Syria signs oil exploration deal with Russian firm

BEIRUT — Syria's state news agency says the oil ministry has signed a deal with Russian oil and gas company Soyuzneftegaz to explore in the Mediterranean Sea.

SANA's report Wednesday did not say where the deal was signed, though it said the exploration will take place off the Syrian coast.

Earlier this year, Syrian Oil Minister Suleiman Abbas discussed with the ambassadors of China and Russia the possibility of exploring for oil and gas off Syria's Mediterranean coast.

Most of Syria's oil and gas fields in the country's east are under opposition control and the country's oil exports almost have stopped.

Israel is already developing recent discoveries of massive offshore deposits and Lebanon has also spoken of trying to develop offshore fields.

Russia is one of President Bashar Assad's strongest international backers.

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Post Office stuffs stockings with 3-cent stamp hike

The U.S. Postal Service delivered a surprise on Christmas Eve that may land them on some naughty lists as it announced a temporary 3-cent price increase on first-class stamps.

The hike, approved by an independent Postal Regulatory Commission, will raise the cost from 46 cents to 49 cents a letter. The commission justified the increase in the face of severe volume decreases, going back to 2008, and as a way for the Postal Service to recoup a reported $2.8 billion in losses.

The increase will take effect on Jan. 26 and will last no more than two years. The commission rejected a request to make the hike permanent.

There will be a 6 percent increase on bulk mail, periodical and package service rates. The mail industry is said to oppose the increase, saying charities and bookstores will suffer from the increased cost of mass mailings and package delivery.

The Postal Service reportedly lost $5 billion last fiscal year.

Herald wire services contributed to this report.

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Judge rules against BP in spill-settlement dispute

NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge on Tuesday rejected BP's argument that a multibillion-dollar settlement over the company's massive 2010 Gulf oil spill shouldn't compensate businesses if they can't directly trace their losses to the spill.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier said in his ruling that the settlement was designed to avoid the delays that would result from a "claim-by claim analysis" of whether each claim can be traced to the spill.

Earlier this month, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Barbier erred when he initially refused to consider BP's "causation" arguments.

In response to that ruling, Barbier agreed with plaintiffs' lawyers that BP can't make these arguments because the company took a contradictory position on the same issue when it urged Barbier last year to approve the settlement.

Barbier said requiring claimants to meet BP's proposed requirements for connecting losses to the spill would bring the claims process to a "virtual standstill."

Steve Herman and Jim Roy, two of the plaintiffs' lawyers who brokered the settlement with BP, said Gulf Coast business owners should be pleased that Barbier "once again rejected BP's efforts to rewrite history and the settlement."

"The Court reaffirmed that the transparent, objective formulas spelled out in the agreement are the only way to determine a claimant's eligibility and causation," they said in a statement.

BP spokesman Geoff Morrell said the company disagrees with Barbier's decision. Morrell also said court-appointed claims administrator Patrick Juneau's interpretation of settlement terms renders the deal "unlawful."

"Awarding money to claimants with losses that were not caused by the spill is contrary to the language of the settlement and violates established principles of class action law," Morrell said in a statement. "BP intends to seek appropriate appellate remedies to correct this error."

On Dec. 5, Barbier temporarily suspended settlement payments to businesses while he reconsidered the company's causation arguments. Barbier said Juneau's office would continue accepting and processing business claims but wouldn't make final decisions or payments until the matter is resolved.

For months, BP has argued that Barbier and Juneau misinterpreted settlement terms in ways that could force the company to pay for billions of dollars in bogus or inflated claims by businesses.

In October, the same 5th Circuit panel instructed Barbier to craft a "narrowly-tailored" order that bars Juneau from paying certain claims. BP, however, argued Barbier didn't go far enough when he issued an order to comply with the 5th Circuit's directives.

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Health care site put to the test as deadline nears

CHICAGO — The government's retooled health care website was put to its biggest test yet as record numbers of Americans rushed to beat Tuesday's extended deadline for signing up for insurance.

