Recent News

By Region: Middle East

Op-Ed – More BTWC Education Needed for Life Scientists

(VBC Blog) State Parties to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) have agreed since the Second Review Conference in 1986 that educating life scientists about the BTWC would strengthen the prohibition norm. Although, in 2005 when they met to discuss codes of conduct for scientists, it became clear from statements by governments and the Read More »

August 16, 2011
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America, South America, South Asia, and Policy & Initiatives
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Qaeda WMD Threat Remains After Bin Laden’s Death, Ex-Official Says

The most likely … are simple forms of chemical or biological weapons" instead of a nuclear strike, Leiter said. He cited the lethal toxin ricin, which is fairly easy to produce, as one bioweapon that might be used. Ricin is derived from commercially …

August 1, 2011
| Filed under Middle East, North America, South America, Bioterrorism, International, and Policy & Initiatives
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Polio Can Be Beaten If U.S. Protects Worldwide Vaccination Efforts

Smallpox, which claimed 2 million lives in 1967, was stamped out by 1980 through an enormous vaccine campaign. Today the world has a shot at a second such triumph, this time over polio. It will take more than good medicine to succeed. …

July 29, 2011
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America, South America, South Asia, International, Policy & Initiatives, and Public Health
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Norway Killer Claims Allies Are Attempting to Acquire WMD

The man who has acknowledged carrying out last week’s mass killings in Norway claimed in his online treatise that he was allied with other right-wight militant groups, some of whom he said were pursuing acquisition of unconventional weapons, the Federation of American Scientists noted on Wednesday (see GSN, July 27). Anders Breivik, who has claimed Read More »

July 28, 2011
| Filed under Europe, Middle East, North America, and Bioterrorism
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Global bioterrorism threat analyzed for world animal health office – AgriLife Today

COLLEGE STATION – Around the globe, many nations are realizing that the potential for bioterrorism isn’t just about the U.S., officials say. And because an intentional introduction of bacteria, a virus or a toxin could happen anywhere, the World Organization for Animal Health is issuing a paper aimed at prevention. “Any emerging country that is Read More »