International News brief

U.S. health officials say there’s no evidence that the swine flu vaccine is causing any serious side effects.

They say the vast majority of reports have been for minor things like soreness, redness or swelling where the shot was given. From early October through mid-November, about 22 million people were vaccinated.

Officials have been watching whether the new vaccine would cause a rare paralyzing condition called Guillain-Barre syndrome. That condition was seen in higher numbers than usual during a swine flu vaccination campaign in 1976. But there have been only 10 such reports so far in those who got the new swine flu vaccine.

MOGADISHU, Somalia

Kidnapped journalists freed

Somali officials say two foreign journalists kidnapped last year have been freed.

Police spokesman Col. Abdulhai Hassan Barise says Canadian Amanda Lindhout and Australian Nigel Brennan were freed Wednesday and were with police and Somali lawmaker Botan Isse Alin in a hotel in Mogadishu. Barise and Alin declined to say if ransom was paid for their release.

The journalists were kidnapped last August along with their Somali driver and two Somali guards while traveling southwest of the capital.

Journalists and humanitarian workers are frequently abducted for ransoms in Somalia, one of the world’s poorest and most war-torn countries.

WASHINGTON

Change in West Bank

The Obama administration on Wednesday welcomed Israel’s decision to temporarily freeze new construction in Jewish settlements in the West Bank as a step toward restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton issued an approving statement moments after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in Jerusalem the launching of a 10-month moratorium.

“Today’s announcement by the government of Israel helps move forward toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Clinton said. “We believe that through good-faith negotiations the parties can mutually agree on an outcome which ends the conflict and reconciles the Palestinian goal of an independent and viable state based on the 1967 lines, with agreed swaps, and the Israeli goal of a Jewish state with secure and recognized borders that reflect subsequent developments and meet Israeli security requirements.”

TYRONE, Pa.

Police: Sweet on shoplifting

Police say a serial shoplifter from central Pennsylvania has taken three sweet steps over the line and now faces a felony charge.

Thirty-three-year-old Sonya Mosey, of Tyrone, is jailed on a felony retail theft charge for allegedly stealing three snack cakes worth $4.27 from a convenience store. Police say she took a Hostess doughnut and two Tastykake items from the store, though she did pay for a soda pop.

Mosey has been charged with a felony because she has four prior retail theft convictions. She’s also awaiting trials on a separate felony retail theft case, a drug charge, and public drunkenness.