Visiting World Health Organisation experts today widened their probe of China’s SARS cases, interviewing people at the hospital where a lab technician was treated after contracting the disease while working.

China confirmed today that a 53-year-old woman who died last week had the deadly SARS virus.

China announced a new suspected SARS case today as authorities investigated the most recent outbreak in a bid to discover how it spread and whether lab procedures were to blame.

Nearly 500 people were in quarantine in China’s capital Beijing and a southern province today as authorities raced to contain a small eruption of SARS before a national holiday puts millions of travellers on the road.

China was investigating four new suspected SARS cases in the capital today - days after it confirmed two cases linked to a Beijing research lab.

A team of international health experts are visiting China in the next few days to examine a SARS research lab in Beijing where two workers became sick.

China confirmed two cases of Sars today and said the mother of one patient has died, apparently the first Sars fatality in the country since last July.

China has approved human trials of an experimental SARS vaccine, and 30 people have already volunteered to be the first test subjects.

World Health Organisation experts said today they had found “very good evidence” in China suggesting an animal link to the SARS infection, uncovering traces of the virus in the restaurant where a suspected patient worked and civet cats were served.

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 in hospital in China’s southern city of Guangzhou was today declared the country’s second suspected SARS case of the season.

Rats are the latest target in the dramatic anti-SARS campaign in China, where as many as 10,000 civet cats are being slaughtered over fears that some animals might be spreading the disease to humans.

China, faced with the return of SARS, has ordered wild animals slaughtered by the thousands in the disease’s suspected region of origin.

A man taken ill in southern China has the SARS virus, triggering scares that a second outbreak of the illness might be about to hit Asia.

A medical researcher has tested positive for SARS – Taiwan’s first case since the island was dropped from a global list of infected areas last July, health officials said.

The Hong Kong health department is to release results of tests on a 34-year-old woman suffering from fever and breathing difficulties later today, a spokesman said.

A 27-year-old researcher confirmed by Singapore officials as being the city-state’s first SARS case in four months probably caught the disease while working in a laboratory investigating the virus, the junior health minister said today.

Singapore was awaiting a second lab result today for a man who initially tested positive for the SARS virus.

A man has tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Singapore, health officials said.

Action film hero Jackie Chan is starring in a television advertisement that will be broadcast in 30 cities around the world in a bid to revive Hong Kong’s battered tourism industry after the SARS outbreak.

Hundreds of thousands of revellers gathered for an outdoor concert by the Rolling Stones as others intended to show the world that Canada’s largest city was free of SARS and ready to rock.

The World Health Organisation has lifted its travel warning to Beijing.

The World Health Organisation removed Hong Kong from its list of SARS-infected areas today, but warned the territory to keep up its guard against future outbreaks that might put it back on the list.

The SARS virus is mutating, the World Health Organisation warned today.

A 67-year-old man has died of the SARS virus in Toronto, bringing the total death toll from the respiratory illness in the city to 34, Ontario’s Ministry of Health announced.

The UN health agency today cancelled its travel warning for Taiwan, more than a month after it was listed as a SARS risk.

The World Health Organisation today praised China for improved transparency and a “strong political commitment” to combating SARS, which it said has diminished as a global threat.

The SARS threat could be over within months, but countries must remain vigilant to prevent the disease from resurfacing and combat other possible future epidemics, World Health Organisation officials said today.

The expert group on SARS has accepted a proposal from the authorities in Taiwan regarding travel to the Special Olympics.

The World Health Organisation said today that the global SARS epidemic may be coming to an end, although Taiwan’s outbreak is not yet under control.

Health authorities in Canada have closed a hospital to new patients because of a possible fresh cluster of SARS cases and reinforced orders for all staff treating patients in the Toronto area to wear gloves, masks and gowns.

The outbreak of the SARS virus is “over its peak” worldwide, a World Health Organisation official said today.

Towns around the country playing host to athletes taking part in the Special Olympics today welcomed the lifting of a ban on competitors attending due to the threat of the pneumonia-like illness SARS.

Athletes from parts of China and Canada not affected by SARS will be allowed to take part in the Special Olympics later this month.

Worries about the SARS crisis caused a huge dip in the number of people flying on British Airways’ Far East flights last month, it emerged today.

The World Health Organisation removed Singapore from its map of SARS hot zones while researchers in the US said they may be able to develop a vaccine for the disease in three years.

The number of people suspected of suffering from SARS in Toronto has tripled, Canadian health officials said.

Taiwan today reported its biggest increase in new cases of SARS in nearly a week while a Toronto high school was closed and its 1,700 students were in quarantine amid renewed fears over the virus in Canada’s largest city.

A Russian cadmitted to a hospital in a city on the Chinese border was formally diagnosed with SARS today, becoming the country’s first official case.

Chinese officials today began raiding wildlife markets believed to be possible sources of SARS.

Russia has confirmed its first case of SARS, on the country's Chinese border.

Hundreds more people in Canada have been told to quarantine themselves at home due to possible exposure to a new cluster of SARS cases in Toronto, health officials said.