USA

October 9, 2001

US airstrikes against more than two dozen Afghan targets were "very successful" and more attacks will follow, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld said. Rumsfeld declined to say when more " overt and covert military attacks" would occur but a senior Bush administration official said more Taliban military sites would be targeted Monday night. Rumsfeld (above, r., with Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Richard Myers) also said he believes Osama bin Laden remains in Afghanistan. As a precaution against possible retaliation, Vice President Cheney was removed to an unidentified location outside Washington. (Stories, pages 1, 3, 7; editorial, page 10.)

Tom Ridge began work as the first head of the Office of Homeland Security. The former Pennsylvania governor was sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and participated in the administration's morning senior staff meeting. He'll have a staff of 100 who will develop a "coordinated, integrated, national strategy to combat terrorism," a spokes-man said. (Story, page 1.)

American airstrikes prompted heightened security nationwide and the cancellation of Sunday night's Prime-Time Emmy Awards ceremonies. Producers said holding the event on the same day as the attack would have been inappropriate. Organizers aren't sure when the awards, originally scheduled for Sept. 16, will be held. But in New York, the Columbus Day Parade was expected to go ahead as scheduled Monday with thousands of additional police and National Guard troops patrolling city streets.

A second Florida man was diagnosed with anthrax only days after his coworker died from the disease, often cited as a possible biological warfare agent. The FBI sealed the office building in Boca Raton where the two men worked amid concerns of a possible terrorist attack. Investigators initially described the infection of Robert Stevens, who died Friday, as an isolated incident. Pulmonary anthrax had not previously been seen in the US since 1976.

An American researcher shared the Nobel Prize for medicine with two British scientists. Leland Hartwell of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, was recognized for his discoveries in the nature of cell development. This year's prizes mark the 100-year anniversary of the awards.

Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants ended Major League Baseball's regular season with a record-setting 73rd home run Sunday. On Friday, Bonds broke Mark McGwire's 1998 record of 71 home runs.

Mike Mansfield, who died Friday in Washington, was the US Senate's longest-serving majority leader. The Montana Democrat spent 10 years in the House, 24 years in the Senate, and 11 years as ambassador to Japan.

Herbert Block, who died Sunday in Washington, skewered every US president from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush, as the Washington Post's Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist. Under his signature "Her-block," he also coined the phrase "McCarthyism" in the 1950.