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Agence France-Presse

Russia has said there is no threat of contamination after an explosion and fire at a Soviet-era biological weapons facility in Siberia that stocked samples of the Ebola and smallpox viruses.
The blast happened on Monday at “Vector”, a state-run virus and biotechnology research centre that is one of only two locations in the world to hold the smallpox virus following its eradication in the late 20th century.


The Russian health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said a fire broke out when a gas cylinder exploded, injuring one worker at the facility.
Glass was broken but the structure of the building remained intact and there were no biohazardous materials in the room where the explosion happened, the watchdog said.
Russian scientists killed in missile test blast were working on ‘new weapons’
The fire was extinguished on Monday, authorities told news agencies.
The blast near Novosibirsk, the country’s third most populous city, is the latest to hit Russian state facilities this year.
In August, one person died and thousands had to be evacuated because of a fire at a Siberian ammunition depot that set off a series of dramatic explosions.
Later the same month, an explosion at a missile testing site in the far north killed five nuclear agency staff and caused a spike in radiation.
Russian authorities have refused to release details of the blast and President Vladimir Putin said there was “no threat” from radiation following the test.


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Russia

Explosion and fire at Soviet-era biological weapons facility holding smallpox and Ebola ‘no threat’, says Russia

The Ebola virus as seen under an electron microscope. Photo: Handout

Outbreak fears worsen as Ebola death toll in DR Congo passes 2,000 ahead of UN chief’s assessment

Health workers equip themselves in protective equipment in Beni, North Kivu province. Photo: EPA-EFE

(FILES) In this file photo taken on July 16, 2019 in Goma, a woman gets her temperature measured at an Ebola screening station as she enters the Democratic Republic of the Congo from Rwanda. - DR Congo Ebola death toll crosses 2,000, officials said on August 30, 2019. (Photo by JOHN WESSELS / AFP)

School going pupils from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are seen crossing the Mpondwe border point separating Uganda and the DRC on August 14, 2019. - Every day at dawn, Doneka Kabowo, a Congolese teenager, walks miles into the jungle, with the threat of armed militiamen who roam the area, to go to school across the border in Uganda. But for some time now, another obstacle has developed for the 15-year-old and hundreds of schoolchildren who daily travel from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to Uganda to study: health checks for prevent the transmission of the Ebola virus. (Photo by ISAAC KASAMANI / AFP)

epa07803554 (FILE) - Health workers from Bwera hospital prepare to transport the body of a fifty-year-old woman who died of Ebola to the burial site in Bwera, a border town close to Democratic Republic of the Congo in western Uganda, 13 June 2019 (reissued 30 August 2019). According to officials, a girl from entering Uganda from DR Congo has been diagnosed with ebola by a screening team at Mpondwe border crossing. EPA-EFE/MELANIE ATUREEBE *** Local Caption *** 55270600

Weapons used in attack on oil facilities ‘came from Iran’, Saudi-led coalition says

Coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki displays on a screen a satellite image showing a drone strike during a news conference in Riyadh on Monday. Photo: Reuters

FILE PHOTO: Smoke is seen following a fire at Aramco facility in the eastern city of Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia, September 14, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo/File Photo

This satellite overview handout image obtained September 16, 2019 courtesy of the US Government shows damage to oil/gas infrastructure from weekend drone attacks at Abqaig on September 14, 2019 in Saudi Arabia. - Drone attacks on key Saudi oil facilities have halved crude output from OPEC's biggest exporter, catapulting oil prices by the largest amount since the first Gulf War. The crisis has focused minds on unrest in the crude-rich Middle East, with Tehran denying Washington's charge that it was responsible.Brent oil prices leapt 20 percent on Monday to chalk up the biggest intra-day daily gain since 1991. (Photo by HO / US Government / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO /US GOVERNMENT/HANDOUT " - NO MARKETING - NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS

Ebola no longer ‘incurable’ after discovery of two highly effective treatments, scientists say

A health worker fills a syringe with Ebola vaccine in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. Photo: Reuters

File-In this July 13, 2019 file photo, health workers wearing protective gear check on a patient isolated in a plastic cube at an Ebola treatment center in Beni, Congo. Health authorities in Congo have halted an Ebola treatment study early with good news: Two of the four experimental drugs seem to be saving lives. More than 1,800 people have died in the African country’s yearlong outbreak. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)

FILE PHOTO: A child reacts as a health worker injects her with the Ebola vaccine, in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, August 5, 2019. REUTERS/Baz Ratner/File Photo

Scientists killed in missile test blast were working on ‘new weapons’, says Russian nuclear agency chief, vowing to continue testing

An undated file photo shows a Russian Iskander-K missile launched during a military exercise at a training ground at the Luzhsky Range, near St Petersburg, Russia. Photo: Russian Defence Ministry Press Service via AP

epa07768167 Russian President Vladimir Putin (C) poses for a photo with members motorbike club Night Wolves at the Babylon's Shadow bike show in Sevastopol, Crimea, 10 August 2019 (issued 11 August 2019). Putin and the Night Wolves bikers took part in an annual show organised by the motorcycle club in the Black Sea peninsula, annexed by Russia from Ukraine in March 2014, while tens of thousands of people on 10 August protested against Putin's government following local election violations. EPA-EFE/ALEXEI DRUZHININ / SPUTNIK / KREMLIN POOL / POOL

A picture taken on November 9, 2011 shows buildings at a military base in the small town of Nyonoska in Arkhangelsk region. - Russia's nuclear agency chief on August 12 confirmed that five scientists killed last week were developing "new weapons" and vowed to continue testing despite the explosion. (Photo by - / AFP)

In this grab taken from a footage provided by the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation ROSATOM press service, a woman holds roses as she and other people gather for the funerals of five Russian nuclear engineers killed by a rocket explosion in Sarov, the closed city, located 370 kilometers (230 miles) east of Moscow, which has served as a base for Russia's nuclear weapons program since the late 1940s, Russia, Monday, Aug. 12, 2019. Russia's Rosatom state nuclear concern said Thursday's explosion at a military testing range in northwestern Russia occurred while the engineers were testing a "nuclear isotope power source" for a rocket engine, a tragedy that fueled radiation fears and raised new questions about a secretive weapons program (Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation ROSATOM via AP)

A screen grab from footage of the funerals on Monday of five Russian nuclear engineers killed by a rocket explosion in Sarov. Photo: Rosatom via AP

Russia confirms 5 killed in rocket explosion, as experts believe it involved a nuclear-powered missile

Buildings at a military base in the small town of Nyonoska in Arkhangelsk region, Russia, where five people died in a missile test explosion. Photo: AFP

(FILES) In this file photo taken on September 19, 2018 Russian President Vladimir Putin looks through the scope as he shoots a Chukavin sniper rifle (SVC-380) during a visit to the military Patriot Park in Kubinka, outside Moscow. - Twenty years ago on Friday, Russian president Boris Yeltsin appointed his fourth prime minister in less than 18 months: Vladimir Putin, then a relatively unknown security services chief with scant experience of politics. (Photo by Alexey NIKOLSKY / SPUTNIK / AFP)

News

World

Russia & Central Asia


The facility in Siberia now serves as a state-run virus and biotechnology research centre known as ‘Vector’
It is one of only two locations in the world to hold the smallpox virus following a successful eradication programme that ended in 1980



The Soviet-era biological weapons facility in Siberia, which now serves as a state-run virus and biotechnology research centre, is one of only two locations in the world to hold the smallpox virus.


Disease

Ebola virus