Anthrax Spooks Europe And Asia

08/05/2001| IslamWeb

KARACHI, Pakistan (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Pakistan's largest newspaper evacuated some of its editorial offices after a letter tested positive for anthrax in one of two new overseas cases reported Friday. (Read photo caption below)In India, the health secretary of a western state said Friday that powder found in an envelope in a government office tested positive for anthrax and would be examined further.
Meanwhile, in Germany, initial tests came back positive for anthrax on a letter and two packages. Later tests in Berlin found no evidence of the bacteria, officials said. The letter had an Islamabad, Pakistan, return address and a German postmark dated Oct. 24.
At the U.S. Embassy in Athens, Greece, traces of bacteria not yet confirmed as anthrax were found in a mailbag, the State Department said Friday in Washington.
``As a preventive measure, any embassy staff who handled the mail from that bag have been put on antibiotics,'' State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
Earlier, mailbags at the U.S. embassies in Lithuania and Peru tested positive for anthrax.
Greek officials said a suspicious envelope sent to a U.S. Navy base was also being tested.
Four people in the United States have died from inhalation anthrax and six more are infected with the most lethal form of the disease. Seven other people have developed the less dangerous skin anthrax. Most cases have been linked to the mail.
In the Caribbean, a mail scare shut down Trinidad and Tobago's postal system Friday. Employees refused to work until tests are done on a white powder that spilled from an envelope at the central office in Piarco, east of Port-of-Spain, said postal service spokeswoman Renatta Mohammed.
And Grenada's Treasury Department was closed after an employee opened a package containing a white powder Thursday. The package has been sent for testing.
PHOTO CAPTION:
A worker from Pakistan's Agha Khan Medical University Hospital prepares to enter the sealed newsroom of Daily Jang after the paper received a hand delivered envelope which tested positive for anthrax spores. Confirmed or suspected anthrax cases were reported Friday in Pakistan and Germany as the United States, which suffered the first casualties from the potentially deadly bacteria, struggled to hunt down those responsible for the germ warfare attacks. (Reuters)