Twenty-two people in states from New York City to California have symptoms similar to those of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the mysterious disease that’s striking people worldwide. Health department officials believe they got their infections abroad, since most of them recently returned from trips to Hong Kong or southern China, where the disease started.
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One special mission for U.S. forces in Iraq is to search for Capt. Michael Scott Speicher, a U.S. Navy pilot believed to have been held captive in Iraq since the Gulf War in 1991. U.S. intelligence reported last week that Speicher was seen alive in Baghdad earlier this month, while being moved to Baghdad, although the sighting could not be confirmed. Speicher was declared killed in action after his F-18 jet was shot down by a missile over Iraq on Jan. 17, 1991, but later reports indicated his plane had crash-landed and he had ejected. His flight suit was later found by a Red Cross mission in Iraq. The Navy has reclassified him as missing in action. A Navy spokesman says that recent intelligence “continues to suggest strongly that the government of Iraq can account for him.”
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A new tracking system called Auto-ID uses highly miniaturized computers to track products, even when they’re being used and worn. Every physical item, from a can of Coke to clothes to toothpaste, will have its own unique information in the form of an embedded chip. The chip sends out a signal that allows it to communicate with reader devices. Auto-ID will eventually replace bar codes, because it not only identifies the kind of object?it identifies each object separately. You and your friend may have bought the same sweater at the same store, but you’ll each be wearing a different Auto-ID.
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U.S. and Mexican officials are searching for six Iraqis who crossed the border into the southern U.S. who may have “toxic materials” requiring refrigeration. These could be either biological or radiological materials. The Iraqis got into the U.S. with the help of the same human smugglers who bring in illegal aliens. Tips from the public, as well as undercover investigations, uncovered the plot.
Another report says that earlier this week, Mexican authorities detained six Iraqi citizens as they tried to cross into the U.S. from Tijuana. They claimed to be Germans who had arrived at the Tijuana airport the night before on a flight from Mexico City and have been returned to Mexico City for questioning.
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