Senior
scientists attack Chinese researchers for creating new strains of influenza
virus in veterinary laboratory
Experts warn of danger that the
new viral strains created by mixing bird-flu virus with human influenza could
escape from the laboratory to cause a global pandemic killing millions of
people. …Senior scientists have criticised the “appalling irresponsibility” of
researchers in China who have deliberately created new strains of influenza
virus in a veterinary laboratory. 

Russians
Should Not Visit China – Top Public Health Official
Russia’s
chief public health official Gennady Onishchenko has recommended the country’s
nationals not to visit China where a new strain of bird flu is spreading. “Now
there’s not need to ban [visits to China] but please do not go there if there is
such a chance,” Onishchenko said on Echo Moskvy radio.

Saudi
Arabia Sars-like virus ‘kills five’
Five people in Saudi Arabia
have died from a Sars-like virus and two more are seriously ill, officials say.
The seven cases were all from al-Ahsa governorate in the east of the country,
the Saudi news agency SPA said citing health officials. The novel coronavirus
(NCoV) causes pneumonia and sometimes kidney failure. 

China could
hold Israel-Palestinian talks if asked
The Chinese government
says it is willing to set up a meeting between the Israeli prime minister and
the Palestinian president when the two leaders visit Beijing next week, if the
sides expressed interest in doing so.