‘We’re Apple, And You’re Suckers,’ Says iPad Mini Parody Ad

The new iPad mini was released Friday, and Jimmy Kimmel doesn’t seem very enthusiastic about it.

[More from Mashable: The Top 250 Movies of All Time in Less Than 3 Minutes [VIDEO]]

In a parody iPad mini commercial that aired on Jimmy Kimmel Live Thursday, first came the iPod. Then a thinner iPod. Then an iPod you can touch. Then lots of other iPods — ones that allow you to shuffle your songs, ones you can talk on, a gigantic one you can’t talk on.

[More from Mashable: Long Exposure Photos Illuminate NYC’s Blackout Zone]

And today, Apple released a slightly bigger iPod that you can’t talk on. Which, according to the video, pretty much means we’re all suckers.

The flagship

Buyers started lining up to buy Apple’s long-anticipated iPad Mini at the flagship store the day before it went on sale.

Click here to view this gallery.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Chuck Lorre slams Romney, GOP with “Big Bang Theory” vanity card

(Please note profanity in second-to-last paragraph))

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – That Chuck Lorre – what a card.

No, seriously; what a card.

The “Big Bang Theory” and “Two and a Half Men” honcho – who’s used the vanity cards at the end of his shows to expound on everything from former “Men” star Charlie Sheen to the humilities of aging – used Thursday night’s “Big Bang Theory” card to rant about presidential candidate Mitt Romney and the current state of the Republican party.

Unfortunately for fans of political mud-flinging, the card never made it to air. Lorre published the card on his website instead, noting that he’d opted for self-censorship.

“I’ve decided to save everybody a lot of unhappiness and not submit this week’s vanity card to the CBS censors (I know when I’ve crossed the line with these things and don’t need a bunch of corporate lawyers getting their cotton blend panties in a bunch),” Lorre wrote.

Kind of a shame, really, because it’s quite a doozy.

The card takes shots at GOP politicians’ recent stances on everything from rape to FEMA, along with a dig at the reality series “The Bachelor” and a not-so-veiled reference to Romney’s Mormonism.

The card ends with a wholesale condemnation of modern American society.

The text of the vanity card is presented below in its entirety, to preserve flavor and flow:

CHUCK LORRE PRODUCTIONS, #397

CENSORED BY ME

What does it say about us when we are simultaneously pro-life and pro AK-47′s? What does it say about us when God’s will would allow a rapist to ask for shared custody and child support payments? What does it say about us when a black guy’s in charge and we say things like “it’s time to take America back”? What does it say about us when we think the institution of marriage is threatened by gay people who love each other, but not by idiotic game shows like “The Bachelor”? What does it say about us when we export democracy with Hellfire missiles, then restrict the right to vote here? What does it say about us when we build nuclear submarines to defend against exploding vests? What does it say about us when we think a guy who doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, keeps his money offshore, stubs his toe and says “H-E-double hockey sticks” and wears magical underwear can feel our pain? What does it say about us when we demand less government and more FEMA? What does it say about us when we completely forgot the colossal shit storm we were in four years ago?

The answer, my friends, is not blowing in the wind.

The answer is, “We are fucking crazy.”

It’s just a shame that Lorre has trouble sharing his feelings.

TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Amsterdam struggles to evade ban on dope-smoking tourists

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The mayor of Amsterdam may be unable to deliver on his promise to scrap the ban on tourists visiting the city’s marijuana-selling coffee shops, the Dutch justice ministry said on Friday.

Dope smokers were relieved this week when mayor Eberhard van der Laan said the coffee shops would remain open to foreigners.

The conservative national government that lost power in September had pledged that only locals would be allowed to buy “weed” in coffee shops from the beginning of next year.

Amsterdam’s marijuana cafes and bars attract millions of tourists and the outgoing government‘s impending ban on foreigners met strong resistance from businesses.

“We understand that the policy of the central government is to have one policy for the entire country,” said a spokeswoman for the city.

“But Amsterdam’s situation is very different from the rest of the country’s, because we have so many tourists.”

The mayor’s promise has, however, ruffled feathers in The Hague, the seat of Dutch government, and the spat will determine whether decades of Dutch drug tolerance continue.

The two parties forming the Netherlands’ next government want to allow cities to circumvent the national ban implemented by the former government, which included the Christian Democrats.

But the justice ministry said there was no guarantee the law would change to accommodate Amsterdam’s concerns.

“The coalition agreement says that tourists will be banned from coffee shops in the whole country,” a spokeswoman said. “What accommodation there will be for local requirements has not yet been finalized.”

Last year’s ban followed government claims that cannabis had become stronger and more dangerous and that coffee shops had criminal links.

“The mayor knows that closing the coffee shops will lead to all kinds of problems,” said Laurens Buijs, a sociologist at the University of Amsterdam. “Mayors know that the government’s ideological approach is not really helping.”

For decades, the Netherlands has been known as a haven of tolerance for soft drugs, attracting tourists from around the world to its 700 coffee shops.

But that tolerance has drawn complaints from residents who say the influx of cannabis lovers brings congestion and crime.

Local authorities argue the ban will not only hit the economy, but will encourage illegal street dealers and push up crime rates.

(Reporting By Thomas Escritt; Editing by Anthony Deutsch and Robert Woodward)

Medications/Drugs News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Anthony Scianna’s Storybook Ending

Francesco Nazardo for Bloomberg BusinessweekA typical Friday night at FairyTail Lounge

To enter the FairyTail Lounge, a one-year-old New York nightclub opened by three former commodities traders, guests pass through a sparkle-splattered door into a small room so shimmery it looks like it was painted by Tinker Bell. Above the bar, two male garden gnomes perch on an overhead shelf, frozen in ceramic ecstasy, one’s face pressed against the other’s glazed butt.

Francesco Nazardo for Bloomberg Businessweek

On a dank Saturday night, the only things more dazzling than the bar itself are Roxy Brooks and Lauren Ordair, two drag queens bedecked with enough costume jewelry to sink a pirate ship. “It’s just terrible what happened to those people,” says Ordair, referring to the nearly 1,000 commodities traders who’ve lost their jobs over the last two years. “But it’s happening everywhere. Drag wasn’t my first choice, you know. I studied to be an opera singer. Turns out it’s a small field.” Now the tenor soprano belts out show tunes at FairyTail on Mondays, where one of those laid-off traders, her boss, has just arrived.

“Anthony!” the drag queen suddenly chimes, Cheers-style, as she waves to the bar’s proprietor, Anthony Scianna, a 50-year-old wearing a zip-up cardigan. If Scianna’s job hadn’t been made obsolete, the FairyTail Lounge might be nothing more than fantasy.

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, a pauper could become a prince if he knew the right person. A reliable guy like Scianna, from a working-class family on Staten Island, didn’t need an MBA, or even a college education, to make good money fast as a floor trader. Moving soft commodities such as cotton, coffee, cocoa, sugar, and frozen concentrated orange juice was an old-school apprenticeship: There was no employment office, no interview, just guys who knew guys. All a pauper needed was a loud voice, a sky-high tolerance for stress, and a friend to vouch for him. Scianna got invited to the ball and worked the business for 20 years, from 1990 until last fall, when it became clear that Cinderella’s clock was going to strike midnight any minute.

As recently as early 2011, 90 percent of soft-commodity options were traded on the floor in an open-outcry tradition—a loud, brash system of hand signals, shouts, and frenzied person-to-person deal- making—going back roughly 142 years. But as electronic trading exploded, that percentage has flipped: About 1,000 traders used to work the floor; that number was down to 100 by Oct. 19, when IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) (ICE) closed its floor altogether and completed the transition to computerized trading. It’s an historic shift in the way business gets done and a clear-cut case of humans being replaced by machines. As the system grows more efficient, these jobs are disappearing, and so goes a tribe of Wall Street.

