Algerian army stages "final assault" on gas plant


ALGIERS/IN AMENAS, Algeria (Reuters) - The Algerian army carried out a dramatic final assault to end a siege by Islamist militants at a desert gas plant on Saturday in which 23 hostages were killed, many of them believed to be foreigners, the interior ministry said.


Thirty-two al Qaeda-linked militants were killed in the army operation to recapture the complex, according to a provisional toll from the ministry. A statement said 107 foreign hostages and 685 Algerian hostages had survived.


Militants seized the remote compound in the Sahara desert before dawn on Wednesday, taking a large number of hostages, including foreigner workers, and booby-trapped the compound with explosives.


The crisis marked a serious escalation of unrest in northwestern Africa, where French forces have been in Mali since last week fighting an Islamist takeover of Timbuktu and other towns.


The gas plant near the town of In Amenas was home to expatriate workers from Britain's BP, Norway's Statoil, Japanese engineering firm JGC Corp and others. One American and one British citizen have been confirmed dead.


British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Saturday he feared for the lives of five British citizens still unaccounted for. Statoil said five of its workers, all Norwegian nationals, were still missing. Japanese and American workers are also unaccounted for.


"We feel a deep and growing unease ... we fear that over the next few days we will receive bad news," Statoil Chief Executive Helge Lund said on Saturday. "People we have spoken to describe unbelievable, horrible experiences."


The Islamists' attack has tested Algeria's relations with the outside world, exposed the vulnerability of multinational oil operations in the Sahara and pushed Islamist radicalism in northern Africa to centre stage.


British Foreign Secretary William Hague confirmed that Algerian military operations at the plant had been concluded.


"We understand that the site is not yet fully safe because of hazards such as booby traps and so they are still working on that," Hague said.


Some Western governments expressed frustration at not being informed of the Algerian authorities' plans to storm the complex. Algeria's response to the raid will have been conditioned by the legacy of a civil war against insurgents in the 1990s which claimed 200,000 lives.


HOSTAGES FREED


As the army closed in, 16 foreign hostages were freed, a source close to the crisis said. They included two Americans and one Portuguese.


BP's chief executive Bob Dudley said on Saturday four of its 18 workers at the site were missing. The remaining 14 were safe.


The captors said their attack on the Algerian gas plant was a response to the French offensive in Mali. However, officials say the elaborate raid would have been planned well before France launched its strikes.


Scores of Westerners and hundreds of Algerian workers were inside the heavily fortified gas compound when it was seized on Wednesday.


Hundreds escaped on Thursday when the army launched a rescue operation, but many hostages were killed.


Before the interior ministry released its provisional death toll, an Algerian security source said eight Algerians and at least seven foreigners were among the victims, including two Japanese, two Britons and a French national. One British citizen was killed when the gunmen seized the hostages on Wednesday.


The U.S. State Department said on Friday one American, Frederick Buttaccio, had died but gave no further details.


U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said nobody was going to attack the United States and get away with it.


"We have made a commitment that we're going to go after al Qaeda wherever they are and wherever they try to hide," he said during a visit to London. "We have done that obviously in Afghanistan, Pakistan, we've done it in Somalia, in Yemen and we will do it in North Africa as well."


BURNED BODIES


Earlier on Saturday, Algerian special forces found 15 unidentified burned bodies at the plant, a source told Reuters.


The field commander of the group that attacked the plant is a fighter from Niger called Abdul Rahman al-Nigeri, according to Mauritanian news agencies. His boss, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a veteran of fighting in Afghanistan and Algeria's civil war of the 1990s, appears not to have joined the raid.


Britain, Japan and other countries have expressed irritation that the army assault was ordered without consultation and officials grumbled at the lack of information.


But French President Francois Hollande said the Algerian military's response seemed to have been the best option given that negotiation was not possible.


"When you have people taken hostage in such large number by terrorists with such cold determination and ready to kill those hostages - as they did - Algeria has an approach which to me, as I see it, is the most appropriate because there could be no negotiation," Hollande said.


