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Strategies & Market Trends : Anthony @ Equity Investigations, Dear Anthony, -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tool dude who wrote (82842)	1/7/2003 11:44:24 AM
From: Taki	Respond to of 122087

(COMTEX)B: 6 Arrested in U.K. Over Poison Discovery B: 6 Arrested in U.K. Over Poison Discovery LONDON, Jan 07, 2003 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Anti-terrorist police said Tuesday they arrested six men of North African origin after finding traces of ricin, a deadly poison that in the past has been linked to al-Qaida and Iraq, in a London property. Scotland Yard's anti-terrorism branch carried out the arrests Monday in north and east London, working from intelligence information received by police. Ricin - one of the world's deadliest toxins, twice as deadly as cobra venom - is derived from the castor bean plant and is relatively easily made. It may be inhaled, ingested or injected. There is no known antidote. Police seized one of the suspects at a property in the Wood Green neighborhood of the capital where "equipment and materials" were also found. A woman who was also arrested had been released, police said in a statement. Anti-terrorist branch chief David Veness and Deputy Chief Medical Officer Pat Troop said in a statement that material found at the address was analyzed at the British government's chemical weapons research facility and tested positive for the presence of ricin poison. Forensic experts were still searching the property in Wood Green, police said. "If any new developments have implications for public safety we will ensure that the public is informed immediately," the police statement said. It said Britain "continues to face a range of terrorist threats from a number of different groups" and advised the public to "remain vigilant." U.S. officials said in August that the Islamic extremist group Ansar al-Islam tested ricin along with other chemical and biological agents in northern Iraq, territory controlled by Kurds, not Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The group is allegedly linked to al-Qaida. U.N. weapons inspectors who left Iraq in 1998 listed ricin among the poisons they believed Saddam produced and later failed to account for. In very small doses, ricin causes the human digestive tract to convulse - hence the laxative effect of castor oil. But in larger doses ricin causes diarrhea so severe that victims can die of shock, as a result of massive fluid and electrolyte loss. Castor beans are grown all over the world. Traces of ricin have been found by U.S. troops in Afghanistan at suspected al-Qaida biological weapons sites. And some amateur scientists have produced the poison at home. In Janesville, Wis., Thomas Leahy was accused of manufacturing ricin, and prosecutors said the small amount he possessed was enough to kill more than 100 people. He pleaded guilty to possessing the poison. In Spokane, Wash., the FBI arrested Kenneth Olsen last summer for allegedly manufacturing the poison, a charge he denies.