“I had a beautiful life. It was a beautiful experience,” Scianna says in his New York accent, the day after those layoffs left many of his old friends unemployed. “When I would walk into work, it felt like going home. We really were one big beautiful family.” A beautiful family from whom he hid that he was gay for 15 years, but more on that later.

Leaning against a pile of purple velvet pillows, Scianna says he liked the money, the camaraderie, the Cipriani parties, and the great hours: After coffee trading closed at 1:30 p.m., the rest of his day was free. And he thrived on the stress. “It never made me nervous, it made me excited,” he says. “One time, I witnessed a wonderful man, the father of a dear friend, pass away in the ring, trading copper. They just pulled him out and it kept going. The market never stopped.”

Scianna spent two decades trading futures but never thought much about his own. “Then we watched the business go from what it was to nothing. Suddenly the guy next to you was gone,” he says. “In 2010 I was 48, and I said to myself, ‘Who’s going to hire me? I don’t have any other skills.’ So I needed an idea.”

The find-yourself chick flick Eat Pray Love is playing on the TV above the bar, muted, as Scianna explains that he, like Julia Roberts, began his own second act after a bad breakup. A friend told him he had to get back out there, so Scianna hit Manhattan’s gay club scene. “I noticed every single gay bar was always packed,” he says. “All night long.”

This was a growth business with a future: Bartenders, go-go dancers, and drag queens would not be replaced by machines, at least not any time soon. So Anthony pitched his idea for the FairyTail Lounge to two fellow ICE traders, Joe Carman and Dave Dwyer, who looked over the numbers and signed on as investors in the fall of 2010. Scianna immediately quit his job trading coffee for Chicago-based SMW Trading.

When SMW closed down his old division three months later, Scianna was already at work renovating a space at 48th Street and 10th Avenue, with mixed results. Veteran gay club party promoter Joseph Israel, a flashy Puck on the nightlife circuit, says Scianna’s original bar design was too, well, “ugh.” So he persuaded Scianna to allow him to queer up the place. “The bar was plain, plain, plain,” says Israel with a shiver. “The decoration didn’t even have a fairy tale theme!” So Israel conceived a wonderland of unicorns, satyrs, glitter, and a black-light poster that stars Walt Disney’s (DIS) Prince Charming as a foot fetishist and Snow White being pleased by all seven dwarves.

In a way, it’s not surprising that Scianna’s original idea for the bar was more subdued. He’d spent most of his adult life on conservative Wall Street, where almost everyone was straight—or acted like it. No matter how much he loved his job, he spent about the first 15 years of his career afraid that the more powerful old-timers would find out he was gay and fire him.

“You couldn’t take that chance,” he says, as a slender DJ with a flat-top begins spinning house music in a tiny booth. “You have to realize, Wall Street was a private club for very wealthy people. So I never led anybody to believe that I was gay. In those early days, I didn’t want anyone to have a reason to get rid of me.” He finally came out to co-workers after Sept. 11. “I said, ‘This is who I am. I’m not going to change or come in with a dress on.’ And a lot of the old-timers were gone by then, so it was OK.”

Scianna’s still working in a loud, noisy room filled almost entirely with competitive men who aggressively swap digits. Only instead of bulls and bears, it’s centaurs and unicorns. And instead of waking up at 5 a.m. to make the commute from Staten Island to Wall Street, he’s getting home from the bar around 5:30 a.m., dusted with sparkles. He has new responsibilities as a bar owner—employees, vendors, the glitter supply—but it’s working. When his friend Joanne Cassidy lost her job as a clerk in the ICE layoffs after 20 years on the floor, Scianna was able to give her work as a coat-check girl to tide her over. “There’s a family feeling to the place,” says Cassidy. “It’s like Cheers.”

Scianna says he’s definitely happier, but he sometimes misses the respect, the macho glitz, the big bonuses. “Trading, you could be an a– –hole, you could be cocky,” he says. “You didn’t make money one day? F– – – you, you’d make it tomorrow. Here, I have to take care of so many people.”

“I almost wish I didn’t taste it,” he says of Wall Street. “It’s like the pauper who tastes what it’s like to be rich—the instant gratification of knowing exactly how much money you made every day at 2:30. I’m all right now, but there are employees to pay, vendors, staffing issues. I don’t know how much I’ve made till I pay all the bills.” Scianna is figuring it all out as he goes.

It’s getting close to midnight—almost time for free shots!—and as the go-go boy writhes, the dance floor fills up with handsome young men and Julia Roberts shoves pasta into her face on the bar television. Scianna smiles. Maybe he hasn’t found his happily ever after, but, he says, “it’s a totally whole new life. This is my second act.”

Businessweek.com — Top News

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Syrian rebels kill 28 soldiers, several executed

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Anti-government rebels killed 28 soldiers on Thursday in attacks on three army checkpoints around Saraqeb, a town on Syria’s main north-south highway, a monitoring group said.

Some of the dead were shot after they had surrendered, according to video footage. Rebels berated them, calling them “Assad’s Dogs”, before firing round after round into their bodies as they lay on the ground.

The highway linking the capital Damascus to the contested city of Aleppo, Syria’s commercial center, has been the scene of heavy fighting since rebels cut the road last month. Saraqeb lies about 40 km (25 miles) south of Aleppo

In other developments, China put forward a new initiative to resolve the 19-month-old conflict, including a phased, region-by-region ceasefire and the setting up of a transitional governing body.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said Beijing had made the proposal to international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi – whose own call for a truce over the Muslim holiday of Eid was largely ignored by both sides.

The United States meanwhile has called for an overhaul of Syria’s opposition leadership, signaling a break with the largely foreign-based Syrian National Council to bring in more credible figures.

A meeting in Qatar next week of foreign powers backing the rebels will be an opportunity to broaden the coalition against President Bashar al-Assad, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Zagreb on Wednesday.

The United States and its allies have struggled for months to craft a credible opposition coalition, while Assad has counted on the support of Russia, Iran and, to a lesser extent, China. International efforts to end the violence have all foundered.

More than 32,000 people have been killed since protests against Assad, an Alawite who succeeded his late father Hafez in ruling the mostly Sunni Muslim country, first broke out on city streets. The revolt has since degenerated into full-scale civil war, with the government forces relying heavily on artillery and air strikes to thwart the rebels.

CHECKPOINT ATTACKS

The army has lost swathes of land in Idlib and Aleppo provinces but is fighting to control towns along supply routes to Aleppo city, where its forces are fighting in many districts.

The head of the pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdelrahman, said two of the attacked checkpoints at Saraqeb were on the Damascus-Aleppo highway. The third was near a road linking Aleppo with Latakia, a port city still mostly controlled Assad’s forces.

“The rebels will not stay at the checkpoints for long as Syrian warplanes normally bomb positions after rebels move in,” Abdelrahman said.

Five rebels died in the fighting and at least 20 soldiers were killed at the third site, including those shot after surrendering, he said.

The video footage showed a group of petrified men, some bleeding, lying on the ground as rebels walked around, kicking and stamping on their captives.

One of the captured men says: “I swear I didn’t shoot anyone” to which a rebel responds: “Shut up you animal … Gather them for me.” Then the men are shot dead.

Reuters could not independently verify the footage.

The Observatory said the al Qaeda-inspired Jabhat al-Nusra rebel group was responsible for the executions.

