Number of new killer bacteria infections dropping

The number of new killer bacteria infections is dropping in Germany, Health Minister Daniel Bahr said on television Wednesday. "I can't yet cancel the warnings, but we now have reasons to hope as the number of new infections is continuously dropping," he told ARD public television. "There will likely still be new cases, and we must unfortunately still reckon with new deaths, but the number of new infections is clearly dropping, and the worst of the illness is behind us," he added. His comments came as top health and consumer affairs officials from Germany and the European Union were to hold crisis talks in Berlin on how to fight a bacteria that has killed 24 and left more than 3,000 ill, mostly in northern Germany. Bahr, Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Minister Ilse Aigner, and their counterparts from all of the country's 16 states, were to discuss the issue with EU health commissioner John Dalli.