news.com.au By Mark McCord 06Apr03

THE high-profile death of an International Labour Organisation (ILO) official and the announcement of more cases of SARS in the Chinese capital put Beijing in the spotlight again as the race moved on to find a cure for the killer disease.

As the first suspected case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) was detected in Kuwait, World Health Organisation (WHO) experts continued to search for the cause of the mystery illness in the epidemic's epicentre, southern China.

The death of the ILO's Pekka Aro from SARS was announced at a Chinese Health Ministry news conference in Beijing. He was the highest profile casualty of the outbreak since WHO expert Carlo Urbani -- who first identified the disease - died in Bangkok last month.

Finnish official Aro was among 19 new cases announced in the capital, bringing the number of deaths in Beijing to four.

At least 51 deaths from SARS have been reported in China and 1,247 people have been infected, according to official figures released today.

WHO experts continued their probe into the killer pneumonia as China went into damage control mode to repair an image badly tarnished by its foot-dragging in handling the outbreak.

WHO investigators held meetings with Chinese health and disease control officials today, their fourth day in Guangdong province, where the virus has killed more people than anywhere else.

In an effort to staunch criticism of China's handling of the outbreak, state-run media carried reports by the WHO praising China for its handling of the crisis the authorities put a gag on Internet jokers mentioning SARS online.

In Hong Kong, hopes that the rate of infection has slowed were dashed as the city woke up to news that another three people had died today and 39 more infections had been detected.

Despite assurances from health authorities and Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa that the rate of infection had stabilised, the sudden surge in detections and deaths Saturday raised the death toll to 20 and the number of infections to 800.

Citizens and organisations, already taking no chances by wearing surgical masks and shunning public places, stepped up precautionary measures today.

Among them, the Roman Catholic diocese removed basins of holy water from its churches and ordered clergy to wear masks and gloves.

Worshippers were told not to attend mass if they were ill and were urged not to hold hands during prayers. The measures will remain in place during Easter, which falls on April 20 this year.

Panic set in throughout much of the rest of Asia, as governments continued to urge citizens to stay away from infected areas, and in the rest of the world as the virus reached newer shores.

With the disease taken hold in Singapore, where six people have died and 103 cases have been confirmed, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong set up a cabinet-level task force to help beef up the city-state's defences.

It was also suggested that the government take the opportunity provided by the siege under which the virus has the city to test Singapore's much-vaunted bio-terrorism security shelters.

In Malaysia, acting Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi called for calm after the country's first probable death from SARS was announced overnight.

Australia, taking no chances after four children who recently arrived in the country were identified as suspected carriers, SARS has been categorised as quarantinable, allowing authorities to detain anybody entering the country with suspected symptoms.

On the other side of the Pacific, an eighth person died in Canada's Ontario province and a ninth was suspected. Canada remains the worst-hit country outside Asia with 187 infections. More than 3,500 people are in voluntary quarantine in Ontario.

Kuwait brought the tally of potentially affected countries to as many as 31 when it announced its first suspected case. An expatriate woman who returned to Kuwait from southeast Asia is being tested.

The SARS fallout continued to batter the world's tourism industry.

In Taipei, travel agents appealed for government assistance to ease the worst crisis in 30 years, and Australian analysts said the virus scare would dash hopes of an Asian-sourced resuscitation of the nation's flagging tourism industry.

This report appears on news.com.au.

The Port Frances Times on Line April 01, 2003 TORONTO (CP)

