Paper discuss anthrax attacks

Thursday's papers are dominated by the growing reverberations of the anthrax attack on Capitol Hill and the assassination of the Israeli Tourism Minister.

A number of papers combine the two developments in their main headline.

The Express carries a picture of the minister alongside one of an FBI worker wearing a chemical protection suit and mask with the headline "Nightmare".

The Mirror's main headline says "Closed" accompanied by a picture of the Congress building.

For the Independent the closure of part of the Capitol has laid low the symbol of American democracy.

There can be no more telling sign of how terror and its aftermath are disrupting the most familiar rhythms of national life.

In the words of the Financial Times American democracy is now in the front line of bioterrorism.

The Guardian observes sadly that a place of charm has become a place of silent fear and invisible danger.

Israeli minister's death

The death of Rehevam Zeevi, the Guardian says, arrived as a cataclysmic shock and has shattered the embryonic American peace initiative for the Middle East.

The paper quotes an Israeli minister as saying: "The US was different after September the eleventh.

"This is our September the eleventh".

The Daily Mail asks gloomily 'did all hopes of peace die with Mr Zeevi?'

His death, it believes, is the most dramatic challenge ever posed to the prospects of peaceful co-existence between Israelis and Arabs.

Even by the bloody standards of the past 12 months of fighting, the Times remarks, the killing marked a significant departure in Palestinian tactics.

Indeed, the Daily Telegraph points out, one needs to go back to the assassination of the Israeli ambassador in London in 1982 to find a Palestinian attack comparable to Wednesday's killing.

Northern Alliance 'unimpressed' by attacks

The opposition forces of the Northern Alliance were unimpressed by the first American attacks against front line targets north of Kabul, according to the Telegraph.

A despatch by its correspondent quotes senior commanders as asking: "Do you think three bombs will make much of a difference?

"The Taleban think the Americans are just playing around".

According to the report, observers on the front line believe America is doing the bare minimum to keep the Northern Alliance happy, but is determined not to encourage them to move on and capture Kabul.

Duncan Smith's first stand

And what of the leader of the opposition forces of the Southern Alliance here at home? - a reference by a number of parliamentary sketch writers to Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith's performance in his first Commons question time encounter with Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The verdict is hardly enthusiastic.

He did OK, according to Quentin Letts in the Mail.

He was not bad, the Guardian's Simon Hoggart agrees as at least he did not jumble his words.

Simon Carr, in the Independent, complains that he was a bit dull and had nothing much to say.

For Matthew Parris in the Times, he was a bit wooden.

There was no fancy footwork, no jokes and no attempt to trip Mr Blair.

Nobody, he says, has tried being grown up at prime minister's questions before.