HONG KONG - Chinese authorities have banned local reporters from visiting areas where an outbreak of a pig-borne disease has killed 34 farmers, ordering newspapers to use dispatches from the state news agency, a Hong Kong newspaper reported Sunday. A total of 174 confirmed or suspected cases have been linked to the bacteria streptococcus suis in China’s southwestern Sichuan province, where farmers who handled or butchered infected pigs have been sickened in dozens of villages and towns. Symptoms include nausea, fever, vomiting, and bleeding under the skin. - MSNBC