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)

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“The Details” Review: airless all-star comedy is devilishly dull

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – The devil is in “The Details,” but only in that this smug and airless comedy feels like 91 minutes in hell. The first few minutes promise a Rube Goldberg whirligig of bad behavior, unhappy coincidences and plain old rotten luck, but all writer-director Jacob Aaron Estes (“Mean Creek”) can deliver is a group of jerks acting like jerks.

If there were any recognizable human beings on screen, this might have delivered the sort of squirmy, uncomfortable laughs that have sustained “Curb Your Enthusiasm” through multiple seasons, but the perpetrators and victims here are all such smug, dull caricatures that none of the intended satirical barbs have anywhere to land.

Tobey Maguire stars as Jeff, a doctor who’s seemingly got the perfect house and perfect nuclear family with his wife Nealy (Elizabeth Banks) and their young son. Unfortunately, their newly-sodded backyard attracts the attention of (metaphor alert!) raccoons. Things get worse when the couple tries expanding the house to accommodate a new child, since the noise, dust and code violations all stoke the mania of their crazy-cat-lady neighbor Lila (Laura Linney).

Over the course of the film, Jeff commits horrible acts (including cheating on his wife with two different women and accidentally poisoning one of Lila’s cats) and generous ones (donating a kidney to a friend in need), and Estes delights in showing the universe punishing and rewarding Jeff purely at random, with no connection to either his sins or his good deeds.

Estes fails, however, to write any real characters, so we have a cast of talented performers trying to breathe life into people with all the depth of chess pieces. Besides Maguire (whose tendency to recede into himself is in full effect here), Banks and Linney, there’s also Kerry Washington, Dennis Haysbert and Ray Liotta trying valiantly to be more than pegs in this plot (which is less elaborate than we’re led to believe) but ultimately they are given nothing to play, nothing to do, no one to inhabit.

Ultimately, “The Details” feels frenetic when it wants to be fast-paced, and facile when it aims for some grand statement about the randomness of existence and the bitter irony of the good falling short while the evil flourish. Rarely funny, never deep and consistently exasperating, it’ll have you cheering for the raccoons.

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Ahead of the Bell: US consumer confidence

WASHINGTON (AP) — A measure of Americans’ confidence in the economy likely rose for a second straight month on expectations that business conditions will improve and hiring will pick up.

Economists forecast that the Conference Board, a private research group, will report that its monthly consumer confidence index rose to 72 in October from 70.3 in September, according to a survey by FactSet.

The September reading was the highest since February. That’s when employers added 259,000 jobs and the economic recovery was thought to be strengthening.

The confidence index is widely watched because consumer spending drives about 70 percent of the U.S. economy.

A separate survey issued Friday by the University of Michigan showed that U.S. consumer confidence rose in October to the highest level since September 2007. That was three months before the Great Recession began.

The Conference Board is to issue its report at 10 a.m. Eastern time Thursday. The report had been scheduled for release earlier this week but was delayed because of Superstorm Sandy.

A further gain in consumer confidence could be an encouraging sign for President Barack Obama, who faces re-election Tuesday at a time when the economy is the top issue for most voters.

In September, the survey showed that consumers were more optimistic about the availability of jobs and the outlook for hiring over the next six months.

The government’s employment report for September, issued Oct. 5, showed that employers added a modest 114,000 jobs. But it also showed that job growth in July and August was stronger than first thought.

Economists note some key reasons why consumers have grown more confident. They say higher stock prices and the early stages of a recovery in the housing market have helped boost optimism.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index has surged 12 percent this year. Gasoline prices have leveled off after rising for several months.

And a broad increase in home prices is likely giving would-be buyers more confidence. When prices rise, buyers don’t worry so much that a home might lose value after they bought it.

Some economists question whether the higher level of confidence is sustainable. But others note that even a weak economy doesn’t feel so bad to many consumers once it begins to make steady improvement.

Consumers’ confidence might have been rattled by this week’s Superstorm Sandy. Disruptions across U.S. industries will slow the economy temporarily, and some stores and restaurants will draw fewer customers. Some of those losses won’t be made up.

The consumer confidence index has fluctuated sharply this year. It’s fallen five times in the past nine months, hitting a low for the year of 61.3 in August before rising in September.

The index remains well below the reading of 90 that indicates a healthy economy — a level it hasn’t touched since the Great Recession began in December 2007. But it’s far above the all-time low of 25.3 touched in February 2009.

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Insight: Crunching the numbers to boost odds against cancer

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Software engineers are moving to the fore in the war on cancer, designing programmes that sift genetic sequencing data at lightning speed and minimal cost to identify patterns in tumors that could lead to the next medical breakthrough.

Their analysis aims to pinpoint the mutations in our genetic code that drive cancers as diverse as breast, ovarian and bowel. The more precise their work is, the better the chance of developing an effective new drug.

Ever since James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA in 1953, scientists have been puzzling over how genes make us who we are. The confluence of computing and medicine is accelerating the pace of genetic research.

But making sense of the swathes of data has become a logjam.

That, in turn has created an opportunity for computer geeks and tech firms such as Microsoft, SAP and Amazon.

Oncology is the largest area of therapy in the global drugs market with market researcher IMS predicting it will increase to $ 83-$ 88 billion by 2016 from $ 62 billion in 2011. Computational genomics – using computers to decipher a person’s genetic instructions and the mutations in cancerous cells – is emerging as the driver of this growth.

Life Technologies Corp and Illumina Inc are among firms developing equipment that can extract a person’s entire genetic code – their genome – from a cell sample.

