Top British private school Eton said yesterday it would close for a week after a pupil tested positive for the H1N1 flu virus.

Eton college, in Berkshire, southeast England, where British princes William and Harry have been students, said on its website that a 13-year-old boy was diagnosed with the virus on Wednesday. The school said the boy had a mild illness and was recovering at home. It said it had taken the decision to keep the school shut until June 7 after taking advice from the government's Health Protection Agency (HPA).

The fee-paying school is currently shut for half-term holidays.

The school said the HPA is following up pupils who have been in contact with the boy who had contracted the virus.

News of the closure of the elite college came as health officials announced a further 17 people in Britain had tested positive for the illness, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 203. (Reuters)

Dead Australians get bonus

Thousands of dead Australians landed windfall cash payments to help stimulate the recession-hit economy, while thousands of others living overseas also received money, the government said yesterday.

The money was paid out as part of a stimulus package worth A$52 billion (£25 billion) since September as the country slid into recession. Much of the money was tax refunds to poor and middle-income earners, pensioners and families with young children, but A$14 million were paid to 16,000 dead citizens and A$25 million to 25,000 Australians living abroad.

"Grateful dead get a raise from Kev," said one headline, referring to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner insisted the money was well spent and would still find its way into the economy.

"Even where they go to people who are dead, of course they go to the estate," he told local TV. "The estate typically is going to consist of ordinary Australians who will in turn get the payments, and on balance over time, will spend those payments". (Reuters)

The Blonde Weekend

An army of 500 blondes will try to put a smile back on the face of recession-weary Latvians by staging a festival this weekend designed to show that they really do have more fun.

The Blonde Weekend will include a parade by a bevy of blondes through the streets of the capital Riga, to the accompaniment of music from a blonde orchestra, a fashion show and an evening ball.

There will even be a golf tournament only open to blonde women, say the organisers.

"The situation is such that society needs these types of events," Marika Gidere, head of Latvia's Blondes' Association, said.

"People are depressed, they don't have enough positive emotions. And this is something very positive and fun. And we know that blondes have more fun," she said, adding she expected at least 500 women to attend the event. (AFP)

Egg-stra attention!

The Czech Republic is turning into a messy battleground with a series of egg-throwing attacks amid the campaign for the European Parliament elections to be held next week.

Hundreds of eggs flew at Social Democrat chairman Jiri Paroubek and his entourage at a pre-election meeting in Prague on Wednesday.

"We won't let this discourage us. Shame on you," said Mr Paroubek, with yolk dripping off his chin and belly. Mr Paroubek, 56, fell out of favour in particular with young Czechs when, as the country's prime minister, he backed the police for breaking up a youths' techno party in 2005.

The Social Democrats, whose no-confidence vote toppled Mirek Topolanek's Cabinet midway through the Czech presidency in late March, lead in opinion polls together with Topolanek's Civic Democrats, each receiving about 28 per cent support.

The egg wars broke out two weeks ago when two men in a town near Prague threw tomatoes and eggs at Mr Paroubek, starting a series of attacks. (AFP)

HIV 'brand'

A Swaziland MP who last week suggested that HIV positive people be branded on the buttocks yesterday distanced himself from the statement, saying he was misquoted by the media.

An apologetic Timothy Myeni told reporters in Johannesburg that he had not thought through his posing of "a mark" for HIV-positive Swazis last week at a workshop on ways of fighting the scourge in the mountain kingdom.

"I want to disassociate myself from the statement that has been doing rounds in the media saying I suggested that people with HIV should be branded. That is not what I said," said Mr Myeni. "I posed a question to the workshop facilitator saying maybe those who have been found with the virus must have a mark so that they can get quick medical attention."

Mr Myeni added that he had immediately retracted his question after it was shot down by workshop participants.

The widely-reported comments sparked an uproar in Swaziland, one of the world's poorest nations with the highest HIV prevalence in the world. (AFP)