‘Start-Ups’: A Lifeless Take on Silicon Valley

In that so-terrible-it’s-great James Bond film A View to a Kill, the diabolical Max Zorin (Christopher Walken) intends to destroy Silicon Valley by means of a man-made earthquake, giving him a monopoly on semiconductor production. If Silicon Valley resembled anything like what was being shown in the first episode of Bravo’s (CMCSA) new reality series Start-Ups: Silicon Valley, I would gladly have been Mr. Zorin’s henchman. When I’m on my deathbed, I won’t be accepting of my demise. I’ll be angry because I’ll know there are 44 minutes owed to me from 2012, minutes lost to this sham of a show.

Here’s the premise of Start-Ups: A half-dozen not-very-bright young things are living in the Bay Area seeking fame and fortune. They all sort of know each other in that manufactured Bravo way. There’s a nod to the idea that “tech” is the central theme, and venture capitalists and angel investors are the means to a lucrative end, but those terms are heard so rarely that they could just as easily have been “record producer,” “Donald Trump,” or “Alaskan crab boat.”

Reality shows are not Barbara Kopple productions. But if you’re going to distort the truth, manufacture conflict, and present people shallower than a dinner plate from the Kate Hudson Kitchen Kollection, at least be entertaining about it. At least populate it with grotesque exaggerations of almost-humans that I can laugh at and feel superior to. Right?

Start-Ups doesn’t entirely fail in that last regard. Its characters run the gamut from narcissistic idiocy all the way to petty sociopathy. Our cast includes Ben and Hermione Way, a British brother-sister duo who’ve come to California with a DOA startup that sounds identical to existing products like Fitbit and Nike+ (NKE) FuelBand; Sarah, a self-promoting “lifecaster” who does nothing but crash parties and participate in the vapidly dark art of marketing and promotions; Dwight, a coder who claims he has a “Puritan work ethic for work and partying” (I tried to unpack all the ways that statement was wrong but had a seizure before I could finish); Kim, the ambitious self-hating Midwesterner who saw Glengarry Glen Ross but didn’t get the joke; and David, a plastic surgery addict who once worked at Google (GOOG) and has a none-too-shabby degree from Carnegie Mellon in computer science, but who’s primary purpose on the show is to be naked and gay.

All of these people are in Silicon Valley to … well, it’s not really clear what they’re there for, other than to “make it.” There are passing mentions of business plans, and Ben and Hermione do have a disastrous visit with venture capitalist Dave McClure—including ridiculously staging Hermione being “hung over” and taking a nap under the conference table while waiting for McClure to arrive (these kids are just crazy!). But the other 40 minutes of the first episode are taken up with poolside chats, a toga party, some worthless fight between Hermione and Sarah (not even an actual fight, just the detritus of recrimination), and a lot of drinking. Oh, and Ben had a thing with Sarah once, and Kim likes Dwight, and—oh, who cares?

It’s not just that these people are terrible—terrible can be watchable. Villainy can be delightful. But this crew is like a six-pack of nonalcoholic beer: It’s lousy and doesn’t even get you drunk.

Even the most dreadful reality show can still perform the documentary act of exposing viewers to a world different from their own. It may be altered and goosed and heightened, but watching, say, The Real Housewives of Orange County does in fact show you something about life in Orange County. The problem with Start-Ups is that there’s absolutely nothing that’s reflective of the place and culture that is Silicon Valley. And that’s the final shame of it, because someone could do a really interesting take on the Valley and what’s going on there now. After all, it’s a geographic location that is also shorthand for an industry and a scene. And it’s a scene that clearly has captured the attention of young professionals and, to some degree, the general public.

Certain customs and values in Silicon Valley would be worth exploring. There’s the world of venture capital and the people behind those firms who are, to a point, the gatekeepers of success. There are a fair number of extremely educated people who spend day and night in front of a monitor working on the unglamorous task of coding an application. There are massive efforts to recruit talented engineers. There’s the promise of Croesus-like wealth, though of course most startups are destined to go under. (Oh, and one other thing, Bravo: There are some nonwhite people in Silicon Valley, too.) Not that these elements necessarily make for a good reality show. These shows thrive on drama and conflict and broad personalities you can see a mile away. But they also do give you a sense of place. I watched Start-Ups and felt like I could be sitting through any Real World episode that ever aired.

Start-Ups: Silicon Valley is executive produced by Randi Zuckerberg, Mark’s dilettante sister, whose master plan includes hosting a talk show. When it came to this project, Zuckerberg said her role was to “[help] make sure that Bravo could capture the real, authentic Silicon Valley.” Based on the evidence, it would appear that Zuckerberg uses words like “real” and “authentic” about Silicon Valley the same way Taco Bell (YUM) might toss them in when describing a Meximelt.

Photographs courtesy Bravo/NBC

Businessweek.com — Top News

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As foreigners go, Afghan city is feeling abandoned

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — By switching from studying business management to training as a nurse, 19-year-old Anita Taraky has placed a bet on the future of the southern Afghan city of Kandahar — that once foreign troops are gone, private-sector jobs will be fewer but nursing will always be in demand.

Besides, if the Taliban militants recapture the southern Afghan city that was their movement’s birthplace and from which they were expelled by U.S.-led forces 11 years ago, nursing will likely be one of the few professions left open to women.

Taraky is one of thousands of Kandaharis who are weighing their options with the approaching departure of the U.S. and its coalition partners. But while she has opted to stay, businessman Esmatullah Khan is leaving.

Khan, 29, made his living in property dealing and supplying services to the Western contingents operating in the city. Property prices are down, and business with foreigners is already shrinking, so he is pulling out, as are many others, he said.

Many are driven by a certainty that the Taliban will return, and that there will be reprisals.   

“From our baker to our electrician to our plumber, everyone was engaged with the foreign troops and so they are all targets for the Taliban. And unless the government is much stronger, when the foreign troops leave, that is the end,” Khan said.

The stakes are high. Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second city, is the southern counterweight to Kabul, the capital. Keeping Kandahar under central government control is critical to preventing the country from breaking apart into warring fiefdoms as it did in the 1990s.

“Kandahar is the gate of Afghanistan,” said Asan Noorzai, director of the provincial council. “If Kandahar is secure, the whole country is secure. If it is insecure, the whole country will soon be fighting.”

Even though Kandahar city has traffic jams and street hawkers to give it an atmosphere of normality, there are dozens of shuttered stores on the main commercial street, it’s almost too easy to find a parking space these days, and shopkeepers are feeling the pinch.

Dost Mohammad Nikzad said his profits from selling sweets have dropped by a half or more in the past year, to about $ 30 a day, and he has had to cut back on luxuries.

He said that every month he would buy a new shalwar kameez, the tunic favored by Afghan men; now he buys one every other month.

“I only go out to eat at a restaurant once a week. Before I would have gone multiple times a week,” Nikzad said, as he stood behind his counter, waiting for customers to show.

The measurements of violence levels contradict each other. On the one hand, many Kandaharis say things are better this year. On the other hand, the types of violence have changed and, to some minds, gotten worse.

“Before, we were mostly worried about bomb blasts. Now … we are afraid of worse things like assassinations and suicide attacks,” said Gul Mohammad Stanakzai, 34, a bank cashier.

