WEDNESDAY, JAN. 23, 2002
WAR ON TERRORISM
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 9A
Clues to anthrax found
Investigation offers information that may identify source
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Scientists analyzing anthrax have found tiny differences that might help identify the source of the bacteria sent to media outlets in N.Y. and to Capitol Hill.
With the mailer still at large, the FBI planned to double the reward to $2.5 million.
Three months after anthrax hit Capitol Hill, senators and staff returned Tuesday to the nine-story Senate Hart Office Building, home to half of the 100 senators and closed since an
anthrax-laden letter was opened there Oct. 17.
"Igo in with confidence and a prayer," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn.
In the investigation, scientists hope that identifying genetic markers will allow them to trace the anthrax used in the attacks to one of about a dozen labs that held samples of the commonly held Ames strain.
Until now, no differences among the various anthrax samples had been pinpointed. But scientists at the Institute for Genetic Research in Rockville, Md., now say there appear to be a few subtle genetic variations between two anthrax samples they are comparing; anthrax used in the Florida attack and anthrax held by a British biode-
fense lab that originally received its sample from the U.S. Army lab at Fort Detrick, Md.
The anthrax attacks came to light after Robert Stevens, a photo editor for Florida-based tabloid publisher American Media Inc. was infected. Stevens later died.
The differences still must be verified, a process now under way by researchers at Northern Arizona University, said Timothy D. Read, who heads the Institute for Genetic Research's effort to map anthrax's genes.
Investigators still don't know who sent anthrax-tainted letters through the mail that have killed four people and infected more than a dozen others.
Anthrax, like other bacteria
grows by replicating itself.
Each replication is virtually identical to its source. But sometimes small differences are created in copying the 5 million DNA base pairs that make up the bacteria's genetic structure.
The Institute for Genetic Research, known as TIGR, began its sequencing of the genetic makeup of anthrax two years ago.
After the attacks, it got a $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to expand its analysis to the anthrax used in Florida.
Its success in finding genetic differences between the two anthrax samples was first reported Tuesday by The New York Times.
Tokyo pledges billions to Afghanistan
The Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan's civil servants were paid for the first time in six months yesterday — an $8 million total payout that will virtually wipe out money earmarked for a U.N. start-up fund.
As Afghan officials turned to the work of rebuilding their country, interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai urged the quick arrival of $4.5 billion in assistance that was pledged over the next several years at a conference of nearly 60 donor nations in Tokyo.
"We are happy with the results of the conference," Karzai said. In a nod to concerns that the money would not reach Afghanistan's poor, Karzai pledged to be "a samurai against corruption."
Not all were upbeat, however. The money promised was less than half the $10 billion over five years for which the U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Anan had hoped.
European Union representative Klaus-Peter Klaiber said the
money pledged was a "rather miserable amount," compared to Afghanistan's needs.
In Kabul, for civil servants owed months of back pay, the billions pledged in Tokyo were less a cause for rejoicing than yesterday's wage payments, which were less than $30 each.
"I am very, very happy," said Finance Ministry employee Abdel Jami, clutching a thick stack of afghanis, the Afghan currency — his pay for the second half of December and the first half of January. The pay packet, disbursed from a startup fund to help begin basic government operations, was 1.4 million afghanis, or $28, an average monthly government salary.
The government has no money to pay back salaries yet, officials said. Some Afghan government employees have not been paid in eight months, well before the Taliban government fell.
The leader of that government, Mullah Mohammed Omar, remained the focus of a
U. S. hunt on yesterday — but the house-to-house searches by U.S. special forces and their Afghan allies in Helmand province failed to find him or any of his aides. Afghan sources said on condition of anonymity. U.S. officials refuse to comment on special forces operations.
No strong leads on Omar's whereabouts had been reported since he disappeared two weeks ago in the mountainous Baghran area in Helmand province. At the time, he was said to be surrounded by hundreds of anti-Taliban fighters who were negotiating his surrender.
Omar is the most wanted man in Afghanistan after bin Laden, but still has many supporters in southern Afghanistan, where the extreme Islamic militia he led was strongest.
With an eye to keeping the Afghan government running and ensuring stability, Karzai urged international donors to deliver the first installments of their pledged money "immediately in the coming days so we can begin the process of reconstruction."
