World Vignettes

Netanyahu may declare general polls

JERUSALEM: Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu seemed certain to have to announce early polls on Tuesday, after analysts gave him no hope of avoiding defeat in a trust vote. Press estimates indicated Netanyahu would have 63 and 66 members of the 120-member parliament, the Knesset, against him, sweeping aside a last-ditch effort to save his government. Last week he said he would only call polls if the Knesset rejected a list of five tough conditions he was insisting the Palestinians abide.

First known octuplets

HOUSTON: A 27-year-old woman has borne the world8217;s first known set of surviving octuplets. The six girls and two boys were listed in critical condition and on ventilators at Texas children8217;s hospital. 8220;It will be a remarkable feat if all the babies do survive,8221; said obstetrician Brian Kirshon, one of the three doctors who helped deliver the babies. The mother, Nkem Chukwu, had taken fertility medicine and been in the hospital since early October.She spent the last two weeks of the pregnancy reclining virtually upside down to keep pressure off her lower body. The octuplets were the first children for Chukwu and her husband Ike, immigrants from Nigeria who now reside at Houston.