“GOD made the world, but we made the field” declares alpha male The Bull McCabe in John B Keane’s The Field. McCabe and his neighbours made land, or enriched land if you prefer, by manhandling tons of seaweed onto otherwise poor soil.

South Korea plans to kill cats and dogs to try to prevent the spread of bird flu after an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 virus at a chicken farm last week, officials said today.

The World Health Organisation today confirmed five more bird flu deaths in Indonesia, raising to 30 the number of human fatalities from the H5N1 strain of the virus in the sprawling archipelago.

Vietnam reported another bird flu infection today in an outbreak that has killed 13 people in Vietnam and Cambodia over the past month, a doctor said.