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1. Potential smoking gun in the ruins of battle

2. Close the border? It should have been done already

3. Wheeler

4. Construction site linked to Amoy Gardens outbreak

5. Zhuhai bridge a money-loser, says Nansha backer's adviser

1. Potential smoking gun in the ruins of battle
JACK FAIRWEATHER outside Basra, SCMP 4 April 2003

A soldier held the plastic capsule nervously.

Inside a 10cm long container was a colourless solution designed to absorb the contents of a smaller glass phial containing white powder.

Looking suspiciously like the phial Colin Powell had held up with great dramatic effect at the United Nations in January to demonstrate how the smallest of doses of biological weapons could have devastating consequences, it had clearly agitated the soldier who had found it.

Printed on the front was the date of manufacture: April, 1987.

"That's just when the Iraqis were gassing the Kurds," said the soldier, signalling his officer over at a militia compound on the outskirts of Basra.

"I believe it's just Saddam's talcum powder double wrapped for safety," said the officer jovially. "But whatever you do, don't drop it."

Yesterday a search patrol of A Squadron, Queen's Dragoon Guards, found what could be the first piece of evidence to suggest that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction.

Discovered in an Iraqi stronghold amid a pile of old clothing, the capsule with its unknown substance appeared to have been left in haste by militia men following a successful attack on the compound by the squadron.

The militia could be seen carrying others boxes and bags into their vehicles as they came under fire before fleeing in the direction Basra.

"They seemed more concerned with getting out what was in the building than fighting," said Captain Nick Brown who led the attack.

At squadron headquarters, commanding officer Major Matthew Botsford said calmly, "Gentlemen, I think we might have found the 'smoking gun'."

Medic Mark Townend, attached to the squadron, said: "It could contain a chemical agent or it could contain an antidote. Whatever it is, the people who knew what was in the phial would only open under laboratory conditions. We should be very, very careful."

The find of the possible anthrax or VX powder comes amid increasing evidence that Iraq's regime has made preparations for chemical warfare as British units begin to shift the wreckage left by retreating Iraqi soldiers and militiamen.

Last week a number of gas masks and protective suits were found at another militia stronghold, along with detailed pamphlets of what to do in the event of a chemical attack.

The evidence is amounting to what senior British officers are calling a "comprehensive map" of the Iraq regime chemical warfare capability.

One officer said: "We're slowly piecing together the picture that has been hidden for 12 years from the United Nations weapon inspectors.

"We've never doubted that Saddam Hussein has hidden weapons of mass destruction and its only a question of time before we find them," he said.

2. Close the border? It should have been done already
Editorial, SCMP 4 April 2003

The border between Hong Kong and the mainland should be closed.

In fact, this should have been done as soon as it was realised where the Sars infection originated, considering the sheer volume of people moving across the border every day.

It should be obvious that Sars may still be entering Hong Kong from sources across the border.

Closing the border may appear drastic but the effects of not doing so are even more devastating.
B W CHAN, Yau Ma Tei

3. Wheeler
SCMP 4 April 2003

4. Construction site linked to Amoy Gardens outbreak
ELLA LEE, CHLOE LAI and CHEUNG CHI-FAI, SCMP 4 April 2003

Medical experts investigating the rapid spread of atypical pneumonia at a Hong Kong housing estate believe they have made a breakthrough by linking the explosion in cases to a nearby construction site.

Concern over the rate of infection at Amoy Gardens in Ngau Tau Kok, and the reasons for it, were a key factor in the World Health Organisation's decision on Thursday to advise travellers not to visit Hong Kong. A team of health officials and medical experts has been investigating the outbreak at the estate, where 270 people have now been infected.

The Department of Health has taken samples from temporary toilets at the construction site, where one worker has been confirmed as having severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars).

But medical experts believe the spread of the disease may have been accelerated by bodily waste from the top five floors of the site.

They have discovered that as there were no toilets on those floors, workers were using the floor instead. The experts suspect infected particles may have been blown across to the nearby Block E of the estate, infecting residents. Block E has the highest rate of infection.

The death toll in Hong Kong climbed to 17 yesterday. The latest victim is Lau Tai-kwan, 56, a paediatric surgeon. He is the first Hong Kong doctor to die of the disease.

There were 26 new cases reported yesterday, two of them from Amoy Gardens. The total number of cases in Hong Kong is now 734, while 98 patients have been discharged.

The WHO said when issuing an advisory that travellers should not visit Hong Kong or Guangdong. It said it was concerned about possible "environmental factors" causing the spread of the disease, and referred to the Amoy Gardens outbreak.

A spokesman for the Housing Society revealed yesterday that a few construction site workers had been off sick, but refused to say if they were suffering from Sars.

The Housing Society halted construction work on Tuesday with a view to resuming work next Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a cat owned by a Block E family was reportedly carrying the coronavirus, the same virus found in some Sars patients.

But University of Hong Kong virologist Malik Peiris said that did not necessarily mean there was an animal-to-human infection. "Pets in those families could also have been infected with the same virus," he said.

5. Zhuhai bridge a money-loser, says Nansha backer's adviser
GARY CHEUNG, SCMP 4 April 2003

A bridge linking Hong Kong and the west side of the Pearl River Delta would not be built within the next ten years because it is not financially feasible and would have an adverse environmental impact, a top adviser to tycoon Henry Fok Ying-tung said yesterday.

Ho Ming-sze, an adviser to the Fok Ying Tung Foundation, told a seminar hosted by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce that the construction of the bridge was not as simple as imagined by some other tycoons in Hong Kong.

He said the proposed bridge was not a panacea for the economic downturn in Hong Kong. "I don't understand why there has been intense interest and heated discussion about the proposed bridge over the past few months," Mr Ho said.

He said the bridge was not financially feasible and would have a negative ecological impact.

Hopewell Holdings chairman Sir Gordon Wu Ying-sheung has proposed building a 29km bridge linking Hong Kong, Macau and Zhuhai.

The cost of the bridge has been estimated at $15 billion. "The consortium which builds the bridge will have to pay more than $1 billion a year in interest on the bank loans," Mr Ho said, "It would be a huge burden for any investor."

Mr Ho said he had made a US$10 bet with Howard Husock, a professor in the John Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, that the bridge would not be built within the next ten years.

A feasibility study conducted by the State Development and Reform Commission, formerly known as the State Planning and Development Commission, is expected to be completed by the end of June.

Mr Fok has invested $2.5 billion in the Guangdong cities of Nansha and his foundation runs ferry service linking Humen in Dongguan and other cities in the delta.

"There is already a cross-delta bridge, Humen Bridge, linking Panyu and Dongguan," Mr Ho said, "I'm afraid the Hong Kong-Zhuhai bridge would not have sufficient flow of traffic.".

He said there were already road networks linking delta cities like Guangzhou and Dongguan to Hong Kong. "Vehicles from these cities would not bother to travel to Hong Kong via the new bridge."

Mr Fok, vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, declined to comment in February on the feasibility of the bridge. However, he said he did not intend to invest in the project.

Mr Ho said the level of economic development in Zhuhai was still relatively low while Shenzhen had emerged as a vibrant city in the delta. He said building a bridge could exacerbate silting problems in the Pearl River estuary, which would endanger dolphins.

But Tuan Chyau, a professor in Chinese University's department of managerial economics, said the relative backwardness of Zhuhai was a result of the lack of a road to Hong Kong.