Clinton's office gets package containing salmonella

The Secret Service is investigating two vials containing salmonella that were sent to Bill Clinton.

A spokesman says there is no connection to the anthrax scares.

The former president did not handle the package and nobody has become ill as a result.

Several vials containing an unknown substance were received by the Mr Clinton's New York office in early October.

Secret Service spokesman Jim Mackin said the incident "has nothing to do with the other mailings" that have spread anthrax in the United States.

The fermentation process turned the substance into salmonella in two of the vials, he added.

He said "certain writings" were included with the package, but did not elaborate.

A spokesman for the UK's Public Health Laboratory Service said: "Salmonella is unpleasant but not usually life-threatening."

He said most people would suffer an upset stomach as a result of ingesting a number of the bacteria, but it would depend on the strain of the bug.

The spokesman added there are about 15,000 - 16,000 cases of the food poisoning bug in England and Wales every year. It occasionally causes deaths, but usually among people who have had other illnesses already or among the very young or very old.