Signs mount of possible Israeli invasion of Gaza

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli aircraft pummeled rocket launching operations of Gaza militants on Friday, and as troops, tanks and armored personnel carriers massed near the Palestinian territory, signaling a ground invasion might be growing near.

Fighting between the two sides escalated sharply Thursday with a first-ever militant attack on the Tel Aviv area, menacing Israel's heartland. No casualties were reported, but three people died in the country's rocket-scarred south when a projectile slammed into an apartment building.

The death toll in the densely populated Palestinian territory climbed to 19, including five children according to Palestinian health officials, as waves of Israeli fighter planes and drones sent missiles hurtling down on suspected weapons stores and rocket-launching sites.

Early Friday, 85 missiles exploded within 45 minutes in Gaza City, sending black pillars of smoke towering above the coastal strip's largest city. The military said it was targeting underground rocket-launching sites.

One missile hit the Interior Ministry, a symbol of Hamas power.

The fighting has already widened the instability gripping a region in the throes of war and regime upheavals. Most immediately, it is straining already frayed relations with Egypt, which plans to send its prime minister to Gaza later Friday in a show of solidarity with its militant Hamas rulers.

Israel and Hamas had largely observed an informal truce since Israel's devastating incursion into Gaza four years ago, but rocket fire and Israeli airstrikes on militant operations didn't halt entirely. The latest flare-up exploded into major violence Wednesday when Israel assassinated Hamas' military chief, following up with a punishing air assault meant to cripple the militants' ability to terrorize Israel with rockets.

The Israeli military reported early Friday that its aircraft had struck more than 350 targets since the beginning of its operation against Hamas' rocket operations.

On Thursday, Israeli warplanes struck dozens of Hamas-linked targets, sending loud booms echoing across the narrow Mediterranean coastal strip at regular intervals, followed by gray columns of smoke. After nightfall, several explosions shook Gaza City several minutes apart, a sign the strikes were not letting up. The military said the targets were about 70 underground rocket-launching sites.

The onslaught has not deterred the militants from striking back with more than 400 rockets aimed at southern Israel. For the first time, they also unleashed the most powerful weapons in their arsenal — Iranian-made Fajr-5 rockets capable of reaching Tel Aviv.

The two rockets that struck closest to Tel Aviv appear to have landed in the Mediterranean Sea, defense officials said, and another hit an open area on Tel Aviv's southern outskirts.

No injuries were reported, but the rocket fire — the first in the area from Gaza — sowed panic in Tel Aviv and made the prospect of a ground incursion more likely. The government later approved the mobilization of up to 30,000 reservists for a possible invasion.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the army was hitting Hamas hard with what he called surgical strikes, and warned of a "significant widening" of the Gaza operation. Israel will "continue to take whatever action is necessary to defend our people," said Netanyahu, who is up for re-election in January.

At least 12 trucks were seen transporting tanks and armored personnel carriers toward Gaza late Thursday, and buses carrying soldiers headed toward the border area. Israeli TV stations said a Gaza operation was expected on Friday, though military officials said no decision had been made.

"We will continue the attacks and we will increase the attacks, and I believe we will obtain our objectives," said Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, Israel's military chief.

An Israeli ground offensive could be costly to both sides. In the last Gaza war, Israel devastated large areas of the territory, setting back Hamas' fighting capabilities but also paying the price of increasing diplomatic isolation because of a civilian death toll numbering in the hundreds.

The current round of fighting is reminiscent of the first days of that three-week offensive against Hamas. Israel also caught Hamas off-guard then with a barrage of missile strikes and threatened to follow up with a ground offensive.

However, much has also changed since then.

Israel has improved its missile defense systems, but is facing a more heavily armed Hamas. Israel estimates militants possess 12,000 rockets, including more sophisticated weapons from Iran and from Libyan stockpiles plundered after the fall of Moammar Gadhafi's regime there last year.