After a disastrous, glitch-filled rollout in October, HealthCare.gov, where people in 36 states can shop for coverage, received 2 million visits Monday, its highest one-day total, the government said.

Traffic was not as heavy on Tuesday but still high, White House spokeswoman Tara McGuinness said. She had no immediate estimate of visitors or how many succeeded in obtaining insurance before the midnight deadline.

"The site is performing well under intense consumer traffic," said Kurt DelBene, a former Microsoft executive appointed last week to take over management of the online marketplace. "With the highest volumes we have seen to date, response time is fast and the error rating is low."

Error rates were lower than 1 in 200, and pages loaded quickly, in less than a half-second, officials said.

For a multitude of reasons, including technical difficulties with the site or trouble understanding the instructions, thousands of people sought telephone help and wound up waiting on hold on Christmas Eve at the government's call center.

Ian Stewart of Salt Lake City said he and his wife, both students, had been trying for weeks to complete their application on the federal site, thwarted by computer error messages each time.

On Tuesday morning, while visiting relatives in Colorado for Christmas, they reached a call center counselor who succeeded in enrolling them. The "silver" plan they chose will cost them $241 a month after a cost-lowering tax credit.

"We're relieved that we got it working, elated that we got insurance again and very frustrated that it took this long," Stewart said.

More than 110,000 people had called the government's help line by Tuesday afternoon, with wait times averaging 27 minutes, officials said. On Monday, the call center received more than 250,000 calls, a one-day record.

Monday was the sign-up deadline for people wanting coverage at the start of the new year. But the Obama administration pushed back the deadline a day to deal with heavy traffic from procrastinators.

"We see this intense traffic as a sign that people are eager for affordable health insurance," said Julie Bataille, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency in charge of the overhaul.

While there were no immediate reports of any major glitches, the White House said that people who can show they missed the deadline because of problems with the website may still be able to get covered by Jan. 1 on a case-by-case basis. Those who try to sign up for the first time after the deadline passes can still get coverage, but it won't start until Feb. 1.

The one-day grace period was just the latest in a string of delays and reversals, and critics of President Barack Obama's signature program seized on it as more evidence that the overhaul is in trouble.

"The amazing, ever-expanding deadline? It's clearly a sign of desperation by the administration to do everything they can to increase the number of people signing up," said health economist Gail Wilensky, who ran Medicare for President George H.W. Bush.

The website went through extensive hardware and software upgrades to make it more reliable and increase its capacity.

When the number of simultaneous users reached 60,000 on Monday, site operators employed a queuing system that allows people to either wait or give an email address to be invited back later, the government said. More than 129,000 users gave their email.

On Tuesday, traffic wasn't heavy enough to trigger the system, McGuinness said in the afternoon.

Many states operate their own online marketplaces for buying coverage, and some of them also extended their deadlines.

The insurance industry, too, has pushed back deadlines for payment, with most health plans allowing customers to pay by Jan. 10 and still get coverage retroactive to Jan. 1.

"With deadlines that keep changing, insurers want to alleviate confusion," said Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans. "Health plans are going to do everything they can to help consumers with the enrollment process."

Obama said late last week that more than 1 million Americans had enrolled for coverage since Oct. 1.

The administration's estimates call for 3.3 million to sign up by Dec. 31, and the target is 7 million by the end of March. After that, people who fail to buy coverage can face tax penalties.

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Associated Press Medical Writer Carla K. Johnson can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/CarlaKJohnson

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Astronauts complete rare Christmas Eve spacewalk

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Space station astronauts repaired a crippled cooling system during a rare Christmas Eve spacewalk Tuesday, braving a "mini blizzard" of noxious ammonia as they popped in a new pump.

It was the second spacewalk in four days for U.S. astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Michael Hopkins, and only the second Christmas Eve spacewalk ever.

NASA ordered up the spacewalks to revive a critical cooling loop at the International Space Station. All nonessential equipment had to be turned off when the line conked out Dec. 11, and many science experiments halted.

