theSun | WEDNESDAY JANUARY 7 2009
news without borders
Study sheds light on
virus that causes SARS
LONDON: Dutch researchers
have built a three-dimensional
model of a type of virus that
causes SARS in a step that could
one day help in the battle against
the deadly disease.
The model, created using
hepatitis coronavirus from mice,
will help scientists understand
severe acute respiratory syn-
drome (SARS), which appeared
in China in 2002 and killed some
800 people globally before being
brought under control.
“I think we can translate what
we found for this virus to the
SARS virus,” Berend Jan Bosch,
a virologist at Utrecht University
who worked on the study, said in
a telephone interview on Mon-
day. “If you are going to study
the SARS virus you will basically
find the same features.”
The researchers reported
briefs
Computer glitch causes
chaos at Taiwan airport
TAIPEI: A computer breakdown at the
Taipei international airport continued
yesterday, causing chaos with cus-
toms officers hand-recording depart-
ing passengers’ data and passengers
forming long queues, according to
radio reports.
The computer glitch began at
their findings in the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sci-
ences.
Coronaviruses cause dis-
eases in animals and in people
from the common cold to severe
gastrointestinal illness. They also
cause SARS which scientists
believe, like influenza, initially
came from an animal.
The 2002 outbreak of SARS is
A French
estimated to have cost as much
Navy
as US$100 billion (RM350 billion).
Quarantine and travel restric- handout
tions helped contain it. picture
Bosch and colleagues used a taken off
new type of electron microscopy the Somali
to take images of the virus in a coast shows
frozen state. a group
“Because we take so many of Somali
pictures from different angles, pirates
we could combine the images to captured on
recreate the virus in 3D,” Bosch Sunday.
said. – Reuters
about 6.45am on Monday at the
Taoyuan International Airport near
Taipei. As queues of departing pas-
sengers become longer, the airport
opened all its 42 counters to speed
up customs clearance and prevent
flight delays.
The real worry is that some crimi-
nals might take advantage of the loop-
hole to flee Taiwan, the Broadcasting
Corp of China said.
The computer glitch came one day
after the baggage-handling system
at the airport’s Number 2 Terminal
malfunctioned, causing more than
100 pieces of luggage to miss flights.
– dpa
Pirates take French ship,
nine hostages
PARIS: Pirates off the Nigerian
coast have seized a French ship
and taken its nine crew members
hostage, the ship owners said on
Monday in Paris.
Burglar nabbed after
showing loot to owner
TAIPEI: A Taiwan watch thief has
been arrested after sending the
stolen watches to their owner to
estimate their value.
Tsai Chin-hsin, 37, broke into a
house on Dec 28 in Hsinchu, west
Taiwan, and made off with nine
watches and some jewellery, the
China Times reported yesterday.
Believing the watches might be
expensive, he asked an associate,
identified by his surname Chuang,
to take the timepieces to a shop in
Hsinchu to be appraised.
The ship, which conducted
transport of materials and person-
nel for oil companies, was taken on
Sunday night, shipping company
Bourbon said.
EPAPIX
The nine watches were all
expensive pieces, including a
limited-edition Epos, a Swiss
mechanical watch valued at
T$70,000 (RM7,200). The jewellery
was valued at a total of T$200,000
(RM21,600).
There are dozens of watch
shops in Hsinchu, but the shop
Chuang visited on Sunday was run
by the man whose home Tsai had
burglarised, the paper said.
When the watch shop owner
saw the nine watches, he recog-
nised them and called police, who
questioned Chuang and eventually
arrested Tsai. – dpa
9
The crew includes five
Nigerians, and men from Ghana,
Cameroon and Indonesia. They
were reportedly in good condi-
tion.
Nigeria is Africa’s most impor-
tant oil producer, with reserves
estimated at 36 billion barrels.
Earlier on Sunday, a French
warship captured 19 Somali pirates
when it came to the rescue of two
cargo ships threatened in the Gulf
of Aden.
The French naval vessel Jean de
Vienne was on patrol off the Somali
coast as part of a European Union
anti-piracy force when it came to
the rescue of a Croatian cargo ves-
sel and Panamanian ship crossing
the Gulf.
The 19 pirates, armed and
equipped to board the vessels, were
captured and handed to Somali
authorities.
Meanwhile, a Chinese naval
convoy arrived yesterday in the
Gulf of Aden on a landmark
mission to protect the country’s
shipping from Somali pirates and
escorted its first four vessels, state
media reported.
The four ships escorted were
Chinese merchant vessels, includ-
ing one from Hongkong, Xinhua
news agency said in a dispatch filed
from aboard the destroyer Wuhan.
The naval task force, deploying
two destroyers and a supply ship,
marks China’s first potential com-
bat mission beyond its territorial
waters in centuries. – Agencies