The H1N1 flu virus could cause up to 90,000 U.S. deaths, mainly among children and young adults, if it resurges this fall as expected, according to a report released Monday by a presidential advisory panel....The H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu virus, could infect between 30 percent and 50 percent of the American population during the fall and winter and lead to as many as 1.8 million U.S. hospital admissions, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology reported.....The report says 30,000 to 90,000 deaths are projected as part of a "plausible scenario" involving large outbreaks at schools, inadequate antiviral supplies and the virus peaking before vaccinations have time to be effective. Up to 40,000 U.S. deaths are linked to seasonal flu each year, with most of the fatalities occurring among people over 65. With seasonal flu and H1N1, this fall is expected to bring more influenza deaths and place "enormous stress" on intensive care units nationwide, which normally operate near capacity, the report says. An H1N1 resurgence may happen as early as September, at the beginning of the school year, and infections may peak in mid-October, according to the report. However, the H1N1 vaccine isn't expected to be available until mid-October, and even then it will take several weeks for vaccinated individuals to develop immunity, the report says. The potential "mismatch in timing" could significantly diminish the usefulness of the H1N1 vaccine, the report says.

Newly published documents reveal even newer harsh techniques used against terror suspects in CIA-run prisons during former president George Bush's administration. A newly declassified report released on Monday by the US Justice Department says CIA interrogators told terror suspect Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri that his mother would be raped before his eyes if he refused to talk. The inquisitors also told alleged terror suspect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his children would be killed, if the US were attacked again. In another instance, Nashiri was shown a gun and frightened into thinking he would be shot. He was also threatened with a power drill held near him and repeatedly turned on and off. Captured in 2002 over the USS Cole bombing two years earlier, Nashiri was held four years in a secret CIA prison and became one of three leading suspects to later suffer waterboarding. The report on CIA interrogation methods, written in 2004 by the agency's then inspector-general John Helgerson, was kept secret until Monday, when it was released as part of a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. The revelations propelled the US Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor, John Durham, to investigate allegations of abuse of terror suspects, hours after President Barack Obama set up a new team of interrogators to question terror suspects.

The youngest detainee in Guantanamo has been finally released to join his family in Afghanistan after seven years in custody in the notorious detention center run by the US military. Mohammed Jawad, who is now believed to be 21, reunited with his family in the Afghan capital, Kabul, late on Monday, his lawyer confirmed. Jawad was arrested by Afghan police on charges of throwing a hand grenade that injured two US soldiers and their interpreter in Kabul in 2002. He was later delivered into American custody, and about a month later he was sent to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. A federal judge ordered Jawad released in July, after a war crimes case against him was dismissed for a lack of evidence and concerns about his age. Jawad's relatives say he was about 12 when he was arrested. .. US President, Barack Obama has been under mounting pressure to fulfill his electoral campaign pledge to shut down the prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, which still holds over 200 suspects without charge or trial. The controversial prison is due to close in five months.

Abdullah Abdullah, the former Afghan foreign minister, claims President Hamid Karzai is involved in election fraud. With the results of Afghanistan's presidential election expected later today, supporters of the opposition leader, Abdullah Abdullah, delivered a grim message last night, threatening violence if their candidate loses....If the election is "stolen" by Hamid Karzai, the reaction would be violent, the former guerillas declared. Mohammed Amin, 51, said: "We have heard Karzai is saying he has already won. We have also heard there has been a lot of fraud in the south. The election cannot be decided like this. The international community should correct this and have these votes taken again. If they do not, people will resist. This is Afghanistan, and we have all got arms. If people are angry, we will use these arms."...Mr Abdullah, in turn, has further raised the temperature by accusing the President of being personally involved in organising of "ballot stuffing". But he has also urged his supporters to stay calm while the electoral commission investigates his concerns. Faced with repeated reports of fraud and intimidation, international monitors who at first declared the ballot a success have been forced to acknowledge there has been serious and worrying malpractice. Kai Eide, the head of the United Nations mission in the country, said yesterday: "There is no doubt there were irregularities on polling day. I appeal to the candidates, their campaigns and also to the voters to demonstrate the patience and calm required while these are investigated.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip has announced that 400 ICU patients are facing imminent death due to the ongoing Israeli blockade. The Ministry said that the 400 patients in Intensive Care Units are in critical condition as hospitals and medical centers lack basic supplies and equipment. It moreover demanded that human rights groups and international heath organizations intervene in order to end the Israeli siege and allow entry of medical supplies and equipment, the International Middle East Media Center reported. The Ministry also stated that hundreds of patients are in urgent need of relocation to hospitals outside the Gaza Strip. imposed on the impoverished territory in June 2007, has caused a humanitarian crisis among the Strip's 1.5 million inhabitants. According to Health Ministry reports, nearly 400 patients, most of them children and the elderly, have died as a result of the ongoing siege, while hundreds still await transfer to hospitals abroad.