......SCANNING ......

MALAYSIA

The Malaysian Government has lifted the ban on Bup Kudus, the Iban-language Bible, but advised parties to exercise care when translating religious works. Acting Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the issue in question – the use of the word Allah Tala for God in the Iban language – had been resolved.

The ban caught many by surprise, especially those from the East Malaysian state of Sarawak, home to 400,000 members of the Iban tribe, because that version of the Bible had been in use for about 15 years.It is understood that the censors' main objection was that the book contained the phrase 'Allah Taala', or Almighty God.As this phrase was used widely in Islamic literature, the authorities feared that its liberal usage in the holy book of another religion could create confusion among Muslims.

The issue on the use of the word "Allah" in the Christian Bible was hotly debated by several online readers in Malaysian's only independent online news website, Malaysiakini.

AFGHANISTAN

U.S. soldiers exchanged fire today with suspected Taliban fighters in eastern Afghanistan. One American soldier was killed and several were wounded, one seriously, the military said.An Afghan soldier accompanying the patrol of about 35 U.S. Special Forces soldiers in Paktika province also was hurt, Col. Roger King said. King said one U.S. soldier was killed and five were wounded.At least three of the suspected Taliban fighters were killed, while the remainder escaped across the nearby border into Pakistan.

NORTH KOREA CRISIS

Talks in Beijing between North Korea and US failed to achieve productive outcomes.Washington officials refuse to use the word "breakdown". They note that the two countries had agreed to further discussions, albeit at a time and a level yet to be set. But a crucial decision is moving closer for Mr Bush: whether to follow the example of Bill Clinton and engage with North Korea, or tighten the diplomatic and economic isolation of the regime.

SARS -UPDATE

A test developed to detect the SARS virus appears to be far from fool-proof in diagnosing the disease. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention said this week that about seven of the 13 probable cases of SARS that were tested came up negative. The CDC also said that of 32 cases classified as "suspected" rather than "probable," all came up negative.

Experts believe that from analysis of the latest statistics on the global SARS epidemic, at least 10 per cent of people who contract the new virus will die of the disease. The low death rates of about four per cent (4 %)cited until now by the World Health Organization and others are the result of a statistical difficult that normally hampers the early analysis of new disease outbreaks. This difficulty is the reason for the apparent rise in death rate - not a change in the SARS virus. A fatality rate of over 10 per cent puts SARS on a par with some other RNA viruses. Yellow fever and Japanese encephalitis, spread by tropical mosquitoes, between them kill more than 10,000 people a year, even though both have vaccines. Lassa fever kills about 70,000 a year in West Africa, but people mainly catch it from a local mouse. Because these infections need animal vectors that only exist regionally, none has ever gone global. But the SARS vector - humans - is everywhere.

THE ASIAN REGIONThe OECD warned this week that the overall economic fallout from SARS f or the worst affected Asian countries could be significant. The deadly Sars virus, currently sweeping the Asia Pacific region, appears poised to wreak havoc on domestic economies and has already sent equity markets into a sharp downward spiral.

HONGKONG

Hong Kong said most SARS victims have shown good responses to a combination of the anti-viral medicine ribavirin and steroids. But global health officials have doubts and doctors from Singapore and Canada, both hit hard by SARS outbreaks, said late Friday they've not seen good results from those drugs.

Three babies were delivered prematurely to mothers infected by the disease . And the babies themselves may be infected. Doctors performed the Caesarean-section births because the expectant mothers were getting sicker, and there were fears the fetuses could be deformed if the women received a cocktail treatment of antiviral drugs and steroids being given to SARS patients here.

CHINA:

A third Beijing hospital was sealed off Friday because of the SARS virus and more than 4,000 people were quarantined at home, part the capital city's sweeping measures that some angry residents say have come too late.A waitress at a hotel complained that "the government hardly told us anything about SARS" a week ago."Now we're having a big campaign, but I still have suspicions that we're not getting all the information," said the woman, who would give only her family name, Chen.

TAIWAN

Taiwan's Government says it will stop issuing visas to travellers from Hong Kong for a month to protect against the spread of the SARS virus.In the last 24-hours eight people have been diagnosed with SARS in Taiwan, half of them from a single hospital in the capital Taipei.The hospital has been closed, and its 200 patients are being treated in isolation.

SAUDI ARABIA

A 13 year-old boy has died in Saudi Arabia in what an official said might have been the kingdom's first case of the respiratory disease SARS. "Symptoms similar to those of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome were witnessed in the case of the boy," including high temperature and difficulty breathing, said Salem al-Jahni, an official at Erfan Hospital in the western city of Jiddah said Thursday

NEW YORK

New York City is home to 18 potential cases of SARS, although that number could increase in the near future, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reported Thursday.All of the cases were diagnosed in patients who had traveled to areas where the disease is more common, and so far, New Yorkers are not infecting one another, the DOHMH said.

  Go to Latest Posting

---

Comments 0

---