Statistics

More than half a million U.S. children each year have bad reactions or side effects from widely used medicines that require medical treatment and sometimes hospitalization, research shows. Children younger than 5 are most commonly affected. Penicillin and other prescription antibiotics are among drugs causing the most problems, including rashes, stomachaches and diarrhea. The study appears in October's issue of Pediatrics, released today. It's based on national statistics on patient visits to clinics and emergency rooms between 1995 and 2005.

You're not the only passenger getting dinged for rebooking a flight. In the first half of this year, U.S. airlines collected more than $1 billion in fees from customers who paid to rebook or cancel reservations. Here, the top 10 collectors of such fees and what they charged in the first two quarters of the year (in millions): Source: U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics for domestic and international flights -- Airline 1st quarter 2nd quarter 1st half totals 1. American $115.

At least 22 million Americans have contracted pandemic H1N1 influenza since the outbreak began in April and 3,900 have died, including about 540 children, according to new estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The numbers confirm what officials have been saying all along -- that swine flu is a young person's disease. The total is about three times the number of deaths that the agency has been reporting, but the previous figures were based on laboratory-confirmed cases, whereas the new number reflects agency epidemiologists' best estimate of the total.

December emerged as possibly the safest month for U.S. forces in Iraq since the 2003 invasion and the least deadly for Iraqi civilians in the last 12 months, but overall 2007 was the bloodiest year of the war, according to figures released Monday. The Iraqi Ministry of Health said 481 civilians died nationwide last month in war-related violence such as bombings, mortar attacks and sectarian slayings. It said 16,232 civilians died last year. The 2006 death toll was 12,320.

Nationwide sales of previously owned houses and condominiums fell 20% in November from the same month a year ago, according to data released Monday. But the month's sales were up slightly over October. The National Assn. of Realtors saw the October-to-November rise as an indication that the housing market might be approaching a bottom. Lawrence Yun, the organization's chief economist, called the modest bump up in sales "a sign that the housing market is stabilizing."

Last year was one of the safest in more than four decades to fly, with just 136 serious accidents occurring around the world, the Aircraft Crashes Record Office said. The private group, which documents air disasters worldwide, said 965 people died in 2007 in accidents involving planes big enough to carry at least six passengers plus crew. That was 25% less than in 2006 and the lowest rate since 2004. The biggest accident last year was the July 17 crash of a TAM Brasil flight in Sao Paolo, Brazil, followed by a Kenya Airways crash May 5 and the crash off Ujung Pandang on Jan. 1 of an Adam Air Indonesia flight, the Geneva-based group said.

In 10 years on China's highest court, Xuan Dong had a hand in the executions of 1,000 people -- most carried out by a bullet to the back of the head, often within weeks of the verdict. On his worst days, he considered himself a Communist Party hanging judge. Sitting on the Supreme People's Court, he represented the last hope of the condemned.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach remained the nation's busiest seaport complex for cargo containers in 2007, even though they saw a decline in traffic for the first time in at least 20 years. But in a shift, exports grew as the dollar's declining value helped U.S. companies ride into new markets and to record-breaking sales. One of those benefiting was Los Angeles Grain Terminal in Long Beach, a 49-year-old company that packs cargo containers with grain from the Midwest for sale in Asia.

Re "Tough remedies stay on shelf amid refinancing fever," news analysis, Jan. 24 Politicians and economists define a recession as six consecutive months of declines in the gross national product. That outmoded definition is not realistic. It calls for extremely rare statistics to occur before politicians admit there's a recession, and it perpetuates an artificial definition using one archaic statistic. A new formula should be based on practical measurements, including increases in unemployment, inflation, home foreclosures and credit card debt and decreases in the Dow Jones industrial average.

Two months into the winter sports season, avalanches have claimed 26 lives nationwide, including three near Mountain High Resort this weekend, in what officials warn may be a record year for mountain fatalities. Avalanche experts say average annual death tolls have edged up from 20 to 25 over the last decade and are likely to increase as more people with better technology and a new "extreme sports" mentality venture into remote areas in search of untrammeled powder.