Syria refugees say rape is a key reason they fled, report says

This post has been corrected. See the note at the bottom for details.

Rape is one of the primary reasons that Syrian refugees say they fled their country, “a significant and disturbing feature” of the war raging between rebels and Syrian government forces, the International Rescue Committee said Monday.

In a new report based on hundreds of interviews in Jordan and Lebanon, the assistance group said refugees recounted Syrian women and girls being gang-raped in front of their families or assaulted by armed men in public. Others were kidnapped, violated, tortured and killed, the refugee aid group was told.

The aid group did not assign blame to either side in the conflict for the reported rapes. “We deliberately do not ask about perpetrators,” said Alina Potts, Women’s Protection and Empowerment Emergency Coordinator for the group. “We’re looking at what the needs are.”

Syrian rape survivors face shame and stigma that compounds the trauma, and often inhibits them from reporting sexual violence. Many families have married off their daughters early, believing a husband could protect girls from rape. The rush to early marriages has also been reported by other groups.

"They rape girls who are as young as her in Syria now," the father of a pregnant 14-year-old child bride told IRIN news service last year. “I will not feel OK if I do not see her married to a decent man who can protect her.”

Other girls are wed after an assault, in the belief that a marriage could “safeguard their honor,” the IRC reported. Some fear being killed by their own families if they reveal they were attacked. In one extreme case, a father shot his daughter as armed men drew near, trying to prevent the “disgrace” of her rape, the aid group was told.

Despite the continued reports of rape, help for sexual assault survivors is scant in the countries that Syrian refugees have fled to, the group reported.

“Syrian women say they feel unsafe in crowded shelters where they have minimal privacy, yet they are scared to report violence, because of shame or fear of reprisal from family members,” the report said. “Others just don’t know where to turn for help.”

The IRC said it was expanding targeted care and counseling for refugees in Jordan and Lebanon and launching similar programs in Iraq, but warned that funding from abroad hasn’t kept pace with the needs of women and girls across the region.The outpouring of refugees has also given rise to new threats of exploitation outside Syria.

"There must be safeguards to protect women from further violence.... There have been reports of people being targeted by unscrupulous landlords, saying, ‘I know you can’t afford the rent, but if you give me your daughter, your family will have a place to stay,’” Potts said.

Sexual violence is one of a long list of reported atrocities in Syria, including killings, torture and abductions. More than 600,000 refugees have poured out of Syria and millions more are believed to be in need inside the country, according to the U.N.

Aid agencies partnering with the U.N. have appealed for more than $1.5 billion to aid Syrians for six months, the biggest appeal ever made for such a crisis.

The IRC urged donors to meet the pleas for help, focusing added attention on the needs of women and girls. It also pressed for more aid for refugees living outside of the camps, who make up the bulk of the displaced yet garner less attention from media and donors. Borders should be kept open to allow more Syrians to flee, it said.

For the record, 2:40 p.m. Jan. 14: A previous version of this post incorrectly stated that rape was the most common reason for leaving Syria cited by the refugees. The report called it "a primary reason," but did not say it was the most common one.

ALSO:

Hosni Mubarak granted new trial in Egypt

China pollution results in factory closures, flight cancellations

New Russian law forbidding U.S. adoptions draws major Moscow protest

Read More..

Watch the Entirety of <em>Toy Story</em> as a Live-Action Remake

How much do uber-geeks Jonason Pauley and Jesse Perrotta love Toy Story? Enough to spend two years filming a DIY feature-length stop-motion remake of Pixar’s entire 1995 blockbuster shot for shot, using little more than cardboard boxes, string and toys.

It’s hardly the first time DIY auteurs have used action figures to make fan films about iconic movie characters, but the Live-Action Toy Story Project represents extraordinary fan devotion, and even used of the original soundtrack dialogue from Tom Hanks and company along with the original Randy Newman score.