With Tuesday's success, the cooling system should be restored and all equipment up and running by this weekend, according to NASA.

"It's the best Christmas ever," Mission Control radioed as the 7½-hour spacewalk came to a close.

"Merry Christmas to everybody," replied Hopkins. "It took a couple weeks to get her done, but we got it."

Mastracchio and Hopkins removed the faulty ammonia pump during Saturday's spacewalk. On Tuesday, they installed the fresh pump.

Standing on the end of the station's main robotic arm, Hopkins clutched the 780-pound, refrigerator-size pump with both hands as he headed toward its installation spot, and then slid it in. An astronaut working inside, Japan's Koichi Wakata, gingerly steered the arm and its precious load.

"Mike Hopkins taking a special sleigh ride on this Christmas Eve," Mission Control commentator Rob Navias said as the space station soared over the Pacific.

It was slow going because of a balky ammonia fluid line that sent frozen flakes of the extremely toxic substance straight at the men — "a mini blizzard," as Mission Control called it. The spacewalkers reported being surrounded by big chunks of the stuff that bounced off equipment and, in all probability, their suits.

The ammonia needed to dissipate from their suits before the pair returned inside, to avoid further contamination.

"Wow," Hopkins sighed after the fourth and final fluid line was hooked to the new pump. The electrical hookups went more smoothly, and six hours into the spacewalk, Hopkins finally called down, "Houston, you've got yourself a new pump module."

Christmas references filled the radio waves as the action unfolded 260 miles above the planet.

"It's like Christmas morning opening up a little present here," Mastracchio said as he checked his toolkit. Later, as he worked to remove the spare pump from its storage shelf, he commented: "Now it really feels like I'm unwrapping a present."

Mission Control in Houston was in a festive mood, despite the gravity of the situation. Tabletop Christmas trees, Santa dolls and red Santa caps decorated the desks.

NASA's only previous Christmas Eve spacewalk occurred in 1999 during a Hubble Space Telescope repair mission.

But NASA's most memorable Christmas Eve was back on Dec. 24, 1968. Apollo 8 astronauts read from Genesis, the first book of the Bible, as they orbited the moon on mankind's first lunar flight.

A bad valve in the ammonia pump caused the latest breakdown.

Another team of spacewalking astronauts installed that pump just three years ago, and engineers are perplexed as to why it didn't last longer. NASA hopes to salvage it in the years ahead.

The 2010 replacement required three spacewalks because of the difficulty in removing pressurized ammonia fluid lines. But this time, the astronauts managed to squeeze everything into two after NASA reduced the pressure and simplified the task.

Mission Control successfully activated the pump Tuesday night. The two-line external cooling system uses ammonia to dispel heat generated by on-board equipment; only one loop was disabled by the breakdown.

The second spacewalk was supposed to take place Monday but was delayed a day to give Mastracchio time to switch to another suit. He inadvertently hit a water switch in the air lock at the end of Saturday's excursion, and a bit of water encroached on a cooling device in the backpack of his suit, making it unusable.

Otherwise, the suits remained dry during both spacewalks. Last July, an astronaut almost drowned when water from his suit's cooling system flooded his helmet. Makeshift snorkels and absorbent pads were added to the suits as a precaution.

A Moscow-led spacewalk, meanwhile, is set for Friday. Two Russian crew members will install new cameras and fresh experiments outside.

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Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

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Phishing scammers go after Target data breach victims

Target Corp. is warning of "phishing" scam emails aimed at customers whose card information was compromised under the breach of its point-of-sales system.

"We are aware of limited incidents of phishing or scam communications," spokeswoman Molly Snyder said in a statement yesterday. "To help our guests feel confident that what they are hearing from Target is really from us, we are in the process of setting up a dedicated resource on our corporate website where we will post PDFs of all official communications that Target sends to our guests."

Target confirmed that it was partnering with the Secret Service and Department of Justice on the investigation of the Nov. 27-Dec. 15 breach that left credit and debit card information of an estimated 40 million customers vulnerable. Yesterday it said it wanted to make clear that "neither entity is investigating Target."

