Global swine flu death toll tops 700

The H1N1 swine flu virus has killed more than 700 people across the world,the World Health Organisation has said.

Margaret Chan, WHO director-general, announced an increase in deaths of two-thirds from the previous figure of 429 and said that the swine flu pandemic will be the worst ever seen.

Despite the increase in deaths, most people experience only mild symptoms after contracting the virus. The majority of patients will recover within a week and don't require medical treatment.

Experts say that H1N1 has spread as widely in six weeks as previous pandemics have in over six months. An increase in international travel is thought to be the cause for this and the EU says that they expect to see a spike in cases as summer holiday travel begins.
EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vasiliou warned that "the anticipated arrival of seasonal flu in October, November, December, when added to the pandemic, is going to have an important effect on the acceleration of the spread of the virus, and a rise in the numbers of deaths,"

The WHO has said that as the virus is now so widespread it is unnecessary and pointless to document each case. However, they have warned that governments should monitor unusual patterns of disease spread. There have been 125,000 laboratory-confirmed cases of H1N1 internationally but the true number of infected people is thought to be much higher.

A spokeswoman for WHO said that a range of measures to slow the virus' spread were being considered with advice from a team of experts in the spread of disease. Aphaluck Bhatiasevi, of WHO, said that school measures may be recommended but ultimately each country's government would determine their own precautions.

Meanwhile in Australia, medical trails have begun on the H1N1 vaccine on volunteers in Adelaide. The full tests will take seven months to complete, however, preliminary results could allow the vaccine to be available for use by October. It is hoped that supplies of the jab will be produced in time for the flu season, when autumn arrives in the Northern Hemisphere.

'Day of action' planned for Iran

A international 'day of action' has been planned by a group of human and civil rights organisations for restoration of human rights in Iran.

United4Iran aims to bring an end to the human rights violations seen in Iran in response to post-election protests. The group is planning rallies in over 55 cities with the aim to "to condemn the widespread and systematic violations of the Iranian people’s human rights and to call for full restoration of their human and civil rights."

The actions, to be held on Saturday 25 July, are supported by religious leaders, Nobel Peace Laureates and global stars including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Jody Williams, Sean Penn and Shirin Ebadi. Archbishop Tutu said "We deplore the violence and crackdown on peaceful protesters, the increasing restrictions on civil liberties, and the imprisonment of a growing number of civil leaders in Iran."

Nobel Peace Laureate and human rights activist, Shirin Ebadi, commented that "If one country sincerely wants to support democracy in another country that is under dictatorial rule, the only thing to do is to support the freedom fighters who stand for the democratic institutions of that country. Done this way, the sapling of democracy will bear the flower of freedom."




Twenty-seven Iranian political activists, human rights advocates and academics have also called for a hunger strike in front of the UN headquarters in New York from 22-24 July. They have Iranians living in the United States to join them in their display of solidarity with the struggle of the Iranian people.

Following last month's presidential election in Iran, millions of Iranians took to the streets of Tehran and other cities in protest at Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election. The government responded with a tough, violent crackdown on demonstrators and banned foreign news media from reporting from 'illegal' rallies. Many Iranian protestors used internet sites such as twitter and youtube to plan rallies and spread information, pictures and videos.

Post-election protests continue in Iran

Demonstrations have continued across Iran after weeks of unrest in the country following the controversial re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president.

The Iranian authorities have maintained their severe restrictions on the foreign media by limiting their movements and banning them from reporting from 'illegal rallies'. As a result, social media sites, such as twitter and youtube, have been used by Iranian protestors to get information, pictures and videos out of the country. Recent reports suggest that their have been many protests across Iran's major cities. Some internet users have also commented on continuing violent clashes between demonstrators and Basji militia.

Despite continued threats from the government that protests will be "smashed", Iranians, angered by what they say was a rigged election, are defiantly taking to the streets. Now, almost a month after the ballot, one internet user posted ""we know that Freedom is not free, we pay with our life", another says "It is not just democracy that is illegal in Iran".

In response to the oppostion rallies in the days following the election Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the guardian council announced a 10% recount of the vote. After this had been conducted the council concluded that Ahmadinejad was the clear winner and that no voting irregularities had occurred. This attempt to appease angry demonstrators was unsuccessful and the Iranian government has since adopted a hardline approach to protestors.


The Iranian government has also accused foreign governments of starting the protests, with attacks centred on the UK. The two countries have been involved in a diplomatic row which has seen the expulsion of both Iranian and British embassy workers and the arrest of British embassy employees in Tehran. In several speeches Iran's top clerics have condemned British 'imperialism' and accused Britain of inspiring the anti-government demonstrations. In a speech at Friday prayer's in Tehran's university, Ayatollah Khamenei described the UK as "evil", after several years of nick-naming the country 'the little satan'. The US, having no diplomatic representation in Iran, has generally escaped criticism and many say this has intensified the attacks on Britain.

