The World Health Organisation said on Friday that the swine flu pandemic is moving around the globe at an "unprecedented" speed as it stopped giving figures on numbers affected.

Scientists need more time to decide whether to mass produce a vaccine against swine flu, the World Health Organization said, as the number of cases topped 6,000 around the globe.

The number of worldwide swine flu cases on Tuesday passed 5,000, according to the World Health Organisation, as the virus spread to three more countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

The number of people infected with the Swine flu -- A(H1N1) virus -- has topped 2,000 worldwide, the United Nations health agency has said, warning that though symptoms for the vast majority of the cases are mild, there is no room for complacency.

Mexico was set to return to normal life on Wednesday, reopening public venues in hopes that the worst of the swine flu outbreak is over -- even after confirmation of a US death across the border.

The head of the World Health Organisation warned in a newspaper interview on Monday that swine flu may re-emerge stronger than ever even if the current outbreak appears to be declining.

Experts from across the globe will convene on Wednesday as the World Health Organization seeks to stem the tide of a transcontinental swine flu outbreak, the body has announced.

Hundreds of Palestinian patients have been trapped in the Gaza Strip, unable to travel abroad for crucial treatment for cancer and other diseases, because of political infighting between Gaza's militant Hamas rulers and their Palestinian rivals.

The swine flu epidemic entered a dangerous new phase on Monday as the death toll climbed in Mexico and the number of suspected cases there and in the United States nearly doubled. The World Health Organization raised its alert level but stopped short of declaring a global emergency.

Mumbai is one of the noisiest on earth, battered day and night by car, taxi and auto-rickshaw horns, factory noise and ear-splitting construction work.

More than 30,000 people in Zimbabwe have been diagnosed with cholera, the World Health Organisation has said, as the number of those contracting the deadly disease continues to mount.

Cancer diagnoses around the world have been steadily rising and are expected to hit 12 million this year. Global cancer deaths are expected to reach 7 million, according to the new report by the World Health Organisation.

Over 14 percent of Indian students are regular tobacco users, reflecting the global trend of most people beginning to smoke before the age of 18 - an alarming statistic that the World Health Organisation (WHO) thinks can be reduced by banning tobacco advertisements.

The Health Ministry has informed that over 16,000 school and college students in India committed suicide in the last three years, shedding light once again on the sorry state of mental healthcare in the country.

Russia's State Duma approved joining World Health Organisation's (WHO) global anti-tobacco convention on Friday.

The World Health Organisation has warned that millions of Asians could face poverty, disease and hunger as a result of global warming, resulting in an estimated 150,000 deaths annually.

With nearly half of its children malnourished on one hand and being dubbed as the diabetic capital of the world, with too much intake of junk food being blamed for the disease on the other, India is a study in medical contrast.

India is home to over 3.4 million tuberculosis patients - about one-fifth of the global figure - making it the most TB prevalent country, says the World Health Organisation report released on Monday.