SHOTLIST:

POOL - Washington, DC Oct. 25, 2001

1. Tom Ridge walks into White House briefing room

2. Cutaway of press

3. SOUNDBITE: (English) US Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge

"It shows that the anthrax in the letter received in Senator Tom Dachles office has some different characteristics. It is highly concentrated. It is pure and the spores are smaller, therefore they are more dangerous because they can be more easily absorbed in a persons respiratory system."

APTN - Washington, DC Oct. 23, 2001

4. Envelope of anthrax-laced letter sent to Senator Daschle

5. Shots of letters sent to Daschle and Tom Brokaw

POOL - Washington, DC Oct. 25, 2001

6. SOUNDBITE: (English) US Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge

"The DNA tests have also revealed that none of the Anthrax samples have been genetically altered which is very good news obviously because it means that the samples all respond to antibiotics, therefore people who have been exposed can be treated"

APTN - Washington, DC Oct. 25, 2001

7. Exterior shots of the US State Department

8. Shots of congressional staff waiting in line to get into their buildings

9. Close up shot of a "Welcome Back" flyer

10. Staffers walking inside a House of Representatives' office building

11. Capitol police checking car trunk

12. Wide shot of Hart Senate office building through a fence

13. Close shot of sign outside Hart Senate Office building

14. Police tape outside Hart building

15. Lieutenant Dan Nichols and Dr John Eisold, Capitol Physician, walk to microphones outside Capitol

16. Cutaway of press

17. SOUNDBITE: (English) Lieutenant Dan Nichols, Capitol Police Spokesman:

"One of the environmental samples taken from the Hart Senate Office building came back as positive. The swab sample was taken from the first floor freight elevator bank in the Hart Senate Office building, which is in the Southwest quadrant of the building. The investigators have told me that this is a trace sample, which means we're determining how that sample came to be, we're following the course of the letter, but it was a smaller type sample."

18. Cutaway of press

19. Wide shot of Dr John Eisold at presser

20. SOUNDBITE: (English) Dr. John Eisold, Capitol Physician:

"The clinical situation will tell us everything we need to know. I have good reason to believe that this person will turn out to be fine, will not be another index case."

21. People walking to work in front of Capitol

APTN - New York, NY Oct. 25, 2001

21. New York postal employees leaving post office with Cipro

22. Flag at half mast above NY's main post office

23. Flag draped from Post office edifice

24. SOUNDBITE: (English) Danette Chavis, New York Postal Employee

"Of course we're concerned. They put out a lot of memos saying that they care about our

safety. But what they did there shows that they really don't. We get the impression that their main concern is the mail. They don't want to alarm us because they don't want us to not come to work."

25. Postal workers coming out of office

26. Exterior of main post office

STORYLINE:

Concern in the United States over anthrax continued to grow Thursday.

In a recent development, U-S Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge told reporters that anthrax contained in a letter mailed to U-S Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle had different characteristics than the samples found in New York and Florida.

Ridge said the anthrax that fell from the Daschle letter was highly concentrated and pure, and potentially more dangerous because it was made to be more easily absorbed by its victims.

But Ridge said additional testing had confirmed the anthrax found in the letters to Daschle, New York and Florida were from the same strain, and had not been altered genetically.

As such all samples respond to antibiotics.

The Homeland Security Director also announced that the Postal Service had begun environmental testing at 200 facilities along the Eastern Seaboard, supplemented by precautionary spot checks elsewhere around the United States.

He said authorities were prepared to issue masks and gloves for its 800-thousand employees and was testing ways to sterilise the nation's mail.

Meantime, the Postal Service in New York is offering antibiotics to 7-thousand employees at six postal facilities, where five anthrax cases have been confirmed.

SHOTLIST:

1. Exterior, ABC office in New York

2. Tilt down from address to front of office

3. ABC sign

4. ABC employees talking outside office

5. More ABC employees talking outside office

6. Employee entering at another door

7. Sign on door requiring ID card

8. Wide shot, Giuliani arrives

9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Rudolph Giuliani, New York Mayor

"Today we've had 51 calls. Eleven involved packages. We've picked them up, now it'll take a while again to get the results back from that but theres nothing that looks at least in plain view that would be positive but you don't know until you do all the testing. Other than that I think things have quietened down somewhat with regard to people reaction. I think people are understanding that this is something that is isolated."

10. Exterior, Post office

11. US flag over Post office

12. People going into post office

13. People inside post office

14. SOUNDBITE: (English) Voxpop

"It really hasn't made me upset about handling mail, I just think that it didn't take very much to throw us all into a panic."

15. SOUNDBITE: (English) Voxpop

"There's a lot of education not only that's necessary with anthrax, but I think that its important with other organisms that can cause trouble. So I just hope we find the people that are doing it fast."

16. Man wheeling cart into AP mailroom

17. Man sorting mail

18. Close shot, envelope as it is opened

19. Man sorting mail through shelf

20. Interior, pharmacy

21. Counter at pharmacy

22. Woman pouring pills from jar

23. Close shot, pills being poured

24. SOUNDBITE: (English) Russell Gellis, Apthorp Pharmacy

"So people we've seen have now calmed down and at this point interestingly enough, even though today the news got out on ABC about an infant coming down with cutaneous anthrax, there really haven't been any calls

25. Cipro pills in bottles

26. Close shot, bottle

STORYLINE:

Security at media mailrooms and post offices in New York remains high after an ABC news producer's infant son was diagnosed with anthrax.

The diagnosis of the 7-month-old child marked the second anthrax case involving a major news organisation in New York in four days, following one at NBC in which a female employee was infected by a letter carrying anthrax.

ABC News President David Westin said on Monday that the boy had developed the skin form of anthrax after spending time at the newsroom last month.

The child is taking antibiotics and is expected to recover.

Other news organisations to be tested included CNN, CBS, Fox, Daily News and New York Post.

But New Yorkers remain cautious, and say they're keeping an eye out for any suspicious behaviour.

New York Rudolph Mayor Giuliani said no anthrax had been detected in the initial tests.

He also said two people outside of New York who had sent hoax anthrax letters had been arrested by the

F-B-I.

Authorities did not discuss the source of the germ involving the child who was believed to have been on two floors of the ABC building on West 66th Street for several hours on September 28.

Westin said the child is the son of a female producer, but did not release names.

The skin version of anthrax that the boy contracted is not the more-lethal inhaled form that infected two Florida men who worked at a supermarket tabloid, killing American Media Inc. employee Robert Stevens, 63.

New York city health officials say after searching the mail rooms of major media companies overnight they have not found any new traces of anthrax.

