A 25-year-old woman from Fayoum, an hour southwest of Cairo, has died in a Giza hospital as a result of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu. Suzanne Ali Salah had been reported infected last week and was being treated with the anti-viral drug Tamiflu.

Salah became the 20th victim in the North African nation to have died from the deadly avian flu since it was first discovered in March 2006, the ministry of health said on Tuesday

Egypt's ministry of health on Saturday confirmed the human infection of the deadly bird flu virus in less than one week. The 25-year-old woman is the 45th human case of the H5N1 strain of the avian flu since the disease was first discovered in the Egyptian population in March 2006.

According to the ministry, in statements reported by the official news agency MENA, the woman has been transferred to Cairo after developing symptoms similar to those of bird flu. She is currently being treated by the antiviral drug Tamiflu, ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman Shaheen was quoted by the news agency as saying

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has commended efforts of the Indian government to stop the spread of the deadly avian influenza in the province of West Bengal. The FAO said authorities were able to control the spread of the H5N1 strain with their swift and comprehensive measures.

In a statement, U.N. FAO veterinary expert Mohinder Oberoi said: "Intensive culling in the predominantly backyard poultry sector appears to have stopped the disease in its tracks." He said this after a recent visit to the affected areas, where no new outbreaks have emanated since Feb. 2

A dozen samples of bird flu virus were sent to the World Health Organization laboratory this week by Indonesia after being guaranteed of recognition and its rights to any vaccines produced from them, a health minister official said.

Indonesia had stopped sending samples to WHO since December 2006 because it wanted guarantees that vaccines developed from the virus will be made affordable to poor and developing countries

Still reeling from the death of a 22-year-old man in central Hunan, Chinese authorities reported a fresh bird flu outbreak among poultry in Tibet.

In a statement, the agriculture ministry said 132 poultry had died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in a village outside the regional capital Lhasa and about 7,700 birds had been slaughtered to control the second outbreak of bird flu in the Himalayan region this year