It’s no Halloween trick: Jon Gosselin and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach will, in fact, engage in an “intimate dialogue” at New York City’s Westside Synagogue Sunday evening, and everyone’s invited.

The gathering, titled “Fame: Blessing or Curse?” will, according to the promotional flier sent out by Boteach, focus on the “ethical challenges and moral responsibility of celebrity.” Interested parties can purchase “extremely limited” tickets in advance at www.ThisWorld.us.

In a surprise twist, authors here retracted findings of a study that found N95 respirators were better than surgical masks at preventing flu.

After a re-analysis prompted by questions from reviewers, the findings were no longer significant, said Holly Seale of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

The original study, presented earlier this year, formed the basis of several important policy decisions, including Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance on the use of masks in a health care setting.

The retraction — near the end of a presentation at the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America — prompted a “rush to the microphones” by those involved in flu prevention, one expert

Cleveland police search the porch at the home of Anthony Sowell, inset, where bodies were discovered

Anthony Sowell regularly reported to the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office, as required since his release from prison after serving 15 years for a rape conviction, authorities say.

Now he is back in custody after four years of freedom, arrested Saturday on new rape charges and after police discovered six decomposing bodies at his home.

Two bodies were identified by county Coroner Frank Miller as black females and one had died of a violent death ruled a homicide. No race or gender was determined for the others. Autopsies were performed on all six bodies but no cause of death or names were announced.

Police spokesman Lt. Thomas Stacho said Sowell was walking down the street on the east side of Cleveland when authorities spotted him and took him into custody. Sowell initially denied he was the man authorities were looking for but admitted his identity as officers began fingerprinting him, Stacho said.

President Hamid Karzai’s challenger withdrew Sunday from next weekend’s runoff election, effectively handing the incumbent a victory but raising doubts about the government’s credibility at a time when the U.S. is seeking an effective partner in the war against the Taliban.

Former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said he made his decision after Karzai turned down his demands for changes to the Independent Election Commission and other measures that he said would prevent massive fraud, which marred the first round of balloting on Aug. 20.

Abdullah stopped short of calling for an electoral boycott and urged his followers “not to go to the streets, not to demonstrate.”

Azizullah Lodin, the head of the Karzai-appointed commission, said he would have to confer with constitutional lawyers before deciding later Sunday whether the runoff would proceed without Abdullah. Technically, it is too late for Abdullah to formally withdraw.

Ex-foreign minister Abdullah says ‘transparent election is not possible’

KABUL, Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai’s challenger withdrew Sunday from next weekend’s runoff election, effectively handing the incumbent a victory but raising doubts about the credibility of the government at a time when the U.S. is seeking an effective partner in the war against the Taliban.

Former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah said he made his decision after Karzai turned down his demands for changes to the Independent Election Commission and other measures that he said would prevent massive fraud, which marred the first round of balloting on Aug. 20.

Abdullah stopped short of calling for an electoral boycott and urged his followers “not to go to the streets, not to demonstrate.”

Azizullah Lodin, the head of the Karzai-appointed commission, said he would have to confer with constitutional lawyers before deciding later Sunday whether the runoff would proceed without Abdullah.

Kai Eide, the top U.N. official in Afghanistan, said in a statement that the next step is to “bring this electoral process to a conclusion in a legal and timely manner.”

The statement did not address whether the runoff should go forward, though U.N. spokesman Aleem Siddique said it looked impractical.

“It’s difficult to see how you can have a runoff with only one candidate,” Siddique said.

Deadliest month
A clouded electoral picture further complicates the Obama administration’s efforts to decide whether to send tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan to battle the Taliban and its al-Qaida allies.

The White House has been waiting for a new government in Kabul to announce a decision, but the war has intensified in the meantime. October was the deadliest month of the war for U.S. forces with at least 57 American deaths.

Before the announcement, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton downplayed the prospect of an Abdullah withdrawal, saying it would not undermine the legitimacy of the election.

“I don’t think it has anything to do with the legitimacy of the election,” Clinton told reporters Saturday in Abu Dhabi. “It’s a personal choice.”

Nevertheless, the contentious electoral process has divided anti-Taliban groups at a time when the U.S. and its allies are pressing for unity in the face of growing insurgent strength.

‘Very unfortunate’
U.S. officials pressured Karzai into agreeing to a runoff after U.N.-backed auditors threw out nearly a third of his votes from the August ballot, citing fraud.

Karzai’s campaign spokesman, Waheed Omar, said it was “very unfortunate” that Abdullah had withdrawn but that the Saturday runoff should proceed.

“We believe that the elections have to go on, the process has to complete itself, the people of Afghanistan have to be given the right to vote,” Omar said.

In an emotional speech, Abdullah told supporters that the Karzai-appointed election commission had engineered massive fraud in the first-round vote, but his demands for replacing the top leadership had been rejected.

“I will not participate in the Nov. 7 election,” Abdullah said, because a “transparent election is not possible.”

Abdullah told reporters later that he was not calling for a boycott, but instead leaving it up to his supporters to decide whether to vote if a runoff goes forward on Saturday.

He said he made the decision “with a lot of pain” and hoped his withdrawal would “give the people of Afghanistan a chance to move on.”

As recently as Saturday night, Abdullah staffers were saying he would call for supporters to boycott and for the runoff to be delayed until spring with an interim government in place until then.

Eide, of the U.N., and U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry were negotiating with the two late into the night about a power-sharing deal, said a Western diplomat familiar with the talks. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

The negotiations, which involved carving up ministries between the two camps, broke down early Sunday morning when Karzai ultimately rejected the deal. If they had succeeded, Abdullah would have conceded rather than simply withdrawn his candidacy, the diplomat said.

The fact that Abdullah did not go so far as to boycott could mean he is leaving open a window for further talks.

Abdullah said he made his final decision to take a softer stance out of consideration of the costs in terms of lives, resources, and time and effort.