Stocks?overcame a morning slide to finish modestly higher, giving the Standard & Poor's 500 index another record close.?Worries about slower economic growth have rattled stocks this month, but they have consistently bounced back.
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday. IBM and other tech stocks led the Standard & Poor's 500 index up.
Brendan McDermid/Reuters
EnlargeNews that IBM will buy back more stock and raise its dividend helped pull major stock indexes out of a morning slump Tuesday.
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IBM and other tech stocks led the Standard & Poor's 500 index up. The broad-market measure ended April with a 1.8 percent gain, the sixth month in a row the index has climbed higher.
Worries about slower economic growth have rattled the stock market this month, but it has consistently bounced back. Brad Sorensen, director of market research at the brokerage Charles Schwab, said that's a result of investors having few alternatives.
"Right now it seems like every pullback in the market is seen as a buying opportunity," Sorensen said. "People may say they're getting nervous, but where else are you going to put money at this point? Into Europe with their political issues? Into Treasurys paying less than 1.7 percent?"
The S&P 500 edged up 3.96 points to close at 1,597.57. The slight gain of 0.3 percent pushed the index to an all-time high for the second day straight.
A report of another record high in European unemployment helped drive money into U.S. government debt, briefly sending the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note to lowest level of the year, 1.65 percent.
IBM said it will add a dime to its quarterly dividend and buy back up to $5 billion more of its own stock. Earlier this month, the company surprised investors when it reported a drop in quarterly earnings and sales. IBM's stock rose $3.39 to $202.54.
The tech giant's 1.7 percent gain tugged the Dow Jones industrial average up. The Dow fell as much as 84 points in morning trading but ended with a gain of 21.05 points at 14,839.80. That's an increase of 0.1 percent.
The S&P has now climbed for six months in a row. That's the longest stretch of gains since a seven-month run that started in March 2009, when the market hit a financial crisis low, and ended in October 2009.
This earnings season has delivered investors a mixed bag of news. More than half of the companies in the S&P 500 have turned in results, and seven of 10 have beaten analysts' estimates for earnings, according to S&P Capital IQ. Nearly as many, however, have come up short on revenue: Six of 10 have missed analysts' revenue targets. That suggests companies are getting more of their profits from laying off staff and other cost-cutting efforts instead of from higher sales.
The Dow and the S&P 500 ended the month with gains of 1.8 percent. It wasn't exactly a smooth ride. The two indexes reached record highs in the second week of April, then took a steep fall in the next. News that China, the world's second-largest economy, slowed unexpectedly pummeled the prices of oil, copper and other commodities. The stock market had its worst day of the year on April 15, when the S&P 500 lost 2.3 percent.
In other trading, the Nasdaq composite index rose 21.77 points to 3,328.79, up 0.7 percent. The dollar fell against the yen and the euro, and the price of crude oil fell $1 to $93.46 a barrel. Gold edged up $4.70 to $1,472.10 an ounce.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note traded at 1.67 percent late Tuesday, the same as the day before. In response to slower economic growth, bond traders from around the world have been buying Treasurys this month, driving yields down. The 10-year yield started April around 1.85 percent.
Among other stocks making big moves:
? Pfizer dropped 4 percent after the drug maker's results fell short of what analysts had expected. Falling sales of Lipitor, its cholesterol drug, crimped revenue. The world's second-largest drug maker also cut its profit forecast for the rest of the year. Pfizer lost $1.36 to $29.07
? Pitney Bowes sank 16 percent after the maker of mailing equipment and software cut its dividend in half and posted a 58 percent drop in net income. Pitney Bowes sank $2.53 to $13.67.
? Avon Products' quarterly loss wasn't as deep as analysts had expected. The direct-seller of cosmetics has been cutting staff and scaling back operations in an effort to turn around its business. Avon's stock rose 92 cents to $23.16, a gain of 4 percent.