The apparent ease with which the fighters swooped in from the dunes to take control of an important energy facility, which produces some 10 percent of the natural gas on which Algeria depends for its export income, has raised questions over the value of outwardly tough Algerian security measures.


Algerian officials said the attackers may have had inside help from among the hundreds of Algerians employed at the site.


Security in the half-dozen countries around the Sahara desert has long been a preoccupation of the West. Smugglers and militants have earned millions in ransom from kidnappings.


The most powerful Islamist groups operating in the Sahara were severely weakened by Algeria's secularist military in the civil war in the 1990s. But in the past two years the regional wing of al Qaeda gained fighters and arms as a result of the civil war in Libya, when arsenals were looted from Muammar Gaddafi's army.


France says the hostage incident proves its decision to fight Islamists in neighboring Mali was necessary. Al Qaeda-linked fighters, many with roots in Algeria and Libya, took control of northern Mali last year.


(Additional reporting by Balazs Koranyi in Oslo, Estelle Shirbon and David Alexander in London, Brian Love in Paris; Writing by Giles Elgood; Editing by Rosalind Russell)


(This story was refiled to correct Algerian hostages)



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Sell off CPM offices, Mamata tells Delhi

KOLKATA: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee took her anti-Centre stance to a new high on Saturday asking the Congress-led UPA government to sell off CPM party offices to realise the interest against the loans it gave to Bengal during the Left Front rule.

"I have been working from morning till late in the night to break out of the debt trap left behind by CPM. Now some ministers in Delhi, I don't feel like taking their names (reference to Deepa Das Munshi) claim that we are announcing projects funded by the Centre. Let me tell you that a major portion of our revenue is spent on repaying the debt. I ask the Congress comrades in Delhi why they allowed CPM to take such loans. Why should I bear the burden? Let the Centre sell off CPM party offices and realise the interest," the chief minister said at a Trinamool rally at Esplanade on Saturday.

Mamata took a leaf out of former finance minister Ashok Mitra's book and argued how the Centre was giving crumbs to the state while grabbing most of the revenue in the form of central taxes.

"The Centre takes away as much as Rs 39,684 crore from Bengal in income tax, excise duty and other central tax heads, while it gives back a meagre Rs 18,557 crore to the state. I demand the remaining amount for rural development. I am not begging. It belongs to the people of our state out of which the Centre announces the assistance programmes," Mamata said.

The Bengal CM opposes the Centre on a whole range of issues - from hike in diesel and cooking gas prices and increase in railway fares to FDI in multi-brand retail. The Trinamool chief is aware that she is in for a tough battle by going it alone in the panchayat polls against Congress and CPM. She did not have to fight a three-cornered battle in the 2011 assembly polls.

Mamata is thus crying foul against the "Congress-CPM bonhomie" to marginalise Congress in the panchayat polls. By going ballistic against the Centre, she is not giving CPM the space to capitalise on the dissent against price rise.

Sensing the anti-incumbency against the Trinamool government, the chief minister listed her government's "achievements". "We have fulfilled 99% of the promises in our election manifesto. The government has made job reservations for OBCs and far outpaced the preceding CPM government in arranging scholarships for minority students. We have set up four new universities," the CM said.

Mamata again warned the media "to not cross the Lakshman rekha".

"You will get into trouble," she said, adding that crime against women has been blown beyond proportion in Bengal. "We are not worried about the safety of our sisters. Our brothers in the state will ensure the safety of their sisters," the CM said.

She, however, did not utter a word on Arabul Islam or Abdur Rezzak Mollah beyond a veiled reference: "The government will do its job. I am committed to the people and can be tough at times."

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Lilly drug chosen for Alzheimer's prevention study


Researchers have chosen an experimental drug by Eli Lilly & Co. for a large federally funded study testing whether it's possible to prevent Alzheimer's disease in older people at high risk of developing it.


The drug, called solanezumab (sol-ah-NAYZ-uh-mab), is designed to bind to and help clear the sticky deposits that clog patients' brains.


Earlier studies found it did not help people with moderate to severe Alzheimer's but it showed some promise against milder disease. Researchers think it might work better if given before symptoms start.


