The Afghan Ministry of Public Health confirmed that the many attacks on schoolgirls in Afghanistan had been through some form of organophosphate – and not mass hysteria as some suggested. Blood tests taken from a range of individuals in the attacks, which now span over two years, confirmed traces in ten of the incidents. Secretary of State Clinton came out with a statement of concern over these attacks on innocent students – linking them to other forms of violence against schoolgirls (which the Taliban are against on principal). HealDespite this, and some media coverage, there has been no group coming forward, not any further information on the dissemination method. Since shyness is not necessarily a trait associated with many of these groups (and they have claimed responsibility for other forms of violence, such as acid, against schoolgirls) the thought has to be that it is the work of a smaller, less organised, group or individual.

In a work of random genius, Ig Nobel Winning Scientist Dr Elena Bodnar emergency escape bra is now on sale online! The scenario is that should there be a release or gas attack in the office the owner of the bra would unhook it, remove the two cups, which have (presumably, the newspapers don’t go into a great deal of detail on the science!) activated carbon inside them and use the straps to go around the head. So many questions – primary among them being, as the owner of the bra, who do you save?! Do you really want to bare all among co-workers that might now be doomed? Will you get the other part of the bra back (and would you want to)? Salacious pictures of the item can be found here

Natick Contracting Division awarded a $32.4 million contract to DRS Technology to provide small scale, joint service, transportable decontamination systems for non-sensitive equipment and facilities.

Innovaprep, manufacturer of the Bobcat and owner of the Spincon line, were presented with Missouri’s Technology Company of the Year Award by Governor Jay Nixon. Innovaprep’s sample collection technique was invented by AlburtyLab and Andrew Page Applied Research and became Innovaprep in 2009.

Idaho Technology released their Razor Simulant training kit, for their popular PCR field based detector. The 'Sim 10 Kit’ is designed to look like the 10 Target Screen Kit, that is used with the Razor, but instead has assays for yeast and BG, allowing trainees to practise their sample collection and preparation.

Emergent Biosolutions announced a $51 million contract from BARDA for the development of a new anthrax vaccine utilising their protective antigen rPA. This antigen stimulates a protective immune-response that neutralises the anthrax toxins – which has long been an element of concern.

Meanwhile Cleveland BioLabs snagged a $45 million contract from CBMS for their CBLB502 radiation countermeasure. $14.8 million of this is for advanced development of the countermeasure while the remained is for purchase, after FDA approval, of the necessary dosage for US Forces.

Smiths Detection announced that they had been awarded a five year contract from the Washington Area Metropolitan Transit Authority (WMATA) for a continuation of detection systems and an upgrade of their libraries and radiological detection. The system forms part of PROTECT, Program for Response Options and Technology Enhancements for Chemical/Biological Terrorism, and also includes their FirstView tool to provide enhanced C2 and incident management system – allowing networked CCTV and digital recording.

Cristanini have been performing a range of tests on decontaminating a C130J and this has allowed them to announce that each 'J’ required 20kg of BX40, and that it took two hours to do a complete decontamination.

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Smiths announced that it has been awarded multiple contracts for the expansion of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) chemical detection programme - PROTECT. This programme has been running for five years in DC, New York and Boston, and this expansion will see an upgrade of detectors and software.

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Singapore and Japan strengthened their bilateral defence ties with the Memorandum of Defence Exchanges that will formalise interaction in an number of new areas including CBRE.

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The Russian Foreign Ministry announced that they had destroyed 45% of the chemical weapon stockpile – as required under the CWC – and they felt confident of destroying the rest by 2012. It’s a big hope.

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Libya received notification that it had another extension on the time required for them to destroy their 25 tons of sulphur mustard. Construction of the demil site is not believed to have started and this will now take deadline out to 2011.

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