Anthrax found in Nevada Microsoft subsidiary

(CNN) -- Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn announced Saturday that a suspicious letter mailed to a Microsoft subsidiary in Reno, Nevada, tested positive for anthrax in a third test.

Earlier tests were inconclusive, he said.

The envelope was originally mailed, with a check, by Microsoft Licensing to a vendor in Malaysia. The check was returned in the envelope, and officials became suspicious when some pornographic images were also found in the envelope, authorities said.

One of the pornographic images tested positive for anthrax, officials said.

Samples of the anthrax have been sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, to determine how dangerous the strains are.

Guinn said four people have been identified who had direct contact with the envelope, plus two others who had lesser contact. Nose and throat swabs have been taken from the six to determine whether any of them was exposed.

State epidemiologist Dr. Randy Todd said there was no powder in the envelope, meaning it would be difficult for the bacteria to become airborne.

"We feel that this is a very, very low risk for public health," Todd said.

In New York, Mayor Rudy Giuliani announced Saturday that authorities have found the source of the anthrax that infected an NBC news employee - a letter, but not the one they originally suspected.

An assistant to NBC "Nightly News" anchor Tom Brokaw tested positive for cutaneous (skin) anthrax days after opening a threatening letter that contained a white powder, officials said. The powder was initially believed to be the source of the exposure, but three tests for anthrax came back negative.

Another threatening letter, postmarked two days earlier from Trenton, New Jersey, tested positive for anthrax, Giuliani said.

The woman is in good condition and is expected to recover, NBC said. Health officials tested more NBC employees for anthrax Saturday. (Full story)

A suspicious substance was also found Friday in a letter to a New York Times reporter, but a spokeswoman for the company said preliminary tests for the presence of anthrax came back negative.

Anthrax is not contagious among humans, and skin anthrax is more treatable and not as serious as the inhaled form of the disease.

If you receive a suspicious package: Handle with care; don't shake or bump Isolate and look for indicators Don't open, smell or taste Treat it as a suspect; call 911 Source: FBI VIDEO Letters mailed to businesses in New York City and Nevada test positive for anthrax bacteria. CNN's Jason Carroll reports (October 12) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn talks with CNN about a suspicious envelope mailed to a subsidiary of Microsoft in Reno, Nevada (October 12) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   RESOURCES Dr. Sanjay Gupta: What is Anthrax?  Skin anthrax less dangerous  FBI: Advice on suspicious packages  NBC memo to staff    EXTRA INFORMATION 10 things you need to know about anthrax    MORE STORIES Sony Pictures employee hospitalized after touching white powder  FBI launches 'intensive' investigation in Florida  Cutaneous anthrax most common, most survived

Latest developments

• Vice President Dick Cheney, in an interview on PBS' "The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer," noted that the terrorist manuals associated with Osama bin Laden instruct his followers on "how to deploy these kinds of substances." "When you start to piece it all together, and again, we haven't finished the investigation and maybe it is coincidence, but I must say I'm a skeptic," Cheney said. "I think the only responsible thing for us to do is to proceed on the basis they could be linked." (Full story)

• The FBI said the envelope sent to The New York Times was postmarked from St. Petersburg, Florida. Earlier, the bureau said there was no evidence linking the case to another case of a Florida publisher in which three people were exposed and one died. In the latter case, the FBI said it will be interviewing employees of American Media Inc. in Boca Raton, Florida, continue through the weekend. (Full story)

• A U.S. Airways flight en route from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Denver, Colorado, made an emergency landing in Indianapolis, Indiana, after a flight attendant spotted a suspicious substance on board. The substance tested negative for anthrax and the passengers were allowed to take later flights. (Full story)

• In Colorado, a suburban Denver hospital reopened Friday afternoon when officials determined four postal workers who were exposed to a powder posed no threat to others.

• In Washington, the State Department told employees there appeared to be no cause for concern after a white powder was found in an office that deals with congressional correspondence. A State Department official told CNN the area had been secured and no evacuations were considered necessary.

• FBI agents and hazardous-materials squads were dispatched to the State Department's Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Virginia, on Friday to investigate a suspicious substance, a State Department official told CNN. The official said State Department security officers, the FBI counterterrorism team and firefighters were called after a white powdery substance was found.

• In an apparently unrelated case, a senior State Department official told CNN that Defense Department teams found evidence of anthrax on a routine search of Soviet-era scientific research facilities in Kazakhstan. The search was part of an ongoing program to help reduce the threat of weapons of mass destruction in regions of the former Soviet Union.