Polio workers get police protection

Under police guard, thousands of health workers in Lahore pressed on with a polio immunization program Thursday after nine were killed elsewhere in Pakistan by suspected militants who oppose the vaccination campaign. Immunizations were halted in some parts of Pakistan, and the U.N. suspended its field participation everywhere until better security was arranged. The violence risks reversing recent progress fighting polio in Pakistan, one of three countries in the world where the disease is endemic. Militants have accused health workers of acting as spies for the U.S., alleging the vaccine is intended to make Muslim children sterile.