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MADRID/GENEVA (Reuters) – The World Health Organization is likely to raise its flu alert to the top of its six-point scale and declare a pandemic, its director-general indicated in an interview published on Monday.

In remarks setting the scene for another alert increase, but without saying when, WHO chief Margaret Chan warned against over-confidence following a stabilization in the number of new cases of the H1N1 strain that has proved deadly in Mexico.

“Level 6 does not mean, in any way, that we are facing the end of the world. It is important to make this clear because (otherwise) when we announce level 6 it will cause an unnecessary panic,” she told Spanish newspaper El Pais.
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ATLANTA – About a third of the confirmed U.S. cases of swine flu are people who had been to Mexico and likely picked up the infection there, a federal health official said Saturday.

But investigations indicate many cases are getting the illness here, and that it probably still is spreading, said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In a press briefing, CDC officials said the agency knows of confirmed cases from 21 states, with Connecticut, Florida and Missouri the latest to join the list.
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reuters.com

BERLIN (Reuters) – Riot police battled 700 stone-throwing left-wing militants in Berlin for more than five hours in May Day clashes that stretched into the early pre-dawn hours on Saturday.

The attackers also hurled petrol bombs and poured flammable liquids on police in the city’s worst Labour Day violence in four years. Authorities said 237 police were injured — mostly bruises and contusions — while 14 suffered serious wounds.

A total of 289 demonstrators were taken into detention, where they face arrest on charges of bodily harm and rioting.
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The U.S. Forest Service is closing thousands of caves and former mines in national forests in 33 states in an effort to control a fungus that has already killed an estimated 500,000 bats.

Bats have been dying at alarming rates from what scientists call “white-nose syndrome,” so-named because it appears as a white powder on the face and wings of hibernating bats.

The problem was first spotted in New York and within two years has spread to caves in West Virginia and Virginia. There’s no evidence the fungus is harmful to people.
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WASHINGTON – A member of the U.S. delegation that helped prepare Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s trip to Mexico City has demonstrated flu-like symptoms and his family members have tested probable for swine flu.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday that three members of an aide’s family are being tested to see if they have the same strain of swine flu that is threatening to become a pandemic. The aide worked in presidential advance, which is responsible for planning and preparing trips.

Gibbs said that Secretary Chu has not experienced any symptoms. The spokesman also said that President Barack Obama also has had no symptoms of the virus and doctors see no need to conduct any tests on his health.

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news.yahoo.com

APELDOORN, Netherlands – A Dutch driver careened through police barriers and plowed into a crowd of merrymakers cheering their popular queen Thursday, in a premeditated assault on the royal family that killed five bystanders and injured 12, authorities said.

The speeding car, already dented apparently from catapulting bystanders into the air, passed within a few meters (yards) of the open-topped bus carrying Queen Beatrix and her family down a parade route, then smashed into a stone monument.

“I think that it has become clear that this happened with premeditation,” Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said.
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cbsnews.com

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has sent a memo to some health care providers noting procedures to be followed if the swine flu outbreak eventually makes quarantines necessary.

DHS Assistant Secretary Bridger McGaw circulated the swine flu memo, which was obtained by CBSNews.com, on Monday night. It says: “The Department of Justice has established legal federal authorities pertaining to the implementation of a quarantine and enforcement. Under approval from HHS, the Surgeon General has the authority to issue quarantines.”

McGaw appears to have been referring to the section of federal law that allows the Surgeon General to detain and quarantine Americans “reasonably believed to be infected” with a communicable disease. A Centers for Disease Control official said on Tuesday that swine flu deaths in the U.S. are likely.
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timesonline.co.uk

Egyptian leaders ordered the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of pigs today to help protect against swine flu, prompting angry protests from the poor Christian farmers who feed their animals with a country’s food scraps. The decision was also criticised as a “real mistake” by a senior UN food expert.

The Arab world’s most populous nation has been been badly hit by the H5N1 bird flu virus in recent years and the move to cull up to 400,000 pigs – seen by Muslims as unclean animals – was designed to calm fears of an impending pandemic.

But it left Egypt’s large Coptic Christian minority up in arms, especially the slum-dwelling “Zebaleen” rubbish collectors who rely on the hogs for their livelihood. Scores of them blocked the streets and stoned the vehicles of Health Ministry workers as they arrived to carry out the government’s order at pig farms on the outskirts of Cario this afternoon.
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reuters.com

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s president ordered a partial economic shutdown to slow the spread of the swine flu virus as officials urged increased precautions against an imminent pandemic.

One day after the World Health Organization warned that the world was on the brink of a global outbreak of the new flu strain H1N1, an International Monetary Fund economist warned that some countries could see drastic consequences from the illness.

New cases of swine flu infections were reported in the United States, Latin America and in Europe. U.S. officials said new infections were occurring, although only a handful of people outside Mexico have required hospital treatment.
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wired.com

The deadly H1N1 influenza virus that’s fueling fears of a global pandemic is a hybrid of two common pig flu strains, scientists who have studied the disease told Wired.com Tuesday. Earlier reports called it a combination of pig, human and avian influenza strains.

