<B> HARARE. Zimbabwe says HIV rate declines to 18.1 percent.</B> The number of of people infected with the virus that causes AIDS is down in Zimbabwe due to increased awareness but the country still has one of the highest HIV rates in the world, state media reported yesterday. Health Minister David Parirenyatwa was quoted by the Herald newspaper as saying the government’s latest Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey showed that the country’s HIV prevalence rate had declined to 18.1 percent from 20.1 percent from 2004. The newspaper said the survey showed a rise in condom use, a delay by young girls in starting sex and an awareness rate of HIV/AIDS of up to 99.2 percent.

<B>BAGHDAD. Suicide car bomb kills 10. </B>A suicide car bomb exploded at the entrance of a petrol station allocated for police vehicles in eastern Baghdad yesterday, killing 10 civilians, an Interior Ministry source said. Thick black smoke was seen rising from the scene and witnesses saw ambulances and police vehicles transporting casualties to hospitals. Sunni insurgents fighting Iraq’s Shi’ite-led government frequently carry out large bomb attacks, often targeting the US-trained Iraqi security forces.

<B>SOFIA. Bulgarian woman dies of anthrax, infected by sheep.</B> A 70-year-old Bulgarian woman has died of anthrax after contact with an infected sheep but there is no danger of a wider outbreak among people, a state health official said yesterday. The woman from the village of Kamen in northeast Bulgaria contracted the disease after processing meat from a sheep her family later cooked and ate, said the head of the health ministry’s epidemics control unit. She died on August 31. “We can confirm it was anthrax. But the woman could not have endangered other people,” he told Reuters. Anthrax is a disease caused by spore-forming bacteria normally contracted through contact withinfected livestock.

<B>MOSCOW, Fire aboard Russian nuclear sub kills two. </B>A fire on board a Russian nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea killed two crew members but there was no threat of a radiation leak, the Defence Ministry said. The fire in an electrical equipment room was away from the submarine’s reactor and was put out by the crew, officials said. The vessel is being towed back to port. The Russian navy’s safety record has been under scrutiny since the Kursk atomic submarine sank in the Barents Sea six years ago, killing all 118 crew members. “The crew did everything within their power to put out the fire. Two people suffered smoke inhalation from the thick smoke. They were evacuated from the submarine but it was not possible to save their lives.” The submarine, the St Daniel of Moscow, was a Viktor class attack submarine which would likely have been carrying torpedoes but not nuclear weapons, said defence experts.

<B>KHARTOUM. Sudan papers mourn death of beheaded editor.</B> The beheading of a Sudanese editor who had angered some Islamists might mark the start of a gruesome new trend, commentators said yesterday. Mohamed Taha whose decapitated body was found dumped on a dirt road on Wednesday had drawn protests from Islamic groups last year by reprinting a series of articles questioning the roots of the Prophet Mohammed.

<B>DHAKA. Bangladesh jute workers clash with police, 100 hurt. </B>At least 100 people were injured when police fired teargas and rubber bullets to disperse thousands of Bangladesh jute workers demanding their wages. They said clashes erupted at Khalishpur industrial area in southwestern Khulna district, 350 km (220 miles) from the capital, Dhaka. Separately, hundreds of jute mill workers blocked a highway at Sitakunda, 250 km ( 56 miles) southeast of Dhaka disrupting communication between the capital and the country’s main Chittagong port.