TAIPEI - DIRECT daily flights between China and Taiwan begin on Monday, the latest step in rapidly improving relations between the island and the mainland.

The official hostility that has marked relations for decades has been melting away since the election of Mr Ma Ying-jeou as Taiwan's president earlier this year, and direct transport links are expected to bring the two closer.

GUWAHATI (India) - INDIAN authorities will slaughter 200,000 chickens in the northeast state of Assam in the next two days in a culling operation to tackle the threat of bird flu, officials said.

Health workers and bird flu experts were monitoring about 100 people who had shown signs of the virus.

TOKYO - A MODERATE 4.5-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of central Japan on Sunday but there was no risk of a tsunami, the Japan Meteorological Agency said, and no immediate reports of damage.

The tremor struck at 7.25pm (6.25pm Singapore time), with the epicentre in the Pacific Ocean off Ibaraki prefecture, some 150 kilometres (93 miles) from Tokyo, the agency said.