"The hope is we can catch people before they decline," which can come 10 years or more after plaques first show up in the brain, said Dr. Reisa Sperling, director of the Alzheimer's center at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.


She will help lead the new study, which will involve 1,000 people ages 70 to 85 whose brain scans show plaque buildup but who do not yet have any symptoms of dementia. They will get monthly infusions of solanezumab or a dummy drug for three years. The main goal will be slowing the rate of cognitive decline. The study will be done at 50 sites in the U.S. and possibly more in Canada, Australia and Europe, Sperling said.


In October, researchers said combined results from two studies of solanezumab suggested it might modestly slow mental decline, especially in patients with mild disease. Taken separately, the studies missed their main goals of significantly slowing the mind-robbing disease or improving activities of daily living.


Those results were not considered good enough to win the drug approval. So in December, Lilly said it would start another large study of it this year to try to confirm the hopeful results seen patients with mild disease. That is separate from the federal study Sperling will head.


About 35 million people worldwide have dementia, and Alzheimer's is the most common type. In the U.S., about 5 million have Alzheimer's. Current medicines such as Aricept and Namenda just temporarily ease symptoms. There is no known cure.


___


Online:


Alzheimer's info: http://www.alzheimers.gov


Alzheimer's Association: http://www.alz.org


___


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Ex-Teammate: Armstrong Showed 'Genuine Emotion'













While critics railed against Lance Armstrong for coming off as detached in the two-part interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired Thursday and Friday nights, former teammate and friend, Tyler Hamilton, told "Good Morning America" today that he felt Armstrong was displaying "genuine emotion."


"I've never seen Lance shed a tear until last night. Before I even heard one word from him Thursday night, I could tell he was a broken man," Hamilton said.


Armstrong's contrition turned tearful Friday when he revealed to Oprah Winfrey how difficult it was to betray his family -- particularly his 13 year old son -- who stood up for the fallen cycling star as rumors swirled that he was taking banned drugs.


Armstrong, 41, choked up when he recounted what he told his son, Luke, in the wake of the scandal.


"When this all really started, I saw my son defending me and saying that's not true…" Armstrong told Winfrey, "I told Luke. I said, 'Don't defend me anymore.'"


Armstrong's interview with Winfrey drew millions of viewers.


It was the first time Armstrong admitted using performance-enhancing drugs and oxygen-boosting blood transfusions to help him win the Tour de France.


"I view this situation as one big lie that I repeated a lot of times," Armstrong said. "I know the truth. The truth isn't what was out there. The truth isn't what I said.






George Burns/Courtesy of Harpo Studios, Inc./AP Photo











Lance Armstrong Confession: 'I Could Not Believe Lance Apologized' Watch Video









Lance Armstrong-Winfrey Interview: How Honest Was He? Watch Video









Lance Armstrong-Winfrey Interview: Doping Confession Watch Video





"I'm a flawed character, as I well know," Armstrong added. "All the fault and all the blame here falls on me."


However, Hamilton said any hope for Armstrong's redemption would come if he came clean about others who were part of the doping scandal.


"The question now is where he goes from this, his actions moving forward. He needs to name names," Hamilton said.


READ MORE: Armstrong Admits to Doping


Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles in October 2012, after a report by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency found that he and 11 of his teammates orchestrated "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."


Despite the admissions of his teammates that they had doped with Armstrong and seen him complete blood transfusions for races, Armstrong condemned the report and denied that he had ever cheated.


As sponsors including Nike began to pull support of Armstrong following the report, Armstrong's carefully-built image began to crumble. He stepped down from Livestrong, the charity he started to help cancer patients after he survived testicular cancer.


"It was a mythic perfect story and it wasn't true," Armstrong said of his fairytale story of overcoming testicular cancer to become the most celebrated cyclist in history.


In the interview, Armstrong explained his competition "cocktail" of EPO, blood transfusions and testosterone that he used throughout his career. He also said he had previously used cortisone.


