Bird flu kills 9 in China

The death toll in China from a new strain of bird flu rose to nine on Tuesday, the state-run Xinhua news agency reports.
The H7N9 strain, which was confirmed in humans for the first time last month, has now infected 28 people, all of them in eastern China, of whom nine have died, according to data from the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

Last week city authorities in Shanghai ordered a temporary closure of two poultry markets and the slaughter of an estimated 20,000 birds.

Earlier the federal government tightened controls over the spread of the deadly virus launching a repeat examination of all recent cases of flu infections.