Prying open the Taliban grip on Kandahar and its surrounding province has cost the lives of more than 400 international troops since 2001, and many more Afghans, including hundreds of public officials who have been assassinated by the Taliban.

Kandahar province remains the most violent in the country, averaging more than five “security incidents” a day, according to independent monitors. In Kandahar city, suicide attacks have more than doubled so far this year compared with the same period of 2011, according to U.N. figures.

“They are not fighting in the open the way they were before. Instead they are planting bombs and trying to get at us through the police and the army,” said Qadim Patyal, the deputy provincial governor.

The Taliban have said in official statements that they are focusing more on infiltrating Afghan and international forces to attack them. In the Kandahar governor’s office, armed Afghan soldiers are barred from meetings with American officials lest they turn on them, Patyal said.

And many point out that the “better security” is only relative. By all measures — attacks, bombings and civilian casualties — Kandahar is a much more violent city now than in 2008, before U.S. President Barack Obama ordered a troop surge.

There are no statistics on how many people have left the city of 500,000, but people are fleeing the south more than any other part of the country, according to U.N. figures. About 32 percent of the approximately 397,000 people who were recorded as in-country refugees were fleeing violence in the south, according to U.N. figures from the end of May.

The provincial government, which is supposed to fill the void left by the departing international forces, has suffered heavily from assassinations. It suffered a double blow in July last year with the killing of Ahmed Wali Karzai, the half-brother of President Hamid Karzai who was seen as the man who made things work in Kandahar, and Ghulam Haider Hamidi, the mayor of the city.

Now, Noorzai says, he can neither get the attention of ministers in Kabul nor trust city officials to do their jobs.

He remembers 2001, when he and others traveled to the capital flying the Afghan flag which had just been reinstated in place of that of the ousted Taliban. “People were throwing flowers and money on our car, they were so happy to have the Afghan flag flying again,” he said.

“When we got power, what did we give them in return? Poverty, corruption, abuse.”

Mohammad Omer, Kandahar’s current mayor, insists that if people are leaving the city, it is to return to villages they fled in previous years because now security has improved.

Zulmai Hafez disagrees. He has felt like a marked man since his father went to work for the government three years ago, and is too frightened to return to his home in the Panjwai district outside Kandahar city. He refused to have his picture taken or to have a reporter to his home, instead meeting at the city’s media center.

“It’s the Taliban who control the land, not the government,” Hafez said. He notes that the government administrator for his district sold off half his land, saying he would not be able to protect the entire farm from insurgents. Many believe the previous mayor was murdered because he went after powerful land barons.

Land reform is badly needed, and the mayor is angry about people who steal land, but he offers no solution. Kandahar only gets electricity about half the day. The mayor says it’s up to the Western allies to fix that. But the foreign aid is sharply down. Aid coming to Kandahar province through the U.S. Agency for International Development, the largest donor, has fallen to $ 63 million this year from $ 161 million in 2011, according to U.S. Embassy figures.

The mayor prefers to talk about investing in parks and planting trees. “I can’t resolve the electricity problem, but at least I can provide a place in the city for people to relax,” he said.

The only people thinking long-term appear to be the Taliban.

“The Americans are going and the Taliban need the people’s support, so they are trying to avoid attacks that result in civilian casualties,” said Noor Agha Mujahid, a member of the Taliban shadow government for Kandahar province, where he oversees operations in a rural district. “After 2014 … it will not take a month to take every place back.”

One of the biggest worries is the fate of women who have made strides in business and politics since the ouster of the Taliban.

“What will these women do?” asked Ehsanullah Ehsan, director of a center that trains more than 800 women a year in computers, English and business. It was at his center where Anita Taraky studied before switching to nursing.

“Even if the Taliban don’t come back, even if the international community just leaves, there will be fewer opportunities for women,” he said.

On the outskirts of the city stands one of the grandest projects of post-Taliban Kandahar — the gated community of Ayno Maina with tree-lined cement homes, wi-fi and rooftop satellite dishes.

Khan, the departing businessman, says he bought bought 10 lots for $ 66,000 in Ayno Maina and has yet to sell any of them despite slashing the price,

He recalled that when he first went to the project office it was packed with buyers. “Now it is full of empty houses. No one goes there,” Khan said.

Only about 15,000 of the 40,000 lots have been sold, and 2,400 homes built and occupied, according to Mahmood Karzai, one of the development’s main backers and a brother of President Karzai. He argues, however, that prices are down all over Afghanistan, and that Ayno Maina is still viable, provided his brother gets serious about reform that will attract investors.

“Afghanistan became a game,” he said over lunch at the Ayno Maina office. “The game is to make money and get the hell out of here. That goes for politicians. That goes for contractors.”

He shrugged off allegations that he skimmed money from Ayno Maina, saying the claims were started by competitors in Kabul who assume everyone who is building something in Afghanistan is also stealing money.

He said the money went where it was needed: to Western-style building standards and security.

In downtown Kandahar, a deserted park and Ferris wheel serve as another reminder of thwarted hopes. Built in the mid-2000s, the wheel has been idle for two years according to a guard, Abdullah Jan Samad. It isn’t broken, he said, it just needs electricity. A major U.S.-funded project to get reliable electricity to the city has floundered and generators that were supposed to provide a temporary solution only operate part-time because of fuel shortages.

“The government should be paying for maintenance for the Ferris wheel,” the guard said. “When you build something you should also make sure to maintain it.”

____

Associated Press Writer Mirwais Khan contributed to this report from Kandahar.

Asia News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Say Farewell: Apple’s Skeumorphism Hall of Shame [PICS]

iBooks

Check it out: It’s your own personal bookshelf, much like the one you probably have for your collection at home.

Click here to view this gallery.

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Like the look of stitched leather around your Contacts app? Ever regarded the torn pages in your iCalendar as nostalgic, or are they just antiquated?

Former Apple Human Interface chief Scott Forstall was the man behind iOS and arguably some of these digital imitations called skeumorphisms. Apple‘s skeumorphism use is prevalent throughout many of its apps and interfaces. Forstall created the iOS that we use on our iDevices today. But the interface with which we’ve become so familiar and comfortable may soon see major changes.

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On Oct. 29, Forstall stepped down from his position after criticism of the latest Apple Maps snafu. Enraged by the loss of the ever-popular Google Maps, customers were not impressed with what they deemed a rushed release. Taking his place is the design genius and iPhone father Jonathan Ive.

A skeuomorph is “an ornament or design representing a utensil or implement” which can be about anything. Take for example the hover effect on Google Chrome tabs, or the raised buttons when hovering over the navbar of most websites. These effects simulate real-world interactions, functions that make sense in the physical world and only lend to aesthetics in the digital realm.

For years Ive had decried the use of skeumorphisms, saying that design is simple and minimalistic (see: iPhone, iPad, iPod, Macbook). Now that he will head the department that oversees iOS development while continuing his role as Apple’s Industrial Design chief, major changes in interface design are surely forthcoming.

Will you miss these wooden/leathery contrivances? Let us know in the comments.

Homepage photo courtesy iStockphoto, Tolimir.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Colin Firth, Michael Fassbender set for A. Scott Berg adaptation ‘Genius’

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Colin Firth and Michael Fassbender will star in “Genius,” directed by Michael Grandage, with Film Nation handling international sales, the company announced on Thursday.

