Briefly

Iran

Detained journalist dies from ‘brain stroke’

A Canadian photojournalist allegedly beaten into a coma by Iranian police for taking pictures of a Tehran prison has died, a senior Iranian official said Saturday.

Zahra Kazemi died late Friday in a Tehran hospital after suffering a “brain stroke,” Mohammad-Hossein Khoshvaqt, an official in the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, said in a statement carried by Iran’s official news agency.

The Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Khoshvaqt as saying Kazemi, 54, had been authorized to cover last month’s violent pro-reform protests in Tehran. No mention was made of her arrest.

Canada reiterated its demand for an explanation of the circumstances of her detention and injuries.

Malaysia

Islamic scholars urge dialogue with West

Worried that Islam is being linked to terrorism, Muslim scholars at an international conference Friday proposed encouraging greater dialogue with the West and banning books that promote extremism.

Egypt’s top Muslim cleric, Grand Sheik of Al-Azhar Mohammed Sayed Tantawi — considered by many to be the Sunni Muslim world’s highest religious authority — said Islamic nations should “wholeheartedly open our arms to the people who want peace with us” and reject violence against the innocent.

Delegates at the three-day conference ending Saturday in Putrajaya were discussing issues facing Muslim nations, such as disunity, terrorism and misconceptions about religion.

Argentina

Conjoined twins die 19 days after birth

Two Argentine baby girls born joined from the neck down 19 days ago have died of respiratory failure, according to a media report.

The twins, Lourdes and Lujan, died Thursday, Dr. Gonzalo Medina told the private news agency Noticias Argentinas.

The girls were born June 21 along with a healthy baby boy, above, in the provincial city of San Juan, some 640 miles northwest of Buenos Aires.

The twins shared a heart and other vital organs and had been on a respirator machine since their birth. Doctors said there was no chance they could be separated.

The 25-year-old mother, who was not identified, is in stable condition, Medina said.

Moscow

Bear breaks out of cage, mauls zoo worker

A bear broke out of its cage in a Siberian zoo and mauled a worker to death, police said.

The bear, nicknamed Bourbon, attacked the woman Thursday as she fed gophers in a neighboring cage at the Zheleznogorsk zoo in the Krasnoyarsk region, 2,100 miles east of Moscow, police spokesman Viktor Korolyov said.

The woman was hospitalized but died of her injuries. Another zoo worker attacked by the bear was also hospitalized, Korolyov said.

Turkey

Suspected Kurdish rebels kill four villagers

Suspected Kurdish rebels raided a village in southeastern Turkey, killing four villagers and injuring another, an official said Friday.

The raid occurred Thursday evening in the Bingol province village of Yenikoy, about 550 miles southeast of the capital Ankara, Bingol Gov. Huseyin Avni Cos said on the private NTV news channel.

Cos said a group of “terrorists” kidnapped and tortured five villagers, killing four.