|
Anthrax Scare Hits Middle East
RIYADH, Oct 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Saudi Arabia was hit with an anthrax scare for the first time as three parcels containing a suspicious white powder arrived in the capital and the western city of Jeddah, newspapers reported Wednesday.
Two parcels arrived Tuesday at the Rawda post office in east Riyadh, one from India and the other from Indonesia, while the origin of the third - delivered the same day at a Jeddah factory - has not been not disclosed, they said, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Health Minister Osama Shobokshi said 13 people from the factory in Jeddah's industrial area underwent preliminary tests for anthrax,
Al-Watan daily reported.
He said tests were so far negative, but final results would appear in the next 24 hours.
The London-based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper said Wednesday the parcel from Indonesia received by the Rawda Post office had been handed to security and medical authorities for tests.
A Saudi citizen in Riyadh also reported that a parcel containing a white powder had arrived in his mailbox from India,
Al-Iqtissadia daily said.
He said he had received the parcel with two other letters addressed to his Indian housemaid, who said the package did not belong to her.
The man handed the parcel to police, the daily said.
Tests conducted so far did not indicate the presence of anthrax, it added.
Employees at post offices in Riyadh have been instructed to take precautions and sort letters while wearing masks.
Shobokshi said the kingdom has more than two million tablets of the anthrax anti-biotic.
Saudi Arabia is the third Gulf country after Bahrain and Kuwait to be hit by the worldwide anthrax scare, following transmission of the disease through suspect mail which has killed three people in the United States.
In Kuwait, the U.S. embassy announced that a suspicious letter it received earlier this week tested negative for anthrax as another scare hit a post office in the emirate.
"The embassy received a suspicious item in the mail earlier this week. The item was tested and found to be innocuous," the U.S. embassy said in an updated warden's message released Tuesday.
On Wednesday morning, police sealed off Mishref post office south of Kuwait City after postal workers reported a suspicious letter carrying an Indian postmark and containing a white powder.
Kuwaiti Communications Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah al-Sabah confirmed on state television that "an envelope had been found in [the] Mishref" post office.
The case was the second since Monday when Khitan post office workers reported receiving a parcel also containing white powder.
In both cases, the workers who came into contact with the suspicious letters were immediately administered a course of antibiotics by medics.
The KUNA news agency also reported receiving a suspicious letter on Monday.
However, a source at the Ministry of Communications told AFP the letter was posted before the September 11 terror attacks in the United States, adding, "we think it only contained some drugs."
The U.S. has officially stated that thus far they see no links between the anthrax attacks and the events on September 11.
Postal workers around the country are taking precautions against the anthrax threat, wearing masks and gloves while handling all mail.
A building at the U.S. embassy in Cairo, Egypt was evacuated on Tuesday after a white powder was discovered, an embassy spokesman told AFP.
"Someone found a suspicious powder in the bathroom of the building and it's in the process of being analyzed in the [embassy's] medical research center," spokesman Philip Frayne said.
Around 150 people were evacuated from the building, which houses the embassy's consulate, administrative offices and press section, after the powder was found on top of a paper towel distributor, he added.
The traces of the powdery substance were found in a bathroom on the second floor and in another on the fourth floor. The two floors house administration and public affairs offices.
The building also houses a library and the embassy's visa section, which are visited by Egyptians as well as other non-Americans.
Experts from the U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit in Egypt analyzed the powder. The spokesman said that while no anthrax was found they could not immediately establish the nature of the substance.
The American Embassy issued a message for U.S. citizens in Egypt on October 17, telling them what to do if they receive a letter or a package containing a powdery substance.
|
