BBC News with Marion Marshall.

President Obama has told Americans recovering from a huge storm that his administration would be with them

for the long haul

. He made the comment while on a visit to inspect some of the devastation in New Jersey cause by storm Sandy which has

battered

the northeastern United States.

For those people I just said that a chance to meet on this block, throughout New Jersey, and throughout the region whose lives have been abandoned, We are here for you, and we will not forget, we will follow up to make sure that you get all the help that you need until you rebuilt.

More than 50 people have died and millions are still without electricity. In New York city, trading resumed on the financial markets, and two airports have reopened. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has promised that his administration would continue to work hard and fast to get New York back on its feet.

Many people's lives were

turned upside down

by the storm, and you have my word that everyone in city government at every level is working 24 hours a day to get the city

back on track

, including working with the MTA and Con Ed, to meet the two biggest challenges that we face:

mass transit

and electric power.

Libya's parliament has approved a new cabinet put forward by the Prime Minister Ali Zidan after weeks of political

wrangling

which led the dismiss of his predecessor. The session was cut short but the security forces firing into the air to disperse protesters outside the building. The BBC Tripoli correspondent says the new cabinet is widely viewed as a broad coalition bringing together liberals, Islamists and independence.