The most popular drug for treating anthrax is Ciprofloxin, patented by Bayer pharmaceuticals.

New Yorkers flocked to drug stores last Friday to stock up on tablets, but the mania has faded in the last few days.

Pharmacists say that Doxicyclene is also effective in treating the bacteria.

Anthrax cannot be communicated from person to person, but is being spread by spores that have been sent in the infected letters.

SHOTLIST:

1. Mid shot Graphic: Photo of President Bush, RADIO ADDRESS, Presidential seal in background

2. SOUNDBITE (English): George W. Bush, U.S. President:

"Good morning. As all Americans know, recent weeks have brought a second wave of terrorist attacks upon our country: deadly anthrax spores sent through the U.S. Mail. There's no precedent for this type of biological attack, and I'm proud of the way our law enforcement officers, our health care and postal workers and the American people are responding in the face of this new threat. At this point in our investigation, we have identified several different letters that contained anthrax spores. Among them were the letters mailed to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle on Capitol Hill, NBC News in New York and the New York Post newspaper. Four Americans have died as a result of these acts of terrorism. At least 13 others have developed forms of anthrax disease, either in the lungs, or less severely, on the skin. Public health officials have acted quickly to distribute antibiotics to people who may have been exposed to anthrax. When anthrax exposure is caught early, preventative treatment is effective. Anthrax can be treated with many antibiotics, and several pharmaceutical companies have offered medicine at reduced prices. The government is swiftly testing post offices and other sites for anthrax spores, and is closing them where potential threats to health are detected. We are working to protect people based on the best information available. And as we deal with this new threat, we are learning new information every day. Originally, experts believed the anthrax spores could not escape from sealed envelopes. We now know differently, because of cases where postal workers were exposed even though the envelopes they processed were not opened. Anthrax apparently can be transferred from one letter to another, or from a letter to mail sorting equipment. But anthrax is not contagious, so it does not spread from human to human, the way a cold or a flu can. Anthrax can be killed by sterilization, and the Postal Service is purchasing sterilizing equipment to be installed across the country. More than 30 billion pieces of mail have moved through the Postal Service since September the 11th, so we believe the odds of any one piece of mail being tainted are very low. But still, people should take appropriate precautions: look carefully at your mail before opening it, tell your doctor if you believe you may have been exposed to anthrax. An excellent summary of the symptoms of this disease can be found on the web site of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov. Remember, doctors warn that you can put your health at risk by taking antibiotics when you don't need them, so use antibiotics only after consulting a health care professional. If you see anything suspicious, or have useful information, please contact law enforcement authorities. The Postal Service and the FBI have offered a reward of up to 1 million dollars for information leading to the arrest and the conviction of the anthrax terrorists. And those who believe this is an opportunity for a prank should know that sending false alarms is a serious criminal offense. At least 20 individuals have already been arrested for anthrax hoaxes, and we will pursue anyone who tries to frighten their fellow Americans in this cruel way. We do not yet know who sent the anthrax -- whether it was the same terrorists who committed the attacks on September the 11th, or whether it was the other international or domestic terrorists. We do know that anyone who would try to infect other people with anthrax is guilty of an act of terror. We will solve these crimes, and we will punish those responsible. As we learn more about these anthrax attacks, the government will share the confirmed and credible information we have with you. I'm proud of our citizens' calm and reasoned response to this ongoing terrorist attack. Thank you for listening."

STORYLINE:

President Bush used his regular radio address to the American nation this weekend to reassure a people jittery over a string of anthrax letter attacks.

In his most extensive public comments about anthrax so far, the president called recent cases "a second wave of terrorist attacks" on the U-S.

He said there's "no precedent for this type of biological attack" and he praised law enforcement and postal officials for their response.

Bush says as the nation deals with this new threat, officials are learning new information every day about anthrax.

And in an effort to calm nervous Americans, Bush reminded radio listeners that anthrax is not contagious.

He also says the deadly spores sent in the mail can be killed by sterilization - something the Postal Service is taking steps to do nationwide.

SHOTLIST:

1. Wide shot of Dr. Ivan Walks speaking

2. SOUNDBITE: (English) Dr. Ivan Walks, Washington, DC Chief Health Officer

"We have a gentleman who worked at the Brentwood mail handling facility here in Washington, DC, that presented at a local hospital here in Virginia with a clinical presentation suspicious for anthrax. Those tests have come back, that is now confirmed. However, his treatment was initiated based on those suspicions. He is currently receiving appropriate treatment, he is in that facility, and our CDC (Centres For Disease Control) partners have a physician on site, at that facility, monitoring his progress."

3. Various exterior shots of Fairfax Inova Hospital

4. Wide shot of DC Mayor Anthony Williams speaking

5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Anthony Williams, Washington, DC Mayor "We're going to do everything we can and everything we have to do, working with the postal service, working with the CDC, with federal officials, with the state of Virginia and Maryland, our hospital association, through our public health department to see that people are getting the treatment they need when they need that treatment, irrespective of where they are or where they come from, what they look like or where they work. That's very, very important."

6. Wide shot of Dr. John Eisold walking with Capitol Police spokesman to news conference in front of Capitol

7. Cutaway of press

8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Dr. John Eisold, US Capitol Physician

"Based upon what happened at Brentwood does not alter the way that we are behaving with our patient population here. It does not change anything that we are doing."

9. Cutaway of press

10. SOUNDBITE: (English) Dr. John Eisold, US Capitol Physician

"We have read out somewhere between 45-hundred to 5-thousand of the specimens, and as of this time, there continue to be no new positive findings for the personnel screened here on Capitol Hill."

11. Pan from Capitol dome to wide shot of presser

STORYLINE:

Another anthrax case came to light on Sunday, this time in Washington D-C.

Health officials in Washington say an unidentified postal worker has inhalation anthrax, the most serious form of the disease.

The man checked into a Virginia hospital on Friday and was diagnosed on Sunday morning.

At a midday news conference, Washington, D-C Mayor Anthony Williams called the postal worker "gravely ill."

This is the third person in the US to come down with inhalation anthrax.

Six other people have been diagnosed with the skin form of the disease.

The postal employee works in the city's central mail handling facility which processed a contaminated letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle last week.

Authorities say they don't know if this postal worker handled the Daschle letter, and they are investigating the source of the anthrax exposure.

Mayor Williams said more than 2-thousand employees at the Brentwood central mail processing centre and another 150 employees at the air mail handling center near Baltimore-Washington International Airport will be tested for exposure to anthrax spores and receive treatment beginning Sunday.

