Russia's Putin Signs Law Punishing Theft Of Arms Of Mass Destruction

TERROR WARS

Russia's aging nuclear power plants are just one potential source for nuclear materials to go missing from. And while it would be nearly impossible to build a nuclear bomb from nuclear fuel used in power stations, it is possible to use such fuels to build a "dirty" bomb that could spread nuclear material as small airborne particles.

Moscow (AFP) May 9, 2002
Russian President Vladimir Putin Wednesday signed a law punishing by up to ten years of jail the theft of arms of mass destruction and nuclear material, amid concern that such material could be used by terrorists, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

The theft of nuclear, chemical or other arms of mass destruction or of material allowing to produce them would be punished by a five to ten year jail sentence, the law said.

Failure to ensure that arms of mass destruction are safely guarded would be punished by a sentence of three to seven years.

The law signed Wednesday had been passed by Russian parliament in April.

Several senior US intelligence officials in February expressed alarm at the fact that weapons-grade nuclear material had been on several instances stolen from Russian facilities.

Their announcement came amid warnings by top US officials that Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda terrorist network had been making a concerted effort to obtain the know-how and materials to manufacture a crude nuclear or radiological device.

TERROR WARS

Anatomy Of A Killer: Researchers Decode Anthrax Genome

Washington (AFP) May 9, 2002
Researchers have decoded the genome of the anthrax bacteria used in last year's bioterrorism attacks in the United States that killed five people, according to a new study.

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