The newest machines are about the size of an office printer and can sequence a genome in a day, compared with six to eight weeks a few years ago. They can read the 3.2 billion chemical “bases” that make up the human genetic code for $ 1,000, compared with $ 100,000 dollars in 2008.

Growing numbers of software engineers are needed to help make sense of all this data.

“Many labs can now generate the data but fewer people or labs have the expertise and infrastructure to analyze it – this is becoming the bottleneck,” said Gad Getz, who heads the Cancer Genome Analysis group at the Broad Institute in Boston, jointly run by MIT and Harvard.

Getz is one of a new generation of computational biologists who develop algorithms to parse data from tens of thousands of cell samples, shared with research institutes around the globe.

He and his team of 30 are trying to establish recurring patterns in the mutations and how they are linked to tumor growth. They are using some 1,200 processing units, each with 4-8 gigabytes of random access memory – about the computing power that comes with most desktop PCs.

HARVESTING KNOWLEDGE

Eli Lilly CEO John Lechleiter sees potential for progress.

“We are starting to harvest the knowledge that we gained through the sequencing of the human genome, our understanding of human genetics, disease pathways. We’ve got new tools that we can use in the laboratory to help us get to an answer much, much faster,” said Lechleiter, whose firm is co-owner of the rights to bowel cancer drug Erbitux.

Approved drugs that take genetic information into account include Amgen’s Vectibix and AstraZeneca’s Iressa. But both these drugs derive from a single mutation. Sequencing has laid bare many more mutant genes – often hundreds in any given tumor – and highlighted the need for a subtler approach to cancer treatment.

Roche, the world’s largest maker of cancer medicines, has spent several million euros on information technology for a pilot scheme examining how cancer cells in petri dishes react to new drugs. The scheme involves crunching hundreds of terabytes of gene sequences.

“It’s the first large-scale in-house sequencing project for Roche and we expect more to follow in the near future,” said Bryn Roberts, Roche’s head of informatics in drug research and early development.

Roberts said the project, which uses processing power equivalent to hundreds of high-end desktop PCs, was self contained but there were plans to draw in external data. This would require advances in cloud computing – using software and computing power from remote data centers – but Roberts said the technology would soon be available.

“The scale of the problem means the solution will be on an international collaborative scale,” he said.

OPPORTUNITIES IN CLOUDS

The trend of using cloud computing networks to allow commercial and public researchers to share cancer data is promising for the likes of IBM and Google which according to GBI Research are already established providers of cloud computing to drug makers’ research efforts.

Amazon, with its cloud computing unit AWS, said it is benefiting as life science researchers rethink how data is stored, analyzed and shared. “We are happy with the growth we are seeing,” a spokesman said, declining to provide figures.

Microsoft said it was dedicating “significant resources” to the expansion of cloud computing in the health and life sciences markets.

“Pharma R&D will be working with other technology companies, like Microsoft, in developing new algorithms, methodologies and indeed even therapies themselves,” said Les Jordan, chief technology strategist at Microsoft’s Life Sciences unit.

The world’s largest business software company SAP has teamed up with German genetic testing specialist Qiagen. They are modifying SAP database software so that certain cancer diagnostic tests, which now keep a network of super computers busy for days, can be run on a desktop PC within hours.

Genetic analysis has revealed that types of cancer, now treated as one because they are in the same organ and look the same under the microscope, are driven by different genetics.

Hans Lehrach at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin says every single tumor should be seen as an “orphan disease”, using a term for rare illnesses that typically prompt drug regulators to make drug approval easier.

He has designed a software he describes as a virtual patient. It suggests a drug or a mix of drugs based on each tumor’s genetic fingerprint. A single case can take several days to be processed.

Lehrach, a geneticist who says he has written software code throughout his scientific career, likens his approach to that of a meteorologist who regards every day’s set of readings as unique.

Taking the analogy further, he says the convention of stratifying cancer patients is equivalent to a weather forecast based on simple rules such as ‘red sky in the morning, sailor take warning’.

At a unit of Berlin’s Charite university hospital, 20 patients left with no other treatment options for their aggressive type of skin cancer are being diagnosed based on Lehrach’s computer model.

The trial is exploratory and there are no results yet on the overall treatment success, but the project, like many others, is driven by the hope that cancer can be wrestled down by sheer computing power.

(Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by Janet McBride)

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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.

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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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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“Neighbors,” “Scandal” get full-season orders

NEW YORK, Oct 30 (TheWrap.com) – ABC has given full season orders to the aliens-next-door drama “The Neighbors” and the political drama “Scandal.”

“Neighbors,” a freshman comedy, has benefitted from a Wednesday time slot between “The Middle” and “Modern Family,” ABC’s biggest hit.

“Scandal,” a Shonda Rhimes series that stars Kerry Washington (pictured) as a crisis management specialist, debuted in midseason last year and returned last month for its second season.

The two series are the first to receive full-season pickups from ABC this fall.

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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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British Medical Journal moves to flush out secret trial data

LONDON (Reuters) – The respected British Medical Journal (BMJ) will refuse to publish research papers on drugs unless the clinical trial data behind these studies is made available for independent scrutiny.

The requirement to make anonymised patient-level data available “on reasonable request” will apply to all clinical trials of drugs and medical devices from January 2013, the BMJ said in an editorial.

The move increases the pressure on drug companies to lift the lid on data secrets amid growing criticism that lack of disclosure hampers the ability of doctors and medical researchers to assess the true value of products.

Patient-level data, which sits behind the published results of clinical trials, is a potential treasure trove for scientists wanting to test drug company claims and expose product deficiencies.

Companies have been reluctant to release this information, but GlaxoSmithKline set a precedent this month by announcing that it would make such data available from its trials.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by David Goodman)

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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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