Italy announced its first swine flu victim – a 51-year-old Neapolitan man with chronic heart problems, who died in a Naples hospital this morning.

Iraqi forces today detained a senior Health Ministry official accused of corruption and helping to funnel millions of pounds to Shiite militiamen blamed for much of the recent sectarian violence in the capital, the US military said.

Two bombs exploded seconds apart in a predominantly Shiite commercial area in central Baghdad today, killing at least 78 people and wounding at least 156, said Iraqi police and Deputy Health Minister Hakim al-Zamili.

Gunmen targeted three senior Hamas officials in the West Bank, kidnapping one, torching the car of a second and shooting in the air as a third emerged from a mosque, officials said today.

Iraq’s largest Sunni-Arab political party today condemned a car bomb attack inside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone that apparently attempted to kill Iraq’s controversial speaker of parliament.

A series of attacks in eastern Baghdad this evening killed at least 39 people and wounded 115 within half an hour, police said.

Palestinians launched an investigation today after seven people were rushed to hospital when one of them opened a suspicious envelope addressed to Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, officials said.

An unidentified virus has killed five people in Namibia and infected another 17 who are in critical condition, the government of the south-west African country said today.

The death toll from a cholera outbreak in Angola has hit 1,109 and the disease has spread to another province, officials said today.

Egypt reported its second human case of avian flu today while Israel continued its precautionary culling of hundreds of thousands of birds.

Tests have confirmed that three people recently died from bird flu, a top Azerbaijani health official said today.

European Union authorities agreed on new measures aimed at preventing a lethal strain of bird flu from entering the bloc and moved to calm people’s fears about contracting the disease, one day after it was confirmed on the continent’s doorstep in Turkey.

GRIEVING relatives, many black-clad and weeping, arrived at a central Athens morgue yesterday to identify the remains of some of the 121 people - including 10 families - killed in Greece’s worst plane crash.

Grieving relatives, many black-clad and weeping, arrived at a central Athens morgue today by bus, taxi or on foot to try to identify the remains of some of the 121 people – including 10 families – killed in Greece’s worst plane crash.

Two black-box recorders from the Cypriot airliner that crashed outside Athens will be sent to France for expert examination, officials said today, to determine why the plane went down – possibly with all 121 on board already dead.

A man arrested after a fatal shoot-out with police in Georgia has admitted throwing a grenade at a rally in May where US President George Bush was making a speech, a Georgian official said on Rustavi-2 television today.

A reported four people were killed and 19 injured when an explosion apparently set off by a man on a motorcycle hit a popular tourist bazaar in Cairo’s Old City today.

A Cambodian man who died this week has tested positive for a severe strain of bird flu, the government said today, raising the country’s death toll from the disease to two.

Security officials have identified six of the militants who seized a school in southern Russia as Chechens, drawing a strong connection to the rebels who have been fighting Russian forces for years.

SCOTLAND’S first minister yesterday gave the strongest indication yet that the country would soon follow Ireland’s lead in introducing a workplace smoking ban.

SCOTTISH First Minister Jack McConnell is to visit Dublin next Tuesday to see how the smoking ban is working.

Four more people have been pulled alive from the rubble of Iran’s devastating earthquake.

SMOKING in public places could be banned in Scotland under radical plans being considered by ministers north of the border, it emerged yesterday.

Three women and a man took part in the suicide bomb attack that killed at least 40 people and wounded scores on a Russian commuter train packed with school children and students near war torn Chechnya today.

Nine people have been seriously hurt in Zimbabwe’s second largest city after police opened fire to disperse rowdy fans after a football match.

Irish women desperate for abortions are travelling to Russia to undergo the procedure which is outlawed in the Republic, it emerged today.

Villagers in north-east Thailand are eating rats to control their rodent problems.