Acer will beat Google to market with its own $99 tablet

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The Benghazi Report and Parents of Children With Mental Illness: Today’s Qs for O’s WH, 12/20/12

TAPPER: Has the president read the Accountability Review Board report?

CARNEY: I don’t know. I haven’t – I know he has been briefed on it. I don’t know if he’s read it word for word, but he’s a voracious reader, so he may have.

TAPPPER: The – I believe one person has resigned and three have been – stepped down from their current duties but are still State Department employees. There might – there might have been an update for that since I last read about that. Is that sufficient for the president? Is that – is that enough accountability from the Accountability Review Board?

CARNEY: I think by every measure, the report has been assessed to be – to have been sharply critical and very blunt and clear-eyed about both problems that exist, problems that need to be fixed and the need for accountability, and actions are – already have been taken, as you just – as you just noted.

TAPPER: I’m not questioning the report. I’m -

CARNEY: Well, again, I think -

TAPPER: I’m wondering: is that enough?

CARNEY: I think independent experts here, Admiral Mullen and Ambassador Pickering, oversaw a – Accountability Review Board which I think everyone is judging to have been quite – and the recommendations that they have made are being adopted in full, and there has already been, in this very short period of time, actions that demonstrate accountability is being upheld.

I don’t – I mean I haven’t had a discussion with the president, but I think he is both appreciative of Ambassador Pickering and Admiral Mullen for the service they provided to the nation here, for the depth that they delved into in this report and the seriousness of the recommendations, the speed with which they acted; and, you know, he intends to make sure that the administration, as the secretary of state has said, begins implementation of all of these recommendations before the next secretary of state takes office.

Some of this has to do – some of it will have to do with working with Congress to ensure that Congress provides the necessary funds to allow for enhanced security at our diplomatic missions around the world. So there is obviously more action that needs to be taken, but this is a very serious report and the president has indicated that he expects it to be implemented fully.

TAPPER: Again, I’m not disparaging the report. I’m just wondering if -

(Cross talk.)

CARNEY: Again, I think – I don’t have another answer for you. Four people have already, in one way or another, been held accountable, fairly senior people, so -

TAPPER: Is that sufficient for the president? That’s the only question.

CARNEY: I believe the president believes that the recommendations and the actions taken have been the right ones.

TAPPER: O.K., one other thing I wanted to ask about the mental health ramifications following Sandy Hook, and that is there have been some interesting personal stories in the media about parents – a lot of them single parents, but not exclusively – struggling with children who are mentally ill, some of them violently so, most of them not, who do not have enough help from society. They fall through some holes, some cracks in the system. I’m just wondering if the president has seen any of these, have read any of the – of the essays that have been written, and caught any of them on television, because it’s been – it’s actually been – it’s been remarkable to hear, because normally you don’t hear stories like this.

CARNEY: Well, I haven’t had that discussion with him. He is someone who reads widely, and it would surprise me if he hasn’t read or seen some of the reports that you’re talking about, probably more likely to have read rather than seen, with all due respect to the broadcast media.

But the fact is that he believes very strongly that mental health is one of the major areas that needs to be addressed as we take a kind of comprehensive approach to this problem. It’s why – setting aside the issue of gun violence – but the issue of mental health in general is extremely important to – in the president’s view, to our – what our overall approach to health care in this country ought to be, which is why, as you know, he made sure that the health care law that he passed with Congress will ensure 30 million more Americans have access to mental health services, and that will also – makes recommended mental health services available without a co-pay or a deductible – again, part of the effort here to make it clear that issues of mental health are as important, both for the individual and for the society, as issues of physical health.

So – but as it relates to the gun violence there is no question that this is something that needs more exploration and likely more action, which is why the president has taken the action that he has.

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IntercontinentalExchange buys NYSE Euronext for $8 billion

NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) – IntercontinentalExchange struck an $ 8.2 billion deal to buy NYSE Euronext, a combination that will propel the commodities market powerhouse into European financial futures but threaten to further reduce the clout of the New York Stock Exchange.

