Indonesia said the number of its people killed by bird flu climbed to five yesterday, as the World Bank finalized plans to provide up to US$500 million to help poor countries fight the disease.
China, which has not yet recorded any human bird flu cases, mobilized its massive military to try to stamp out the H5N1 virus in poultry after thousands of birds started dropping dead in a village east of Beijing.
A 19-year-old woman from Tangerang, a town outside Jakarta, died of bird flu last month and another eight-year-old boy was sickened by the virus, said Health Ministry official Hariadi Wibisono, citing Hong Kong laboratory test results.
That brought the total number of human cases in Indonesia to nine -- five deaths and four infections -- though some health experts say the number is likely higher.
Meanwhile, the World Bank was gearing up for an international conference in Geneva this week to discuss managing bird flu outbreaks, as well as plans to cope with a possible human flu pandemic.
A funding package of US$300 million to US$500 million could be used by poorer countries to "supplement government resources, to strengthen the veterinary systems and to put in place culling and vaccine programs for animals," said Jim Adams, a bank vice president.
According to the World Health Organization, the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed at least 62 people -- all of them in Southeast Asia -- and resulted in the deaths of more than 100 million birds since 2003.
Most of the human deaths have been linked to close contact with infected birds.
The latest Chinese outbreak -- the fourth in three weeks -- killed 8,940 chickens on Oct. 26 in Badaohao, a village in Liaoning Province, prompting authorities to destroy 369,900 other birds in the area.
Hong Kong immediately banned poultry imports from Liaoning.
In an effort to show it is harnessing all available resources, China has mobilized it military to work with local authorities and to stockpile disinfectant and medicine, a military newspaper reported yesterday.
The 2.3-million-member People's Liberation Army is to make "urgent plans" with health and agriculture agencies to help stop possible outbreaks, the Liberation Army Daily said.
"All levels must clearly understand the epidemic situation and absolutely cannot lower their guard or be careless," the order said, according to the newspaper.
In Vietnam -- where most of the human deaths have occurred -- more than 3,000 poultry died or were culled this week in three villages in Bac Giang province about 60km northeast of Hanoi, said provincial vice chairman Nguyen Dang Khoa.
Transporting poultry to or from the three villages was banned, and the towns and those around them have been disinfected and remaining poultry vaccinated, he said.
In one of the villages, Van Trung, about a dozen local officials on Friday went from house to house, beating to death any poultry they found.
In Japan, authorities said antibody testing had found that 80 chickens at a farm in Ibaraki prefecture had been exposed to a virus of the H5 strain, but survived. Nevertheless, 180,000 of the 300,000 birds at the farm would be culled, officials said.
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
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
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
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