Bush Approves 175 Million US Dollars to Improve Postal SecurityUS President George W. Bush said Tuesday that he had approved 175 million dollars to immediately improve safety at postal facilities.Bush took the measure after two postal workers in Washington died from anthrax and anthrax spores were found at mail facilities serving Congress and the White House. Bush declined to comment on whether he had been tested for anthrax, but he said he did not have the disease. "I don't have anthrax," Bush told reporters. The president said he would not be surprised if the al Qaeda network of Saudi militant Osama bin Laden, blamed in the September 11 attacks on the United States, was behind an outbreak of anthrax in the country. Twelve people have contracted the disease in the US, and three have died. A senior postal official said the postal service "had to spend a lot of money very quickly" in recent days to arrange for testing of postal facilities in New Jersey and Washington and on other costs for employees. The postal official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the agency had estimated its costs at 63 million dollars from the September 11 terrorist attacks and anthrax attacks were adding substantially to that. The agency expected a potential loss of 1.6 billion dollars this year as mail volume has fallen since the attacks. Health authorities began to test mail workers Tuesday from 36 post offices in the nation's capital after some of their colleagues became ill and put nearly 10,000 mail workers on antibiotics as a precaution. |
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