Anthrax potency stuns US officials

By GEOFF CUMMING, PAUL YANDALL and AGENCIES

The anthrax powder sent to a top senator and senior media figures in the United States was a potent "military grade" type, law enforcement officials have told American news organisations.

ABC News quoted senior officials as saying the substance sent to US Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle was highly concentrated.

It appeared to have been milled specifically to stay in the air, increasing the chances of infecting people with the inhaled form of anthrax, which is more dangerous than the type contracted through the skin.

In New Zealand, as around the world, anthrax scares continued to spread yesterday.

However, authorities stressed that the only confirmed cases were in America, where at least 13 people have been exposed to the bacteria.

Last night, New Zealand police said they were struggling to respond to an increasing spate of anthrax scares.

Sergeant Steve Allen from the northern police communications centre in Auckland said dispatchers were "frantic" handling 111 calls about suspicious packages containing unknown powders.

"We're getting lots of copycat-type jobs. We've had them all day, tying up police resources."

Senator Daschle said the anthrax mailed to his office was very potent but so far no member of his staff had shown symptoms.

"We were told that it was a very strong form of anthrax, a very potent form of anthrax that clearly was produced by somebody who knew what he or she was doing."

The South Dakota Democrat said, however, that it appeared to respond to standard antibiotics.

The sources quoted by ABC said the anthrax was probably produced by a highly sophisticated organisation, possibly funded by a state.

Investigators have confirmed similarities between the anthrax letters sent to NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw in New York and Senator Daschle in Washington.

The envelope sent to Senator Daschle included the same references to Allah and a warning that the envelope contained the same lethal substance as that posted to Brokaw from the same location - Trenton, New Jersey.

The envelopes featured block-like, childish script sloping down and to the right. One came with a fake return address - that of a non-existent school.

The anthrax sent to Senator Daschle is similar to the spores that killed Florida picture editor Robert Stevens almost two weeks ago.

A fellow worker at American Media, Enesto Blanco, 73, was last night recovering from surgery to insert tubes into his lungs to help him breathe after fluid collected. He was reportedly feeling well and talking to family members.

The seven-month-old son of an ABC News producer, diagnosed with cutaneous (skin) anthrax after visiting his father's workplace, is responding well to treatment and expected to make a full recovery.

In Wiri, New Zealand Post staff evacuated the South Auckland Mail Service Centre about 8 am yesterday when a worker complained of getting white powder from mail on her hands. Two people were taken to hospital as a precaution.

Emergency services dealt with similar scares at mailing centres in Rotorua, Nelson and the Manawatu and at Warehouse Stationery in Whangarei.

White powder was also sent for testing in Wellington after a female staff member sorting mail at TVNZ subsidiary Broadcast Communications noticed it on her hand. There has been widespread speculation that the anthrax in America is linked to the September 11 terrorist attacks but FBI chief Robert Mueller said no evidence had been found of a link to organised terrorism.

In the war against terrorism and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, another US bomb went astray yesterday in a raid on Kabul, hitting a Red Cross warehouse and destroying a third of the food and equipment stored there.

Taleban officials claim a hospital in southern Kandahar was struck on Tuesday, killing five. Further strikes on Kandahar yesterday killed at least nine and wounded 22, the Afghan Islamic Press said.

Fears that the war against terrorism cannot be contained in Afghanistan grew when Israel's controversial Tourism Minister, Rehavam Zeevi, was shot in the head and killed in Jerusalem.

Zeevi was among seven ultra-nationalists who pulled out of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's coalition Government on Monday, opposing the easing of restrictions on Palestinians.

Despite predictions that the US-led campaign could become bogged down in the Afghan winter - especially if ground forces are sent in - Australia yesterday committed 1550 servicemen, aircraft and a naval task group to assist.

NZ defence officials would neither confirm nor deny that our SAS troops are preparing to move.

Full coverage: Terror in America

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