■ China
SARS alert ends
The World Health Organ-ization (WHO) on Tuesday declared an end to a recent outbreak of SARS cases in China that apparently originated with a safety breach in the government's leading virology laboratory. But officials also cautioned they still could not explain what caused the infections. The announcement signals the conclusion of a small but worrisome outbreak that was disclosed last month after two graduate students working at the Institute of Virology at China's Centers for Disease Control became infected with SARS. "For all practical purposes, the outbreak is now contained," WHO spokesman Roy Wadia said.
■ China
Free AIDS care in Shanghai
Shanghai will provide free or discounted AIDS treatment to its poor, state media reported yesterday, citing alarm over the rapid spread of the disease among young adults in the city. The city will cut or abolish charges for AIDS treatment for farmers and other needy patients, the Wen Hui Daily and other newspapers reported. They cited officials as saying that 195 new cases of HIV infection were confirmed last year in the city of 20 million people and that people aged 20 to 40 were the most commonly affected. The standard therapy for treating AIDS patients costs 30,000 yuan to 50,000 yuan (US$3,630 to US$6,050) a year -- far beyond the means of most Chinese, even in Shanghai.
■ United States
Jaguar fan loses his finger
A New Mexico man made a hasty exit from a zoo after climbing close to a cage to illegally pet a jaguar, but police were able to track him down by the severed finger he left behind. The shriveled and dried finger from the man's right hand was found outside the cat cage last week by a groundskeeper, said Tom Silva, assistant director of the Albuquerque Biological Park. The owner of the finger has been identified and is forbidden to return to the zoo, Silva said, "He's been summarily banned from the zoo, for the animals' safety and for his own," Silva said, adding that the park was not planning to press criminal charges. "I think he's suffered enough," he said.
■ United Nations
Sex complaint dogs agency
Ruud Lubbers, chief of the UN refugee agency, confirmed on Tuesday that he was under investigation by UN internal inspectors following a sexual harassment complaint by a woman on his staff. But he strongly denied having behaved in an "improper" way. The investigation of Lubbers, 65, who heads one of the UN's largest and most important humanitarian agencies, is an added problem for Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who has come under fire after accusations of corruption in the UN oil-for-food program in Iraq.
■ Japan
Police, gangster in standoff
A standoff between a suspected gangster and police entered its second day yesterday, with hundreds of agents surrounding the apartment house where the man has holed up. Taketo Hatakeyama, 41, was locked inside a second-floor apartment with a woman thought to be his friend. Police in Utsunomiya, 100km north of Tokyo, attempted to raid the apartment on Tuesday morning on suspicion that Hatakeyama had illegal weapons. He opened fire and police shot back. Police have sent some 300 agents to the scene.
■ United Kingdom
Soldier caught over photos
At least one British soldier was arrested on Tuesday in an investigation of faked photographs of alleged abuses of Iraqi prisoners by British forces, the Ministry of Defense said. The photos had appeared in the Daily Mirror, and when it was discovered they were fake the tabloid printed a front-page apology on Saturday after announcing that top editor Piers Morgan would step down. In its brief statement on Tuesday, the ministry said the arrests were a routine part of its probe and that no charges were filed.
■ United States
Tony Randall dies
Tony Randall, the comic actor best known for playing fastidious photographer Felix Unger on the TV sitcom The Odd Couple, has died. He was 84. Randall, who developed pneumonia after undergoing heart bypass surgery last December, died in his sleep on Monday night at New York University Medical Center. Randall was hospitalized after starring in Right You Are, a revival of Luigi Pirandello's play. Randall joked last September about how he envisioned his funeral: US President George W. Bush and Vice President Cheney would show up to pay their respects, but they'd be turned away because his family knows he didn't like them.
■ United Kingdom
Group slams shrimp farms
The explosive growth of shrimp farming in developing nations, many in Asia, has caused a "shocking environmental crisis" of deforestation and pollution, a campaign group charged yesterday. A report by the London-based Environmental Justice Foundation highlighted what it called "a truly shocking catalogue of environmental damage" in shrimp-farming nations, also found in Central America and, to a lesser extent, Africa. The 77-page publication, called Farming the Sea, Costing the Earth, detailed a series of environmental costs such as the destruction of mangrove forests and the depletion of other maritime stocks.
■ Canada
Air India trial under way
Prosecutors in the Air India bombing trial closed their case in Vancouver on Tuesday, having taken more than a year to present evidence but with far fewer witnesses than once anticipated. Prosecutors had originally thought they would need to call more than 1,000 witnesses against the accused Sikh bombers in the nearly two-decade-old case. The list was cut to 600 when the trial began, but less than 90 were called to testify. Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri are charged with murder for two 1985 bombings that killed 331 people, including the destruction of Air India Flight 182.
■ United States
Cello misses the chop
A nurse found a 320-year-old cello made by master craftsman Antonio Stradivari lying by a trash bin -- and almost had her boyfriend convert it into a CD holder. The US$3.5 million instrument was returned to the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association on Monday after sitting unrecognized for days in the home of Melanie Stevens, 29, who discovered the cello about 1km from where it was stolen, still inside its silver-coated plastic case. Police Detective Donald Hrycyk said Stevens asked her boyfriend, a cabinetmaker, to convert it into a unique CD holder. She said she didn't know its significance until she noticed a news report. Its return was a relief for philharmonic principal cellist Peter Stumpf, who accidentally left it outside his home. Nearby video surveillance cameras showed a bicyclist stole it.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of