Public Rumor

10 things you need to know today: November 11, 2012

Emails from Petraeus‘ mistress triggered investigation, the BBC’s chief resigns, and more in our roundup of the stories that are making news and driving opinion

1. BIOGRAPHER’S EMAILS LED FBI TO PETRAEUS AFFAIR
Paula Broadwell, the woman with whom CIA Director David Petraeus had an extramarital affair, leading to his sudden resignation on Friday, had allegedly sent harassing emails to a woman in Florida, leading the FBI to investigate the claim — and eventually uncovering the affair. Broadwell, who was Petraeus‘ official biographer, reportedly sent emails to the Florida woman inquiring about the nature of her relationship with Petraeus, prompting the unidentified woman to lodge a complaint with the FBI. The FBI began its investigation in the spring, and interviewed Petraeus in the past two weeks. During the interview, Petraeus admitted to the affair with Broadwell, who is also married. [Wall Street Journal]
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2. BBC CHIEF RESIGNS OVER GROWING SCANDAL
BBC’s director general George Entwistle resigned his post Saturday night amid growing criticism as the broadcaster deals with an alleged sex abuse scandal that implicated longtime BBC host Jimmy Savile. Savile, who died last year, was suspected of sexually abusing hundreds of young people over the decades, sometimes on BBC premises. Entwistle had most recently come under fire for allowing a false report on the BBC program Newsnight to air on Nov. 2. During the broadcast, a former Conservative Party politician was wrongly implicated in a pedophile scandal involving a children’s home in Wales. Entwistle said the report reflected “unacceptable journalistic standards” and never should have been broadcast. [New York Times]
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SEE ALSO: 10 things you need to know today: November 2, 2012

3. ISRAEL FIRES WARNING SHOT AT SYRIA
Israel fired a warning shot into Syria on Sunday after a stray mortar from Syria hit a military post in the Golan Heights. No injuries or damage were reported in Israel. Israel captured the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and subsequently annexed it. The incident was the first time Israel has been drawn into the fighting in the neighboring country. Meanwhile, the Syrian opposition, holding critical meetings in Qatar agreed Saturday to a new coalition to oppose President Bashar al-Assad. One Islamist opposition delegate said a new leader and deputy would be chosen on Sunday evening. [Associated Press, BBC]
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4. REP. ALLEN WEST WON’T CONCEDE
Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) was defeated by Democratic opponent Patrick Murphy, according to Florida’s vote count on Saturday, but the incumbent refuses to concede. The state issued complete but unofficial results showing Murphy with a lead of 2,442 votes, or 50.4 percent. That’s beyond the half-percent margin needed to trigger an automatic recount. West’s campaign alleges that in St. Lucie County, the only one of the three counties in the district that Murphy won, votes may have been counted twice and have asked to review sign-in books from the polls. West’s only path forward is through the courts. Under state law, he still could contest the election if misconduct or fraud might have changed its result. [Politico]
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SEE ALSO: The woman who named her newborn twins Barack and Mitt

5. IRAQ CANCELS ARMS DEAL WITH RUSSIA
Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, has canceled a recently signed $ 4.2 billion arms deal with Russia after suspicions of corruption surfaced. The prime minister’s adviser Ali al-Moussawi did not give any details or context. “We informed Russia about our decision, but we hope to sign a new weapons deal between Iraq and Russia,” al-Moussawi said. [CNN]
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6. BOEHNER TELLS HOUSE GOP TO FALL IN LINE
After the Republican Party’s electoral battering last week, House Speaker John Boehner insisted to House Republicans in a conference call that while they “would continue to staunchly oppose tax rate increases as Congress grapples with the impending fiscal battle, they had to avoid the nasty showdowns that marked so much of the last two years,” writes The New York Times. Many members offered subdued words of support, in contrast to a similar call last year when Boehner tried to persuade members to compromise with Democrats on a deal to extend temporary payroll tax cuts, “only to have them loudly revolt.” Both Boehner and President Obama seem to be keeping open the avenue of negotiation to address the looming fiscal cliff set to hit Jan. 1. [New York Times]
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SEE ALSO: The highest skyscraper climb with a bionic leg

7. APPLE AND HTC SETTLE PATENT DISPUTES
Apple and Taiwanese phonemaker HTC have settled all their outstanding disputes over patents, ending a fight that began in March 2010. The two companies signed a 10-year license agreement that will extend to current and future patents held by one another. HTC’s have been in decline since the second half of 2011, despite having become a major global phone company by aligning itself with Google’s Android platform. [BBC]
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8. STRONG EARTHQUAKE HITS MYANMAR
After a 6.-magnitude earthquake hit northern Myanmar on Sunday, at least 12 people were feared dead. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit near the city of Mandalay, at a depth of just 6.2 miles. The shallow quake was felt in Bangkok, the capital of neighboring Thailand, and several aftershocks followed. [Voice of America]
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SEE ALSO: 10 things you need to know today: November 3, 2012

9. CHINA TO LAUNCH NEXT MANNED CRAFT IN JUNE
A spokesperson for the Chinese space program announced Saturday that China’s next space mission will launch in June 2013. The operation is the second manned mission for the country, which completed its first manned mission — Shenzhou-9 — in June of this year. “They will stay in space for 15 days, operating both automated and manual space dockings with the target orbiter Tiangong-1, conducting scientific experiments in the lab module and giving science lectures to spectators on the Earth,” Niu Hongguang of the Chinese space program said. [Forbes]
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10. JUSTIN BIEBER AND SELENA GOMEZ SPLIT
Singer Justin Bieber, 18, and girlfriend, singer-actor Selena Gomez, 20, have gone their separate ways, a source confirms to the Associated Press. The split happened last week, and the two young stars cite distance and their busy schedules as contributing factors. The two had been dating for a year. [Associated Press]

SEE ALSO: 10 things you need to know today: October 31, 2012

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BBC head says broadcaster must reform or die

Label: Lifestyle

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain‘s BBC could be doomed unless it makes radical changes, the head of its governing trust said, after its director general quit to take the blame for the airing of false child sex abuse allegations against a former politician.