Netanyahu, who has clashed even with his allies over the deadlock in Mideast peace efforts, appears to have less diplomatic leeway than his predecessor, Ehud Olmert, making a lengthy military offensive harder to sustain.

What's more, regional alignments have changed dramatically since the last Gaza war. Hamas has emerged from its political isolation as its parent movement, the region-wide Muslim Brotherhood, rose to power in several countries in the wake of last year's Arab uprisings, particularly in Egypt.

Egypt recalled its ambassador to protest the Israeli offensive and has ordered his prime minister to lead a senior delegation to Gaza on Friday in a show of support for Hamas.

At the same time, while relations with Israel have cooled since the toppling of longtime Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, Morsi has not brought a radical change in Egypt's policy toward Israel. He has promised to abide by Egypt's 1979 peace deal with Israel and his government has continued contacts with Israel through its non-Brotherhood members.

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Laub reported from Gaza City, Gaza Strip.

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Xi Jinping takes helm of China amid reform calls

BEIJING (AP) — Xi Jinping became China's new leader Thursday, assuming the top posts in the Communist Party and the powerful military in a political transition unbowed by scandals, a slower economy and public demands for reforms.

Xi was introduced as the new party general secretary at Beijing's Great Hall of the People a day after the close of a weeklong party congress that underlined the communists' determination to remain firmly in power. He and the six other men who will form China's new collective leadership, all dressed in dark suits, walked in line onto the red-carpeted stage.

Xi's appointment as chairman of the military commission, announced by the state Xinhua News Agency, marked a break from the recent tradition of retiring leaders holding onto the post for a transitional period to extend their influence. It meant outgoing leader Hu Jintao would relinquish all positions of power, giving Xi broader leeway to consolidate his authority.

The once-a-decade leadership change was carefully choreographed. It became clear Xi would lead China five years ago, when he was appointed to the Standing Committee — the nation's apex of power — as the highest-ranked member who would not be of retirement age this year.

Xi's colleagues in the new Standing Committee are Li Keqiang, the presumptive premier and chief economic official; Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang; Shanghai party secretary Yu Zhengsheng; propaganda chief Liu Yunshan; Vice Premier Wang Qishan; and Tianjin party secretary Zhang Gaoli.

In a speech broadcast live on Chinese state TV and worldwide, Xi said, "We shall do everything we can to live up to your trust and fulfill our mission."

"There are also many pressing problems within the party that need to be resolved, particularly corruption," Xi said. "We must make every effort to solve these problems. The whole party must stay on full alert."

The other six leaders were expressionless with their arms at their sides during Xi's 20-minute speech, then smiled to the audience when they walked off stage.

The son of a party elder, and vice president for the past five years, Xi will lead the world's No. 2 economy and newest diplomatic and military power amid increasingly vocal calls for economic and political reform — including from within the 82-million-member party itself.

At ease in front of people and with colleagues, Xi takes over the party leadership from the stiff, technocratic Hu, and is expected to assume the largely ceremonial presidency in March.

The ascent of Xi and Li, the premier-in-waiting, represents a generational change. Though they spent their youths laboring on farms, their university years and early careers took place when China was casting off the planned economy and turning to the free market and to the West. They are thought to be more open to new ideas than their predecessors, but nonetheless bound by China's consensus-oriented politics.

Thursday marked only the second tidy transition since communist rule was established in 1949, despite a turbulent political year that saw the downfall in a murder and corruption scandal of rising populist Bo Xilai, who had been seen as a key contender for the new leadership slate.

The outgoing Hu oversaw a decade of turgid economic growth and urban development and tried to make concern for ordinary people the hallmark of his tenure, but he also will be remembered for harshly stifling dissent and rolling back civil liberties.

At the same time, increased social freedoms have created a generation of Chinese who are more aware of their rights and more vocal about demanding them.

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Verizon says 1.4 million customers back on its fiber optic network

(Reuters) – Verizon Communications said fiber optic services have been restored to more than 1.4 million customers hurt by Hurricane Sandy.