Meanwhile, the sweep through the U-S Capitol complex continued Sunday.

House and Senate leaders were to be briefed on findings late in the day and planned to hold a news conference to announce whether the Capitol would open Monday.

A Capitol Police spokesman said nineteen buildings including and surrounding the Capitol have undergone environmental surveys and anthrax spores have been found in four of them.

Speaking at a news conference, the U-S Capitol Physician said nearly 5-thousand people have been tested for anthrax since last Monday, when a letter containing anthrax was opened in Daschle's office.

Doctor John Eisold said twenty-eight of those have tested positive for exposure to anthrax but none have contracted the disease.

Eisold said confirmation of inhalation anthrax at the Washington post office will not affect the treatment of patients on Capitol Hill.

SHOTLIST:

1. Wide shot exterior Trenton Main Post Office

2. Close-up post office sign

3. Man leaving post office with mail

4. Postal worker looking through window

5. Various of postman delivering mail in Trenton

6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Tony DiStephano Jr., Letter Carrier, Branch 380, Trenton Post Office

"As a matter of fact, they gave us a briefing again this morning. Anything that looks suspicious, anything that has protrusions, anything that has a powder-like substance, any type of maybe foreign matter, any type of envelope that has overly postage - a lot of postage on it, any letter that is overly taped, unnecessarily - that should give rise to suspicion. At that point we are to report it to our supervisors and we are also supposed to contain that letter or package in an isolated area so the supervisor can take the necessary measures to report that to the inspection service."

7. Cutaway of badge

8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Tony DiStephano Jr., Letter Carrier, Branch 380, Trenton Post Office

"At the present time I'm not worried, only because the two letters that have passed through the processing plant were tested negative, and if they were not opened then I really don't want to get excited about that, but if someone tests positive for the Anthrax, then I would be very concerned about my safety and also about my members."

9. Low-angle shot, letter carrier delivering mail

10. Pan of presser

11. Cutaway of various officials

12. SOUNDBITE: (English) George T. DiFerdinando, Acting Commissioner, New Jersey

"Yes there are two sets of test being done on the postal workers - there are cultures being done at our lab and down at Trenton, and then there's serologic work being done by the Centres for Disease Control, and the serologic work is pending and I don't make comment on whether or not those are positive or negative, and then there are the cultures, we look at them over time and those are not growing at this point."

13. Cutaway

14. SOUNDBITE: (English) Tony Esposito, New Jersey Postal Inspector

"Somebody could have flew here from a different country and then deposited that letter. Let's just say that it, that it's safe to say that it entered the mail stream in any one of those 46 post office stations or branches, or one of those 650 mail collection boxes."

15. Wide shot Trenton post office

STORYLINE

The investigation continued on Tuesday into two anthrax-tainted letters that were mailed from Trenton, New Jersey on September 18th.

One of the letters, which tested positive for anthrax, was received by the Washington, D.C. office of U-S Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.

So far no one from that office has shown signs of contamination by the letter.

Another letter processed at the Trenton Main Post Office tested negative for anthrax, although one woman who handled the suspicious letter contracted a mild form of of the disease.

Eileen O'Conner, an assistant to NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, was confirmed on Friday of having contracted the cutaneous version of anthrax.

Tony DiStephano has delivered mail in this Trenton area for over twenty years and is now on the frontlines of the anthrax scare.

Until now, the roughest part of his job has been breaking up fights between school kids on the block.

He says nothing in his job has prepared him to battle anthrax.

As the president of the union of letter carriers at his branch, DiStephano has made sure that health and postal officials brief his members about what to look out for in their mail pouches.

Despite the two anthrax-related letters that may have gone through his or his colleagues hands, DiStephano is not too worried about getting anthrax.

Yet two Trenton postal workers who have shown anthrax-like symptoms have also been tested for the disease, with preliminary results showing they are not infected with the bacteria.

Those employees may have handled anthrax-tainted letters that were sent to N-B-C's Tom Brokaw and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.

The female letter carrier had flu-like symptoms and a male maintenance worker had symptoms resembling poison ivy.

Meanwhile, the massive and seemingly bottomless investigation into the letters processed in Trenton continues.

While it is clear that the letters were processed in Trenton, and that the letters must have entered the US mail stream at one of the post office's 46 branches or 650 mailboxes, it does not mean the person who mailed them lives anywhere near New Jersey.

Tests on 65 other suspicious pieces of mail were pending on Tuesday.

State health officials already had tested 25 mailings, none of which contained anthrax.

SHOTLIST: NB: no slate at the start of story

APTN - Washington DC

1. Police officers in front of Supreme Court building, pull out to wide shot of Supreme Court

2. Wide shot of US District Courthouse

3. Another shot of the US District Courthouse

4. Close shot of sign on Justice Department, pull out to wide shot of Justice Department building

5. Various shots of Landover, post office which handles Justice Department mail

6. Shot of the US Capitol building

7. Various shots of the Hart Senate office building

POOL - Washington DC

8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Tommy Thompson, US Health and Human Services Secretary "The Cohen building has been presumptively positively tested for anthrax these past couple of days, and all of the individuals in the mail room are on antibiotics and we are letting all the individuals know, the mail rooms have been closed down. But presumptive positive means the environmental testing will now go through CDC labs in Atlanta, and that conclusion of that information will be sent back in the next 24 to 48 hours."

POOL - New York

9. Pan witnesses at New York terrorism hearing, stopping at Giuliani

10. Cutaway of hearing

11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Rudolf Giuliani, New York Mayor "We've had thousands and thousands of people come through our emergency rooms in the last couple of weeks thinking that they might have anthrax or some other disease, and because of the exercises that were done three, four and five years ago, they're largely prepared for it. Just to digress for a moment, we're actually better prepared for the biological and chemical aspect of this, because that was anticipated, than we were for the World Trade Centre being taken down, which we were not anticipating."

12. Wide shot of hearing

STORYLINE:

The threat of anthrax has sent U-S Supreme Court justices off to an alternative courtroom as evidence of fresh contamination turned up at the U-S State Department and at least two more government buildings.

The discovery of anthrax last week in a remote mail site several blocks from the Supreme Court had already forced the closure of the main Supreme Court building.

The justices held court at a facility several blocks away while tests continued in their permanent quarters.

A court spokeswoman said the latest testing detected anthrax in only one place - a part of the basement mail room.

Tests elsewhere in the mail room and elsewhere in the building showed no evidence of contamination.

There were also positive tests on Monday for anthrax at a building that houses the Voice of America and the Food and Drug Administration, and the main State Department building.

