In Brief

Congo gorilla fighting for its life KINSHASA – National park rangers in the Democratic Republic of Congo are battling to save a 2-month-old gorilla found clinging to its dead mother, who was shot dead through the back of the head, conservationists said on Sunday.

“She’s more or less OK. It is certainly a worrying situation, but not hopeless,” Paulin Ngobobo, senior warden in eastern Congo’s Virunga National Park, told Reuters from the city of Goma where he is looking after the female infant.He said the young mountain gorilla, born on April 15 and named Ndakasi by conservationists, had accepted baby formula from a feeding bottle.* US toll in Iraq tops 3 500 BAGHDAD – Three US soldiers were killed in a bridge collapse caused by a bomb blast near Baghdad on Sunday, the military said, bringing the total US military death toll in Iraq to more than 3 500.”Three coalition force soldiers were killed and six were wounded when the checkpoint they were manning was struck by a suicide car bomb south of Baghdad near Mahmudiyah June 10,” the military said yesterday.An interpreter was also wounded in the attack, which destroyed part of a highway overpass, it said.The deaths bring to 28 the number of US troops killed in Iraq so far this month and the overall death toll to at least 3 501 since the March 2003 invasion, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.* Kenyan blast kills one, hurts 34 NAIROBI – An explosion in a busy central Nairobi street yesterday killed at least one person and injured more than 30, police and witnesses said.A senior officer at the scene said the blast – which sent passers-by flying and left a severed leg lodged in a shattered shop window -seemed to be a suicide bombing.”This sort of attack is very unusual for Nairobi,” added the police officer, who asked not to be named.The explosion occurred during morning rush-hour outside a row of shops near the Ambassadeur hotel in the city’s packed central business district.A mangled corpse lay on the street.Some witnesses said a bomb had gone off in a waste bin, but others said it was held by someone in a bus queue.The blast shattered windows and burned a nearby bus.Nampa-Reuters-AFPIt is certainly a worrying situation, but not hopeless,” Paulin Ngobobo, senior warden in eastern Congo’s Virunga National Park, told Reuters from the city of Goma where he is looking after the female infant.He said the young mountain gorilla, born on April 15 and named Ndakasi by conservationists, had accepted baby formula from a feeding bottle. * US toll in Iraq tops 3 500 BAGHDAD – Three US soldiers were killed in a bridge collapse caused by a bomb blast near Baghdad on Sunday, the military said, bringing the total US military death toll in Iraq to more than 3 500.”Three coalition force soldiers were killed and six were wounded when the checkpoint they were manning was struck by a suicide car bomb south of Baghdad near Mahmudiyah June 10,” the military said yesterday.An interpreter was also wounded in the attack, which destroyed part of a highway overpass, it said.The deaths bring to 28 the number of US troops killed in Iraq so far this month and the overall death toll to at least 3 501 since the March 2003 invasion, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures. * Kenyan blast kills one, hurts 34 NAIROBI – An explosion in a busy central Nairobi street yesterday killed at least one person and injured more than 30, police and witnesses said.A senior officer at the scene said the blast – which sent passers-by flying and left a severed leg lodged in a shattered shop window -seemed to be a suicide bombing.”This sort of attack is very unusual for Nairobi,” added the police officer, who asked not to be named.The explosion occurred during morning rush-hour outside a row of shops near the Ambassadeur hotel in the city’s packed central business district.A mangled corpse lay on the street.Some witnesses said a bomb had gone off in a waste bin, but others said it was held by someone in a bus queue.The blast shattered windows and burned a nearby bus.Nampa-Reuters-AFP