The provider of telephone, Internet and television services said on November 1 that it may take another two weeks to restore telecommunication services for its customers after flooding and power outages knocked out services.

The company said it completed 364,000 repairs across the mid-Atlantic and northeast regions.

Verizon said it will provide credits for landline customers and fix equipment damaged due to the hurricane.

Verizon shares were up at $ 42.39 after the bell on Wednesday. They closed at $ 42.24 on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting By Pallavi Ail in Bangalore; Editing by Maju Samuel)

Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Erdrich wins National Book Award for fiction

NEW YORK (AP) — The National Book Awards on Wednesday honored both longtime writers and new authors, from Louise Erdrich for "The Round House" to Katherine Boo for her debut work, "Beyond the Beautiful Forevers."

Erdrich, 58, has been a published and highly regarded author for nearly 30 years but had never won a National Book Award until being cited Wednesday for her story about an Ojibwe boy and his quest to avenge his mother's rape. A clearly delighted and surprised Erdrich, who's part Ojibwe, spoke in her tribal tongue and then switched to English as she dedicated her fiction award to "the grace and endurance of native people."

Boo's nonfiction book, set in a Mumbai slum, also is a story of a boy and his harsh and illuminating education in the consequences of crime or perceived crime. The author, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist currently on staff with The New Yorker, said she was grateful for the chance to live in a world she "didn't know" and for the chance to tell the stories of those otherwise ignored. She praised a fellow nominee and fellow Pulitzer-winning reporter, the late Anthony Shadid, for also believing in stories of those without fame or power.

Poetry winner David Ferry is a year older than one of the night's honorary recipients, Elmore Leonard. Ferry, 88, won for "Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations," a showcase for his versatile style. He fought back tears as he confided that he thought there was a chance for winning because he "was so much older" than the other nominees. He called the award a "pre-posthumous" honor.

The other competitive prize Wednesday went to William Alexander, whose "Goblin Secrets" won for young people's literature.

Alexander quoted fellow fantasy writer Ursula Le Guin in highlighting the importance of stories for shaping kids' imaginations and making the world a larger place than the one they live in.

"We have to remember that," Alexander said.

The ceremony went smoothly even though Superstorm Sandy badly damaged the offices of the award's organizer, the National Book Foundation, whose staffers had to work with limited telephone and mail access.

Winners, chosen by panels of fellow writers, each received $10,000. Judges looked through nearly 1,300 books.

Honorary prizes were given to Leonard and New York Times publisher and chairman Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr.

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New gene triples risk for Alzheimer's disease

Scientists have identified a new gene variant that seems to strongly raise the risk for Alzheimer's disease, giving a fresh target for research into treatments for the mind-robbing disorder.

The problem gene is not common — less than 1 percent of people are thought to have it — but it roughly triples the chances of developing Alzheimer's compared to people with the normal version of the gene. It also seems to harm memory and thinking in older people without dementia.

The main reason scientists are excited by the discovery is what this gene does, and how that might reveal what causes Alzheimer's and ways to prevent it. The gene helps the immune system control inflammation in the brain and clear junk such as the sticky deposits that are the hallmark of the disease. Mutations in the gene may impair these tasks, so treatments to restore the gene's function and quell inflammation may help.

"It points us to potential therapeutics in a more precise way than we've seen in the past," said Dr. William Thies, chief medical and scientific officer of the Alzheimer's Association, which had no role in the research. Years down the road, this discovery will likely be seen as very important, he predicted.

It is described in a study by an international group published online Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine.

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. Medicines such as Aricept and Namenda just temporarily ease symptoms. There is no known cure.

Until now, only one gene — ApoE — has been found to have a big impact on Alzheimer's risk. About 17 percent of the population has at least one copy of the problem version of this gene but nearly half of all people with Alzheimer's do. Other genes that have been tied to the disease raise risk only a little, or cause the less common type of Alzheimer's that develops earlier in life, before age 60.