One official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said two pieces of mail brought into the State Department mail room had tested positive.

The mail came directly from the central Brentwood mail processing facility in Washington.

The latest positive test results follow the discovery of anthrax at the Justice Department, where officials announced on Sunday night that several locations in an off-site facility that handles its mail had tested positive for anthrax.

The department's in-house mail rooms stopped receiving mail from the suburban Maryland location several days ago as a precaution.

No other Justice facility has tested positive for anthrax.

On Capitol Hill, the Hart Senate Office Building remained closed on Monday, but other Senate offices were open.

The Hart building houses Senate Majority Tom Daschle's office, where an employee opened a letter containing a highly potent form of anthrax three weeks ago.

Since then, two postal employees from a Washington facility that processed the letter have died.

In all, officials have counted 14 confirmed cases of anthrax in the last three weeks, including three deaths from the inhaled form of the disease.

In New York, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani testified at a field hearing of a House terrorism subcommittee.

Giuliani said his city was better prepared to deal with anthrax and other biological threats than it was to deal with attacks like the one on September 11 because New York law enforcement and emergency services have been trained to deal with biological terrorism for years.

SHOTLIST:

QUALITY AS INCOMING

1. Security guard opening letter at Daily Jang office

2. Various journalists working

3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Mehmood Sham, Editor, Daily Jang

"We received this envelope on 23rd October. The letter was opened by one of our reporters and he was worried, so he told his colleagues and head of newspaper. So immediately this envelope was sent to the laboratory for tests and the person who was exposed to this was sent to the hospital. The final report came after nine days and it was found positive. Then the working area was closed for decontamination which is being done today. All the editorial staff working in that area will be on sixty days antibiotic course."

4. Various journalists

5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Dr. Shahid Mujtaba, Jang Group Newspapers

"A day before yesterday the final report came and it was found to be positive for Bacillus anthracis sporus, so we started antibiotics to all the persons who were working in that area and all of them who went there along with the decontamination techniques. Decontamination process is now underway in that area."

6. Various of photo in Daily Jang of man in mask in office

7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Dr. Shahid Mujtaba, Jang Group Newspapers

"Fortunately till now we have no person complaining of any signs or symptoms of skin or inhalation anthrax. We are calling them regularly and no one until now has any signs of anthrax"

8. Photo of man in mask in office

9. Journalists looking at letters

10. Police and Biohazard team entering building

11. Man putting Biohazard suit on

12. Suited man entering sealed Anthrax area

13. Various Biohazard expert checking rooms

14. Biohazard expert leaving contaminated area

STORYLINE:

Pakistan's largest newspaper evacuated some of its editorial offices Friday after lab tests on a letter received last week turned out positive for anthrax, the newspaper and doctors said.

The contaminated area was sealed and a police biohazard team was called-in to check the evacuated zone.

Minhaj Rab, a reporter at the Daily Jang, an Urdu-language newspaper, opened a letter on October 23.

He says he thought it was a press release.

The letter contained white powder, which was sent to the Aga Khan University Hospital in Karachi, one of the country's leading medical facilities.

The reporter and dozens of other staff members were immediately put on antibiotics as a precautionary step.

However, none has shown any signs of contracting anthrax, said Dr. Syed Mohammed Shahid, a medical adviser to the newspaper.

In lab tests at the hospital, the powder turned out positive for anthrax, prompting the evacuation of some editorial offices Friday, said Dr. Mohammed Tasleem, a senior doctor at the hospital who was been involved in the case.

With a team of doctors and security officials supervising, editorial offices on one floor of the newspaper were closed off.

"Anthrax Zone" said the sign taped to the office doors by men in biohazard suits.

Employees in other parts of the building worked at their desks and computer terminals wearing plastic gloves and surgical masks.

The Jang newspaper has received a number of letters in recent days containing white powder, but it was not clear who was behind the mailings or what the motive was.

Tests on all the other letters turned out negative for anthrax.

Meanwhile, a Pakistan official said Friday that the Health and Interior ministries had formed a special body that had been preparing for a possible anthrax attack. Post offices were also told to be on alert, and workers at Karachi's main post office were issued masks and plastic gloves as a precaution.

SHOTLIST:

APTN

7 May 2002 - Washington, DC

1. Exterior view of Federal Reserve

2. Pull back from flags to exterior of building

APTN - FILE

3. Close-up slide of anthrax bacteria

4. Close-up film of anthrax

5. Pan view of Washington mail handling facility

6. Close-up workers sorting mail

POOL

7 May 2002 - Washington, DC

7. Close-up Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan seated between U.S. Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz

8. Pan close-up as President Bush shakes their hands

9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Ari Fliescher, White House spokesman.

"Routine preliminary tests at the Federal Reserve, which were administered late Tuesday and Wednesday have detected anthrax spores in small batches of mail. The affected mail was routine commercial and business mail and did not have any of the characteristics identified by the F-B-I as suspicious, so as a result as has happened previously from time to time unfortunately. Swabs were sent additional testing. These are preliminary, this has happened before. The source of the possible contamination is not known. Subsequent tests of the mail room surfaces and mail distribution points within the Board's buildings have all been negative. (Q: Suggest there could be potentially another anthrax ...?) No Kelly this is new information, this is based on this preliminary report from the federal reserve and so I think the lesson that everyone has learnt from the anthrax episodes of last is that preliminary information is often incorrect information."

APTN

October 25, 2001 - Washington, DC

10. Various views of letters sent containing anthrax to Senator Tom Daschle and NBC Anchorman Tom Brokaw

STORYLINE:

The U-S Federal Reserve reported Thursday that about 20 pieces of mail tested positive for traces of anthrax in an initial screening.

The tainted mail was discovered as part of routine mail testing by the Federal Reserve in a mobile trailer stationed in a courtyard at the Federal Reserve's main buildings in downtown Washington.

The test results were preliminary.

The mail did not contain powder like substances or handwritten addresses. Such preliminary tests often are inaccurate and further tests are being conducted.

In a written statement, the Federal Reserve said: "The affected mail was routine commercial and business mail and did not have any of the characteristics identified by the FBI as suspicious."

Fed spokesman David Skidmore said some of the mail was addressed to Chairman Alan Greenspan as well as other officials.

Swabs that produced the positive readings will be sent to a laboratory for additional testing.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said it is important not to jump to conclusions.

The Fed also had positive initial test readings for a batch of mail received in December. However extensive follow-up tests never found any new letters containing anthrax. The Fed said Thursday it believes those initial positive readings were "the result of cross-contamination."

