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The CIA's search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has found no evidence that former president Saddam Hussein tried to transfer chemical or biological technology or weapons to terrorists, according to a military and intelligence expert. Anthony Cordesman, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, provided new details about the weapons search and Iraqi insurgency in a report released Friday. It was based on briefings over the past two weeks in Iraq from David Kay, the CIA representative who is directing the search for unconventional weapons in Iraq; L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civil administrator...

A chemical scare at the Multnomah Building in southeast Portland sent police and a hazardous materials team scrambling to the scene late Friday morning. Apparently, an employee in the taxation and assessment office on the first floor opened an envelope and found powder inside, according to Mike Beard with Multnomah County Chair Diane Linn’s office. Everyone in the building was encouraged to stay inside, and those who decide to leave will not be let back in, officials said.

CALGARY -- On the same day that Mexican president Vicente Fox visited the campus, more than 600 people were evacuated from the University of Calgary's Sciences building when staff found two envelopes containing a suspicious-looking powder. The powder turned out to be harmless. Fire, EMS, and police personnel cordoned off the facility at about 11:30 a.m. yesterday after a male professor opened one of the letters and subsequently complained of feeling sick, said fire department spokesman John Conley. The man, reportedly in his 50s, and a woman in her mid-20s who was also complaining of nausea, were taken to hospital...

CERGY, France (AFP) - An envelope leaking a strange pinkish powder sparked an alert in a Paris suburban post office, but tests revealed the substance to be nothing more than dessicated elephant dung, police said. With France on high terrorism alert following the London bombings last month, postal workers in a sorting centre in the northwestern suburb of Bonneuil-en-France took no chance when they noticed the strange envelope from Sri Lanka with the powder inside. After police were called in Thursday, six employees who had been exposed to the powder were subjected to medical examinations. The powder was analysed too,...

PHILADELPHIA - Clayton Lee Waagner, a self-proclaimed terrorist who mailed phony anthrax letters to abortion clinics in 24 states, was sentenced to 19 years in prison Thursday. Waagner sent many threatening letters from a FedEx facility in Philadelphia in October and November 2001 during the height of the anthrax scares that followed the Sept. 11 attacks. "He wanted to exploit the moment," Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard P. Barrett said, "to use the anxiety and panic caused by those other terrorist acts to fuel his own brand of terror." The frightening letters signed by the "Army of God" contained a mysterious...

Suspicious packages turned up at four foreign missions and at Parliament House in Canberra today. The packages were received by the British high commission and the United States, Japanese and South Korean embassies. Each of the embassies that received the packages represents a country with troops in Iraq. "We can confirm the commission received a suspicious package earlier this morning," a British high commission spokesman said. "We are following AFP [Australian Federal Police] guidelines at present." The US embassy in Canberra has been closed. "I can confirm that the US embassy did receive a suspicious package," a US embassy spokeswoman...

"The US military says one sample was labelled "tabun" US troops say they have found thousands of boxes of unidentified white powder and some nerve agent antidote at an industrial site south-west of Baghdad. They also said they discovered documents in Arabic, which apparently explain how to carry out chemical warfare. A special team has been sent to investigate the discovery at Latifiya - part of a large military complex frequently visited frequently by UN weapons inspectors before the war began. US troops have also reportedly found a second site nearby containing vials of unidentified liquid and white powder. The...

Threatening volcanic child of Krakatoa keeps its powder dry By Sebastien Berger at Anak Krakatau (Filed: 12/07/2004) At 74, the offspring of the world's most famous volcano is newborn in geological terms. But, rising darkly from the sea, Anak Krakatau - "the child of Krakatoa" - is already 1,000ft high and smoking. Wisps of steam and toxic fumes drift gently from several vents at its summit, where its otherwise black walls are stained with white mineral deposits. Its setting is idyllic, nestling between three other outcrops in the middle of the Sunda Strait between the major Indonesian islands of Java...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Hazardous material experts were called to U.N. headquarters on Monday after a suspicious powder was discovered on the 27th floor, but there was no evacuation and no cause for alarm, security staff said. The New York Fire Department's hazardous materials unit was called in "as a precautionary matter" after the powder was found in an office of the U.N. Department of Management. While the emergency crew was cleaning up the area, a second report was received of a powdery substance next to a U.N. Credit Union cash machine on the first floor, security aides said. Samples...