Armstrong refused to give Winfrey the details of when, where and with whom he doped during seven winning Tours de France between 1999 and 2005, which was the last year he said he doped. Armstrong specifically denied using banned substances when he placed third in 2009 and entered the tour again in 2010.


Investigators familiar with Armstrong's case, however, told ABC News that Armstrong did not come completely clean to Winfrey, and say they believe he doped in 2009.






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Badminton: Lee Chong Wei reaches Malaysia Open finals






KUALA LUMPUR: World number one Lee Chong Wei dropped his first game of the tournament Saturday as he overcame Denmark's Jan O Jorgensen to secure a place in the finals of the Malaysia Badminton Open.

The home favourite, bidding for record ninth Malaysia Open title, dropped the second game to the determined and energetic 26-year-old emerging Dane, but eventually won through 21-13, 17-21, 21-12.

"It was indeed a tough match and Jan pushed me hard," said Lee, 30, who will now face Indonesia's Sony Dwi Kuncoro in the final.

"I haven't faced him in over a year but he has bounced back from his injuries to break into the top five in the world. So I'm expecting another tough match."

Kuncoro, a three-time Asian champion, was ranked as low as number 79 in the world ten months ago but is now in top form after battling back from back and leg injuries.

The 29-year-old, a bronze medallist in the 2004 Athens Olympics, will move up to number four when the new world rankings are announced next week.

Kuncoro advanced to the final by beating Japan's Kenichi Tago 21-12, 19-21, 23-21.

"I'm delighted to be back in the mix of a Superseries final. A year ago, my career was in jeopardy due to all my injuries but I've buckled down and I'm happy with my progress," he said.

In the women' singles, China's Yao Xue will be in her first Superseries final after beating South Korea's Bae Yeon-Ju 21-15, 21-18 in 34 minutes.

Yao, who turned 22 on Thursday, will take on 18-year-old Tai Tzu-ying of Taiwan, who stunned Indian top seed Saina Nehwal 22-20, 21-14.

"I never expected to come this far in this tournament. I had to come through the qualifying rounds and to reach the final is a big bonus for me," Yao said.

Chinese pair Bao Yixin/Tian Qing beat Indonesia's Lejarsar Variella Aprilsasi Putri/Marissa Vita 21-13, 21-17 to book a berth in the women's doubles finals.

The Chinese pair will face Japan's Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi. The Japanese players had earlier defeated Singapore's Shinta Mulia Sari and her partner Yao Lei 22-20, 21-14.

- AFP/de



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Foreigners still caught in Sahara hostage crisis


ALGIERS/IN AMENAS, Algeria (Reuters) - More than 20 foreigners were still either being held hostage or missing inside a gas plant on Friday after Algerian forces stormed the desert complex to free hundreds of captives taken by Islamist militants.


More than a day after the Algerian army launched an assault to seize the remote desert compound, much was still unclear about the number and fate of the victims, leaving countries with citizens in harm's way struggling to find hard information.


Reports on the number of hostages killed ranged from 12 to 30, with anywhere from dozens to scores of foreigners still unaccounted for.


Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, eight of whose countrymen were missing, said fighters still controlled the gas treatment plant itself, while Algerian forces now held the nearby residential compound that housed hundreds of workers.


Leaders of Britain, Japan and other countries expressed frustration that the assault had been ordered without consultation. Many countries were also withholding information about their citizens to avoid helping the captors.


Night fell quietly on the village of In Amenas, the nearest settlement, some 50 km (30 miles) from the vast and remote desert plant. A military helicopter could be seen in the sky.


An Algerian security source said 30 hostages, including at least seven Westerners, had been killed during Thursday's assault, along with at least 18 of their captors. Eight of the dead hostages were Algerian, with the nationalities of the rest of the dead still unclear, he said.


Algeria's state news agency APS put the total number of dead hostages at 12, including both foreigners and locals.


Norway's Stoltenberg said some of those killed in vehicles blasted by the army could not be identified. "We must be prepared for bad news this weekend but we still have hope."


Northern Irish engineer Stephen McFaul, who survived, said he saw four trucks full of hostages blown up by Algerian troops.