The findings may resolve some uncertainty about the nature of the virus, but much is still unknown about its origins and effects.

“This is what we call a reassortment between two currently circulating pig flu viruses,” said Andrew Rambaut, a University of Edinburgh viral geneticist. “Why it’s emerged in humans is anyone’s guess. It hasn’t been seen before in pigs as far as I know.”
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news.yahoo.com

WASHINGTON – Joe Biden said Thursday he advised his family to stay off airplanes and subways because of the new swine flu, a remark that forced the vice president’s office to backtrack and prompted one airline official to complain about “fear-mongering.”

“I would tell members of my family — and I have — that I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places now,” Biden said on NBC’s “Today” show.

Biden, who has a reputation for off-the-cuff remarks, went beyond any precautions recommended by the federal government. In discussing his personal advice to his family, he said simply, “That’s me.”
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Chrysler LLC will proceed with Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection now that talks with debt-holders have broken down, an administration official said on Thursday.

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cnsnews.com

[ DAN 11:37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all. ]

(CNSNews.com) – Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) said he was “disturbed” by President Barack Obama’s request to have the symbolic name for Jesus Christ – IHS – covered from a pediment that was visible behind him when he spoke at Georgetown University’s Gaston Hall on April 14.

“I join many Christians in expressing my outrage at this request,” Fleming said after requesting one minute to speak on the House floor.
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news.yahoo.com

MEXICO CITY – Mexico took even more drastic action to squelch a swine flu epidemic, ordering a suspension of private business activity and nonessential federal government activities, as the World Health Organization ratcheted up an alert, warning that “all of humanity” is threatened.

The dire warning showed that world health officials are very worried about the potential for massive numbers of deaths worldwide from the mutated virus, even though the epidemic so far has claimed only a confirmed eight lives in Mexico and one in the United States. Roughly 170 deaths are suspected of having been caused by the virus in Mexico.

Switzerland on Thursday became the latest country to report a swine flu infection — a 19-year-old student who health officials said was mistakenly released from a hospital and then hastily readmitted. European Union health ministers planned emergency talks in Luxembourg to coordinate national efforts in preventing the spread of swine flu in Europe.
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SEOUL, South Korea – South Korean scientists say they have engineered four beagles that glow red using cloning techniques that could help develop cures for human diseases. The four dogs, all named “Ruppy” — a combination of the words “ruby” and “puppy” — look like typical beagles by daylight.

But they glow red under ultraviolet light, and the dogs’ nails and abdomens, which have thin skins, look red even to the naked eye.

Seoul National University professor Lee Byeong-chun, head of the research team, called them the world’s first transgenic dogs carrying fluorescent genes, an achievement that goes beyond just the glowing novelty.
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presstv.com

Considering the rapidly increasing number of confirmed swine flu cases, WHO officials have decided to raise the pandemic alert level to phase 5.

Swine Influenza (swine flu) caused by type A influenza, regularly leads to influenza outbreaks among pigs. The virus does not normally infect humans.

Confirmed sufferers in the United States and Mexico, however, are believed to have spread the disease to their families and others in close contact.
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wral.com

Some cases of swine flu suspected in N.C.

Raleigh, N.C. — The state’s health director said Monday afternoon that there are suspected cases of swine flu in North Carolina, but declined to say how many cases or where they were located.

Dr. Jeffrey Engel said Monday evening that officials are involuntarily isolating patients who may have the virus. He declined to specifically say how many suspected cases were in the state, noting that the number is always changing, and he declined to say where they were located.

“We’re working very closely with providers, and they are investigating cases on a daily basis,” Engel said. “It’s a very fluid situation and there will be suspect cases. People travel all the time.”
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bild.de

A swine flu scare occurred in Switzerland after a container carrying the virus exploded on board a train.

According to police sources, a technician from the National Centre for Influenza in Geneva was travelling to Zurich carrying eight glass containers, five of which held the swine flu virus.

The containers holding the virus were commissioned by the Federal Office of Public Health for the Geneva Centre in order to develop a test to detect swine flu. The vessels were, according to reports, securely packaged three times and hermetically sealed and cooled with dry ice.
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news.yahoo.com

NEW YORK – New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he is furious that the federal government flew a presidential Boeing 747 and a fighter jet near ground zero. The incident on Monday caused a brief panic among workers, who said they were not notified in advance.

Bloomberg says the flyover so near the World Trade Center site showed “poor judgment” and was insensitive. He says he is furious that the NYPD and another city agency were notified last week, but did not tell him.

If he had known, Bloomberg says he would have tried to stop it.
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news.yahoo.com

WASHINGTON – Confirming 40 cases of swine flu in the U.S., the Obama administration said Monday it was responding aggressively as if the outbreak would spread into a full pandemic. Officials urged Americans against most travel to Mexico as the virus that began there spread to the United States and beyond.

President Barack Obama urged calm, saying there was reason for concern but not yet “a cause for alarm.”

But administration officials said they were already waging a vigorous campaign of prevention, unsure of the outbreak’s severity or where it would show up next.
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