The deal will create a new player in global derivatives trading and clearing that would take on CME Group Inc. While the New York Stock Exchange has stood for 200 years as an iconic symbol of U.S. capitalism, it is almost an afterthought in this deal.

Atlanta-based ICE said it will try to spin off the Euronext European stock market businesses in a public offering, generating speculation it may eventually shutter the NYSE‘s trading floor, as well. Profits from stock trading have been significantly eroded by new technology and the rise of private venues run by Wall Street banks and brokers.

Analysts said the deal will give ICE a strategic boost with control of Liffe, Europe’s second-largest derivatives market, helping it compete against U.S.-based CME Group, owner of the Chicago Board of Trade. Derivatives trading remains quite profitable for the exchanges and new rules coming into play next year will dramatically expand the demand for clearing over-the-counter contracts.

Regulatory concerns sank two deals to buy NYSE Euronext last year, including a joint bid by ICE and Nasdaq OMX Group and a separate bid from German exchange Deutsche Bourse. But ICE alone has far less overlapping business and should face easy approvals, antitrust attorneys said.

The deal values each NYSE Euronext share at $ 33.12, a 28 percent premium to the stock’s closing price on Wednesday. Shareholders will have the option of accepting $ 33.12 in cash per NYSE Euronext share or 0.2581 ICE share or a mix of $ 11.27 in cash and 0.1703 ICE share, subject to a maximum cash consideration of $ 2.7 billion..

NYSE Euronext stock rose 33 percent, to $ 31.88, after the deal was announced. ICE’s shares fell as much as 4 percent before clawing back some of the losses to trade down 0.6 percent, at $ 127.60, at 01:10 p.m. ET.

ICE said it would pay an annual dividend of $ 300 million once the deal closes.

NYSE Chief Executive Duncan Niederauer called the deal a “no brainer” on a call with analysts on Thursday. Further consolidation of exchanges was “inevitable” and ICE was a “great partner,” he said, so continuing on alone did not make sense.

“We can sit here and keep slugging away and keep working hard, but the bottom line is we had not delivered, in my mind, sufficient returns to shareholders,” Niederauer said.

Before the latest ICE offer emerged, NYSE Euronext‘s shares had fallen by nearly a third since ICE and Nasdaq launched their thwarted joint bid.

The newest offer first took shape in October when ICE Chairman and Chief Executive Jeff Sprecher, a consummate deal maker, called Niederauer to consider reviving their talks without the Nasdaq involved, said one person familiar with the situation who was not authorized to speak to the press.

ICE started out as an online marketplace for energy trading before Sprecher initiated a string of acquisitions from the London-based International Petroleum Exchange in 2001, to the New York Board of Trade and, most recently, a handful of smaller deals, including a climate exchange and a stake in a Brazilian clearing house.

A tie-up with Liffe would give Sprecher a boost to trade in to interest rates, one of the world’s biggest asset classes and a particular specialty of CME. Liffe and CME have a long-time rivalry in trading of short-term interest-rate contracts, with each launching – to little effect – look-alike versions of the other’s contracts. The CME declined to comment on the proposed deal.

“ICE is after Liffe, that is the crown jewel of NYSE Euronext,” said Peter Lenardos, analyst at RBC Capital Markets. NYSE bought Euronext, including Liffe, for 8 billion euros in 2007. “Strategically it makes sense for ICE to enter the European derivatives space in a meaningful way.”

ICE’s current main operations are in energy futures trading and, it has steered clear of stocks and stock-options trading, key businesses for NYSE Euronext. So there is not much business overlap between the two groups compared with last year’s proposed takeovers.

“This deal is probably not going to generate a lot of concern from an antitrust perspective,” said Warren Rosborough, a veteran of the U.S. Justice Department’s antitrust division who is now with the law firm McDermott Will & Emery.

A small amount of competing derivatives business could be addressed with straightforward divestitures, he said. “It’s an open question about whether it will generate questions,” he said. “If there is a fix, it will be relatively easy fix.”

