A senior US government scientist who was about to be charged with carrying out a series of deadly anthrax attacks in 2001 has died in an apparent suicide.
Bruce Ivins, 62, swallowed a massive dose of pain killers shortly after he was informed of his impending prosecution.
Mr Ivins was a skilled microbiologist who had worked for the last 18 years at government biodefence research laboratories in Maryland.
He helped the FBI analyse materials recovered from one of the anthrax-tainted envelopes sent to a US senator's office in Washington.
But Mr Ivins then became the chief suspect in the case in which anthrax was sent through the mail to media organisations and politicians shortly after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US.
The anthrax attacks killed five people, crippled national mail service, shut down a Senate office building and spread fear of further terrorism.
