Iran rejects reports of human bird flu cases

Iran's Health Ministry said on Saturday the country had no human cases of the deadly H5N1 bird

flu virus, dismissing statements by a medical official and lawmaker that early tests showed a third person had died of it.

A senior medical official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that preliminary tests in the northwestern city of Kermanshah showed a 30-year-old man died on Wednesday morning from H5N1 bird flu. He said this would be the third death after a 41-year-old man and his 26-year-old sister were also shown by preliminary tests to have died of bird flu in Kermanshah, which lies some 100 km (60 miles) from the Iraqi border. (Reuters)