Sprecher, who will be chairman and CEO of the combined company, said the deal had been “well received” by regulators after he and Niederauer completed a “whirlwind tour” in the United States and Europe ahead of Thursday’s announcement. Officials at the European Commission and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission declined to comment.

Last year, the Justice Department blocked a $ 11 billion joint hostile bid by ICE and Nasdaq OMX on concerns the tie-up would dominate U.S. stock listings. A rival $ 9.3 billion bid by Deutsche Boerse fell afoul of European regulators.

A combined ICE-NYSE Euronext would leap-frog Deutsche Boerse to become the world’s third-largest exchange group with a combined market value of $ 15.2 billion. CME Group has a market value of $ 17.5 billion, Thomson Reuters data shows.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing is the world’s largest exchange group with a market cap of $ 19.5 billion.

ICE said it expected to achieve $ 450 million in cost savings from the takeover. In the first year after the deal closes, additional earnings of 15 percent are expected.

Long-time Wall Street traders saw the potential takeover of the venerable stock exchange by a 12-year-old derivatives upstart as weighted with symbolism.

“It’s the end of an era,” said a director on the board of a rival exchange who did not have clearance to speak to the press and asked not to be named. “I think ultimately the floor will be closed, because Jeff (Sprecher) has shut every floor he’s ever had,” the person said.

The exchange was prepared to shut down the floor temporarily during superstorm Sandy and trade completely electronically, Wall Street executives said.

But one former New York Stock Exchange executive was doubtful that ICE would completely shut down the NYSE floor. “It has too strong a marketing brand associated with it to close it,” said the executive, who declined to be identified because he is not permitted to speak to the press.

Morgan Stanley was the lead financial adviser to ICE, with assistance from BMO Capital Markets Corp, Broadhaven Capital Partners, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Lazard Group LLC, Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking, and Wells Fargo Securities LLC. ICE legal advisers are Sullivan & Cromwell LLP and Shearman & Sterling LLP.

The principal financial advisers to NYSE Euronext are Perella Weinberg Partners and BNP Paribas. Further financial advice to NYSE Euronext is being provided by Blackstone Advisory Partners, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs & Co. and Moelis & Co. Legal advisers to NYSE Euronext are Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, Slaughter & May, and Stibbe NV.

(Additional reporting by Luke Jeffs and David Brough in London, Jessica Toonkel, Diane Bartz and Karen Brettell in New York, Sarah N. Lynch in Washington and Ann Saphir in Chicago; writing by Carmel Crimmins and Aaron Pressman; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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Wounded presage health crisis for postwar Syria

ATMEH, Syria (AP) — A baby boy joined the ranks of Syria’s tens of thousands of war wounded when a missile fired by Bashar Assad‘s air force slammed into his family home and shrapnel pierced his skull.

Four-month-old Fahed Darwish suffered brain damage and, like thousands of others seriously hurt in the civil war, he will likely need care well after the fighting is over. That’s something doctors say a post-conflict Syria won’t be able to provide.

Making things worse, there has been a sharp spike in serious injuries since the summer, when the regime began bombing rebel-held areas from the air, and doctors say a majority of the wounded they now treat are civilians.

This week, Fahed was recovering from brain surgery in an intensive care unit, his head bandaged and his body under a heavy blanket, watched over by Mariam, his distraught 22-year-old mother.

She said that after her first-born is discharged from the hospital in Atmeh, a village in an area of relative safety near the Turkish border, they will have to return to their village in a war zone in central Syria.

“We have nowhere else to go,” she said.

Even for those who have escaped direct injury, the civil war is posing a mounting health threat. Half the country’s 88 public hospitals and nearly 200 clinics have been damaged or destroyed, the World Health Organization says, leaving many without access to health care. Diabetics can’t find insulin, kidney patients can’t reach dialysis centers. Towns are running out of water-purifying materials. Many of the hundreds of thousands displaced by the fighting are exposed to the cold in tents or unheated public buildings.

“You are talking about a public health crisis on a grand scale,” said Dr. Abdalmajid Katranji, a hand and wrist surgeon from Lansing, Michigan, who regularly volunteers in Syria.

