First swine flu death registered in Europe

As of June 14, there have been 1,226 cases of the A/H1N1 virus registered in Great Britain, most of them in England (752 cases) and in Scotland (463 cases). For the first time in more than 40 years, the WHO raised the pandemic alert to level 6 on Thursday after consultations with the organization's emergency committee. The WHO said the swine flu pandemic could last a long time, but recommended that national borders should not be closed and that the flow of people and goods throughout the world should not be restricted because of the outbreak; Kazinform cites RIA Novosti. See www.en.rian.ru for full version.