That’s usually the part where lawyers usually start firing off cease and desist orders, but in this case, the project managed to make its own happy ending. After Pauley, 19, and Perrotta, 21, trekked to Pixar headquarters in Emeryville last week and passed out DVDs of their homespun homage, they received the studio’s blessing, and Live-Action Toy Story Project can now be seen in its entirety above.

Read More..

Coroner releases new report on Natalie Wood death

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Some of the bruises found on Natalie Wood‘s body may have occurred before the actress drowned in the waters off Southern California more than 30 years ago, according to a newly released coroner’s report on one of Hollywood’s most mysterious deaths.

The case took another twist Monday when officials released a 10-page addendum to Wood’s 1981 autopsy that cites unexplained bruises and scratches on Wood’s face and arms as significant factors that led to officials changing her death certificate last year from a drowning to “drowning and other undetermined factors.”

Officials were careful about their conclusions because they lacked several pieces of evidence for their review.

Bruises on Wood’s arms, a scratch on her neck and superficial abrasions to the actress’ face may have occurred before Wood ended up in the waters off Catalina Island in November 1981, but coroner’s officials wrote they could not definitely determine when the injuries occurred.

The findings have not altered a sheriff’s department investigation into Wood’s death, which a spokesman described as ongoing.

Wood, 43, was on a yacht with her actor-husband Robert Wagner, co-star Christopher Walken and the boat captain on Thanksgiving weekend in 1981 before somehow ending up in the water. A dinghy that had been attached to the boat was found along the island’s shoreline, but investigators could not locate it to review it last year.

Investigators initially reported that it had no scratches on its hull, and Wood’s fingernails were not preserved for analysis.

Several of the original coroner’s investigators who worked on the case were re-interviewed, and officials attempted to test some items taken during the investigation into Wood’s death and an autopsy, but they could not be located.

“The location of the bruises, the multiplicity of the bruises, lack of head trauma, or facial bruising support bruising having occurred prior to entry in the water,” the report states. “Since there are unanswered questions and limited additional evidence available for evaluation, it is opined by this Medical Examiner that the manner of death should be left as undetermined,” Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran wrote in the report completed in June.

Officials also considered that Wood wasn’t wearing a life jacket and had no history of suicide attempts and didn’t leave a note as reasons to amend its report and the death certificate.

The report was released Monday after sheriff’s officials released a security hold.

Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said the agency has known about the findings in the newly released autopsy report for several months and it does not change the status of the investigation, which remains open. He said Wagner is not considered a suspect in Wood’s death.

Wood, famed for roles in such films as “West Side Story” and “Rebel Without a Cause,” was nominated for three Academy Awards during her lifetime. Her death stunned the world and has remained one of Hollywood’s most enduring mysteries. The original detective on the case, Wagner and Walken have all said they considered her death an accident.

Conflicting versions of what happened on the yacht have contributed to the mystery of how the actress died. Wood, Wagner and Walken had all been drinking heavily in the hours before the actress disappeared.

The newly released report states there are conflicting statements about when the boat’s occupants discovered Wood was missing. The report estimates her time of death was around midnight, and she was reported missing at 1:30 a.m.

The renewed inquiry came after the boat’s captain, Dennis Davern, told “48 Hours Mystery” and the “Today” show that he heard Wagner and Wood arguing the night of her disappearance and believed Wagner was to blame for her death.

Wagner wrote in a 2008 memoir that he and Walken argued that night. He wrote that Walken went to bed and he stayed up for a while, but when he went to bed, he noticed that his wife and a dinghy attached to the yacht were missing.

___

Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Coroner releases new report on Natalie Wood death
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/coroner-releases-new-report-on-natalie-wood-death/
Link To Post : Coroner releases new report on Natalie Wood death
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

Well: How to Go Vegan

When I first heard former President Bill Clinton talk about his vegan diet, I was inspired to make the switch myself. After all, if a man with a penchant for fast-food burgers and Southern cooking could go vegan, surely I could too.