The attack has plunged international capitals into crisis mode and is a serious escalation of unrest in northwestern Africa, where French forces have been in Mali since last week fighting an Islamist takeover of Timbuktu and other towns.


"We are still dealing with a fluid and dangerous situation where a part of the terrorist threat has been eliminated in one part of the site, but there still remains a threat in another part," British Prime Minister David Cameron told his parliament.


A local Algerian source said 100 of 132 foreign hostages had been freed from the facility. However, other estimates of the number of unaccounted-for foreigners were higher. Earlier the same source said 60 were still missing. Some may be held hostage; others may still be hiding in the sprawling compound.


Two Japanese, two Britons and a French national were among the seven foreigners confirmed dead in the army's storming, the Algerian security source told Reuters. One British citizen was killed when the gunmen seized the hostages on Wednesday.


Those still unaccounted for on Friday included 10 from Japan and eight Norwegians, according to their employers, and a number of Britons which Cameron put at "significantly" less than 30


France said it had no information on two Frenchmen who may have been at the site and Washington has said a number of Americans were among the hostages, without giving details. The local source said a U.S. aircraft landed nearby on Friday.


The attackers had initially claimed to be holding 41 Western hostages. Some Westerners were able to evade capture by hiding.


They lived among hundreds of Algerian employees on the compound. The state news agency said the army had rescued 650 hostages in total, 573 of whom were Algerians.


"(The army) is still trying to achieve a ‘peaceful outcome' before neutralizing the terrorist group that is holed up in the (facility) and freeing a group of hostages that is still being held," it said, quoting a security source.


MULTINATIONAL INSURGENCY


Algerian commanders said they moved in on Thursday about 30 hours after the siege began, because the gunmen had demanded to be allowed to take their captives abroad.


A French hostage employed by a French catering company said he had hidden in his room for 40 hours under the bed, relying on Algerian employees to smuggle him food with a password.


"I put boards up pretty much all round," Alexandre Berceaux told Europe 1 radio. "I didn't know how long I was going to stay there ... I was afraid. I could see myself already ending up in a pine box."


The captors said their attack was a response to a French military offensive in neighboring Mali. However, some U.S. and European officials say the elaborate raid probably required too much planning to have been organized from scratch in the single week since France first launched its strikes.


Paris says the incident proves that its decision to fight Islamists in neighboring Mali was necessary.


Security in the half-dozen countries around the Sahara desert has long been a pre-occupation of the West. Smugglers and militants have earned millions in ransom from kidnappings.


The most powerful Islamist groups in the Sahara were severely weakened by Algeria's secularist military in a civil war in the 1990s. But in the past two years the regional wing of Al Qaeda gained fighters and arms as a result of the civil war in Libya, when arsenals were looted from Muammar Gaddafi's army.


Al Qaeda-linked fighters, many with roots in Algeria and Libya, took control of northern Mali last year, prompting the French intervention in that poor African former colony.


The Algerian security source said only two of 11 militants whose bodies were found on Thursday were Algerian, including the squad's leader. The others comprised three Egyptians, two Tunisians, two Libyans, a Malian and a Frenchman, he said.


The plant was heavily fortified, with security, controlled access and an army camp with hundreds of armed personnel between the accommodation and processing plant, Andy Coward Honeywell, who worked there in 2009, told the BBC.


The apparent ease with which the fighters swooped in from the dunes to take control of an important energy facility, which produces some 10 percent of the natural gas on which Algeria depends for its export income, has raised questions over the value of outwardly tough security measures.


Algerian officials said the attackers may have had inside help from among the hundreds of Algerians employed at the site. The attackers benefitted from bases and staging grounds across the nearby border in Libya's desert, Algerian officials said.


U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said those responsible would be hunted down: "Terrorists should be on notice that they will find no sanctuary, no refuge, not in Algeria, not in North Africa, not anywhere.... Those who would wantonly attack our country and our people will have no place to hide."


WARNING OF MORE ATTACKS


The kidnappers threatened more attacks and warned Algerians to stay away from foreign companies' installations, according to Mauritania's news agency ANI, which maintained contact with the group during the siege.


