MOSCOW - THE H1N1 flu virus is 'stable' but must be monitored closely, director general of the World Health Organisation Margaret Chan said on Thursday, Russian news agency reports said.

'The virus is not mutating for the moment, it is stable,' said Dr Chan after a meeting with Russian Health and Social Development Minister Tatiana Golikova.

LONDON - AN IRANIAN doctor who claims he tried to save Neda Agha-Soltan, whose death during election protests made her an opposition icon, said on Thursday she was apparently shot by a member of the Islamic Basij militia.

Dr Arash Hejazi, who is studying at a university in the south of England, told the BBC that the crowd identified the man they believed was the shooter shortly after the young woman died from a gunshot wound to the chest.

CHICAGO - FRENCH drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis has begun large-scale production of a vaccine for the new H1N1 swine flu at its facilities in the United States and France, the company said on Thursday.

Production of the vaccine for the new flu, which has caused a global pandemic, will use conventional egg-based vaccine technology, the company said in an e-mailed statement.