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/Ccg614Z9KJ0/Stocks-edge-higher-IBM-pulls-up-Dow
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A photo provided by Bobby Lee, shows Kenneth Bae, right, and Bobby Lee together when they were freshmen students at the University of Oregon in 1988. Bae is being detained in North Korea and could face the death penalty if he is convicted on charges that he planned to overthrow the North Korean government. (AP Photo/The Register-Guard, Bobby Lee)
A photo provided by Bobby Lee, shows Kenneth Bae, right, and Bobby Lee together when they were freshmen students at the University of Oregon in 1988. Bae is being detained in North Korea and could face the death penalty if he is convicted on charges that he planned to overthrow the North Korean government. (AP Photo/The Register-Guard, Bobby Lee)
In this March 20, 2013 photo, a North Korean flag hangs inside the interior of Pyongyang?s Supreme Court. North Korea says it will soon deliver a verdict in the case of detained American Kenneth Bae it accuses of trying to overthrow the government, further complicating already fraught relations between Pyongyang and Washington. The announcement about Bae comes in the middle of a lull after weeks of war threats and other provocative acts by North Korea against the U.S. and South Korea. Bae, identified in North Korean state media by his Korean name, Pae Jun Ho, is a tour operator of Korean descent who was arrested after arriving with a tour on Nov. 3 in Rason, a special economic zone bordering China and Russia. (AP Photo)
In this March 20, 2013 photo, a North Korean flag hangs inside the interior of Pyongyang?s Supreme Court. North Korea says it will soon deliver a verdict in the case of detained American Kenneth Bae it accuses of trying to overthrow the government, further complicating already fraught relations between Pyongyang and Washington. The announcement about Bae comes in the middle of a lull after weeks of war threats and other provocative acts by North Korea against the U.S. and South Korea. Bae, identified in North Korean state media by his Korean name, Pae Jun Ho, is a tour operator of Korean descent who was arrested after arriving with a tour on Nov. 3 in Rason, a special economic zone bordering China and Russia. (AP Photo)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? An American detained for nearly six months in North Korea has been sentenced to 15 years of "compulsory labor" for unspecified crimes against the state, Pyongyang announced Thursday.
The sentencing of Kenneth Bae, described by friends as a devout Christian and a tour operator, will further complicate already strained relations between Pyongyang and Washington as the countries pursue tentative diplomacy following weeks of warlike threats from North Korea.
Pyongyang's official state media said Bae's trial took place Tuesday, but the dispatch provided few new details. Bae was tried in the country's Supreme Court on charges of plotting to overthrow the government. He could've faced the death penalty.
"The Supreme Court sentenced him to 15 years of compulsory labor for this crime," the Korean Central News Agency said.
The exact nature of his alleged crimes has not been revealed.
Bae was arrested in early November in Rason, a special economic zone in North Korea's far northeastern region bordering China and Russia, North Korea said.
The trial mirrors a similar situation in 2009, when the U.S. and North Korea were locked in a standoff over Pyongyang's decision to launch a long-range rocket and conduct an underground nuclear test. At the time, North Korea had detained two American journalists, whose eventual release after being sentenced to 12 years of hard labor paved the way for diplomacy following months of tensions.
In North Korean dispatches, Bae, a Korean American from Washington state, is called Pae Jun Ho, the North Korean spelling of his Korean name.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said last week that officials from the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang had visited Bae on Friday. She said she had no other information to share.
Because Washington and Pyongyang do not have diplomatic relations, the Swedish Embassy in North Korea represents the United States in legal proceedings.
Friends and colleagues said Bae was based in the Chinese border city of Dalian and traveled frequently to North Korea to feed the country's orphans.
KCNA on Thursday described Bae as a "tourist" who was arrested while committing "hostile acts" against North Korea.
At least three other Americans detained in recent years also have been devout Christians. While North Korea's constitution guarantees freedom of religion, in practice only sanctioned services are tolerated by the regime.
In 2009, American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were sentenced to "hard labor" for trespassing and unspecified hostile acts after being arrested near the border with China and held for four months.
