A SUICIDAL teenager was shot by an emergency commando team officer in a Florida school toilet after he pulled out a pellet gun that resembled a real weapon and later aimed it at a deputy, authorities said yesterday.

Sheriff Don Eslinger said 15-year-old Christopher Penley brought the gun to Milwee Middle School in his backpack. Two pupils saw it and one persuaded the other to report it.

Deputies eventually cornered him in a restroom, where he was shot. He was taken to hospital, where he was on "advanced life support", the sheriff said.

Further deaths from Asian bird flu

THE number of people who have died from bird flu in Indonesia has climbed to 12, a World Health Organisation official has said.

Tests sent to a Hong Kong laboratory for a 29year-old woman who died earlier this week came back positive, said WHO spokeswoman Sari Setiogi. The agency was still awaiting results for a 39-year-old man who died recently, she said, but local tests indicated he too had the deadly H5N1 virus.

Bird flu has killed hundreds of millions of chickens and ducks since it started ravaging poultry stocks across Asia in 2003, and has jumped to humans, killing at least 78 people, according to WHO's official tally.

Three killed by mob in Indonesia

A MOB attacked three young men for allegedly stealing a motorcycle in central Indonesia, beating them with clubs and machetes and then setting them on fire, a news report said yesterday.

The fatal attack occurred on Wednesday night, after a frenzied crowd accused four men and a 12-year-old boy of theft who were visiting the village of Cikandondong in Banten province.

Two escaped, but the others . . . including the child . . .begged for mercy as they were nearly beaten to death, then taken to a nearby forest, drenched in petrol and set ablaze.