VIENNA: Austria has reported its first case of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus in a woman from Saudi Arabia who had recently travelled to the Alpine country, ORF Oe 1 radio reported yesterday, citing the health ministry. MERS, thought to originate in camels, causes coughing, fever and pneumonia, and kills about a third of its victims. MERS has infected more than 850 people and killed 333 worldwide. The Saudi Arabian national was being treated in an isolation ward in a hospital in Vienna and all people she had been in contact with would be informed and checked for symptoms, a health ministry official said.
Malema graft
trial postponed
POLOKWANE: A South Afri-can court suspended the corruption trial of firebrand politician Julius Malema, pushing the high-profile case against the self-appointed graft-buster back by nearly a year. Malema, who heads the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters, faces charges of fraud, corruption, money-laundering and racketeering linked to a $5m government contract won five years ago. The trial, delayed for second time in under a year, was forced by the non-availability of a defence lawyer for one of Malema’s co-accused. The trial is now scheduled to open on August 3, 2015.
EU ‘must boost air,
sea migrant rescues’
BRUSSELS: The EU’s new leadership must boost air and naval power in the Mediterranean to rescue migrants who are dying in record numbers trying to reach the continent’s shores, Amnesty International said yesterday. A new report by the group described a “Fortress Europe” blocking out migrants and refugees, many of them fleeing unrest in Syria and other parts of the Middle East as well as north Africa. The International Organisation for Migration said Monday that more than 3,000 migrants have died trying to cross the Mediterranean so far this year, more than double the previous peak in 2011.
Agencies
