US involved in bird flu conspiracy: Indonesia

PETER CAVE: Indonesia’s Health Minister has suggested that the United States may be involved in a conspiracy to use the bird flu virus to develop biological weapons.

The extraordinary allegation is included in a new book, endorsed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, which describes Indonesia’s fight to assert its ownership of its virulent strains of avian influenza.

Concerns over that issue prompted Indonesia last year to stop sharing virus samples with the World Health Organisation as Jakarta correspondent Geoff Thompson reports.

http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2008/s2167325.htm