Syria army quits base on strategic Aleppo road

BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Syrian army abandoned its last base near the northern town of Saraqeb after a fierce assault by rebels, further isolating the strategically important second city Aleppo from the capital.

But in a political setback to forces battling to topple President Bashar al-Assad, the United Nations said the rebels appeared to have committed a war crime after seizing the base.

The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday government troops had retreated from a post northwest of Saraqeb, leaving the town and surrounding areas “completely outside the control of regime forces”.

It was not immediately possible to verify the reported army withdrawal. Authorities restrict journalists’ access in Syria and state media made no reference to Saraqeb.

The pullout followed coordinated rebel attacks on Thursday against three military posts around Saraqeb, 50 km (30 miles) southwest of Aleppo, in which 28 soldiers were killed.

Several were shown in video footage being shot after they had surrendered.

“The allegations are that these were soldiers who were no longer combatants. And therefore, at this point it looks very likely that this is a war crime, another one,” U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said in Geneva.

“Unfortunately this could be just the latest in a string of documented summary executions by opposition factions as well as by government forces and groups affiliated with them, such as the shabbiha (pro-government militia),” he said.

Video footage of the killings showed rebels berating the captured men, calling them “Assad’s dogs”, before firing round after round into their bodies as they lay on the ground.

Rights groups and the United Nations say rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have committed war crimes during the 19-month-old conflict. It began with protests against Assad and has spiraled into a civil war which has killed 32,000 people and threatens to drag in regional powers.

The mainly Sunni Muslim rebels are supported by Sunni states including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and neighboring Turkey. Shi’ite Iran remains the strongest regional supporter of Assad, who is from the Alawite faith which is an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.

STRATEGIC BLOW

Saraqeb lies at the meeting point of Syria’s main north-south highway, linking Aleppo with Damascus, and another road connecting Aleppo to the Mediterranean port of Latakia.

With areas of rural Aleppo and border crossings to Turkey already under rebel control, the loss of Saraqeb would leave Aleppo city further cut off from Assad’s Damascus powerbase.

Any convoys using the highways from Damascus or the Mediterranean city of Latakia would be vulnerable to rebel attack. This would force the army to use smaller rural roads or send supplies on a dangerous route from Al-Raqqa in the east, according to the Observatory’s director, Rami Abdelrahman.

In response to the rebels’ territorial gains, Assad has stepped up air strikes against opposition strongholds, launching some of the heaviest raids so far against working class suburbs east of Damascus over the last week.

The bloodshed has continued unabated despite an attempted ceasefire, proposed by join U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to mark last month’s Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

In the latest in a string of fruitless international initiatives, China called on Thursday for a phased, region-by-region ceasefire and the setting up of a transitional governing body – an idea which opposition leaders hope to flesh out at a meeting in Qatar next week.

Veteran opposition leader Riad Seif has proposed a structure bringing together the rebel Free Syrian Army, regional military councils and other rebel forces alongside local civilian bodies and prominent opposition figures.

His plan, called the Syrian National Initiative, calls for four bodies to be established: the Initiative Body, including political groups, local councils, national figures and rebel forces; a Supreme Military Council; a Judicial Committee and a transitional government made up of technocrats.

The initiative has the support of Washington. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Wednesday for an overhaul of the opposition, saying it was time to move beyond the troubled Syrian National Council.

The SNC has failed to win recognition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people and Clinton said it was time to bring in “those on the front lines fighting and dying”.

(Additional reporting by Oliver Holmes in Beirut and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Editing by Jon Boyle)

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High-Tech Ways to Save on Home Energy Costs

My home energy bills keep going up — and I don’t imagine I’m alone. But in addition to the usual solutions like “turn down your thermostat” and “switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs — or better yet, LEDs”, I’ve discovered some high-tech tools that help save energy — and money.

The Department of Energy estimates that a home energy audit can cut your bills by as much as 30%. But a professional audit can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. So what can you do on your own?

First, do a visual inspection of your crawl spaces. When I had a professional energy auditor come to my house, the biggest efficiency loss they found was from heating ducts that had separated. In many homes, they find areas in the attic or under the floor that aren’t insulated at all. Nothing that you can’t discover and fix for yourself.

But I promised high tech tips. So here you go:

Infrared Thermal Leak Detector
An infrared thermal leak detector costs $ 40 and will find leaky, drafty areas that could use some new caulk or weather stripping, or even identify hidden “soft spots” in your insulation — places where insulation is missing or has settled in your walls or in other hard-to-see areas. Sure, you could walk around and feel for cool spots with you hand, but a good gadget is way more fun — and more accurate. This tool also works for hot spots in the summer; places where a lack of insulation allows air-conditioned cool air to leak out.

The “Kill-A-Watt”
Your electric bill can tell you that your costs are going up, but it can’t tell you which appliances are really to blame. Plug the “Kill-A-Watt” in between your appliances and the wall to find out how much each of your devices is really costing you. Then you can compare that number to published numbers for new appliances, to figure out how much you could save by upgrading to a more energy-efficient model.

Using the Kill-A-Watt, I found that my 15 year-old fridge uses about two kWh per day.  A new one would use about half that. If I replaced my fridge today, I could save about 40 bucks a year. For me, that’s too long a payback period, but you could easily discover that you’d save 100 bucks a year — then it starts making sense.

Programmable Thermostats
Even more than your refrigerator, heating and cooling probably take the biggest chunk out of your home energy dollar. While better insulation is almost always worth the money, here’s a much cheaper idea: With a programmable thermostat, you can set your heater or air conditioner to take a break when you’re asleep or out of the house, and turn back on just before you get home. A bare-bones model costs about $ 25; you can install it yourself; and it could pay for itself in a single month. The new NEST programmable thermostat, designed by the original designer of the iPod, is a bit pricier. But you can control it from a smart phone, and it even programs itself.

Smart Power Strips
Leaving your home entertainment system devices on all the time can add up to $ 67 a year of wasted energy. The energy-saving Smart Strip senses when you turn off your TV, and will simultaneously shut off your peripherals.
And I know I should turn off the power strip under the desk to thwart the vampire energy suckers, or at Christmas I know I should go out and turn off the lights, but I often don’t. Enter the remote control power strip. Click, and it cuts the juice.

[Related: Where to Get The Most Money for Your Used Gadgets]

Special thanks to Filmsight Productions for additional footage.

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Hurricane Sandy: why other networks passed on NBC’s telethon

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – NBC offered to let the other broadcast networks air its Hurricane Sandy telethon Friday night, but all passed and opted to pursue their own efforts to help the recovery effort, TheWrap has learned.

Every network is trying to help: ABC is devoting its entire broadcast day Monday to raising money for hurricane relief, and its parent company, Disney, has donated $ 2 million. Fox’s corporate parent, News Corp., has given $ 1 million, and TheWrap has learned that CBS is also making a $ 1 million announcement without formally announcing it. Those are only the most high-profile efforts, which also include crawls and public service announcements.