They were freed later that year to former President Bill Clinton, who flew to Pyongyang to negotiate their release in a visit that then-leader Kim Jong Il treated as a diplomatic coup.
Including Ling and Lee, Bae is at least the sixth American detained in North Korea since 2009. The others eventually were deported or released.
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Public release date: 30-Apr-2013
Share ] Contact: Fiona Godwin
fgodwin@plos.org
01-223-442-834
Public Library of Science
Individuals who have experienced a major bleed from their stomach or oesophagus (known as an upper gastrointestinal bleed) may be more likely to die from other causes, particularly malignant tumours and cardiovascular disease, than those without an upper gastrointestinal bleed, according to a study by UK researchers published in this week's PLOS Medicine.
These findings are important as they suggest that an upper gastrointestinal bleed may be either a cause or an indicator of a decline in a coinciding, serious medical condition.
The researchers, led by Colin Crooks from the University of Nottingham, reached these conclusions by identifying a population- based sample of patients who were admitted to hospitals in England for treatment of an upper gastrointestinal bleed between 1997 and 2010 and their recorded causes of death. They excluded individuals who had bleeding from esophageal varices, which are caused by liver cirrhosis. They then used over 80,000 matched controls and a statistical model to calculate the excess causes of death.
Over this period, the researchers identified 16,355 people who had an upper gastrointestinal bleed, of whom 6242 subsequently died, giving a crude mortality rate of 16.0 per 100 person-years in the first 5 years. In the first month after a bleed, the death rate was increased for all causes of death, but the highest mortality rate was from non-malignant digestive disease mostly linked to causes related to the upper gastrointestinal tract. For the remainder of the first year, the highest death rates were from malignant tumors, followed by deaths due to circulatory and respiratory diseases.
In their analysis, the researchers calculated that the total 5-year risk of death due to gastrointestinal causes ranged from 3.6% in people ?50 years to 15.2% in people ?80 years, representing an excess risk of death between 3.6% and 13.4%, respectively. The total 5-year risk of death due to non-gastrointestinal causes ranged from 4.1% in people ?50 years to 46.6% in people ?80 years, representing an excess risk of death between 3.8% and 19.0%, respectively.
The authors say: "We found a considerable excess of all causes of death in individuals following a non-variceal upper gastrointestinal bleed, and over half of these deaths were due to non-gastrointestinal co-morbidity, particularly neoplastic and cardiovascular disease."
They continue: "This excess in deaths was not explained by co-morbidity such as cancer or cardiovascular disease diagnosed prior to the admission. Therefore, an upper gastrointestinal bleed may be a marker of disease or an indicator of a deterioration in non-gastrointestinal co-morbidity. "
The authors add: "Consequently, this analysis suggests that for patients who have a non-variceal upper gastrointestinal bleed, re-assessment of co-morbidity should be considered in the follow-up period."
###
Funding: This work was supported by personal fellowships: CJC is a research fellow and gastroenterology trainee supported by a Medical Research Council Population Health Scientist fellowship (grant number G0802427); TRC is a Clinical Associate Professor and Consultant Gastroenterologist; JW is a Clinical Associate Professor, Reader in Epidemiology, and Consultant Gastroenterologist supported by a University of Nottingham/Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust Senior Clinical Research fellowship. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing Interests: TRC's wife is an employee of Takeda, and was previously employed by Astra Zeneca. The authors declare no other competing interests.
Citation: Crooks CJ, Card TR, West J (2013) Excess Long-Term Mortality following Non-Variceal Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding: A Population-Based Cohort Study. PLoS Med 10(4): e1001437. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001437
IN YOUR COVERAGE PLEASE USE THIS URL TO PROVIDE ACCESS TO THE FREELY AVAILABLE PAPER:
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1001437
PRESS-ONLY PREVIEW OF THE ARTICLE:
Please contact the editorial office for the press PDF article.
