The human swine flu toll in Asia grew yesterday as Australia’s infections more than doubled and Japan and South Korea announced new cases, helping to push the global total to almost 13,000.
Singapore confirmed its first case while Hong Kong, where Asia’s first infection from the A(H1N1) virus sparked a week-long quarantine of around 300 guests and staff at a city hotel, announced a fresh total of 10.
All cruise liners docking in Sydney will be treated as potential swine flu sites and passengers will be held on board until the ship is cleared under tough new measures launched in Australia yesterday.
The protocols were tightened after authorities came under fire for allowing 2,000 passengers off the Pacific Dawn to voluntarily self-quarantine in the community, despite a suspected outbreak of swine flu on board. Twenty passengers have since been diagnosed with the virus, with another three suspected cases among a fresh group of guests on board the ship, which was yesterday headed to the Great Barrier Reef.
All the ship’s crew had been given a course of anti-viral drugs and Health Minister Nicola Roxon said there would be a “significant increase in the number of cases that are confirmed, particularly in the coming days.”
As the number of confirmed cases hit 66, authorities in New South Wales state said they would ramp up their response to cruise ships docking in Sydney.
Meanwhile, Japan has seen a rapid rise in confirmed cases, saying yesterday it had more than 350. The figure included eight people who had tested positive at Narita international airport near Tokyo, the health ministry said.
Two more cases confirmed in South Korea, raising the country’s total number of people infected with the virus to 29.
The new cases were found in a 22-year-old South Korean woman who arrived from Texas last week and in a South African teacher, a health ministry spokesman said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
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