Islamist rebel units are growing in prominence in the war – a cause for concern for international powers as they weigh up what kind of support to give the opposition.

U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration has said it is not providing arms to internal opponents of Assad and is limiting its aid to non-lethal humanitarian assistance. It concedes, however, that some of its allies are providing lethal assistance.

Russia and China have blocked three U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at increasing pressure on the Assad government, leading the United States and its allies to say they could move beyond U.N. structures for their next steps.

China has been strongly criticized by some Arab countries for failing to take a stronger stance on the conflict. Beijing has urged the Assad government to talk to the opposition and take steps to meet demands for political change.

“More and more countries have come to realize that a military option offers no way out, and a political settlement has become an increasingly shared aspiration,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in Beijing.

He said China’s new proposal was aimed at building international consensus and supporting peace envoy Brahimi’s mediation efforts.

(Additional reporting by Ayat Basma, Laila Bassam and Dominic Evans in Beirut and Terril Yue Jones in Beijing; Writing by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

World News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Researchers Predict Twitter Trends With 95% Accuracy [STUDY]

Researchers at MIT say they’ve created an algorithm for Twitter that predicts trending topics better than the site’s existing equation.

[More from Mashable: Explore Obama and Romney’s Most Engaging Tweets With This Map]

Associate Professor Devavrat Shah and student Stanislav Nikolov say their new algorithm predicts trending topics with 95% accuracy an average of 90 minutes faster than Twitter — sometimes, as early as five hours before.

[More from Mashable: Scared Twitless: Our Favorite 140-Character Halloween Stories]

The algorithm combs through a large sample of tweets — some that trended well, and some that didn’t — and compares the data to new information to see if there are any patterns. If new tweets look like older tweets that have trended, then there’s a chance a new trend is being formed. Simple.

The equation could be applied to anything that changes over time, the researchers say, like the stock market, movie ticket prices or the duration of a bus ride. For Twitter, the data could prove beneficial to advertisers looking to market a certain topic or trend.

Check out the video above to learn more. What other trends — on Twitter or otherwise — would you like to see better predicted? Tell us what you think.

Image courtesy of Flickr, shawncampbell.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Songwriter Bill Dees,”Oh, Pretty Woman” co-writer, dead at 73

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Singer-composer Bill Dees, best known for his songwriting collaboration with Roy Orbison on the hits “Oh, Pretty Woman” and “It’s Over,” has died at age 73 in Mountain Home, Arkansas, according to an obituary posted online by a local funeral home.

Dees, a Texas native who got his start in the 1950s with a high school band called the Five Bops, is credited with writing scores of songs in all, some recorded by such performers as Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn and Glen Campbell.

But Dees’ most fruitful collaboration was his work with fellow Texan Orbison, with whom he teamed up to write Orbison’s signature 1964 hit, “Oh, Pretty Woman.” which was featured years later in the soundtrack to the movie “Pretty Woman,” starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere.

The band Van Halen also scored a hit with a cover version of “Oh, Pretty Woman.”

According to various accounts, the song’s refrain grew out of an offhand comment Dees made when Orbison’s wife, Claudette, walked into the room where the two men were writing together, and Orbison asked her if she needed any money.

Dees cracked, “Pretty woman never needs any money,” and the song took shape from there, with the bulk of the composition coming together in less than hour.

As recounted in one biography posted on Dees’ official website, Dees also contributed uncredited harmony vocals on the record.

“Oh, Pretty Woman” went to No. 1 in United States and topped the charts in Britain, as did the 1964 Orbison ballad co-written by Dees, “It’s Over,” a considerable achievement given the dominance of the Beatles and other British groups on both sides of the Atlantic at the time.

Other Orbison singles Dees co-wrote included “Born on the Wind,” “Crawling Back,” “Communication Breakdown,” “Walk On,” “Windsurfer” and “So This Is Love.”

Dees died last week, on October 24, at Mountain Home, where he had lived since 1989, according to an announcement posted on the website of the Kirby & Family Funeral Home, where a memorial service is scheduled for Saturday, November 3.

(Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Eric Walsh and W Simon)

Celebrity News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Floods render NYC hospitals powerless

NEW YORK (AP) — There are few places in the U.S. where hospitals have put as much thought and money into disaster planning as New York. And yet two of the city’s busiest, most important medical centers failed a fundamental test of readiness during Superstorm Sandy this week: They lost power.

Their backup generators failed, or proved inadequate. Nearly 1,000 patients had to be evacuated.

The closures led to dramatic scenes of doctors carrying patients down dark stairwells, nurses operating respirators by hand, and a bucket brigade of National Guard troops hauling fuel to rooftop generators in a vain attempt to keep the electricity on.

Both hospitals, NYU Langone Medical Center and Bellevue Hospital Center, were still trying to figure out exactly what led to the power failures Thursday, but the culprit appeared to be the most common type of flood damage there is: water in the basement.

While both hospitals put their generators on high floors where they could be protected in a flood, other critical components of the backup power system, such as fuel pumps and tanks, remained in basements just a block from the East River.

Both hospitals had fortified that equipment against floods within the past few years, but the water — which rushed with tremendous force — found a way in.

“This reveals to me that we have to be much more imaginative and detail-oriented in our planning to make sure hospitals are as resilient as they need to be,” said Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.

The problem of unreliable backup electricity at hospitals is nothing new.

Over the first six months of the year, 23 percent of the hospitals inspected by the Joint Commission, a health care facility accreditation group, were found to be out of compliance with standards for backup power and lighting, according to a spokesman.

Power failures crippled New Orleans hospitals after Hurricane Katrina. The backup generator failed at a hospital in Stafford Springs, Conn., after the remnants of Hurricane Irene blew through the state in 2011. Hospitals in Houston were crippled when Tropical Storm Allison flooded their basements and knocked out electrical equipment in 2001.

When the Northeast was hit with a crippling blackout in 2003, the backup power at several of New York City’s hospitals failed or performed poorly. Generators malfunctioned or overheated. Fuel ran out too quickly. Even where the backup systems worked, they provided electricity to only some parts of the hospital and left others in the dark.

Afterward, a mayoral task force recommended upgrading testing standards for generators and requiring backup plans for blood banks and health care facilities that provide dialysis treatment.

Alan Aviles, president of New York City’s Health and Hospitals Corp., which operates Bellevue, said that after a scare last summer when Hurricane Irene threatened to cause flooding, Bellevue put its basement-level fuel pumps in flood-resistant chambers.

It still isn’t clear whether water breached those defenses, but when an estimated 17 million gallons of water rushed through loading docks and into the hospital’s 1-million-square-foot basement, the fuel feed to the generators stopped working. The floodwaters also knocked out the hospital’s elevators.

For two days, National Guardsmen carried fuel to the generators, but conditions inside the hospital for patients and staff deteriorated anyway. The generators were designed to supply only 30 percent of the usual electrical load at the hospital, leaving a lot of equipment and labs hobbled. The hospital also lost all water pressure on Tuesday. Nearly 700 patients had been evacuated by Thursday afternoon.

“The precautions we had taken to date had served us well,” Aviles said. “But Mother Nature can always up the stakes.”

NYU Langone Medical Center had also tried to armor itself against floods.

All seven of the generators providing backup power to the parts of the hospital involved in patient care are only a few years old and are on higher floors. The fuel tank is in a watertight vault. New fuel pumps were installed just this year in a pump house upgraded to withstand a high flood, said the hospital’s vice president of facilities operation, Richard Cohen.

“The medical center invested quite a bit of money to upgrade the facility,” he said.