Contact:
Colin John Crooks
MRC Population Health Scientist Fellow
University of Nottingham
Epidemiology and Public Health
Clinical Sciences Building phase 2
Nottingham City Hospital
Nottingham, Nottinghamshire NG5 1PB
UNITED KINGDOM
01158231357
colin.crooks@nottingham.ac.uk; colincrooks@doctors.org.uk
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 30-Apr-2013 Share ] Contact: Fiona Godwin
fgodwin@plos.org
01-223-442-834
Public Library of Science
Individuals who have experienced a major bleed from their stomach or oesophagus (known as an upper gastrointestinal bleed) may be more likely to die from other causes, particularly malignant tumours and cardiovascular disease, than those without an upper gastrointestinal bleed, according to a study by UK researchers published in this week's PLOS Medicine.
These findings are important as they suggest that an upper gastrointestinal bleed may be either a cause or an indicator of a decline in a coinciding, serious medical condition.
The researchers, led by Colin Crooks from the University of Nottingham, reached these conclusions by identifying a population- based sample of patients who were admitted to hospitals in England for treatment of an upper gastrointestinal bleed between 1997 and 2010 and their recorded causes of death. They excluded individuals who had bleeding from esophageal varices, which are caused by liver cirrhosis. They then used over 80,000 matched controls and a statistical model to calculate the excess causes of death.
Over this period, the researchers identified 16,355 people who had an upper gastrointestinal bleed, of whom 6242 subsequently died, giving a crude mortality rate of 16.0 per 100 person-years in the first 5 years. In the first month after a bleed, the death rate was increased for all causes of death, but the highest mortality rate was from non-malignant digestive disease mostly linked to causes related to the upper gastrointestinal tract. For the remainder of the first year, the highest death rates were from malignant tumors, followed by deaths due to circulatory and respiratory diseases.
In their analysis, the researchers calculated that the total 5-year risk of death due to gastrointestinal causes ranged from 3.6% in people ?50 years to 15.2% in people ?80 years, representing an excess risk of death between 3.6% and 13.4%, respectively. The total 5-year risk of death due to non-gastrointestinal causes ranged from 4.1% in people ?50 years to 46.6% in people ?80 years, representing an excess risk of death between 3.8% and 19.0%, respectively.
The authors say: "We found a considerable excess of all causes of death in individuals following a non-variceal upper gastrointestinal bleed, and over half of these deaths were due to non-gastrointestinal co-morbidity, particularly neoplastic and cardiovascular disease."
They continue: "This excess in deaths was not explained by co-morbidity such as cancer or cardiovascular disease diagnosed prior to the admission. Therefore, an upper gastrointestinal bleed may be a marker of disease or an indicator of a deterioration in non-gastrointestinal co-morbidity. "
The authors add: "Consequently, this analysis suggests that for patients who have a non-variceal upper gastrointestinal bleed, re-assessment of co-morbidity should be considered in the follow-up period."
###
Funding: This work was supported by personal fellowships: CJC is a research fellow and gastroenterology trainee supported by a Medical Research Council Population Health Scientist fellowship (grant number G0802427); TRC is a Clinical Associate Professor and Consultant Gastroenterologist; JW is a Clinical Associate Professor, Reader in Epidemiology, and Consultant Gastroenterologist supported by a University of Nottingham/Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust Senior Clinical Research fellowship. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing Interests: TRC's wife is an employee of Takeda, and was previously employed by Astra Zeneca. The authors declare no other competing interests.
Citation: Crooks CJ, Card TR, West J (2013) Excess Long-Term Mortality following Non-Variceal Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding: A Population-Based Cohort Study. PLoS Med 10(4): e1001437. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001437
IN YOUR COVERAGE PLEASE USE THIS URL TO PROVIDE ACCESS TO THE FREELY AVAILABLE PAPER:
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1001437
PRESS-ONLY PREVIEW OF THE ARTICLE:
Please contact the editorial office for the press PDF article.
