Xinhua Asia-Pacific news summary at 1600 GMT, March 18

Contributed by NAMPA / Xinhua.

TOKYO -- Egg prices are soaring in Japan as the current avian flu season sees a record 16 million birds marked for culling, local media reported on Saturday.
The current bird flu outbreak has spread at an unprecedented pace since the season began in October last year, with at least 80 cases at poultry firms in 26 of the country's 47 prefectures, Kyodo News reported.
As of March 2, the wholesale price of medium-size eggs was 335 yen (2.5 U.S. dollars) per kilogram in Tokyo, the highest ever since ...