The pump house remained “bone dry,” Cohen said. But water shoved aside plastic and plywood defenses and infiltrated the fuel vault, where sensors detected the potentially damaging liquid and shut the generators down. “The force of the surge that came in was unbelievable. It dislodged our additional protection and caused a breach of the vault as well,” Cohen said.

The power at NYU went out in a flash, leaving the staff scrambling to evacuate 300 patients with no notice.

Dr. Robert Berg, an obstetrician, said that when he lost power in his apartment, he went to the hospital to charge his cellphone and was stunned to find it in chaos.

“It didn’t really occur to me that the hospital was going to be in trouble,” he said. Even after finding the lobby dark, “I thought, ‘We’ll have power upstairs. We’re an operating room.’”

He wound up carrying two patients down flights of stairs on a “med sled.”

“There was a Category 1 outside and a Category 4 inside,” he said. “I can’t say that they were very well prepared for it.”

That has left only one hospital, Beth Israel Medical Center, functioning in the southern third of Manhattan. It is also on backup power, but brought in two huge new generators Thursday, just in case.

Aviles said Bellevue might be out of commission for at least two more weeks. NYU Langone’s generators are operating again, but the hospital is waiting for Consolidated Edison to restore its power before it starts taking patients again. That could happen in a matter of days.

Flooding may pose less of a danger to the hospital’s power supply in the future. Construction is under way on a new power plant, at a cost of more than $ 200 million, that will run on natural gas and supply all the hospital’s power needs.

“It’s a tremendous facility, with a lot of hardening built into it,” Cohen said.

___

AP Medical Writer Mike Stobbe contributed to this report.

Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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RBS sees PPI bill rise by £400m

2 November 2012 Last updated at 05:28 ET

Royal Bank of Scotland has set aside a further £400m to cover the cost of claims for mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI).

It takes the bank’s total charges for PPI mis-selling to £1.7bn.

The figures were disclosed as RBS reported a pre-tax loss of £1.26bn for the three months to 30 September, against a £2bn profit a year earlier.

Despite the losses, chief executive Stephen Hester said that RBS was “making progress”.

The bank, which is 80%-owned by the UK government, has also set aside another £50m to cover the cost of compensation of the recent computer systems failure that hit customers.

The bank’s bill for the computer glitch, which locked many RBS, NatWest and Ulster Bank customers out of their accounts, now totals £175m.

On Wednesday, Lloyds Banking Group revealed a fresh £1bn provision for PPI claims. Along with the RBS provision, the bill for the big UK banks of the PPI scandal is now stands at £10.8bn. According to consumers’ association Which? the total figure including other financial firms, such as credit card companies, is now £12.7bn.

RBS also warned on Friday that it could be hit with stiff penalties over any involvement in the alleged manipulation of the Libor inter-bank lending rate.

The bank is being investigated by regulators in the UK, Asia and in the US, with the fraud division of the US Department of Justice also looking into the matter.

RBS bank said it expected to enter into negotiations to settle some Libor investigations in the “near term”, and that although the size of any fine was uncertain it could be big enough to have a “material” impact.

The mis-selling and other charges overshadowed underlying progress at the bank. RBS’s operating profits for the third quarter were £1bn, up from a £650m profit in the second quarter. Bad-debt losses fell by £159m from the second quarter to £1.2bn.

Staff costs were 5% lower than in the second quarter at £1.9bn, with headcount down by 9,900, or 7%, on a year earlier.

‘Reputational issues’

RBS re-stated that its restructuring after a near-collapse during the global financial crisis was on track would be completed in the next 18 months.

Mr Hester said: “The extraordinary challenges which RBS faced following the financial crisis are being worked through successfully.

“The five year restructuring plan is now in its later stages with important work still to do, including an emphasis on dealing with reputational issues now that the bank’s safety and soundness has advanced so well.”

He said that RBS “too often came to be seen” as putting the short-term interests of shareholders and staff ahead of customers, and promised to reverse the balance.

Analyst Richard Hunter, head of equities at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “There is no doubting the immensity of the task RBS has faced in executing its turnaround plan, nor indeed the progress made so far.”

Despite the furore over bank lending to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), RBS maintained that its record was strong.

In the third quarter gross new lending increased by 3% compared with the second quarter. Overall gross new lending for the first nine months of 2012 was £62.9bn to UK businesses, of which £28.6bn was to SME customers.

However, RBS said there was a 25% fall in SME loan applications in the third quarter, compared with the same three months in 2011. This was due, the bank said, to uncertainty over UK economic growth and the effect of the Olympics.

RBS shares, which rose sharply on Thursday, were 1% lower in morning trading.

BBC News – Business

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Mexico’s Day of Dead brings memories of missing

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Maria Elena Salazar refuses to set out plates of her missing son’s favorite foods or orange flowers as offerings for the deceased on Mexico‘s Day of the Dead, even though she hasn’t seen him in three-and-a-half years.

The 50-year-old former teacher is convinced that Hugo Gonzalez Salazar, a university graduate in marketing who worked for a telephone company, is still alive and being forced to work for a drug cartel because of his skills.

“The government, the authorities, they know it, that the gangs took them away to use as forced labor,” said Salazar of her then 24-year-old son, who disappeared in the northern city of Torreon in July 2009.

The Day of the Dead — when Mexicans traditionally visit the graves of dead relatives and leave offerings of flowers, food and candy skulls — is a difficult time for the families of the thousands of Mexicans who have disappeared amid a wave of drug-fueled violence.

With what activists call a mix of denial, hope and desperation, they refuse to dedicate altars on the Nov. 1-2 holiday to people often missing for years. They won’t accept any but the most certain proof of death, and sometimes reject even that.

Numbers vary on just how many people have disappeared in recent years. Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission says 24,000 people have been reported missing between 2000 and mid-2012, and that nearly 16,000 bodies remain unidentified.

But one thing is clear: just as there are households without Day of the Dead altars, there are thousands of graves of the unidentified dead scattered across the country, with no one to remember them.

An investigation conducted by the newspaper Milenio this week, involving hundreds of information requests to state and municipal governments, indicates that 24,102 unidentified bodies were buried in paupers’ or common graves in Mexican cemeteries since 2006. The number is almost certainly incomplete, since some local governments refused to provide figures, Milenio reported.

And while the number of unidentified dead probably includes some indigents, Central American migrants or dead unrelated to the drug war, it is clear that cities worst hit by the drug conflict also usually showed a corresponding bulge in the number of unidentified cadavers. For example, Mexico City, which has been relatively unscathed by drug violence, listed about one-third as many unidentified burials as the city of Veracruz, despite the fact that Mexico City’s population is about 15 times larger.

Consuelo Morales , who works with dozens of families of disappeared in the northern city of Monterrey, said that “holidays like this, that are family affairs and are very close to our culture, stir a lot of things up” for the families. But many refuse to accept the deaths of their loved ones, sometimes even after DNA testing confirms a match with a cadaver.

“They’ll say to you, ‘I’m not going to put up an altar, because they’re not dead,” Martinez noted. “Their thinking is that ‘until they prove to me that my child is dead, he is alive.”

Martinez says one family she works with at the Citizens in Support of Human Rights center had refused to accept their son was dead, even after three rounds of DNA testing and the exhumation of the remains.

“It was their son, he was very young, and he had been burned alive,” Martinez said by way of explanation.

The refusal to accept what appears inevitable may be a matter of desperation. Martinez said some families in Monterrey also believe their missing relatives are being held as virtual slaves for the cartels, even though federal prosecutors say they have never uncovered any kind of drug cartel forced-labor camp, in the six years since Mexico launched an offensive against the cartels.

