More deaths, infection reported
GENEVA: Mexico;s A (H1N1) flu death toll rose by four as the virus continued to spread through Latin America and made inroads in Asia, with the number of Japanese infection topping 200 yesterday.

WHO told to revise pandemic alert rule
GENEVA: Britain, Japan, China and other nations urged the World Helath Organisation (WHO) yesterday to change the way it decides to declare a pandemic - saying the agency must consider how dealy the virus is, not just how fast it is spreading.

In the first case of swine flu in the Middle East, an Israeli man who recently returned from Mexico was on Tuesday confirmed to have contracted the potentially deadly virus, officials said. “The virus was confirmed,” said Matilda Schwartz, spokeswoman for the Laniado hospital in  Netanya, where the man had been under observation since Sunday [...]

The growing number of people crossing boundaries in South-East Asia searching for economic opportunity puts millions at risk to HIV infection with little or no protection or access to services, according to a United Nations report launched today.