None of its rivals took NBC up on its offer to air the benefit, which was quickly assembled and would have forced them to reschedule new programming. Both CBS and ABC are airing premieres tonight. NBC had planned a rerun of “Revolution” during the telethon‘s timeslot.

The NBC special will be hosted by “Today’s” Matt Lauer and feature Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Billy Joel and NBC stars including Christina Aguilera, Jimmy Fallon and Brian Williams. (Among the non-NBC talent expected to take part is Kevin Bacon, the lead on the upcoming Fox show “The Following.”) It will air on NBC Universal stations and on HBO at 8/7c.

A person at one broadcast network, speaking on condition of anonymity, said logistical problems were one reason it passed: NBC approached other networks Wednesday, ahead of announcing the telethon Thursday morning.

Additionally, all of the other networks were airing original series in the timeslot when NBC designated the telethon to air, which meant they had more to sacrifice than NBC.

Airing the telethon would have forced CBS to preempt the season premiere of “Undercover Boss.” ABC would have had to preempt the debut of the new Wednesday comedy “Malibu Country” and the return of “Last Man Standing.” Fox would have had to preempt an episode of “Kitchen Nightmares.”

There is some precedent for all the networks coming together to air a telethon: the major broadcasters – and many other networks – aired all three “Stand Up for Cancer” specials simultaneously. But they were produced by an outside organization, not a single network.

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How Computational Models Are Improving Medicine [Video]

Click here to view the video

High-resolution electromechanical model of a heart; courtesy of N. Trayanova

The more we learn about cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer’s, the more vexingly complex they seem–and the more elusive their cures. Even with cutting-edge imaging technology, biomarker tests and genetic data, we are still far from understanding the multifaceted causes and varied developmental stages of these illnesses. With the advent of powerful computing, better modeling programs and a flood of raw biomedical data, researchers have been anticipating a leap forward in their abilities to decipher the intricate dynamics involved human disease. Now, these computational capabilities are starting to arrive, according to a new analysis published online this week in Science Translational Medicine. In fact, “the field has exploded,” Raymond Winslow, director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Computational Medicine, and co-author of the review, said in a prepared statement. Medicine and medical research largely have been focused on small specialties and narrow studies. But the body is a whole system–not isolated organ groups–and it is in constant interaction with the wider environment, including pollutants, toxins and other stressors. The resulting interactions do not only work in a single direction; instead, we have learned that there are feed-forward and feedback loops and crosstalk on cellular, molecular and genetic levels. This nexus is where advances in computational medicine are poised to make a large contribution. “Computational medicine can help you see how the pieces of the puzzle fit together to give a more holistic picture,” Winslow said. “We may never have all of the missing pieces, but will wind up with a much clearer view of what causes disease and how to treat it.” Models comparing gene expression in different patients have already successfully helped to determine different grades of prostate cancer, predict how different patients will respond to breast cancer treatment and find different types of stomach cancer. Scientists are also taking advantage of more advanced anatomical data to model whole organs and their function–and dysfunction. Using, for example, diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging, researchers can collect detailed information about heart anatomy, fiber and structure. This macro structure can be combined with more cellular-based models for “unprecedented structural and biophysical detail, including cardiac electromechanics,” the researchers noted in their paper. With this information, scientists are learning more about blood-flow dynamics, arrhythmia and heart attacks. These new models are now starting to be translated back to individual patients, to help find better treatments. Computational-medicine algorithms from detailed brain maps have already been used to develop an iPad app that is being used clinically to help doctors decide on deep brain stimulation locations and strengths. These models, however, also need to be checked frequently against real-world data and adjusted accordingly. But researchers who are armed to deal with this once unusual cross-discipline endeavor are growing more common. “There is a whole new community of people being trained in mathematics, computer science and engineering, and they are being cross-trained in biology,” Winslow said. “This allows them to bring a whole new perspective to medical diagnosis and treatment.” The myriad applications for computational medicine approaches are only beginning to be explored, the researchers noted. “As we gain confidence in the ability of computational models to predict human biological processes, they will help guide us through the complex landscape of disease, ultimately leading to more effective and reliable methods for disease diagnosis, risk stratification and therapy,” the researchers wrote. “We are poised at an exciting moment in medicine.”

Video of electromechanical heart model courtesy of N. Trayanova

Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs. Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news.
© 2012 ScientificAmerican.com. All rights reserved.

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Guinea and UAE sign bauxite supply deal

DUBAI (Reuters) – Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinee (CBG) signed a long-term supply agreement with the United Arab Emirates for the main raw material in aluminium, the Gulf country’s state news agency reported late on Friday.

“The agreement with Mubadala will make a significant contribution to Guinea‘s economy by enabling the expansion of CBG to more than 20 million metric tons of bauxite per year,” Guinean Mines Minister Mohamed Lamine Fofana was quoted as saying by the Emirates News Agency.

The agency did not report the duration or value of the contract, which was concluded between CBG and the Emirates’ investment fund Mubadala Development Co.

The Guinean company has an annual production of 13.5 million tonnes.

Fofana was also quoted as saying at a signing ceremony in Abu Dhabi that the new agreement would add $ 500 million to Guinea’s gross domestic product.

In March Fofana said Guinea had started negotiations for Mubadala to take a stake in CBG, a joint venture between Guinea, Alcoa and Rio Tinto.

Guinea is the world’s largest exporter of bauxite. The UAE’s Dubai Aluminium Co (Dubal) produces around 1 million tonnes a year of aluminium, according to Gulf business website zawya.com.

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Syrian rebels kill 28 soldiers, several executed

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Anti-government rebels killed 28 soldiers on Thursday in attacks on three army checkpoints around Saraqeb, a town on Syria’s main north-south highway, a monitoring group said.

Some of the dead were shot after they had surrendered, according to video footage. Rebels berated them, calling them “Assad’s Dogs”, before firing round after round into their bodies as they lay on the ground.

The highway linking the capital Damascus to the contested city of Aleppo, Syria’s commercial center, has been the scene of heavy fighting since rebels cut the road last month. Saraqeb lies about 40 km (25 miles) south of Aleppo

In other developments, China put forward a new initiative to resolve the 19-month-old conflict, including a phased, region-by-region ceasefire and the setting up of a transitional governing body.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said Beijing had made the proposal to international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi – whose own call for a truce over the Muslim holiday of Eid was largely ignored by both sides.

The United States meanwhile has called for an overhaul of Syria’s opposition leadership, signaling a break with the largely foreign-based Syrian National Council to bring in more credible figures.

A meeting in Qatar next week of foreign powers backing the rebels will be an opportunity to broaden the coalition against President Bashar al-Assad, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Zagreb on Wednesday.

The United States and its allies have struggled for months to craft a credible opposition coalition, while Assad has counted on the support of Russia, Iran and, to a lesser extent, China. International efforts to end the violence have all foundered.

More than 32,000 people have been killed since protests against Assad, an Alawite who succeeded his late father Hafez in ruling the mostly Sunni Muslim country, first broke out on city streets. The revolt has since degenerated into full-scale civil war, with the government forces relying heavily on artillery and air strikes to thwart the rebels.