    Armed with his physics degree from McGill University, screenwriter John Rogers admits he’s responsible for all the scientific ‘‘gobbledegook’’ designed to hold up the plot in the new science fiction adventure film The Core.    But Rogers insists that the far-fetched premise — about a group of scientists and astronauts who bore deep into the middle of the planet to prevent a fatal-to-mankind cataclysm — is grounded in scientific fact. Ninety per cent of it anyway.    ‘‘It’s a Journey to the Centre of the frickin’ Earth movie,’’ he says. ‘‘We’re going to have to bend science a little but the idea was not to treat the audience like chimps. Audiences are going to know what smells real. When you’re lying to them, at least lie to them convincingly and try to bend science and not break it.’’    Working with co-writer Cooper Layne, Rogers also made sure that this time, those venerable sci-fi regulars, the white-lab-coated scientists, were reasonably authentic.    ‘‘It’s kinda cool. I’m getting a lot of e-mails and comments from scientists about how great it is to see scientists being the petty, bickering people that they are.’’    Apparently there was even more scientific ‘‘explainy stuff’’ before the film was screened for test audiences, but they rejected it and out it went.    Aaron Eckhart and Stanley Tucci play geophysicists who learn that the Earth’s molten core has stopped spinning (who knew it turned?), a crisis that will damage the above-ground electromagnetic field, leading to all sorts of calamity, including massive electrical storms that will spell the end of the human race in a year’s time.    A six-person crew must ride an innovative inner-space ship down to the core, then plant a series of nuclear charges just so, to get it going round and round once more.    Rogers insists the premise is solid.    ‘‘The core actually spins, faster than the earth itself as a matter of fact, and every 500,000 years it slows down, pauses and reverses.’’    And just in case skeptics remain in the house, Paramount Pictures released a newly published theory from a bona-fide and highly respected American geophysicist who says the Earth’s nuclear furnace could die anywhere from 100 years to a billion years from now, causing the collapse of the planet’s magnetic field.    Rogers insists it’s real but concedes it sounds bogus. After all, Dr. J. Marvin Herndon, head of Transdyne Corp. in San Diego?    ‘‘I know, Transdyne sounds like such a 1980s sci-fi thing. But no, Herndon’s been kicking around in this field for 20 years. The paper was peer-reviewed by the Academy of American Scientists. I mean they don’t allow guys with tin foil on their heads to publish papers in these journals!’’    Rogers, 36, says he became interested in science when, as a kid, he went to the movies and saw such 1960s sci-fi thrillers as Fantastic Voyage, At the Earth’s Core and Journey to the Center of the Earth. A Bostonian, he went to McGill in 1984, fell in love with Canada and his future Canadian wife, and proudly took out citizenship.    Although he now lives in Los Angeles, he still has a home in Stittsville, Ont.    He began his showbiz career in Canada as a stand-up comic — even copped a few Gemini Award nominations and a very brief TV sitcom — but soon found his strength as a writer for such TV shows as Cosby and the animated Jackie Chan Adventures.    Screenplay credits include The Count of Monte Cristo, Rush Hour 2 and American Outlaws. His next project is to try to bring the legendary Isaac Asimov sci-fi trilogy, Foundation, to the screen.    But it’s those clunky 1960s sci-fi thrillers he remembers and says there are hidden tributes to them throughout The Core.    He says he drew the line, though, at what some of those movies, like The Mole People, proposed and he wasn’t going to go along with any suggestions his adventurers run into retro-looking prehistoric monsters or subterranean tribes down there.    ‘‘There was one terrifying moment during a meeting, when one of the producers went ‘Well, c’mon, no one’s ever been down there. Nobody knows what’s down there. ANYTHING could be down there.’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, sweet Jesus, no! It’s about to all go bad on me!’ ’’