Based on A. Scott Berg‘s biography “Max Perkins: Editor of Genius,” the tells the story of the relationship between Thomas Wolfe (Fassbender) and editor Max Perkins (Firth), the screenplay is written by John Logan.

“Genius” will be produced by James Bierman for the Michael Grandage Company, launched at the end of 2011 by Grandage, the former artistic director of London’s Donmar Warehouse. Bierman served as executive producer at Donmar and co-formed MGC with Grandage. MGC is producing Logan’s new play, “Peter and Alice,” to be directed by Grandage, as part of a season of plays in London in Spring 2013.

FilmNation is selling the film at the AFM. CAA will arrange the financing and represent the film’s North American distribution rights. Principal photography is scheduled to start early in 2014.

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Nurses Who Saved NICU Babies Remember Harrowing Hurricane Night

Nurses at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at New York University’s Langone Medical Center have challenging jobs, even in the best of times. Their patients are babies, some weighing as little as 2 pounds, who require constant and careful care as they struggle to stay alive.

On Monday night, as superstorm Sandy bore down on Manhattan, the nurses’ jobs took on a whole new sense of urgency as failing power forced the hospital’s patients, including the NICU nurses’ tiny charges, to evacuate.

“20/20″ recently reunited seven of those nurses: Claudia Roman, Nicola Zanzotta-Tagle, Margot Condon, Sandra Kyong Bradbury, Beth Largey, Annie Irace and Menchu Sanchez. They described how they managed to do their jobs – and save the most vulnerable of lives – under near-impossible circumstances.

On Monday night, as Sandy’s wind and rain buffeted the hospital’s windows, the nurses were preparing for a shift change and the day nurses had begun to brief the night shift nurses. Suddenly, the hospital was plunged into darkness. The respirators and monitors keeping the infants alive all went silent.

For one brief moment, everyone froze. Then the alarms began to ring as backup batteries kicked in. But the coast wasn’t clear – the nurses were soon horrified to learn that the hospital’s generator had failed, and that the East River had risen to start flooding the hospital.

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“Everybody ran to a patient to make sure that the babies were fine,” Nicola Zanzotto-Tagle recalled. “If you had your phone with a flashlight on the phone, you held it right over the baby.”

For now, the four most critical patients – infants that couldn’t breathe on their own – were being supplied oxygen by battery-powered respirators, but the clock was ticking. They had, at most, just four hours before the machines were at risk of failing.

Annie Irache tended to the most critical baby — he had had abdominal surgery just the day before – as an evacuation of 20 NICU babies began.

“[He] was on medications to keep up his blood pressure,” Irache said, “and he also had a cardiac defect, so he was our first baby to go.”

One by one, each tiny infant, swaddled in blankets and a heating pad, cradled by one nurse and surrounded by at least five others, was carried down nine flights of stairs. Security guards and secretaries pitched in, lighting the way with flashlights and cell phones.

The procession moved slowly. As nurses took their careful steps, they carefully squeezed bags of oxygen into the babies’ lungs.

“We literally synchronized our steps going down nine flights,” Zanzotto-Tagle said. “I would say ‘Step, step, step.”

With their adrenaline pumping, the nurses said, it was imperative that they stay focused.

“We’re not usually bagging a baby down a stairwell … n the dark,” said Claudia Roman. “I was most worried about, ‘Let me not trip on this staircase as I’m carrying someone’s precious child, because that would be unforgivable.”

When the medical staff and the 20 babies emerged, a line of ambulances was waiting. A video of Margot Condon cradling a tiny baby as she rode a gurney struck a chord worldwide. But Condon said she had a singular goal.

“I was making sure the tube was in place, that the baby was pink,” she said. “I was not taking my eyes off that baby or that tube.”

Like other nurses, she did not feel panic. Her precious patient helped keep her calm.

Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Comet calls in the administrators

2 November 2012 Last updated at 16:57 ET

The electrical retail chain Comet has appointed Deloitte as administrators, putting 6,611 jobs at risk.

The move confirms private equity firm OpCapita, which bought the 236-store business last year for the nominal sum of £2, has thrown in the towel.

OpCapita hoped to turn the struggling business around, and two weeks ago said it was examining a number of potential bids for the retailer.

Comet’s demise is one of the biggest High Street casualties of recent years.

“Our immediate priorities are to stabilise the business, fully assess its financial position, and begin an urgent process to seek a suitable buyer which would also preserve jobs,” said Neville Kahn, one of the Deloitte partners appointed as joint administrator.

“Comet has been battling the changing landscape of the electrical retail sector for many years. It has become increasingly difficult for it to compete with online retailers which don’t face the same overheads, such as store rents and business rates.”

Tight credit

The electricals chain has been hit hard by the drop and subsequent limp recovery in consumer spending in the UK since 2008, which has been particularly acute in the case of the big items that Comet sells.

Many of Comet’s customers are first-time home-buyers, according to Deloitte, meaning that business has been hurt by the much tighter conditions in the UK mortgage market.

Continue reading the main story

• Administrators will have to decide whether Comet vouchers and gift cards will be honoured


• Generally, gift card holders are fairly low on a list of creditors when a business folds


• Extended warranties are overseen by a separate business so will remain valid. Only if that company ceased trading would a trust fund be set up to meet obligations to customers who hold extended warranties


• The Comet website is currently out of action

According to Deloitte, the company had been pushed to the brink by a cash drain caused by suppliers who had been unwilling to provide credit to Comet. Without such credit, Comet was unable to stock-up for Christmas.

“The inability to obtain supplier credit for the peak Christmas trading period means that the company had no realistic prospect of raising further capital to build up sufficient stock to allow it to continue trading,” Deloitte said.

The administrator will run the business as a going concern while it assesses options for sales, closures and liquidation.

Mr Kahn said that all stores would continue to trade in the meantime, and all employees would continue to be paid.

On Thursday, Comet said that customers with outstanding orders were being told it was “business as usual until further notice”, and that the group intended to fulfil deliveries of products that had been paid for.

However, when asked on Friday about whether gift vouchers and deliveries would be honoured, Deloitte told the BBC that they “don’t have the answers yet” and it was too early for them to say.

Comet’s customer care team is handling customer inquiries on 0844 8009595.

At 21:00 GMT on Friday, the company’s website was inaccessible – a recurring problem in recent days.

The company’s rivals are expected to benefit from the demise of Comet, with shares in Dixons Retail, which owns PC World and Currys, jumping another 11% after climbing 15% on Thursday.

BBC News – Business

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Gruesome video raises concerns about Syria rebels

BEIRUT (AP) — A video that appears to show a unit of Syrian rebels kicking terrified, captured soldiers and then executing them with machine guns raised concerns Friday about rebel brutality at a time when the United States is making its strongest push yet to forge an opposition movement it can work with.

U.N. officials and human rights groups believe President Bashar Assad‘s regime is responsible for the bulk of suspected war crimes in Syria‘s 19-month-old conflict, which began as a largely peaceful uprising but has transformed into a brutal civil war.

But investigators of human rights abuses say rebel atrocities are on the rise.

At this stage “there may not be anybody with entirely clean hands,” Suzanne Nossel, head of the rights group Amnesty International, told The Associated Press.

The U.S. has called for a major leadership shakeup of Syria’s political opposition during a crucial conference next week in Qatar. Washington and its allies have been reluctant to give stronger backing to the largely Turkey-based opposition, viewing it as ineffective, fractured and out of touch with fighters trying to topple Assad.