Hundreds of workers from international oil companies were evacuated from Algeria on Thursday and many more will follow, said BP, which jointly ran the gas plant with Norway's Statoil and the Algerian state oil firm.


The overall commander of the kidnappers, Algerian officials said, was Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a one-eyed veteran of Afghanistan in the 1980s and Algeria's bloody civil war of the 1990s. He appears not to have been present.


Algerian security specialist Anis Rahmani, author of several books on terrorism and editor of Ennahar daily, told Reuters about 70 militants were involved from two groups, Belmokhtar's "Those who sign in blood", who traveled from Libya, and the lesser known "Movement of the Islamic Youth in the South".


Britain's Cameron, who warned people to prepare for bad news and who canceled a major policy speech on Friday to deal with the situation, said he would have liked Algeria to have consulted before the raid. Japan made similar complaints.


U.S. officials had no clear information on the fate of Americans. Washington, like its European allies, has endorsed France's military intervention in Mali.


(Additional reporting by Ali Abdelatti in Cairo, Eamonn Mallie in Belfast, Gwladys Fouche in Oslo, Mohammed Abbas in London and Padraic Halpin and Conor Humprhies in Dublin; Writing by Philippa Fletcher and Peter Graff; Editing by Andrew Roche)



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New surrogacy norms will hit ‘genuine couples’

MUMBAI: The home ministry's guidelines tightening visa norms for foreigners seeking children through an Indian surrogate have created confusion in various quarters. Foreigners who are midway in surrogacy procedures are worried that their future hangs in balance, even as doctors question the rationale behind some new provisions. There is, however, no denying the need for regulation given that the passage of the Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Regulation Bill 2010 has been long overdue.

TOI (January 18) highlighted that the home ministry has introduced new visa norms for foreigners seeking to rent-a-womb in India with stringent eligibility criteria. Only couples married for two years and those whose countries recognize surrogacy, among other clauses, could apply for a medical visa for surrogacy. They thus disqualify gay couples and single individuals.

"The new provisions have brought in a dilemma for several gay foreigners and singles, who are undergoing ART procedures in India before the norms came in," points out Hari G Ramasubramanian, partner of Indian Surrogacy Law Centre, Chennai. He said one of his clients was due to have a child in June-July as per the old norms but there is no clarity if the new norms would be applicable to him too. "The ministry has not given any date of commencement for the guidelines," he said.

Sources at the foreign regional registration office here said they had written to the ministry last week seeking a clarification about the cut-off date for implementation of the new norms.

In a letter to the deputy commissioner of police, Dr Gautam Allahbadia, medical director of the Rotunda centre for human reproduction, Bandra, questions the provision requiring foreigners seeking surrogacy in India to be married for at least two years. "The statement is not in accordance with certain clauses of the draft ART Regulation Bill 2010 issued by the ministry of health & family welfare," he states, pointing out that the bill in many clauses clearly mentions that unmarried couples, as well as single persons, can commission surrogacy.

Doctors question the rationale behind the "two years" clause, as a couple married in their forties, for instance, may want to bear a child through surrogacy within the first year itself.

Advocate Amit Karkhanis, on behalf of an apex body of IVF clinics, plans to petition the home ministry. "We are okay with the government coming out with guidelines, but there has to be some logic," he says. Doctors, for instance, explain that the registration of ART clinics is nascent and under way. In that backdrop, the ministry condition requiring foreigners to undergo the procedure only in registered clinics may be ahead of its time.

Dr Nayana Patel, who runs a clinic in Anand, Gujarat, which is considered the surrogacy hub of India, said the new guidelines would hit genuine couples hard. "While we need regulation, creating bureaucratic hurdles through such regulations contradicts India's claims of promoting medical tourism," she said, adding that the health ministry and home ministry must come up with unified norms quickly. Illustrating the red-tapism introduced, she said an American couple who arranged for all requisite documentation and was due to come to India on January 24 is uncertain about their trip as their documents are with the Indian embassy.

Home ministry officials were not available for comment despite repeated attempts.