Meanwhile, JPMorgan Chase increased withdrawal and spending limits it had imposed on 2 million debit-card customers affected by the Target breach.

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Retailers tighten holiday policies to thwart fraud

If you didn't like your gift today, take note. Some retailers have tightened their return policies in a continuing attempt to curb fraud that will cost the industry an estimated $3.4 billion during this year's holiday period.

Return deadlines at Best Buy and Sears are the two "biggies," according to Somerville consumer advocate Edgar Dworsky.

"Both of them are cutting their return windows in half for certain or all goods," said Dworsky, who conducts an annual return policy survey.

Best Buy reduced its regular return period to 15 days from 30 for most customers in March, and it shortened its holiday return period, which now runs until Jan. 15 instead of Jan. 24. In addition, special orders no longer are refundable.

Sears' regular return policy for major appliances and vacuums is now 30 days, down from 60, and it has excluded those products from its extended holiday period.

"They're trying to cut their losses in some cases," Dworsky said. "Best Buy doesn't want people to use that digital camera for several weeks or months and then bring it back, because they're going to have to sell it as an open box item."

Nearly 6 percent of holiday returns are fraudulent, according to a recent National Retail Federation survey. Holiday return fraud accounts for 38.7 percent of the industry's estimated $8.76 billion in annual losses tied to return fraud.

That's why almost three-quarters of retailers require customers to show identification if they don't have receipts. Examples of fraud include returns of stolen items, using counterfeit receipts for returns, and "wardrobing" — the return of used, but non-defective merchandise such as special occasion clothing or electronics.

Toys R Us extended its holiday return period until Jan. 25 for most items, but certain electronics bought on or after Nov. 1 must be returned by Jan. 9. Other electronics must be returned within 30 days, down from 45 days.

Macy's, meanwhile, now charges a 15 percent restocking fee for the return of furniture and mattresses.

And if you're returning gifts in hopes of pocketing cash, don't count on that, even with a gift receipt.

"You can't convert that white elephant to cash in all likelihood," Dworsky said. "You're most likely to get an even exchange or a merchandise credit if there's nothing else you want at the store,"

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Avoiding health insurance gaps takes persistence

CHICAGO — The deadline has passed, and so too the surprise grace period, for signing up for health insurance as part of the nation's health care law.

Now what?

For those who were able to navigate the glitch-prone and often overwhelmed HealthCare.gov website, there's still work to be done to make sure success online leads to actual coverage come the new year.

The first step experts recommend is to call your insurance company and double-check they received your payment.

What if you missed the Christmas Eve deadline and still want insurance in 2014, as the health law requires of most Americans? You may be without health insurance for a month, but you can still sign up for coverage that will start in February.

"Be patient, because they're trying to help you," said Tina Stewart, a 25-year-old graduate student in Salt Lake City who succeeded in enrolling in a health plan Tuesday morning. "It will take time."

The historic changes made by the Affordable Care Act take full effect on Jan. 1. People with chronic health conditions can no longer be denied health insurance. Those who get sick and start piling up medical bills will no longer lose their coverage. Out-of-pocket limits arrive that are designed to protect patients from going bankrupt.

But unless the 1 million Americans who have so far enrolled for coverage via the new marketplaces make sure their applications have arrived at their new insurance companies without errors, some may find they're still uninsured when they try to refill a prescription or make a doctor's appointment.

"The enrollment files have been getting better and more accurate, but there is still work that needs to be done," said Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, a trade group that represents the private insurance industry. "The health plans are still having to go back and fix some of data errors coming through in these files."

If everything went smoothly, consumers can expect to see a welcome packet arrive in the mail from their insurance company, Zirkelbach said. If not, a phone call to the insurer might clear things up.

"If a consumer signed up yesterday, they shouldn't expect the health plan to have their enrollment application today," Zirkelbach said. "Allow a couple of days to receive and process those enrollments."

Paying the first premium is crucial. Because of the changing deadlines for enrollment, most insurers have agreed to allow payments through Jan. 10 and will make coverage retroactive to Jan. 1, he said.

