After early start, worst of flu season may be over

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NEW YORK (AP) — The worst of the flu season appears to be over.


The number of states reporting intense or widespread illnesses dropped again last week, and in a few states there was very little flu going around, U.S. health officials said Friday.


The season started earlier than normal, first in the Southeast and then spreading. But now, by some measures, flu activity has been ebbing for at least four weeks in much of the country. Flu and pneumonia deaths also dropped the last two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.


"It's likely that the worst of the current flu season is over," CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said.


But flu is hard to predict, he and others stressed, and there have been spikes late in the season in the past.


For now, states like Georgia and New York — where doctor's offices were jammed a few weeks ago — are reporting low flu activity. The hot spots are now the West Coast and the Southwest.


Among the places that have seen a drop: Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Allentown, Pa., which put up a tent outside its emergency room last month to help deal with the steady stream of patients. There were about 100 patients each day back then. Now it's down to 25 and the hospital may pack up its tent next week, said Terry Burger, director of infection control and prevention for the hospital.


"There's no question that we're seeing a decline," she said.


In early December, CDC officials announced flu season had arrived, a month earlier than usual. They were worried, saying it had been nine years since a winter flu season started like this one. That was 2003-04 — one of the deadliest seasons in the past 35 years, with more than 48,000 deaths.


Like this year, the major flu strain was one that tends to make people sicker, especially the elderly, who are most vulnerable to flu and its complications


But back then, that year's flu vaccine wasn't made to protect against that bug, and fewer people got flu shots. The vaccine is reformulated almost every year, and the CDC has said this year's vaccine is a good match to the types that are circulating. A preliminary CDC study showed it is about 60 percent effective, which is close to the average.


So far, the season has been labeled moderately severe.


Like others, Lehigh Valley's Burger was cautious about making predictions. "I'm not certain we're completely out of the woods," with more wintry weather ahead and people likely to be packed indoors where flu can spread around, she said.


The government does not keep a running tally of flu-related deaths in adults, but has received reports of 59 deaths in children. The most — nine — were in Texas, where flu activity was still high last week. Roughly 100 children die in an average flu season, the CDC says


On average, about 24,000 Americans die each flu season, according to the CDC.


According to the CDC report, the number of states with intense activity is down to 19, from 24 the previous week, and flu is widespread in 38 states, down from 42.


Flu is now minimal in Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire and South Carolina.


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Online:


CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/


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Russia Detains 271 in St. Petersburg Security Raid

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MOSCOW — Russian police and security officials in St. Petersburg detained 271 people, mostly migrants from Central Asia and the North Caucasus region, during a raid on Friday on Muslim prayer rooms at a central market. They said the raid was carried out to check residency permits and to eliminate networks of religious extremists planning terrorist attacks.




A statement published Friday night by the regional investigative committee said the authorities were verifying the documents of the detainees, who include citizens of Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as an Egyptian and an Afghan.


The federal migration service began deportation procedures on Saturday for 10 of the detainees, and about 30 were found to be in violation of Russian migration laws, an official told the news agency RIA Novosti.


The police said one man from southern Russia, Murat Sarbashev, was suspected of distributing extremist literature and video clips showing terrorist acts in 2010 and 2011.


Video broadcast on Russian television showed heavily armed riot police officers pulling men out of the market and pushing them into waiting buses.


Security officials in St. Petersburg say an extremist group is operating in the city and has been planning terrorist attacks. The raid was intended to uncover “extremist literature, weapons, objects and documents relevant to criminal cases, and people who have carried out such crimes,” the statement said. The authorities have opened a case and are searching for evidence pointing to the incitement of terrorism and hatred; a conviction on that charge carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.


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Do No Harm's Alana de la Garza Expecting Second Child

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Celebrity Baby Blog





02/09/2013 at 02:30 PM ET



Alana de la Garza Pregnant Second Child Baby Girl
Imeh Akpanudosen/WireImage


There’s another baby on the way for Alana De La Garza!


The Do No Harm star, 36, and her husband Michael Roberts are expecting their second child — a daughter — in July, De La Garza confirms via Twitter.


Before welcoming the couple’s first child — son Kieran Thomas, now 2 — the former Law & Order actress admitted pregnancy was a privilege she was excited to experience.


“I feel honored to grow this little person inside of me,” De La Garza told Pregnancy. “It sounds cheesy and hormonal, but it’s really a miracle.”


– Anya Leon with reporting by Charlotte Triggs


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Stocks end higher for sixth straight week, tech leads

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Nasdaq composite stock index closed at a 12-year high and the S&P 500 index at a five-year high, boosted by gains in technology shares and stronger overseas trade figures.


The S&P 500 also posted a sixth straight week of gains for the first time since August.