The new gene, TREM2, already has been tied to a couple other forms of dementia. Researchers led by deCODE Genetics Inc. of Iceland honed in on a version of it they identified through mapping the entire genetic code of more than 2,200 Icelanders.

Further tests on 3,550 Alzheimer's patients and more than 110,000 people without dementia in several countries, including the United States, found that the gene variant was more common in Alzheimer's patients.

"It's a very strong effect," raising the risk of Alzheimer's by three to four times — about the same amount as the problem version of the ApoE gene does, said Dr. Allan Levey, director of an Alzheimer's program at Emory University, one of the academic centers participating in the research.

Researchers also tested more than 1,200 people over age 85 who did not have Alzheimer's disease and found that those with the variant TREM2 gene had lower mental function scores than those without it. This adds evidence the gene variant is important in cognition, even short of causing Alzheimer's.

"It's another piece in the puzzle. It suggests the immune system is important in Alzheimer's disease," said Andrew Singleton, a geneticist with the National Institute on Aging, which helped pay for the study.

One prominent scientist not involved in the study — Dr. Rudolph Tanzi, a Harvard Medical School geneticist and director of an Alzheimer's research program at Massachusetts General Hospital — called the work exciting, but added a caveat.

"I would like to see more evidence that this is Alzheimer's" rather than one of the other dementias already tied to the gene, Tanzi said. Autopsy or brain imaging tests can show whether the cases attributed to the gene variant are truly Alzheimer's or misdiagnosed, he said.

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Online:

Medical journal: http://www.nejm.org

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

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

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Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

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FBI terror expert started Petraeus probe

The FBI agent who investigated harassing emails to a Florida socialite, a probe that set off a chain of events leading to the resignation of CIA director David Petraeus over an extramarital affair, was a veteran investigator who has worked on high-profile terrorism cases.

The agent was identified as Frederick Humphries by a former federal agent, a source familiar with the Petraeus investigation and Humphries' attorney, Lawrence Berger.

Humphries, 47, received the initial complaint from Jill Kelley, 37, a Tampa, Fla., socialite, about "harassing" emails that an investigation traced back to Paula Broadwell, a 40-year-old author who co-wrote a biography of Petraeus, 60.

The investigation ultimately uncovered evidence of an affair between Broadwell and Petraeus, prompting Petraeus to resign last week.

Berger said his client's family "knew the Kelley family socially for several years." Jill Kelley asked Humphries for advice on what she perceived to be threatening e-mails and he "referred the matter to the bureau as appropriate."

Berger said his client has been wrongly characterized as a "whistleblower," but there is "no action pending against him, nor does he anticipate any future action."

Humphries "referred the matter to the FBI in accordance to proper protocol," Berger added, and the FBI investigation is taking its course.

AP Photo/Kevin P. Casey, AP Photo/Christopher Berkey, File

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Berger flatly declined to confirm or provide any details at all regarding Humphries' alleged contacts with the offices of either Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., or House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va.

According to the New York Times, Humphries was allegedly concerned the case had been stalled for political reasons, and in late October contacted Reichert, whom he knew from his time working in Washington. The Times reported that Reichert put him in touch with Cantor, who then passed the message to FBI director, Robert Mueller.

An associate of Humphries told ABC News that it was hard to believe that Humphries had contacted elected officials about the case because "everyone knows that's professional suicide" and Humphries is "top notch."

Humphries has worked as a supervisor on Joint Terrorism Task Force in Tampa and has worked on high-profile terrorism cases.

In Seattle, Humphries worked the so-called Millenium terror plot in 1999, which prevented an Algerian al Qaeda member from bombing Los Angeles International Airport.

More recently, he testified in Florida in a terrorism case of Florida student Youssef Megahed and his associates.

