SARS UPDATE: U.N. politics may be trumping health concerns in the region:

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) When a deadly flu-like virus began spreading through Asia earlier this month, a group of Taiwanese doctors sent an e-mail to the World Health Organization asking for help in investigating the mysterious bug.

No one responded. No investigators from the U.N. agency visited. . . .

WHO is apparently waiting for permission from the People’s Republic of China. Odd.