At the grocery store, I stocked up on vegan foods, including almond milk (that was the presidential recommendation), and faux turkey and cheese to replicate my daughter’s favorite sandwich. But despite my good intentions, my cold-turkey attempt to give up, well, turkey (as well as other meats, dairy and eggs) didn’t go well. My daughter and I couldn’t stand the taste of almond milk, and the fake meat and cheese were unappealing.

Since then, I’ve spoken with numerous vegan chefs and diners who say it can be a challenge to change a lifetime of eating habits overnight. They offer the following advice for stocking your vegan pantry and finding replacements for key foods like cheese and other dairy products.

NONDAIRY MILK Taste all of them to find your favorite. Coconut and almond milks (particularly canned coconut milk) are thicker and good to use in cooking, while rice milk is thinner and is good for people who are allergic to nuts or soy. My daughter and I both prefer the taste of soy milk and use it in regular or vanilla flavor for fruit smoothies and breakfast cereal.

NONDAIRY CHEESE Cheese substitutes are available under the brand names Daiya, Tofutti and Follow Your Heart, among others, but many vegans say there’s no fake cheese that satisfies as well as the real thing. Rather than use a packaged product, vegan chefs prefer to make homemade substitutes using cashews, tofu, miso or nutritional yeast. At Candle 79, a popular New York vegan restaurant, the filling for saffron ravioli with wild mushrooms and cashew cheese is made with cashews soaked overnight and then blended with lemon juice, olive oil, water and salt.

THINK CREAMY, NOT CHEESY Creaminess and richness can often be achieved without a cheese substitute. For instance, Chloe Coscarelli, a vegan chef and the author of “Chloe’s Kitchen,” has created a pizza with caramelized onion and butternut squash that will make you forget it doesn’t have cheese; the secret is white-bean and garlic purée. She also offers a creamy, but dairy-free, avocado pesto pasta. My daughter and I have discovered we actually prefer the rich flavor of butternut squash ravioli, which can be found frozen and fresh in supermarkets, to cheese-filled ravioli.

NUTRITIONAL YEAST The name is unappetizing, but many vegan chefs swear by it: it’s a natural food with a roasted, nutty, cheeselike flavor. Ms. Coscarelli uses nutritional yeast flakes in her “best ever” baked macaroni and cheese (found in her cookbook). “I’ve served this to die-hard cheese lovers,” she told me, “and everyone agrees it is comparable, if not better.”

Susan Voisin’s Web site, Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, offers a nice primer on nutritional yeast, noting that it’s a fungus (think mushrooms!) that is grown on molasses and then harvested and dried with heat. (Baking yeast is an entirely different product.) Nutritional yeasts can be an acquired taste, she said, so start with small amounts, sprinkling on popcorn, stirring into mashed potatoes, grinding with almonds for a Parmesan substitute or combining with tofu to make an eggless omelet. It can be found in Whole Foods, in the bulk aisle of natural-foods markets or online.

BUTTER This is an easy fix. Vegan margarines like Earth Balance are made from a blend of oils and are free of trans fats. Varieties include soy-free, whipped and olive oil.

EGGS Ms. Coscarelli, who won the Food Network’s Cupcake Wars with vegan cupcakes, says vinegar and baking soda can help baked goods bind together and rise, creating a moist and fluffy cake without eggs. Cornstarch can substitute for eggs to thicken puddings and sauces. Vegan pancakes are made with a tablespoon of baking powder instead of eggs. Frittatas and omelets can be replicated with tofu.

Finally, don’t try to replicate your favorite meaty foods right away. If you love a juicy hamburger, meatloaf or ham sandwich, you are not going to find a meat-free version that tastes the same. Ms. Voisin advises new vegans to start slow and eat a few vegan meals a week. Stock your pantry with lots of grains, lentils and beans and pile your plate with vegetables. To veganize a recipe, start with a dish that is mostly vegan already — like spaghetti — and use vegetables or a meat substitute for the sauce.

