1.   It is hoped that those costs will be recovered in more efficient mail handling.

2.   Lawyers are getting calls about security, mail handling, employee privacy and harassment of Middle Easterners in the workplace.

3.   The high absenteeism, postal officials said, has contributed to delays in handling the mail, as has shutting down the four tainted sorting machines.

4.   Postal officials called such mail handling unacceptable.

5.   Navy spokesmen aboard the ship would not say what precautions were being taken in mail handling.

6.   She was not able to be interviewed and investigators have not been able to link her infection to the postal service or to mail handling.

7.   The latest cases raise new questions about the potential for infection beyond mail handling, though officials cautioned that no conclusions could yet be drawn.