But the new video adds to growing concerns about those fighters and could complicate Washington’s efforts to decide which of the myriad of opposition groups to support. The video can be seen at http://bit.ly/YxDcWE .

“We condemn human rights violations by any party,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, commenting on the video. “Anyone committing atrocities should be held to account.”

She said the Free Syrian Army has urged its fighters to adhere to a code of conduct it established in August, reflecting international rules of war.

The summary execution of the captured soldiers, purportedly shown in an amateur video, took place Thursday during a rebel assault on the strategic northern town of Saraqeb, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group.

It was unclear which rebel faction was involved, though the al-Qaida-inspired Jabhat al-Nusra was among those fighting in the area, the Observatory said.

The video, posted on YouTube, shows a crowd of gunmen in what appears to be a building under construction. They surround a group of captured men on the ground, some on their bellies as if ordered to lie down, others sprawled as if wounded. Some of the captives are in Syrian military uniforms.

“These are Assad’s dogs,” one of the gunmen is heard saying of those cowering on the ground.

The gunmen kick and beat some of the men. One gunman shouts, “Damn you!” The exact number of soldiers in the video is not clear, but there appear to be about 10 of them.

Moments later, gunfire erupts for about 35 seconds, screams are heard and the men on the floor are seen shaking and twitching. The spray of bullets kicks up dust from the ground.

The video’s title says it shows dead and captive soldiers at the Hmeisho checkpoint. The Observatory said 12 soldiers were killed Thursday at the checkpoint, one of three regime positions near Saraqeb attacked by the rebels in the area that day.

Amnesty International’s forensics analysts did not detect signs of forgery in the video, according to Nossel. The group has not yet been able to confirm the location, date and the identity of those shown in the footage, she said.

After their assault Thursday, rebels took full control of Saraqeb, a strategic position on the main highway linking Syria’s largest city, Aleppo — which rebels have been trying to capture for months — with the regime stronghold of Latakia on the Mediterranean coast.

On Friday, at least 143 people, including 48 government soldiers, were killed in gunbattles, regime shelling attacks on rebel-held areas and other violence, the Observatory said.

Of the more than 36,000 killed so far in Syria, about one-fourth are regime soldiers, according to the Observatory. The rest include civilians and rebel fighters, but the group does not offer a breakdown.

Daily casualties have been rising since early summer, when the regime began bombing densely populated areas from the air in an attempt to dislodge rebels and break a battlefield stalemate.

Karen Abu Zayd, a member of the U.N. panel documenting war crimes in Syria, said the regime is to blame for the bulk of the atrocities so far, but that rebel abuses are on the rise as the insurgents become better armed and as foreign fighters with radical agendas increasingly join their ranks.

“The balance is changing somewhat,” she said in a phone interview, blaming in part the influx of foreign fighters not restrained by social ties that bind Syrians.

Abu Zayd said the panel, though unable to enter Syria for now, has evidence of “at least dozens, but probably hundreds” of war crimes, based on some 1,100 interviews. The group has already compiled two lists of suspected perpetrators and units for future prosecution, she said.

Many rebel groups operate independently, even if they nominally fall under the umbrella of the Free Syrian Army. In recent months, rebel groups have formed military councils to improve coordination, but the chaos of the war has allowed for considerable autonomy at the local level.

“The killing of unarmed soldiers shows how difficult it is to control the escalation of the conflict and establish a united armed opposition that abides by the same ground rules and norms in battle,” said Anthony Skinner, an analyst at Maplecroft, a British risk analysis company.

Rebel commanders and Syrian opposition leaders have promised human rights groups that they would try to prevent abuses. However, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a report in September that statements by some opposition leaders indicate they tolerate or condone extrajudicial killings.

Free Syrian Army commanders contacted by the AP on Friday said they were either unaware or had no accurate details about the latest video.

Ausama Monajed, a member of the Syrian National Council, the main opposition group in exile, called for the gunmen shown in the video to be tracked down and brought to justice.

He added, however, that atrocities committed by rebels are relatively rare compared to what he said was a “massive genocide by the regime.”

Regime forces have launched indiscriminate attacks on residential neighborhoods with tank shells, mortar rounds and bombs dropped from warplanes, devastating large areas. In raids of rebel strongholds, Assad’s forces have carried out summary executions, rights groups say.

Rebels have also targeted civilians, setting off car bombs near mosques, restaurants and government offices. Human Rights Watch said in September it collected evidence of the summary executions of more than a dozen people by rebels.

In August, a video showed several bloodied prisoners being led into a noisy outdoor crowd in the northern city of Aleppo and placed against a wall before gunmen shot them to death. That video sparked international condemnation, including a rare rebuke from the Obama administration.

The latest video emerged on the eve of a crucial opposition conference that is to begin Sunday in Qatar’s capital of Doha. More than 400 delegates from the Syrian National Council and other opposition groups are expected to attend to choose a new leadership.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has called for a more unified and representative opposition, even suggesting the U.S. would handpick some of the candidates.

Clinton’s comments reflected growing U.S. impatience with the Syrian opposition, which, in turn, has accused Washington of not having charted a clear path to bringing down Assad.

The Syrian National Council plans to elect new leaders during the four-day conference but is cool to a U.S. proposal to set up a much broader group and a transitional government, said Monajed, the SNC member who runs a think tank in Britain.

U.S. officials have said Washington is pushing for a greater role for the Free Syrian Army and representation of local coordinating committees and mayors of liberated cities in Syria.

Nuland said that it would be easier for the international community to deliver humanitarian assistance to civilians and non-lethal aid to the rebels once a broader, unified opposition leadership is in place.

Such a body could also help persuade Assad backers Russia and China “that change is necessary” and that Syria’s opposition has a better plan for the country than the regime, she said.

___

Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

Middle East News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Google’s Android software in 3 out of 4 smartphones

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Three out of every four smartphones sold in the third quarter featured Google Inc‘s Android mobile operating system, as the gap between Google and Apple Inc-based phones widened further, according to a new research report.

Shipments of Android-based smartphones made by Samsung, HTC and other vendors nearly doubled in the third quarter, reaching 136 million units, according to industry research firm IDC. The strong sales boosted Android‘s share of the worldwide smartphone market to 75 percent, from 57.5 percent in the year-ago period.

Apple‘s share of the market increased to 14.9 percent during the third quarter, from 13.8 percent a year earlier. Apple’s iPhone uses the company’s iOS mobile software.

While Android pulled further ahead of Apple’s iOS, its gains have come mainly at the expense of rival operating systems Blackberry and Symbian, with shipments of phones running those systems declining significantly.

IDC analyst Kevin Restivo cited Android’s close “tie-ins” to Google’s broad array of online services, which include online search and maps, as an important asset that has helped Android grow.

“Google has a thriving, multi-faceted product portfolio. Many of its competitors, with weaker tie-ins to the mobile OS, do not,” Restivo said in the IDC report, which was released on Thursday.

Google offers its Android operating system free to phone manufacturers, and primarily makes money from online advertising when consumers access its services on the devices.

Research in Motion’s Blackberry operating system had 7.7 percent share in the third quarter, compared with 9.5 percent a year earlier.

