World Briefs

Author: Caroline Vial

Rice and CIA prisons
Two secret prisons operated by the CIA in Poland and Romania were closed to get all suspects off European soil before U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to Europe. Rice admitted shortly before her departure on Monday that the United States had flown terror suspects abroad for interrogation, but she refused to address reports that the United States was holding them without recourse to the law.
As many as 11 top al-Qaida suspects were moved to a new CIA facility in the North African desert, according to ABC News. Rice responded by saying U.S. intelligence operations had saved European lives and had been conducted in cooperation with European governments.
Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot labeled Rice's comments last Tuesday on secret CIA flights and detention centers as"unsatisfactory." Rice defended secret flights and prisons but insisted prisoners were not subjected to torture. Bot told the Dutch parliament Rice's comments were "unsatisfactory," but he admitted "rendition" was not kidnapping, as some critics have said.
- UPI, Washington
- Expatica, Paris

ETA bombings in Madrid
The Basque separattist group ETA detonated five bombs around the Spanish capital on Tuesday. Police and local officials report that no one was hurt in the explosions. ETA detonates explosives regularly as part of its campaign for an independent homland along the Spanish-French border. More than 800 people have been killed in ETA attacks over the years.

- El Mundo, Madrid

Can humans get bird flu?
Reports of human-to-human avan-influenza transmission are being examined by international health authorities, originally claiming that some person-to-person transmission has occured , though "limited health care ressources in Asia make it difficult to detect clustered cases," divulged the Cox News Service.
Meanwhile, China confirmed its fourth case of avian-influenza Tuesday. In response to the outbreaks, Ukraine banned poultry inports after declaring a state of emergency in the autonomous region of Crimea. Mass poultry vaccinations are in progress.

- UPI, Washington