Anyone who missed the Christmas Eve deadline to enroll for insurance to start in January can still apply at HealthCare.gov for coverage to begin later. The federal website serves 36 states, but also directs people elsewhere to the online insurance site serving their state. The site also offers directions to local agencies offering in-person help.

After the disastrous rollout in October, the federal website received 2 million visits on Monday, and heavy — but not as heavy — traffic on Tuesday. White House spokeswoman Tara McGuinness said she had no immediate estimate of visitors Tuesday or how many succeeded in obtaining insurance before the midnight Christmas Eve deadline. The unexpected one-day grace period was just the latest in a string of delays and reversals.

Unless you qualify for Medicaid, you'll pay a monthly "premium" fee to an insurance company for coverage. Before the company covers actual medical costs, you may have to pay a certain amount called a deductible, in addition to a possible set fee for a doctor visit (copay) or a percentage of the cost of a medical service (coinsurance).

Federal tax credits are aimed at helping make premiums more affordable for households earning between 100 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty line. That's $11,490 to $45,960 for an individual, $23,550 to $94,200 for a family of four.

Finally, note the next significant deadline isn't for a few more months. If you don't have coverage by March 31, you'll pay a tax penalty next year of $95 or 1 percent of your income, whichever is higher.

Ron Pollack, president of Families USA, a liberal advocacy group that has led efforts to get uninsured people signed up for coverage next year, said that's the deadline that matters most.

"The real significant deadline is March 31," Pollack said. "The enrollment period extends for another three months."

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Associated Press Medical Writer Carla K. Johnson can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/CarlaKJohnson

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Health insurance guide: 3 next steps for enrollees

The Christmas Eve deadline to enroll via HeatlhCare.gov for health care insurance that starts Jan. 1 has passed.

The federal website received 2 million visits on Monday, and heavy — but not as heavy — traffic on Tuesday. A White House spokeswoman said there was no immediate estimate of visitors or how many succeeded in obtaining insurance before the deadline.

Here are some tips for those who met the deadline and those who didn't.

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MET THE DEADLINE?

1. Allow a few days for your application to reach the insurance company providing your health plan, then call to make sure it has been successfully processed.

2. If you didn't click "pay now" when you enrolled, make sure you send your first monthly premium payment to your insurance company by Jan. 10. You won't be covered until you've paid.

3. Learn about the details of your health plan. What's covered? What do you pay for out of pocket? Find out which doctors and hospitals are covered in the plan's network. Learn what services the insurer provides, such as 24-hour hotlines and online health resources.

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MISSED THE DEADLINE

1. If you're uninsured and still want coverage, you can still sign up. Your coverage will start as soon as Feb. 1 if you choose a plan and pay before mid-January.

2. You can window-shop to compare the details on plans available in your region. Click on "See plans before I apply" at HealthCare.gov. Many state online marketplaces also offer this window-shopping feature.

3. Enrollment ends March 31. Miss that deadline and you'll pay a tax penalty for next year of $95 or 1 percent of your income, whichever is higher. Some people may qualify for an exemption because of hardships or if their insurance policy was canceled.

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SOURCES: America's Health Insurance Plans, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Consumers Union

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Former IOC executive Gunnar Ericsson dies at 94

LAUSSANE, Switzerland — Gunnar Ericsson, a long-time International Olympic Committee executive and former member of the executive committee, has died. He was 94.

The IOC says on its website that the former Swedish parliamentarian died Tuesday but did not provide a cause of death.

IOC President Thomas Bach says Ericsson "personified the Olympic values and was a true Olympic gentleman. The IOC will always remember him with deep gratitude and great respect."

An IOC member from 1965, Ericsson served on the executive board from 1988-92, and headed the inspection team for 2000 Summer Games bidding.

Ericsson became an honorary member in 1996 after resigning to allow compatriot Gunilla Lindberg to become an IOC member.

Lindberg says Ericsson is survived by his wife Stina.

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