'NY Times' Rio Bureau Gets Anthrax Letter
Oct. 19 -- A reporter for The New York Times in Rio de Janeiro received a envelope that tested positive for anthrax, the paper said today, bringing to two the number of instances involving anthrax in letters outside the United States.
The letter at the Times bureau in Rio de Janeiro initially tested positive for anthrax, according to Brazilian authorities. Additional tests are being performed.
The letter was postmarked Oct. 5 from New York City, and received at the bureau on Oct. 16, the Times said in a statement.
It was left unopened when an employee noticed the letter had no return address. The employee then put the letter in a secure plastic bag and turned over to Brazilian authorities.
All four employees in the Rio bureau were tested for anthrax and given Cipro as a preventive measure, the Times said.
Better News in Kenya
The letter received at the Times comes a day after a Kenyan national become the first confirmed anthrax exposure outside the United States after receiving a piece of suspicious mail.
Fears of a large-scale attack were allayed today when officials announced that two other letters suspected of containing anthrax tested negative.
Kenyan Health Minister Sam Ongeri told reporters in Nairobi today that although the "overall sample" for the two letters had tested negative, health officials were testing four other suspicious letters.
One of the two letters that had tested negative had been mailed to a U.N. official from Pakistan. However, the director general of Pakistan's Health Ministry said Pakistan had no facilities to produce anthrax.
Bioterror in South Asia
Concerns also hit the Pakistani capital of Islamabad today, when the British High Commission turned over a "suspicious" letter to Pakistani health officials. An embassy employee who opened the letter was taken to a city hospital for tests.
A doctor at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Science in Islamabad told ABCNEWS that the male embassy employee had tested negative for anthrax. The employee would however stay in hospital under observation for a while, the doctor added.
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