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- China’s agriculture ministry late on Sunday confirmed the first outbreak of African swine fever in the country’s Tibet Autonomous Region.
- The disease was found in two counties and one district of the city of Linzhi, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said in a statement; Linzhi is in southeastern Tibet near the border with India.
- A total of 55 pigs have so far been killed in the Tibet outbreak, it added.
- China, home to the world’s largest hog herd, has reported well over 100 outbreaks of the highly contagious disease across the country since last August, although remote, high-altitude Tibet had previously remained untouched.
- The southern island province of Hainan, as well as China’s special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau, have yet to report any African swine fever cases.
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- China’s Inner Mongolia region reported on 6th April a case of human infection with the H7N9 bird flu virus, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
- The same bird flu strain killed almost 300 people in the country during the winter of 2016/2017.
- The patient, an 82-year-old man, was receiving treatment and local authorities disinfected his home and the surrounding area.
- The government has initiated an emergency response and disinfected the patient's residence and its proximity.
- The local government said people who had contact with the man had shown “no abnormalities”, Xinhua reported.
- H7N9 is a bird flu strain first reported to have infected humans in China in March 2013.
- Infections are most likely to occur in winter and spring, and most human cases are caused by exposure to live poultry or contaminated environment.
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- Scientists have unearthed fossils in a coastal desert of southern Peru of a four-legged whale that thrived both in the sea and on land about 43 million years ago in a discovery that illuminates a pivotal stage in early cetacean evolution.
- The 13-foot-long (4-meter) mammal, named Peregocetus pacificus, represents a crucial intermediate step before whales became fully adapted to a marine existence, the scientists said.
- Its four limbs were capable of bearing its weight on land, meaning Peregocetus could return to the rocky coast to rest and perhaps give birth while spending much of its time at sea.
- Its feet and hands had small hooves and probably were webbed to aid in swimming. With long fingers and toes, and relatively slender limbs, moving around on land may not have been easy.
- Its elongated snout and robust teeth - large grasping incisors and canines along with flesh-shearing molars - made Peregocetus adept at catching medium-size prey like fish.
- “We think that it was feeding in the water, and that its underwater locomotion was easier than that on land,” said Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences paleontologist Olivier Lambert, who led the research published in the journal Current Biology.
- “Some vertebrae of the tail region share strong similarities with semi-aquatic mammals like otters, indicating the tail was predominantly used for underwater locomotion,” Lambert added.
- Whale evolutionary origins were poorly understood until the 1990s when fossils of the earliest whales were found.
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- Russia on 7th April blocked a UN Security Council statement that would have called on forces loyal to Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar to halt their advance on Tripoli, diplomats said.
- Moscow insisted that the formal statement urge all Libyan forces to stop fighting, but the proposed change was opposed by the United States, council diplomats said.
- After a closed-door meeting on Friday, the council called on Haftar's self-proclaimed Libyan National Army to "halt its military activity" in an agreed statement to the press.
- Britain then proposed a more formal text for approval to the 15-member council that was opposed by Russia. All council statements are agreed by consensus.
- The proposed statement would have called on Haftar's forces to halt all military activity and for all forces to de-escalate.
- The draft also would have "called for those who undermine Libya's peace and security to be held to account" and renewed support for a national conference to be held this month on holding elections.
- Russia has been a key supporter of Haftar, along with Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.
- Fighting raged south of Tripoli on Sunday, three days after Haftar launched the offensive to seize the capital, now controlled by a UN-backed unity government and an array of militias.The LNA said it had carried out its first air raid on a Tripoli suburb.
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- Spain’s Garbine Muguruza successfully defended her Monterrey Open title on 7th April when Victoria Azarenka retired injured from her first WTA singles final in three years.
- Second seed Muguruza was leading the match between the two former world number ones 6-1 3-1 when Azarenka decided she was unable to continue because of an injury to her right leg.
- “It’s unfortunate I couldn’t give my best today, but I tried my hardest,” a tearful Azarenka, who had not previously reached final since the birth of her first child in December 2016, said at the presentation.
- Muguruza’s victory never looked in doubt and ensured that the record run of different women winning WTA titles this season would be extended to 16 tournaments.
- The former French Open and Wimbledon champion broke the pained Belarusian three times in the first set and again in the fourth game of the second.
- “It’s a great feeling to come back and defend a title,” Muguruza said in a courtside interview. “It’s never easy.”
- Azarenka received treatment on her leg during a medical time-out between sets, but it became apparent as the second set began that her movement had become significantly hampered.
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