Symbian, which had 14.6 percent share a year ago, had a 4.1 percent share in the third quarter. Smartphone maker Nokia still offers the Symbian software in some of its phones, but the company has largely shifted to Microsoft Corp’s software.

Mobile versions of Microsoft’s software accounted for 3.6 percent of the smartphone market in the third quarter. But IDC said that the recent launch of the new Microsoft Phone 8 operating system could improve its position in the fast-growing market.

(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

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“The Man with the Iron Fists” review: RZA serves up half-baked chop-socky

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Homage is a tricky thing – you can be full of love for the object of your tribute, and recreate its trappings with accuracy and sincerity, but that doesn’t mean your results will match the original.

Take “The Man with the Iron Fists,” the first film directed by RZA, founding father of legendary hip-hop combo the Wu-Tang Clan. From the name of his group to the look of his movie, this is a guy who has clearly watched a whole lot of vintage martial-arts movies. If I were on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” and my multiple-choice answers were down to “Five Deadly Venoms” and “The 36th Chamber of Shaolin,” this is the guy I’d want for my lifeline.

I’d even hire him to create one of those fake trailers in “Grindhouse,” since he clearly appreciates the pacing and the acting style of the Shaw Brothers kung fu classics of the 1970s. Instead, RZA hooked up with “Grindhouse”-meisters Eli Roth (who co-wrote “Fists”) and Quentin Tarantino (who “presents” this new film) to create this full-on, feature-length homage.

The blood spurts, the knives shoot out, and the fists fly – but “The Man with the Iron Fists” never takes off. As the old saying goes, RZA knows the words, but he doesn’t know the music.

He’s also not actor enough to tackle the pivotal role he’s given himself, as Blacksmith in Jungle Village, a tiny hamlet beset by various warring clans. Blacksmith just wants to liberate his lover Lady Silk (Jamie Chung) from the brothel owned by Madam Blossom (Lucy Liu), but instead he must forge weapons for members of the Lion and Fox clans.

The Lions have problems of their own – engaged by the emperor to protect a shipment of gold, second-in-command Silver Lion (Byron Mann) assassinates Gold Lion (Kuan Tai Chen) with the intent of stealing the gold. Word of his treachery reaches Gold Lion’s son Zen Yi (Rick Yune), who returns to Jungle Village seeking vengeance.

Meanwhile, mysterious Englishman Jack Knife (Russell Crowe) shows up at Madam Blossom‘s with a vast array of appetites – and an even more varied collection of weapons.

Word is that RZA originally had a four-hour cut that he hoped to release in two parts, “Kill Bill”-style, but instead was forced to slash his vision down to 90 minutes. That might excuse the choppiness of the plot and exposition, but it doesn’t explain why the fighting scenes are so listless and the acting (with the notable exception of Liu and Crowe, who were smart enough to create their own amusement) so stiff.

Regarding the latter, the performances aren’t even bad in an homage-to-the-bad-acting-of-the-original way; they’re just dull and not ironically so. As for the action sequences, the choreography and camera movements suggest 1970s chop-socky, but they are simulacra under glass — it’s like watching a bad high school production of “West Side Story,” where the Jets and the Sharks are clearly never going to hurt each other.

(The midnight audience that watched the film with me didn’t whoop or laugh a single time during these gory but bloodless melees.)

The one fresh idea that “The Man with the Iron Fists” has – namely, to contrast the 18th century settings with contemporary hip-hop music – is quickly abandoned; after the first one or two fight scenes, we’re back to very generic scoring. The film also might have scored points for allowing the African-American Blacksmith character to exist in feudal China without explaining how he got there…but no, they explain it, in a tedious flashback that adds little except an all-too-brief cameo by an exploitation legend.

If RZA wanted to host a retrospective of kung fu classics, I’d be first in line. But his admiration for the genre doesn’t translate into capably executing it himself.

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Painkillers not as addictive as feared: study

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Fewer than five percent of patients prescribed narcotics to treat chronic pain become addicted to the drugs, according to a new analysis of past research.

The finding suggests that concerns about the risk of becoming addicted to prescription painkillers might be “overblown,” said addiction specialist Dr. Michael Fleming at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

“If you’re a person that doesn’t have a history of addiction and doesn’t have any major psychiatric problems, narcotics are relatively safe as long as your doctor doesn’t give you too much and uses the right medication,” Fleming, who was not involved in the new study, told Reuters Health.

Some recent research has concluded the same thing, but another expert remained skeptical about the new report because many of the studies it included were not considered the best quality research, and they varied widely in their results.

“I think the jury’s still out” on how worrisome prescription opioid addiction is, said Joseph Boscarino of the Geisinger Clinic in Danville, Pennsylvania, who studies pain and addiction.

Opioid painkillers, which include oxycodone, fentanyl and morphine, have only recently become available for patients with chronic pain, said Boscarino, who was not part of the new study.

In the past, the drugs were almost exclusively reserved for cancer patients and people with short-term pain – on the theory that in the first category of patients the need outweighed the risk, and in the second group, short term use was unlikely to lead to long-term addiction.

“They opened up (to chronic pain patients), and since then there’s been a wave of addiction, especially in the last five years,” Boscarino said.

One recent study found that the number of people diagnosed with a substance abuse problem increased by 70 percent from 2001 to 2009, and doctors suspect the increased popularity of prescription painkillers is a primary driver (see Reuters Health story of October 22, 2012).

Of course, not all these cases reflect patients who are using the drugs as directed – or who even have a prescription to treat chronic pain.

To get a sense of how addictive opioid painkillers are for those patients who do have a prescription, researchers from The Cochrane Collaboration, an independent group that reviews research on medications, collected the results from 17 studies covering more than 88,000 people.

All of the patients had been prescribed opioids to treat chronic pain, and nearly all of them had pain unrelated to cancer.

In 10 of the studies, patients used the painkillers for anywhere from three months to several years, while one study included just short-term use of several days and the others did not report the length of time patients were on the drugs.

Taken together, the studies found that 4.5 percent of people developed a dependency on the painkillers.

“It’s a low percentage,” said Dr. Silvia Minozzi, lead author of the study and a member of the Cochrane Drugs and Alcohol Group in Rome.

Although 4.5 percent was the most common rate of addiction among the studies, Minozzi pointed out there were large differences in the rates each study found – ranging from zero to 31 percent.

For instance, a study by Boscarino and his colleagues that was included in Minozzi’s review found that 25 percent of patients became addicted.

The group of patients Boscarino surveyed had a high rate of alcoholism and illegal drug use, though.

He said the disparities among the various studies could also be a result of how people were surveyed about their behaviors.

“We surveyed the patients about their pain in their homes (where) they were relaxed,” he said. “I think they were more inclined not to try to hide their symptoms.”

Minozzi’s review found that, among the three studies with information on substance abuse, people with a history of drug use were more likely than other patients to develop an addiction to their prescription pain pills.

For most people, addiction “does happen, but it’s not very common,” Fleming told Reuters Health. “But if you give a big bottle of Percocets to someone who has an addiction history, who may or may not be using cocaine and marijuana at the same time, they have pain and maybe they should be treated, but they’re much more likely to get into trouble with that.”

Knowing this can help physicians screen patients to judge who might be the most vulnerable to becoming addicted and get them into the appropriate interventions, he said.

