May 25, 8:57 AM EDT Taiwan Rejects China's Help in SARS Fight By ANNIE HUANG Associated Press Writer TAIPEI,Taiwan (AP) -- Taiwan rejected rival China's offer to help the island battle SARS, and insisted its outbreak was under control Sunday even as health officials reported another 12 fatalities, pushing the worldwide death toll past 700. In Malaysia, about 200 navy personnel were quarantined on their ship after a crew member died with symptoms of severe acute respiratory syndrome, a senior health official said Sunday. Worldwide, SARS has killed at least 715 people and infected more than 8,100. Taiwan's 12 fatalities raised its death toll to 72. Officials reported three new cases and added 19 others to its list of SARS infected, saying those cases had been misdiagnosed over the past week. That brought the total number of infections to 570. Still, the head of the SARS Control Committee, Lee Ming-liang, claimed that "the illness has been gradually brought under control." Latest News Taiwan Rejects China's Help in SARS Fight Doctor Suspected of SARS Recovers in Ga. U.S. Warns on Toronto Travel Due to SARS Toronto Faces Possible New SARS Cluster Key Developments Concerning SARS Virus Taiwan has the world's third-highest SARS toll after China and Hong Kong. Taiwan turned down Beijing's offer to send SARS experts and medical supplies to the island and criticized China for blocking it from joining the World Health Organization. Taiwanese officials have complained bitterly that China has interfered with international attempts to help. China claims Taiwan as its own territory and insists international bodies seek Beijing's permission before assisting the island. Taiwan and China split amid civil war in 1949. "If the Chinese authorities are really concerned about Taiwanese ... they should no longer interfere with Taiwan's attempts to participate in the WHO or other international organizations," Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council said in a statement. The Council said China should keep the medical supplies "so the mainland can control its epidemic as soon as possible and to help ease the panic in Taiwan and in the world." China on Sunday announced seven new SARS deaths and 16 new cases on its mainland. Beijing, the hard-hit capital city, accounted for four of the fatalities and 13 of the infections, the Health Ministry said. In Malaysia, 200 members of the Navy crew will remain aboard their vessel at the Lumut naval base, 90 miles north of Kuala Lumpur, pending a post-mortem to verify whether their colleague died Friday of SARS, said Health Deputy Director General Ismail Merican. The ship had not left the naval base in weeks, and it was not immediately clear how the sailor might have contracted SARS. The disease has not been locally transmitted so far in Malaysia, which has reported five cases, including two deaths. All of Malaysia's SARS patients contracted the illness during visits to places hard hit by SARS, such as mainland China and Hong Kong. In Cambodia, WHO and Cambodian officials confirmed the country remains SARS free after determining a suspected SARS patient does not have the respiratory disease. Toronto, meanwhile, was gearing up for a reemergence of the disease with fears that 33 people may have it. Health officials said an apparently undiagnosed SARS case at a hospital may have infected 33 health care workers, other patients and their family members in late April. Emergency rooms throughout Toronto were immediately put under special restrictions that limit access, and hundreds of people were advised to go into a 10-day quarantine. The new cases were a harsh blow for the Canadian city, which was removed from the WHO's list of SARS-affected areas last week after apparently snuffing out what was the biggest outbreak of the illness outside of Asia. Hong Kong reported four more fatalities Sunday, raising its death toll to 266. People in the territory are reportedly abandoning their house cats following research that may link the SARS outbreak to civet cats - a weasel-like animal that resembles a cat. Hong Kong plans to collect feces from civet cats to test them for SARS following scientists' discovery, officials said Sunday.