CHECKPOINT ATTACKS

The army has lost swathes of land in Idlib and Aleppo provinces but is fighting to control towns along supply routes to Aleppo city, where its forces are fighting in many districts.

The head of the pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdelrahman, said two of the attacked checkpoints at Saraqeb were on the Damascus-Aleppo highway. The third was near a road linking Aleppo with Latakia, a port city still mostly controlled Assad’s forces.

“The rebels will not stay at the checkpoints for long as Syrian warplanes normally bomb positions after rebels move in,” Abdelrahman said.

Five rebels died in the fighting and at least 20 soldiers were killed at the third site, including those shot after surrendering, he said.

The video footage showed a group of petrified men, some bleeding, lying on the ground as rebels walked around, kicking and stamping on their captives.

One of the captured men says: “I swear I didn’t shoot anyone” to which a rebel responds: “Shut up you animal … Gather them for me.” Then the men are shot dead.

Reuters could not independently verify the footage.

The Observatory said the al Qaeda-inspired Jabhat al-Nusra rebel group was responsible for the executions.

Islamist rebel units are growing in prominence in the war – a cause for concern for international powers as they weigh up what kind of support to give the opposition.

U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration has said it is not providing arms to internal opponents of Assad and is limiting its aid to non-lethal humanitarian assistance. It concedes, however, that some of its allies are providing lethal assistance.

Russia and China have blocked three U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at increasing pressure on the Assad government, leading the United States and its allies to say they could move beyond U.N. structures for their next steps.

China has been strongly criticized by some Arab countries for failing to take a stronger stance on the conflict. Beijing has urged the Assad government to talk to the opposition and take steps to meet demands for political change.

“More and more countries have come to realize that a military option offers no way out, and a political settlement has become an increasingly shared aspiration,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in Beijing.

He said China’s new proposal was aimed at building international consensus and supporting peace envoy Brahimi’s mediation efforts.

(Additional reporting by Ayat Basma, Laila Bassam and Dominic Evans in Beirut and Terril Yue Jones in Beijing; Writing by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

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Watch the First ‘Angry Birds Star Wars’ Gameplay Scenes [VIDEO]

Rovio Entertainment is giving us the first glimpse of the gameplay in Angry Birds Star Wars ahead of its Nov. 8 release on Android and iOS.

The teaser scenes show Red Bird as Luke Skywalker and the franchise’s newest character, Pink Bird, as Princess Leia. Shot from their slingshot, they fly through intergalactic environments — the Death Star, Tatooine and more — filled with Storm Trooper Pigs.

[More from Mashable: This Is What a Disney Star Wars Universe Looks Like [COMIC]]

SEE ALSO: ‘Angry Birds’ Turns Queen’s Freddie Mercury Into an Honorary Character

Rovio previously teased Angry Birds Star Wars with a GIF, a promo video, a Tumblr blog and a few trailers, but the above video is the first look at what people will see when they download the game.

[More from Mashable: ‘Star Wars’ + Disney = Mashup Gold]

Naturally, the release will come with additional goodies such as plush toys and board games.

Angry Birds Line

Rovio promised to unveil its Angry Birds/Star Wars mashup merchandise at the Times Square Toys R Us. This was the line to get in.

Click here to view this gallery.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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‘Gossip Girl’ set for 2-hour season finale on December 17

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Get ready to shut down the rumor mill; “Gossip Girl” will officially come to an end in December.

CW’s scandalicious drama will end its six-season run with a two-hour finale on December 17 at 8 p.m., bringing an end to more than half a decade of gasp-inducing twists, the network said Wednesday.

“All will be revealed in the drama-filled series finale, featuring a look back at the unforgettable OMG moments of the series that made headlines, including interviews with the cast and creators themselves,” the network promised in a release.

The “Gossip Girl” finale will also include a sneak peek at the CW’s upcoming “Sex and the City” offshoot “The Carrie Diaries,” which will chronicle sex columnist Carrie Bradshaw‘s early years as a young woman growing up in the 1980s.

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Valeant revenue jumps, acquisitions hit net profit

(Reuters) – Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc , Canada’s biggest public drugmaker, reported a drop in quarterly net profit on Friday, hurt by costs associated with its long string of acquisitions, but revenue jumped almost 50 percent and adjusted earnings rose.

Montreal-based Valeant, whose shares were little changed after the results, has been on the acquisition trail since its 2010 takeover by Biovail Corp, which assumed the Valeant name.

One of its latest deals was the $ 2.6 billion purchase of Medicis Pharmaceuticals Corp , a top competitor in the U.S. dermatology market, in early September. Regulatory approval is still pending.

On a conference call on Friday, Valeant Chief Executive Michael Pearson said annual cost savings associated with the Medicis deal will likely “significantly exceed” his company’s $ 225 million forecast.

“It’s definitely looking good for 2013,” Morningstar analyst David Krempa said of the Medicis update. Krempa added that Valeant’s results for the third quarter, ended September 30, were in line with his expectations.

In its acquisition campaign, Valeant, with a market value of about C$ 17 billion ($ 17 billion), has favored segments where patients often pay out of pocket, such as opthalmology and dermatology, cutting its exposure to cost-sensitive insurers.

Also in September, Valeant acquired Visudyne, a drug used to treat age-related blindness, from Canadian biotech company QLT Inc for $ 112.5 million.

TRACK RECORD

Pearson gave an annual update on the performance of Valeant’s larger deals, looking at 11 acquisitions made since the fall of 2008 for purchase prices of $ 75 million or more.

He said 10 of the 11 are ahead of Valeant’s initial revenue forecast, and nine are more than 10 percent ahead on expected cash flow.

The laggard is cold and flu medicine maker Afexa, won in a takeover battle with Paladin Labs Inc last year. Pearson said Afexa’s results were held back by high inventory at the time of the acquisition, and a mild winter in Canada.

“I thought it was interesting to note that (Afexa) was the only one they had gotten into a bidding war for,” said Krempa. “They had talked in the past about how they tried to avoid bidding wars so they wouldn’t overpay for anything.”

But Krempa also said that given the short-term issues highlighted by Pearson, it might be too soon to judge the Afexa deal, and that it is small in any case.

Net income for the quarter fell to $ 7.6 million, or 2 cents a share, from $ 40.9 million, or 13 cents per share, a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, income rose to $ 357.5 million, or $ 1.15 a share, compared with $ 211.9 million, or 66 cents a share. Total revenue rose 47 percent to $ 884.1 million.

Analysts, on average, had been expecting earnings per share of $ 1.12 on revenue of $ 873.3 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

GUIDANCE

The company narrowed its forecast for the current quarter’s adjusted profit, which it calls cash earnings per share, to $ 1.30 to $ 1.35 for 2012. It had previously forecast earnings between $ 1.25 and $ 1.45 per share.

But Valeant said the updated forecast excludes a new 12 cents a share interest expense associated with the Medicis deal. If included, that cost would bring the forecast below previous guidance, to $ 1.18 to $ 1.23 a share.