But many people like Salazar believe it must be true. “Organized crime is a business, but it can’t advertise for employees openly, so it has to take them by force,” Salazar said.

While she refuses to erect an altar-like offering for her son, she does perform other rituals that mirror the Day of the Dead customs, like the one that involves scattering a trail of flower petals to the doorsteps of houses to guide spirits of the departed back home once a year.

Salazar and her family still live in the same home in Torreon, though they’d like to move, in the hopes that Hugo will return there. They pray three times a day for God to guide him home.

“We live in the same place, and we try to do the same things we used to,” said Salazar, “because he is going to come back to his place, his home, and we have to be waiting for him.”

Mistrust of officials has risen to such a point that some families may never get an answer they’ll accept.

The problem is that, with forensics procedures often sadly lacking in Mexican police forces, the dead my never be connected with the living, which is the whole point of the Mexican traditions.

“As long as the authorities don’t prove the opposite, for us they’re still alive,” Salazar said. “Let them prove it, but let us have some certainty, not just the authorities saying ‘here he is.’ We don’t the government to just give us bodies that aren’t theirs, and that has happened.”

Latin America News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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RIM says its new BlackBerry phone in testing

TORONTO (AP) — BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion said Wednesday that its much-delayed new smartphones are now being tested by 50 wireless carriers around the world.

The Canadian company called it a key step as it prepares to launch the new BlackBerry 10 software and phones in the first quarter of next year.

The phones are seen as critical to RIM’s survival. The release will come as the company struggles in North America to hold onto customers who are abandoning BlackBerrys for flashier iPhones and Android phones.

“I’m very pleased to confirm that we have passed a critical milestone in the development of our brand new mobile computing platform,” RIM CEO Thorsten Heins said in a statement. “This process will continue in the coming months as more carriers around the world formally evaluate the devices and our brand new software.”

RIM’s current software is still focused on email and messaging, and is less user-friendly and agile than iPhone or Android. Its attempt at touch screens and a tablet were a flop, and RIM lacks the apps that power other smartphones. RIM’s hopes hang on BlackBerry 10. It’s thoroughly redesigned for the touchscreen, Internet browsing and apps experience that customers now expect. A full touchscreen device will be released first followed shortly after by a physical keyboard version.

Heins, who took over as CEO in January after the company lost tens of billions in market value, had vowed to do everything he could to release BlackBerry 10 this year but said in June that the timetable wasn’t realistic. Heins says he can turn things around with BlackBerry 10.

“I have spent the last several weeks on the road visiting with carrier partners around the world to show them the BlackBerry 10 platform and to share with them our plans for launch. Their response has been tremendous,” Heins said. “The hard work will not stop here as we build toward launch.”

The new BlackBerrys will be released after the holiday shopping season and well after Apple’s launch of the iPhone 5, Apple’s biggest product introduction yet.

RIM’s platform transition is also happening under a new management team and as RIM lays off 5,000 employees as part of a bid to save $ 1 billion.

RIM was once Canada’s most valuable company with a market value of more than $ 80 billion in 2008, but the stock has plummeted since, from over $ 140 share to around $ 7. Its decline evokes memories of Nortel, another former Canadian tech giant, which declared bankruptcy in 2009.

Shares of RIM closed up 4.7 percent, or 36 cents, at $ 7.93.

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Republican candidate calls aborting rapist’s child ‘more violence on woman’s body’

OLYMPIA, Washington (Reuters) – Tea Party politician John Koster, the Republican nominee for a hotly contested congressional seat in Washington state, says he opposes abortions, even in cases of “the rape thing,” because it is tantamount to inflicting “more violence onto a woman’s body.”

The Snohomish County councilman made the comments during a weekend fundraising appearance in the Puget Sound city of Everett, north of Seattle, that was captured in a recording released on Wednesday by the liberal activist group Fuse Washington.

Long known as an opponent of abortion, even in cases of rape or incest, Koster was asked if there were any circumstances under which he would approve of terminating a pregnancy.

“When a mother’s life is in danger … I’m not going to make that decision,” he replied, before going on to talk about incest and rape.

“Incest is so rare, I mean, it’s so rare. But the rape thing, you know, I know a woman who was raped and kept her child, gave it up for adoption. She doesn’t regret it. In fact, she is a big pro-life proponent,” he said in the recording.

He continued by asking a rhetorical question: “But on the rape thing, it’s like, how does putting more violence onto a woman’s body and taking the life of an innocent child that’s a consequence of this crime, how does that make it better?”

The remarks drew sharp criticism from the campaign of his Democratic foe, former Microsoft executive and state revenue director Suzan DelBene – a spokesman said it showed Koster to be “out of touch” – and from abortion-rights supporters.

“There are far too many extreme politicians out there that are trying to be involved in a woman’s personal medical decisions about her pregnancy,” Sara Kiesler of Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

The flap marked the latest instance of a Republican congressional candidate stirring controversy with comments about abortion and rape.

Richard Mourdock, the Republican nominee for a U.S. Senate seat in Indiana, said during a debate last Tuesday that pregnancy from rape was “something that God intended to happen.” And Missouri U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin in August caused an uproar by saying women have natural defenses against pregnancy from “legitimate rape.”

In a statement posted on its website on Wednesday, Koster’s campaign accused DelBene supporters of engaging in “dirty tricks” by circulating the recording of his remarks, and suggested his words were taken out of context.

“The recording was done secretly, then edited to suit DelBene’s agenda,” campaign manager Larry Stickney said. “The insinuation that John Koster is in some way ‘callous or ‘cavalier’ when it comes to the subject of rape is another example of the vicious and desperate tactics … employed to slander the good name of John Koster.”

During his term as a state lawmaker, Koster sponsored tough “two strikes, you’re out” legislation to lock up violent sex offenders permanently, his website said.

The race between Koster and DelBene for Washington state’s newly drawn first congressional district seat, vacated by Democrat Jay Inslee when he resigned to run for governor, is considered a tossup.

Koster, a former dairy farmer with close affiliations with and support from the Tea Party movement, has lost two previous bids for the U.S. House of Representatives.

(Additional reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Eric Walsh)

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Shell CFO says weak Europe economy “all around us”

LONDON (Reuters) – Europe‘s top oil company Royal Dutch Shell is seeing signs of a weak European economy “all around us,” the company’s finance director Simon Henry said during a third-quarter results conference call on Thursday.

He was making the comment in the context of strong refining margins in the quarter, which he said were more the result of supply disruptions than any strength in actual demand.

(Reporting by Andrew Callus; Editing by David Goodman)

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Syrian air force on offensive after failed truce

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian warplanes bombed rebel targets with renewed intensity on Tuesday after the end of a widely ignored four-day truce between President Bashar al-Assad‘s forces and insurgents.

State television said “terrorists” had assassinated an air force general, Abdullah Mahmoud al-Khalidi, in a Damascus suburb, the latest of several rebel attacks on senior officials.

In July, a bomb killed four of Assad‘s aides, including his brother-in-law Assef Shawkat and the defense minister.

Air strikes hit eastern suburbs of Damascus, outlying areas in the central city of Homs, and the northern rebel-held town of Maarat al-Numan on the Damascus-Aleppo highway, activists said.

Rebels have been attacking army bases in al-Hamdaniya and Wadi al-Deif, on the outskirts of Maarat al-Numan.

Some activists said 28 civilians had been killed in Maarat al-Numan and released video footage of men retrieving a toddler’s body from a flattened building. The men cursed Assad as they dragged the dead girl, wearing a colorful overall, from the debris. The footage could not be independently verified.

The military has shelled and bombed Maarat al-Numan, 300 km (190 miles) north of Damascus, since rebels took it last month.

