German panics after getting American "gift"

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By STEVEN J. COOPER-MARTIN, Fun House Correspondent

BERLIN (Heuters) - Police in Chemnitz, Germany, scrambled into action after a pensioner reported receiving a package from the United States marked "gift" -- the German word for poison.

Experts in chemical and biological hazards were called to the scene because of current fears of terrorist attacks, officials said. The alert was called off when it dawned on one officer that the word on the package was English, and it was opened to reveal only a poster.