On the SARS front

8226; Chinese government has no plans to alter its case definition of SARS and Beijing has 8216;8216;no necessity8217;8217; to cover up the cases of deadly disease though there might be some false ones

8226; With a record 12 deaths in a single day Taiwan appeared moving to a SARS crisis even as China on Tuesday said it was close to controlling the epidemic

8226; The Thai Cabinet has agreed in principle to guarantee personal compensation of 4-million-Baht to foreign tourists if they contracted the SARS virus while touring in the country, the government said.

8226; There are likely to be deaths from the SARS disease in Europe and the US later this year, US Health Secretary Tommy Thompson said on Tuesday. Asked how confident he was that there would be no deaths in his country or in Europe, he said: 8216;8216;I am not confident at all. I think you will see some.8217;8217;