AGGIELIF!
THE BATTALIO
WORLD
THE BATTALION
5
Monday, April 14, 2003
T-fu Asia takes measures to contain SARS
x abouts of Li Zhone Vine, a 33-year-old region to report cases.
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By Yeoh En-Lai
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SINGAPORE — Singapore authorities
stepped up efforts to contain a deadly new
virus this weekend, including issuing elec
tronic wrist tags to keep track of those under
quarantine.
Reports Saturday of nine more deaths
worldwide brought the death toll from
severe acute respiratory syndrome or SARS
to at least 125 in 20 countries. The virus,
which has sickened over 2,700, has no
known cure. Symptoms include shortness of
breath, fever, coughing and body aches.
In Singapore, where 558 people are
under home quarantine, the government
issued its first electronic wrist tags, which
jsound an alarm and issue an alert to a mon
itoring station if a person breaks the bracelet
ior leaves the house.
The measures were taken as police
appealed for information on the where-
Zhong Ying, a 33-year-old
Chinese immigrant showing symptoms of
SARS who escaped four days ago while she
was under quarantine in Singapore.
In Canada, site of the largest outbreak of
SARS outside of Asia, three more people
were killed. The new death reports, all in the
Toronto area, brought the Canadian death
toll to 13, health officials said Saturday.
Canada has recorded a total of 274 probable
and suspected cases of SARS.
Also Saturday, officials reported a British
Columbia laboratory became the first to
complete the genetic sequencing of the
coronavirus believed to be causing severe
acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.
WHO spokesman Dick Thompson in
Geneva called the achievement “an extraor
dinary step,” the Canadian Press reported.
In China, two more people died, raising
the country’s death toll to 60. The official
Xinhua News Agency said the two died
Friday and were among 10 cases of SARS
in Inner Mongolia, the latest Chinese
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Li Dong (wearing face mask), a 42-year-old government worker, purchases herbs that are claimed
to prevent the contraction of SARS at Tong Ren Tang, a Chinese medicinal pharmacy in Bejing,
)hina. The store sold more than 30,000 orders in a single day for the herbal prescription.
region to report cases.
In Hong Kong, authorities on Saturday
said three more people died, raising its death
toll to 35, while officials in Vietnam said a
69-year-old French doctor succumbed to the
illness, bringing the death toll there to five.
Authorities throughout Asia were trying
to stop the disease from taking a further toll
on their economies.
But their efforts may have come too late.
Foreign buyers, uneasy about SARS,
were canceling plans to attend China’s
biggest trade fair this month in the southern
city of Guangzhou in Guangdong, where the
disease is believed to have originated.
Last year, the Chinese Export
Commodities Fair drew more than 120,000
visitors who signed deals totaling nearly
$17 billion, according to organizers. But the
World Health Organization and foreign gov
ernments are warning travelers to avoid
Guangzhou.
“It’s really tragic. Cancellation faxes on
my desk are now piled up above my shoul
der,” said a travel agent in Guangzhou,
adding that the cancellations have come
from “almost every country in the world.”
Hong Kong and China have reported the
highest number of deaths and cases.
To fight the perception that Hong Kong is
spreading the disease to other countries,
authorities were discussing how to take the
temperature of every passenger on departing
flights , Health Department spokeswoman
Eva Wong said. Some 1,108 people in Hong
Kong have fallen ill with the disease.
About a million people departed from
Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok airport in
January, the latest figures available.
In Singapore, meanwhile, authorities
have moved SuperStar Virgo, a luxury
cruise line owned by Malaysia’s Star
Cruises with 13 quarantined crew on board
to a designated dock on Sisters’ Island, a
few miles south of the city-state. No passen
gers were aboard.
In Singapore, nine people have died and
147 have been sickened from the disease.
Vietnam, Canada, Malaysia and Thailand
have also reported deaths.
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Venezuelan peace pact
site bombed, destroyed
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A pre
dawn bomb blast ripped through the
building where Venezuela's govern
ment and opposition have been negoti-
ting a peace agreement, destroying
hree floors but injuring no one.
The attack at about 2:45 a.m.
Saturday came one day after the
Organization of American States bro
kered a deal between the government
and opposition to work toward a ref
erendum on President Hugo Chavez's
rule.
An opposition negotiator said the
blast was intended to intimidate his
delegation at the talks, while the gov
ernment blamed "coup-plotting" sec
tors of the opposition.
