WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A global fund to boost agricultural investment in the world's poor countries will release about $120 million in October to states who qualify, a senior US Treasury said on Friday.

Treasury Under-Secretary Lael Brainard said more than 25 countries are expected to ask for funding from under the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program.

The fund was launched in April to boost agricultural production in poor countries following a steep and sudden rise in food prices in 2008, which highlighted the years of underinvestment in agriculture. 

On Friday, representatives from 11 African nations met with Brainard and Sylvia Mathews Burwell, president of global development at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has contributed to the fund.

Brainard urged more donors to step forward with funding for the program following $22 billion in pledges by the Group of Eight leaders' summit in Italy last year.

New E. coli strain affects Americans
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new, virulent and drug-resistant strain of E. coli bacteria is infecting people in the United States and posing a significant public health threat, doctors reported on Friday.

The new strain is called ST131 and caused many of the E. coli infections resistant to antibiotics in the fluoroquinolone and cephalosporin classes, the researchers said.

''If this strain gains one additional resistance gene, it will become almost untreatable and will be a true superbug, which is a very concerning scenario,'' Dr. James Johnson of the VA Medical Center in Minneapolis, who led the study, said in a statement.

Writing in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, Johnson and colleagues said the ST131 strain has been reported in several countries and across the United States.

They tested samples from 127 patients with E. coli infections that resisted strong extended- spectrum cephalosporin and fluoroquinolone antibiotics in 2007. Of these, genetic tests showed 54 were from the new ST131 strain.

Iran earthquake injures 170 people
TEHRAN (Reuters) – An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7 hit northeastern Iran, injuring around 170 people, state radio reported on Saturday.

The tremor hit the city of Torbat-e Heydariyeh, about 700 km (435 miles) east of Tehran, at 6:20 p.m. (1350 GMT) on Friday, and had its epicentre around 7 km outside the city.

Many people spent the night outdoors in the city's parks fearing aftershocks.

Of the 170 injured, 22 needed hospital treatment while the others were treated on site. No deaths were reported.

Earthquakes are common in Iran. In 2003, about 30,000 people were killed in a quake that devastated the southeastern city of Bam.

Media oulet in Sri Lanka torched
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) – A dozen men armed with assault rifles and petrol bombs attacked the offices Friday of a media company whose owners had strongly supported the opposition in the last presidential election.

The men entered the premises of Voice of Asia Network in the Sri Lankan capital around 1:30 a.m. Friday and assaulted a security guard before setting the buildings on fire with petrol bombs, said Jimmy Deen, a spokesman for the company, which runs a private television station and three radio stations.

The security guard and another employee were injured. The blaze gutted the building housing the company's television channel Siyatha TV and damaged the station's control room, studio and library, Deen said.

The TV station had to be shut down, but the radio stations were still broadcasting. Police spokesman Prishantha Jayakody confirmed the attack, but said authorities needed more time to confirm the details.