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Police baffled by horrific end of Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez Students were bound, gagged and stabbed more than 200 times but the motive for attack is a mystery Adam Fresco, Fran Yeoman and Marcus Leroux As two talented biochemistry students and close friends, Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez had come to London to develop their skills as specialists in infectious disease and environmental engineering. Instead the two became the victims of an attack that, even by the standards of a city battling against the blight of knife crime, is among the most horrific in living memory. The bodies of...

In a move believed to be the first by a college campus in the nation, San Jose State University President Don Kassing has suspended all campus blood drives because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration bars any man who has had sex with another man from donating blood. "The FDA's lifetime blood donor deferral affecting gay men violates our non-discrimination policy," said Kassing in an e-mail sent to faculty, staff and students. The suspension, which is effective immediately, applies to blood drives arranged by employees representing the university as well as blood drives organized by student groups. The FDA's ban...

Want to create a pathogen? Just download its gene sequence information from the Internet and place an order with a gene sequencing company. The genes arrive in the mail a couple of days later. Mix it in your basement lab and then release on an unprotected public. Is this nightmarish vision of mail-order bioterrorism really possible? Most experts agree that basement bioterrorism is unlikely right now. But rapid improvements in the technologies that allow researchers to generate genetic material starting from just information and raw chemicals could make such bioterror attacks possible in the next decade or so. The synthesis...

Researchers in Germany reported Thursday that they had altered the DNA of a disease-causing bacterium so that it can infect a species it cannot normally sicken. Experts called the development a double-edged advance. Although the research could deepen scientists' understanding of human diseases, it also could speed development of novel bioterror agents. The change in infectiousness - the first of its kind ever engineered from scratch - poses no direct threat to human health, scientists said, because the microbe already causes a human disease - the food-borne illness called listeriosis. The change allows that microbe to sicken mice, a species...

US Hospitals - once extremely vulnerable to a chaotic bio-attack, are in much better shape than they were in 2001 - no thanks to the critics !

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Hundreds of Iraqi policemen fell sick from poisoning Sunday at a base in southern Iraq after the evening meal breaking their daily Ramadan fast, and officials said they were investigating whether the poisoning was intentional. An official with the Environment Ministry said 11 policemen had died. However, the governor of Wasit province — where the poisoning took place — denied any deaths, though he said some of the victims were in critical condition. There was no immediate explanation for the contradictory reports. Some of the policemen began bleeding from the ears and nose after the meal, said...

The first hint of calamity came in deceptively routine form: a small fire in a rented Carson warehouse, apparently sparked by welders working on a lunch truck. But an investigation of that blaze turned up alarming details: respirators, a suspicious hookup on the truck, large sacks of rice flour. Within weeks, those puzzling discoveries would plunge Los Angeles into a whirlwind as a routine fire probe rapidly spun into an international investigation, uncovering a terrorist weapons lab in Mexico and a plan to douse the nation's second-largest city with anthrax and ricin. By the 40th day of the crisis, panic-stricken...

The U.S. Customs area at Detroit Metropolitan Airport was briefly shut down today after a passenger claimed he had contaminated everyone on a flight from Amsterdam. Officials say a U.S citizen got off a Northwest Airlines flight and implied to the crew he had a biological agent of some sort and had contaminated the flight. Airport emergency medical technicians examined the man and decided that he did not pose a health risk. The man was eventually allowed to leave. It took about 90 minutes to investigate, and other passengers from Amsterdam were delayed in leaving. Passengers on two flights from...

An Alzheimer's pill that helps slow the brain damage caused by the disease may also protect against the effects of nerve gases and pesticides, US researchers reported today. They said the drug, marketed under the name Reminyl and Razadyne, completely protected guinea pigs against the nerve agents soman and sarin, as well as toxic amounts of pesticides. They gave the animals high doses of the poisons and treated them with Reminyl, known generically as galantamine, along with atropine, often given as an antidote for organophosphate pesticides such as paraoxon. "To our amazement, the animals treated with galantamine behaved as if...

The government is building a highly classified facility to research biological weapons, but its closed-door approach has raised concerns. On the grounds of a military base an hour's drive from the capital, the Bush administration is building a massive biodefense laboratory unlike any seen since biological weapons were banned 34 years ago. The heart of the lab is a cluster of sealed chambers built to contain the world's deadliest bacteria and viruses. There, scientists will spend their days simulating the unthinkable: bioterrorism attacks in the form of lethal anthrax spores rendered as wispy powders that can drift for miles on...

Senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer have been complaining for a week now about an $80 million cutback in New York City's anti-terrorism funding by the Department of Homeland Security. But it turns out that they both voted to make substantial cuts in the city's terrorism funding last year. According to Newsday, the Democratic duo backed a $95 million cut last December in funding from the Centers for Disease Control for bioterrorism programs around the nation. Of that amount, approximately $3 million would have gone directly to New York City. Mrs. Clinton and her Democratic co-hort actually wanted to cut...

For a team of FBI anti-terrorism agents, the April incident was yet another false alarm. But in a business where U.S. authorities must be right every time and terrorists need only be successful once, everything is taken seriously. "We operate in Los Angeles under the assumption that we will be attacked and we need to stop it," said Eric Velez, an FBI assistant special agent in charge who oversees several Southern California-based counterterrorism squads. Indeed, since the 2001 terror attacks federal officials repeatedly have said Los Angeles is a primary al-Qaida target. Earlier this year, President Bush disclosed new details...

AUSTIN, April 6, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Ebola, a form of hemorrhagic fever in which the internal organs of the victim liquefy, has one of the highest rates of fatality of any known contagious disease at approximately 80-90% and is one of the most contagious diseases known to medical science. It is also high on the list of possible bio-terror weapons of concern to international law enforcement and military security agencies. Tom Clancy’s thriller novel, Rainbow Six describes a group of radical environmentalists that wants to rid the world of people using a modified version of Ebola.All of which is...

Nazis tried to halt Allies in Italy with malaria epidemic attack By Hilary Clarke in Rome (Filed: 14/02/2006) The Nazis tried to halt the advance of British and American troops through Italy in the Second World War by unleashing malaria-carrying mosquitoes in what is believed to be the only biological warfare attack out in Europe, according to new research. The plan was designed to hinder the Allied push from the south and to punish the Italian population for what the Germans saw as treachery after they switched sides and joined the Allied powers. According to Prof Frank Snowden, a history...

AL-QAEDA is recruiting suicide bombers who are infected with the AIDS virus, according to documents revealed to the Sunday Mirror. Terror chiefs are also targeting fanatics who suffer other lethal blood diseases such as hepatitis and dengue fever in order to increase their "kill rate" from an explosion. The chilling new threat is revealed in papers distributed to British military camps in Iraq and across Europe. Under the heading "HIV/Hepatitis" the document states: "There is evidence that terrorists might be deliberately recruiting volunteers with diseases that are spread by blood transference." Experts have found that bones and other blood-spattered fragments...

Health officials say they may have no other alternativeThe tuberculosis eating at Ricardo’s lungs makes him a public health threat. His fear of being picked up by immigration authorities has sent him into hiding. A hard-to-treat combination of medical problems left the young farmworker tired, without an appetite and, because of the tuberculosis, quarantined in a hotel room for weeks. But last week, Ricardo, who is also an illegal immigrant, heard that Skagit County Public Health, which has treated him for months, might have reported him to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Ricardo has been deported to Mexico once before...

A few months ago, Kenyans were amused at media reports that thousands of rats had been killed at a major city market. While the story may have made news due to this unusual finding, many people are unaware of the dangers posed by such huge numbers of rodents. Besides being vermin preying on man's food, rats are more dangerous as reservoirs of lethal diseases that can affect man. That is why, with the ever-present threat of bio-terrorism, attention should also be focused on rats and how they can be used as bio-terror agents. The most memorable and most devastating disease...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 - An outbreak of the avian flu virus in the United States could infect one-third of the population and kill as many as 1.9 million people, according to an analysis by the federal government released today. The report, by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, said that banning large gatherings and imposing quarantines would likely be necessary in order to contain the spread of the H5N1 avian influenza virus if it mutated into a form easily spread by human-to-human contact. There have been no reported cases of the virus being spread between humans. The...

TORONTO - A newly disclosed Canadian intelligence study says al-Qaeda might try to spread the deadly avian flu virus as part of its campaign to sow terror in Western nations. The report by the federal government's Integrated Threat Assessment Centre describes the avian flu as a "potential terrorist-induced" pandemic and specifically mentions Osama bin Laden. "It is significant to note that Osama bin Laden views chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons as legitimate," says the report, titled "Pandemics: Avian Flu." "In addition, Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda representatives have repeatedly named Canada as a target," it says under the heading...

Bush Outlines $7.1B Flu-Fighting Strategy By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer 32 minutes ago President Bush outlined a $7.1 billion strategy Tuesday to prepare for the danger of a pandemic influenza outbreak, saying he wanted to stockpile enough vaccine to protect 20 million Americans against the current strain of bird flu.The president also said the United States must approve liability protection for the makers of lifesaving vaccines. He said the number of American vaccine manufacturers has plummeted because the industry has been hit with a flood of lawsuits. Bush said no one knows when or where a deadly strain...