CAIRO -- A 15-year-old Egyptian girl died of bird flu yesterday, the Egyptian Health Ministry said in a statement. The girl was admitted to a hospital on Dec. 20 after being diagnosed with the disease, the official Middle East News Agency quoted an Egyptian Health Ministry statement as saying. Her death brings the number of total human deaths from H5N1 in Egypt to nine, and the number of remaining human cases to 17 since the virus first surfaced in Egyptian poultry in February. An Egyptian woman died of bird flu on Sunday, hours after tests confirmed she and two other members of her extended family had been suffering from the virus, a World Health Organization official said. A regional WHO official said the 15-year-old was from that family. (Reuters)
England
Queen delivers a plea for tolerance
LONDON -- Queen Elizabeth II called for greater religious tolerance in her annual Christmas message which was broadcast yesterday over pictures of Muslims praying in a mosque, a Hindu temple, and the monarch with the country's chief rabbi at a reception. The 15-minute prerecorded speech aired in Britain and its former colonies and intermittently showed the queen dressed in a spring green outfit sitting and delivering her speech at Southwark Cathedral in London. (AP)
Philippines
Fireworks ignite store, killing 24
MANILA -- At least 24 people died in a fire that engulfed a one-story department store in the central Philippines yesterday, police said today. The charred remains of the victims were found inside a bathroom from which they tried to escape , said Chief Superintendent Eliseo dela Paz. At least five people were injured, two of them critically, police said. The fire started from firecrackers and pyrotechnics that ignited near the entrance of a store. The fire swept through the store in Ormoc city, 340 miles southeast of Manila. Emergency exits were reportedly locked. (AP)
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