WASHINGTON?A New York woman died of inhalation anthrax Wednesday, the fourth person to perish in a spreading wave of bioterrorism. A co-worker underwent tests for a suspicious skin lesion, heightening concern the disease was spreading outside the mail system.

Despite an intensive four week investigation by the FBI and health experts, Attorney General John Ashcroft said, “I have no progress to report” in identifying the culprits or preventing further attacks.

“I think for the American people it’s frightening, it’s scary,” conceded White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, as authorities also reported a new suspected case of skin anthrax involving a New Jersey postal worker and closed the facility where he works.

And there was cause for some optimism in the nation’s capital, Dr. Patrick Meehan of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said no new cases of the disease had been reported in Washington for several days.