Monk's insect powder sparks Sri Lanka alert

Link : http://uk.news.yahoo.com/041025/80/f583p.html


COLOMBO (Reuters) - A Buddhist monk's war on insects has shut down Canada's mission in Sri Lanka after powder he used to preserve his passport from moths triggered an anthrax scare.


The Canadian mission has been evacuated and would remain shut indefinitely pending security procedures, a spokeswoman for the Canadian High Commission in Colombo said on Monday.


"A Buddhist monk has come to the embassy with his passport, he has put some powder to preserve that passport from being harmed by insects," said Colombo Police Deputy Inspector General Sirisena Herath.


"In the embassy some people got panicky that it was some anthrax or something," he said. "It was a false alarm."


The bemused monk was carted off to a police station but would soon be released, Herath said.


The United States embassy in Colombo was shut briefly in August by an anthrax scare, after it received a letter containing a suspicious powder, but tests proved negative.