So far, 73 people have been infected, of whom 59 have died, according to World Health Organization investigators. Government health officials in the tiny Central African nation report 80 cases with 67 deaths.

The Cuvette West region, where the deaths have occurred, has been quarantined since last week.

Canada

Concorde makes unscheduled landing

Engine trouble forced an Air France Concorde headed to New York to make an unscheduled landing Wednesday in Canada, the airline said.

The 47 passengers aboard Air France Flight 002 were transferred to other flights from Halifax, Nova Scotia, where the Concorde landed, the company said. Further details were not immediately available.

Last month, an Air France Concorde had to make a loop over the Atlantic Ocean and return to Paris after the jet failed to kick into supersonic mode.

British Airways and Air France are the only airlines flying the Concorde.

Hong Kong

Bird flu’s return feared

A 9-year-old boy contracted bird flu after visiting southern China last month and his sister and father have died of unspecified illnesses, officials said Wednesday, raising fears of a recurrence of the deadly disease that first hit humans and killed six people in 1997.

Incidents of bird flu set off alarms in Hong Kong because of the deadly outbreak six years ago. Officials then killed all 1.4 million chickens in the territory to try to wipe out the virus.

The boy suffering from bird flu and his family visited relatives in China’s Fujian province late last month.

The boy’s 8-year-old sister developed pneumonia and died in a Fujian hospital on Jan. 28. Their 33-year-old father fell sick with pneumonia Feb. 7 and returned to Hong Kong for treatment before dying on Monday. The exact cause of both deaths was still being investigated, officials said.

Philippines

Gunmen kill 14, torch houses in village

Heavily armed men opened fire on a farming village in the southern Philippines and set homes ablaze, killing at least 14 people, officials said today.

A separate bomb attack in an open market killed at least one person. Army spokesman Maj. Julieto Ando said the bomb in the town of Kabacan, in North Cotabato province, apparently detonated prematurely, killing a suspected bomber and wounding three civilians.

Officials suspected the Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels in the bombing and the attack on the village in Zamboanga del Norte, a predominantly Christian province south of Manila.