The technology sector led the day's gains, with the S&P 500 technology index <.splrct> up 1.0 percent. Gains in professional network platform LinkedIn Corp and AOL Inc after they reported quarterly results helped the sector.


Shares of LinkedIn jumped 21.3 percent to $150.48 after the social networking site announced strong quarterly profits and gave a bullish forecast for the year.


AOL Inc shares rose 7.4 percent to $33.72 after the online company reported higher quarterly profit, boosted by a 13 percent rise in advertising sales.


Data showed Chinese exports grew more than expected, a positive sign for the global economy. The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in December, suggesting the U.S. economy likely grew in the fourth quarter instead of contracting slightly as originally reported by the U.S. government.


"That may have sent a ray of optimism," said Fred Dickson, chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co in Lake Oswego, Oregon.


Trading volume on Friday was below average for the week as a blizzard swept into the northeastern United States.


The U.S. stock market has posted strong gains since the start of the year, with the S&P 500 up 6.4 percent since December 31. The advance has slowed in recent days, with fourth-quarter earnings winding down and few incentives to continue the rally on the horizon.


"I think we're in the middle of a trading range and I'd put plus or minus 5.0 percent around it. Fundamental factors are best described as neutral," Dickson said.


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> ended up 48.92 points, or 0.35 percent, at 13,992.97. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 8.54 points, or 0.57 percent, at 1,517.93. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 28.74 points, or 0.91 percent, at 3,193.87, its highest closing level since November 2000.


For the week, the Dow was down 0.1 percent, the S&P 500 was up 0.3 percent and the Nasdaq up 0.5 percent.


Shares of Dell closed at $13.63, up 0.7 percent, after briefly trading above a buyout offering price of $13.65 during the session.


Dell's largest independent shareholder, Southeastern Asset Management, said it plans to oppose the buyout of the personal computer maker, setting up a battle for founder Michael Dell.


Signs of economic strength overseas buoyed sentiment on Wall Street. Chinese exports grew more than expected in January, while imports climbed 28.8 percent, highlighting robust domestic demand. German data showed a 2012 surplus that was the nation's second highest in more than 60 years, an indication of the underlying strength of Europe's biggest economy.


Separately, U.S. economic data showed the trade deficit shrank in December to $38.5 billion, its narrowest in nearly three years, indicating the economy did much better in the fourth quarter than initially estimated.


Earnings have mostly come in stronger than expected since the start of the reporting period. Fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies now are estimated up 5.2 percent versus a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters data. That contrasts with a 1.9 percent growth forecast at the start of the earnings season.


Molina Healthcare Inc surged 10.4 percent to $31.88 as the biggest boost to the index after posting fourth-quarter earnings.


The CBOE Volatility index <.vix>, Wall Street's so-called fear gauge, was down 3.6 percent at 13.02. The gauge, a key measure of market expectations of short-term volatility, generally moves inversely to the S&P 500.


"I'm watching the 14 level closely" on the CBOE Volatility index, said Bryan Sapp, senior trading analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research. "The break below it at the beginning of the year signaled the sharp rally in January, and a rally back above it could be a sign to exercise some caution."


Volume was roughly 5.6 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and the NYSE MKT, compared with the 2012 average daily closing volume of about 6.45 billion.


Advancers outpaced decliners on the NYSE by nearly 2 to 1 and on the Nasdaq by almost 5 to 3.


(Additional reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Nick Zieminski, Kenneth Barry and Andrew Hay)



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The Lede: Social Media Images From Tunisia, as an Opposition Leader Is Buried

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Video from the Tunisian news site Jadal showed clashes on Friday in Tunis during the funeral of an opposition leader.

Activists, bloggers and journalists in Tunisia posted a stream of images on social networks Friday, showing thousands of mourners packed into the largest cemetery in the capital, Tunis, for the funeral of Chokri Belaid, a leading opposition figure whose assassination two days ago triggered a wave of street protests against the Islamist ruling party.

Among those uploading images of the funeral — which took place as the police fired tear gas at protesters and cars were set on fire during clashes outside the graveyard — were my colleagues Kareem Fahim and Tara Todras-Whitehill, Thierry Brésillon of the French news site Rue 89, and Tunisian activists including Selim Kharrat of the rights organization Al Bawsala.

In video streamed live during the funeral by the activist blogger Slim Amamou, the 2011 revolutionary chant calling for the downfall of the regime could be heard echoing around the graveyard.

A photograph in a set uploaded to Facebook by the blogger Mon Massir appeared to show that even the late opposition leader’s young daughter was forced to shield her face from the tear gas fired by the police.

After the funeral, as photographs uploaded by Mr. Amamou and the rights activist Amira Yahyaoui showed, the security forces enforced a ban on gathering on the main Avenue Habib Bourguiba in central Tunis.