Minozzi noted the fact that her review found a “deficiency of good-quality” studies on this subject, “seems to stand in contrast to the widespread concern of doctors and authorities relating to the prescription of opioids for pain.”

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/U0ye5P Addiction, online October 18, 2012.

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Canada will push to keep bank capital rules on schedule

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada will urge all countries to stick to the agreed schedule for implementing tougher bank capital rules at a November 4-5 meeting of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 nations, a senior finance ministry official said on Thursday.

The so-called Basel III rules are the world’s regulatory response to the financial crisis, forcing banks to triple the amount of basic capital they hold in a bid to avoid future taxpayer bailouts.

They were to be phased in from January 2013 but areas such as the United States and the European Union are not yet ready and U.S. and British supervisors have criticized them as too complex to work.

The Canadian official, who briefed reports ahead of the meeting on condition that he not be named, said it was imperative that the rules, the timelines and the principles behind them be respected and said Finance Minister Jim Flaherty would make that view known to his G20 colleagues.

Canada sees the European debt crisis as the biggest near-term risk to the global economy, and it also expects the U.S. debt crisis to be top of mind at the talks, the official said.

But the meeting takes place just before the U.S. presidential election and U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will be absent, so it remains unclear how much the G20 can pressure Washington on that front.

Some other countries have also scaled back their delegations, raising doubts about how meaningful the meeting will be.

The official dismissed that argument, saying high-level officials substituting for their ministers allowed for extremely important issues to be addressed anyway.

He said holding each country around the table accountable to its past commitments helped keep the momentum going toward resolving global economic problems.

(Reporting by Louise Egan; Writing by David Ljunggren; Editing by M.D. Golan)

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‘Assassin’s Creed’ stumbles on PlayStation Vita

There’s never been a video game heroine quite like Aveline de Grandpre.

The daughter of an African slave and a French shipping magnate in New Orleans at the end of French and Indian War, Aveline is the deadly but charming protagonist of “Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation” (Ubisoft, for the PlayStation Vita, $ 39.99). She seeks to fight injustice in and around the Big Easy as a member of the series’ secret order of assassins.

The hallmarks of the “Assassin’s Creed” franchise are all gloriously present here in hand-held form: traipsing across a jagged cityscape, dispatching foes with stealthy prowess and plotting against the clandestine group known as the Templars. “Liberation” doesn’t feel like a typical PlayStation Vita game — and that’s both its biggest strength and weakness.

Despite its name, there’s only a tenuous connection to “Assassin’s Creed III,” its sweeping console counterpart. That shouldn’t deter die-hard “Assassin’s Creed” fans from embodying Aveline, who’s armed with iconic hidden blades just like forerunners Altair and Ezio, as well as her own original weapons, such as a blowgun and a parasol loaded with poison darts.

Unlike her male predecessors, Aveline assumes different personas to achieve her aims. As an assassin, she can use all weapons and scale buildings; disguised as a slave, she can blend in with crowds and incite riots; and when dressed as a noble lady, she can awkwardly woo men. It’s an inventive touch, but one that frustratingly makes Aveline always feel handicapped.

Most of “Liberation” takes place in New Orleans, beginning in 1768 as a French colony through the American Revolution. For the most part, the game’s story, setting, combat and characters all work remarkably well given the constraints of the platform, and there’s a plethora of side quests, business pursuits and a multiplayer mode to keep things interesting.

With missions focusing on freeing slaves and rioting against Spanish soldiers, “Liberation” doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities of American history in the South. It’s refreshing to see a video game deal with such serious issues while maintaining a sense of adventure. That alone should be enough for Vita owners to give this historical action title a try.

Unfortunately, “Liberation” is too big for its britches. It’s difficult not to wonder how more effective the game could have been if the developers didn’t bend over backward in an effort to replicate the console experience, especially after playing through a smaller section of “Liberation” that’s set outside Louisiana and ultimately proved to be more fun.

The lamest part of “Liberation” is definitely the most unnecessary, namely, using the Vita’s unique control scheme for actions like opening letters by swiping both touchscreens or revealing secret maps by pointing the rear camera toward a bright light. Such novel gimmicks wouldn’t be so disastrous if they consistently worked and weren’t repeated several times.

There are other glitches, too. Some wobbly graphics, disappearing characters, audio dropouts and other assorted bugs mark “Liberation” as a less polished “Assassin’s Creed” experience. Despite the game’s very daring ambitions, Aveline — and “Assassin’s Creed” fans — deserve more than “Liberation” is able to truly deliver on the Vita. Two stars out of four.

___

Online:

http://assassinscreed.ubi.com/

___

Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang .

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Judge throws out lawsuit against Britney Spears and parents

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A Los Angeles judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit by the one-time confidante of pop star Britney Spears, ruling there was insufficient evidence to go forward with the trial on allegations of defamation, assault and breach of contract.

“I really thought long and hard. It’s the right thing to do, so I am going to do it,” Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Suzanne Bruguera said, announcing her decision to throw out the case after hearing two weeks of evidence in the civil trial.

Bruguera’s ruling was a major victory for Spears and her family, despite damaging and sometimes humiliating testimony that lifted the lid on the singer’s controversial career and personal meltdown five years ago.

Sam Lutfi, the self-styled manager of the pop star for a brief period in 2007 and early 2008, had sued Spears’ mother, Lynne Spears, for defaming him in her 2008 book “Through the Storm.” Lynne Spears wrote that Lutfi controlled her daughter, cut her telephone lines and tried to cut the star off from her family.

Bruguera also dismissed claims filed by Lutfi against Spears. He said the singer hired him as her manager after they met in a nightclub in 2007, and he was entitled to a portion of her earnings.

Lutfi case against Spears’ father, Jamie Spears, was also thrown out. Lutfi alleged that Jamie Spears punched him in 2008 while the singer was in a Los Angeles psychiatric ward.

Lutfi, 38, said he would appeal the ruling.

Spears, 30, has since staged a comeback with world tours, hit albums and a new job as judge on Fox’s TV talent show “The X-Factor.” She did not attend the trial.

In testimony last week, Lutfi sobbed on the witness stand, saying he received death threats because of the villainous portrayal of him in the book. He also claimed he tried to get Spears off drugs and protect her from paparazzi photographers who hounded her day and night.

His most sensational claim was that Spears shaved her head in February 2007 because she feared her hair could be tested for drug use in her bitter child custody battle with ex-husband Kevin Federline.

Lutfi also told the court that he brought drug-sniffing dogs to her home and flushed a bag of white powder down the toilet.

Jamie Spears’ attorney told the court that his client was afraid that his daughter would die from drug abuse and believed that Lutfi was making her problems worse.

Lynne Spears testified that Lutfi crushed up drugs and put them into the singer’s food to help her sleep.

Spears’ meltdown led to her father’s conservatorship, which gives him legal control over her finances and health.

(Editing by Jill Serjeant and Stacey Joyce)

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UK cost agency backs melanoma drugs after price cuts

LONDON (Reuters) – Two new drugs for skin cancer have been recommended for use on Britain’s state-run health service after the rival manufacturers – Roche and Bristol-Myers Squibb – agreed to cut their prices.

The move underscores the growing pressure on drug companies to cut deals with austerity-hit European governments in order to prove their expensive new medicines offer value for money.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) said on Friday it had issued final draft guidance recommending both Roche’s Zelboraf and Bristol‘s Yervoy after the companies offered undisclosed discounts.