“Trying to recapture something and find an exact substitute is really hard,” she said. “A lot of people will try a vegetarian meatloaf right after they become vegetarian, and they hate it. But after you get away from eating meat for a while, you’ll find you start to develop other tastes, and the flavor of a lentil loaf with seasonings will taste great to you. It won’t taste like meat loaf, but you’ll appreciate it for itself.”

Ms. Voisin notes that she became a vegetarian and then vegan while living in a small town in South Carolina; she now lives in Jackson, Miss.

“If I can be a vegan in these not-quite-vegan-centric places, you can do it anywhere,” she said. “I think people who try to do it all at once overnight are more apt to fail. It’s a learning process.”

---

What are your vegantips? We’re collecting suggestions on ingredients, recipes and strategies.

Read More..

JPMorgan Told to Fix Controls Tied to $6 Billion Loss

WASHINGTON (AP) — JPMorgan Chase & Co. has been ordered to take steps to correct poor risk management that led to a surprise trading loss last year of more than $6 billion.

Federal regulators also on Monday cited the bank for lapses in oversight that allowed the bank to be used for money laundering.

JPMorgan, the nation's largest bank by assets, will not pay a fine under the agreements with the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, a Treasury Department agency. The bank promised to strengthen its policies and procedures to control risk and to screen customers to prevent money laundering.

The regulators each issued two cease-and-desist orders against JPMorgan, a sanction that requires a bank to change its practices. They said they had found "deficiencies" in the bank's procedures to prevent money laundering, and "unsafe or unsound practices" regarding management of risk. The order said the regulators and other government agencies could pursue further action.

The regulators said that the bank has committed to take "all necessary and appropriate steps" to correct the problems.

JPMorgan neither admitted nor denied the regulators' findings in agreeing to the accords.

"We've been working hard to fully remediate the issues" related to risk management, JPMorgan spokesman Mark Kornblau said Monday. He added that the bank has also made preventing money laundering a "top priority."

In May, JPMorgan disclosed that its London office lost billions in trades designed to hedge against risk. The bank later said that some traders had tried to hide the size of the losses.

The loss, which occurred less than four years after the 2008 financial crisis, hurt the bank's reputation. JPMorgan had survived the crisis by taking fewer risks than its competitors.

In June, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon acknowledged before congressional lawmakers that the bank made mistakes but defended its strategy for managing risk.

Still, the bank took action against several employees at the heart of the controversy. Two senior managers and the trader linked to the London trading operation were fired. The bank took back nearly two years' compensation from them.

In addition to the firings, Ina Drew, the bank's chief investment officer overseeing its trading strategy, retired after 30 years at the bank and voluntarily repaid two years of salary.

The bank also made a broad reshuffle of its top management, in an apparent bid to restore investors' trust.

The second action announced Monday against JPMorgan was related to money laundering controls. The accord did not cite any specific case, but the agreement reached was similar to one Citibank struck with regulators in April.

The bank was cited for poorly monitoring potential money laundering at a time when a number of banks have been the spotlight for such abuse.

HSBC agreed last month to pay $1.9 billion — the largest penalty ever imposed on a bank — for lapses the Justice Department said enabled Mexican drug traffickers, Iran, Libya and others under U.S. sanction to move money around the world. And Standard Chartered Bank is paying $327 million to settle U.S. and New York City charges that it laundered money on behalf of four countries subject to U.S. sanctions: Iran, Sudan, Libya and Burma.

Money laundering takes profits from the trafficking of drugs or arms or other illicit activities and passes them through bank accounts or other legitimate businesses to disguise the illegal activity.

___

AP Business Writer Christina Rexrode contributed to this report from New York.

Read More..

Egyptian court orders new trial for Mubarak

CAIRO—

An Egyptian court granted an appeal by former President Hosni Mubarak and ordered a new trial into the killings of hundreds of protesters during the 2011 uprising, a move certain to inflame the political unrest that has upset the country’s democratic transition.

The ruling was a victory for the ailing Mubarak and his Interior minister, Habib Adli, who also won his appeal. Both men, who had been sentenced to life in prison, face other criminal charges and are likely to remain in detention until a new trial in the deaths by security forces of more than 800 protesters.

