Quotes of the Day

Mystery Epidemic
SUDAN The war-stricken south faces a new calamity: a disease whose first symptom is that victims (usually children) nod deeply and involuntarily when presented with food. "Nodding disease," as aid groups have dubbed the illness, progresses into seizures and stunted growth. "We consider this 100% fatal," says Ben Parker, spokesman for the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Sudan. "Few survive into their twenties." Isolated and underdeveloped, the region is no stranger to exotic diseases, including river blindness and sleeping sickness. Missionaries first encountered nodding disease in 1997, but locals say it's been around since the '80s. Its spread was likely helped by the 20-year-old civil war; perhaps when Sudanese refugees with no immunity contracted the ailment. Nodding disease has so far been found only in a small area, where a 2002 survey

Performance of the week reuters For a homesick guy trying to save a buck, Charles McKinley got the mother of all supersavers. The New York City shipping clerk had himself packed in a crate and sent by air freight to his parents’ home near Dallas. McKinley, 25, could face jail time for the caper, which he later regretted. "I was short of cash," he explained, "and truthfully I really should have waited."

estimated it affected 6% of children in one town. But as long as the war impedes medical help, the affliction's future will remain as unpredictable as its past is mysterious. — By Stephan Faris

Old Foes Make Up
SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO During the first visit to Belgrade by a Croatian President since Serbs and Croats went to war in 1991, both heads of state offered regrets for the actions of their citizens during the conflict. "I want to apologize for all the wrongdoings that any citizen of Serbia and Montenegro has committed against any citizen of Croatia," Serbian President Zvetozar Marovic said at a joint news conference. His counterpart from Zagreb, Stijpe Mesic, said he accepted "the symbolic apology" and offered his own to "all those to whom the citizens of Croatia have inflicted pain or caused damage." The statements follow three years of rapprochement between the erstwhile enemies.

The Final Hurdle
LIBYA The U.N. Security Council lifted decade-old sanctions against Tripoli, paving the way for Libya to pay compensation totaling $2.7 billion to families of the 270 victims of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland. France lifted a threatened veto of the vote after striking a deal with Libya for increased payments to relatives of 170 victims of a French UTA plane blown up over Niger in 1989.

Burden of Proof
IRAN The International Atomic Energy Agency gave Tehran a deadline of Oct. 31 to prove its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, or risk being referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions. In the past six months, IAEA inspectors discovered a series of anomalies in Iran's purportedly peaceful program, including weapons-grade uranium particles in centrifuges at a civilian facility. Iranian officials rejected the deadline as a violation of their sovereignty.

New SARS Fears
SINGAPORE A medical research student became the first person to test positive for SARS since the WHO declared the global epidemic of the disease over in July. The flu-like illness infected more than 8,400 people worldwide; more than 800 died. Investigators are looking at whether contamination at a laboratory could have caused the infection. The WHO said the case did not represent an international public health concern.

Rave Drug Retraction
U.S. The debate over the safety of the drug ecstasy was reignited as scientists at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, retracted research published last year in Science magazine that suggested that just three doses of the drug could cause permanent brain damage and Parkinson's disease. The scientists said that the monkeys used in the research had been given methamphetamine — commonly known as speed — instead.

MEANWHILE IN THE U.K. ...
A Job with Security
Britain's domestic intelligence service MI5 wants you. The normally secretive organization placed an ad in Police Review magazine for static surveillance officers to monitor CCTV footage. Potential spies must be "perceptive enough to spot the smallest details." In return, the service is offering 320,500 a year and a "relaxed, friendly and supportive working environment." Recruits would also benefit, the ad says, "from job security."

• PENNY CAMPBELL
• Mystery Epidemic; Serbs and Croats Make Up; Tehran's Burden of Proof