The explosion destroyed the first
three floors of the Teleport building in
central Caracas. A night watchman and
a technician, the only two people inside
the building when the blast hit, were
unharmed.
Malaysian journalists
kidnapped in Baghdad
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -
Gunmen ambushed and kidnapped
three Malaysian journalists in Baghdad,
killing their Iraqi interpreter, officials
aid Sunday. Two Malaysian doctors
ere wounded in the attack.
The Malaysians were attacked while
raveling in two vans early Saturday
Torn the Sheraton Hotel in the Iraqi
apital to a hospital, said Acting Prime
inister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Baghdad has been swept by waves of
doting and lawlessness since U.S.
drees moved in and Iraqi President
addam Hussein's hold on the capital
was shattered.
Abdullah identified the three kid
napped journalists as Terence
Fernandez, a reporter for The Sun
newspaper; Anuar Hashim, a New
Straits Times photographer; and Omar
Salleh, a cameraman with the state-run
Radio Television Malaysia.
Nigeria’s first civilian-run elections
end in fighting, two dozen deaths
By Glenn McKenzie
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAGOS, Nigeria
Fighting between tribal and
political rivals disrupted leg
islative elections in Nigeria’s
oil-producing south for a sec
ond day Sunday. At least two
dozen people were killed in the
voting and hundreds were
forced to flee their homes, wit
nesses and election monitors
said.
The vote for 469 seats is a
key gauge of civil tensions a
week ahead of presidential
elections and an important
test for democracy in the
Africa’s most populous
nation. Military coups have
scuttled Nigeria’s previous
attempts to hold democratic,
civilian-run elections.
The voting began on
Saturday but was extended
to Sunday in several areas
where the balloting was
marred, particularly the
Niger Delta.
The oil-rich region has
been the scene of numerous
clashes in recent weeks
between Ijaw militants and
government troops over vot
ing districts the Ijaws say
favor their ethnic rivals, the
Itsekiris.
More than 100 people
have been killed in the vio
lence, which has shut down
40 percent of the country’s
oil production. Nigeria is the
fifth largest supplier of U.S.
oil imports.
On Sunday, sustained
automatic weapons fire
delayed a second attempt to
hold a vote in the oil port of
Warri.
Witnesses said navy sol
diers and Ijaw fighters were
shooting at each other and
spoke of between five and 10
people killed. Grace Akpete, a
market vendor who fled the
fighting, said she saw five bod
ies floating in the water.
The shooting died down
after half an hour. By late
afternoon, three elections
stations opened, but most
remained closed.
“I can’t understand why
one tribe can hold everyone
else to ransom,” said
Johnson Atake, an Itsekiri
waiting to vote Sunday in
the port city.
Elsewhere in the Niger
Delta, clashes between rul
ing party and opposition
supporters killed 10 people
in the town of Nembe, sent
hundreds fleeing and left
dozens of homes burned,
human rights official
Azibaola Roberts said, citing
witnesses.
Five people were killed
Saturday in an ambush on an
opposition politician in east
ern Enugu state. Gangs of
“government thugs” travel
ing in state vehicles stole
ballot boxes at gunpoint,
said Ifeanyi Enwerem, direc
tor of the Justice,
Development and Peace
Center. The center has
deployed thousands of
observers to monitor the
voting.
There wete also reports
of deadly violence in the
southeastern city of Onitsha,
the southern city of Benin
and the eastern city of Port
Harcourt.
Still, election commis
sion chairman Abel
Guobadia said the voting
Saturday went well overall.
In early results from
Nigeria’s electoral commis
sion, six ruling party incum
bents in the northern Kano
state — including House
Speaker Ghali Na’Abba —
were upset by rivals. Some
opposition members from
the southwestern Ondo and
Osun states were, in turn,
unseated.
Officials have indicated a
high turnout across the
country of 126 million peo
ple. Sixty-one million voters
were registered for the bal
lot, which featured 3,000
candidates.
The vote preceded a pres
idential election scheduled
for April 19. President
Olusegun Obasanjo — a for
mer military ruler turned
civilian leader — is running
against 19 opposition candi
dates, including three former
army generals.
The legislative elections
are the first since Obasanjo
was elected in 1999, ending
15 years of brutal military
rule.
More than 10,000 people
in Nigeria have been killed
in political, ethnic and reli
gious violence since then.
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SIC HAN
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