No one knows just how many people have been injured since the uprising against Assad erupted in March 2011, starting out with peaceful protests that turned into an armed insurgency in response to a violent government crackdown.

More than 43,000 have been killed in the past 21 months, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, basing his count on names and details provided by activists in Syria. He said the number of wounded is so large he can only give a rough estimate, of more than 150,000.

Casualties began to rise dramatically at the start of the summer. At the time, the regime, its ground troops stretched thin, began bombing from the air to prevent opposition fighters from gaining more territory.

Seemingly random bombings have razed entire villages and neighborhoods, driving terrified civilians from their homes, with an estimated 3 million Syrians out of the country’s population of 23 million now displaced.

About 10 percent of the wounded suffer serious injuries and many of those will need long-term care and rehabilitation, said Dr. Omar Aswad of the Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organizations, an umbrella for 14 aid groups.

This includes artificial limbs and follow-up surgery. “This is of course not available and will be one of the major (health) problems in the months right after the war,” said Mago Tarzian, emergency director for the Paris-based Doctors Without Borders.

For now, aid groups are struggling to provide even emergency treatment in under-equipped clinics.

The two dozen small hospitals and field clinics in rebel-run areas of Idlib province in the north only have a few Intensive Care Unit beds between them, said Aswad. None has a CT scanner, an important diagnostic tool.

“We need generators, we need medical supplies and the most pressing is medicine,” he said.

The challenge has been compounded by new types of injuries.

The regime has begun dropping incendiary bombs that can cause severe burns, according to the New York-based Human Rights Watch, citing amateur video and witness accounts.

Ole Solvang, a researcher for the group, said he saw remnants of such a bomb on a recent Syria trip. Aswad said doctors in Idlib and nearby Aleppo province reported seeing patients with burns from such weapons.

Doctors and hospitals have also been targeted. Aswad, who fled the city of Idlib in March after regime forces entered it, said five friends in a secret association of anti-regime physicians have been arrested. Hospitals, ambulances and doctors have been attacked, Solvang said, calling it “a worrying trend that makes the medical situation even worse.”

One of the bright spots is a 50-bed emergency care clinic set up six weeks ago in a former elementary school in Atmeh.

Largely funded by a wealthy Syrian expatriate, the Orient clinic, with five ICU beds, handles some of the most serious cases in a radius of some 150 kilometers (90 miles), said its director, orthopedic surgeon Abdel Hamid Dabbak.

In the past, seriously wounded patients had to go to Turkey, risking dangerous delays at the border, he said. Now, once patients are stabilized in Atmeh, they are sent to a sister clinic across the border for follow-up care.

In Orient’s ICU, a 24-year-old rebel fighter was breathing oxygen through a mask. He had been brought in a day earlier, bleeding heavily from stomach wounds and close to death, said Dr. Maen Martini, a volunteer physician from Joliet, Illinois. After surgery, he stabilized and was taken off a respirator. A delayed crossing into Turkey would have killed him, Martini said.

The fighter’s neighbor was little Fahed, whose house had been struck by a missile on Saturday in the village of Kafr Zeita in Hama province. “The roof collapsed on us,” his mother said of the attack. “We ran out … I saw him bleeding from his head, but it was just a small cut.”

The local clinic said the injury was more serious than it seemed and the family rushed to Atmeh, more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) to the north.

Since surgery, Fahed has been nursing and has moved his arms and legs, and the doctor is hoping for a near-complete recovery.

“Clinically, he has improved dramatically,” he said.

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Wii U finally gets Nintendo’s TVii service on December 20th

After a month-long delay, Nintendo (NTDOY) will launch its Nintendo TVii service for the Wii U on December 20th in the U.S. and Canada. Nintendo TVii is the company’s take on organizing all of the various video streaming and DVR services a user might subscribe to and then displaying them in an easy-to-navigate touchscreen-based interface on the Wii U GamePad. With Nintendo TVii, Nintendo hopes to make content discovery an easier task, rather than a chore. At the same time, Nintendo TVii will offer new “second-screen” experiences (similar to Xbox SmartGlass) with built-in social sharing options to Facebook (FB), Twitter and the Wii U console’s Miiverse.

