International News brief

A person has died of swine flu at a hospital in Scotland in the first death from the illness reported in Britain, officials said Sunday.

It also was the first death from the H5N1 strain of influenza reported outside the Americas by the World Health Organization in Geneva or the European Centers for Disease Control in Stockholm, which both keep tabs on confirmed cases of swine flu and deaths from the illness in countries around the world.

Scotland’s government said the patient suffering from swine flu died at a hospital there. It said the patient was one of 10 people being treated for the influenza at the facility.

WASHINGTON

CIA head criticizes Cheney

CIA Director Leon Panetta says former Vice President Dick Cheney’s criticism of the Obama administration’s approach to terrorism almost suggests “he’s wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point.”

Panetta told The New Yorker for an article in its June 22 issue that Cheney “smells some blood in the water” on the issue of national security.

Cheney has said in several interviews that he thinks Obama is making the U.S. less safe. He has been critical of Obama for ordering the closure of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, halting enhanced interrogations of suspected terrorists and reversing other Bush administration initiatives he says helped to prevent attacks on the U.S.

Last month the former vice president offered a withering critique of Obama’s policies and a defense of the Bush administration.

WASHINGTON

Alleged shooter to recover

Authorities say the man charged with killing a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum will likely survive the injuries he suffered when other museum guards returned fire.

FBI Supervisory Special Agent Katherine Schweit said in a written statement Saturday that government lawyers told court officials that James von Brunn “was in critical, but stable, condition with an expectation of survival.” They made the statement Thursday when von Brunn’s case was called for an initial appearance hearing.

The 88-year-old von Brunn — who was shot in the face — is charged with murder in the Wednesday shooting of 39-year-old security guard Stephen T. Johns.

BAGHDAD

Iraq transfers contractors

Two American contractors were transferred Sunday from Iraqi to U.S. custody, the U.S. Embassy said, stressing that Iraqi authorities requested the move in line with a security pact that took effect this year.

The men have been held since June 3 when they were detained with three other Americans by U.S.-backed Iraqi forces as part of an investigation into the stabbing death of a fellow contractor.