H5N1 seen spreading: "A bird flu outbreak in seven northern Kazakh villages is dangerous to humans and threatening the west of the sprawling country, the Agriculture Ministry said yesterday. .. ``The western region is now in the risk zone because migratory birds are starting to fly to the Caspian Sea and Urals-Caspian basin,'' he said. The outbreak spread from Siberia in neighbouring Russia.. Although the H5N1 strain has killed more than 50 people in Asia since 2003, no one has caught it in Russia or Kazakhstan. ..

Since its discovery on a farm in Siberia in mid-July, bird flu has spread to other areas in Russia. More than 130,000 birds have been culled in order to try to prevent further contagion. Another 11,715 birds died of the virus, the Russian Emergencies Ministry said in a report yesterday.  In Kazakhstan, at least 9,000 birds have died or been destroyed since the outbreak started in the north of the Central Asian state last month."

Meanwhile, The EU battens down hatches against bird flu: "Dutch poultry farmers have complied with a government order to move all their birds indoors, as Europe steps up its efforts to prevent a potentially deadly bird flu pandemic this northern winter. Germany plans to follow suit by ordering that all free-range birds be moved indoors next month to prevent contact with birds arriving from the east that may be carrying the virus. .. All EU states are monitoring poultry health closely and stocking vaccines for use in the event of an epidemic. At the weekend, Italy announced stricter import controls, heightened surveillance and accelerated vaccine production. .. [H5N1] has been moving steadily westwards. It has reached Siberia and experts are saying that migratory fowl could bring it to western Europe this northern autumn. "

  10:48:27 PM    

9 States in Plan to Cut Emissions by Power Plants: "The regional initiative would set up a market-driven system to control emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, from more than 600 electric generators in the nine states. Environmentalists who support a federal law to control greenhouse gases believe that the model established by the Northeastern states will be followed by other states, resulting in pressure that could eventually lead to the enactment of a national law.

California, Washington and Oregon are in the early stages of exploring a regional agreement similar to the Northeastern plan. The nine states in the Northeastern agreement are Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont. They were brought together in 2003 by a Republican governor, George E. Pataki of New York, who broke sharply and openly with the Bush administration over the handling of greenhouse gases and Washington's refusal to join more than 150 countries in signing the Kyoto Protocols, the agreement to reduce emissions that went into effect earlier this year."

  10:43:41 PM