Global swine flu toll crosses 6,000

The number of swine flu deaths has grown by more than 370 over a week to pass 6,000, as the pandemic spread into more than 199 countries and territories, World Health Organisation data has showed. The pandemic is currently being fuelled by "intense and persistent'' transmission in North America and an "unusually early'' start to winter flu season in Europe as well as in central and western Asia, a WHO statement said. The death toll recorded on November 1 reached at least 6,071, it added. The Americas region accounts for nearly three quarters of the global toll with 4,399 deaths, an increase of 224 in a week. The WHO also highlighted signs of "increasing and active transmission'' of pandemic influenza virus across Northern and Eastern Europe, including Ukraine and Belarus, as well as in eastern Russia. The pandemic is also gaining intensity in Mongolia, Oman, Afghanistan and Japan, especially on the northern island. However, it is waning in tropical areas of Central and South America, as well as parts of south and southeast Asia.

Bill Clinton warns of 'dire consequences' in Mideast

Former US president Bill Clinton warned of "dire consequences" if Palestinians do not believe that change is possible, in a speech to students at the American University of Dubai (AUD) on Wednesday. "What leads to suicide bombings?" he asked. "The belief that change is not possible... the belief that in the absence of a cataclysmic event, tomorrow is going to be like yesterday. "If we keep going on where the Palestinians think tomorrow will be like yesterday, there will be dire consequences," he told a packed hall at the university. The former president's speech came as his wife Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Cairo for hastily arranged talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to clarify remarks widely interpreted as a U-turn on US policy of demanding a freeze on all Jewish settlements. The top US diplomat insisted that Washington was determined to push for a Palestinian state and said that the future of Jerusalem must be on the agenda of any peace talks. The run-up to Bill Clinton's speech in Dubai was accompanied by pounding techno music, wildly cheering students and a dance team. Clinton, who had previously spoken three times at AUD, discussed the dangers of climate change and said he thought it was possible for the Middle East to become energy independent. "(That) would be the smartest thing the region ever did," he said. Clinton also said "young women having the same chances as young men is key to the future of the Middle East".

Reviews Raise Doubt on Training of Afghan Forces

A series of internal government reviews have presented the Obama administration with a dire portrait of Afghanistan’s military and police force, bringing into serious question an ambitious goal at the heart of the evolving American war strategy — to speed up their training and send many more Afghans to the fight. As Obama considers his top commander’s call to rapidly double Afghanistan’s security forces, the internal reviews, written by officials directly involved in the training program or charged with keeping it on track, describe an overstretched enterprise struggling to nurse along the poorly led, largely illiterate and often corrupt Afghan forces. the top American and allied commander in Afghanistan, recommended increasing the Afghan Army as quickly as possible — to 134,000 in a year from the current force of more than 90,000, instead of taking two years, and perhaps eventually to 240,000. He would also expand the police force to 160,000. The acceleration is vital to General McChrystal’s overall counterinsurgency plan, which also calls for more American troops but seeks more protection against the Taliban for the Afghan population than the Pentagon could ever supply.

Large Hadron Collider Halted By Bird Crumbs

The massive machine at the center of the world's biggest scientific experiment has malfunctioned again – derailed by a bit of bread dropped by a bird. The Hadron Collider, buried 100m under the ground near Geneva, Switzerland, is supposed to recreate conditions seen after the Big Bang. Scientists hope the $7.3 billion machine will shed light on the event that many scientists believe gave birth to the universe around 14 billion years ago, but the project has suffered a series of setbacks. The latest saw a "bit of baguette," thought to have been dropped by a bird, fall onto machinery, causing a fault. The theory is that the particle that physicists hope to produce might be "abhorrent to nature," so that once created it would work backwards through time to put a stop to whatever created it. However Dr Mike Lamont, who works at the Cern control center, said that the nature of the experiment meant that glitches were inevitable. "This thing is so complicated and so big, it's bound to have problems sometimes," he said.

Israel rejects UN resolution on Gaza

Israel on Friday rejected a UN resolution that called on it and the Palestinians to probe suspected war crimes committed during the Gaza war at the turn of the year while the Palestinian leaders have accepted the resolution. "Israel rejects the resolution of the UN General Assembly, which is completely detached from realities on the ground that Israel must face," the Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement. The statement said that during the 22-day war, which killed some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis, the Israeli military "demonstrated higher military and moral standards than each and every one of this resolution's instigators." On Thursday, the 192-member assembly overwhelmingly approved an Arab-sponsored resolution that endorsed a UN report accusing both Israel and Palestinians of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during the war. The vote was 114 in favour and 18 against, with 44 abstentions. From the outset, Israel rejected the report as biased.