WHO team to go to Taiwan after sharp rise in SARS cases
HONG KONG (AFP) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) said it was sending a team to Taiwan, where SARScases have tripled over the past 10 days, as the island's president called off state visits for fear the epidemic may worsen.

China has given the WHO permission to go to Taiwan, WHO spokeswoman Mangai Balasegaram said in Beijing. China, which replaced Taiwan in the United Nations systems in 1971, considers the island part of its territory awaiting reunification.

"It is a standard procedure, WHO works in Taiwan through China," she said.

The island has become increasingly concerned about Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) after outbreaks at two hospitals, which have been isolated. Four more deaths reported on Friday took Taiwan's death toll to seven, with 102 cases

As concern about the disease grew on the island, President Chen Shui-bian's office announced he had put off visits to Costa Rica, Belize, Haiti and Dominican Republic due this month to stay at home and deal with the crisis.  Complete Story

3 face trial in slaying of KU student

Pedro Irigonegaray, a Topeka lawyer representing Martin's mother, Jeanette Stauffer, said he was pleased that the three would be tried.

"We hope justice will be served," Irigonegaray said during a telephone interview Friday in Topeka.

Martin, a 1996 graduate of Shawnee Heights High School, went to Costa Rica in 2000 as part of a study-abroad program, then returned one week before she was to graduate to gather more specimens of a tree-dwelling fern she was researching.  Complete Story

The crude oil price controlled by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) fell and was kept under 24 US dollars per barrel in the past four days, statistics released here showed.

The Vienna-based OPEC Secretariat said in a report that OPEC's reference price basket of seven of its crudes reached 23.85 US dollars per barrel on Friday, although rose 13 cents than Thursday, but still below the cartel's central 25 dollar target.

The report came after the OPEC cartel signaled last week its determination to stop prices from falling below its target range.

In an OPEC meeting held here on April 24, the cartel agreed to cut back its daily production to 25.4 million barrels from a surge in production to cover for the halt in Iraqi exports.

Prices are recovering from five-month lows hit after the meeting but still staying far away from reaching OPEC's expectation.

On Friday, US crude futures reached 25.67 dollars per barrel and in London, benchmark Brent crude dropped 18 cents to 23.54 dollars per barrel.

Prices were kept below the cartel's central 25 dollars, worrying some OPEC members. OPEC President Abdullah al-Attiyah said on Wednesday that the cartel was worried by the price drop and that ministers were consulting on how to intervene to prevent prices from falling any further.

But industrialized nations hope the recent fall in oil prices will help kick-start slow economic growth. Economists say OPEC's 25-dollar-per-barrel target price works for both producers and consumers.

Opposition Tories replaces Labor as largest party in UK local councils

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has suffered a post-Iraq war electoral setback as his Labor party lost a total of 833 seats in local councils across the country in the most important set of local elections for four years.

Opposition Conservatives are now the largest party in Britain's local councils, with about 34 percent of the vote in the local polls in England, Scotland and Wales, in compared with 30 percent for both the Labor Party and the second largest opposition Liberal Democrats, showed the final results late Friday.

Among the 11,800 seats contested in 308 English local councils, Labor was down 833 seats to 3,001 seats, Conservative up 566 to 4,423 seats while the anti-Iraq war Liberal Democrats strengthened its third place position with an additional 193 seats.

Labor remained the biggest single party in the polls to the Scottish parliament while took half the 60 seats in the Welsh regional assembly.

The far-right British National Party (BNP) gained a total of 16seats in northwestern England, performing its strongest showing to date.

BNP also became the second largest party behind Labor on the local council in Burley, a town torn by race riots two years ago. Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith hailed on Friday that his party had won a "spectacular victory" in the local polls held Thursday.

"Our task for the next two to three years is to show people how we can repeat this on a national level," Conservative chairwoman Theresa May added.

Some local analysts regarded Labor's reverse as a protest against Blair's choice as the staunchest ally of the United States on Iraq, which is deeply unpopular with many traditional Labor supporters.

Many Britons also complain that local taxes for services, such as schools and garbage collection, have risen steeply but Blair's attempts to improve health service, education and public transport were still limited, they noted.

However, it seems Blair only suffered moderate losses in general and there was little sign of a threat to his supremacy. Heneed not face a general election until 2006.

"There's not a government in history that has not had a bad midterm, even as good a government as this one," Labor Chairman Ian McCartney defended in an interview with BBC radio.

There were more than 38 million eligible voters across Britain. However, voter turnout was estimated at only 34 percent in England,38 percent in Wales and less than 50 percent in Scotland.

Electoral Commission figures suggested voter turnout in districts using all-postal ballots averaged 44 percent, up 10 points on the last elections in those areas.

US terminates Operation Northern Watch in Turkey

The US military on Thursday put an end to Operation Northern Watch in Turkey amid speculations that Washington might shift its strategic focus in the region from Turkey to Iraq.

The US military wrapped up Operation Northern Watch at the Incirlik Air Base in the southern Adana province, from where it has already withdrawn some 50 warplanes, refueling aircraft and 1,400 personnel.

However, more than 1,000 US soldiers serving under a NATO mission will remain at the base. The US military is expected to establish bases in Iraq.

US officials said the outcome of the Iraq war had made unnecessary missions by US and British planes from the Incirlik Airbase to enforce the "no-fly zone" in northern Iraq .

The base was also a key staging point during the 1991 Gulf War.

A ceremony to mark the end of the northern exclusive zone in Iraq was attended by Turkish Air Forces Commander Gen. Cumhur Asparuk, US European Forces Command Deputy Commander Gen. Charles Wald, Adana Governor Kemal Onal, as well as US Ambassador to Turkey Robert Pearson and British Ambassador to Turkey Peter Westmacott.

Operation Northern Watch started on January 1, 1997.