N.Y. hopes for better idea of attack death toll soon

NEW YORK -- City officials have refined their method for tabulating the number of people missing or killed after two hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. As a result, they expect to have more reliable figures by the end of the year, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said Saturday.

Several days ago, the Giuliani administration changed the way it reports the number of suspected dead to rely solely on a combination of its list of missing persons and issued death certificates, rather than including in its list of "identified dead" those who were identified through a police standard using evidence like remains, clothing or an identification card.

By Friday, the official count was 3,646, where it stood Saturday. That number includes 443 death certificates issued by the medical examiner's office, 1,820 death certificates issued through the courts, and 1,383 reported missing.

Turner foundation to fund research against biowar

Ted Turner, the tycoon who invented all-news television and is helping to subsidize the United Nations, has taken on a new challenge: reducing the threat of biological weapons.

A foundation headed by Turner and Sam Nunn, the former Democratic senator from Georgia, has decided to increase spending aimed at deterring bioterrorism and the threat of germ weapons.

The fledgling foundation, the Nuclear Threat Initiative, which began operating only in January, decided months before Sept. 11 to devote some of its planned $250-million in grants over the next five years to combating threats posed not only by nuclear weapons, but also by chemical and germ weapons. But foundation executives said last week that their emphasis had shifted somewhat after the mysterious anthrax attacks that have infected 18 people, five of whom have died.

Foundation representatives said the board approved almost $5-million in grants at its October meeting. Ultimately, they said, the foundation would spend about a third of its estimated $50-million in grants each year on combating bioweapons and bioterrorism.

Broken metal detector forces airport evacuation

SEATAC, Wash. -- Passengers were forced to evacuate concourses at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport for three hours Saturday after a broken metal detector was discovered at a security checkpoint.

Flights were delayed as passengers were rechecked, airport spokesman Bob Parker said.

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