Beijing

SARS patients improve

Patients quarantined because of SARS were reportedly doing better Tuesday, and one promised friends: “I will try my best to recover.”

China has announced two confirmed cases and six suspected cases in recent days, all linked to a Beijing research lab where investigators suspect workers caught and spread severe acute respiratory syndrome.

The World Health Organization said it was organizing a team to find out how two workers at China’s Centers for Disease Control became infected and why their ailments weren’t monitored.

It said it was especially concerned that one worker took several long train rides while suffering SARS symptoms, putting other passengers at risk.

South Africa

Nation honors 10 years of multiracial democracy

South Africa inaugurated a president Tuesday and celebrated 10 years as a multiracial democracy with cheers and songs of tribute to Nelson Mandela, the patriarch who peacefully led the nation out of apartheid.

Thabo Mbeki, Mandela’s successor as president, began his second term amid nationwide celebrations on Freedom Day, a holiday that commemorates the day in 1994 when South Africans of all races voted together for the first time, bringing a remarkably peaceful end to nearly a half-century of often violent white-minority rule.

London

Olympic committee buys cancellation insurance

Hedging against disaster at the Athens Games this summer, international Olympic officials have for the first time taken out cancellation insurance: a $170 million policy to protect against war, terrorism or earthquakes.

The policy does not protect corporate sponsors or TV networks, which have billions of dollars riding on the games; instead, it’s designed to ensure the International Olympic Committee and its affiliated national committees and sports federations have enough money if the games in Greece are called off.

IOC President Jacques Rogge said buying insurance was “standard prudent judgment” and reflected no lack of confidence in the Aug. 13-29 Athens Games, which have been troubled by construction delays and security worries.

Thailand

Seventy killed in gunbattles

Suspected Islamic militants clashed with police early today in Thailand, leaving at least 70 people dead in the heaviest fighting yet in the troubled Muslim-dominated south, officials said.

The clashes erupted after militants launched simultaneous attacks on police bases and checkpoints in several districts of Yala and Pattani provinces, Yala Gov. Boonyasit Suwanarat said.

He told reporters that most of the dead were youths attempting to rob weapons from police and army bases who were repelled and shot to death by security forces.

Attacks almost daily by gunmen in the south have left nearly 150 people dead this year.