The victims and family members of the 2001 anthrax mailings have waited patiently for nearly seven years to find out who was responsible for the worst case of bioterrorism in U.S. history. This morning during a special briefing at FBI Headquarters, Director Robert Mueller provided answers.

The U.S. Justice Department is trying to answer questions involving the case of a U.S. Army scientist who killed himself Tuesday. Federal prosecutors had prepared an indictment alleging he mailed letters traced with deadly anthrax in 2001, killing five people and injuring many more with anthrax poisoning. As VOA's Cindy Saine reports, there are a lot of questions that remain unanswered.

David Willman of the LA Times breaks a big story on the post-9/11 terrorism wave that is one reason why we're in Iraq: "A top government scientist Bruce E. Ivins who helped the FBI analyze samples from the 2001 anthrax attacks has died in Maryland from an apparent suicide, just as the Justice Department was about to file criminal charges against him for the attacks, the Los Angeles Times has learned."

Protective clothing worn by firemen and other emergency workers may soon get a germ-fighting upgrade. Researchers in South Dakota report progress toward the first Kevlar fabrics that can kill a wide range of infectious agents, including bacteria, viruses, and the spores that cause anthrax.

Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the U.S. Army Dugway (Utah) Proving Ground have developed reliable methods based on DNA analysis to assess the concentration and viability of anthrax spores after prolonged storage. The techniques and data are essential steps in developing a reliable reference standard for anthrax detection and decontamination.

A new study by an international team of researchers from Cardiff University and University of Maryland has revealed how a cup of black tea could be the next line of defence in the threat of bio-terrorism.

A cup of black tea could be the next line of defence in the threat of bio-terrorism according to new international research.

Researchers at MIT Lincoln Laboratory have developed a powerful sensor that can detect airborne pathogens such as anthrax and smallpox in less than three minutes.

The long-sought-after biological “gateway” that anthrax uses to enter healthy cells has been uncovered by microbiologists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

MIT and New York University researchers have identified a weakness in the defenses of the anthrax bacterium that could be exploited to produce new antibiotics.

Most people wouldn’t consider anthrax toxin to be beneficial, but this bacterial poison may someday be an effective cancer therapy. Anthrax toxin has actually been shown to be fairly selective in targeting melanoma cells, although the risk of non-cancer toxicity prevents any clinical use.

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new way to seek out specific proteins, including dangerous proteins such as anthrax toxin, and render them harmless using nothing but light.