In that case, back in 2007, a sheriff's deputy with the Berkeley County Sherriff's Office in South Carolina became suspicious when University of South Florida student Ahmed Mohamed and his companion, fellow USF student Megahed, did not initially stop when they were pulled over for speeding. The officer said he saw Megahed disconnect a power cord from a laptop computer as he approached the car. The deputy searched the vehicle. According to court records, he found safety fuses, several sections of cut PVC piping containing a potassium nitrate explosive mixture and containers filled with gasoline.

The pair was arrested that night for transporting explosives. Following the arrest, the FBI in Tampa and South Carolina began an investigation with the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

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China's Communist Party conclave nearly finished

BEIJING (AP) — China's Communist Party was bringing its pivotal conclave to a close in largely choreographed steps Wednesday, a day before unveiling its leaders for the coming decade.

President Hu Jintao is expected to step down as party chief in favor of the anointed successor, Vice President Xi Jinping, in what would be only the second orderly transfer of power in 63 years of communist rule. The new leaders of the world's second-largest economy will face slowing growth, rising unrest among increasing assertive citizens and delicate relations with neighboring countries.

The party's 2,200-plus delegates filed into Beijing's Great Hall of the People in the morning to select members of the Central Committee, a panel of a few hundred people that approves leadership positions and sets broad policy goals, ahead of the scheduled close of the congress later Wednesday.

But the next lineup in China's apex of power, the Politburo Standing Committee, will be announced only on Thursday. Though congress and Central Committee delegates have some influence over leadership decisions, most of the lineup is decided among a core group of the most powerful party members and elders.

The congress votes are "fully democratic" but "there is a degree of inevitability," said party delegate Song Guofeng of Liaoning province as he entered the hall. "We need to have continuity in leadership to carry on. They are already in the leadership core. The stability of the party and of the county is important."

The voting concluded in the late morning, and the state Xinhua News Agency said in a brief report that Xi and premier-in-waiting Li Keqiang had been voted onto the Central Committee — an expected result.

Hu and senior leaders mostly in their late 60s are handing over power to Xi, 59, and colleagues of his generation over the next several months. Li, currently vice premier, already was tapped five years ago to be the country's next premier, China's top economic official. But other top positions were up for grabs.

China's leadership transitions are always occasions for fractious backroom bargaining, but this one has been further complicated by scandals that have fed public cynicism that their leaders are more concerned with power and wealth than government.

In recent months, Bo Xilai, a senior politician seen as a rising star, was purged after his aide exposed that his wife murdered a British businessman. An ally of Hu's was sidelined after his son died in the crash of a Ferrari he shouldn't have been able to afford. And foreign media recently reported that relatives of Xi and outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao had amassed vast wealth. The scandals have weakened Hu, on whose watch they occurred.

The congress is a largely ceremonial gathering of representatives — mostly carefully selected from the national and provincial political and military elite — who have met to endorse a work report delivered by Hu at the opening a week ago. The real deal-making for the top positions on the Standing Committee is done behind the scenes by the true power-holders.

Aside from appointing Central Committee members, delegates assembled inside the Great Hall of the People were tasked with selecting the membership of the party's internal corruption watchdog, the Central Discipline Inspection Committee, and with voting on amendments to the party's charter.

After the congress ends, the Central Committee meets Thursday to select the next Politburo and from that, the Politburo Standing Committee, largely on the advice of influential leaders.

The leaders also will select new members of the party's Central Military Commission, which oversees the 2.3 million-member People's Liberation Army. It is unclear if Hu will relinquish his position at the head of the commission or hold on to it for a period after retirement, as past leaders have, to retain influence.

Hu will remain president until March.

The next cohort of leaders face daunting challenges, including efforts to pull the country's economy into a recovery from a sharp downturn, tense territorial disputes with Japan and other neighbors and the demands of a new middle class and millions of rural migrants for a better life.

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Man who accused Elmo puppeteer of teen sex recants

NEW YORK (AP) — A man who accused Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash of having sex with him when he was a teenage boy has recanted his story.

