GERMANY has expressed hope the “worst” of a killer bacteria outbreak is over as the European Union upped its aid offer to farmers hit by government warnings against eating raw vegetables.

GERMANY has stepped up efforts to trace the source of a bacteria outbreak that has killed 22 people amid warnings it might never be found.

IN A surprising U-turn, German officials said initial tests published yesterday provided no evidence that sprouts from an organic farm in northern Germany were the cause of the country’s deadly E coli outbreak.

THE number of people hit by a massive European outbreak of food borne bacterial infections is a third bigger than previously known and a stunningly high number of patients suffer from a potentially deadly complication than can shut down their kidneys, officials said yesterday.

The number of people reported sick in Germany from a foodborne bacterial outbreak that has already killed 16 spiked over the last 24 hours, with nearly 100 more people suffering from severe and potentially fatal symptoms, the national disease control centre said today.

Two new deaths linked to a mysterious bacterial outbreak in Europe blamed on tainted vegetables were reported today, including the first outside Germany, as the number of people falling ill continued to rise.

GERMANY has warned that the source of an outbreak of bacteria poisoning blamed for 10 deaths and hundreds of people falling ill, some in other countries, has yet to be pinpointed.

Two more countries confirmed swine flu cases today as fear and uncertainty about the disease circled the globe.

The number of people in Germany becoming infected with HIV jumped by 20 per cent in the first half of this year, a leading scientific institute said today.

Canadian officials have conceded that precautions at Toronto hospitals were not enough to prevent new SARS infections, while Japanese doctors in Taiwan today examined whether the outbreak on the developed island might mean that Japan is also at risk.

A suspicious white powder was today found in the postroom at German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s offices as anthrax fears spread around the world.