Sania Mirza 'considered quitting'

Indian tennis star Sania Mirza says she considered quitting the sport after being accused of showing disrespect to the national flag.
On New Year's day, Mirza was pictured sitting with her feet resting on a table next to an Indian flag.

The 21-year-old, who has advanced to the second round of the Australian Open, said the pose was accidental.

Mirza faces a possible prosecution under the Prevention of Insult to the National Honour Act.

She has faced criticism before, including being accused of wearing "indecent" sporting attire.

"I think a lot of thoughts went through my head in the last couple of weeks," Mirza said.

"One of the thoughts was that [to quit the sport], but I wouldn't say it was serious enough that I am going to quit right now."

'No disrespect'

After newspapers published the controversial photograph taken during a match at the Hopman Cup in Australia, a private citizen filed a complaint with a court in the central Indian city of Bhopal.

The maximum punishment for an offence under the Prevention of Insult to the National Honour Act is three years in jail and a fine.

Mirza denies showing disrespect to the flag.

"I just know that I would not do anything to disrespect my country.

"I love my country, I wouldn't be playing Hopman Cup otherwise, but besides that I am not allowed to comment," she said.

Mirza is not new to controversy. Last month, police in her hometown of Hyderabad [in southern India] registered a case against her for trespass for filming an advertisement in a mosque.

She has also been criticised for her sporting clothes with her critics describing it as "indecent" and "corrupting'.

In an earlier interview with the BBC, Mirza said, "I try not to read newspapers or watch sport news on television" because of the effect such controversies have on her.

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Bird flu outbreak in Indian state

Health officials in India have confirmed an outbreak of bird flu in the eastern state of West Bengal.
Nearly 10,000 chickens have been found dead in the area in the past week and a mass cull of poultry is under way.

Tests show the birds are carrying the deadly H5N1 virus which can cause avian influenza in humans, officials say.

India's huge poultry industry is worth billions of dollars. Several outbreaks of bird flu in India in recent years have all been brought under control.

Fears for humans

Tests carried out at a federal laboratory on samples of dead birds from two districts of West Bengal confirmed that they were carrying the deadly H5N1 virus, officials said.

"We can now say there's an outbreak of bird flu in certain parts of West Bengal - in the districts of Birbhum and South Dinajpur to be specific," India's federal health secretary Naresh Dayal said.

"This has to be combated on a war footing."

Health officials have already descended on the affected area and have begun culling thousands of chickens in the districts bordering Bangladesh.

The state government has banned the import of poultry from Bangladesh which reported bird flu outbreaks last year.

Officials say they are particularly concerned after reports that villagers in West Bengal had been cooking the dead birds and eating them.

They say they will begin monitoring people for flu-like symptoms now that the virus has been confirmed.

Large quantities of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu have also been despatched to the area.

"Because a lot of villagers cooked the dead birds in the last week, we are apprehensive," Birbhum district's chief medical officer, Sunil Kumar Bhowmick, said.

"It did not appear to us that this could be bird flu," Sheikh Qasim, a small poultry farmer in the Margram area of Birbhum district, told the BBC.

"Out of ignorance, we had a lot of chicken curry but now we are scared to the bone."

India faced a major outbreak of bird flu in the north-eastern state of Manipur last year. Previous outbreaks were in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

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