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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgian prosecutors said on Thursday they had detained a man of Iraqi nationality after a series of letters containing a nerve gas ingredient were sent to the prime minister's office and the U.S. and British embassies. A spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor's office told a news conference the 45-year-old man was arrested late on Wednesday in the western Belgian town of Deinze. Two postal workers were taken to hospital after being exposed to the chemicals in the letters at mail depots. No one else was hurt by the 10 letters sent to a variety of targets, including...

June 4 — By Gilles Castonguay BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgian investigators found a nerve gas ingredient in letters addressed to the Belgian prime minister's office, and the U.S., British and Saudi Arabian embassies, officials said on Wednesday. Two postal workers were briefly hospitalized after being exposed to the chemicals. The brownish-yellow powder contained phenarsazine chloride, an arsenic derivative used in nerve gas, as well as hydrazine, an agent used as a rocket propellant, said Health Ministry spokeswoman Anne-Francoise Gally said. In the amounts contained in the letters, the two chemicals are not life threatening, but can cause irritation to the...

Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion. Belgians Detain Iraqi Suspected Of Mailing Nerve Gas Chemical Reuters The New York Times Section A; Page 16; Column 5; Foreign Desk June 6, 2003, Friday, Late Edition - Final BRUSSELS, June 5 The Belgian police said today that they had detained an Iraqi man after 10 letters containing a nerve gas ingredient were sent to the prime minister's office, the American and British Embassies and a court trying suspected members of Al Qaeda. Inside the letters was a brownish-yellow powder that contained phenarsazine chloride, an...

THREE STAFF TAKEN ILL Police are checking one of BP's offices in Moscow after three female workers fell ill when they opened a bag of letters. Officers in the Russian capital said the employees "got sore throats, their eyes watered and one of them got red spots on her skin". A police spokesman added: "They packed the letters back in the bag and called emergency workers and chemical experts, who are now studying the letters." Russia's Emergencies Ministry said it had sent experts to BP's oil trading office. It was not clear what caused the employees to feel ill. But...