Emna Chebâane, who also works with the rights organization Al Bawsala, posted video on Facebook showing how the police moved in to clear a small number of protesters from the avenue.

It was not hard to imagine what the kind of protest the authorities were concerned about might look like. Two days earlier, when an ambulance carrying Mr. Belaid’s body to the morgue had passed through the same street, thousands of protesters swarmed around the vehicle. Video posted on YouTube late Wednesday by Jadal, a Tunisian news site, showed that scene.

Video recorded on Wednesday in Tunis as protesters gathered around an ambulance carrying the body of Chokri Belaid, a murdered opposition leader.

There were reports of protests in other parts of Tunisia on Friday, as many workers observed calls for a nationwide strike.

Video uploaded to YouTube by a blogger who said he was in the town of Sousse appeared to show the security forces, and officers in plain clothes, firing tear gas and dragging protesters away from a traffic circle pictured in a Wikipedia entry on the old town.

Video uploaded to YouTube on Friday, said to show the police cracking down on protesters in the Tunisian town of Sousse.

Earlier, the same blogger uploaded video of a loud march calling for the imposition of Islamic Shariah law.

Video of a march in favor of Islamic Shariah law, said to have been recorded in the Tunisian city of Sousse on Friday.

Video shot by bloggers for the independent news site Nawaat showed what they described as a demonstration in the city of Bizerte in honor of Mr. Belaid, outside the local headquarters of Ennahda, the Islamist party that now rules Tunisia. According to a description on Nawaat’s French-language live blog, the video shows an Islamist calling for calm and telling the demonstrators that the nation’s secularists have lost the struggle for power.

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Blizzard Forces Katie Holmes to Miss Her Own Fashion Show

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Style News Now





02/08/2013 at 01:58 PM ET



Katie HolmesKevin Mazur/WireImage


Katie Holmes spent yesterday kicking off her heels with fashion editors in a New York City hotel suite to present the latest elegant collection for her Holmes & Yang fashion line. But today, the blizzard that’s battering the East Coast caused Holmes to reprioritize. Her daughter Suri‘s school was closing early, it was explained, and she had to go pick her up.


That practical part of her life — and that of her design partner and stylist Jeanne Yang, herself a mother to twin girls — is an ever-present influence on their fashion philosophy. “Our customer is somebody who wants to be comfortable” says Yang, who walked PEOPLE through an intimate one-on-one presentation of the line. “You want to look good, but Katie and I always talk about this, it should never come at the cost of comfort.”


As Holmes herself told The New York Times, their goal is “to make high-quality pieces that are simple enough, you can wear over and over again.”


With luxe fabrics and silhouettes that show subtle peeks of skin, Holmes & Yang, produced entirely in America, was inspired this season “by the 40s by way of the 70s, Katherine Hepburn, and menswear with little touches of femininity,” says Yang.


One of Holmes’s favorite looks is a figure-flattering, shoulder exposing peplum power suit because, “Katie and I always talk about our shoulders,” says Yang. “The fact is that shoulders are always sexy, and you never lose your shoulders.”


The designers took an equally beauty-conscious yet practical approach to the Bobbi Brown makeup their models wore (Holmes is the face of the line). Get all the details on what Brown called the “dewy faces and feminine raspberry stained lips” of the makeup looks, including which products were used, in an exclusive first peek at the below sketch.


Katie Holmes Bobbi Brown Holmes & Yang Beauty LookCourtesy Bobbi Brown


–Suzanne Zuckerman


PHOTOS: SHOP EDITOR-APPROVED BEAUTY PRODUCTS!


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Wall Street extends gains, Nasdaq near 12-year high

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks extended gains on Friday, with the Nasdaq rising 1 percent, putting it within close reach of a 12-year high.


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 47.66 points, or 0.34 percent, to 13,991.71. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> rose 7.47 points, or 0.49 percent, to 1,516.86. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 30.23 points, or 0.96 percent, at 3,195.37.


If the Nasdaq rises above 3,196.93, it would be the highest level since November 2000.


(Reporting by Leah Schnurr; Editing by Bernadette Baum)



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Health officials: Worst of flu season may be over

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NEW YORK (AP) — The worst of the flu season appears to be over.


The number of states reporting intense or widespread flu dropped again last week, U.S. health officials said Friday.


The season started earlier than normal, spiking first in the Southeast and then spreading. But now, by some measures, flu activity has been ebbing for at least four weeks in much of the country. Flu and pneumonia deaths have been dropping for two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.


"It's likely that the worst of the current flu season is over," CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said in an email.


It's been nine years since a conventional flu season started like this one. That was the winter of 2003-04 — one of the deadliest in the past 35 years, with more than 48,000 deaths. Like this year, that season had the same dominant flu strain, one that tends to make people sicker.


