CUBA
Hunger strike numbers rise at prison
The number of detainees at the wartime prison at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base deemed to be on a hunger strike by the military spiked again Friday to 63. Defense lawyers contend that the overwhelming majority of the 166 prisoners have been participating in the protest. The official count of 63 was an increase from 52 on Wednesday. On April 12, the eve of a predawn and briefly violent raid by guards who forced prisoners living in communal cellblocks into lockdown in individual cells, there were 43 participating. Fifteen prisoners have lost enough weight that they are being forced to eat a liquid nutritional supplement through a tube in their nose, an increase from 13 earlier in the week.
IRELAND
Jury: Woman denied abortion got poor care
A miscarrying Indian woman who died from blood poisoning in an Irish hospital after being denied an abortion died because staff bungled her diagnosis and didn’t give her prompt treatment, a jury unanimously ruled Friday. The findings from a two-week coroner’s inquest into the causes of Savita Halappanavar’s Oct. 28 death at University Hospital Galway confirmed what her widower, Praveen, has maintained: Hospital staff refused to give his wife an abortion citing the country’s Catholic social policies, waited three days until the 17-week-old fetus had died, then discovered she was in an advanced state of septicemia. She died three-and-a-half days later. Halappanavar said legal action would continue to try to make particular staff responsible for her death.
UNITED KINGDOM
TV entertainer arrested in sex scandal
In the latest twist in the sexual-abuse scandal that has shaken Britain’s public broadcaster, one of the country’s best-known television entertainers, Rolf Harris, for whom Queen Elizabeth II once sat for a portrait, has been arrested on suspicion of unspecified sexual offenses, British news reports said Friday. Harris, 83, was arrested March 28, but only identified by name Friday by The Sun newspaper. The BBC followed suit, having previously refrained from identifying him for what the broadcaster called “legal reasons.” The BBC said Friday that the entertainer had not been formally charged with an offense.
UNITED KINGDOM
Man dies as measles epidemic spreads
A 25-year-old man is suspected to have died from measles as an epidemic continues to sweep across south Wales, authorities say. The outbreak has led to more than 800 infections and renewed discussions over the failure of some parents to vaccinate their children against the potentially fatal virus. An anti-vaccine movement has helped push measles cases to an 18-year high in England and Wales. It’s not yet clear whether the man died of the virus. Public health officials in Wales said tests showed he was infected with measles at the time of his death but that the cause was still being investigating.
ITALY
Parliament fails to tap president
Italy’s polarized Parliament failed in a second day of balloting Friday to elect a president, as the high-profile candidacy of ex-Premier Romano Prodi fell far short of the votes needed. The rebuff deepened the political paralysis gripping the eurozone’s third-largest economy. Prodi, the only politician to defeat media mogul Silvio Berlusconi for the premier’s office, was the center-left latest choice to be Italy’s next head of state, replacing President Giorgio Napolitano, whose 7-year term expires next month.
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