Washington | Tuesday
ALARMS over possible anthrax contamination kept police busy around the world on Tuesday as new cases of the deadly disease are discovered in the United States.
Police in Japan, Canada, Europe, Latin America and Australia were investigating cases of suspicious powders or liquids, though there were no reports of anthrax contamination in any of the cases.
Meanwhile, US authorities have warned the country was facing a bioterrorist attack after new evidence of anthrax contamination emerged in New York, Florida and the office of US Senator Thomas Daschle, the majority leader.
A seven-month-old boy tested positive for skin anthrax after visiting ABC News in New York, while a 73-year-old employee of American Media Inc. in Florida — where the first fatal anthrax victim worked — was found to have the more serious respiratory form.
A total of four people in the United States have now been confirmed to have anthrax, while nine other people have been exposed to the bacterium but have not developed the illness. One person has died.
Earlier, US President George W Bush said Daschle’s office ”received a letter and it had anthrax in it. The letter was field-tested and the staffers that have been exposed are being treated.”
Asked whether Islamic militant Osama bin Laden, whom Bush blames for the September 11 terror strikes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, was linked to a recent spate of anthrax-laden letters, the president replied: ”I wouldn’t put it past him, but we don’t have hard evidence yet.”
US Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said it was clear that the people in the United States who were exposed to the deadly anthrax bacteria — including two who were infected, one of whom died –were victims of bioterror.
Attorney General John Ashcroft was more direct, saying that while there was no proof, there was real suspicion that the scare over the bacteria was linked to bin Laden.
As authorities in Washington looked into the new incident, a Continental Airlines jet was quarantined at Ohio’s Cleveland Hopkins International Airport Monday, with all of its crew and passengers on board, after a suspicious substance was found on board, officials said.
In New York, Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik said the anthrax scare in the city was causing panic, saying authorities handled 82 emergency calls in less than seven hours relating to suspicious substances or packages that residents believed could contain the bacteria.
Fear of anthrax also spread outside the United States.
White powder found leaking from an envelope discovered at the central post office in Fukushima city, northern Japan, was not the deadly anthrax bacteria as originally feared, police said Tuesday.
”We don’t know what the substance is, but it is not that bacteria,” Fukushima prefectural police officer Tetsu Saito said.
In Ottawa, a section of Canada’s main Parliament building was evacuated and cordoned off after a suspicious package containing white powder was received, and 35 employees were rushed to a detoxification unit.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said there was no evidence the white powder contained anthrax.
A train was evacuated at the railway station in the northwestern Italian town of Sestri Levante after the discovery of a bottle containing a suspicious white liquid, Italian railway police said.
Unidentified powder suspected to contain anthrax spores was found on an Israeli cargo plane arriving from Europe, according to media reports.
Security agents were called and a sample of the material was sent to the Biological Institute in Nes Tsiona, south of Tel Aviv.
It was not yet known if the substance contained anthrax spores.
A dozen people in France have been placed under medical observation after coming into contact with suspicious mail, but the country has ”no authenticated, diagnosed cases” of anthrax, said Health Minister Bernard Kouchner.
In the Czech town of Karlovy Vary, three people were sprayed with disinfectant after a suspect letter was discovered among mail sent to a shop.
Eleven people were undergoing tests for anthrax in Poland after opening letters containing a suspicious powder sent to a police office and a television station, officials said.
Brazil’s defence ministry asked that a Lufthansa plane found carrying a suspicious white powder be grounded until laboratory tests could be conducted.
In Melbourne, Australia, US Consul General David Lyon said 40 consulate staff members were evacuated for 45 minutes after a letter found to have a suspicious chemical residue arrived at the office.
Britain stocked up on antibiotics to counter any potential anthrax attack, the government’s senior medical officer said, while insisting there was no specific threat.- Sapa-AFP