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Nintendo TVii will support Amazon (AMZN) Instant Video, Hulu Plus and cable and satellite providers on Thursday, but Netflix (NFLX) and TiVo (TIVO) support won’t hit the U.S. until “early 2013.” Nintendo didn’t state when TVii support for the latter two will hit Canada.

For the consumer’s sake, we hope the download for Nintendo TVii doesn’t take as long as past system updates.

Nintendo’s press release follows below.

Nintendo Makes TV Smart and Social – Nintendo TVii Launches Dec. 20

New Wii U Service Gives Every Member of the Family His or Her Own Personalized, Easy-to-Use Second-Screen Viewing Experience

REDMOND, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The company that changed how we play is about to change how we watch. On Dec. 20, Nintendo will introduce Nintendo TVii, a free, integrated service for the recently launched Wii U console that combines what you watch and how you watch into one seamless, second-screen experience on the revolutionary new Wii U GamePad controller.

The rapid increase in both the quality and availability of video entertainment content – hundreds of satellite and cable channels, a seemingly endless amount of video-on-demand options – has made finding something to watch a complex and occasionally frustrating process. The solution to this problem is coming from perhaps an unexpected place: a video game console.

“After Dec. 20, you’ll never look at your TV the same way again,” said Nintendo of America President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime. “Wii U owners have already experienced the transformative effect that the GamePad has on game play and social interaction. Nintendo TVii shows how the integrated second screen of the GamePad can also transform and enhance the TV viewing experience. Welcome to the new world of TVii.”

Nintendo TVii maximizes Wii U owners’ current cable, satellite and video-on-demand services by pulling all of their available content sources – such as a Comcast cable package or Hulu Plus subscription – into one place. This empowers Wii U owners to focus on whatthey want to watch and not how they want to watch. And once users find the show, sporting event or movie they want, they press an icon and Nintendo TVii does the rest.

In addition to greatly simplifying finding and watching video content, Nintendo TVii also includes a series of social features that enable Wii U owners to share experiences and exciting moments with friends as they are happening on live TV. People can engage with others by commenting and sharing on Miiverse, Facebook and Twitter. Or they can comment, post or tweet about an incredible touchdown, a remarkable performance or a shocking plot twist, all using the personal screen of the Wii U GamePad.

Nintendo TVii requires no additional equipment and can be enjoyed with very little setup, demonstrating what’s possible when the second screen is truly integrated with the TV. Wii U owners can also discover more information about what they’re watching by easily accessing information on the GamePad via an Internet connection, including cast details, movie reviews from Rotten Tomatoes and sports data such as live stats and scores.

Nintendo TVii launches in the United States and Canada on Dec. 20. At launch, the service will support cable and satellite providers in both regions, as well as direct integration with Amazon Instant Video and Hulu Plus subscriptions in the United States. Further integration with Netflix subscriptions and TiVo are expected in early 2013 in the United States. Wii U owners with a Netflix subscription can still access the Netflix application from the Wii U system’s main menu and enjoy their favorite content accordingly.

All elements of the Nintendo TVii service are included in the purchase price of the Wii U system. Users will define which services they currently subscribe to – including the channel lineup in their cable package and video-on-demand service subscriptions – as part of the setup process.

Nintendo TVii observes the Wii U system parental controls, and additional options specific to the Nintendo TVii features can be chosen in the Nintendo TVii settings. Every member of the family can create a different viewing profile. For more information about this and other features, visit http://www.nintendo.com/wiiu.

This article was originally published by BGR

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Amgen pagará 762 millones por vender un medicamento para usos no autorizados

Nueva York, 19 dic (EFE).- El gigante estadounidense de la biotecnología Amgen pagará una sanción de 762 millones de dólares tras declararse culpable de introducir en el mercado un medicamento para usos no permitidos por las autoridades federales.

La compañía aceptó hoy en un tribunal federal de Brooklyn (Nueva York) un acuerdo para declararse culpable, clausurar el caso y pagar 150 millones en sanciones criminales y 612 millones para cubrir las solicitudes de compensación a programas públicos de seguro médico, como Medicare o Medicaid.