NICE, which determines if products should be used by the National Health Service (NHS), had initially rejected both medicines, despite acknowledging that they represented a breakthrough in treating melanoma.

The list price for Zelboraf, which is only suitable for patients with a particular genetic profile, is 52,500 pounds ($ 84,600) for an average treatment span of seven months.

The price of a four-dose course of Yervoy, which is recommended only for people who have received prior chemotherapy, is 75,000 pounds.

($ 1 = 0.6207 British pounds)

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Mark Potter)

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New York state asks Washington to cover all storm costs

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New York state on Wednesday asked the U.S. federal government to pay all the costs of cleaning up and repairing damage from massive storm Sandy that tore through the Northeast this week and crippled New York City.

Governor Andrew Cuomo said he is asking fellow Democrat, President Barack Obama, to pay 100 percent of the estimated $ 6 billion bill, at a time that state and local government budgets remain constrained by a weak economic recovery.

That would be a significant change from last year when the federal government covered about 75 percent of the $ 1.2 billion cost paid by New York to clean up after storm Irene hit the region.

The two U.S. senators from neighboring New Jersey, the other state hit hardest by the storm, also asked that the federal government cover more than the usual share of the cost, given the size of the disaster and the financially strapped local coffers.

“Recent storms in New Jersey have already placed a significant burden on our state and local governments, which have been forced to pay for disaster response and will need federal assistance for recovery from Hurricane Sandy,” Senator Frank Lautenberg and Senator Robert Menendez, both Democrats, wrote in a letter to Obama.

“While we understand the federal share is typically 75 percent of these total costs, the unprecedented and extraordinary extent of damage Hurricane Sandy has caused to our state merits an adjustment to this cost-share to 90 to 100 percent federal coverage,” the two senators said.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican, did not reply to request of comments.

Obama and Christie toured storm-stricken parts of New Jersey on Wednesday, taking in scenes of flooded roads from the air and telling residents they were moving quickly to get them help.

‘WE CAN’T PRINT MONEY’

New York top finance official, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, said Washington should foot the bill, because of lingering financial pressures on state and local governments from the 2007-09 recession.

“I think the focus will have to be on Washington, for obvious reasons,” DiNapoli told Reuters in an interview.

“They have greater resources. They can print money; we can’t do that here. And given the fact this is not just a New York disaster, it’s really a national disaster, it’s probably for the federal government to step up and play a significant role.”

“The problem is the state is limited in its resource capacity. We just put out the mid-year report a week or two ago and it really showed tax revenues are down,” DiNapoli said.

Most U.S. states must balance their budgets, unlike the federal government, and it is up to Obama to decide if federal funds can cover all the costs.

“The president has the discretion to go higher. Seventy-five percent is a floor not a ceiling,” said Matt Mayer, a former senior official at the Department of Homeland Security.

If Obama accepts covering all the costs, this would be announced by Federal Emergency management Agency, Mayer said.

Former President George W. Bush allowed 100 percent reimbursement of costs in some states after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, Mayer, who worked at DHS during Bush’s presidency, told Reuters.

Cuomo said in a letter to Obama that “initial estimates project up to $ 6 billion in lost economic revenue in the greater metropolitan area and the state” due to disruption to business in the world’s financial hub.

Cuomo added that “the significant impact from Hurricane Sandy plainly warrants providing this assistance.”

The state, he said, was still battling multi-building fires, tunnel closures, and power outages at hospitals and other vital facilities. Plus there are destroyed homes and people needing shelter.

“Moreover, the cost to restore the complex electrically driven subway and rail transportation systems after total inundation from saltwater flooding will place a tremendous financial burden on New York state,” Cuomo said in the letter.

In New York alone nearly 2 million homes and businesses are still without power.

Cuomo said federal support is key to making sure state and local governments can respond effectively to the disaster.

New York state is rated AA by Standard and Poor’s and Aa2 by Moody’s and its outstanding debt is the second highest among states, after California.

(Additional reporting by Michael Connor in Miami; writing by Tiziana Barghini in New York; Editing by Mary Milliken and Bob Burgdorfer)

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Clinton calls for overhaul of Syrian opposition

ZAGREB (Reuters) – The United States called on Wednesday for an overhaul of Syria‘s opposition leadership, saying it was time to move beyond the Syrian National Council and bring in those “in the front lines fighting and dying”.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, signaling a more active stance by Washington in attempts to form a credible political opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said a meeting next week in Qatar would be an opportunity to broaden the coalition against him.

“This cannot be an opposition represented by people who have many good attributes but who, in many instances, have not been inside Syria for 20, 30, 40 years,” she said during a visit to Croatia.

“There has to be a representation of those who are in the front lines fighting and dying today to obtain their freedom.”

Clinton’s comments represented a clear break with the Syrian National Council (SNC), a largely foreign-based group which has been among the most vocal proponents of international intervention in the Syrian conflict.

U.S. officials have privately expressed frustration with the SNC’s inability to come together with a coherent plan and with its lack of traction with the disparate internal groups which have waged the 19-month uprising against Assad’s government.

Senior members of the SNC, Free Syrian Army (FSA) and other rebel groups ended a meeting in Turkey on Wednesday and pledged to unite behind a transitional government in coming months.

“It’s been our divisions that have allowed the Assad forces to reach this point,” Ammar al-Wawi, a rebel commander, told Reuters after the talks outside Istanbul.

“We are united on toppling Assad. Everyone, including all the rebels, will gather under the transitional government.”

Mohammad Al-Haj Ali, a senior Syrian military defector, told a news conference after the meeting: “We are still facing some difficulties between the politicians and different opposition groups and the leaders of the Free Syrian Army on the ground.”

Clinton said it was important that the next rulers of Syria were both inclusive and committed to rejecting extremism.

“There needs to be an opposition that can speak to every segment and every geographic part of Syria. And we also need an opposition that will be on record strongly resisting the efforts by extremists to hijack the Syrian revolution,” she said.

Syria’s revolt has killed an estimated 32,000. A bomb near a Shi’ite shrine in a suburb of Damascus killed at least six more people on Wednesday, state media and opposition activists said.

NEW LEADERSHIP

The meeting next week in Qatar’s capital Doha represents a chance to forge a new leadership, Clinton said, adding the United States had helped to “smuggle out” representatives of internal Syrian opposition groups to a meeting in New York last month to argue their case for inclusion.

“We have recommended names and organizations that we believe should be included in any leadership structure,” she told a news conference.

“We’ve made it clear that the SNC can no longer be viewed as the visible leader of the opposition. They can be part of a larger opposition, but that opposition must include people from inside Syria and others who have a legitimate voice which must be heard.”

The United States and its allies have struggled for months to craft a credible opposition coalition.

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 – a fact that Assad’s chief backer Russia says shows western powers are intent on determining Syria’s future.

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.

Clinton said she regretted but was not surprised by the failure of the latest attempted ceasefire, called by international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi last Friday. Each side blamed the other for breaking the truce.

“The Assad regime did not suspend its use of advanced weaponry against the Syrian people for even one day,” she said.

“While we urge Special Envoy Brahimi to do whatever he can in Moscow and Beijing to convince them to change course and support a stronger U.N. action we cannot and will not wait for that.”

