Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh was released from hospital one week after undergoing heart bypass surgery.

India’s widespread practice of aborting female foetuses is a “national shame,” the prime minister said today.

India’s federal government is to supply emergency equipment to southern areas of the country hit by a rare, mosquito-borne fever that has killed at least 81 people in the past month, the health minister said.

China said today that it is taking effective measures to prevent the spread of bird flu and keep it from infecting people as the world’s most populous nation reported three outbreaks of the disease in a week.