Morning Briefing

Bird flu experts are scheduled to begin a two-day meeting at the WHO in Geneva on Thursday "to try to settle an unprecedented row over a call to [censor] publication of two scientific studies which detail how to mutate H5N1 bird flu viruses into a form that could cause a deadly human pandemic," Reuters reports in an article describing the debate in detail. "But experts say whatever the outcome, no amount of censorship, global regulation or shutting down of research projects could stop rogue scientists getting the tools to create and release a pandemic H5N1 virus if they were intent on evil," the news service adds.