Russia warns of 'false' information as second plague case reported

MOSCOW — Russia warned Wednesday against "false" information as reports emerged of a second suspected case of plague in Siberia, with Washington and Brussels calling for transparency and neighbouring Mongolia tightening health surveillance. Russian news outlet People of Baikal reported last Friday that a 28-year-old woman employed at a plague research institute in Siberia's Irkutsk region had died of the disease, possibly after contracting it from a broken test tube. International concern has meanwhile grown over the death and suspicions that a second employee at the institute fell ill. The United States, the European Union and the World Health Organization have all called on Russia to be transparent about the situation. Mongolia's government said Wednesday that "health surveillance and monitoring measures (were) being implemented at the border" with Russia. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also urged Moscow to clarify "media reports of a second employee with pneumonia of undetermined cause" at the Irkutsk institute. Russian authorities have played down the reports, determining the w