SHOTLIST:

1. Medium shot police officer in front of car in vicinity of Ford building

2. Close up "Staff only, no thru street"

3. Close up sign visitors entrance

4. Close up sign Ford House Office Building

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Lt Dan Nichols, Spokesperson for Capitol Hill Police

"This morning, after doing the environmental sampling around the capitol complex, it was discovered that a sample came back from the Ford House office building mail room as positive for anthrax and its important to realise that this was not an unexpected situation. We've been trailing the mail through the capitol complex for quite some time and after the discovery in the Hart and the Dirksonand also the US Police on sight delivery center, testing was done at the Ford Center mailroom."

6. Wide shot of news conference with Lt Dan Nichols behind John Eisold, attending physician

7. SOUNDBITE (English) John Eisold, Attending Physician

"As you are aware, we have tested over 4,000 people and have not found any further positive findings than we have already reported. We have identified a zone in which people need full dose therapy for a two month course of treatment. That process of giving results back and treating people is ongoing and at this time none of the people who have demonstrated exposure, have become symptomatic. This new finding in the Ford building, as explained by the Lieutenant, is actually not surprising if you follow the trail of the mail."

8. Medium shot exterior Ford center with pan to road with police

9. Close up sign "Staff only, no through Street"

10. SOUNDBITE (English) Lt Dan Nichols, Spokesperson for Capitol Hill Police

"As it stands right now the goal is for the Senate to come back on Monday and for the House to come back on Tuesday. Now we'll have to evaluate further to see if this changes that balance or not."

11. Medium shot Capitol Hill

12. Wide shot Capitol Hill

STORYLINE:

Authorities have discovered evidence of anthrax in a House of Representatives office building that processes mail for lawmakers, congressional officials said on Saturday, as hazardous materials teams methodically worked their way across Capitol Hill.

The anthrax was found in a mail bundling machine in the Ford House Office Building, three blocks from the U.S. Capitol, where mail is directed to the Longworth Building, which houses the offices of Gephardt and House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

The finding in the Ford Office Building brought to three the number of facilities believed to be tainted by anthrax.

It marked the first time evidence had been found on the House side of the complex.

The announcement of the discovery at the House building came five days after nearly 30 people in Congress were exposed to anthrax after an envelope, disguised as a letter from schoolchildren and laced with the bacteria, was opened in the office of Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle.

The disclosure came as authorities said they had pinpointed the New Jersey post office sorting box from which anthrax-bearing letters were sent, advancing their investigation even as two more people were found to have the skin form of the disease.

It is not known whether any affected mail from the Ford House building was delivered. No details on how the bacteria reached the mailroom were immediately available.

Mailroom workers in the Ford House will be tested for possible anthrax exposure but there were no plans to extend testing to other workers, officials said.

The new find added to a growing anthrax scare throughout the United States, where eight people are confirmed to have been infected with the potentially deadly bacteria so far.

SHOTLIST:

Boca Raton

1. Wide shot exterior zoom in on American Media Inc.

2. Mid shot police vehicle outside AMI

3. Mid shot emergency vehicles outside AMI

4. SOUNDBITE (English) John O. Agwunobi, Florida Department of Health Secretary: "There is no conclusive evidence at this point that anyone other than the three that I have mentioned to you, have the Anthrax germ, the Anthrax bacteria in their bodies. This is a fairly new occurance. The presence of Anthrax in a population doesn't happen that often. As technology evolves, we learn. There are some tests that are being performed at the moment, that we know we will not be able to read conclusively, until follow up testing is done in the future."

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Jeb Bush, Governor of Florida: "We have asked people to call their local health departments, and to call their local law enforcement when they see something unusual. Clearly in a free society it is important for all of us to be vigilant. But the people that are taking advantage of the fear that exists right now in Florida and our country, by using this as a hoax, to try to either have fun doing it, or because they think it's interesting, or whatever weird motivation they may have, I wanted to tell people that it is against the law in our state."

6. Wide shot cutaway of press conference with all officials on stage

7. Mid shot emergency vehicles and workers behind fence at AMI building

Delray Beach

8. Wide shot pharmacy where Atta reportedly purchased salve for inflamed hands

9. Close up entry to pharmacy, zoomout to street corner

10. Close up cutaway Delray Beach banner hanging from light post

11. Mid shot exterior of apartment complex where Atta lived

12. Mid shot gateway of apartment complex

13. Mid shot security at gate of apartment complex

14. Close up sign on edge property of second apartment complex where another suspected terrorist lived

15. Wide shot pan of exterior of apartment complex

16. Wide shot exterior of apartment property

Boca Raton

17. Wide shot Boca Raton Post Office exterior

18. Mid shot postal vehicles in lot of Post Office

19. Midshot postal worker handling crates behind postal vehicle

Graphic

20. Still photo of AMI intern who is presently in hospital diagnosed with flu

STORYLINE:

Workers at a publishing group in Florida will undergo a second round of blood tests after a second employee was diagnosed with the deadly inhaled form of Anthrax.

Ernesto Blanco, a 73 year old mail room worker is in worsening condition with the same illness that killed one of his coworkers.

Last week health officials reported that his situation was improving, Monday however they said he is infected with the inhaled Anthrax that is, in most cases, fatal.

American Media Inc. headquarters, in Boca Raton, has been quarantined since last week, after Anthrax spores were found in several locations inside.

Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the President's brother, held a news conference Tuesday with an entourage of other state officials to quell fears and dissuade would-be pranksters.

State health officials said there are no other cases of Anthrax infection as of yet, but that more testing will be done to bolster those conclusions.

The Governor stressed the importance of being on aware of ones surroundings during these times, and immediately reporting any strange packages to the authorities.

In Delray Beach, a man believed to be one of the hijackers in the terrorist attacks visited a drug store in late August for medication to treat a burning sensation in his hands, a pharmacist says.

Gregg Chatterton, co-owner of Huber Discount Drugs, said Friday the man he identified as Mohamed Atta was evasive about the cause and the pharmacist asked if he'd been exposed to cleaning fluids or

gardening chemicals.

"He snickered and said, 'No, I wasn't in a garden,"' said Chatterton, who described him as "cocky."

Chatterton said Atta was accompanied by a man the pharmacist later identified from photos as suspected hijacker Marwan al-Shehhi.

The pharmacist said the second man tapped himself on the chest and said he needed cough medication.

In a strange twist of events that the police are saying is probably coincidental, the wife of an editor at the AMI group is believed to have rented two apartments to two men who are now believed to have been hijackers in the September 11 attacks.

