Fourteen people killed in ammunition depot destruction in Baghdad
Asian countries to fight SARS, WHO holds out vaccine hope

Air India revises schedule for 22 flights

Govt suspends 12 AI pilots

Mumbai,Saturday, April 26, 2003: Taking a tough stand, Government today decided to place under suspension 12 Air India pilots after the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) refused to withdraw the directives for operating in SARS affected areas.

"We have no other option but to adopt this measure as we cannot allow any employee to hold the airline and the public to ransom", AI director public relation Jitendra Bhargava told newsmen here tonight after IPG conveyed its decision not to withdraw its directives.More than 50 pilots have been served with letters for their refusal to operate flights to Singapore, Hong Kong and Kuwait and would face disciplinary actions, Bhargava said.

Air India revises schedule for 22 flights

Mumbai,Saturday, April 26, 2003: Air India today revised its schedule for 22 flights due to depart on Sunday, as part of contingency plans, following refusal by pilots owing allegiance to Indian Pilots' Guild (IPG) to operate flights.

"The changes effected in flight schedule include operations of flights to London directly from Mumbai instead of routing them via Delhi as is done for some of the London-New York and London-Frankfurt flights", Air India said in a release here today. The passengers, who have booked to travel to London, New York and Frankfurt from Delhi, should contact the airport for the revised schedule, the release said.

Theses changes have been effected to ensure optimal utilisation of executive pilots so that schedule of services operated with Boeing 747-400 and 747-300 aircraft was not affected, it said. Some of the flights which have been revised are AI-112A Mumbai-Delhi, AI-1866 Mumbai-Kochi, AI-620 Mumbai-Bangalore, AI-725 Mumbai-Abu Dhabi, AI-600 Mumbai-Hyderabad. The others are AI-111 Mumbai-London-New York, AI-145 Mumbai-Paris-Newark, AI-165 Mumbai-Frankfurt, AI-827 Mumbai-Riyadh, AI-853 Mumbai-Kuwait, AI-400 Mumbai-Chennai-Singapore, AI-963 Mumbai- Kozhikode-Jeddah, AI-125 Mumbai-London-Chicago, AI-729 Mumbai-Delhi-Muscat-Abu Dhabi, AI 821-Mumbai-Riyadh.

ASTECO Abu Dhabi appoints new Administrator

26 April 2003 - ASTECO Abu Dhabi announces the appointment of Zeena Abdul Karim as Office Administrator and Personal Assistant to GM.

As an Abu Dhabi resident all her life, Zeena is well versed with the property scene in the capital. She is a computer graduate from University of Portsmourth, which is affiliated with Syscom in the UAE and has attained four years experience in administration, secretarial and IT fields.

Zeena has excellent English and Arabic language skills and her main interest is in IT and helping people with computer related queries which is a great asset to any office!

Petrol, diesel prices slashed

New Delhi,Saturday, April 26, 2003: For the second time this month, State-owned oil firms today slashed prices of petrol and diesel by Re one per litre, in tune with the global softening of crude prices.

The new prices would be effective from midnight tonight. Petrol would cost Rs 31.49 per litre in Delhi as against the prevailing Rs 32.49 a litre while Diesel prices has gone down from Rs 21.12 to Rs 20.12 per litre, official sources said here. After over three months of surge in prices, the oil firms had on April 15 announced a Re one per litre cut in petrol and diesel prices. Petrol prices in Kolkata have been cut by Rs 1.00 to Rs 33.00 per litre while in Mumbai a litre of petrol would now cost Rs 36.43 as opposed to prevailing Rs 37.52. Chennai saw a Re 1.08 per litre decrease in petrol prices to Rs 34.40.

Diesel prices in Kolkata declined from Rs 22.52 to Rs 21.51 per litre. In Mumbai, the fall was of Rs 1.20 per litre to Rs 25.50 while in Chennai diesel prices slipped from Rs 23.55 per litre to Rs 22.43 per litre.

Asian countries to fight SARS, WHO holds out vaccine hope

Kuala Lumpur,Saturday, April 26, 2003: Health Ministers from Southeast and North Asian countries severly affected by SARS today agreed to have stringent pre-departure checks and mandatory health declarations for all travellers to contain a virus which has so far killed 291 people worldwide.

A senior World Health Organisation (WHO) official said a possible vaccine could be identified within months though it could take up to three years before it was ready for mass use. "WHO is arranging a meeting in the next week or so to bring together world experts on vaccine development partially because we need to get the process moving now," said Mark Salter of WHO's Global Alert and Response unit in Geneva.

"A 'candidate' vaccine may be available within months but there are a lot of processes in terms of safety which need to be gone through before the vaccine can be used on human beings," he told reporters. Apart from the departure checks and health cards, the Kuala Lumpur meeting agreed that airlines should make provisions to isolate anyone developing SARS symptoms of fever, sore throat, cough and cold during a flight and ensure planes are routinely disinfected.

Governments were also called on to set up SARS task forces and designate a contact and hotline to share information with each other. All sides will swap ideas on best practices for prevention and treatment, and information on the movements of SARS sufferers and who they came in contact would be shared promptly. Anyone who came in contact with a sufferer should be monitored for signs of illness. -keralamonitor.com

Kuwait bans inbound passengers from SARS-affected areas

KUWAIT CITY, April 26 -- The Kuwait Health Ministry has notified the Kuwait Airways and all other carriers to ban direct inbound flights from countries and areas stricken by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), the official KUNA news agency said on Saturday.

Undersecretary Abdulrahman Al-Zaid was quoted by KUNA as saying that the ministry is coordinating with the Transportation Ministry and the Interior Ministry to take necessary precautions in safeguarding against the spread of SARS in Kuwait.
Inbound passengers from transit countries were subject to a 10-day incubation period in order to ascertain that they are free of the disease, Al-Zaid said.

The ban applies to travellers arriving from Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan (China), Singapore and Vietnam "until health conditions settle down," he added. The restriction follows similar measures taken recently by otherthree Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain.

Kuwait's Medical Association has prepared a booklet for distribution explaining what SARS is and precautions citizen shouldtake. During the past month, passengers from infected countries and areas are being followed up for disease symptoms and a multifaceted medical committee is monitoring the situation. Kuwait has said that no SARS case has been found yet in this small oil-rich emirate.