“The rebels have evacuated their positions inside Maarat al-Numaan since the air raids began. They are mostly on the frontline south of the town,” activist Mohammed Kanaan said.

Maarat al-Numan and other Sunni towns in northwestern Idlib province are mostly hostile to Assad’s ruling system, dominated by his minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.

Two rebels were killed and 10 wounded in an air strike on al-Mubarkiyeh, 6 km (4 miles) south of Homs, where rebels have besieged a compound guarding a tank maintenance facility.

Opposition sources said the facility had been used to shell Sunni villages near the Lebanese border.

“WE’LL FIX IT”

The army also fired mortar bombs into the Damascus district of Hammouria, killing at least eight people, activists said.

One video showed a young girl in Hammouria with a large shrapnel wound in her forehead sitting dazed while a doctor said: “Don’t worry dear, we’ll fix it for you.”

Syria’s military, stretched thin by the struggle to keep control, has increasingly used air power against opposition areas, including those in the main cities of Damascus and Aleppo. Insurgents lack effective anti-aircraft weapons.

U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has said he will pursue his peace efforts despite the failure of his appeal for a pause in fighting for the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday.

But it is unclear how he can find any compromise acceptable to Assad, who seems determined to keep power whatever the cost, and mostly Sunni Muslim rebels equally intent on toppling him.

Big powers and Middle Eastern countries are divided over how to end the 19-month-old conflict which has cost an estimated 32,000 dead, making it one of the bloodiest of Arab revolts that have ousted entrenched leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

The United Nations said it had sent a convoy of 18 trucks with food and other aid to Homs during the “ceasefire”, but had been unable to unload supplies in the Old City due to fighting.

“We were trying to take advantage of positive signs we saw at the end of last week. The truce lasted more or less four hours so there was not much opportunity for us after all,” said Jens Laerke, a U.N. spokesman in Geneva.

The prime minister of the Gulf state of Qatar told al-Jazeera television late on Monday that Syria’s conflict was not a civil war but “a war of annihilation licensed firstly by the Syrian government and secondly by the international community”.

Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said some of those responsible were on the U.N. Security Council, alluding to Russia and China which have vetoed three Western-backed U.N. draft resolutions condemning Assad.

He said that the West was also not doing enough to stop the violence and that the United States would be in “paralysis” for two or three weeks during its presidential election.

(Additional reporting by Raissa Kasolowsky in Abu Dhabi and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Writing by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

World News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Holiday gadgets: Microsoft phones, Google gadgets

NEW YORK (AP) — Microsoft launched its new Windows phone system and Google unveiled new devices under its Nexus brand. Both part of an effort to grab more of consumers’ holiday-shopping dollars.

Last week, Microsoft started selling its Windows 8 operating system and Surface tablet computer. Apple announced new iPads and Mac computers. Samsung launched a giant smartphone.

Barnes & Noble Inc. will start shipping new Nook devices Thursday, while Apple‘s new iPads, including a smaller one, will be out Friday. A larger version of Amazon.com Inc.‘s Kindle Fire comes out later in the month.

These are some of the gadgets to expect for the holidays:

— APPLE DEVICES

Apple has done well selling its full-sized tablet computer, which has a screen that measures nearly 10 inches diagonally. But companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Google Inc. have made inroads selling tablets with smaller, 7-inch screens and lower price tags.

To maintain its dominance, Apple will start shipping the iPad Mini on Friday, though new orders through Apple‘s website will take longer because initial supplies had sold out. It will have a 7.9-inch screen, making it slightly larger than those smaller rivals but about two-thirds the size of a regular iPad.

The iPad Mini starts at $ 329, well above the $ 159 starting price for Amazon.com Inc.‘s Kindle Fire and $ 199 for Google Inc.‘s Nexus 7. Both have 7-inch screens. The Mini will be just $ 70 cheaper than the 2011 iPad 2, which is still available.

Apple will make a version of the iPad Mini that can access cellular networks from AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. That version will start at $ 459, compared with $ 629 for the full-sized cellular model.

Apple is also refreshing its full-sized iPad, giving it a faster processor and faster Wi-Fi capabilities.

Meanwhile, Apple has unveiled a 13-inch version of a MacBook Pro with sharper, “Retina” display, complementing the 15-inch version unveiled in June. Apple also updated its iMac line.

Last month, Apple began selling its iPhone 5. The new phone is bigger, but thinner than previous models and works with faster cellular networks known as 4G.

— PHONE RIVAL

Apple‘s leading rival, Samsung Electronics Co., came out with a new version of its flagship phone, the Galaxy S III, months ago. But Samsung is known for releasing products throughout the year, each targeted at a different base of consumers.

For those who like to work with a stylus, the Galaxy Note II smartphone came out last week. T-Mobile, Sprint and U.S. Cellular are selling it now. Verizon and AT&T are taking advance orders for shipments in the coming weeks.

The Note comes on the heels of Samsung’s campaign touting its Galaxy S III phone as its “next big thing.” The Note is even bigger, with a 5.5 inch screen, compared with the S III’s 4.8 inches and the iPhone 5′s 4 inches, all measured diagonally.

The Note runs the latest version of Google‘s Android system, Jelly Bean.

Google, meanwhile, announced a small update to Jelly Bean and said it will be included with its Nexus 4 smartphone out next month.

— TABLET RIVALS

Amazon’s 7-inch Kindle Fire is one of the smaller tablets with decent sales. Last month, it started shipping an updated version with a faster processor, more memory and longer battery life. It also cut the price to $ 159, from $ 199, making it far cheaper than the iPad, which starts at $ 399.

Amazon is also releasing higher-end models under the Kindle Fire HD line. A 7-inch one goes for $ 199 and an 8.9-inch one for $ 299. There’s also a $ 499 model that can use the 4G cellular networks that phone companies have been building. A data plan will cost an extra $ 50 a year. The smaller HD model is already available, while the larger ones will be available Nov. 20.

Barnes and Noble Inc. is also updating its Nook tablets. The new Nook HD will come in two sizes, one at 7 inches (starting at $ 199) and one at 9 inches (starting at $ 269). They will be out Thursday.

In addition to the new HD screen and a lighter body, Barnes & Noble is increasing the services the Nook offers. It’s adding a video purchase and rental service, allowing users to maintain different profiles and making it easier to browse titles in its book and magazine stores.

Google, meanwhile, is introducing a 10-inch Nexus tablet starting at $ 399, $ 100 less than comparable versions of the latest iPads. It is doubling the storage capacity of existing 7-inch models and introducing a version capable of accessing cellular networks. The new Nexus 7 is available now, while the other devices are coming Nov. 13.

— CALLING ON WINDOWS

Microsoft Corp. released a new version of the Windows operating system on Friday, one that’s designed to work on both traditional computers and tablet devices. Desktops, laptops and tablet computers with Windows 8 started going on sale Friday.

Microsoft also released its own tablet computer, the Surface. It’s new territory for Microsoft, which typically leaves it to others to make devices using its software. Now, it will be competing against its partners.

One model will run on the same type of lower-energy chips used in the iPad. It will start at $ 499, also like the newest, full-sized iPads. A keyboard cover will cost another $ 100. Sales started Friday.

A heavier, more expensive version will run on Intel chips and be capable of running standard Windows applications. Microsoft hasn’t announced the date or price for that yet.

A new version of the Windows Phone system is coming out this fall as well. Once-dominant phone maker Nokia Corp. has been struggling in the shadow of Apple and Android, and it’s counting on the new Windows system for a revival. Nokia, Samsung and HTC are launching eight Windows Phone 8 smartphones combined by year’s end, starting this weekend overseas and later in November in the U.S.

