INDONESIA said yesterday a 16-year-old youth is suffering from bird flu and several other countries also reported more suspected cases in people.

AUTHORITIES ordered all live poultry markets in China’s capital Beijing to close immediately and went door-to-door seizing chickens and ducks from private homes, as the government dramatically beefed up its fight against bird flu yesterday.

Foreign relief workers could be expelled if they don’t declare travel plans in Indonesia’s tsunami-devastated Aceh province, the government said today citing security concerns, as the United Nations appealed to donors to follow through with promises of aid.

China today announced a new outbreak of bird flu while Thailand said it had a suspected case in a return of the highly contagious disease that devastated birds earlier this year and killed 24 people.

CHINA reported four new suspected outbreaks of deadly bird flu in three new regions yesterday, bringing the total number of confirmed and suspected outbreaks to seven.

China increased its precautions against the twin health threats of Sars and bird flu today as it entered its peak travel period ahead of the Lunar New Year.

A TEAM of World Health Organisation (WHO) experts are to visit two suspected SARS patients in a southern Chinese hospital as tourists began canceling trips to disease-hit Guangdong province.

China has isolated a 35-year-old man in a hospital following signs that he could be the nation’s third SARS case of the season.

Another suspected case of SARS emerged in southern China today as international medical investigators scoured an apartment block to determine if it played any role in the infection of a man who lived there – the season’s only confirmed case of the virus so far.

SARS-wary southern China today threatened fines of up to €9,350 for merchants who try to hide civet cats, a day ahead of the deadline to slaughter thousands of the animals because of fears they carry the disease.

A WAITRESS hospitalised in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou was declared the country's second suspected SARS case of the season yesterday, just as the first patient was pronounced recovered and released.

THE Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus returned to haunt China for the first time in six months as a suspected case in southern Guangdong province was upgraded to a confirmed case by senior health officials.

CHINA'S first suspected SARS patient in months is in stable condition under quarantine, the health ministry said yesterday.