<a href=www.ctnow.com>CTNOW 7:38 AM EST,April 2, 2003 By The Associated Press

The disease called severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, continues to make headlines. Here are answers to some concens about it. Q. What are the symptoms? A. It usually begins with a fever of more than 100.4 F., sometimes with chills and headache and body aches. After two to seven days, patients may develop a cough. Other symptoms can include shortness of breath, difficulty in breathing and pneumonia. Q. Who's most at risk of getting SARS? A. Travelers to or residents of certain parts of Asia, and people who've had direct close contact with an infected person, like health care workers and those sharing a household with a SARS patient. Apart from that, there's no sign of it spreading in communities in the United States at the moment, federal authorities say. Q. What should I do if I think I have SARS? A. If you have a fever of more than 100.4 F. and develop a cough or difficulty breathing, contact a health care provider. Explain any recent travel to regions where SARS has been reported and whether you were in close contact with someone who had these symptoms. Q. How does SARS spread? A. The germ apparently travels on the tiny droplets of fluid that an infected person spews out when coughing or sneezing. Experts say they're concerned about the possibility that it might also travel more broadly through the air. Q. What can I do to avoid SARS? A. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends postponing non-essential trips to mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Hanoi, Vietnam. While some SARS cases have been reported in Canada, there's no sign of widespread community spread, so CDC isn't advising against travel to or from there. Q. Can I catch the germ from an infected passenger in an airplane? A. There have been a few reports suggesting that. The World Health Organization says that doesn't necessarily mean the germ spreads through recirculated air, however. To reduce the international spread of SARS, WHO is urging officials to screen international airline passengers departing from Toronto, Singapore, Hanoi and several Chinese cities for possible SARS and ask those who appear sick to delay their trip until they feel better. Q. Is there a cure? A. None has been identified yet. Q. What caused those clusters of cases in the Hong Kong hotel and apartment building? A. It's not yet clear how the germ was transmitted in those cases. Scientists believe SARS is caused by a type of coronavirus, the virus family that causes the common cold. Other coronaviruses can survive up to three hours outside the body. So it's possible that if an infected person coughed droplets onto a door handle or some other object that a second person later touched, that second person might become infected.

• __ On the Web: WHO information: www.who.int/csr/sars/en/ CDC information: www.cdc.gov/ncidod/SARS

<a href=www.kron4.com>KRON4

Toronto-AP -- The mysterious illness that has been spreading around the world has claimed two more lives in Canada. The flu-like illness, called severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, has killed two additional people in Toronto. That brings to six the number who've died from the illness in Canada -- all in Toronto.

The illness was brought to Canada by air travelers from Asia. Its initial symptoms include fever, dry cough and shortness of breath.

SARS has killed more than 60 people worldwide and sickened more than 16-hundred.

International arrivals at Toronto's airport are getting information on the illness, but health officials say it's not necessary to interview them all.

In Ontario, a health emergency has been declared. Access to hospitals has been restricted. People who could be infected have been asked to stay home for ten days.

<a href=www.kron4.com>KRON4 Posted: April 1, 2003 at 11:16 p.m. Updated: April 1, 2003 at 12:32 p.m.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- An American Airlines flight from Tokyo was quarantined on the tarmac Tuesday at San Jose's airport after five people on board complained of symptoms like those reported from the mysterious flu-like illness spreading through Asia, health officials said.

Two passengers and two crew members, plus a fifth unidentified person, complained of symptoms similar to those found in severe acute respiratory syndrome -- which has afflicted hundreds in Hong Kong and killed at least 64 people worldwide.

It was not immediately clear when the people became ill, only that they reported to the crew during the flight that they "think they may have SARS," said Joy Alexiou, a spokeswoman for the Santa Clara County Public Health Department.

Alexiou added that "we're pretty sure four of the five tranferred from Hong Kong to Tokyo."

Flight 128 from Tokyo to Mineta San Jose International Airport stopped on the tarmac short of the gate mid-morning Tuesday, and ambulances lined up near the plane as the 125 passengers and 14 crew members waited on board after the nine-hour flight.

American Airlines notified the airport that help was needed after "the captain was informed of a passenger needing medical assistance," said Todd Burke, a spokesman for the airline.

More than 1,600 cases of the illness have been reported so far worldwide. Officials say it's unclear whether exposure on a flight is sufficient to infect people.

Alexiou said the passengers and crew members who feel sick will be transported to a hospital for chest X-rays and to have their travel history checked before they are classified as suspected cases of SARS.

"This thing seems to spread a little easier than first anticipated, so we want to take every precaution," Alexiou said.

Others on the plane will be given medical advice and allowed to depart -- but told to immediately contact a doctor if they develop any symptoms, she said.