The Associated Press

EMPIRE, Colo. – A western Colorado summer camp scheduled this weekend for children with muscular dystrophy has been canceled over swine flu fears.

The national Muscular Dystrophy Association says 53 children were expected at the camp Sunday in Empire, about 40 miles west of Denver. Association officials say they canceled the camp along with others across the country because children with muscular dystrophy have weakened respiratory muscles that make them more vulnerable to swine flu.

Officials announced the cancellation Monday. MDA officials say 47 camps across the country that were expecting about 2,500 children were also called off after suspected swine flu cases in Utah and Pennsylvania.

This week, seven children and three adults at a Minnesota camp contracted swine flu.

Associated Press

DRAPER, Utah (AP) – A 50-bed housing unit at the Utah State Prison is under quarantine as medical officials await test results for the swine flu.

Prison officials say three male inmates from the Promontory housing facility have been tested for the virus. Results are expected within five days.

The prison quarantined the unit late Wednesday after the three men reported flu-like symptoms.

The quarantine order limits movement in and out of the Promontory unit to medical personnel. Visitation at the unit has been canceled and court hearings are being rescheduled.

By Jennifer Brown, The Denver Post

Boulder graduate student Thomas Spradling was two days into a trip to study the Beijing art scene when his plans were abruptly interrupted by Chinese authorities dressed in white biohazard suits.

Now, the University of Colorado student is quarantined in what he describes as a sweltering, decrepit hotel where the food is “mostly gristle” and the beds are “solid as a rock.”

He and his mother, Barbara Spradling, were rounded up two days after arriving in Beijing, forced to leave their four-star hotel and driven, sirens blazing, to a quarantine hotel.

The pair were among between 100 and 200 travelers stuck in the hotel — the latest international travelers held in China because of the swine-flu scare. New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin spent about four days in a Shanghai hotel earlier this month after a flight from Newark, N.J.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta began warning travelers last month that they might end up quarantined overseas if someone on their flight is suspected of having swine flu.

Chinese authorities kept dozens of Mexicans under quarantine soon after the swine-flu epidemic began in Mexico and have been screening air passengers who arrive from the U.S.

Spradling, 25, said Chinese health officials took infrared temperature readings from the foreheads of all the passengers on his flight. He and his mother were cleared and spent the next two days exploring the Great Wall and the Forbidden City.

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By DANIEL WOOLLS, Google

MADRID (AP) — A Spanish cruise ship was turned away from two Caribbean ports Wednesday because of fears of swine flu among crew members, the vessel’s owner said.

Tour operator Pullmantur said its ship Ocean Dream with 759 passengers and 400 crew members was denied permission to dock in Grenada and Barbados after informing authorities there that crew members had flu symptoms.

The company said it later received confirmation that three crew members tested positive for swine flu. Another 11 have symptoms. None of the 14 is seriously ill, it said.

The sick crew have been isolated and no passengers have fallen ill, the company said in a statement.

But the nine-day cruise that began in Aruba off Venezuela’s coast is over, and the company is now making arrangements to get the passengers back to their ports of origin, company spokeswoman Ana del Hoyo said.

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