COLOMBO - INTENSE fighting in northern Sri Lanka on Tuesday left at least 25 government troops and 120 Tamil Tigers dead in the ongoing battle for the rebels' political capital, a military spokesman said.

Security forces carried out simultaneous attacks against Tamil Tiger strong points near the town of Kilinochchi and also on the Jaffna peninsula, military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said.

BEIJING - CHINESE authorities have begun destroying and vaccinating poultry after an outbreak of bird flu was discovered in the east of the country, the agriculture ministry said on Tuesday.

The deadly H5N1 strain of the virus was discovered on a chicken farm in Dongtai city and in another farm in Haian county both in eastern Jiangsu province, the ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

HONG KONG - THE re-emergence of bird flu in in Asia and Egypt has prompted experts to ask tough questions: are poultry vaccines effective against a virus that is constantly mutating, and are governments doing enough to stop it spreading?

The virus turned up last week in a farm equipped with modern biosecurity measures in Hong Kong, killing over 100 chickens and leading to the culling of some 80,000 birds there, in nearby farms and a wholesale market.