OTTAWA (Reuters) – Around three dozen birds found to be carrying a kind of bird flu are unlikely to be suffering from the H5N1 killer strain which has spread from Southeast Asia to Europe, a top Canadian health official said on Monday. Reuters

Tropical Storm Beta has been upgraded to a hurricane just as it makes landfall with the Colombian island of Providencia. Currently Beta is a Category 1 hurricane and has a maximum sustained winds of almost 75 mph (120 km/h).  The storm is expected to increase to a Category 2 storm by the time it hits mainland Central [...]

With near-ideal conditions for hurricane formation in the Caribbean, Tropical Storm Beta is expected to become the record 13th hurricane of the 2005 season later on Friday. Beta was first spotted on Wednesday and reached tropical storm strength on Thursday morning. At 0800 EDT on Friday, the eye of the storm was 290 kilometres (180 [...]

The BBC has a very interesting interactive map that charts the spread of H5N1 bird flu around the world since 2003.

Reuters is reporting that Roche Holding AG, the makers of the anti-viral Tamiflu, is halting supplies to the US in an attempt to head off consumers who fear bird flu hoarding the drug. Roche is halting deliveries of Tamiflu to pharmacists in the United States and Canada until the start of the flu season. Media [...]