For 2012 as a whole, the company cut its forecast for adjusted cash flow from operations to $ 1.2 billion to $ 1.3 billion, from more than $ 1.4 billion, citing higher investment in working capital.

Valeant’s stock was down 0.2 percent at C$ 56.44 on Friday morning on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

($ 1=$ 1.00 Canadian)

(Additional reporting by Bhaswati Mukhopadhyay in Bangalore; Editing by Janet Guttsman; and Peter Galloway)

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Rwanda sees GDP growth hit if aid doesn’t restart

KIGALI (Reuters) – Rwanda‘s economic growth could be hit if donors fail to reinstate aid payments, with the economy only able to withstand the stoppage until the end of the year, the country’s finance minister said on Friday.

The United States, Sweden and the Netherlands have all suspended some aid to Rwanda, which relies on donors for about 40 percent of its budget, over a U.N. report accusing the central African nation’s defence minister of commanding rebels in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

In September, the European Union froze further budgetary support to Rwanda. .

Another donor, Britain unblocked part of its cash in September, praising Rwanda for constructively pursuing peace.

John Rwangombwa, minister for finance and economic planning, told Reuters in an interview that he was at present unconcerned about the impact of the aid suspensions, but that if they persisted into next year, they could start hurting the economy.

“We think by the end of this year we should have resolved these issues of the donors. If it doesn’t go beyond December it won’t affect us, if it’s prolonged that’s when we will have effects,” he said.

“There’s the possibility of slowing down our economic growth because the government is part of the major players in this economy. It depends on the magnitude of the prolonged delay.”

The minister did not quantify the likely fall in growth.

Rwanda’s central bank says the economy will grow 7.7 percent this year. Output grew by 9.4 percent in its fiscal year ended June from 7.4 percent previously, thanks to robust growth across all sectors.

Like other countries in the sub-Saharan Africa region, the landlocked country has recorded robust economic growth rates in recent years, on the back of increased investments and consumption.

On Monday ratings agency Standard and Poor’s downgraded its outlook for Rwanda to stable from positive, citing the weakening in its external environment due to suspension or delay in disbursing aid.

It was the only country in east Africa that did not suffer last year from soaring inflation and steep currency weakening, faring better than its larger neighbour Uganda.

Rwanda receives about 40 percent of its budget from donors.

Rwangombwa said the only impact the aid suspensions have had so far was on the exchange rate and the delaying some expenditure programmes.

He said they had been working with the World Bank and the African Development Bank to explain the situation to donors, adding he expected the budget to be financed entirely by local resources within five years.

Five years ago, aid contributed 63 percent of the budget and that while the nominal value of donor funding had increased in recent years, its proportion has been decreasing, the minister said.

“I see in the next five years it should have gone down to around 20 percent. What we are doing in terms of increasing our development and our private sector, is we are widening our tax base,” he said.

“If minerals works out well, well and good, that will be a windfall and we will be happy to have that. But the main source of revenues is expected to be widening the tax base.”

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Mexico’s Day of Dead brings memories of missing

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Maria Elena Salazar refuses to set out plates of her missing son’s favorite foods or orange flowers as offerings for the deceased on Mexico‘s Day of the Dead, even though she hasn’t seen him in three-and-a-half years.

The 50-year-old former teacher is convinced that Hugo Gonzalez Salazar, a university graduate in marketing who worked for a telephone company, is still alive and being forced to work for a drug cartel because of his skills.

“The government, the authorities, they know it, that the gangs took them away to use as forced labor,” said Salazar of her then 24-year-old son, who disappeared in the northern city of Torreon in July 2009.

The Day of the Dead — when Mexicans traditionally visit the graves of dead relatives and leave offerings of flowers, food and candy skulls — is a difficult time for the families of the thousands of Mexicans who have disappeared amid a wave of drug-fueled violence.

With what activists call a mix of denial, hope and desperation, they refuse to dedicate altars on the Nov. 1-2 holiday to people often missing for years. They won’t accept any but the most certain proof of death, and sometimes reject even that.

Numbers vary on just how many people have disappeared in recent years. Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission says 24,000 people have been reported missing between 2000 and mid-2012, and that nearly 16,000 bodies remain unidentified.

But one thing is clear: just as there are households without Day of the Dead altars, there are thousands of graves of the unidentified dead scattered across the country, with no one to remember them.

An investigation conducted by the newspaper Milenio this week, involving hundreds of information requests to state and municipal governments, indicates that 24,102 unidentified bodies were buried in paupers’ or common graves in Mexican cemeteries since 2006. The number is almost certainly incomplete, since some local governments refused to provide figures, Milenio reported.

And while the number of unidentified dead probably includes some indigents, Central American migrants or dead unrelated to the drug war, it is clear that cities worst hit by the drug conflict also usually showed a corresponding bulge in the number of unidentified cadavers. For example, Mexico City, which has been relatively unscathed by drug violence, listed about one-third as many unidentified burials as the city of Veracruz, despite the fact that Mexico City’s population is about 15 times larger.

Consuelo Morales , who works with dozens of families of disappeared in the northern city of Monterrey, said that “holidays like this, that are family affairs and are very close to our culture, stir a lot of things up” for the families. But many refuse to accept the deaths of their loved ones, sometimes even after DNA testing confirms a match with a cadaver.

“They’ll say to you, ‘I’m not going to put up an altar, because they’re not dead,” Martinez noted. “Their thinking is that ‘until they prove to me that my child is dead, he is alive.”

Martinez says one family she works with at the Citizens in Support of Human Rights center had refused to accept their son was dead, even after three rounds of DNA testing and the exhumation of the remains.

“It was their son, he was very young, and he had been burned alive,” Martinez said by way of explanation.

The refusal to accept what appears inevitable may be a matter of desperation. Martinez said some families in Monterrey also believe their missing relatives are being held as virtual slaves for the cartels, even though federal prosecutors say they have never uncovered any kind of drug cartel forced-labor camp, in the six years since Mexico launched an offensive against the cartels.

But many people like Salazar believe it must be true. “Organized crime is a business, but it can’t advertise for employees openly, so it has to take them by force,” Salazar said.

While she refuses to erect an altar-like offering for her son, she does perform other rituals that mirror the Day of the Dead customs, like the one that involves scattering a trail of flower petals to the doorsteps of houses to guide spirits of the departed back home once a year.

Salazar and her family still live in the same home in Torreon, though they’d like to move, in the hopes that Hugo will return there. They pray three times a day for God to guide him home.

“We live in the same place, and we try to do the same things we used to,” said Salazar, “because he is going to come back to his place, his home, and we have to be waiting for him.”

Mistrust of officials has risen to such a point that some families may never get an answer they’ll accept.

The problem is that, with forensics procedures often sadly lacking in Mexican police forces, the dead my never be connected with the living, which is the whole point of the Mexican traditions.