“The previous ruling was unfair and illegal,” said Yousry Abdelrazeg, one of Mubarak’s lawyers, who accused the judge in the first trial of political bias. “The case was just a mess and there was no evidence against Mubarak.”

No date has been set for the new trial.

The court’s decision comes amid turmoil over an Islamist-backed constitution and outrage over the expanded powers of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. It means a bloody chapter in Egypt’s 2011 revolt will be revisited with the prospect that Mubarak, whose police state ruled for 30 years, may be absolved in a case that deepened the nation’s political differences and impassioned the Arab world.

Mubarak was convicted in June of not preventing the deaths of hundreds of protesters attacked by police and snipers during the uprising, which began on Jan. 25, 2011, and ended 18 days later when he stepped aside and the military seized power.

Mubarak argued that he had not ordered the crackdown and was unaware of the extent of the violence. A recently completed government-ordered investigation into the killings, however, reportedly found that Mubarak had monitored the deadly response by security forces in Tahrir Square via a live television feed.

The appeals court ruling came a day after prosecutors announced an investigation into allegations that Mubarak, 84, received about $1 million in illicit gifts from Al Ahram, the country’s leading state-owned newspaper. The former president has reportedly been in a military hospital since December after he fell in a prison bathroom and injured himself.

Last year’s trial riveted the nation with images of the aging Mubarak wheeled into the defendant’s cage on a stretcher, his arms crossed and his eyes hidden behind sunglasses.

jeffrey.fleishman@latimes.com  

(Special correspondent Reem Abdellatif contributed to this report)

Read More..

Watch the All-New Corvette Debut Live at 7 PM ET/4 PM PT

The Detroit Auto Show kicks off tomorrow, but Chevrolet is unleashing its next-generation Corvette tonight at a special event in the Motor City. We’ll be on hand for the reveal, but if you want to get a leg-up on the rest of your gearhead friends, Chevy is live-streaming the pre-show reveal at 7 p.m. Eastern/4 p.m. Pacific. We’ve embedded the video above, so start refreshing this page to get an eye-full, and look for our live coverage of the show starting at 8 a.m. Eastern on Monday. And if you’re really impatient, the first details of the all-new ‘Vette have already leaked out, including some exterior pics that are sure to whet your appetite.

Read More..

Bin Laden film “Zero Dark Thirty” leads box office

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – “Zero Dark Thirty,” Hollywood‘s re-telling of the decade-long manhunt for Osama bin Laden, captured the No. 1 spot on movie box office charts over the weekend with $ 24 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales.

The movie starring Jessica Chastain as a dogged CIA agent edged out horror movie spoof “A Haunted House,” which earned $ 18.8 million, as well as “Gangster Squad,” a period crime drama that finished in third place with $ 16.7 million, according to studio estimates.

Caught in political controversy, “Zero Dark Thirty” received a boost this week from five Oscar nominations, including best picture, though its director Kathryn Bigelow was snubbed in the best director category.

The movie is a dramatized account of the hunt for al Qaeda leader bin Laden and the May 2011 U.S. Navy SEAL raid in which he was killed. It has sparked a debate about its depictions of “enhanced interrogation techniques,” with some critics arguing that the film promotes the use of torture.

Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal have said their movie depicts several investigation methods and does not suggest one particular technique led to bin Laden. Sony Pictures Chairwoman Amy Pascal on Friday said the movie “does not advocate torture.”

Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution for Sony Corp‘s Sony Pictures studio, said one of the things the motive had certainly done was to promote “a lot of dialogue and conversation.”

He attributed the film’s strong performance to “the awards, conversation about controversy, and the film itself.”

A Senate Committee is investigating whether the CIA spy agency provided the filmmakers with any inappropriate access to secret material. Government e-mails and memoranda released to the conservative group Judicial Watch show that both the CIA and the Pentagon provided extensive access.

