LOCAL TRANSMISSION: The virus control institute at China's Centers for Disease Control was sealed off after two workers fell ill yesterday, China's health ministry said
China sealed off a SARS research lab in its capital yesterday after two lab workers fell ill and the mother of one died in what could be the world's first SARS fatality this year.

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By Joy Su
Despite escalating concerns regarding China's SARS situation, Taipei's Hoping Hospital yesterday looked back on the hospital's historic quarantine effort during last year's SARS outbreak, while relatives of SARS patients called on the government to provide fair compensation for their losses.

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NOT QUALIFIED: Former president Lee Teng-hui said yesterday that the opposition leaders left their supporters in the lurch after the election and are not fit to govern
By Chang Yun-ping
Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) yesterday said the opposition parties lost the presidential election because they went against the Taiwanese people's pursuit of an independent Taiwanese identity and expectations of a younger leadership generation.

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Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie said yesterday that US bias towards Israel had emboldened Israeli leader Ariel Sharon to issue a new threat against the life of President Yasser Arafat.

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Aid workers rushed to the scene of a devastating train blast yesterday after North Korea made unprecedented pleas for help and blamed carelessness for the disaster, saying downed power lines detonated a cargo of oil and ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer also used in explosives and rocket fuel.

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