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By Region: North America

Wall St. Firms Warned About Bioattacks

Security officials have issued a warning to the leaders of Wall Street banks that al Qaeda terrorists in Yemen may be plotting attacks against them or their financial institutions that include the use of chemical or biological weapons.

February 1, 2011
| Filed under North America and Bioterrorism
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Issues in Biosecurity and Biosafety

Related Articles Issues in biosecurity and biosafety. Int J Antimicrob Agents. 2010 Aug 7; Authors: Nordmann BD The role of non-governmental organisations and other interested observers – civil society – has long been neglected by governments in the quest for a world secure from the threat of biological weapons or bioterrorism. New trends illustrate a Read More »

January 28, 2011
| Filed under North America and Policy & Initiatives
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Study Urges U.S. to Update Chem-Bio Defense Efforts

The U.S. Defense Department should revamp its chemical- and biological-weapon defense efforts in a bid to discourage antagonists from developing new lethal agents or employing such materials in a devastating attack, according to a newly published RAND Corp. report (see GSN, Nov. 8, 2010). “Given the inherent secrecy with which states and other actors will Read More »

January 25, 2011
| Filed under North America, Countermeasures, and Research
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New Protein Could be Used Against Anthrax

Wichita State University researchers have prepared a protein that someday could be used as a defense against anthrax, the Kansas institution announced on Friday (see GSN, Nov. 18, 2010). In laboratory testing, chemistry professor Jim Bann and his team of scientists used the amino acid fluorohistidine to shield cells from the anthrax pathogen’s ability to Read More »

January 25, 2011
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, and Research
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CDC Defends Smallpox Retention

.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is defending its retention of smallpox stocks. The United States and Russia are the only countries known to possess live strains of the highly virulent variola virus that was declared eradicated from nature in 1980. The two superpowers have justified their continued retention of the potential bioterrorism Read More »