briefs package

Cat attack victim expressed concerns

A longtime employee killed by a cougar this weekend at a suburban Portland animal sanctuary had expressed concerns about safety measures at the facility, her mother said Monday. Renee Radziwon, 36, of Portland was killed Saturday while cleaning a cougar enclosure at WildCat Haven in Sherwood. She had worked as an animal care technician and head keeper at the sanctuary for the past eight years. Facility officials said in a statement that it appeared Radziwon had broken its protocol by being alone in the enclosure. Carol Radziwon said her daughter was very careful around the animals and would not break any safety rules, because she had written some of them herself.

TEXAS

Suspects charged in party shooting

Two suspects were charged Monday in connection with a shooting at a house party in suburban Houston that left two teenagers dead and injured 19 others, authorities said. Willie Young, 21, and Randy Stewart, 18, were arrested Monday morning, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. Young is charged with deadly conduct, while Stewart is charged with aggravated assault. Bail for each suspect was set at $250,000. Court records did not indicate whether Young or Stewart has an attorney. The victim killed at the scene has been identified as 17-year-old Qu’eric Richardson. The 16-year-old girl who died at a hospital was identified as Arielle Shepherd. Officials said more than 100 people were at the party Saturday.

POLAND

Marchers try to breach Russian Embassy

Young Poles torched cars, threw stones at police and tried to climb the fence at the Russian Embassy in Warsaw after setting a guard’s booth ablaze during a march Monday by nationalists marking Poland’s Independence Day. Police responded with tear gas and stun grenades, while detaining about a dozen people from a group of a few hundred mostly masked men who initially walked in the march. Elsewhere in the capital and country, many Poles held peaceful events in memory of the country’s regaining sovereignty in 1918 as a result of World War I.

SUDAN

U.N.: Vaccination campaign failed

The director of U.N. humanitarian operations says efforts to vaccinate 165,000 children against polio in Sudan’s troubled South Kordofan and Blue Nile states has failed. John Ging said all technical arrangements for the vaccination campaign during a Nov. 5-12 window announced by the government of Sudan had been agreed between the government and the rebel SPLM-North. But Ging said the SPLM-North, which is backed by South Sudan and has been fighting government forces in the two states, insisted on a final meeting and the government said “no.”

SAUDI ARABIA

Deadly MERS virus found in camel

The Saudi Health Ministry says it has discovered a deadly virus in a camel in the eastern Saudi province of Jiddah. The ministry’s statement released Monday is considered an important development in the search for the origin the deadly illness. There have been more than 60 deaths from the virus known as Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, with all but a handful of the fatalities in Saudi Arabia. The ministry said a sample from the camel was tested near the home of a patient infected with the virus.

HAWAII

China, U.S. begin joint exercise

Army officials from China and the United States are meeting in Hawaii for an annual disaster relief exercise that will include field training for the first time this year. Specifics of the exercise scenario starting today have not been publicly released. U.S. Army Pacific officials have only described it as a humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operation requiring U.S. and China military cooperation in a fictional third country. On Thursday, U.S. and Chinese soldiers will train in a field exercise at Bellows Air Force Base, on a Marine Corps training area on the east side of Oahu.

MEXICO

Former union leader Galicia dies

Joaquin Hernandez Galicia, the once-feared boss of Mexico’s powerful oil workers union, died Monday at age 91, his sons said. Hernandez died after spending several days in a hospital in the northern city of Tampico for stomach problems, said his son Juan Manuel Hernandez Correa. Hernandez spent nearly nine years in prison after troops stormed his home and arrested him on manslaughter and weapons charges in 1989 in what the government described as a crackdown on corruption. Hernandez was an old-style labor leader who became one of Mexico’s most powerful and wealthiest men through patronage and strong-arm tactics.