WORLD briefs

HAVANA.Cuban state media have released a second recent photo showing Fidel Castro in regular civilian clothing instead of the track suits that he commonly wore after falling ill in July 2006. In the picture, the 83-year-old Castro is shaking hands with the visiting head of the Chinese parliament in the walled backyard of an undisclosed home.

SANTIAGO.Chilean authorities say they have destroyed 90,000 turkey eggs since swine flu was detected in the birds two weeks ago. Victor Venegas, director of the Agriculture and Livestock Service, said the outbreak in turkeys has been contained, but a quarantine will remain in place for two more weeks.

LONDON.A British court issued a landmark ruling Friday, allowing a transsexual prisoner serving life for manslaughter and attempted rape to be transferred to a women's prison. High Court Deputy Judge David Elvin said the refusal of Justice Secretary Jack Straw and the prison authorities to transfer the 27-year-old was a violation of her human rights.

GENEVA. Some 350,000 people in West Africa have been affected by serious flooding, the United Nations said Friday, noting that "significant" rainfall has lashed the region this year. Burkina Faso, Niger, Ghana, Guinea, Senegal and Benin have all been hit by the floods.

SEOUL. North Korea it is on the threshold of mastering a new way of building atomic bombs, pressuring the US to agree to direct negotiations or see the communist regime become a greater nuclear risk.

URUMQI. Five people died in unrest this week in the far-west Chinese city of Urumqi, the deputy mayor said today, after a day of protests, tear gas and unabated anger at the ruling Communist Party. Han Chinese protesters massed for a third day in the capital of the Xinjiang region, to protest that authorities had failed to control a spate of syringe attacks and had been slow to bring to trial ethnic Uighurs charged with deadly rioting on July 5.

PADUCAH.A former soldier is scheduled to be sentenced to life in prison without parole for the rape and murder of an Iraqi teenager and the shooting deaths of three of her family members. US District Judge Thomas B. Russell is expected to hand down the automatic life sentence to former Pfc. Steven Dale Green, 24, of Midland, Texas today.