“As long as the authorities don’t prove the opposite, for us they’re still alive,” Salazar said. “Let them prove it, but let us have some certainty, not just the authorities saying ‘here he is.’ We don’t the government to just give us bodies that aren’t theirs, and that has happened.”

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Citi banking site briefly down, bank declines to discuss cause

BOSTON (Reuters) – Some of Citigroup Inc‘s banking sites went down for about half an hour on Wednesday, making its online banking system temporarily inaccessible to customers, some of whom were housebound in the wake of giant storm Sandy.

Bank spokesman Andrew Brent said the outage also affected applications for mobile devices such as the iPad, but that all sites and apps had been restored to service.

It was not clear what caused the problem, which occurred after the New York-based bank moved some of its operations to backup facilities. Its lower Manhattan buildings used for trading and investment banking were closed on Wednesday as the city struggled to recover from the historic storm.

Brent declined to say if the outage was caused by fallout from Sandy or other issues.

Citi, Bank of America Corp, JPMorgan Chase & Co and other U.S. banks have repeatedly been attacked by Iranian hackers over the past year as part of a broad cyber campaign targeting the United States, according to people familiar with the situation.

The industry kept that campaign a secret until last month after a group that calls itself the Cyber Fighters of Izz ad-din Al Qassam began claiming credit for a spree of high-profile attacks that caused temporary outages at major U.S. banks.

The hackers behind the attacks have used sophisticated and diverse tools that point to a carefully coordinated campaign, security researchers have told Reuters.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle in Boston; Additional reporting by Rick Rothacker and David Henry in New York; Editing by Tim Dobbyn and Dan Grebler)

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The Devil’s General? German film seeks to debunk Rommel myth

BERLIN (Reuters) – Erwin Rommel, the World War Two German field marshal celebrated as the brilliant and humane “Desert Fox“, is portrayed in a new film as a weak man torn by his loyalty to Adolf Hitler and the dawning realization that he was serving a devil.

The drama, due to be broadcast on the public ARD television on Thursday, has angered Rommel‘s son and granddaughter who believe it underplays his role in the resistance against Hitler.

Rommel was forced to commit suicide in 1944 after Hitler suspected the general of being linked to the July 1944 plot to kill him, though historians disagree about how close he was to the failed assassination attempt.

Nazi propaganda feted Rommel as a military genius after his successful, bold offensives against the Allies in North Africa from 1941 until late 1942 when his Afrikakorps was defeated at El Alamein, a battle commemorated in London last week by the dwindling band of surviving British and Commonwealth veterans.

Even wartime British Prime Minister Winston Churchill hailed Rommel as a “great general”.

Rommel’s standing among his enemies was enhanced by his humane treatment of prisoners. The Afrikakorps eschewed the atrocities committed by the German army in other theatres of war, especially on the Eastern Front.

By 1944, in Normandy trying to defend the coast from an impending Allied landing, Rommel realized the war was lost and grew disillusioned. Despite having links to some of the plotters, he never joined the abortive July 20, 1944 conspiracy to assassinate Hitler.

“The idea is to demystify Rommel,” producer Nico Hofmann told Reuters.

“There is a lot of speculation surrounding the myth of Rommel. To some he is a brave, proud soldier, the ‘Desert Fox’. Some people don’t know he committed suicide under pressure from Hitler and think he perished in the war and there are many questions about how close he was to the resistance.”

“These are taboos, subjects for discussion and historical evaluation,” he said.

Film director Niki Stein described Rommel as a “weak man” who chose to look away and many historians say he was primarily bent on serving Hitler to advance his career.

Rommel’s family has denounced the script of the 6 million euro film which focuses on his growing internal conflict during the seven months of his life leading up to his death.

His son, Manfred – who was 15 when his father died and is now 83 – and granddaughter wrote to the producers last year accusing the script of the film “Rommel” of presenting “lies”.

They argued that he played a greater role in the resistance than the producers believed, said Hofmann.

The family have declined to talk to media about the film.

CYANIDE ULTIMATUM

Historians say the film is important as it will show millions of viewers the dramatic last months of the general’s life and the dilemma faced by many Germans who felt a sense of duty to their country, but were disenchanted with Hitler.

“Please watch, this film explains a little how it was back then with our grandparents, with Hitler, with fear, with joining in,” wrote a columnist in top-selling Bild daily, which has been serializing Rommel’s life.

“The Rommel film shows how a man believes he is serving a king and realizes too late that he is a devil.”

Other newspapers have also run long articles on the Rommel figure and the authoritative weekly Der Spiegel splashed “The Myth of Erwin Rommel” on its cover this week.

The film shows how a conflicted general, who was one of the Nazi regime’s biggest propaganda tools, gradually turned against Hitler. In line with the historical evidence, it leaves open his role in the plot against Hitler led by Claus von Stauffenberg.

Although he had contact with some of those involved, his son has written that he knew nothing of the assassination attempt.

Rommel was wounded by a Spitfire attack on his staff car days before the July 20 coup attempt, but soon after the plot ringleaders were executed Hitler grew suspicious about him.

Realizing the potential damage of putting Rommel on trial for treason, Hitler sent two officers to put an ultimatum to his once favorite general: if he wanted his wife and son to be looked after, he should swallow a cyanide capsule.

Hitler wrote to his widow and gave the field marshal a state funeral with his coffin draped in a swastika flag.

“I don’t see him as a hero. He is a tragic figure. He was a weak man drawn into an incredible internal conflict,” Stein, the director and author of the screenplay, told Reuters.

“I hope young Germans watch. We’re talking about our grandparents. It explains a lot about the way people act in a dictatorship.”

With popular actor Ulrich Tukur playing the main role, Stein thinks people will identify with Rommel but not necessarily sympathize with him. “Perhaps they will be shocked when they realize he is not so clean,” he said.

Underscoring the many contradictions of his character, Rommel’s legacy has shifted over the years.

Immediately after World War Two, Germans latched on to the myth of Rommel as a “soldier’s soldier” who had no close links to Nazi ideology and was forced to kill himself by the regime.

Much was made of the behavior of his Afrikakorps and his decision to disobey Hitler’s “victory or death” order at El Alamein and instead oversee a retreat which saved many lives.

“By the 1970s a German destroyer and army barracks were named after him,” said history Professor Soenke Neitzel, who has written about Rommel and advised the filmmakers.

He was favorably portrayed in 1951 by James Mason in “The Desert Fox”, which gave prominence to his disputed role in the von Stauffenberg plot.

But many historians say it is implausible that a field marshal who regularly met top Nazis, including Hitler, did not know of the Holocaust, a point critics say the film brushes over.

“On the one hand he didn’t commit war crimes that we know of and ordered a retreat at El Alamein despite Hitler’s order,” said Neitzel.

“But he took huge German casualties elsewhere and he was a servant of the regime. He was not exactly a shining liberal or Social Democrat. Mostly, he was interested in his career.”

(Editing by Jon Hemming)

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La desvenlafaxina actúa contra los sofocos: estudio

NUEVA YORK (Reuters Health) – El antidepresivo

desvenlafaxina (Pristiq, de Pfizer) reduce los sofocos en las

mujeres postmenopáusicas, según señala un equipo médico.