Contact:
Colin John Crooks
MRC Population Health Scientist Fellow
University of Nottingham
Epidemiology and Public Health
Clinical Sciences Building phase 2
Nottingham City Hospital
Nottingham, Nottinghamshire NG5 1PB
UNITED KINGDOM
01158231357
colin.crooks@nottingham.ac.uk; colincrooks@doctors.org.uk
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/plos-ugb042513.php
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EDS NOTE GRAPHIC CONTENT -- In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrians carry a victim from the scene where a powerful explosion occurred in the central district of Marjeh, in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday April 30, 2013. A powerful explosion rocked Damascus on Tuesday, causing scores of casualties, a day after the country's prime minister narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in the heart of the heavily protected capital. (AP Photo/SANA)
EDS NOTE GRAPHIC CONTENT -- In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrians carry a victim from the scene where a powerful explosion occurred in the central district of Marjeh, in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday April 30, 2013. A powerful explosion rocked Damascus on Tuesday, causing scores of casualties, a day after the country's prime minister narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in the heart of the heavily protected capital. (AP Photo/SANA)
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian doctors treat citizens who were injured in an explosion, in the central district of Marjeh, Damascus, Syria, Tuesday April 30, 2013. A powerful explosion rocked Damascus on Tuesday, causing scores of casualties, a day after the country's prime minister narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in the heart of the heavily protected capital. (AP Photo/SANA)
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, a Syrian man stands at the entrance of a damaged shop at the scene of a powerful explosion which occurred in the central district of Marjeh, in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday April 30, 2013. A powerful explosion rocked Damascus on Tuesday, causing scores of casualties, a day after the country's prime minister narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in the heart of the heavily protected capital. (AP Photo/SANA)
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian security officers gather in front of a burned car, at the scene where a powerful explosion occurred at the central district of Marjeh, in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday April 30, 2013. A powerful explosion rocked Damascus on Tuesday, causing scores of casualties, a day after the country's prime minister narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in the heart of the heavily protected capital. (AP Photo/SANA)
This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows a damaged commercial building after a powerful explosion occurred in the central district of Marjeh, in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday April 30, 2013. A powerful explosion rocked Damascus on Tuesday, causing scores of casualties, a day after the country's prime minister narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in the heart of the heavily protected capital. (AP Photo/SANA)
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) ? A powerful bomb ripped through a bustling commercial district of Damascus on Tuesday, killing at least 14 people, shattering store fronts and bringing Syria's civil war to the heart of the capital for the second consecutive day.
A day earlier, the Syrian prime minister narrowly escaped an assassination attempt after a car bomb struck near his convoy, a few kilometers (miles) from Tuesday's blast. The bombings appear to be part of an accelerated campaign by opposition forces to hit President Bashar Assad's regime in the heavily defended capital.
In Washington, President Barack Obama, who has said the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime would mark an unacceptable escalation of the country's civil war, said the United States must be more certain of all the facts before he decides on how the country will intervene in the conflict.
The White House said last week intelligence indicates the Syrian military has likely used a deadly nerve agent on at least two occasions in the civil war. Damascus denies the allegations, and says Syrian rebels are trying to frame it.
Tuesday's bombing struck the Marjeh neighborhood, a bustling commercial area near the Old City of Damascus, Syrian TV said. It described the explosion as a "terrorist bombing," using the term Assad's regime uses to refer to opposition fighters.
The state news agency said 14 people were killed and 103 wounded in the attack.
"I heard a very loud bang and then the ceiling collapsed on top of me," said Zaher Nafeq, who owns a mobile phone shop in the Damascus Towers, a 23-floor office building. He was wounded in his hand and his mobile phone shop was badly damaged in the blast.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, but car bombs and suicide attacks targeting Damascus and other cities that remain under government control in the third year of the conflict have been claimed in the past by the al-Qaida affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra group ? one of scores of rebel factions fighting to oust Assad.