Both apartments are in Delray Beach and near to Huber Discount Drugs.

Police say this is the only connection that exists between the Anthrax attacks and the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

The Boca Raton Post Office is where the mail that brought the Anthrax into AMI offices is thought to have been sent from.

Another possible coincidence, an intern from a Florida university that was working at AMI, but left in August, is now hospitalized with the flu.

Jordan Arizmendi's internship ended in August.

Tests are underway to determine if his illness is related to an Anthrax infection.

SHOTLIST:

1. Wide of Supreme Court

2. Exterior of court building

4. Close up of court

5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Dr John Eisold, Capitol Hill Physician:

"Following the same thought process we did last week, we are following the letter so to speak and if there is evidence of a contaminated filter at the off site screening although its a conservative approach for us to take, we are making the assumption that quite possibly something may have come to the mail room here. And as you know there are many mail rooms that have been screened and followed with treatment."

6. Wide of Eisold speaking

7. Wide of mail warehouse sorting facility used by Supreme Court

8. Various of police tape and building

9. Media outside building

10. Post office closed near facility

11. Various of police tape

12. Wide of spokesmen

13. SOUNDBITE: (English) Lieutenant Dan Nichols, US Capitol Police:

"We have determined that we have three locations within the Longworth House offices thus far which have tested positive for anthrax bacteria."

14. SOUNDBITE: (English) Dr. John Eisold, US Capitol Physician:

"We will notify the staffs in those offices and by your press releases reach people who may have visited those offices subsequent to or on the day of the 12th of October on the day that those buildings were closed last week so that we can identify people who may have travelled through those offices or worked in those offices and tomorrow we will start seeing those people and treating them with a course of antibiotics."

15. Wides of press conference

STORYLINE:

Anthrax was discovered on Friday on a filter removed from a warehouse which screens mail headed for the Supreme Court.

The discovery led officials to make plans to shut the court building down as a precaution.

Federal officials said there was no evidence the microbe had travelled to the court building itself.

But a court spokeswoman said the entire building would be closed and employees sent home and that it would be tested thoroughly.

She added that if any contamination is detected, the building will be decontaminated.

The building was immediately closed to tourists and the ventilation system was turned off in case any material had found its way from the postal screening centre, officials said.

Capitol physician John Eisold declined to say whether any of the nine justices were tested for exposure or whether any are receiving antibiotics.

The justices held a private meeting in the building on Friday morning.

Authorities were taking much the same precautions as they did when anthrax was discovered across the street in a Senate office building, Eisold said.

Court medical workers began testing some of the 400 people who work in the main building on Friday afternoon.

The court was in temporary recess this week, but returns for arguments and other business Monday.

If the building is shut down, the court will borrow alternate court facilities.

Meanwhile trace amounts of anthrax have been discovered in the offices of three lawmakers in a House office building, congressional officials said Friday night, as evidence of bioterrorism spread on Capitol Hill.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said tests detected the anthrax in the Longworth House Office Building.

The names of the three lawmakers were not disclosed.

The Longworth building, which provides space for dozens of lawmakers, receives mail that is processed by a machine where anthrax had previously been found.

The machine is located in a separate House office building several blocks away.

The positive tests turned up as Congress struggled to recover from a bioterrorism scare caused by the discovery of anthrax in two Senate office buildings.

SHOTLIST:

1. Various postal employees waiting for anthrax testing in auditorium of DC General Hospital

2. Exterior Brentwood Post Office

3. Postal employee looking at anthrax fact sheet

4. Close shot of anthrax fact sheet

5. Various postal workers waiting inside hospital for anthrax testing

6. Exterior shot of DC General Hospital

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Ivan Walks, Washington, DC Chief Health Officer

"What's going on today here at DC General, we are testing from 9am to 10pm, but we'll stay open as we did last night until every employee who worked in the back of the Brentwood mail station and every employee at the Maryland air handling station comes in. We will contact them through the postal service and if they haven't gotten here, we're gonna find them and make sure they get the care they need."

8. Various tourists outside the empty US Capitol complex

9. Various area set up on Capitol Hill for emergency rescue and investigators

10. Emergency rescue truck

11. Shots of crews working outside a big white tent

12. Wide shot of orange cones and other security measures outside US Capitol building

STORYLINE:

Health officials in Washington DC are waiting for test results from five patients who have symptoms consistent with anthrax, after a local postal worker was diagnosed with a rare and dangerous form of the disease.

More than 2200 postal workers in the Washington area are being tested for exposure to the disease, and the Postal Service has closed two facilities where the sick man worked.

The man, identified as Leroy Richmond, is in serious but stable condition at a suburban Virginia hospital near his home.

The Postmaster General, John Potter, said the U-S Postal Service was increasing security at its facilities and introducing technology to sanitise mail.

Potter said postal workers were not being ordered to wear gloves and face masks.

Washington's chief health officer said the authorities were watching five other postal workers who have flu-like symptoms that might indicate inhalation anthrax.

The five are receiving treatment in hospital.

Over the last two and a half weeks three men have been diagnosed with inhalation anthrax, a disease not seen in the United States since 1978.

A Florida man died from the disease.

Six others, including two postal workers in New Jersey, have been infected with a treatable form of anthrax that is contracted through the skin.

Health and postal officials said they do not know how the Washington postal worker came into contact with enough anthrax to allow the bacteria to travel into his respiratory system and lodge deep in his lungs.

Meantime, congressional leaders reopened the Capitol building on Monday, although House and Senate office buildings remained closed until results from environmental testing are complete.

Officials said one building - the Longworth House office building - was receiving particularly close scrutiny.

A mail-sorting machine in a nearby House annex building found to be contaminated over the weekend handles mail for the Longworth building, so investigators want to learn if tainted mail ended up in Longworth.

The buildings were closed after an anthrax-tainted letter arrived a week ago at the office of the Senate Majority Leader,Tom Daschle.

SHOTLIST:

1. LibanPost employees in masks sorting post

2. Closeup post being sorted

3. Various of postal workers sorting mail

4. Wide shot of presser

5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Nassib Husseini, Chairman of LibanPost

"We are applying very strict measures, the same actually that are applied in other countries that have this problem like the USA and we are doing the same and this is for prevention. But there is no reason whatsoever to think that the capability exists in Lebanon or the wish, but you know we have to do prevention."

6. Various of postal workers in masks stamping mail

7. Closeup of postal workers with gloves on sorting mail

8. Closeup of postal worker

9. Man loading sacks of mail on to trolley

10. Closeup of reception sign at LibanPost

STORYLINE:

Lebanon has begun implementing strict security measures in post offices, in a bid to guard against an outbreak of anthrax.