El caso se refiere al “Aranesp”, un medicamento aprobado por la Administración de Fármacos y Alimentos (FDA, por sus siglas en inglés) para favorecer la formación de glóbulos rojos en los tratamientos de anemias.

“A fin de incrementar las ventas de Aranesp y lograr más beneficios, Amgen ilegalmente vendió el medicamento con la intención de que se usara con dosis que la FDA había estudiado y rechazado, y para tratamientos que la FDA nunca aprobó”, señaló el tribunal federal en un comunicado.

El acuerdo supone la mayor sanción por fraude a una compañía de biotecnología en la historia de Estados Unidos.

El fiscal federal Marshall Miller señaló que “en lugar de trabajar para alargar y mejorar la vida humana, Amgen buscó ilegalmente los beneficios empresariales mientras ponía en peligro la seguridad de consumidores vulnerables que sufrían enfermedades”. EFE

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Bank chief house costs to be paid

19 December 2012 Last updated at 08:39 ET

Mark Carney, the next head of the Bank of England, will be paid £250,000 in housing costs in addition to his salary and pension costs.

He will receive the money on top of his annual £480,000 salary and a yearly pension allowance of £144,000.

The housing allowance will be taxed at the new top rate of tax of 45%, which will be in place by the time he takes up his post next July,

Mr Carney is currently the head of the Bank of Canada.

A housing allowance was agreed as part of the package to tempt Mr Carney, who lives with his wife and four children, from his current post in Canada, but has only just been signed off by the non-executive directors of the Bank of England.

The allowance is designed to help him maintain a similar lifestyle to his current one in Ottawa, where he has a spacious family house near the Bank of Canada’s headquarters.

Continue reading the main story

What may stir controversy is that Mr Carney’s package protects him from the kind of gyrations in the economy that it will be his role to temper”

End Quote

Mr Carney’s salary itself is well above the £305,000 paid to the current governor of the Bank of England, Sir Mervyn King.

The Bank says this reflects in part the increased role the next governor will be faced with, as the Bank is taking over most of the UK’s bank regulation from the Financial Services Authority next year.

The Chancellor, George Osborne, spent months trying to court Mr Carney to take the post as Bank chief.

Mr Carney had gone on record as saying he was not interested in the post, but was persuaded to change his mind by Mr Osborne.

Part of the deal included allowing Mr Carney to serve just five years as Bank governor, rather than the eight-year term normally served in that position.

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Worries grow in east Congo with fighter buildup

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Aid workers warned Wednesday that armed groups are setting up new front lines in and around the city of Goma in eastern Congo, where the U.N. said it now has documented at least 126 rape cases last month.

Thousands of fighters from the M23 rebel group withdrew several weeks ago from Goma, and the fighters have since taken steps toward negotiating with the Congolese government.

However, residents in Goma say M23 and other armed fighters are now positioning themselves in an around the city — including inside camps for people displaced by the violence.

The arrival of several thousand fighters within the last week is prompting fear among civilians, who already have experienced years of fighting and rebellions, said Tariq Riebl, Oxfam’s humanitarian coordinator there.

“They are very concerned — people are seeing this and they don’t know what it means,” he said. “I think what everyone is scared about is that it seems like people are ramping up, ramping up but for what purpose?”

Oxfam warns that more than 1 million people could come under attack if violence again flares in Goma, where more than 100,000 people already have fled from elsewhere in the region.

“Goma is typically the last refuge safe haven and now it’s being directly called into question. If Goma falls in a big battle, where are people going to go?” Riebl said.

“This is very, very disconcerting because you have a population of over 1 million people and if war were to break out, we’re looking at a horrific situation.”

The M23 rebel group, which is believed to be backed by neighboring Rwanda, is made up of hundreds of soldiers who deserted the Congolese army in April.

They took control of many villages and towns in the mineral-rich east over the last seven months, culminating in the seizure of Goma on Nov. 20. It took days of negotiations and intense international pressure, including from the U.N., for the thousands of fighters from M23 to finally withdraw from the regional capital.