Police to investigate phone tap allegations

Police are to investigate allegations published in The Guardian that The News of the World has hacked into the phones of "thousands" of public figures.

The paper is accused of tapping the phones of politicians, including Former Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and government minister Tessa Jowell, as well as celebrity publicist Max Cliford and actress and model Elle Macpherson.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson has ordered an investigation into the claims that the paper had paid private investigators to hack into "two or three thousand" people's phones. Sir Paul said that he wished to "establish the facts" and has said that Assistant Commissioner John Yates would look into the detail of the claims.

In a statement to the commons Home Office Minister David Hanson said that "serious allegations" had been made and that the Home Secretary had spoken to the Met Commissioner. He added that the claims "deserve an examination. The Metropolitan Police this afternoon will be examining those allegations. I will report back to the House in due course.".

The guardian says that the details of the 'widespread' phone tapping emerged during a court case involving Professional Footballers' Association head, Gordon Taylor, and The News of the World. But the paper says that the police and the High Court suppressed the release of information on further phone tapping by The News of the World.

There have also been claims that newspapers belonging to Rupert Murdoch's News Group, part of News Corporation, have paid out more than £1 million to settle claims of it's journalist using criminal methods.

North Koreans remember death of president

North Koreans have commemorated the 15th anniversary of the death of Kim Il-Sung, the country's founder and eternal president.

State TV showed people laying flowers at and bowing to the huge statue of Kim Il-Sung in Pyongyang. The country's 'great leader' died of a heart failure on July 8th 1994, aged 82 and scenes of mass, hysterical mourning followed. The founder of the isolated nation is still the centre of an intense personality cult and is a greatly revered figure. Resident of Pyongyang, Hwang In San said "The Great Leader, President Kim Il Sung, is always alive, not only in the hearts of our people, but also in the minds of people all over the world,". When Kim Il-Sung died 15 years ago North Koreans were seen weeping in the streets of Pyongyang and other cities across the country and news readers cried openly as they delivered the news of their leader's death.


The nation's current leader, Kim Jong-Il, made a rare public appearance at his father's memorial ceremony, held in Kumsusan Memorial Palace, Pyongyang, where Kim Il Sung's embalmed body lies. Kim Jong-Il is the de facto leader after his father's death and is referred to as the 'dear leader'. Whilst he assumed power after his death, he never adopted the title of president and this position has been officially dissolved.

Reports say that 67 year old Kim Jong-Il suffered a stroke last year, intensifying the interest in who will succeed him as the next leader of the isolated dictatorship. The country has recently received international condemnation for its nuclear and missile tests and has been accused for attempting destabilising the region.

Sink migrant boats says BNP leader

BNP leader, Nick Griffin, has said that boats carrying migrants from Africa to Europe should be sunk.

Griffin, who was elected to the European parliament last month, said that his party would support an ocean-going force to patrol the Mediterranean sea and called for measures to be "very tough with those coming over". In an interview to BBC parliament, Mr Griffin proposed new measures to deal with the 37,000 immigrants who enter Europe from Africa every year and said that "Frankly, they need to sink several of those boats,".

Nick Griffin was clear to point out that he was not supporting the murder of immigrants at sea, adding that "they can throw them a life raft". Leader of the far-right party said that the only way to stop Europe being "swamped by the Third World" was to "sooner or later to close its borders".

After being elected as an MEP for North West England in June's Europe-wide elections, Griffin was forced to admit that he was unable to find enough extremist allies in the European parliment to form a 'group'. Mr Griffin, along with fellow BNP member Andrew Brons, will take their seat in Brussels next week.

Chinese city under curfew

In the Western Chinese city of Urumqi, Xinjiang province, autorites have imposed a curfew after ethnic riots killed 153 people on Sunday.

Han Chinese, heavily armed, took to the streets of Urumqi in response to violence by the minority Muslim Uighurs. Police fired tear gas at the protestors and over 1,400 arrests were made.

Many Uighur men were arrested in what protestors described as abitary arrests in a massive sweep of the city's Uighur populated districts. After Uighur women had rallied in the streets, Han Chinese smashed shops and other properties owned by Uighurs. Police attempted to prevent the Han demonstrators from accessing the Muslim Uighur areas and fired tear gas at the armed protestors. The Han chinese are angry at the security forces failure in dealing with protestors and have been chanting "down with the Uighurs" during their demonstrations.

As night fell in the city reports say that there is a high security presence in the city centre, as well as at major road junctions across Urumqi.