Asnycnow15 World News February 16th

Bird Flu Has Hong Kong. Legislators are concerned that the latest bird flu scare on the mainland could lead to an epidemic on a scale comparable to SARS in 2003. There’ve been eight reported cases of human bird flu so far this year in different parts of China. Civic Party leader Audrey Eu accused the Hong Kong government of not taking enough precautionary measures. She said answers given by the Secretary for Food and Health, York Chow, at a meeting were merely recitations of existing policies against bird flu.

Cops Suspect Man Was Eaten By Tribe. Six Indians from a tribe in the Brazilian Amazon have been accused of cannibalism. Brazilian police charged the members of the Kulina tribe with murdering Ocelio Alves de Carvalho, a 21-year-old local farmer, and eating parts of his body.  

According to the police, the body was quartered and then carved up, with more than 100 cuts. Several organs, including his heart, brain and liver, were missing when the body was found. 

Danish Criminals Take Toll On Blood. People all over Denmark are getting phone calls from their local blood banks because of a war in the criminal underworld. A gang war has caused a great deal of shootings and stabbings in the last few months, and so the Danish blood bank is in dire need of 600 extra blood donors in order to save the victims in the ongoing fighting. 

Sports
NBA. Everyone knows what’s good about the league right now. Kobe and LeBron are unstoppable, the Celtics are the best defensive team again and the Spurs are shockingly back in the mix.

On the third stop on our preseason tour through the American League East, we check in with the Toronto Blue Jays. Warning: If you don’t like sad stories, this might not be the column for you.

There was a little humble pie dished out at the T.D. Banknorth Garden this past week. The World Champion Boston Celtics and the Boston Bruins, possessors of the NHL's best record, hosted some fellow contenders at home in the last seven days, and lets just say that the results left something to be desired.

Business 

Munich Re, the world’s biggest reinsurer, said global insurance rates need to rise to reflect a projected increase in losses related to natural disasters.

General Motors Corp., the biggest U.S. carmaker, should sell its Opel and Vauxhall brands because plans to keep and reorganize the European units put them at risk of closure, the company’s labor leaders in the region said.

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