December 19, 2001

Federal health officials will offer military's anthrax vaccine, as well as extra medicine, to thousands of Capitol Hill workers and postal employees who were exposed and remain at slight risk even after 60-day antibiotic treatment; shots will be made available as part of experimental study run by Centers for Disease Control, first time government has offered ordinary citizens vaccine against biological weapon; Sec Tommy Thompson explains 'abundance of caution'; few studies in monkeys have found that spores can linger in lungs 75 days after exposure, and that vaccine protected animals; potential side effects, mostly minor, noted (M)

Industrial production in 12-nation euro zone falls by estimated 1.4 percent in October compared with previous month (S)

Sales of consumer electronic products are selling well in what appears to be bleak holiday shopping season for retailers; Best Buy and Circuit City, which specialize in electronics, are doing better than expected; graphs; photo (M)

LTV, a Big Steel Maker, To Close Unless Aid Arrives LTV, one of the nation's biggest steel makers, will soon shut its doors, barring a government-supplied miracle. If a government-backed loan does not arrive by today, the company will ask a bankruptcy judge to end its labor contract. A shutdown would leave nearly 70,000 retirees and recent employees with no or reduced pensions and health care benefits and force the government to pick up at least some of the tab for what remains. [Page C2.]

Toshiba Corp abandons commodity memory chip business to concentrate on custom-designed chips, where profit margins are higher; will sell plant in US to Micro Technologies and scrap proposed alliance with Infineon Technologies; is considering whether to halt production of dynamic random access memory chip in Japan by June 2002; photo (M)