TIMISOARA (AP) – An outbreak of swine fever at a Romanian farm belonging to the world’s largest pork processor has killed 20,000 pigs, officials said Saturday. Swine fever is a viral disease that is fatal to pigs but has no known effect on people. The sickened swine were found at a farm in the southwestern village of Cenei, 20 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of Timisoara, said Ioan Jeleriu, who heads the Veterinary Heath Authority in Timis county, home to many of Romania’s pig farms. Authorities have shut down other farms in the region until inspections of their pigs are carried out. “All the farms are blocked; no pigs are going in or coming out until we determine the health status of every farm,” Jeleriu said.

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (AP) – Pope Benedict XVI yesterday praised the late leader of the Romanian Orthodox Church for his efforts to overcome divisions among Christians. Patriarch Teoctist died July 30 after two decades of leadership that included a historic visit by Pope John Paul II in 1999. Benedict expressed “respect and affection” for Teoctist, saying he was “a noble... shepherd who loved his church and gave a positive contribution to relations between Catholics and Orthodox.” A Vatican document released last month and reasserting the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church drew criticism from other Christians. Teoctist had criticized the document, saying it made inter-church dialogue difficult.

Russian firefighters contained a blaze aboard a Turkish cargo ship Saturday outside the Black Sea port of Sochi as officials tried to decide what to do with the badly listing ship. The ship, identified as the Boztepe, was sailing from the Turkish port of Trabzon under a Sierra Leonean flag carrying automobiles and fruit when it caught fire about 1 kilometer (half a mile) from shore Friday. All 21 crew members and 10 passengers, all Turkish citizens, were safely evacuated. (AP)

A Palestinian-born doctor who spent more than eight years in a Libyan prison over an HIV outbreak is planning to sue Muammar Khadafy, the Dutch news agency ANP reported. “Tomorrow I will examine the options available to me with my lawyer” in a case against Khadafy, Ashraf Juma Hajuj told a news conference in the central city of Woerden, the Netherlands, where his family has been based since 2004. Hajuj accused Khadafy of holding him hostage and of prostituting the law. (AFP)