http://www.boston.com/dailynews/290/world/Suspect_letters_cause_mail_del:.shtml

Suspect letters cause mail delays in Germany; post office threatens legal action

By Geir Moulson, Associated Press, 10/17/2001 09:49

BERLIN (AP) Suspect mail temporarily shut down several German sorting centers, delaying hundreds of thousands of letters Wednesday as anthrax scares and hoaxes swept around the world, fueled by mounting concern in the United States.

Postal hubs in Mannheim, Erfurt, Goettingen and Offenbach were among those affected overnight, Deutsche Post spokeswoman Monika Siebert said. About 1 percent of the 72 million letters and packages it handles daily would probably arrive a day late, she said.

Wednesday brought anthrax scares from Osaka, Japan, where U.S. Consulate workers were given antibiotics after powder fell from an envelope, to Cape Town, South Africa, where a police station was quarantined because of a paper containing powder and a written warning.

Nobody abroad has tested positive for the bacteria in any of the scares.

In Osaka, a fine white powder fell out of the envelope when a consulate employee shook it, police said. Police suspected it was a prank, but were testing the powder. Consular offices were disinfected and about 60 consulate employees were given antibiotics. The building was not evacuated.

In Cape Town, a security policy think-tank said an employee found a folded piece of paper containing powder in his mailbox at home. On the paper was written: ''Do you want to die?'' and the word ''anthrax.''

Police took the letter to a station that was then evacuated and sealed off as a precaution, police said. Several officers were placed under observation and the powder was sent for testing.

In Germany, no dangerous substances were found in initial tests of the envelopes that caused the postal shutdowns, Siebert said. Threatening legal action against people who send suspect mail, she said ''it will be very, very expensive'' for anyone who is caught.

Police in the city of Fulda said three envelopes that arrived from Boca Raton the Florida city where anthrax cases have been confirmed at a tabloid publishing company were sent unopened for testing as a precaution. They said there was nothing suspicious about the letters.

Two postal centers in New Zealand were closed because of white powder. At one, thirty workers were given decontaminating showers as a precaution and two were hospitalized for observation.

In Australia, the main mail exchange in the southern city of Adelaide was evacuated overnight and 73 workers were given nasal swabs after one found white powder in a mail bag.

Police also arrested a man Wednesday in connection with a parcel containing a white substance it turned out to be talcum powder that forced the evacuation of a post office in South Australia late Tuesday.

In Belgrade, guards shut down part of a building housing the Yugoslavia's national airline, JAT, because of a letter containing a suspicious substance. Employees were being tested.

South Korean police were investigating an envelope of white powder delivered to a bottled-water company. The sender was identified as ''the South Korean office of al-Qaida.'' Police suspected a hoax.

The British Council in Singapore also went on alert Tuesday when what turned out to be talcum power was found sprinkled in a toilet. Fire trucks and hazardous materials workers in hooded suits circled the building, which is part of the British High Commission and next to the U.S. embassy.

Officials in Thailand urged villagers in Napha, 45 miles east of Bangkok, not to worry about granules they found on their roofs, saying it was probably a chemical compound used to seed clouds to make rain.

In the Philippines, anthrax fears were sparked by two promotional letters, one containing a Dove soap sample and one from The Economist magazine.

The Economist ad, used across Asia, was designed to look like an interoffice envelope addressed to the receiver as well as international figures including President Bush and Bill Gates.

The magazine's Asia-Pacific circulation manager Peter Bakker apologized Wednesday for the ''alarm'' caused by the campaign and said it would be halted indefinitely.

In the United States, at least 33 people are known to have contracted anthrax or tested positive for the bacteria including at least 20 people in Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office. One man lay in a Florida hospital with the inhaled form of anthrax, less than two weeks after a co-worker died of it.

-- Anonymous, October 17, 2001

Answers

that would be admin leave. i would get paid anyway. heh heh

Or, get sent to another facility to sort the mail that arrives after the shut down.

-- Anonymous, October 17, 2001