But back then, the flu vaccine didn't protect against that bug, and fewer people got flu shots. The vaccine is reformulated each year, and the CDC has said this year's vaccine is a good match to the types that are circulating. A preliminary CDC study showed this year's version is about 60 percent effective.


So far, the season has been labeled moderately severe.


The government does not keep a running tally of flu-related deaths in adults, but has received reports of 59 such deaths in children. The most — nine — were in Texas, where flu activity was still high last week.


On average, about 24,000 Americans die each flu season, according to the CDC.


Flu vaccinations are recommended for everyone 6 months or older.


___


Online:


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


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The Lede: Video Broadcast on State Television Was Downloaded From U.S. Drone, Iran Says

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Last Updated, 2:17 p.m. Iran’s state television broadcast Wednesday what it described as video recorded by the American surveillance drone that crash-landed about 140 miles from the country’s border with Afghanistan in late 2011.

Video broadcast on Iranian state television, said to have been downloaded from an American surveillance drone that crash-landed in Iran in 2011.

As The Associated Press reports from Tehran, the state television broadcast included aerial views of what the narration described as the American air base in Kandahar, Afghanistan, plus still photographs of an RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone at that base made public in 2011, and images of the craft being recovered in 2011 by Iran’s military.

The report also featured an interview with Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, identified as the head of the aerospace division of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, who denied that the drone had simply crashed because of a computer malfunction, as American officials have claimed. “We were able to definitively access the data of the drone, once we brought it down,” General Hajizadeh said.

More footage said to have been recorded by the drone can be seen in a copy of the 24-minute Iranian report posted on YouTube on Wednesday by Lenziran, a site that monitors Iranian media.

In an analysis of the footage for Foreign Policy, the national security reporter John Reed observes that in one segment of the Iranian report, “the camera on this aircraft is positioned behind a rather complex nose landing gear assembly — a layout that matches grainy Web images of the Sentinel that show what looks like a compartment that could contain a camera positioned on the bottom of the airplane, just behind the front landing gear.”

A copy of an Iranian television report on a captured United States drone posted on YouTube.

The report, Mr. Reed adds, also features what appear to be authentic images of an American air base, “right down to C-130s parked on the ramp,” and “what looks like an MQ-9 Reaper drone (or possibly two) parked in an enclosed ramp — a drone pen if you will — complete with a walled perimeter and those tent hangars that are seen at expeditionary drone bases around the world.”

As The A.P. notes, on Thursday Iran’s Fars News Agency, which is close to the Revolutionary Guards, claimed that Iran had also started to produce functional copies of the smaller, American ScanEagle surveillance drone it displayed on state television in December. The Fars report quoted Iran’s deputy defense minister, Mohammad Eslami, saying that the country had also established a “production line for the drones in foreign countries.”

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William & Kate Enjoying Private Mustique Babymoon

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By Amanda Orr and Simon Perry





02/07/2013 at 02:10 PM EST







The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (inset) visited Aurora House, Mustique


IPHOTO; Inset: Splash News Online


The The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are keeping a low profile on their "babymoon" to the idyllic island of Mustique.

The couple – expecting their first baby in July – are staying at a five-bedroom villa set in lush gardens, which normally costs an eye-popping $25,000 a week. Also enjoying paradise are Kate's parents Carole and Mike and siblings Pippa and James.

On previous visits, William, 30, has stopped by to grab a drink and play the piano at the bar at Firefly, and together the couple have participated in Sunday night Karaoke at Basil's Bar.

But on this visit, the couple are mostly keeping to themselves, and they have good reason.

With a staff of six (including a chef on standby), a 60-foot infinity pool and a media room and guest cottage, the villa has everything they need. And, best of all for the private couple, it's completely hidden from the main road and with just the tips of the pitched roof line visible from the beach down below.

The stunning beach, which many believe to be the finest on the island, is just a short walk down a private path from the house. On their past trips the sporty pair made several trips a day down that path to stroll on the beach, take quick dips in the ocean and also to snorkel well past the rocky outcrops that border the cove. The beach is still public however, and the couple save their sunbathing for the villa's expansive pool deck. 

From the lounge chairs, pregnant Kate, 31, will be able to look along the surface of an infinity pool and out to the other islands of the Grenadines spread out in the ocean below.

Mustique, a favorite of the Middletons for years, and made famous by William's great aunt Princess Margaret and her friends in the 70s, ensures the privacy of its high-end visitors. A local tells PEOPLE, "The island is locked-down – that always means some royalty is here."

When they return, William is due back at his north Wales base, from where he flies search-and-rescue helicopters, while Kate is scheduled to visit a drug treatment center in London that is run by one of the charities she supports, Action on Addiction.

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