WHO Declares First Global Flu Pandemic in 41 Years

For the past several years we've been subjected to the warning ads in various media - radio, television, and print - that the world is overdue for a flu pandemic and that one is sure to be coming soon. The day has finally arrived. On Thursday the World Health Organization declared a swine flu pandemic, the first global flu epidemic in 41 years.

Infections around the globe, including the United States, Europe, South America, and Australia, have now climbed to nearly 30,000 cases.

The announcement of the pandemic is official scientific confirmation that a new flu virus has emerged and is quickly making its rounds globally. Now that the WHO has upgraded the situation to pandemic levels, they will begin asking drugmakers to speed up the production of a swine flu vaccine. The declaration should also prompt governments to devote additional funds towards efforts to contain the virus.

Dr. Margaret Chan made the announcement Thursday following an emergency meeting with flu experts. Chan indicated that the WHO would be moving the world up to the agency's highest alert level - phase 6. Phase 6 means that a pandemic, or global epidemic, is already under way.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, along with his wife and a member of his security team, have been quarantined in Shanghai, China after possible exposure to the H1N1 virus sweeping the globe. Nagin traveled to China on an economic development trip, and flew there on a plane with a passenger being treated for symptoms suspected to be from the virus.

A statement from the mayor's office said that all three are symptom free, and that "The mayor is being treated with utmost courtesy by Chinese officials."

A Picture of actor David Carradine, who's dead body was found in the closet of his Bangkok hotel room with ropes tied around his neck and genitals, has angered the family of the star. The photo was published by a a newspaper in Thailand and Carradine's brother Keith released a statement, saying,

"The family wants it understood that, per attorney Mark Geragos, any persons, publications or media outlets will be fully prosecuted for invasion of privacy and causing severe emotional distress if the photos are published."

The family of the actor has also enlisted the aid of celebrity attorney Mark Geragos. The attorney said regarding the matter:

"They (Carradine's family) want an investigation. I would think that the people in Bangkok would want to support an investigation and allow the FBI to go over there and assist in the investigation so we can get the answers to the questions."

On Thursday, swimmer Michael Phelps apologized to all of China, in an attempt at saving his $1 million golden advertising deal with car manufacturer Mazda. In a video distributed by Mazda to Chinese media, the Olympian begs for forgiveness from fans that cheered him on during his eight gold medal wins last summer in Beijing.

"To my Chinese friends, as many of you know, I recently engaged in behavior which was regrettable and not what people have come to expect from me. I will learn from these mistakes, train hard, and make you proud again," said Phelps in the video apology.

The photo of Phelps smoking from a bong which was published in News of the World has already cost him an advertising deal with Kellogg. Other sponsors have stuck by him and accepted his apology, including now Mazda who hired him for more than $1 million to help push cars in China.

Watch the video here:

India is quickly becoming known as the place to mass produce cheap goods. First they introduced us to the $2500 Tata Nano car, and now this week plans for a $10 laptop to be mass produced have been revealed. There are concerns, however, of whether such a device could be produced at such a low price, especially considering that no model or prototypes have yet been unveiled.

Officials are promising that the $20 "Sakshat" laptop will be available for just $10 about six months after it goes into mass production. Plans for the laptop were revealed on Tuesday in the city of Tirupati.

Specs on the laptop include 2GB of expandable memory, WiFi, and fixed Ethernet capability. It will also consume just 2 watts of power, and is expected to run off of simple version of the open source Linux operating system.

16-year-old high school student Eri Yoshida may be the first woman to play professional baseball in Japan, having been drafted by the Kobe 9 Cruise, a professional team in a new independent Japanese league that will begin its first season in April. Yoshida, who is 5 feet tall and weights just 114 pounds, spoke with the press on Monday.

"I always dreamed of becoming a professional. I have only just been picked by the team and haven't achieved anything yet," she told the press."

Yoshida, a pitcher, throws a side-arm knuckleball and said that she wants to follow in the footsteps of Boston Red Sox's pitcher Tim Wakefield, who has built a career on the knuckleball. She took part in a tryout earlier this month, and passed. The right-handed pitcher held male batters hitless for one inning during the tryout, which helped her become one of the 33 players chosen in the draft.

Kazuyoshi Miura, a Japanese businessman who stands accused of conspiring to have his wife murdered 27 years ago in Los Angeles was found dead in an apparent suicide, less than 24 hours after he arrived in the United States to answer the charges brought against him. Miura, 61, seemingly hanged himself while in police custody.

Miura's attorney, Mark Geragos, was notified early Saturday by prosecutors in the case about his client's death. Geragos, who was in Italy when notified, said, "I'm shocked. One of my lawyers was with him for 12 hours yesterday and he seemed in good spirits. He was looking forward to fighting this."

Miura arrived in Los Angeles Friday from the US commonwealth of Saipan, where he was being held since his arrest in February on a 1988 Los Angeles County Warrant claiming murder and conspiracy. He was scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday on the charges.

Miura was accused of planning to have his wife, Kazumi Miura, 28, killed during a 1981 visit to LA. Miura was hit by a bullet in the leg and his wife was shot in the head. She died one year later in Japan. Prosecutors claim that Miura wanted his wife dead so he could collection $750,000 on her life insurance policies, and that he signaled someone to shoot the couple.

A Canadian researcher recently discovered that a Chinese version of eBay's Skype communications software allows Chinese officials to snoop on text chats containing certain keywords, such as "democracy." The news is not only of interests to Chinese rights groups and those who monitor internet censorship, but it also is likely to capture the interest of law enforcement and intelligence agencies who have been bothered by the growing use of Skype.

Skype currently claims 338 million users across the world, and has proven difficult to wiretap. Calls and chats made through Skype are done between computers over the Internet, and its contents are supposedly encrypted. This has raised concerns within the law enforcement community that Skype might let criminals communicate without the fear of eavesdropping.

In the United States, the FBI has argued for applying current US wiretapping law to Internet phone calls. They were able to get a favorable court ruling in 2006, but it is still not clear whether it applies to systems like Skype that skip traditional telephone networks.

Li Changjiang, head of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine in China since 2001, has resigned just one year after promising to overhaul the system. Li was forced out in the midst of the tainted baby formula scandal, which has so far killed four babies and sickened nearly 53,000.

According to Beijing authorities, China's biggest producer of powdered milk had known for months that its baby formula was tainted with the industrial chemical melamine. Complaints about the infant formula date back as early as December 2007.

China Central Television said in a report on Monday, "During these eight months, the company did not inform the government and did not take proper measures, therefore making the situation worse."

Melamine has since been found in infant formula and other milk products from 22 of China's dairy companies. In babies, melamine can cause kidney stones and kidney failure.

Baby formula as well as other milk products have been pulled from store shelves around the country. Chinese goods, including liquid milk, instant coffee mix, and milk-based candy have been banned around Asia.

A car bomb rocked Islamabad, Pakistan, killing at least 20 and wounding 20 more. The attack occurred in the evening hours in Islamabad after newly elected President Asif Ali Zardari gave a speech to the nations Parliament saying he would end terrorism.

The devastation from the car bomb was furthered after the nearby Marriott Hotel was set ablaze after igniting a natural gas leak near the site of the blast.

No group has declared responsibility for the attack at this time.