Two more die from bird flu

The human toll in Asia’s bird flu crisis rose today to 18 with two more deaths in Vietnam, and a UN official said pigs tested positive for the virus that has infected tens of millions of poultry across the region.

China investigated mysterious reports of finches dropping dead from the sky to see if they were linked to avian influenza and Indonesian villagers set thousands of chickens ablaze as they sought to rid the popular resort island of Bali of the disease.