WORLD IN BRIEF: Poor nations may make flu vaccine

The World Health Organization on Tuesday said a deal with U.S. drug maker Schering-Plough Corp. will allow it to provide poor countries with improved vaccine-making technology to prepare for a possible flu pandemic. WHO will license the technology free of charge to vaccine manufacturers in developing countries who take part in a U.N. action plan to stop a global outbreak of the deadly H5N1 flu strain. Schering-Plough, based in Kenilworth, N.J., said the new technology allows vaccines to be delivered more efficiently using a single-dose intranasal spray. A study released by the pharmaceutical industry group IFPMA found that if an H5N1 pandemic outbreak occurred today, manufacturers could need up to four years to meet global demand for a vaccine.

Peace base attack sparks bloodshed

Islamic insurgents attacked a peacekeeping base in Mogadishu, Somalia, for the second time in a week on Tuesday, and clashes between the soldiers and militants left at least 18 people dead throughout the capital. Dozens of other people, including women and children, were seriously injured in Tuesday’s fighting, which came two days after a suicide bomber attacked an African Union peacekeeping base, killing 11 Burundian soldiers.

Police accused of killing suspects

A Kenyan policeman who was later killed says on a video released Tuesday by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights that he saw other police officers execute 58 suspects instead of arresting them. The government-appointed commission, citing the video, demanded the resignation of the country’s police chief, Mohammed Hussein Ali, and called for an investigation.

Lawmaker defies native speech ban

A prominent Kurdish lawmaker gave a speech in his native Kurdish in Turkey’s parliament on Tuesday, breaking taboos and also the law in Turkey, a country that has long repressed its Kurdish minority. State TV cut off the live broadcast as Ahmet Turk spoke.

Satellite boast fuels missile fears

North Korea said Tuesday it is preparing to shoot a satellite into orbit, its clearest reference yet to an impending launch that neighboring nations and the U.S. suspect will be a provocative test of a long-range missile. Intelligence officials reported a flurry of personnel and vehicle activity at the Hwadae launch site, but the North has not yet placed a rocket on the launch pad, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said.

Four sentenced in al-Qaida plot

Four Yemenis were convicted and sentenced up to seven years in prison on Tuesday for forming an al-Qaida cell and plotting to attack government and foreign targets in the country. The court verdict came a day after al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, released a new audio message calling on Yemeni tribes to support the “awakening jihad,” or holy war, in Yemen.

COMING UP

> A U.N.-sponsored war crimes court in Freetown, Sierra Leone, is expected to deliver verdicts today in the cases of three Revolutionary United Front rebel commanders accused of crimes against humanity during a brutal decade-long war for control of the country’s diamond fields. An estimated half-million people were victims of killings, systematic mutilation and other atrocities during the conflict.