"We think very few of the cases we have confirmed are in people over 50," the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Dr Anne Schuchat told reporters in a telephone briefing. "Whether this will pan out over the weeks ahead we don’t know."

The CDC reported 226 cases of the new H1N1 swine flu virus and one death in 30 states. The CDC previously had confirmed 160 cases in 21 states.

Mexican officials say they believe the outbreak there is starting to ease, although they are still trying to get a full picture of just how far the disease has spread.

Schuchat said the virus is fairly widespread in the United States, meaning that most states have reported cases. New York has the most cases with 63, many linked to a school in the New York City borough of Queens. Texas has 40 cases.

U.S. health officials said they were encouraged by signs in Mexico that the number of cases are leveling off and that there was only one death in the United States — a toddler visiting from Mexico.

Most cases in the United States have been reported to be mild. But 30 people, mostly older children and young adults, have been hospitalized with the disease, U.S. officials said.

Schuchat said that with seasonal flu, the elderly and very young are most likely to be sick enough to be hospitalized — 200,000 a year on average.

"I don’t think we are out of the woods yet," Schuchat said. "From what I know of influenza, I do know there will be more cases, more severe cases and more deaths."

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on Sunday that flu vaccines for both the new strain of the H1N1 virus and the seasonal flu should be ready by autumn.

She told NBC’s "Meet the Press" that the government is accelerating production of a vaccine against the seasonal flu, which is expected to infect millions of Americans, and is beginning laboratory work on the new H1N1 virus.

Companies already are making the vaccine for the autumn months with a mixture of three influenza viruses that was chosen this year before the new strain broke out.

They have a number of choices — leaving the new strain out of the mix altogether, replacing the current H1N1 component with the new H1N1 strain, or making it a so-called quadrivalent vaccine that includes the new swine H1N1, the circulating seasonal H1N1, the H3N2 component and the influenza B strain.

It takes months to formulate influenza vaccines and they must be made fresh every ear, with new strains of the constantly mutating virus.

CDC says few people in U.S. over 50 hit by new flu

The 23-year-old man was searched after authorities discovered two eggs in a vitamin container in his luggage, said Richard Janeczko, national investigations manager for the Customs Service.

They found the pigeons wrapped in padded envelopes and held to each of the man’s legs with a pair of tights, according to a statement released by the agency. Officials also seized seeds in his money belt and an undeclared eggplant.

The alleged bird smuggler, who arrived in Melbourne on Sunday on a flight from Dubai, was being questioned.

Australia has very strict quarantine regulations on the importation of wildlife, plants and food to protect health, agriculture and the environment of the isolated island nation.

Charges of wildlife smuggling — which carry a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment and a fine of 110,000 Australian dollars ($70,430) — could be brought against the man.

Janeczko said the pigeons were not endangered and that the case — as well as the birds, eggs and seeds — had been turned over to the Quarantine Service to assess the health risk associated with bringing the birds into the country.

The Quarantine Service would not comment on the continuing investigation.

Officials nab traveler with pigeons in his pants

“The child suffered fairly extensive injuries and the paramedics spent some time trying to resuscitate the child,” said ambulance spokesman Paul Bentley.

The girl’s 35-year-old father was arrested just an hour later outside Melbourne’s Federal Court, which hears family case matters, with two other children in his car, police said.

The father was charged with murder.

Australian girl, 4, thrown from bridge | International | Reuters

From his bed in Perth’s Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, the former mechanic found out Ford had dropped its appeal against the $840,000 payout he won in February.

The father of three had made legal history when the Supreme Court ruled he developed the asbestosis that now cripples him while he worked for Ford, and awarded him damages.

Mr Lo Presti, 59, who requires bottled oxygen 24 hours a day, inhaled asbestos while working for Ford between 1970 and 1987, servicing brakes that contained asbestos in the lining.

It was the first successful asbestos claim by a mechanic against a car company, opening the way for other similar victims.

But Ford appealed the Supreme Court’s decision, forcing a continuation of the litigation, which began in 2002.

Mr Lo Presti was rushed to hospital on Tuesday with a build-up of fluid on his lungs.

His wife, Connie, was critical of Ford’s timing in announcing it was abandoning the appeal on Christmas Eve.

She said they could have saved her husband and family a lot of stress by announcing it earlier.

“I thought they were pretty disgusting,” she said. “They could have done it better to relieve any heartache on the family and on him.