— NEW BLACKBERRYS

A year ago, Research In Motion Ltd. disclosed that it was working on a next-generation phone system for the BlackBerry, which now looks ancient next to the iPhone and Android devices. It was supposed to be out in time for this year’s holiday season. That won’t happen.

In June, RIM pushed the release of BlackBerry 10 devices into early next year, saying it wasn’t ready. That means RIM will not only compete with the new iPhone and Android devices out this fall, but it will also have to contend with the new Windows devices.

— PLAYING GAMES

Nintendo’s new Wii U game machine will go on sale in the U.S. on Nov. 18. A basic, white model will cost $ 300. A deluxe black version for another $ 50 comes with an extra game and more accessories. The GamePad touch-screen controller for it will offer new ways to play.

In “New Super Mario Bros. U.,” for example, players holding the old Wii controllers control Mario, Luigi and other characters. The person with the GamePad can help them along by using a stylus to create stepping stones for the characters or stun enemies.

Players can also turn off the TV entirely and play on the GamePad.

Nintendo Co. has been trying to drum up excitement for the Wii U, the first major gaming console to launch since 2006.

The company also announced new entertainment features for the console. Called Nintendo TVii, the service collects all the ways users have to watch movies, TV shows and sports. This includes pay-TV accounts along with services such as Hulu and Netflix. The GamePad works as a fancy remote controller and will let viewers comment on what they are watching.

TVii will be available Nov. 18 as well, at no extra cost.

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Ratings: ‘The Voice’ rises as NBC takes night

LOS ANGELES, Oct 30 (TheWrap.com) – “The Voice’s” first-ever knockout round Monday raised the singing competition’s ratings enough to give NBC a win for the night, according to preliminary numbers.

While preemptions for coverage of Hurricane Sandy and power outages render the ratings for all of the networks approximate, NBC so far shows a commanding lead in the advertiser-cherished 18-49 demographic with a 4.4 rating/11 share and second in total viewers with 11.4 million.

“The Voice” from 8 to 10 p.m. rose 16 percent from last week’s one-hour episode, delivering a 5.0/12 — the night’s highest rating for an individual program — and drawing 12.8 million viewers. “Revolution” at 10 dipped slightly, receiving a 3.1/8 and taking in 8.4 million total viewers.

ABC took second place in ratings and first in total viewers with a 2.7/6 and 13.8 million. Its primetime slate showed growth across the board, starting with “Dancing With the Stars” from 8 to 10, which climbed 13 percent over last week’s one-hour installment for a 2.7/6 and took most-watched honors for the night with 15 million viewers. “Castle” at 10 also enjoyed a significant boost, jumping 35 percent from its last original airing two weeks ago for a 2.7/7 and drew 11.9 million total viewers.

CBS, which came in third in ratings and total viewers with a 2.2/5 and 7.2 million, ran repeats with the exception of the CBS News special “Super Storm Sandy” at 10, which drew a 2.1/5 and grabbed 8 million total viewers.

(Editing By Zorianna Kit)

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How to wage a smart cancer fight

Receiving a cancer diagnosis can leave patients feeling dazed, dismayed and deluged. While these reactions are natural, cancer patients must play a major role in their own treatment. Asking the following questions is an important first step.

Q: What’s the cancer type and stage?

A: Cancers are identified by the organ where they originate. In other words, breast cancer that spreads to the lungs is still breast cancer. This is very important, as breast and lung cancers, for example, have different root causes and are treated differently.

Cancers are staged one through four, one being the earliest stage. However, the consequences of a more advanced cancer vary with the cancer. Testicular cancer can spread throughout the body and be completely cured. Stage four pancreatic cancer has a very poor prognosis.

Q: How was the cancer diagnosed?

A: Most often, cancer is diagnosed with a biopsy, which is interpreted by pathologists. Patients should get the pathology report. This will help them better understand the type of cancer, whether it has spread to lymph nodes, and other important information. They should also keep track of what tests were done — mammograms, CT, PET — and get copies of these reports. They should ask about molecular tests (diagnostics that determine which mutations are driving the cancer). Knowing the genetic underpinnings of the tumor can influence treatment.

It never hurts to get a second opinion, and having all the reports will expedite this process. But patients should proceed quickly. Once treatment has begun, it’s often difficult to take a different course.

Q: What are the treatment goals and options?

A: There are three basic forms of treatment: surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Depending on the type and stage, an oncologist may recommend one or more.

Patients should know the treatment goals. Is the team working to cure the cancer or slow it down? Sometimes treatment may prolong life but will not eradicate the disease. Also, some treatments, such as Gleevec for chronic myelogenous leukemia, work to transform cancer from a deadly to a chronic disease, much like diabetes.

Clinical trials are often available, however eligibility criteria vary, and not every patient will qualify. Nevertheless, patients should ask their physician about clinical trial availability.

Q: How will it affect quality of life?

A: Cancer treatments may have debilitating side effects. However, newer treatments can be less toxic. Patients should understand the consequences of treatment: The long- and short-term side effects, whether home care will be needed, how much medical leave might be required. Will transportation be needed and, if so, are shuttles available?

On the business end, will treatments be covered by insurance? Co-pays can add up, what will the out-of-pocket expenses be? A case worker or business office staffer can help with these and other financial issues.

Q: Who’s on the treatment team?

A: Cancer patients should know their medical team: medical oncologist, surgeon, radiation oncologist, nurses, case workers and others. Even more importantly, who is going to be the quarterback, coordinating care, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks and providing long-term monitoring?

These issues provide a starting point and basic framework for gathering key information, which will help patients make knowledgeable care decisions.

Dr. Michael Kosty is the medical director of Scripps Cancer Center at Scripps Green Hospital.

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Heseltine issues growth challenge

31 October 2012 Last updated at 04:55 ET

Lord Heseltine, the former Conservative party deputy prime minister, has challenged the government to take bolder action to stimulate the economy.

In a new report, commissioned by Downing Street, he says that people think the UK “does not have a strategy for growth and wealth creation”.

He wants the funds used to support industry to be distributed locally, rather than through central government.

Labour said his message was “a damning indictment” of the government.

His review makes 89 recommendations to help industry. One of its key aims is to move £49bn from central government to the regions to help local leaders and businesses.

The aim, he said, was to devolve power from Whitehall and re-invigorate the big cities that had fuelled the growth and wealth that the UK had experienced in past decades.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

I have told it as I see it, but I have told it in a way that is very supportive of the government”

End Quote Lord Heseltine

Chancellor George Osborne said he would “study it [the report] very carefully”.

Lord Heseltine, a former head of the Department of Trade and Industry in the 1980s, said the Government should allocate growth funds to new Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) over the next few years.

He said LEPs’ responsibilities should include wealth creation as well as focus on social provision.

The current climate was “the worst economic crisis of modern times”, he said, arguing that local business and political leaders are best placed to invest the money.

The main points of the report, called No Stone Unturned: In pursuit of growth, include:

• a major devolution of funding


• making a smaller and more skilled government machine


• enhancing the standing of Local Economic Partnerships (LEPs) to bring together private and public sectors


• more government leadership for major infrastructure projects


• a role for employers in education

‘Pulsing’

When in office Lord Heseltine was well known for promoting intervention to back business and the regeneration of urban areas.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

This is a war cry from the man whose golden locks and virtuoso performances earned him the nickname Tarzan”

End Quote

The report is presented in a highly individual style, fronted by a cartoon of Lord Heseltine shining a torch under a rock, with the caption “In search of growth”.