Clinton said the United States would continue to work with partners to increase sanctions on the Assad government and provide humanitarian assistance to those hit by the conflict.

(Additional reporting by Ayla Jean Yackley; editing by Andrew Roche)

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What’s New in the New, Slim IMac?

Apple‘s iMac, or all-in-one desktop Mac, has always had a flair for the dramatic. From the “transparent gumdrop” original, to the “Pixar lamp” model, through to today’s enormous flatscreens, it’s been perhaps the most distinctive desktop computer in each of its iterations.

Now, at the event where Apple introduced the new iPad Mini, it also refreshed its mainstream desktop Mac lineups. Both the Mac Mini and iMac got new models, each faster and more powerful than the previous year’s. But while the Mac Mini still looks basically the same, the iMac now cuts an incredibly slim profile, which Apple says is 5 millimeters thin at its edge.

It’s not as thin as it seems — it curves substantially towards the back, not that you’d be able to tell from most of the photos on Apple’s site. But it doesn’t just have its looks going for it.

Improved display

The iMac still doesn’t have a Retina Display; that honor went to the 13-inch MacBook Pro, the second Mac to get a screen so sharp you can’t discern individual pixels with your unaided eye. Apple claims that the iMac’s screen now features 75 percent glare reduction, however, as well as an IPS display for improved viewing angles. Finally, the screen is now flush with the glass, so that it looks like there’s nothing in between you and the picture.

No optical drive

The new iMac has an SDXC card slot, so you can plug in up to 64 GB digital camera memory cards. It also has two high-speed Thunderbolt ports, for attaching external displays and backup hard drives, as well as four USB ports. The slot-loading DVD drive, however, has been removed … so make room in the budget for an external drive, if you still need one.

Dramatically improved performance

It’s a cliche that each new generation of computers is faster, better, and smaller than the last these days. Apple provides concrete numbers and handy benchmarks, however: “up to 60 percent faster graphics,” for instance, and it says that they feature the new third-generation quad-core Intel Core processors. Obviously, how much faster it is than the last iMac will depend on the specs of each, but the high end is now much higher.

Fusion Drive

What about hard disk access speeds — the tightest bottleneck, when it comes to computer performance? One way to get around those is to use a solid-state drive, or SSD, which uses flash memory like on the iPad and is much faster than a magnetic hard disk. SSDs cost more, though, and don’t offer nearly as much storage space.

Apple’s solution to get around this is Fusion Drive, which pairs a smaller SSD with a 1 TB (or larger) hard disk. OS X and its core apps are preloaded on the faster SSD, and Fusion Drive automatically puts your most-used stuff on it as well. Expect this add-on option to be pricey, however; it costs $ 250 extra on the Mac Mini, and isn’t even available on the cheapest Mac Mini model.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

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Evan Rachel Wood marries “Billy Elliot” star Jamie Bell

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Hollywood actress Evan Rachel Wood has quietly married Briton Jamie Bell – star of the 2000 “Billy Elliot” dance movie – in a ceremony in California, Wood’s spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

“The bride wore a custom dress by Carolina Herrera. It was a small ceremony with close family and friends,” the spokeswoman said in a statement, adding that the wedding took place on Tuesday.

In a Twitter posting on Wednesday, Wood, best known for her roles in “The Wrestler” and coming of age movie “Thirteen,” said “Words cannot describe the happiness I am feeling. Overwhelming.”

Wood, 25, first began dating Bell about seven years ago. But the pair broke up and Wood went on to have a highly publicized engagement with heavy metal rocker Marilyn Manson, who is almost twice her age.

Wood and Bell, 26, were rumored to have become engaged in January this year, but never confirmed their relationship.

Bell found fame as the teen star of “Billy Elliot” about a ballet dancer growing up in a tough coal mining town in northern England. He won a British BAFTA award for the role and has since appeared in adventure movies like “The Eagle” and “Jumper.”

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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Sanofi draws fire over cost of MS drug Lemtrada

PARIS (Reuters) – Medical journal The Lancet warned that Sanofi‘s experimental multiple sclerosis drug Lemtrada may be too costly for patients and health insurers once it gets approved by regulators.

The journal, which published the encouraging results of two late-stage Lemtrada tests on Thursday, also criticized the drugmaker’s decision to withdraw leukemia therapy Campath, the same drug given at a different dosage, depriving MS patients who had been using it off-label.

In an editorial accompanying the test results, The Lancet voiced concerns that Lemtrada would be priced higher than current MS drugs on the market and said the discontinuation of Campath may mean patients who had used it for MS would not be able to continue their treatment.

The injectable drug, chemically known as alemtuzumab, was sold until September 2012 under the name Campath as treatment for leukemia and given more frequently at a higher dosage.

“There is concern that with a license for multiple sclerosis, the cost of alemtuzumab could rise and might become too expensive for many patients and health systems,” the editorial said.

Although Campath remains available free of charge to leukemia patients, Sanofi’s rare disease unit Genzyme pulled it off the market in September to prevent its unauthorized use as an MS drug.

Analysts said the move would allow the company to adjust the price to match that of rival MS drugs on the market.

A full course of Campath, which in 2011 had sales of $ 76 million, cost around $ 60,000 when given three times a week for up to 12 weeks, according to Genzyme.

Lemtrada, instead, is given at less than half the dose of Campath for 5 consecutive days and then again for 3 days a year later. Since the drug has yet to be approved, it remains unclear how much Sanofi will charge for it.

The drug, which works by resetting a person’s immune system, has shown in late-stage trials to be an effective treatment for MS patients who have failed to respond to other therapies.

It has also shown to benefit people not previously treated for the disease, suggesting it could be used as a first-line MS therapy.

But patients need regular monitoring for serious side effects that can include infections and autoimmune diseases.

“It’s important that the appropriate safety monitoring is in place for patients who are prescribed Lemtrada,” Genzyme’s head of MS, Bill Sibold, told Reuters, responding to questions about the Lancet editorial. “Until an approved risk-management program is established, we believe the use of Lemtrada should only occur in clinical trials.”

Lemtrada remains available to patients who are taking part in clinical tests.

Sibold declined to discuss pricing plans for Lemtrada, but said Genzyme has set up programs to make its approved drugs available to patients who cannot afford them. “With Lemtrada it would be no different,” he said.

DRUG FUNDING

But there are concerns that cash-strapped European governments may balk at funding the drug through their public healthcare systems.

Doug Brown, Head of Biomedical Research at U.K. charity MS Society said that while Lemtrada’s results are great news for patients, the drug would only be useful to them if it were available through the country’s publicly funded National Health Service.

“We urge Genzyme to price the treatment responsibly so that if it’s licensed, it’s deemed cost effective on the NHS,” he said.

The U.K.’s cost-effectiveness body National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), whose opinions are also watched closely in other countries, initially rejected Novartis’ MS pill Gilenya, only to make a U-turn after the company agreed to a discounted price.

Sanofi launched its MS pill Aubagio in the U.S. at a price of $ 45,000 for a year’s treatment, making it cheaper than rivals.

Gilenya – the only other MS pill currently on the market – costs 28 percent more, while injectable treatments such as Biogen Idec Inc’s Avonex and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd’s Copaxone are 8 and 6.5 percent higher respectively.

(Reporting by Elena Berton; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

Medications/Drugs News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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