Guidelines
The home ministry has issued new guidelines in July 2012 regulating visas of foreigners coming to India seeking surrogacy"

* They must be on a 'medical visa'

* Only a heterosexual couple married for two years is eligible for the visa

* The home country's foreign ministry or embassy must certify they recognize surrogacy

* There should be an official assurance that the child/children will be allowed to enter the home country as a biological child of the couple

* The procedure must be done at an assisted reproductive technology clinic recognized by the Indian Council of Medical Research

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Flu season 'bad one for the elderly,' CDC says


The number of older people hospitalized with the flu has risen sharply, prompting federal officials to take unusual steps to make more flu medicines available and to urge wider use of them as soon as symptoms appear.


The U.S. is about halfway through this flu season, and "it's shaping up to be a worse-than-average season" and a bad one for the elderly, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


It's not too late to get a flu shot, and "if you have symptoms, please stay home from work, keep your children home from school" and don't spread the virus, he said.


New figures from the CDC show widespread flu activity in all states but Tennessee and Hawaii. Some parts of the country are seeing an increase in flu activity "while overall activity is beginning to go down," Frieden said. Flu activity is high in 30 states and New York City, up from 24 the previous week.


Nine more children or teens have died of the flu, bringing the nation's total this flu season to 29. That's close to the 34 pediatric deaths reported during all of the last flu season, although that one was unusually light. In a typical season, about 100 children die of the flu and officials said there is no way to know whether deaths this season will be higher or lower than usual.


The government doesn't keep a running tally of adult deaths from the flu, but estimates that it kills about 24,000 people most years.


So far, half of confirmed flu cases are in people 65 and older. Lab-confirmed flu hospitalizations totaled 19 for every 100,000 in the population, but 82 per 100,000 among those 65 and older, "which is really quite a high rate," Frieden said.


"We expect to see both the number and the rates of both hospitalizations and deaths rise further in the next week or so as the flu epidemic progresses,'" so prompt treatment is key to preventing deaths, he said.


About 90 percent of flu deaths are in the elderly; the very young and people with other health problems such as diabetes are also at higher risk.


If you're worried about how sick you are and are in one of these risk groups, see a doctor, Frieden urged. One third to one half of people are not getting prompt treatment with antiviral medicines, he said.


Two drugs — Tamiflu and Relenza — can cut the severity and risk of death from the flu but must be started within 48 hours of first symptoms to do much good. Tamiflu is available in a liquid form for use in children under 1, and pharmacists can reformulate capsules into a liquid if supplies are short in an area, said Dr. Margaret Hamburg, head of the Food and Drug Administration.


To help avoid a shortage, the FDA is letting Tamiflu's maker, Genentech, distribute 2 million additional doses of capsules that have an older version of package insert.


"It is fully approved, it is not outdated," just lacks information for pharmacists on how to mix it into a liquid if needed for young children, she said.


This year's flu season started about a month earlier than normal and the dominant flu strain is one that tends to make people sicker. Vaccinations are recommended for anyone 6 months or older. There's still plenty of vaccine — an update shows that 145 million doses have been produced, "twice the supply that was available only several years ago," Hamburg said.


About 129 million doses have been distributed already, and a million doses are given each day, Frieden said. The vaccine is not perfect but "it's by far the best tool we have to prevent influenza," he said.


Carlos Maisonet, 73, got a flu shot this week at New York's Brooklyn Hospital Center at the urging of his wife, who was vaccinated in August.


"This is his first time getting the flu shot," said his wife, Zulma Ramos.


Last week, the CDC said the flu again surpassed an "epidemic" threshold, based on monitoring of deaths from flu and a frequent complication, pneumonia. The flu epidemic happens every year and officials say this year's vaccine is a good match for strains that are going around.


___


Online:


Flu vaccine finder: http://www.flu.gov


CDC flu info: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/index.htm


___


AP Photographer Bebeto Matthews in New York contributed to this report.