He calls it “one man’s vision”, and says “there is opportunity on a grand scale”.

He said that throughout the regions there was excellence in industry, commerce and academia, which should be extended and that cities were “pulsing with energy” that should be unleashed.

He backed the government’s economic strategy, and said it was taking the right path to recovery. But later, in an interview with the BBC, Lord Heseltine said there was “an urgency” about stimulating growth. “Across the world there are emerging economies that want our jobs and our wealth,” he said.

He wanted to “unleash the power of our big cities. London did not make the UK. London has acquired too much power. Cities like Manchester and Birmingham made the UK. We need to mobilise the skills of provincial England,” he told Radio 4′s Today programme. “I want to shove power out of Whitehall, into the provinces.”

Asked whether his conclusions might be at odds with thinking in the Treasury, Mr Heseltine said: “I do not work for the Treasury, I work for George Osborne. And George has been behind this initiative.”

He added: “I have got baggage, they know my views. There are bound to be things where they say, ‘oh my god, here he goes again’. I have told it as I see it, but I have told it in a way that is very supportive of the government.”

‘Challenge received wisdom’

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

He will have his work cut out in convincing ministers of this new approach”

End Quote Brendan Barber TUC

Mr Osborne said the report provided food for thought.

“I wanted Lord Heseltine to do what he does best: challenge received wisdom and give us ideas on how to bring government and industry together. He has done exactly that,” he said.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said he would also be considering the report and would respond in the coming months.

Shadow business secretary, Chuka Umunna, said aspects of Lord Heseltine’s report chimed with Labour’s own industrial policy.

“Labour has led calls for an active government approach to support business and underpin regional growth – it is good to see Lord Heseltine echoing this in his report. We will examine his proposals and consider which ones we can take forward,” he said.

“We hope that ministers will take Lord Heseltine’s proposals seriously.”

Business backing

Lord Heseltine: “It is a shift and in a sense it is a criticism of Whitehall”

The Institute of Directors (IoD) business group reacted positively to the broad thrust of the report’s proposals.

“We welcome the idea of encouraging more devolution to the local level, and ensuring business has the opportunity to make heard its priorities on local issues,” IoD director general Simon Walker said.

“Business leaders and the various business organisations have long experience of co-operating to encourage a positive business environment in the UK, and we are committed to continuing that work.”

Meanwhile the TUC also backed the report but warned that it needs to be embraced across government in order to make a difference.

“The TUC shares Lord Heseltine’s vision of collaboration between the public and private sectors, with unions and employers working together to promote growth,” said general secretary Brendan Barber.

“But he will have his work cut out in convincing ministers of this new approach, who are going to have to change their attitude towards civil servants, public bodies and unions if they want this strategy to succeed.”

Lord Heseltine will formally launch his report later on Wednesday at an event in Birmingham.

BBC News – Business

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Cuba’s 2nd city without power, water after Sandy

HAVANA (AP) — Residents of Cuba‘s second-largest city of Santiago remained without power or running water Monday, four days after Hurricane Sandy made landfall as the island’s deadliest storm in seven years, ripping rooftops from homes and toppling power lines.

Across the Caribbean, the storm’s death toll rose to 69, including 52 people in Haiti, 11 in Cuba, two in the Bahamas, two in the Dominican Republic, one in Jamaica and one in Puerto Rico.

Cuban authorities have not yet estimated the economic toll, but the Communist Party newspaper Granma reported there was “severe damage to housing, economic activity, fundamental public services and institutions of education, health and culture.”

Yolanda Tabio, a native of Santiago, said she had never seen anything like it in all her 64 years: Broken hotel and shop windows, trees blown over onto houses, people picking through piles of debris for a scrap of anything to cover their homes. On Sunday, she sought solace in faith.

“The Mass was packed. Everyone crying,” said Tabio, whose house had no electricity, intermittent phone service and only murky water coming out of the tap on Monday. “I think it will take five to ten years to recover. … But we’re alive.”

Sandy came onshore early Thursday just west of Santiago, a city of about 500,000 people in agricultural southeastern Cuba. It is the island’s deadliest storm since 2005′s Hurricane Dennis, a category 5 monster that killed 16 people and did $ 2.4 billion in damage. More than 130,000 homes were damaged by Sandy, including 15,400 that were destroyed, Granma said.

“It really shocked me to see all that has been destroyed and to know that for many people, it’s the effort of a whole lifetime,” said Maria Caridad Lopez, a media relations officer at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese in Santiago. “And it disappears in just three hours.”

Lopez said several churches in the area collapsed and nearly all suffered at least minor damage. That included the Santiago cathedral as well as one of the holiest sites in Cuba, the Sanctuary of the Virgin del Cobre. Sandy’s winds blew out its stained glass windows and damaged its massive doors.

“It’s indescribable,” said Berta Serguera, an 82-year-old retiree whose home withstood the tempest but whose patio and garden did not. “The trees have been shredded as if with a saw. My mango only has a few branches left, and they look like they were shaved.”

On Monday, sound trucks cruised the streets urging people to boil drinking water to prevent infectious disease. Soldiers worked to remove rubble and downed trees from the streets. Authorities set up radios and TVs in public spaces to keep people up to date on relief efforts, distributed chlorine to sterilize water and prioritized electrical service to strategic uses such as hospitals and bakeries.

Enrique Berdion, a 45-year-old doctor who lives in central Santiago, said his small apartment building did not suffer major damage but he had been without electricity, water or gas for days.

“This was something I’ve never seen, something extremely intense, that left Santiago destroyed. Most homes have no roofs. The winds razed the parks, toppled all the trees,” Berdion said by phone. “I think it will take years to recover.”

Raul Castro, who toured Cuba’s hardest-hit regions on Sunday, warned of a long road to recovery.

Granma said the president called on the country to urgently implement “temporary solutions,” and “undoubtedly the definitive solution will take years of work.”

Venezuela sent nearly 650 of tons of aid, including nonperishable food, potable water and heavy machinery both to Cuba and to nearby Haiti, which was not directly in the storm’s path but suffered flash floods across much of the country’s south.

Across the Caribbean, work crews were repairing downed power lines and cracked water pipes and making their way into rural communities marooned by impassable roads. The images were similar from eastern Jamaica to the northern Bahamas: Trees ripped from the ground, buildings swamped by floodwaters and houses missing roofs.

Fixing soggy homes may be a much quicker task than repairing the financial damage, and island governments were still assessing Sandy’s economic impact on farms, housing and infrastructure.

In tourism-dependent countries like Jamaica and the Bahamas, officials said popular resorts sustained only superficial damage, mostly to landscaping.

Haiti, where even minor storms can send water gushing down hills denuded of trees, listed a death toll of 52 as of Monday and officials said it could still rise. Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe has described the storm as a “disaster of major proportions.”

In Jamaica, where Sandy made landfall first on Wednesday as a Category 1 hurricane, people coped with lingering water and power outages with mostly good humor.

“Well, we mostly made it out all right. I thought it was going to be rougher, like it turned out for other places,” laborer Reginald Miller said as he waited for a minibus at a sunbaked Kingston intersection.

In parts of the Bahamas, the ocean surged into coastal buildings and deposited up to six feet of seawater. Sandy was blamed for two deaths on the archipelago off Florida’s east coast, including a British bank executive who fell off his roof while trying to fix a window shutter and an elderly man found dead beneath overturned furniture in his flooded, low-lying home.

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Associated Press writers Anne-Marie Garcia in Havana, David McFadden in Kingston, Jamaica, and Jeff Todd in Nassau, Bahamas, contributed to this report.

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Peter Orsi is on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Peter_Orsi

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