In a quick turnabout, the man on Tuesday described his sexual relationship with Clash as adult and consensual.

Clash responded with a statement of his own, saying he is "relieved that this painful allegation has been put to rest." He had no further comment.

The man, who has not identified himself, released his statement through the Harrisburg, Pa., law firm Andreozzi & Associates.

Sesame Workshop, which produces "Sesame Street" in New York, soon followed by saying, "We are happy that Kevin can move on from this unfortunate episode."

The whirlwind episode began Monday morning, when Sesame Workshop startled the world by announcing that Clash had taken a leave of absence from "Sesame Street" in the wake of allegations that he had had a relationship with a 16-year-old.

Clash, a 52-year-old divorced father of a grown daughter, swiftly denied the charges of his accuser, who is in his early 20s. In that statement Clash acknowledged that he is gay but said the relationship had been between two consenting adults.

Though it remained unclear where the relationship took place, sex with a person under 17 is a felony in New York if the perpetrator is at least 21.

Sesame Workshop, which said it was first contacted by the accuser in June, had launched an investigation that included meeting with the accuser twice and meeting with Clash. Its investigation found the charge of underage conduct to be unsubstantiated.

Clash said on Monday he would take a break from Sesame Workshop "to deal with this false and defamatory allegation."

Neither Clash nor Sesame Workshop indicated on Tuesday when he might return to the show, on which he has performed as Elmo since 1984.

Elmo had previously been a marginal character, but Clash, supplying the fuzzy red puppet with a high-pitched voice and a carefree, child-like personality, launched the character into major stardom. Elmo soon rivaled Big Bird as the face of "Sesame Street."

Though usually behind the scenes, Clash meanwhile achieved his own measure of fame. In 2006, he published an autobiography, "My Life as a Furry Red Monster," and he was the subject of the 2011 documentary "Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey."

He has won 23 daytime Emmy awards and one prime-time Emmy.

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Online:

http://www.sesamestreet.org

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Report: FDA wanted to close Mass pharmacy in 2003

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly a decade ago, federal health inspectors wanted to shut down the pharmacy linked to a recent deadly meningitis outbreak until it cleaned up its operations, according to congressional investigators.

About 440 people have been sickened by contaminated steroid shots distributed by New England Compounding Center, and more than 32 deaths have been reported since the outbreak began in September, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That has put the Framingham, Mass.-based pharmacy at the center of congressional scrutiny and calls for greater regulation of compounding pharmacies, which make individualized medications for patients and have long operated in a legal gray area between state and federal laws.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee released a detailed history of NECC's regulatory troubles on Monday, ahead of a meeting Wednesday meeting to examine how the outbreak could have been prevented. The 25-page report summarizes and quotes from FDA and state inspection memos, though the committee declined to release the original documents.

The report shows that after several problematic incidents, Food and Drug Administration officials in 2003 suggested that the compounding pharmacy be "prohibited from manufacturing" until it improved its operations. But FDA regulators deferred to their counterparts in Massachusetts, who ultimately reached an agreement with the pharmacy to settle concerns about the quality of its prescription injections.

The congressional report also shows that in 2003 the FDA considered the company a pharmacy. That's significant because in recent weeks public health officials have charged that NECC was operating more as a manufacturer than a pharmacy, shipping thousands of doses of drugs to all 50 states instead of small batches of drugs to individual patients. Manufacturers are regulated by the FDA and are subject to stricter quality standards than pharmacies.

The report offers the most detailed account yet of the numerous regulatory complaints against the pharmacy, which nearly date back to its founding in 1998. Less than a year later, the company was cited by the state pharmacy board for providing doctors with blank prescription pads with NECC's information. Such promotional items are illegal in Massachusetts and the pharmacy's owner and director, Barry Cadden, received an informal reprimand, according to documents summarized by the committee.

