The first anthrax letters were received in the US by institutions symbolic of American culture. But in the last few weeks, anthrax scares have been reported in a number of countries around the world.
Israel: Jerusalem's main postal sorting office was closed for two days "recently" because of an anthrax scare, the telecommunications ministry said Thursday. The office was closed and its several hundred employees sent home for 48 hours while a suspicious envelope, posted abroad, was tested and found to be harmless. The postal services have reported a number of alerts which all proved to be false, while the police have threatened severe measures against hoaxers or anyone trying to spread panic.
Cyprus: Cyprus has had its first postal anthrax scare, but the package turned out to be nothing more than tokens of affection and a love letter, police sources were quoted as saying Thursday. Police and specially equipped fire crews were called to a post office in the southern resort of Limassol on Wednesday when the parcel was discovered with an unidentified substance on the taped exterior, press reports said. Some 120 Cyprus postal sorters were given surgical gloves earlier this week in the wake of the anthrax-related deaths of US postal workers.
Sri Lanka: The French embassy in Sri Lanka was yesterday closed indefinitely following an anthrax scare in Colombo, embassy officials said. The decision to shut down the embassy until further notice was taken pending the results of tests on a suspicious letter received there four days ago, an official said. The Australian, British, Indian and US diplomatic missions here have also received suspicious mail in the past few days containing a white powder.
Iceland: Police on Thursday were investigating an apparent anthrax hoax sent to Iceland Prime Minister David Oddsson. A powder-filled letter was sent to the home of Oddsson, who personally opened it on Tuesday, Oddsson's spokesman said. Tests later revealed that the substance did not contain anthrax. Police spokesman Arnar Jensson said the letter had been sent from within Iceland, and that detectives were working on leads.
South Korea: South Korea's Asiana Airlines yesterday said it would minimize the use of powdered coffee creamer on its planes to prevent anthrax scares. A box containing white powder was found at Los Angeles' Tom Bradley Terminal last week, causing thousands of passengers and employees to be evacuated and the terminal was shut down for two hours. The powder turned out to be coffee creamer.
India: Fearing anthrax, postal workers in a remote eastern Indian town locked up the post office and fled after they received a package containing a white powder, but police said Thursday the substance was protein powder meant for a cancer patient. Panic stricken postal workers in Soro, a small town in the eastern Indian state of Orissa, vacated the post office Wednesday after one of their colleagues handled a package containing the white powder sent from New York.
Bangladesh: In Bangladesh, suspicious powders found in letters sent to foreign embassies this week tested negative for anthrax spores, investigators confirmed Thursday.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS