Mysterious disease kills dozens of dogs across Norway
Helsinki: Norwegian authorities haven’t been able to detect the cause behind an unexplained disease that is estimated to have killed dozens of dogs in the country in recent days, officials said on Saturday. The Norwegian Food Safety Authority said that it had been informed of another six cases of dogs falling ill, with two them already dead, all with the same symptoms of vomiting and bloody diarrhea. The disease seemed “very serious for a dog. But we don’t know yet whether this is contagious or just a series of individual cases,” agency spokesman Ole-Herman Tronerud told public broadcaster NRK. The majority of cases have been reported in and around the capital Oslo, but also in the cities of Bergen and Trondheim, and the northern Nordland municipality. The Norwegian Veterinary Institute said Friday that it had detected two unspecified bacteria in autopsies, but was unable to clarify whether that was the cause of the outbreak. “To have healthy and great Norwegian dogs die so quickly is naturally serious. It’s a very special situation I haven’t been involved in before,” the institute’s emergency and safety director, Jorun Jarp, said Friday. In neighboring Sweden, the National Veterinary Institute said it had been swamped with questions from dog owners concerned over the spread of the disease across the border. The institute said it currently had no information “to show that it is an infectious outbreak or that it would pose a risk to dogs in Sweden.” (AP)
Pak students set school afire after death of classmate
Lahore: The classmates of Hunain Bilal, who was allegedly tortured to death by his school teacher, set their school on fire on Saturday, Pakistani media reports said. On Saturday morning the classmates of Bilal, enraged at his death, entered the school carrying petrol bottles and set the building on fire. However, they managed to set fire to only two rooms of the building. Police officials soon arrived at the spot and arrested several students. The fire brigade also reacted promptly and brought the fire under control before it could spread to other parts of the school. Earlier on Thursday, a teacher at the private school in Lahore’s Gulshan-e-Ravi area allegedly brutally beat the student over failure to complete the homework, leading to his death. (PTI)
Bosnian capital holds 1st pride parade amid heavy security
Sarajevo: Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo, is holding its first ever LGBT pride parade, amid heavy security, while opponents of the event held a gathering of their own. Using sniffer dogs and metal barriers, more than 1,000 police deployed early on Sunday along the route where hundreds of participants marched, singing and waving rainbow flags About a mile away, dozens of followers of a conservative Islamic group have held a rally against the parade. They described the pride march as a “sin” and “humiliation” for Sarajevo. Extremists and hooligans in the past have attacked two queer events in Sarajevo, predominantly a Muslim city, fueling fears of violence ahead of this event. (AP)