KOLKATA, Feb. 11: Experts from Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) today visited bird flu-affected areas of the state ahead of the review meeting to be held by the state government to discuss lifting the ban on chicken trading and transportation.

The government is likely to lift its ban on the movement, sale and purchase of chickens, ducks, quails and their eggs from tomorrow after a high-level meeting at Writers' Buildings. The ban was imposed across the state on February 5 for an indefinite period in the wake of the bird flu outbreak in 13 districts. State animal resource development minister Anisur Rahman said tonight that the government was "considering lifting the ban' from tomorrow "since the situation has improved'.

bithari village, Swarupnagar block, North 24-Paraganas: the men of Uttarpara hamlet in Bithari are hiding out in the fields every night despite the winter chill in the air. Better brave the cold

violent protests against the public distribution system have spread across many districts in West Bengal over the past weeks.

LOHAPUR'S engagement with history is renewed, almost on an everyday basis. Whenever a patch of land is dug across a 16-sq km stretch in this tiny village in Birbhum district of West Bengal, villagers

Sept. 17: The Centre today announced a diesel subsidy of up to Rs 500 per hectare to farmers in drought-hit Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand to help them irrigate their fields.

KOLKATA, Feb 12- The state government today decided to lift from tomorrow the ban on trading and transportation of chicken and eggs imposed on 5 February, except in the 48 blocks and five municipalities where the avian flu had broken out. Poultry products would be allowed in and out of Murshidabad and Birbhum - the first to have been hit by the flu - only from authorised farms, though the ban would continue to be in force in 22 affected blocks in the two districts.