“I hope they come to the party on this and don’t let us stress any more than they already have.”

Mr Lo Presti began suffering the effects of the usually fatal lung disease in the late 1990s.

In his Supreme Court ruling, judge Andrew Beech said Ford should have known that, without protective measures, asbestos fibres released from the brake linings could have caused the disease.

Australian Asbestos Diseases Society president Robert Vojakovic, who has worked with Mr Lo Presti through the litigation process, said it had taken too long.

“Ford kept delaying, they kept frustrating. That should never happen again,” he said.

The Australian

The unnamed official had been in Suva on a visitor visa awaiting a decision by the interim Government on his long-term visa status.

Australian Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon told The Australian newspaper: “The interim (Fiji) Government has indicated that no visa will be granted.

“This is an important position, not only in relation to Fiji but also to the four other Pacific island countries, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Kiribati and Nauru, all close neighbours of Fiji, to which the defence adviser position is credited,” he said.

“This is unhelpful and destructive behaviour by the Fiji interim Government, which should instead be focusing all of its efforts on returning Fiji to democracy – as it had promised to do.”

In a sign of worsening relations with Australia, the Fiji interim Government rejected the defence adviser’s application and ordered the Australian out of the country.

The move followed the recent expulsion and denial of consular access to New Zealand journalist Barbara Dreaver and the expulsion of two Australian journalists earlier this year.

Relations between New Zealand and Fiji sank to a new low last week with announcements by both countries of tit-for-tat expulsions of each other’s ambassadors.

Fiji’s action against New Zealand’s Caroline McDonald followed an outburst on Monday by the interim Government’s attorney-general, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, who alleged that New Zealand and Australian authorities were tapping phone lines and using locally hired Fijians as spies.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully said he had no knowledge of any such activity, and the reference to locally hired Fijians was “one of the less pleasant aspects” of recent statements.

McDonald is the second Kiwi high commissioner to be given marching orders by Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama.

In June last year, Michael Green was declared persona non grata after being accused of meddling in Fiji’s affairs.
The diplomatic breakdown comes as Pacific Island Forum leaders prepare to make another attempt to persuade Fiji to hold democratic elections next year.

Regional leaders, including New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key, are due to meet in Papua New Guinea at the end of next month to discuss a way forward.

The latest sparring started when New Zealand refused to grant a student visa to the son of the private secretary to Fiji’s President Ratu Josefa Iloilo under sanctions Wellington imposed on key members of Fiji’s Government and their relatives following the December 2006 coup.

Fijilive

White pointers caused terror on opposite sides of Australia yesterday, with snorkeller Brian Guest killed as he swam with his son at a beach near Perth.

Sydney paddlers Justin Stanger and Steve Kulscar were lucky to survive, with Mr Kulscar falling from his craft as the four-metre white pointer circled them about a kilometre off Long Reef.

Fisherman Glenn Morgan was in a runabout nearby when he saw a large fin break the water near the kayakers about 11am.

“All of a sudden I saw one bloke topple off his kayak, so we cut our anchor rope and went straight over to him and got him in the boat,” Mr Morgan told The Sun-Herald last night.

The shark came perilously close as the two kayakers fastened their craft to the tinnie.

It circled for at least another 10minutes before leaving.

“The adrenalin was just pumping,” Mr Morgan said. “I reckon they would have died if we weren’t out there – the shark was pretty hungry.”

“I might get him a case of beer – that’s the least I can do,” one of the men told the Seven Network.

Mr Guest, 51, and his son, Daniel, 24, were diving for crabs off their local beach near Rockingham, 30 kilometres south of Perth, when the former suddenly disappeared about 7am.

Daniel had heard his father cry out and had seen the shark and a “heap of blood” in the water.

“Something very traumatic and pretty violent has happened there and we are treating it as a probable shark attack,” acting police inspector Mark Valentine said.

Police, marine rescue patrols and three helicopters searched unsuccessfully for Mr Guest.

“[Daniel] was on the beach shaking and looked really white, and he was just really shocked,” resident Luke Tubbs said.

Family spokesman and policeman Steve Kent said Mr Guest, a banker, was a devoted husband and father who knew the dangers of the ocean.

“[He was] an avid fisherman, an avid diver and a loving husband and father,” Sergeant Kent said.

Mr Guest had campaigned to protect sharks from hunting.

“Our place on earth is not so sacred that we remove every threat that exists,” he said in a forum about sharks on the Western Angler website.