Cadden was subject to several other complaints involving unprofessional conduct in coming years, but first came to the FDA's attention in 2002. Here are some key events from the report highlighting the company's early troubles with state and federal authorities:

__ In March of 2002 the FDA began investigating reports that five patients had become dizzy and short of breath after receiving NECC's compounded betamethasone repository injection, a steroid used to treat joint pain and arthritis that's different from the one linked to the current meningitis outbreak.

FDA inspectors visited NECC on April 9 and said Cadden was initially cooperative in turning over records about production of the drug. But during a second day of inspections, Cadden told officials "that he was no longer willing to provide us with any additional records," according to an FDA report cited by congressional investigators. The inspectors ultimately issued a report citing NECC for poor sterility and record-keeping practices but said that "this FDA investigation could not proceed to any definitive resolution," because of "problems/barriers that were encountered throughout the inspection."

__ In October of 2002, the FDA received new reports that two patients at a Rochester, N.Y., hospital came down with symptoms of bacterial meningitis after receiving a different NECC injection. The steroid, methylprednisolone acetate, is the same injectable linked to the current outbreak and is typically is used to treat back pain. Both patients were treated with antibiotics and eventually recovered, according to FDA documents cited by the committee.

When officials from the FDA and Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy visited NECC later in the month, Cadden said vials of the steroid returned by the hospital had tested negative for bacterial contamination. But when FDA scientists tested samples of the drug collected in New York they found bacterial contamination in four out of 14 vials sampled. It is not entirely clear whether FDA tested the same lot shipped to the Rochester hospital.

__ At a February 2003 meeting between state and federal officials, FDA staff emphasized "the potential for serious public consequences if NECC's compounding practices, in particular those relating to sterile products, are not improved." The agency issued a list of problems uncovered in its inspection to NECC, including a failure to verify if sterile drugs met safety standards.

But the agency decided to let Massachusetts officials take the lead in regulating the company, since pharmacies are typically regulated at the state level. It was decided that "the state would be in a better position to gain compliance or take regulatory action against NECC as necessary," according to a summary of the meeting quoted by investigators.

The FDA recommended the state subject NECC to a consent agreement, which would require the company to pass certain quality tests to continue operating. But congressional investigators say Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy did not take any action until "well over a year later."

__ In October 2004, the board sent a proposed consent agreement to Cadden, which would have included a formal reprimand and a three-year probationary period for the company's registration. The case ended without disciplinary action in 2006, when NECC agreed to a less severe consent decree with the state.

Massachusetts officials indicated Tuesday they are still investigating why NECC escaped the more severe penalty.

"I will not be satisfied until we know the full story behind this decision," the state's interim health commissioner Lauren Smith said in a transcript of her prepared testimony released a day ahead of delivery. Smith is one of several witnesses scheduled to testify Wednesday, including FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg.

The committee will also hear from the widow of 78-year-old Eddie C. Lovelace, a longtime circuit court judge in southern Kentucky. Autopsy results confirmed Lovelace received fungus-contaminated steroid injections that led to his death Sept. 17.

Joyce Lovelace will urge lawmakers to work together on legislation to stop future outbreaks caused by compounded drugs, according to a draft of her testimony.

"We now know that New England Compounding Pharmacy, Inc. killed Eddie. I have lost my soulmate and life's partner with whom I worked side by side, day after day for more than fifty years," Lovelace states.

Barry Cadden is also scheduled to appear at the hearing, after lawmakers issued a subpoena to compel him to attend.

The NECC has been closed since early last month, and Massachusetts officials have taken steps to permanently revoke its license. The pharmacy has recalled all the products it makes, including 17,700 single-dose vials of a steroid that tested positive for the fungus tied to the outbreak.

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Who's who in the Petraeus scandal

What started out as a leisurely stroll through the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Nov. 11 with his girlfriend, quickly turned into quite a surreal experience for Max Galuppo, 20, of Bloomsbury, N.J. Galuppo, a Temple University student, found his doppelganger in a 16th century...

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