SEVENTY-TWO new cases of the H1N1 virus were confirmed on Tuesday night, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 701.

Investigations are underway as to how the new infections came about.

BEIJING - CHINA will delay a controversial plan to require that all computers sold in the country must come with a Chinese-made Internet filtering software programme, state media reported on Tuesday.

China was to implement the rule beginning on Wednesday but it has been postponed, Xinhua news agency said, citing the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

POLE vaulter Sean Lim and high jumper Melissa Wu got Singapore onto the Asian Youth Games scoreboard when they each bagged bronze medals on the opening day of the athletics competition on Tuesday.

At Bishan Stadium, Hwa Chong Institution student Sean, 16, vaulted 4.30 metres to finish third among six boys. The Singaporean took two attempts to clear that height, thus losing out to silver medallist Chi Chien Hao of Chinese Taipei, who needed just one attempt at 4.30m. Japan's Sho Hibasa claimed the gold with an impressive vault of 4.81m.

GENEVA - MORE than 60 airlines lost more than US$3.0 billion (S$4.34 billion) during the first three months of this year in the face of a steep fall in demand, the top industry association IATA said on Tuesday.

'This deterioration was before the recent rise in fuel prices and was due mostly to the fall in revenues, as a sharp fall in yields added to the impact of weak travel and freight volumes,' said the the International Air Transport Association.