“Every surfer, fisherman and diver has far more chance of being killed by bees, drunk drivers, teenage car thieves and lightning.”

Shark horror: snorkeller dead, kayakers menaced – National – smh.com.au

Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon says he has welcomed an Iraqi parliamentary resolution authorizing foreign troops to remain in the Gulf nation until the end of July 2009.

Fitzgibbon said Wednesday it would be up to Iraq to decide if Australian forces remain beyond that deadline.

American troops can stay until the end of 2011 under a separate security agreement.

Australia withdrew its combat troops from Iraq in June but still has a small noncombat presence in the country.

The Associated Press

In a statement on its website (www.seashepherd.org), the U.S.-based group said its ship, the Steve Irwin, had forced the fleet into waters off the Ross Dependency, which is a New Zealand possession.

Australia has declared an ‘economic exclusion zone’, known by the letters “EEZ,” in waters off the coast of its Antarctic territories, and an Australian court order bans whaling there.

Sea Shepherd has said it is enforcing that order by pursuing Japan’s whaling fleet, which is in the area for an annual hunt to kill around 900 whales.

However, Japan does not recognise the zone and says its whaling fleet is in international waters.

In the statement, dated Saturday, Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson promised his organisation would continue its pursuit of the Japanese fleet.

“The good news is that they are no longer whaling in Australian waters and they only managed to hunt in the waters of the Australian Antarctic Territory for about a week before being forced to flee the Australian EEZ,” the statement said.

“They are now in the waters of the Ross dependency and the Steve Irwin is in pursuit.”

Watson said this was “bad news” for whales in waters south of New Zealand.

Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research, which runs the hunt, has accused Sea Shepherd of “eco-terrorism” and of ramming its vessel the Kaiko Maru during a protest action last Friday. Sea Shepherd has blamed the Japanese for the collision.

In a video of the incident released on its website (www.icrwhale.org), the organisation showed the crew of the Japanese ship warning Sea Shepherd in English that its protesters would be treated as “illegal intruders under Japanese law” if they tried to board.

During the last whaling season, two Sea Shepherd activists were briefly held on a Japanese vessel they boarded during a protest action.

Despite an international moratorium on whaling since 1986, Japan justifies the hunt on the grounds that its whaling is for “scientific” purposes.

Much of the meat ends up on supermarket shelves.

World | Africa – Reuters.com

The fatal police shooting of a teenager has sparked Greece’s worst rioting in years, with gangs of youths rampaging through Athens and the northern city of Thessaloniki at the weekend.

Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has not changed its overall level of travel advice for Greece, but it advises Australians to avoid central Athens and the tourist areas of Monastiraki and Plaka.

The Australian Embassy in Athens is unaware of any Australians affected by the riots.

A DFAT spokeswoman said 175 people had registered their travel to Greece with the department but noted the number of Australians actually in the country was likely to be much higher.

Breaking News

Mr Utzon, an award-winning architect, put “Denmark on the world map with his great talent,” said Danish Culture Minister Carina Christensen.

Having won a competition in 1957 to design the building, he left the project before it opened in 1973.

Mr Utzon never visited the completed landmark, after disputes about costs.

He had quarrelled with the Australian client and the costs overran by 1,000%.

Even decades later he declined invitations to return to Australia, but did design, with his son, a new wing which opened in 2006.

In 1998 he told Associated Press news agency: “It’s part of education – I can’t be bitter about anything in life.”

Most of the interior of the opera house was not completed according to his plans after government-appointed architects took over the job.

The Sydney Opera House planned to dim the lights on the sail-shaped roof on Sunday to mark Mr Utzon’s death.

The chairman of Sydney Opera House Trust, Kim Williams, said: “Jorn Utzon was an architectural and creative genius who gave Australia and the world a great gift.

“Sydney Opera House is core to our national cultural identity and a source of great pride to all Australians. It has become the most globally recognised symbol of our country.”

Mr Utzon also designed the National Assembly of Kuwait and several prominent buildings in Denmark.

Danish Minister of Culture Carina Christensen paid tribute to him, saying: “Jorn Utzon will be remembered as one of the Danes who in the 20th century put Denmark on the world map with his great talent.”

Mr Utzon won several international awards, including the Alvar Aalto Medal for architecture and France’s Legion of Honour.

In 2003 he won the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize for his design of the opera house.

arkitecto