Meningitis vaccine to be tested in Mali, Gambia

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- An inexpensive vaccine that could dramatically reduce meningitis deaths in Africa has passed its first clinical trials and will be tested in Mali and Gambia later this year, scientists said Tuesday.

The vaccine, developed in India with funding from software entrepreneur Bill Gates and the World Health Organization, is aimed at ending meningitis epidemics that about once a decade sweep a belt of African countries from Senegal to Ethiopia, killing tens of thousands of children and young adults and disabling many more.

"If our supposition holds, this would result in the elimination of these major epidemics that have plagued Africa for more than 100 years," said Dr. F. Marc LaForce, director of the vaccine development effort.

S. Korean prime minister resigns over golf scandal

SEOUL, South Korea -- President Roh Moo-hyun accepted the resignation of his prime minister Tuesday after the premier set off a scandal by playing golf during a national railway strike.

Lee Hae-chan came under pressure to leave after his golf outing on a March 1 national holiday that coincided with the start of the walkout. His departure was delayed while Roh was on a trip to Africa, but he offered to step down Tuesday when the president returned.

Roh accepted Lee's resignation after ruling party leaders urged him to defuse the scandal ahead of local elections in May.

U.N.: 2004 set record for gases in atmosphere

GENEVA -- Carbon dioxide and other so-called greenhouse gases reached record high levels in the atmosphere in 2004, the World Meteorological Organization said Tuesday in a new report aimed at providing an annual measuring system for emissions widely blamed for global warming.

The publication of WMO's first annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin gives the scientific community worldwide data on the amount of heat-trapping gases created in the burning of fossil fuels.

"Global observations coordinated by WMO show that levels of carbon dioxide, the most abundant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, continue to increase steadily and show no signs of leveling off," WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said.

Leonard Barrie, chief of atmospheric research at WMO, said the work did not draw conclusions about the impact of the emissions on global warming.

Jordan's prosecutor indicts al-Zarqawi

AMMAN, Jordan -- Al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and seven other people were indicted Tuesday in Jordan's worst-ever terror bombing, last November's near-simultaneous attacks at three Amman hotels.

Among those indicted by Jordan's military prosecutor was Sajida Mubarak al-Rishawi, a woman who was meant to be one of four Iraqi suicide bombers but fled when her explosives belt failed to detonate.

Al-Rishawi is the only one of the eight indicted people who is in custody. She will stand trial before Jordan's military State Security Court, the 13-page indictment said. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for the Nov. 9 attacks, in which suicide attackers detonated their bombs in three luxury hotels, killing at least 60 people.

Europe's court throws out suit filed by Saddam

STRASBOURG, France -- Europe's human rights court on Tuesday threw out a lawsuit filed by Saddam Hussein against 21 European countries whose troops joined the U.S.-led military campaign in Iraq, saying the case fell outside its jurisdiction.

Saddam said his arrest, detention and subsequent hand over to the Iraqi authorities and the ongoing trial in Baghdad breached the European Convention on Human Rights.

The former Iraqi president said coalition forces had violated his right to life, liberty and security, and several other articles of Europe's human rights convention.

Boats offer affordable housing, idyllic life

LONDON -- A pair of swans -- Georgie and Sukie -- swam by Tricia Parrott's window as the sunshine reflecting off the canal played glimmery games on the ceiling of her houseboat's main cabin.

"It's a kind of enchantment -- it's magic, really," Parrott said, dabbing at the oils on her easel and talking about why she has made an urban life at the waterline.

"I could be a poor little gray widow rattling around in a house somewhere, but here I get up, I put on the kettle and I'm in the world," said Parrott, 70.

Often unseen, even by neighbors in apartments and houses on nearby dry land, a growing community of people live afloat on Britain's inland waterways, particularly in and around London. Many live on the placid canals that meander though the capital, a legacy of days when they were passageways for coal during the Industrial Revolution.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A5.