ALL Irish pork imports here have 'so far' tested clean for dioxins, said the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) on Wednesday.

This is based on checks conducted when the pork first arrived in Singapore. The AVA does regular testing of imported meat and meat products for contaminants such as dioxins, antibiotics, pesticides, E coli, and salmonella.

KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA said on Wednesday it had released suspected terrorist Yazid Sufaat, detained since 2001 after being connected with the Sept 11 attacks in the United States, as he is now 'safe'.

Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Yazid, a member of regional militant group Jemaah Islamiyah who was freed from a detention camp in northern Malaysia on Nov 24, was now safe to be released into society.

HONG KONG - HONG KONG'S government said on Wednesday it was looking at whether there was a need to change the vaccine used to protect chickens against avian flu after the latest outbreak at a local poultry farm.

Health secretary York Chow said the bird flu virus had mutated, a day after the government confirmed that some chickens from a farm in the New Territories area of Hong Kong, near the border with mainland China, had died of the H5 virus.

ISLAMABAD - PAKISTAN has arrested two leaders of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group considered the prime suspect behind the Mumbai attacks, the country's prime minister confirmed on Wednesday.

The two men are senior members of the banned Islamist group and have both been named by Indian media as key planners of the devastating attack on Mumbai in which 172 people died.