The target of Tuesday's attack was not immediately clear, although the explosion took place outside the former Interior Ministry building that was also damaged in the blast.
Ambulances rushed to the scene and Syrian state TV aired footage firefighters trying to extinguish a blaze that engulfed several cars and buildings. A man was seen lying on the ground in a pool of blood while another, apparently wounded, was seen being carried by civilians into a bus.
Inspecting the site of the blast, Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar, who himself escaped a car bomb that targeted his convoy in December, told reporters the back-to-back attacks in the capital were in response to the "victories and achievements scored by the Syrian Arab Army on the ground against terrorism."
In recent weeks, government troops have overrun two rebel-held Damascus suburbs and a town outside the capital. They also have captured several villages near the border with Lebanon as part of their efforts to secure the strategic corridor running from Damascus to the Mediterranean coast, which is the heartland of the president's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
Tuesday's explosion underlined the tenuous security in the Syrian capital, just a day after a remotely detonated roadside bomb struck Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi's convoy. The premier escaped the assassination attempt unharmed, according to state TV.
Also Tuesday, Syrian troops battled opposition fighters near a military helicopter base in the northern province of Aleppo, killing 15 rebels in a single airstrike against their positions, according to Observatory director Rami Abdul-Rahman.
The rebels tried to storm the Mannagh base late Monday but the regime deployed fighter jets to the area, pounding rebel positions around the base, which is near Syria's border with Turkey, Abdul-Rahman said.
In the northwestern province of Idlib, a government airstrike near the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey killed one child and wounded several more people, the Observatory said.
An Associated Press journalist near Reyhanli on the Turkish side of the frontier described a huge plume of black smoke and reported seeing wounded people being rushed by ambulance from the Syrian side to the Turkish control point.
Thousands of Syrian refugees live in a makeshift camp known as the Bab al-Hawa refugee camp near the border with Turkey.
The state news agency said 14 people were killed and 103 wounded in the attack.
Syria's conflict began with largely peaceful anti-government protests in March 2011, but has since morphed into a civil war that has killed more than 70,000 people, according to the United Nations. Air power has proven to be Assad's greatest advantage in the civil war, and he has exploited it to check rebel advances and prevent the opposition from setting up a rival government in the territory it has seized in the north.
As the regime has pushed back against opposition fighters, it has come under allegations of using chemical weapons on at least two occasions dating back to December.
Obama, who has said that use of chemical weapons or the transfer of those stockpiles to terrorists would cross a "red line" and have "enormous consequences," has sought to temper expectations of quick American action since the White House announced the intelligence assessment last week.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, he reiterated that he needed more certainty before acting, but added that if it is determined that the Assad regime used chemical weapons "we would have to rethink the range of options that are available to us."
In Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said that use of chemical weapons in Syria would also be a "red line" for Iran, but suggested rebel forces should be investigated rather than the Islamic Republic's allies in Damascus.
In the latest alleged attack, activists in the town of Saraqeb in northern Idlib province claimed the government bombed the town late Monday with chemical agents. It said the attack caused respiratory problems and other symptoms among a few residents which they claimed were consistent with a chemical attack.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was unable to confirm the purported use of chemical agents.
The Syrian state news agency offered a different narrative, saying "terrorists" brought bags of an unknown white power to Saraqeb and opened them, causing respiratory problems among those exposed to the powder. It said the terrorists then transported the injured to Turkish hospitals to "accuse the Syrian armed troops of using chemical weapons."
Border authorities in Turkey decontaminated a group of Syrians wounded in the Saraqeb attack as they entered the country and hospital staff treating them wore protective equipment, according to an aide to the governor of Turkey's Hatay province, which borders Syria.
The aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing government rules that bar civil servants from speaking to journalists, told AP on Tuesday there was no indication that chemical weapons were used in Saraqeb attack.
___
Associated Press journalists Barbara Surk and Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, and Derl McCrudden in Reyhanli, Turkey contributed to this report.
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