The U.N. mission says it’s received allegations of serious rights violations, including killings and wounding of civilians, rape, looting, and forced recruitment of children, by elements of the M23 rebels in Goma and neighboring areas.

Congo’s armed forces are also blamed for a series of attacks as they fled Goma in retreat in late November.

The U.N. said Tuesday it now has been able to document at least 126 rapes during that period in the Minova area, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of Goma.

U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said that two Congolese soldiers so far have been arrested in connection with the rapes, while seven others had been implicated in looting in the area.

“The Congolese Armed Forces have started investigating those human rights violations,” he said. “The U.N. Mission is supporting the military justice procedure in conducting thorough investigations into these allegations to ensure that the perpetrators are identified and held accountable.”

Rape has long been used as a brutal weapon of war in eastern Congo, where both soldiers and various armed groups use sexual violence to intimidate, punish and control the population.

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EU’s Almunia sets deadline for Google antitrust plan

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union set Google an ultimatum on Tuesday, giving it a month to come up with detailed proposals to resolve a two-year investigation into complaints that it used its power to block rivals, including Microsoft.

The EU’s antitrust chief, Joaquin Almunia, delivered the deadline in a meeting with Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt in Brussels.

If it fails to address the complaints, the world’s most popular search engine could face a lengthy battle with what is arguably the world’s most powerful antitrust authority. If found guilty, it could mean a fine of up to 10 percent of its revenue, or $ 4 billion.

“Since our preliminary talks with Google started in July, we have substantially reduced our differences regarding possible ways to address each of the four competition concerns expressed by the Commission,” Almunia said in a statement.

“On the basis of the progress made, I now expect Google to come forward with a detailed commitment text in January 2013.”

Almunia said he would seek feedback from rivals and users once he has received Google’s proposal.

Google said it continues to work co-operatively with the Commission.

The European Commission has been examining informal settlement proposals from Google since July but has not sought feedback from the complainants, suggesting it is not convinced by what Google has put on the table so far.

The EU watchdog’s two-year investigation has centered on complaints that Google unfairly favored its services over its rivals in search results, and that it may have copied material from travel and restaurant websites without permission.

The Commission is also looking into whether Google restricted advertisers from transferring their data to rivals.

The Commission’s decision to press Google to offer more far-reaching concessions comes in sharp contrast to the case U.S. regulators have against the company.

Sources told Reuters the U.S. Federal Trade Commission could drop their investigation into Google without requiring any major change in how the company does business.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Robin Emmott, Louise Heavens and Nick Zieminski)

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Ben Stiller’s Red Hour sells two more comedies to ABC Studios

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Ben Stiller‘s Red Hour Television is continuing to pump out comedies for ABC Studios.

Following the sale of “Complikated” in October, the production company has sold network’s production division two new series – “You’re Not Doing It Right” and “Between Two Kings” – a rep for Red Hour told TheWrap on Monday.

Comedian Michael Ian Black writes, stars and produces in the former, a half-hour single-camera comedy based on his book of the same name that explores his childhood, marriage, children and career. Set “in the wilds of Connecticut,” the show takes a hard look at what happens when you wake up, look around and don’t recognize the life you’re living as your own, Red Hour said.

“Between Two Kings” is written and executive-produced by Jeff Kahn, who has written for series like “Drawn Together” and “The Ben Stiller Show.” It follows the hardships of a divorced father raising an 11-year-old son while living in his elderly father’s home.

Both are being executive-produced by Stiller, along with Red Hour’s Debbie Liebling and Stuart Cornfeld.

Since signing an overall deal with ABC Studios at the end of 2011, Red Hour also has sold “Please Knock,” written by Kevin Napier, and “The Notorious Mollie Flowers,” written by Adam Resnick.

The sale of “You’re Not Doing It Right” and “Between Two Kings” were first reported by Deadline.

TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Ben Stiller’s Red Hour sells two more comedies to ABC Studios
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based on 99998 ratings.
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