IN 1961 Nelle Harper Lee, ‘the Jane Austen of Southern Alabama’, won a Pulitzer Prize for her novel To Kill a Mockingbird.

Nearly half the world’s waterbird species are in decline, mostly due to rapid economic development and the effects of climate change, according to a global survey released today.

Experts have began setting up a bird flu early warning system by mapping routes that are taken by migrating species and places where they rest during their annual travel, United Nations officials said today.