Railway authorities in China installed thermal scanners at some train stations to check passengers for fevers and keep the disease from spreading over their vast rail networks.
"The infectious outbreak is our call to arms. Time is lives," said a front-page article in the newspaper Beijing Daily.
The number of SARS deaths worldwide rose yesterday to at least 588.
Scientists credited quarantines for breaking the chain of transmission in Hong Kong.
Chinese University of Hong Kong researchers say the territory's SARS outbreak is losing momentum and should dwindle by next month or July and die out no later than October.
But Singapore, which had hoped to deem itself SARS-free as early as this week, may have suffered a setback amid reports of a new possible outbreak at its largest mental health facility, officials said.
The most recent confirmed SARS case in Singapore was on April 27, and the World Health Organization (WHO) had said it would announce the city-state's outbreak was under control if there were no new cases 20 days after the last reported infection.
The WHO lifted its travel warning against Toronto on April 30 after it decided the city's health authorities had contained the disease sufficiently.
More than 7,500 cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome have been reported worldwide.
In addition to the two fatalities, Hong Kong also reported just nine new cases of the disease yesterday. The territory's new cases have been in the single digits for 11 straight days.
In Beijing, the city government said its economic losses were estimated at 450 million yuan (US$54 million) in the first four months of this year, with arrivals of foreign visitors down some 60 percent.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique