Asia

On Wednesday, Taiwan reported the very first case of the deadly H7N9 virus found outside of China's mainland, and noted that three healthcare workers who treated the patient also developed undiagnosed respiratory symptoms, which has raised concerns over the virus' ability to spread through human-to-human contact.

Global health officials held a news conference earlier in the day in Beijing, and stressed that there had not yet been any confirmed cases of transmission of the virus between humans. However, they said that researchers were struggling to understand how the virus had spread and have not ruled out human-to-human transmission.

Health officials in Taiwan reported that a 53-year-old Taiwanese male had developed a fever on April 12, three days after returning from a trip to China's coastal Jingsu province, which is where the virus first emerged in China. The patient is now currently in serious condition, and was not believed to have had any exposure to birds or poultry. The patient also had not consumed any undercooked poultry or eggs while in the city of Suzhou.

109 healthcare workers have overseen the patient, three of whom have developed symptoms of upper respiratory infection. Health officials are said to be monitoring all of the workers and the 139 people who had come into contact with the patient.

A 7.2 magnitude earthquake shook in the North Pacific Ocean just after 11pm EDT, located about 155 miles from Kuril'sk, Russia, and 324 miles from Nemuro, Japan.

This is the second major earthquake to strike in the past three days. A 7.8 quake caused significant damage and casualties in Iran and Pakistan on Tuesday.

According to the United States Geological Survey, the earthquake was caused by normal faulting within the Pacific tectonic plate. It struck near the Kuril-Kamchatka arc, which the USGS says is "one of the most seismically active locations in the world". The arc runs for about 1,300 miles from Hokkaido, Japan, to Russia's Commander Islands.

A new strain of avian flu virus that is already responsible for at least nine human deaths in China has been observed by researchers for genetic analysis and shows a virus that is evolving to adapt to human cells. This analysis raises concerns about the virus' potential to spark a new, global flu pandemic.

The study, which was conducted by a group led by Masato Tashiro of the Influenza Virus Research Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, and the Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Tokyo, is published in the most recent (April 11) edition of the journal Eurosurveillance.

The researchers studied the genetic sequences of H7N9 isolates from four of the pathogen's human victims, in addition to samples that were derived from birds and the environs of a Shangai market.

Kawaoka, one of the world's top experts on avian influenza, noted:

"The human isolates, but not the avian and environmental ones, have a protein mutation that allows for efficient growth in human cells and that also allows them to grow at a temperature that corresponds to the upper respiratory tract of humans, which is lower than you find in birds.

After a three year hiatus, China is back in the news for bird flu. This time, it's the H7N9 virus, for which there is no vaccine, that's already killed five people. On Thursday, authorities in Shanghai closed down a live poultry trading zone in an agricultural products market and began slaughtering all birds there after the virus was detected in samples of pigeon at the market.

Until recently in China, H7N9 bird flu virus had never been found in humans. To date, dozens have been infected and at least five have been killed. Scientists are scrambling to figure out how it spread to humans and if it can spread from person to person. So far there is no evidence that it has spread from human to human.

China has confirmed 14 cases of H7N9: six in Shanghai, four in Jiangsu, three in Zhejiang, and one in Anhui province.

Chinense officials have revealed that two men in the Chinese city of Shanghai have died after contracting a strain of bird flu that was not previously known in humans. The men, aged 27 and 87, contracted the H7N9 strain in February, and died a few weeks later in March.

A 35-year-old woman in Chuzhou, which is located in the eastern province of Anhui, is said to have also contracted the strain, and is said to be critically ill.

Officials say that it is not clear how the strain spread, but said that the three did not infect each other or any close contacts.

China's National Health and Family Commission reports that all three became ill with coughs and fevers before developing pneumonia.

Faculty members at Shanghai Jiaotong University, one of the top universities in China, have been linked to the People's Liberation Army Unit 61398, the same group that's been accused of hacking several companies based in the U.S. and several media outlets.

Shanghai Jiaotong University is linked with PLA Unit 61398, however there is no evidence that shows that they were involved in the cyber-espionage attacks against the U.S. Faculty at the university's School of Information Security Engineering (SISE) have collaborated in the past with the PLA unit on several research papers on cyber-security.

For example, Xue Zhi, the Vice President of SISE who also developed China's leading cyber attack platform, collaborated with Chen Yi-qun, a researcher for the PLA, on a paper about improving security by designing a collaborative network monitoring system.

Fan Lei, who is an associate professor at the university, also worked on a research paper with Chen. Fan said that he did not know that Chen was a part of PLA Uit 61398, and only worked with him because he was a SISE graduate. This statement, however, was proven to be false by the research paper itself, which stated that Chen was a part of the PLA unit.

The violence against women in India continues, as yet another incident shines a spotlight on the issue and the country's failure to protect women. Police say that a Swiss woman on a cycling trip in central India with her husband was gang-raped by eight men after the two of them were beaten and robbed.

This latest attack comes just three months after the fatal gang-rape of a woman aboard a New Dehli bus, an incident which outraged Indians and exposed the plight of women in India to the world.

Authorities say that they have detained and questioned 13 men in connection with the latest attack, which occurred on Friday. The couple were camped out in a forest in Madhya Pradesh state after bicycling from the temple town of Orchha.

The group of men beat the couple and then gang-raped the woman, said police. The rapists also stole the couple's mobile phone, a laptop computer, and 10,000 rupees ($185).

The woman was treated at a hospital in the nearby city of Gwalior. Police say that she and her husband did not suffer any major injuries.

A horn fragment of a buffalo, or perhaps some other kind of unknown prehistoric animal that died 18,000 years ago, has been unearthed in Russia's south Siberia republic of Gorny Altai.

The fragment was discovered several days ago in a sand and gravel pitt located in the republic's northwestern Maimin district.

Experts believe that the prehistoric animal may have been killed by a massive flood 18,000 years ago, when a large lake in Chui Steppe overflowed its banks. In a report posted to its website, the republic's government said:

“That caused the most massive flood in history, with water moving at a speed of 160 kilometers (99 miles) an hour and covering earth with 490 meters (1,607 feet) of water."

Following a thorough examination, the fragment will be turned over to one of the republic's museums.

One of the five men accused in the brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old woman, who ultimately died from the injuries sustained during the attack, has killed himself. Ram Singh, 33, was found dead at Tihar Jail, Dehli's main prison, at around 5:15am.

Singh and four other men who are also accused in the attack, which received widespread international attention, were being held at the jail during their trial at a special court in Dehli on charges that include kidnapping, rape, and murder. All five men pleaded guilty.

Sunil Gupta, a spokesman for Tihar Jail, said:

"He hanged himself [from] the ceiling with his own clothes."

Gupta added that the other four accused men, who are in neighboring cells, are being closely watched by jail authorities following Singh's suicide and that an inquiry has been launched into his death.

Ahead of an announcement of new United Nations sanctions to be placed against North Korea, which carried out a third nuclear test on February 12, the North Korean government threatened a nuclear strike against the United States. The White House has responded to the threats out of Pyongyang, insisting that the U.S. is fully capable of defending against a North Korean ballistic missile strike.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said:

"The United States is fully capable of defending against any North Korean ballistic missile attack."

According to a statement from a Foreign Ministry spokesman that was carried on the Korean Central News Agency, North Korea is prepared to "exercise the right to pre-emptive nuclear attack to destroy the strongholds of the aggressors", and Washington is "set to light a fuse for nuclear war."

Carney contends that North Korea "will achieve nothing by threats or provocations."