Two McCain offices evacuated after letter threat

Two offices of John McCain's U.S. presidential campaign, in Colorado and New Hampshire, were evacuated on Thursday, and several staffers were hospitalized, after a threatening letter arrived in the mail containing an unidentified white powder.

But within hours, the letter was traced by authorities to a Colorado jail inmate who has a history of sending threatening mail, and initial tests of the envelope and its contents turned up negative for hazardous materials, the U.S. Secret Service said.

The New Hampshire scare over a second envelope there was later deemed to be an unrelated incident brought about by anxiety over the threatening letter received in Colorado.

McCain, 71, a Republican senator from Arizona and his party's presumed nominee for president, was taking the day off from the campaign, spending the day at his home in Sedona, Arizona. - reuters