The longer-term prospects for aid were still unclear, mainly because none of the big donors — the United States, Japan, the European Union and Saudi Arabia — made a pledge spanning more than three years.
Also westerday:
Hundreds of U.S. soldiers gathered in Kandahar yesterday to pay tribute to two comrades killed in Sunday's crash of their CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter. Five other Marines were injured in the crash, which came less than two weeks after a refueling tanker went down in Pakistan, killing all seven Marines on board.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, under fire from human rights groups, said yesterday the United States was treating the 158 war detainees at Guantanamo Bay "humanely," and in accordance with Geneva Conventions.
Firm returns to trading after Sept.11 attack
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — The phones wailed for attention just the way they used to. The traders, hanging over their computer screens, hollered above the din, the same as before.
And the buy and sell orders cascaded in, as if customers were trying in just the first hour after the opening bell to make up for all the days lost since Sept. 11.
But if Tuesday's chaos was reassuring to workers at Sandler O'Neill & Partners, it wasn't business as usual.
There was no Gus Economos there to give orders. No Kathy Hunt Casey to offer home decorating tips. No Tom Glasser to tell jokes. No Stacey McGowan to call you "friend."
"The first time I had to tell someone they had a phone call, I stood up and looked around the room and it was a shock," said Jennifer Imbrogno, one of just four people, out of an equity desk of 24, who survived the attack on the World Trade Center.
Sandler returned to stock trading Tuesday for the first time since it lost 66 of the 148 employees including leader Herman Sandler who once worked on the 104th floor of the trade center.
In the weeks after the attack, the fragments of the business had been scattered among three offices. Some of the quarters were so cramped that employees joked about being assigned to the "trading closet."
While those makeshift offices allowed Sandler to resume some of its operations, including consulting on mergers and managing debt offerings, stock trading had to wait for a floor.
On Tuesday, all of Sandler's operations were finally consolidated in new quarters in a nondescript midtown Manhattan office building with a view of rooftop heating ducts.
"To us, there was never an option," said Fred Price, chief operating officer. "Because not to press ahead would've been to give up."
At 9:30 a.m., executive Terry Maltese pronounced the market open. There was brief applause from traders, but the clapping ended almost immediately when telephones started ringing. Soon, conversation was replaced by shouts to buy and sell, the sounds of markets being made.
Before Sept. 11, Sandler specialized in trading the stocks of small banks and financial firms. On Tuesday, clients eager to give the firm business called in orders to buy and sell stocks for big companies like General Electric and Lucent, whose ticker symbols do not normally circulate at Sandler. That made the pace even more frenetic.
"As soon as you see somebody throw a phone, you know we're alive," said Robert Castrigrnano, a former Goldman Sachs executive who took early retirement last June, then put aside golf for a job heading Sandler's equity desk. "As soon as you hear a curse word, you know we're back in the saddle."
On keyboards and on the corners of desks, workers had placed ornaments to lost friends, along with words of consolation and encouragement from well-wishers.
"Good Luck — You Guys Are Gonna Do Great Things!" read a note on trader Jennifer Blase's keyboard.
A crystal sculpture commissioned by Sandler will be installed in the lobby, on a base inscribed with 70 names — the 66 employees, two consultants and two visitors to the firm who were killed.
"It will be to remind everybody that there's a piece of us that's gone." Price said, "but that will never be forgotten."
The KU School of Fine Arts and Kansas Union present
Brown Bag Classics
Make your lunch a classic. Join the Music & Dance Department for free noon-time performances. Just bring your lunch because drinks are on the Kansas Union.
January 23 Pirates Review
January 30 Vince Gnojek, Saxophone
February 6 KU Horn Ensemble
February 13 Instrumental Collegium Music
February 27 KU Harmonie
March 6 Keith Wright, Flute
March 13 Amir Khorspour, Piano
March 27 Pamela Hinchman Voice Studio
April 3 Melanie Hadley, Piano
April 10 Paul Stevens, Horn
April 17 KU Saxophone Quartets
April 24 KU Tuba, Euphonium Consor
May 8 BA Woodwind Quintet
Wednesdays, 12:30 pm to 1 pm, Alderson Auditorium, Level 4, Kansas Union
Plano courtesy of Vaccaro's Piano and Organ of Overland Park
School of Fine Arts University of Kansas
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