Beijing lifts bird flu quarantine

China has lifted its 21-day bird flu quarantine of farmers that had close contact with sick birds in the northwestern Xinjiang region after no human cases of the H5N1 bird flu virus were reported, state media reported. Some 35,000 birds were slaughtered after an outbreak killed 4,850 earlier this month. The Ministry of Agriculture has said that further regional outbreaks in the winter and coming spring were "very high" and urged local authorities to increase supervision and prevention measures.