[naviga:h3]Nobel awarded for economics[/naviga:h3]

STOCKHOLM — British-born Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmstrom of Finland won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for their contributions to contract theory, shedding light on how contracts help people deal with conflicting interests.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said their theories “are valuable to the understanding of real-life contracts and institutions, as well as potential pitfalls in contract design.”

For example, contract theory can be used to analyze performance-based pay for CEOs or deductibles and co-pays for insurance, the academy said.

The economics prize is not an original Nobel Prize. It was added to the others in 1968 by Sweden’s central bank.

The Nobel Prizes in medicine, physics, chemistry and the Nobel Peace Prize were announced last week.

[naviga:h3]Desperation grows in devastated Haiti[/naviga:h3]

JEREMIE, Haiti — Helicopters are ferrying in food and medicine to devastated southwestern Haiti, but almost a week after Hurricane Matthew’s assault life here is still far from normal and desperation is growing in communities where aid has yet to arrive.

Power is still out, water and food are scarce, and officials say that young men in villages along the road between the hard-hit cities of Les Cayes and Jeremie are putting up blockades of rocks and broken branches to halt convoys of vehicles bringing relief supplies.

“They are seeing these convoys coming through with supplies and they aren’t stopping. They are hungry and thirsty and some are getting angry,” said Dony St. Germain, an official with El Shaddai Ministries International.

A convoy carrying food, water and medications was attacked by gunmen in a remote valley where there had been a bad mudslide, said Frednel Kedler, the coordinator for the Civil Protection Agency in Grand-Anse department. He said authorities will try to reach marooned and desperate communities west of Jeremie today.

Throughout Haiti’s southwestern peninsula, people were digging themselves out from the wreckage of the storm, which killed hundreds.

[naviga:h3]Syrian arrested in bomb probe[/naviga:h3]

BERLIN — German police early today arrested a Syrian man who is suspected of preparing a bomb attack, following a nearly two-day manhunt.

Jaber Albakr, a 22-year-old who had been granted asylum in Germany, was arrested in the eastern city of Leipzig, police in Saxony state said. Leipzig is around 50 miles from Chemnitz, where he had evaded authorities on Saturday and where authorities found explosives.

Police were informed that fellow Syrians were holding the suspect at an apartment in Leipzig, and “immediately went there and arrested him,” Saxony police spokesman Tom Bernhardt said.