Powder Attack on Tony Blair Done in Service of a Just Cause By Glenn Sacks "I haven't seen my daughter for five years." Shouting these words, an English protester hit British Prime Minister Tony Blair with a packet of purple flour as Blair answered questions on the floor of the House of Commons a few days ago. A somewhat panicked parliamentary session was quickly suspended. The aggrieved father, Ron Davis, and his fellow protester, Guy Harrison, are part of a nonviolent resistance campaign launched by the popular English fathers' rights group Fathers 4 Justice. The group uses purple because purple...

WHITE POWDER FOUND About 70 members of staff are undergoing decontamination treatment after a suspicious chemical was found in their offices. The white powder was discovered at the BBC-owned Galleon, which handles distribution, subscriptions, customer support, and merchandising sales for a range of magazines including many of the BBC's own publications, Private Eye, and Hello! magazine. About 70 employees were in the building when the package was opened, and six are believed to have come into direct contact with the white powder, a spokeswoman for Kent Police said. "We would like to stress that these are precautionary measures and there...

Suspicious White Powder Found at Williamstown, N.J., Post Office The Associated Press Published: Feb 10, 2004 MONROE TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) - The Williamstown Post Office was evacuated as a precaution Tuesday after several postal carriers found a white powder in their mail, officials said. Members of the Gloucester County hazardous materials squad were sent into the building, said Cathy Yarosky, spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service. FBI agents joined the investigation, said FBI spokeswoman Linda Vizi. "We're taking samples and will make a determination as to what the substance is," Vizi said. Six postal workers were taken to a hospital...

Senate Powder Tests Positive for Ricin February 3, 2004 12:20 AM EST WASHINGTON - Preliminary tests of a white powder discovered in a Senate office building Monday were positive for the potentially deadly poison ricin, the U.S. Capitol Police chief said. Two out of three tests indicate ricin, Chief Terrance Gainer said at a late-evening news conference. The third test came out negative, and a fourth, more definitive test was under way, with results expected Tuesday. Sixteen people who were on the floor where the white powder was discovered on mail were being decontaminated and would be allowed to go...

Prosecutors in a trial in Miami complain that their seats and evidence boxes are being covered with voodoo powder. US District Judge Patricia Seitz has been shown a large quantity of the greyish dust which was dumped in what's believed to be a Santeria ritual. Santeria experts say voodoo powder can bring good luck, swaying juries, judges or prosecutors in favour of the accused. The powder was left in evidence boxes next to the prosecution table in the courtroom which is trying defence attorney J.C. Elso on money-laundering charges. Veteran Assistant US Attorney Richard Gregorie said he respects all religions...

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Greenville, S.C., postal workers and truckers are being forced to take lie detector tests after the poison ricin was found in an envelope in a Greenville post office in October and last week a mysterious powder was found in a mail bin at a nearby postal facility. The Gaffney, S.C., post office was evacuated Nov. 7 after workers found an unidentified powder in a mail bin but it turned out to be "body powder." In October, an anonymous letter threatening to take hostage the new Hours of Service rules was found in addition to a vial of...

"Police wearing protective chemical gear retrived a "highly suspicious" package containing brown powder and a screed against the Metropolitan Transit Authority this morning at the Canal Street 1/9 subway station, shutting down train service and sealing off the area........"

There was a scare at Naperville's city hall early Friday after two city workers, sorting mail, suddenly developed mysterious itching on their hands and forearms. Police and firefighters locked down the building and began a search for toxic materials that ultimately turned up nothing--though it frazzled some nerves. As the search began, another employee, then two more, all working nearby, developed similar symptoms. For two hours, a Naperville hazardous materials team searched the building but turned up no trace of powder or any substance that might have caused the itching. The crew tested the utility bills the Naperville Municipal Center...

NORTHBROOK, Ill. (May 20) - Thirty-one students accused in a videotaped hazing have been offered a deal to graduate on time if they won't fight expulsion or try to exploit the widely publicized incident with a book or movie deal. Glenbrook North High School officials say some of the students are considering the offer, which also requires the students to attend counseling and perform community service. School board attorney Lawrence Weiner said they would be expelled but the school would freeze their grades at their previous levels instead of automatically flunking them. ''They'll graduate with their class,'' he said. School...

Just announced on CNN--they think the powder is explosive, not chem weapons.

LONG HILL TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) -- Authorities in New Jersey, where at least five anthrax-laden letters were mailed in 2001, closed another post office after white powder fell from a package containing a threatening letter. An initial test was negative for anthrax, but a secondary test was inconclusive, Postal Service spokesman Tony Esposito said. He said one employee came in contact with the powder but didn't appear to have symptoms. The post office was closed Saturday as a precaution, pending tests by the state health department. The substance was discovered Friday night when a postmark machine stamped a padded envelope...