“Zero Dark Thirty” expanded nationwide this weekend to nearly 3,000 theaters following limited showings since late December. It cost $ 40 million to make, according to website Hollywood.com.

The low-budget “A Haunted House” comes from Marlon Wayans, writer of the “Scary Movie” horror spoof series. The film debuted to $ 18.8 million, beating out period noir “Gangster Squad.” The $ 2.5 million production tells the story of a man dealing with his wife after she becomes possessed by the devil inhabiting their dream home.

Jason Cassidy, head of marketing at Open Road Films, the distributor of “A Haunted House,” said he was “pleasantly surprised” by the film’s numbers, and credited African-American and Latino audiences with boosting the film’s numbers.

Cassidy added that the film’s release on a weekend in which it had no competition from other major comedies, as well as heavy promotion by star Marlon Wayans, helped it succeed at the box office despite largely negative reviews.

“Gangster Squad” opened Friday in third place at $ 16.7 million after it was reworked following last July’s fatal shooting in Aurora, Colorado at a midnight premiere of Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises.”

The film stars Sean Penn, Josh Brolin and Ryan Gosling and originally included a scene eerily similar to the Aurora tragedy in which gunmen open fire from behind a movie screen. A new scene was filmed and the movie’s September premiere date was pushed to January.

Set in 1949 Los Angeles, the movie stars Sean Penn as real-life gangster Mickey Cohen, who is ultimately brought down by a band of cops led by Brolin and Gosling. The film is based on a non-fiction book by Paul Lieberman.

Two Christmas Day releases rounded out the top of the weekend chart. Quentin Tarantino Western “Django Unchained” landed in fourth place with $ 11.1 million at North American (U.S. and Canadian) theaters. In fifth place, musical “Les Miserables” took in $ 10.1 million.

The weekend marked a strong start for Hollywood in 2013 after 2012′s record box-office numbers. $ 10.8 billion in movie ticket sales were recorded in 2012, according to boxoffice.com, making 2012 the most lucrative year ever for Hollywood. The numbers exceeded those from 2011 by nearly six percent. Profits from the first two weeks of January 2013 are also up about 22 percent over the same time period of 2012.

Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc, released “Gangster Squad. “Zero Dark Thirty” was distributed by Sony Corp‘s movie studio. “A Haunted House” was released by Open Road Films, a joint venture between theater owners Regal Entertainment Group and AMC Entertainment Inc.

The Weinstein Co distributed “Django Unchained.” “Les Miserables” was released by Universal Pictures, a unit of Comcast Corp.

(Reporting By Lisa Richwine and Andrea Burzynski; Editing by Paul Simao and David Brunnstrom)

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Bin Laden film “Zero Dark Thirty” leads box office
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/bin-laden-film-zero-dark-thirty-leads-box-office/
Link To Post : Bin Laden film “Zero Dark Thirty” leads box office
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

City Room: Cuomo Declares Public Health Emergency Over Flu Outbreak

With the nation in the grip of a severe influenza outbreak that has seen deaths reach epidemic levels, New York State declared a public health emergency on Saturday, making access to vaccines more easily available.

There have been nearly 20,000 cases of flu reported across the state so far this season, officials said. Last season, 4,400 positive laboratory tests were reported.

“We are experiencing the worst flu season since at least 2009, and influenza activity in New York State is widespread, with cases reported in all 57 counties and all five boroughs of New York City,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said in a statement.

Under the order, pharmacists will be allowed to administer flu vaccinations to patients between 6 months and 18 years old, temporarily suspending a state law that prohibits pharmacists from administering immunizations to children.

While children and older people tend to be the most likely to become seriously ill from the flu, Mr. Cuomo urged all New Yorkers to get vaccinated.

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said that deaths from the flu had reached epidemic levels, with at least 20 children having died nationwide. Officials cautioned that deaths from pneumonia and the flu typically reach epidemic levels for a week or two every year. The severity of the outbreak will be determined by how long the death toll remains high or if it climbs higher.

There was some evidence that caseloads may be peaking, federal officials said on Friday.

