“Family Guy” executive producer lands animated cop series with Fox

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Despite – or perhaps because of – a robust cartoon slate that includes “The Simpsons,” “American Dad” and “Family Guy,” Fox apparently feels that it’s just not animated enough.The network has given a 13-episode order to a new animated series, “Murder Police,” from “Family Guy” executive producer David Goodman and Jason Ruiz, Fox said Tuesday.The series, which will be produced...

Read More..

Stock futures signal gains at open

PARIS (Reuters) – Stocks were indicated to open higher on Wednesday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.35 percent, Dow Jones up 0.43 percent and Nasdaq 100 up 0.41 percent at 4:55 a.m. EDT.* European shares resumed a recent sharp rally on Wednesday after comments from China’s new leader boosted global growth expectations.* Chinese Communist Party chief Xi Jinping said the country will maintain...

Read More..

India’s Strides Arcolab, Eli Lilly in generic cancer drug tie-up

MUMBAI (Reuters) – India’s Strides Arcolab and Eli Lilly will jointly manufacture and distribute generic cancer drugs for developing markets, the drugmakers said on Wednesday, as the U.S. company looks to expand its presence in emerging markets.The tie-up is the latest in a line of agreements between ‘Big Pharma’ companies eyeing greater access to high-growth emerging markets, and Indian companies...

Read More..

Facebook just realized it made a horrible mistake

Facebook (FB) announced on Tuesday that it will begin opening Facebook Messenger to consumers who do not have a Facebook account, starting in countries like India and South Africa, and later rolling out the service in the United States and Europe. This is a belated acknowledgement of a staggering strategic mistake Facebook made two years ago. That is when the messaging app competition was still...

Read More..

Sri Lanka see backlash from Aussie ‘wounded soldiers’

(Reuters) – Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene has warned his team to be wary of a backlash from Australia in their three-test series after the hosts were stung by their series defeat to South Africa earlier this week.Australia’s hopes of snatching the Proteas’ top test ranking ended in a crushing 309-run defeat in the third and final test in Perth on Monday, but Jayawardene took little comfort...

Read More..

Kutcher’s Steve Jobs, Gordon-Levitt among Sundance premieres

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Ashton Kutcher‘s turn as Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt‘s directorial debut about a modern day Don Juan are leading a slew of star-studded premieres unveiled Monday for the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.Kutcher stars in “Jobs,” a biographical look at the career rise of Jobs from wayward hippie to charismatic inventor and entrepreneur, which Sundance said...

Read More..

Investors’ Risky Bet on the Ghost of Freddie Past

The post-bailout world abounds with financial incongruities. Witness: Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, or “Freddie Mac,” the government-sponsored agency that by its own admission “makes home possible for one in four home buyers and is one of the largest sources of financing for multifamily housing.” Since the beginning of 2009, it has provided nearly $ 1.6 trillion of funding to the U.S. mortgage...

Read More..

U.S. hospital chain HMA’s shares fall after TV report

(Reuters) – Shares of Health Management Associates Inc fell about 5 percent on Monday after the television news program 60 Minutes aired a story describing aggressive patient admissions policies allegedly pursued at the company’s U.S. hospitals.The story included interviews with several former employees of the hospital chain who said they were pressured to meet quotas for admitting patients.HMA Senior...

Read More..

Facebook voting begins on Instagram data-sharing, email privacy

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook Inc opened the polls on Monday for its roughly 1 billion users to vote on a variety of changes to the social network‘s policies, including a proposal to scrap the user voting system that Facebook introduced in 2009.Facebook also said it had “clarified” some of the proposed changes, specifying that a new policy allowing it to share user data with recently acquired...

Read More..

Officials: NATO to decide on missiles for Turkey

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO foreign ministers are expected to approve Turkey‘s request for Patriot anti-missile systems to bolster its defense against possible strikes from neighboring Syria.NATO foreign ministers are meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday in Brussels. Parliaments in both nations must approve the deployment, which would also involve several hundred soldiers.Ankara, which has been highly supportive...

Read More..