A pesar de este resultado, que surge de un subestudio de un

ensayo aleatorio, la Administración de Alimentos y Medicamentos

de Estados Unidos (FDA, por su sigla en inglés) rechazó la

solicitud de Pfizer de aprobación de desvenlafaxina para el

tratamiento de los síntomas vasomotores de la menopausia, como

los sofocos, moderados a graves.

“El único tratamiento que aprobó la FDA para los sofocos de

la menopausia es la terapia con estrógeno”, dijo por e-mail la

autora principal, doctora JoAnn V. Pinkerton. “Las mujeres

necesitan alternativas no hormonales. Necesitan opciones”.

En Menopause, el equipo de Pinkerton, del Sistema de Salud

de University of Virginia, Charlottesville, publica los

resultados de un subestudio de efectividad de 12 semanas de

duración durante un estudio de un año con desvenlafaxina.

El grupo a tratar incluía 365 mujeres que, al azar, tomaron

100 mg/día de desvenlafaxina o placebo. Comparado con el

placebo, el fármaco redujo significativamente la cantidad y la

gravedad de los sofocos a la cuarta y la decimosegunda semanas.

A la semana número 12, desvenlafaxina redujo un 62 por

ciento la cantidad diaria de sofocos moderados y graves,

mientras que el placebo lo hizo un 38 por ciento, mientras que

la gravedad de los síntomas disminuyó, respectivamente un 25 y

12 por ciento.

Los autores analizaron también “una diferencia clínicamente

poco significativa”, es decir, una reducción de 5,35 sofocos

moderados y graves por día. Este resultado se obtuvo en el 64

por ciento de las mujeres tratadas con desvenlafaxina y en el 41

por ciento del grupo control.

“La desvenlafaxina es un tratamiento no hormonal seguro,

bien tolerado y efectivo, con reducciones estadísticamente y

clínicamente significativas de la frecuencia y la gravedad de

los sofocos en las mujeres postmenopáusicas con sofocos de

rápida aparición”, afirmó el equipo.

Pfizer retiró su solicitud de la FDA en febrero, pero el

producto sigue disponible para tratar el trastorno depresivo

mayor.

Pinkerton agregó por e-mail: “Es importante desarrollar

alternativas porque hasta el 75 por ciento de las mujeres padece

sofocos en la menopausia y el 25 por ciento de ellas necesita un

tratamiento”.

La autora comentó también que existen otros remedios no

hormonales. Dijo a Reuters Health que con su equipo evaluó la

gabapentina de liberación extendida (Serada, de Depomed) versus

placebo en un ensayo durante 24 semanas con 600 mujeres

postmenopáusicas.

La frecuencia y la intensidad de los sofocos disminuyeron

con gabapentina a las 12 y 24 semanas, y los sofocos “mejoraron

mucho” o “mejoraron” a las 24 semanas.

Los resultados fueron presentados este mes en la reunión

anual de la Sociedad Norteamericana de Menopausia. También este

mes, la FDA aceptó una nueva solicitud de aprobación para

Serada.

FUENTE: Menopause, online 25 de octubre del 2012

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Wall Street up 1 percent boosted by data

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks climbed 1 percent on Thursday after both weekly jobless claims and data on growth in private-sector jobs pointed to improving labor market conditions a day before the government’s closely watched monthly jobs report.

Equities extended gains throughout the morning, though volume remained in the aftermath of the massive storm Sandy in the U.S. northeast, which forced a historic two-day market closure at the beginning of the week.

Weekly jobless claims unexpectedly fell in the latest week, dropping to 363,000 from a revised 372,000 in the previous week. Separately, payrolls processor ADP reported that private employers added 158,000 in October, far more than had been expected. The ADP report was based on a different methodology than previous months, which could impact comparisons.

“There is a general trend of things getting more positive, which should help stocks and the economy at large going forward,” said Bruce McCain, chief investment strategist at Key Private Bank in Cleveland, Ohio.

Markets are still recovering from the aftermath of Sandy, which wreaked havoc up and down the U.S. eastern seaboard and forced financial markets to close Monday and Tuesday. Trading could still be volatile, with many market participants unable to reach their offices and some working from home amid ongoing power outages and limited mass transit.

Still, some stocks sparked heavy trading.

JDA Software Group , a maker of supply-chain management software, soared 17 percent to $ 44.79 after it agreed to be bought by privately held rival RedPrairie Corp for about $ 1.9 billion in cash.

Pfizer Inc , which delayed the release of its quarterly results because of the storm, posted revenue that fell far short of expectations, sending shares down 1.3 percent to $ 24.55. Exxon Mobil Corp , which like Pfizer is a Dow component, slipped 0.2 percent after reporting a drop in quarterly profit. Exxon‘s profit topped expectations, but its oil and gas output declined more than expected.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was up 158.32 points, or 1.21 percent, at 13,254.78. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index <.SPX> was up 14.48 points, or 1.03 percent, at 1,426.64. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> was up 40.79 points, or 1.37 percent, at 3,018.02.

It was the best daily gain for both the Dow and S&P 500 since September 13 and comes after the S&P fell 2 percent in October, breaking a four-month streak of gains.

In other economic data, private industry group the Conference Board reported U.S. consumer confidence rose to a four-year high in October, at 72.2, though the result was slightly under expectations. The government reported construction spending rose 0.6 percent in September, as forecast. A private survey showed U.S. manufacturing conditions rose in September to the best levels since May.

Overseas markets were higher, with Europe boosted by strong results from such companies as Royal Dutch Shell and Chinese shares posting their strongest daily gains in more than three weeks on bullish data.

U.S. shares of Sony Corp rose 0.5 percent to $ 11.80 after the Japanese company posted a profit in its latest quarter and affirmed its full-year view.

(Editing by Leslie Adler)

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Syrian air force on offensive after failed truce

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian warplanes bombed rebel targets with renewed intensity on Tuesday after the end of a widely ignored four-day truce between President Bashar al-Assad‘s forces and insurgents.

State television said “terrorists” had assassinated an air force general, Abdullah Mahmoud al-Khalidi, in a Damascus suburb, the latest of several rebel attacks on senior officials.

In July, a bomb killed four of Assad‘s aides, including his brother-in-law Assef Shawkat and the defense minister.

Air strikes hit eastern suburbs of Damascus, outlying areas in the central city of Homs, and the northern rebel-held town of Maarat al-Numan on the Damascus-Aleppo highway, activists said.

Rebels have been attacking army bases in al-Hamdaniya and Wadi al-Deif, on the outskirts of Maarat al-Numan.

Some activists said 28 civilians had been killed in Maarat al-Numan and released video footage of men retrieving a toddler’s body from a flattened building. The men cursed Assad as they dragged the dead girl, wearing a colorful overall, from the debris. The footage could not be independently verified.