In New York City, public health officials announced on Thursday that flu-related illnesses had reached epidemic levels, and they joined the chorus of authorities urging people to get vaccinated.

“It’s a bad year,” the city’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, told reporters on Thursday. “We’ve got lots of flu, it’s mainly type AH3N2, which tends to be a little more severe. So we’re seeing plenty of cases of flu and plenty of people sick with flu. Our message for any people who are listening to this is it’s still not too late to get your flu shot.”

There has been a spike in the number of people going to emergency rooms over the past two weeks with flulike symptoms – including fever, fatigue and coughing – Dr. Farley said.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Mr. Cuomo made a public display of getting shots this past week.

In a briefing with reporters on Friday, officials from the C.D.C. said that this year’s vaccine was effective in 62 percent of cases.

As officials have stepped up their efforts encouraging vaccinations, there have been scattered reports of shortages. But officials said plenty of the vaccine was available.

According to the C.D.C., makers of the flu vaccine produced about 135 million doses for this year. As of early this month, 128 million doses had been distributed. While that would not be enough for every American, only 37 percent of the population get a flu shot each year.

Federal health officials said they would be happy if that number rose to 50 percent, which would mean that there would be more than enough vaccine for anyone who wanted to be immunized.

Two other diseases – norovirus and whooping cough – are also widespread this winter and are contributing to the number of people getting sick.

The flu can resemble a cold, though the symptoms come on more rapidly and are more severe.

A version of this article appeared in print on 01/13/2013, on page A21 of the NewYork edition with the headline: New York Declares Health Emergency.

Read More..

Treasury Auctions Set for This Week

The Treasury’s schedule of financing this week includes Monday’s regular weekly auction of new three- and six-month bills and an auction of four-week bills on Tuesday.

At the close of the New York cash market on Friday, the rate on the outstanding three-month bill was 0.07 percent. The rate on the six-month issue was 0.10 percent, and the rate on the four-week issue was 0.05 percent.

The following tax-exempt fixed-income issues are scheduled for pricing this week:

TUESDAY

Virginia Housing Development Authority, $90 million of revenue bonds. Competitive.

WEDNESDAY

North Carolina, $250 million of revenue bonds. Competitive.

THURSDAY

Frederick, Md., $54.4 million of general obligation bonds. Competitive.

ONE DAY DURING THE WEEK

Alaska, $150 million of general obligation bond. Citigroup Global Markets.

Arizona Transportation Board, $706.3 million of highway revenue bonds. J. P. Morgan Securities.

Baltimore, $261.3 million of public improvement general obligation bonds. J. P. Morgan Securities.

Cleveland Municipal School District, $52.3 million of general obligation school improvement bonds. J. P. Morgan Securities.

Colorado Springs School District, $83.8 million of general obligation bonds. RBC Capital Markets.

Florida, $55 million of electric system revenue bonds. RBC Capital Markets.

Lakewood, Colo., $100.9 million of revenue refinancing bonds. RBC Capital Markets.

Louisiana, $297.1 million of revenue refinancing bonds. Bank of America.

Missouri Housing Development Commission, $100.2 million of single-family mortgage revenue refinancing bonds. George K. Baum.

Mountain View, Calif., $50 million of school district debt securities. Piper Jaffray.

New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, $500 million of debt securities. Citigroup Global Markets.

North Harris County, Tex., $109.1 million of regional water authority revenue refinancing bonds. FirstSouthwest.

Ohio State University, $329.4 million of special purpose general receipts bonds. Barclays Capital Markets.

Oregon University System, $244.8 million of debt securities. Bank of America.

Pennsylvania Commonwealth Finance Authority, $330 million of revenue bonds. RBC Capital Markets.

Redmond, Ore., School District, $63.1 million of general obligation bonds. Seattle-Northwest Securities.

San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, $411.2 million of debt securities. Jefferies.

San Francisco, $194 million of wastewater revenue refinancing debt securities. Citigroup Global Markets.

Read More..