The Lebanese-Canadian company restructuring Lebanon's postal services, LibanPost, has began screening all overseas mail at its headquarters at Beirut airport.

LibanPost's Chairman, Nassib Husseini says no anthrax infections have been detected so far, but it's important to implement safeguards.

Lebanon's health ministry has confirmed that powder substances found in letters mailed to two women in Beirut last week were not anthrax.

The anthrax scare broke out on Friday, after television stations reported that an Indonesian domestic helper and a housewife had received letters containing a suspicious-looking powder.

Both women handed over the envelopes to police.

According to newspaper reports on Monday, postal employees had handed over to police a packet mailed from Canada addressed to a Lebanese woman that contained substances used for making desserts.

They reported another packet mailed locally and handed over to police, contained powdered sugar.

Prosecutor-General Adnan Addoum, who has described the incidents as either an "ugly joke, or just a sabotage to cause confusion," said Monday that such hoaxes will be considered criminal acts and the perpetrators will be severely punished.

SHOTLIST:

1. Wide shot White House press secretary enters briefing room

2. Medium shot photographers

3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Ari Fleischer, White House Press Secretary "Early this afternoon a positive anthrax culture was found at the remote mail site that serves the White House. This is a delivery site that is located some miles away from the White House and handles all White House mail. Tests results showed it to be positive for a small concentration of anthrax. The facility has been closed for further testing and decontamination. Tests will be performed on all mail received at this site to determine it's source. All employees at this site are being swabbed and tested. Mail room employees at the White House will also be swabbed and tested. Environmental sampling throughout the White House has all shown negative."

4. Medium shot journalists at news briefing

5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Ari Fleischer, White House Press Secretary "The President also has confidence in the security procedures that are in place at the White House. The President expressed his concern for the people who work at the facility. The President also said that this is another example that this is a two-front war, that there are people who seek to do evil to this country, that there are people who mean us harm and the had mailed letters obviously to high-impact places: The news media, Majority Leader Daschle, perhaps in this case to the White House. The president understands that these are enemies that we face who are seeking to create the most disruption in our society and he is determined not to let them succeed."

6. Wide shot briefing room

STORYLINE:

The U-S Secret Service says anthrax has been found during screening at a mail handling facility for White House post.

It's not ceratin where the anthrax came from, but the agency said the mail processed there comes through Washington's Brentwood postal facility, where anthrax has turned up in several places.

The facility that handles the White House mail is a military installation several kilometres (miles) from the White House itself.

During a news briefing in Washington on Tuesday, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said the remote facility had been closed for testing and decontamination.

He said all the tests carried out on the White House itself had come back negative.

SHOTLIST:

Tel Aviv

1. Exterior of main postal sorting office

2. Cutaway of Israeli flag flying outside sorting office

3. 'Postal Authority' on wall outside sorting office

4. Various interiors of main sorting office in action

5. Letters move along a conveyor belt

6. Staff sorting through the mail

7. Letters sorted manually by staff

Jerusalem

8. Set-up shot of Israeli Postal Authority spokesman, Yitzhak Rabihiya

9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Yitzhak Rabihiya, Israeli Postal Authority spokesman "The Israeli Post is taking every precaution(ary) step, together with the army and the police force, to take care so that there will be no anthrax infections. We have received so far from the public six to ten suspicious envelopes that we have sent for a check but so far there is no anthrax found in letters in Israel."

10. Cutaway of Rabihiya

11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Yitzhak Rabihiya, Israeli Postal Authority spokesman "We are in contact with other postal authorities in the world. We are learning from the Americans, the Australians and we are doing everything possible to prevent anthrax."

Tel Aviv

12. Close up of man sorting letters

13. Two women workers sort through post

14. Various shots of mail being sorted and readied for delivery

STORYLINE:

The Israeli Postal Authority has introduced tighter screening methods at its sorting offices to counter the threat of a bioterrorist attack.

The authority's spokesman said it was in contact with postal authorities in the United States, as well as with the Israeli army and police, to ensure against an anthrax attack in Israel.

The spokesman also said the authority had received about six to ten suspicious envelopes which had been sent for testing, but that no anthrax had been discovered so far.

He said that since the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, supervision of incoming and outgoing mail, including packages, had been increased.

But tight postal security is not new to Israel, whose guard has been up since the 1970s when Palestinian and Israeli intelligence services used the letter bomb as a weapon of choice in targeting guerrillas, operatives and diplomats.

Since then, notices in post offices have continually warned people to be on the look-out for suspicious letters and packages.

Even the slots on Israeli post boxes are extremely thin as an added measure against potentially explosive-laden mail.

The Israel Postal Authority handles around 2.2 (m) million pieces of mail every day.

SHOTLIST:

1. Various of US Postal Service warehouse on V Street

2. Sign saying "Closed Today" on post office door

3. Fire engines driving in to base / push-in to sign at Navy Base Postal Office

4. Street outside L Street Post office

5. Tape across entrance to building

6. Various of police tape around entrances

7. Loading dock at post office entrance

8. Woman on cell phone walking outside post office

9. Tilt up to US flag above post office

STORYLINE:

As US Postal Service officials awaited test results from several mail facilities on Friday, local officials in the Washington, D.C. area prepared to respond to the possibility of anthrax contamination in their communities.

"There's every reason to hope for the best, but we're also preparing for an alternative contingency," said District of Columbia Mayor, Anthony A. Williams.

The mayor and other regional officials were notified Thursday afternoon that air monitors at a mail sorting facility at the Anacostia Naval Air Station detected an abnormal pathogen.

Tests conducted on an air filter produced positive readings for low levels of anthrax spores. Further tests were being conducted early Friday by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Following a series of anthrax attacks in October 2001, the district government led efforts to provide antibiotics for more than 17,000 people after anthrax spores were discovered at the Hart Senate Office Building and a massive US Postal Service facility located in the city.

Two workers from the Brentwood Mail Distribution Center died and several others fell ill following exposure to the bacteria.

The US Postal Service closed eleven facilities in the capital region as a precaution Thursday.

The number included a facility that processes mail destined for the White House and the headquarters of several federal agencies, and three full service post offices in the district, three in Arlington, Virginia and four postal facilities in suburban Maryland, including one at Andrews Air Force Base.

The eleven closed facilities each supplied mail handled at the Navy site.

