AGENCE FRANCEPRESSE in Hamburg, Germany
At least 15 people have died in Beijing from atypical pneumonia, the German magazine Stern reported overnight (HK time), challenging the official figure of four reported in the Chinese capital.
Ten of the victims had died in military hospital 302, and a further 40 were hospitalised there with the ailment, Stern said on its website, quoting hospital doctors and nurses.
At least three patients and a doctor and nurse had died at another hospital in the centre of town, it reported.
These figures contrast with the numbers given by Beijing city officials of four dead and 15 hospitalised with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars).
The death in Beijing of a Finnish International Labour Organisation (ILO) official, Pekka Aro, 53, was announced at a Chinese health ministry press conference in the capital.
A Canadian is among those hospitalised in Beijing.
At least 51 deaths from Sars have been reported in the mainland and 1,247 people have been infected, according to official figures released overnight.
The mainland's new prime minister Wen Jiabao said his government was fully capable of controlling the epidemic.
''The Chinese government is fully capable of controlling the spread of Sars,'' said Mr Wen during an inspection tour of a centre for disease control.
Sars, first detected last November in China's Guangdong province where it still appears to be concentrated, has since reached Beijing, Shanghai, Guangxi province in the south, Hunan province in the centre-south - where one death has been recorded - Sichuan in the southwest, and Shanxi in the north.
It has spread to Hong Kong and from there around the world, mostly due to airline passengers.
http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/Weekly2003/04.08.2003/China2.htm