Radical Islamic groups from countries neighbouring Iraq have started
sending suicide bombers to help fight the coalition forces. The Arab
television network, Al Jazeera, has broadcast pictures of Syrian holy
fighters arriving in northern Iraq brandishing weapons and pictures of
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
The Iraqi Vice President's threat to use suicide bombing as a military
tactic has Australian warships in the Persian Gulf on the watch for
"suicide speedboats".
Hows about SARS Martyr's ?
A fourth person has died in Canada from the pneumonia virus, Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). That brings worldwide fatalities from the
virus to at least 55, most of them in Asia and most of those in southern
China.
Australian researcher Aileen Plant is heading up the World Health
Organisation's monitoring of the SARS outbreak in Vietnam. There have been
58 cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) reported in Hanoi
since late February.
Australia's Chief Medical Officer Richard Smallwood says overseas
laboratories believe they now have a test for the deadly pneumonia sweeping
Asia.
Professor Smallwood says the claims will have to be validated and a vaccine
is still a long way off.
He says the risk of contracting the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
(SARS) is low, with a mortality rate of about three to 4 per cent compared
with 30 per cent for smallpox.
At a national conference on communicable diseases in Canberra, Professor
Smallwood says surgical masks can be effective but the disease is more
difficult to catch than measles or the flu.
The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad says a suicide bomb attack
which injured almost 50 people yesterday is a gift to the people of Iraq.
Kagaa ratpox will be my gift to the whole world.