The military has shelled and bombed Maarat al-Numan, 300 km (190 miles) north of Damascus, since rebels took it last month.

“The rebels have evacuated their positions inside Maarat al-Numaan since the air raids began. They are mostly on the frontline south of the town,” activist Mohammed Kanaan said.

Maarat al-Numan and other Sunni towns in northwestern Idlib province are mostly hostile to Assad’s ruling system, dominated by his minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.

Two rebels were killed and 10 wounded in an air strike on al-Mubarkiyeh, 6 km (4 miles) south of Homs, where rebels have besieged a compound guarding a tank maintenance facility.

Opposition sources said the facility had been used to shell Sunni villages near the Lebanese border.

“WE’LL FIX IT”

The army also fired mortar bombs into the Damascus district of Hammouria, killing at least eight people, activists said.

One video showed a young girl in Hammouria with a large shrapnel wound in her forehead sitting dazed while a doctor said: “Don’t worry dear, we’ll fix it for you.”

Syria’s military, stretched thin by the struggle to keep control, has increasingly used air power against opposition areas, including those in the main cities of Damascus and Aleppo. Insurgents lack effective anti-aircraft weapons.

U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has said he will pursue his peace efforts despite the failure of his appeal for a pause in fighting for the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday.

But it is unclear how he can find any compromise acceptable to Assad, who seems determined to keep power whatever the cost, and mostly Sunni Muslim rebels equally intent on toppling him.

Big powers and Middle Eastern countries are divided over how to end the 19-month-old conflict which has cost an estimated 32,000 dead, making it one of the bloodiest of Arab revolts that have ousted entrenched leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

The United Nations said it had sent a convoy of 18 trucks with food and other aid to Homs during the “ceasefire”, but had been unable to unload supplies in the Old City due to fighting.

“We were trying to take advantage of positive signs we saw at the end of last week. The truce lasted more or less four hours so there was not much opportunity for us after all,” said Jens Laerke, a U.N. spokesman in Geneva.

The prime minister of the Gulf state of Qatar told al-Jazeera television late on Monday that Syria’s conflict was not a civil war but “a war of annihilation licensed firstly by the Syrian government and secondly by the international community”.

Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said some of those responsible were on the U.N. Security Council, alluding to Russia and China which have vetoed three Western-backed U.N. draft resolutions condemning Assad.

He said that the West was also not doing enough to stop the violence and that the United States would be in “paralysis” for two or three weeks during its presidential election.

(Additional reporting by Raissa Kasolowsky in Abu Dhabi and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Writing by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

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Facebook shares fall as lock-up period expires

(Reuters) – Facebook Inc shares fell 4 percent in busy trade early on Wednesday as the company allowed employees to start selling some stock.

The world’s largest social network waived a provision that prevented employees from selling shares until November 14. As a result, Facebook staffers were able to sell their vested shares on Monday. [ID:nL2E8K4E8Y] About 234 million shares held by employees were eligible for sale in the public market.

However, because the markets were closed on Monday and Tuesday in the wake of powerful storm Sandy, Wednesday was the first trading day.

“I don’t really understand why Facebook (chose) to unlock virtually all of its compensation within the year of its IPO, but they did,” said Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Securities.

“They made a mistake and set the company up for volatility.”

More than 1 billion Facebook shares held by employees, insiders and early investors are set to become available for trading by year’s end.

Facebook suffered a painful public debut earlier this year, as investors worried about the company’s ability to keep up revenue growth and the large pool of additional shares in the lock-up that are now hitting the market.

Wall Street also has cast a gimlet eye on Facebook and its ability to attract mobile revenue as more people turn to smartphones and tablet devices to access the Web.

Last week, Facebook said it increased mobile advertising revenue at a faster than expected pace, totaling $ 150 million in the third quarter. Estimates had pegged mobile revenue at $ 40 million to $ 50 million in the second quarter.

Shares of Facebook are down more than 40 percent since the IPO. The stock was down 3.8 percent at $ 21.11 on Wednesday morning, off an earlier low at $ 20.73.

(Reporting By Jennifer Saba; editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Claudia Parsons and Matthew Lewis)

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“Community” returning to old time slot in February

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – “Community” will return Thursday, February 7 to its previous timeslot after a long absence from NBC‘s lineup.

NBC confirmed the show’s return date soon after star Yvette Nicole Brown, who plays Shirley on the ensemble comedy, announced the news on Twitter.

“Guys, #Community officially has an airdate: Thursday, February 7th at 8pm!,” tweeted the actress. NBC also announced several others return and premiere dates Tuesday.

The move means the network has abandoned its plans to move the show to Friday nights. “Community” will take the place of “30 Rock,” which will have completed its 13-episode final season by February.

“Community” was scheduled to move to Fridays beginning on October 19. But NBC opted to delay the Friday debut of “Community” and “Whitney” so it could devote itself to promoting its new fall comedies.

When one of them, “Animal Practice,” was cancelled, its timeslot went to “Whitney,” and the fate of “Community” was left up in the air.

Despite the long delay – “Community” hasn’t aired since the spring – the Thursday timeslot is good news for the show since Fridays usually draw much lower ratings.

NBC fired “Community” creator and showrunner Dan Harmon at the end of last season. Though it is critically acclaimed and has many diehard fans online, that hasn’t translated into many viewers.

NBC’s entertainment chairman has said that the network wants to focus more this season on broad comedies than on its quick-witted but odd Thursday shows, which tend to struggle for ratings.

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Canada, Switzerland lift ban on Novartis flu vaccines

ZURICH (Reuters) – Canadian and Swiss health authorities lifted a ban on Novartis‘s flu vaccines on Wednesday after the drugmaker showed they posed no risk to safety.

Italy last week banned the sale of four anti-influenza vaccines produced by Novartis pending tests for possible side effects after small particles were found in some of the injections.

Other countries including Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Spain and France followed suit by suspending deliveries, recommending the use of alternative products or recalling batches of the vaccines.

Swissmedic and Health Canada said information from Novartis and their own testing had shown that white particles found in the vaccines were normal clumps of protein particles and did not indicate a safety issue.

“According to the scientific data presented to us, the safety of the vaccines is not compromised by the stray aggregates,” Swissmedic said in a statement.

Novartis’ Chief Executive Joseph Jimenez said last week he was confident the vaccines were safe after the company reported third-quarter sales that missed forecasts.

The drugmaker said on Wednesday it was pleased with the Canadian and Swiss decisions and was working with other national health authorities to address concerns and resume deliveries.

Italy‘s drug safety authority said it was still reviewing the results of tests on Novartis’s anti-influenza vaccines, but is “cautiously positive” about being able to lift a ban on some lots in coming days.

Novartis’s vaccines Fluad and Agrippal, which are manufactured at a production site in Italy, were banned in Switzerland and Canada. Italy has also withdrawn subunit Influpozzi and adjuvanted Influpozzi.

Germany’s vaccine agency said it had retracted approval of some lots of Novartis’s vaccines Begripal and Fluad, meaning those particular lots could not be released onto the market.

