Word: sarin
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...natural disaster, the devastating Kobe earthquake, was assailed by the most synthetic of catastrophes: a poison created by man, and a madness that was strictly human. In what could only have been a carefully coordinated, painstakingly planned atrocity, an apparently diluted form of a nerve gas called sarin, a weapon of mass killing originally concocted by the Nazis, was placed simultaneously in five subway cars at morning rush hour, killing 10 victims and sickening thousands more...
Within half an hour, similar scenes had unfolded at five other subway stops on three lines. Police arrived within minutes, administered some first aid and spirited thousands to hospitals, where doctors who suspected what had happened administered atropine, a sarin antidote. But for some it was too late. Kazumasa Takahashi, an assistant station manager at the Kasumigaseki stop, overstayed his shift to mop up the mystery liquid and dispose of the package that leaked it. He died a few hours later, and a colleague who helped him perished the next...
Then the police made a yet more dramatic discovery. In a warehouse down a hill from the group's living quarters, they uncovered vast quantities of toxic chemicals, among them many of the constituent ingredients of sarin. Cult members insisted the chemicals were for such legitimate purposes as making pottery and processing semiconductors for a cult-owned business. Says Kenji Mori, a professor of organic chemistry at the University of Tokyo who has visited the compound: "Logically that may be so, but the volume of ingredients makes the place look more like a chemical factory than a religious compound...
...thousands, with hundreds still hospitalized. In another cult building, police found underground rooms that they believed were used to imprison people who tried to flee the sect. Police found millions of dollars worth of yen, piles of gold bars and tons of chemicals in cult buildings, including theingredients of sarin-- the nerve gas used in the Tokyo attack -- as well as glycerin compounds that could be used to make explosives. The leader of the group, Shoko Asahara, remains at large although he has broadcast messages denying responsibility for the subway attack...
...symptoms with the U.S. government. The veterans' campaign for greater official recognition of the malady was bolstered last week when the Pentagon reversed itself and accepted a report from the Czech military indicating that some of its chemical sensors detected trace amounts of mustard gas and the nerve poison sarin in Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm. A team of U.S. experts determined that the Czech evidence was both reliable and convincing. The experts could not explain, however, where the toxins came from. "There were no Scud launches, no artillery exchanges, or no offensive actions at this time that could have...