■ Cambodia
Bean soup battles SARS
Terrified that the deadly SARS virus is about to hit their country, Cambodians have been gulping down bowls of green bean soup, rumored to ward off the disease. Bean prices in markets across the country have sky-rocketed ever since word first began to spread this week that the thick sweet brew could beat the disease. Cambodians are not alone in seeking alternative cures to the illness. Chinese peasants have been letting off fire-crackers and praying to images of the Buddha to scare off the "god of plague," the official Xinhua news agency reported this week.
■ Japan
SARS experts visit China
Japan is to send four experts to China tomorrow to help the country battle the SARS virus, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said yesterday. Tokyo will also provide an extra ?1.5 billion (US$12.81 million) in aid, including masks and other medical supplies, to help its neighbor fight the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Kyodo news agency said. The team of experts, including two doctors, will stay in China for just under a week. The government hopes the move will help control the outbreak and help protect both Japanese and Chinese citizens.
■ Hong Kong
Hospital must own up
Health officials are demanding that a private hospital explain its slow reporting of a SARS outbreak after some patients accused the hospital of a cover-up. Hospitals are required to report both suspected and confirmed cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome to the Health Department. But the Baptist Hospital did not notify the authorities until one of its nurses was confirmed to have contracted the disease. About one in five SARS patients in Hong Kong have been medical personnel, amid allegations that hospital authorities failed to ensure staff took adequate precautions.
■ Thailand
Airline offers compensation
Thai Airways promised yesterday to pay US$100,000 compensation to any passenger who gets infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) while flying with the national carrier. Thai Airways chairman Thanong Bidaya told reporters the airline is confident that its preventive measures, including disinfection of aircraft, are of such high standards that no passenger could fall victim to SARS. Thai Airways has been carrying out preflight medical checks of all passengers boarding its planes in countries affected by SARS.
■ United states
Yao hosts SARS telethon
National Basketball Association sensation Yao Ming of China will host a multi-national telethon to raise funds to battle SARS, the NBA announced Thursday. The three-hour telethon, co-organized by NBA TV and the Shanghai TV Great Sports Channel, is scheduled to air live in the US tomorrow from 5am to 8am (1200 to 1500 GMT). "The fight against SARS is an extremely important one, and I wanted to do something to support the fight and help overcome the disease," Yao said. "This is the least I can do to help my country in this difficult time."
■ India
Military test-fires missile
India test-fired its new Astra air-to-air missile from a ground launcher yesterday, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported. The solid propellant missile has a striking range of 25km to 40km, PTI reported. It quoted Defense Ministry sources as saying another trial was scheduled within the next two days. A man who answered the phone at the ministry refused to confirm the test but said, "something did happen." PTI said the missile was fired from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, in the east coast state of Orissa. The test occurred yesterday as US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage was visiting Afghanistan, on his way to New Delhi.
■ Singapore
Berkeley welcomes students
Students traveling from Singapore are free to attend summer classes at the University of California, Berkeley, after the institution relaxed its travel restrictions, its Web site said yesterday. The prestigious school announced on Monday that it was barring new students from Singapore, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong from attending summer classes because of the large number of SARS cases reported in those areas. UC Berkeley said it lifted the ban on Singapore after the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took the city-state off its travel advisory list.
■ Australia
Police act against runaway
Australian police have started legal proceedings against a teenage girl who reappeared last month after being mourned for nearly five years as the victim of a serial killer. Natasha Ryan, whose disappearance in September 1998, aged 14, sparked a massive and costly police hunt, was found hiding in her boyfriend's house after an anonymous tip-off as her accused murderer went on trial. A spokesman said police took action in a Brisbane court on Thursday to start proceedings against Ryan and her boyfriend, 27-year-old milkman Scott Black, for wasting police time.
■ Saudi Arabia
Police seek plotters
Saudi Arabia has linked 19 men wanted on terrorism charges to the al-Qaeda group and offered a reward of up to 300,000 riyals (US$80,000) for information leading to their capture. Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz told the al-Riyadh newspaper in remarks published on Thursday that the group, on the run after a shoot-out with security forces in the capital Riyadh on Tuesday, was al-Qaeda-related . "Yes ... but in order to be 100 percent sure, we must arrest them and verify this," Prince Nayef said. Saudi police said on Wednesday they were hunting 17 Saudis, one Yemeni and one Iraqi with Canadian and Kuwaiti passports to face terrorism charges after the shootout.
■ Germany
Chicken flu discovered
German veterinary officials were to start slaughtering 32,000 chickens yesterday after uncovering what they believe may be the first case of a highly contagious flu that has already ravaged Dutch and Belgian poultry farms. Tests on a farm in Viersen, near the Dutch border in western Germany, have raised a "serious suspicion" that bird flu may have crossed the frontier, the district authority said. All poultry within 1km of the farm were ordered to be slaughtered as a precaution, nearby roads were sealed off and a disinfection point set up at the entrance.
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