THURSDAY, APRIL 24. 2003
WORLD
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 11A
SARS leads China to close schools
Serving
KU
The Associated Press
BEIJING - China ordered all public schools in its capital closed yesterday, leaving almost 2 million students to study at home following a major jump in the number of reported SARS cases in the city.
The rise in SARS cases in China and Canada led the World Health Organization yesterday to warn against unnecessary travel to parts of China and Toronto, where officials said the advisory was not warranted because the disease is being brought under control.
Canada has been the most affected area outside Asia, with 15 deaths so far, all in the Toronto area, but Dr. Sheela Basrur, Toronto's medical officer of health, said the WHO travel warning was a "gross misrepresentation of the facts."
The true situation in Toronto, she said, was that the outbreak is
"serious and it is contained largely in hospitals which is, frankly, where it belongs. So we don't have widespread community spread."
The WHO warning will have "an unnecessary as well as a detrimental impact on our city and we can't afford that," she said.
Experts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention arrived in Toronto to help officials figure out how to stop the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome within hospitals.
Ontario Premier Ernie Eves, under pressure to provide some relief to businesses affected by SARS, said such compensation could run into the "tens of billions of dollars. I don't see how any level of government can really get into that."
Rick Naylor, head of Accucom, a company that organizes trade shows to Toronto, said the WHO warning will be economically devastating.
"The ripple effect is huge because the hotel industry, the restaurant industry, sporting events, everything filters out of that," he said.
Major League Baseball also will advise teams visiting Toronto in the coming weeks against signing autographs, visiting hospitals, using public transportation or mingling with large crowds.
"These areas now have quite a high magnitude of disease, a great risk of transmission locally outside of the usual health workers and also they've been exporting cases to other countries," Heymann said.
Dr. David Heymann, WHO's communicable diseases chief, said the travel warning for Toronto, Beijing and China's Shanxi province will be in effect for at least three weeks.
province of Guangdong, where the disease is believed to have originated.
The WHO already issued similar warnings about Hong Kong and the southern Chinese
An estimated 4,000 people worldwide have been infected by SARS, and about 250 have died, mostly in Asia. The United States has reported 38 probable cases and no deaths.
Beijing authorities said yesterday they plan to invoke emergency measures to quarantine people exposed to SARS and restrict access to buildings where there are infections.
The statement, released by the local television station, did not provide details on how the new measures will be enforced or where people will be quarantined.
The Chinese school closure begins Thursday and lasts for two weeks through the May Day school holiday, said an official of the Beijing Municipal Education Commission who would give her name only as Miss Cui.
Orchard Corners Apartments
Enjoy the comfort of a small community Now Leasing! We offer:
- 2 BR - 2 Bath w/Study
- On KU bus route
- 4 BR - 2 Bath w/Study
- Small pets welcome
- 4 BR - 2 Bath
- On-site laundry
- 4 BR 2 DBA
* Furnished & unfurnished apartments
- Friendly on-site manager
- Private patio or balcony
- Sparkling pool
Models open daily 749-4226 15th & Kasold Mon.- Fri. 9:00 - 5:00
Iraqi oil flows again; power restored
The Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Oil from Iraq's southern fields began flowing through pipelines yesterday for the first time since the war, and power at last was restored to parts of Baghdad. In the holy city of Karbala, thousands of Shiite Muslims demonstrated against the United States.
An accident took the lives of three Marines near the southern city of Kut. They were trying out a rocket-propelled grenade launcher when it malfunctioned on Tuesday, and seven other Marines were wounded, U.S. Central Command said.
southern city of Basra.
The southern oil fields had been among the first installations secured when U.S. and British forces launched the ground war March 20. Coalition forces, aided by Iraqi oil workers, yesterday fired up a gas-oil separation plant that sent oil to a pumping station and storage tank outside the
"Our focus in restoring the oil is to give the biggest benefit to the Iraqi people," said Brig. Gen. Robert Crear, the top U.S. official charged with getting Iraq's oil production up and running.
Many Iraqis have complained bitterly about U.S. forces rushing to secure oil fields and the capital's oil ministry, leaving other ministries, universities, museums, hospitals and businesses to be looted and burned. U.S. officials have acknowledged they were surprised by the rampage, and said troops were too occupied by combat to intervene when they first reached Baghdad.
Crear said the southern Rumeila oil field could be producing up to 1.1 million barrels a day in six to 15 weeks. Northern oil fields around Kirkuk remain out of production; when they are reopened, Crear said, Iraq could move toward its prewar production of 2.8 million barrels a day, and provide crucial revenue for reconstruction.
The first group of U.N. international staff returned to northern Iraq since the war started when a half-dozen workers crossed the border from Turkey yesterday. They had waited more than a week for clearance to fly in.
In the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf, yesterday was the climax of an emotional pilgrimage that has drawn an estimated 1 million Shiites. With Saddam Hussein's regime toppled, it was the first time since the 1970s that Iraq's Shiite majority could participate freely in the march mourning the martyrred grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.
Thousands of the pilgrims took part in an anti-American demonstration yesterday. Among the banners were some that read, "No to America, no to Israel, yes to Islam."
American investigators were trying to figure out how hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars — possibly genuine, perhaps counterfeit — ended up in Iraq despite economic sanctions in place since 1990.
The latest stash — $112 million — was found by Army civil affairs soldiers inside seven dog kennels in a wealthy neighborhood where top regime officials once lived, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday. The Times and the New York Post said four soldiers were under investigation in the alleged theft of about $900,000 of a huge stash of dollars found earlier in the same neighborhood.
Some of the cash has been stumbled upon almost by accident, while the intensive nationwide search by U.S. teams for banned weapons of mass destruction has yet to turn up conclusive evidence of chemical or biological weapons.
HELP SAVE LIVES and EARN $25* TODAY!
ZLB
Donate your blood plasma. Help burn, trauma and shock victims, surgery patients & more.
Red Lyon Tavern
944 Mass.832-8228
AKA
STEP SHOW
816 West 24th Street Lawrence, KS 66046 785-749-5750
a charity event sponsored by NPHC
A Φ A
www.zlb.com
ZΦB
APRIL26 doors open at 6:30 show starts at 7
IΦΘ
Call or stop by: ZLB Plasma Services
Fees and donation time may vary.
*(for approx. 2 hours. New donors only.)
AT THE LIED CENTER tickets at the box office in the Lied Center
KAy
$10.00 AFTER PARTY AT THE GRANADA 11:00-3:00
SΛB
COLONY WOODS would like to invite you to our Open House Sat., April 26 10 am - 4 pm Sun., April 27 12 noon - 4 pm
1301 W.24th St.
842-5111
Thursdays- Thursdays- Thursdays- Thursdays
"Thirsty Thursdays $1.50 SHOTS $1.75 Pints
"Always BETTER drink specials, always MORE fun"
729 New Hampshire Lawrence, Ks (785) 838-4623
DANCEclub & BAR
Thursdays
$1.50 Shots
$1.75 Pints
Fridays
$2 Coronas
$2.25 Smirnoff Flavors
Wednesdays
$1.50 Anything
$3 Pitchers
Saturdays
$3 Dbl. vodka/Red Bull
$4 Pitchers
the only address you need to know. WESCOE PUBLICATION CENTER (next door to the cafeteria)
let us assist you at our convenient on-campus location.
1520 wescoe
services available:
- copies
- printing from disk or electronic file
- full color printing
- large format print
- uv lamination of large format prints
- thesis and dissertation printing
- binding services
- large selection of papers
864-3354 open 7am-10pm
FORALLYOUR PRINTING AND BINDING NEEDS
please stop by or call us for more information about our services
---