Austria’s health ministry said it is maintaining for now its advice for physicians to avoid using Novartis’s Fluad and Sandovac in favor of other products.

(Reporting by Caroline Copley. Additional reporting by Steve Scherer in Rome, Angelika Gruber in Vienna and Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt; Editing by David Cowell)

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Sandy Grounds Northeast Air Travel

Anyone hoping to fly to or from the northeastern U.S. today was largely out of luck, and Wednesday won’t be much better, at least around New York City. The federal government and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey closed the area’s three main airports (John F. Kennedy International, Newark Liberty, and LaGuardia) on Monday over flooding caused by Hurricane Sandy, and while it’s unclear when traffic may resume, the major carriers do not expect to return their planes to the city before Thursday.

Here’s an FAA map of the airports’ current status. A black dot means an airport is closed.

“It’s just water, water everywhere,” says Michelle Mohr, a spokeswoman for US Airways (LCC), which parked about 85 planes at its Charlotte hub and a roughly equal number in Pittsburgh ahead of the storm on Monday. Airlines such as United (UAL), Delta (DAL), and American are aiming to restore service in Washington, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore late Tuesday and Wednesday, but the outlook for New York remains dimmer given worse flooding.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he expected JFK would reopen on Wednesday, but LaGuardia would not. LaGuardia, which is closer to Manhattan, is a favorite for business travelers and the site of near-hourly shuttle services to Washington and Boston. Both airports are adjacent to large bays, with runways that sit beside water. One of LaGuardia’s runways was built partly over Flushing Bay.

Airlines canceled nearly 6,200 flights on Tuesday at the eight largest Northeast airports, down slightly from Monday at the height of the storm, according to data from FlightView, a flight-tracking software firm in Newton, Mass. Since Sandy began its northward trek from the Caribbean, airlines have scrubbed more than 16,200 flights, according to flight tracker FlightStats.

Airlines worked over the weekend to get their jets out of New York ahead of the pending storm and to rebook passengers. Most airlines allowed passengers with travel reservations through Nov. 1 to alter their plans, which reduced airport strandings. “Folks, in general, got a sense that this was going to be a real storm and got their plans in order,” Mohr says.

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Cuba’s 2nd city without power, water after Sandy

HAVANA (AP) — Residents of Cuba‘s second-largest city of Santiago remained without power or running water Monday, four days after Hurricane Sandy made landfall as the island’s deadliest storm in seven years, ripping rooftops from homes and toppling power lines.

Across the Caribbean, the storm’s death toll rose to 69, including 52 people in Haiti, 11 in Cuba, two in the Bahamas, two in the Dominican Republic, one in Jamaica and one in Puerto Rico.

Cuban authorities have not yet estimated the economic toll, but the Communist Party newspaper Granma reported there was “severe damage to housing, economic activity, fundamental public services and institutions of education, health and culture.”

Yolanda Tabio, a native of Santiago, said she had never seen anything like it in all her 64 years: Broken hotel and shop windows, trees blown over onto houses, people picking through piles of debris for a scrap of anything to cover their homes. On Sunday, she sought solace in faith.

“The Mass was packed. Everyone crying,” said Tabio, whose house had no electricity, intermittent phone service and only murky water coming out of the tap on Monday. “I think it will take five to ten years to recover. … But we’re alive.”

Sandy came onshore early Thursday just west of Santiago, a city of about 500,000 people in agricultural southeastern Cuba. It is the island’s deadliest storm since 2005′s Hurricane Dennis, a category 5 monster that killed 16 people and did $ 2.4 billion in damage. More than 130,000 homes were damaged by Sandy, including 15,400 that were destroyed, Granma said.

“It really shocked me to see all that has been destroyed and to know that for many people, it’s the effort of a whole lifetime,” said Maria Caridad Lopez, a media relations officer at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese in Santiago. “And it disappears in just three hours.”

Lopez said several churches in the area collapsed and nearly all suffered at least minor damage. That included the Santiago cathedral as well as one of the holiest sites in Cuba, the Sanctuary of the Virgin del Cobre. Sandy’s winds blew out its stained glass windows and damaged its massive doors.

“It’s indescribable,” said Berta Serguera, an 82-year-old retiree whose home withstood the tempest but whose patio and garden did not. “The trees have been shredded as if with a saw. My mango only has a few branches left, and they look like they were shaved.”

On Monday, sound trucks cruised the streets urging people to boil drinking water to prevent infectious disease. Soldiers worked to remove rubble and downed trees from the streets. Authorities set up radios and TVs in public spaces to keep people up to date on relief efforts, distributed chlorine to sterilize water and prioritized electrical service to strategic uses such as hospitals and bakeries.

Enrique Berdion, a 45-year-old doctor who lives in central Santiago, said his small apartment building did not suffer major damage but he had been without electricity, water or gas for days.

“This was something I’ve never seen, something extremely intense, that left Santiago destroyed. Most homes have no roofs. The winds razed the parks, toppled all the trees,” Berdion said by phone. “I think it will take years to recover.”

Raul Castro, who toured Cuba’s hardest-hit regions on Sunday, warned of a long road to recovery.

Granma said the president called on the country to urgently implement “temporary solutions,” and “undoubtedly the definitive solution will take years of work.”

Venezuela sent nearly 650 of tons of aid, including nonperishable food, potable water and heavy machinery both to Cuba and to nearby Haiti, which was not directly in the storm’s path but suffered flash floods across much of the country’s south.

Across the Caribbean, work crews were repairing downed power lines and cracked water pipes and making their way into rural communities marooned by impassable roads. The images were similar from eastern Jamaica to the northern Bahamas: Trees ripped from the ground, buildings swamped by floodwaters and houses missing roofs.

Fixing soggy homes may be a much quicker task than repairing the financial damage, and island governments were still assessing Sandy’s economic impact on farms, housing and infrastructure.

In tourism-dependent countries like Jamaica and the Bahamas, officials said popular resorts sustained only superficial damage, mostly to landscaping.

Haiti, where even minor storms can send water gushing down hills denuded of trees, listed a death toll of 52 as of Monday and officials said it could still rise. Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe has described the storm as a “disaster of major proportions.”

In Jamaica, where Sandy made landfall first on Wednesday as a Category 1 hurricane, people coped with lingering water and power outages with mostly good humor.

“Well, we mostly made it out all right. I thought it was going to be rougher, like it turned out for other places,” laborer Reginald Miller said as he waited for a minibus at a sunbaked Kingston intersection.

In parts of the Bahamas, the ocean surged into coastal buildings and deposited up to six feet of seawater. Sandy was blamed for two deaths on the archipelago off Florida’s east coast, including a British bank executive who fell off his roof while trying to fix a window shutter and an elderly man found dead beneath overturned furniture in his flooded, low-lying home.

___

Associated Press writers Anne-Marie Garcia in Havana, David McFadden in Kingston, Jamaica, and Jeff Todd in Nassau, Bahamas, contributed to this report.

___

Peter Orsi is on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Peter_Orsi

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