SHOTLIST:

1. Exterior of Tokyo International Post Office

2. Post office employee sorting parcels from overseas

3. Close-up of US mail bag

4. Various of international mail being sorted

5. Staff X-raying overseas parcel

6. Close-up of X-ray screen

7. Staff monitoring X-ray

8. Worker carrying mail sacks

9. SOUNDBITE: (Japanese)Yoshiaki Yoshiba, Section Chief, Tokyo International Post Office

"Handling mails that may contain anthrax is an unprecedented case. In the past, we had an incident where an explosive was contained in an envelope. After that incident, we introduced various ways of testing mail possibly containing explosives. But, this time, we are talking about anthrax. It is difficult to find out if it is inside mail unless it leaks from the package. Our staff is dedicated. Some may criticise us by saying that we are not aware of seriousness of the case, but I say that we are faithfully working on this."

10. Various of mail bags

11. Employee taking parcel out of sack

STORYLINE:

Authorities confirmed on Tuesday that a white, powdery substance which leaked from a stamp on an airmail envelope posted in Japan did not contain anthrax.

Officials from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare confirmed that the envelope, which was discovered by a postal worker in Fukushima Prefecture, 250 kilometres (150 miles) northeast of Tokyo, posed no threat to public safety.

The letter, which bore no sender's details, was addressed to Australia.

Meanwhile, Japanese postal authorities announced they have tightened checks on mail arriving from overseas to prevent possible bioterrorism following reports of mailed anthrax in the United States.

Since the weekend, postal workers have been required to X-ray any international mail that has no sender's name and address or is suspicious in appearance.

An official at the Tokyo International Post Office said that staff in charge of sorting overseas mail are making every effort to find any parcel containing dangerous substances, but admitted that it was a difficult task.

SHOTLIST:

1. Northeast Brentwood postal facility

2. Postal facility doors with warning posters

3. Close up of police car guarding site

4. Various of site testing

5. Raised U.S and postal service flags

6. Various of Brentwood exterior

7. Entrance of closed off facility

8. Helicopter flying over Brentwood

9. Police officers stepping into car

STORYLINE:

The clean up operation of the deadly anthrax spores contained in the Brentwood postal facility finally began on in Washington on Monday, seven months after the building was shut down.

Brentwood post office was closed last October when two employees died after letters tainted with anthrax passed through the facility. The building was then sealed off, after investigators said the area was severely contaminated with anthrax.

The clean up operation has been delayed several times owing to the sheer size of the facility. Many scientists believe that filling the building with a thick fog of Chlorine gas, necessary to decontaminate the area, is extremely dangerous.

Chlorine dioxide gas will be pumped into a tent covering three pieces of equipment that handled the anthrax tainted letters.

The area will be tested a week to ten days later, and if the effort proves successful, cleanup for the rest of the facility will begin in mid-August.

Around five pounds (2 and a half kilos) of gas will be used in Monday's test. Two thousand pounds (1,000 kilos) of chlorine dioxide will be needed to cleanse the entire building.

SHOTLIST:

1. Priest lead procession into church

2. Postal worker standing outside

3. Exterior of church with parked postal service cars

4. Two shots photo of Joseph Curseen

5. Exterior church

6. Casket is brought out of church

7. Parents hug family friends

8. Hearse pulls out

9. Procession of mail trucks pan and zoom into the Washington monument in the distance

STORYLINE:

The second funeral of two postal workers killed by anthrax took place on Saturday.

A day after his colleague Thomas Morris Junior was buried, a funeral was held for Joseph Curseen.

Both men died after contracting inhalation anthrax at work.

The two men worked at Washington D.C.'s central postal processing facility called Brentwood.

Officials plan to test as many as four-thousand sites in the Washington D.C. area for anthrax.

The sites, which could include large apartment buildings, received mail from the facility.

The U.S. Postal Service has ordered environmental tests at 30 mail processing and distribution centers across the country.

For Curseen and his co-worker it was too late. Officials still do not know who is behind the anthrax attacks.

SHOTLIST: NB: wrong slate on tape

1. Wide shot of US Capitol building

2. Shot of hazardous material team walking in to the US Capitol building

3. Shot of hazardous material response team's truck in front of US Capitol

4. SOUNDBITE: (English) Dan Nichols, Spokesman for US Capitol Police

"Well the field take is, as I said before on October 15th, it is a down and dirty test. What it does is give us initial indication of whether we are dealing with hazardous material or not. This has turned back unlike October 15th. These tests have come back negative so we know that it is not hazardous material at this point. While we do not know exactly what it is because it is still in the process of being investigated we do know it is not hazardous."

5. Cutaway of reporters at briefing

6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Dan Nichols, Spokesman for US Capitol Police

"They called us with concern that there is a suspicious letter in their office. We responded according to our protocols and handle it again accordingly. The teams go in as we have in the past, determine that there is a substance in the letter, we do various tests to determine if it is hazardous or not. We determined that this is not hazardous."

7. Shot of team in protective suits being hosed down

8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Dan Nichols

Question: Where is Senator Daschle?

"I am sorry I cannot give location of members of Congress. I can tell you he was in the Capitol. I can tell you that he is safe, he was surprised of the situation and he has also been appraised that he has been rendered safe. All right."

9. Shot of police officer in front to US Capitol

10. Wide shot of US Capitol

STORYLINE:

A suspicious letter was found on Thursday in the US Capitol office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, but police said initial tests on a powdery substance in the envelope were negative for any hazardous substance.

"While we do not know what the substance is, we do know that the substance is not hazardous," Lieutenant Dan Nichols, a spokesman for the U.S. Capitol Police said.

He said Daschle was "well aware of the situation and he is safe."

Nichols declined to provide any information about the postmark or other identifying information on the piece of mail, which had been opened a few hours earlier.

However, he said the initial tests did not yield information about whether the powdery substance had once been hazardous, whether, for example, it contained anthrax spores that had been rendered harmless when the mail was irradiated.

Additional tests will be conducted on the material inside the letter, Nichols said.

"The material is not hazardous right now," he said.

Nichols described the letter to Daschle as threatening in nature.

He said the powdery material was being turned over to the FBI.

He also said police would notify the U.S. Postal Service, and said he expected officials there would check facilities where the letter has traveled on its way to Daschle's office in the Capitol building.

The Capitol was closed briefly, but not evacuated.

Congress was in recess for the holidays.

Nichols said several times that the substance had been tested and found not to be hazardous.

Even so, the letter instantly raised concern, since Daschle was the recipient of an anthrax-tainted letter in October that exposed more than two dozen people to spores and led to the closure of the Hart Senate Office Building across the street from the Capitol.