Trump to speak to Putin on plague as US, UN urge transparency

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday (Oct 6) that he would speak very soon with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the reported plague death of a laboratory technician, as Washington and the United Nations called for transparency from Moscow.



Russian authorities denied that they were imposing anti-plague measures and played down the reports of an incident at a plague research institute in Siberia's Irkutsk region last week.



But Washington is showing growing concern, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling on Russia to be open about the situation. The World Health Organization issued a similar appeal on Tuesday.