From Newswire

• WHO declares first 21st century flu pandemic
• Ahmadinejad faces election challenge from moderate
• Air France chief questions sensor role in crash
• U.S. skeptical Netanyahu will back down: diplomats
• Iraq warns attacks will intensify before election
• Afghan insurgent violence accelerates in 2009
• Gaddafi tells Italy to scrap political parties
• Sudan letting back renamed aid groups: U.N. official
• U.S. says N.Korea unlikely to take military action
• Pakistan kills scores of Taliban in new combat zones