China

3 more H7N9 cases reported

Three more people have been confirmed to be infected with H7N9 bird flu in three provinces, health authorities said on Saturday. The infection of a 35-year-old man from Jiangsu province's Wuxi city was confirmed on Friday night, the provincial health department said. A 72-year-old man from Fujian province's Fuqing city was also confirmed as infected on Friday, bringing the total number of infected people in the province this year to 17 - five of whom have died. A 55-year-old woman from Guangdong province's Boluo county was also confirmed to have been infected.

Yunnan

Suspects in terror attack arrested

Four suspects in the Kunming knife attack have been arrested for crimes of organizing, leading, taking part in a terrorist attack and intentional homicide, the Yunnan provincial procuratorate announced on Saturday. A group of knife-wielding assailants attacked civilians at a railway station in Kunming on the evening of March 1, causing 29 deaths and injuring another 143. Police shot to death four of the attackers at the station. The other four were captured and detained by police on March 3.

Ukraine

Klitschko backs 'Chocolate King'

Ukraine's presidential election effectively became a two-horse race on Saturday after boxer-turned-politician Vitaly Klitschko pulled out and threw his weight behind confectionary oligarch Petro Poroshenko. Klitschko's withdrawal sets up a May 25 contest between the man known as the "Chocolate King" and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Several opinions polls already had him in the lead even before he said he would run to succeed ousted president Viktor Yanukovich.

Norway

28 hepatitis A cases reported

A total of 28 cases of hepatitis A infection have been reported over the last few months in Norway, where this disease is said to be rare, the Norwegian news Agency NTB reported on Saturday, quoting public health officials. Health authorities, who were worried by the growing number of hepatitis A cases, are working to determine whether the sick people were infected from a common source. In almost half of the cases, the patients were found to have been infected with the hepatitis A virus while traveling abroad.

Xinhua - Reuters

(China Daily 03/30/2014 page2)