700,000 Americans could die in coming influenza pandemic, says head of Russian Virology Institute

• The world is on the brink of a major flu epidemic --- one that could claim more than a billion lives, the head of the Russian Virology Institute, Academician Dmitry Lvov said at a press conference organized by the RIA-Novosti news agency on Thursday.
• "Up to one billion people could die around the whole world in six months," Lvov said.
• The expert did not give a timeframe for the epidemic, but said that it is highly probable that it will start this year.
• The Russian expert said that U.S. researchers possessed data suggesting that if a pandemic hits, up to 700,000 people will fall ill in the United States.
• The academician said the pandemic was most likely to be caused by the so-called bird flu stem.
• International ratings agency Standard & Poor's made an announcement on Thursday stating that Russian companies have made very few advances in corporate governance in recent years.
• Out of 40 recommendations made in 2002 by the OECD and World Bank "no progress was observed on 17, little progress on 14, some progress on eight and major progress on only one," S&P said.
• In the Moscow region, where only two years ago there was farmland and forests, today there are hundreds of "elite" Beverly Hills-type villas, French chateaus, and Swiss chalets.
• Before departing for Omsk, where he will be playing for Avangard ice hockey club, New York Rangers' Jaromir Jagr spoke to MosNews.Com's Ostap Karmodi.
• We back Bush under the banners of our union with the West, but Ukraine's Yanukovich under the banners of completely anti-Western ideas.
• In a commentary contributed to the Moskovskiye Novosti weekly Lyudmila Alekseyeva, a prominent human rights champion and chairperson of the Moscow Helsinki Group, analyses the current human rights situation in Russia.