___


Follow Marilynn Marchione's coverage at —http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP


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Manti Te'o Hoax Incredibly Detailed and Complex













Fresh details have emerged about how complex and layered was the hoax involving Notre Dame star linebacker Manti Te'o and his fake girlfriend, "Lennay Kekua."


According to ABC News interviews and published reports, Te'o received phone calls, text messages and letters before every football game from his "girlfriend." He was in contact with her family, including a twin brother, a second brother, sister and parents. He called often to check in with them, just as he did with his own family. And "Kekua" kept in contact with Te'o's friends and family, and teammates spoke to her on the phone.


"There are a remarkable number of characters involved. We don't know how many people they represent," Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick said at a news conference this week. "There are male and female characters, brothers, cousins, mother, and we don't know if it's two people playing multiple characters or multiple people."


"It goes to the sophistication of this, that there are all these sort of independent pieces that reinforce elements of the story all the way through," he said.


Click here for a who's who in the Manti Te'o case


One of Te'o's teammates who asked not to be identified told ABC News that it was normal for Te'o to pass his phone around to teammates when he was on the line with "Lennay" so they could say hello to her.


"I talked to her," this teammate said. "I wasn't suspicious."


When Te'o got the call telling him that Lennay had died last fall, he was in the locker room, the teammate said.


"He got real emotional, crying," the teammate said. "He's an emotional guy."


The teammate said he thinks Te'o genuinely got hoaxed. The fact that Te'o talked about meeting her and touching her hand - when really he only "met" her on the internet - makes this teammate think that he was not completely telling the truth about his relationship.








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"I think he was just embarrassed about it, the whole internet thing," the teammate said. The player said he hasn't talked to Te'o since this story broke.


With so many questions swirling around the revelation that Te'o's fake girlfriend, a source in the Notre Dame athletic department said the school would like Te'o to speak out publicly, but noted that they are not currently in touch with him.


"At some point the ball ends up in his court," the source said. "We're not involved right now."


A newly released transcript of "Sports Illustrated" writer Pete Thamel's Sept. 23 interview with Te'o gives a hint at the staggering depth of the deception.


Te'o told Thamel that Lennay Kekua's real name was Melelengei, but since no one could pronounce it properly it was shortened to Lennay. But her family nicknamed her Lala, he said.


Te'o's knowledge about the details of his girlfriend's life was often murky, including her majors in school, occupation and extent of her injuries after an alleged April 28 car accident with a drunk driver.


What he was absolutely clear about was how much time he spent in contact with her, especially while she was in the hospital recovering from the car accident, which led to the discovery of her leukemia.


"I talked to my girlfriend every single day," Te'o told Themel. "I slept on the phone with her every single day. When she was going through chemo, she would have all these pains and the doctors were saying they were trying to give her medicine to make her sleep. She still couldn't sleep. She would say, 'Just call my boyfriend and have him on the phone with me, and I can sleep.' I slept on the phone with her every single night."


He would spend eight hours a night with someone, somewhere, breathing on the other end, he told Thamel.


Te'o recounted how his girlfriend who was "on a machine" after being in a coma.


"We lost her, actually, twice. She flatlined twice. They revived her twice," he said. "It was just a trippy situation."


For a while Kekua was unable to talk and he described the nurse-deemed "miracle" of how Kekua's breathing would pick up when she heard his voice on the phone.


"There were lengthy, long telephone conversations. There was sleeping with the phone on connected to each other," Swarbrick said. "The issue of who it is, who's playing what role, what's real and what's not here is a more complex question than I can get into."


Perhaps one of the most touching displays of love from Kekua to Te'o, he told the writer, was the one-page letter she would write him on her iPad before each game. One of her siblings, often her twin brother Noa, would then read him the letter over the phone before sending it to him.






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Ukraine's Tymoshenko accused of organising 1996 murder






KIEV: Ukrainian prosecutors on Friday accused jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko of organising the 1996 murder of a lawmaker, saying she could face life imprisonment if found guilty.

Tymoshenko, serving a seven-year jail term for abuse of power, has been informed by prosecutors she is now a formal suspect in the murder of Yevgen Shcherban, Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka told reporters.

- AFP/de



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