Government authorities confirmed the outbreak of the H5N1 strain of bird flu at a local chicken farm on Thursday. Jolly Choi, spokeswoman for Hong Kong's agriculture, fisheries, and conservation department said that earlier tests on Dec 9 were positive for an H5 virus, but further testing showed that three chickens found dead on the farm had the H5N1 subtype.

Choi said that no new measures were required other than those that have been implemented.

State's Environment and Forest Minister, Th Debendra inaugurated a 3 day long International conclave on medicinal plants today at the RIMS Jubilee Hall.  The conclave is being organised by the Department of Forest, Government of Manipur in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Government of India and AYUSH with the support of World Health Organisation (WHO) India chapter and Ministry of DoNE.

Recent research has shown that Type-1 diabetes and celiac disease share some genetic roots. The researchers, from the University of Cambridge and Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, analyzed data collected from 9,339 healthy people, 8,064 people with type-1 diabetes and 2,560 people with celiac disease. Data analysis showed those four celiac disease genetic mutations that also appeared in people with type-1 diabetes and two diabetes mutations that also appeared to raise the risk of celiac disease.