Anthrax outbreaks spread to US Senate

Two new cases of Anthrax have been confirmed by health officials in the US. A 73-year-old man and a baby boy have both tested positive for the bacteria, which killed one man earlier this month.

The baby is the seven-month-old child of an ABC network employee, the 73-year-old works for the Florida-based American Media company.

The latest cases were reported after a letter found to contain anthrax was opened in Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office.

Around 40 people were working in Daschle's office at the time. Tests on the powdery substance contained in the letter later tested positive for anthrax. Staff-members exposed to the powder are now being treated with anti-biotics.

At a news conference with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, President George W. Bush refused to rule out a possible connection with suspected terrorist Osama Bin Laden. However, he also admitted that US authorities still had no hard evidence.

"There may be some possible link. We have no hard data yet, but it is clear that Mr Bin Laden is a man who is an evil man. He and his spokesmen are openly bragging about how they are hoping to inflict more pain on our country," he said on Monday.

Meanwhile, the anthrax alarm has also spread to Germany, were a growing number of suspicious letters have been reported. So far, none of the cases have tested positive for anthrax. Yet fears heightened after a white powdery substance was found in an envelope sent to the German Chancellor's office in Berlin.

Parts of the Chancellery were sealed off as a precaution. It was there that two employees found the suspicious looking envelope and notified security. Chancellor Schröder wasn't in the building at the time. Results announced on Tuesday proved the powder was not anthrax.

In Paris, around thirty people were taken to hospital after suspicious envelopes were discovered in four different buildings in the city. All the buildings were secured and evacuated.

In Sweden, police were reported to have seized four suspicious looking letters originating from Dubai.

Heaviest attacks yet

US air strikes on Afghanistan continue. Monday's attacks were reported to be the heaviest yet. Two warplanes flew over Kabul early on Tuesday, dropping at least three bombs on sites just outside the city. Heavy air strikes were reported against the eastern city of Jalalabad, and Kandahar in the south.

According to Reuthers, US defence officials said the Air Force Special Forces had been using one of their most lethal aircraft in the sountern city Kandahar. Some 130 US-led sorties were reported here on Monday.

Apart from dropping bombs, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that warplanes had started dropping leaflets on Sunday. The US hopes these pamphlets will explain the Afghan people that the attacks are not against them.

Rumsfeld hopes to limit public relations damage

In Washington, the Pentagon is coming under increased pressure to prove it is doing everything it can to prevent to civilian casualities.

As military action in Afghanistan entered its tenth day, the battle for public opinion continued in press briefing rooms.

On Monday, US Defence Secretary Rumsfeld tried to counter Taliban claims that US air strikes on Afghanistan had claimed the lives of hundreds of civilians. Rumsfeld showed images which he said were taken by US warplanes in action. He said they showed military training camps, maintenance facilities and Taliban aircraft being destroyed.

As to the damage reported by foreign journalists during their visit to the village Khourum, Rumsfeld said it could have been caused by secondary explosions from Taliban ammunition dumps blowing up.

Rumsfeld conceded that there might be some civilian casualties, but said the figures released by the Taliban were the work of accomplished liars.

Rumours that their foreign minister, Maulawi Wakil Muttawakil had fled abroad, were denied by the Taliban, who said he was still in Kabul.

Powell's Pakistan trip clouded by clashes

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has begun a three nation tour of Asia with talks in Pakistan. In Islamabad, Pakistan's military ruler General Pervez Musharaff reported on his country's concern over the repercussions of continued US air strikes on Afghanistan.

Powell's talks with the Pakistani leader were clouded by a further outbreak of fighting in Kashmir on Monday. Fighting broke out on the border between India and Pakistan, putting the disputed territory back on the agenda. Talks were meant to focus on the possibilities for a future Afghan government, but were overshadowed to the US' disappointment by the Kashmir conflict.

The US Secretary of State's next station is Delhi, where he will meet with Indian Prime Minister Atal Bahiri Vaypayee.

German-French talks over humanitarian aid

German foreign minister Joschka Fischer and his French counterpart Hubert Vedrine have called humanitarian aid a key part of the campaign against global terrorism. Speaking after bilateral talks in Munich on Monday, Fischer said that it was in the interest of the two countries to push on with the campaign and bring it to a successful conclusion. He said that the question of Afghanistan's political future would be the focal point of his forthcoming trip to Pakistan and Tajikistan. Vedrine said there was no alternative to the US-led strikes but stressed that humanitarian effort would have to be better coordinated.

First signs of a possible division in the German government showed up over its support for the bombing in Afghanistan.

Speaking in a radio interview on Monday, Claudia Roth, parliamentary leader of the Greens, the junior coalition party to Chancellor Schröder's Social Democrats, said the time has come for a pause in the air strikes.

Leading Social Democrats were quick to dismiss Roth's comments as inappropriate and insist that the coalition was still united. Claudia Roth later softened her comments, saying that she had only been expressing support for the UN High Commisioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson's view that a ceasefire is needed in Afghanistan for humanitarian reasons.