BBC Trust chairman Chris Patten said on Sunday confidence had to be restored if the publicly funded corporation was to withstand pressure from rivals, especially Rupert Murdoch‘s media empire, which would try to take advantage of the turmoil.

“If you’re saying, ‘Does the BBC need a thorough structural radical overhaul?’, then absolutely it does, and that is what we will have to do,” Patten, a one-time senior figure in Prime Minister David Cameron‘s Conservative Party and the last British governor of Hong Kong, told BBC television.

“The basis for the BBC’s position in this country is the trust that people have in it,” Patten said. “If the BBC loses that, it’s over.”

George Entwistle resigned as director general on Saturday, just two months into the job, to take responsibility for the child sex allegation on the flagship news programme Newsnight.

The witness in the Newsight report, who says he suffered sexual abuse at a care home in the late 1970s, said on Friday he had misidentified the politician, Alistair McAlpine. Newsnight admitted it had not shown the witness a picture of McAlpine, or approached McAlpine for comment before going to air.

Already under pressure after revelations that a long-time star presenter, the late Jimmy Savile, was a paedophile, Entwistle conceded on the BBC morning news that he had not known – or asked – who the alleged abuser was until the name appeared in social media.

The BBC, celebrating its 90th anniversary, is affectionately known in Britain as “Auntie”, and respected around much of the world.

But with 22,000 staff working at eight national TV channels, 50 radio stations and an extensive Internet operation, critics say it is hampered by a complex and overly bureaucratic and hierarchical management structure.

THOMPSON’S LEGACY

Journalists said this had become worse under Entwistle’s predecessor Mark Thompson, who took over in the wake of the last major crisis to hit the corporation and is set to become chief executive of the New York Times Co on Monday.

In that instance, both director general and chairman were forced out after the BBC was castigated by a public inquiry over a report alleging government impropriety in the fevered build up to war in Iraq, leading to major organizational changes.

One of the BBC’s most prominent figures, Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman, said since the Iraq report furore, management had become bloated while cash had been cut from programme budgets.

“He (Entwistle) has been brought low by cowards and incompetents,” Paxman said in a statement, echoing a widely-held view that Entwistle was a good man who had been let down by his senior staff.

Prime Minister Cameron appeared ready to give the BBC the benefit of the doubt, believing that “one of the great institutions of this country” could reform and deal with its failings, according to sources in his office.

Patten, who must find a new director general to sort out the mess, agreed that management structures had proved inadequate.

“Apparently decisions about the programme went up through every damned layer of BBC management, bureaucracy, legal checks – and still emerged,” he said.

“One of the jokes I made, and actually it wasn’t all that funny, when I came to the BBC … was that there were more senior leaders in the BBC than there were in the Chinese Communist Party.”

Patten ruled out resigning himself but other senior jobs are expected to be on the line, while BBC supporters fear investigative journalism will be scaled back. He said he expected to name Entwistle’s successor in weeks, not months.

Among the immediate challenges are threats of litigation.

McAlpine, a close ally of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, has indicated he will sue for damages.

Claims for compensation are also likely from victims who say Savile, one of the most recognizable personalities on British television in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, sexually abused them as children, sometimes on BBC premises.

INQUIRIES

Two inquiries are already under way, looking at failures at Newsnight and allegations relating to Savile, both of which could make uncomfortable reading for senior figures.

Police have also launched a major inquiry into Savile’s crimes and victims’ allegations of a high-profile paedophile ring. Detectives said they had arrested their third suspect on Sunday, a man in his 70s from Cambridgeshire in central England.

Funded by an annual license fee levied on all TV viewers, the BBC has long been resented by its commercial rivals, who argue it has an unfair advantage and distorts the market.

Murdoch’s Sun tabloid gleefully reported Entwistle’s departure with the headline “Bye Bye Chump” and Patten said News Corp and others would put the boot in, happy to deflect attention after a phone-hacking scandal put the newspaper industry under intense and painful scrutiny.

He said that “one or two newspapers, Mr. Murdoch’s papers” would love to see the BBC lose its national status, “but I think the great British public doesn’t want to see that happen”.

Murdoch himself was watching from afar.

“BBC getting into deeper mess. After Savile scandal, now prominent news program falsely names senior pol as paedophile,” he wrote on his Twitter website on Saturday.

It is not just the BBC and the likes of Entwistle and Patten who are in the spotlight.

Thompson, whom Entwistle succeeded in mid-September, has also faced questions from staff at the New York Times over whether he is still the right person to take one of the biggest jobs in American newspaper publishing.

Britain’s Murdoch-owned Sunday Times queried how Thompson could have been unaware of claims about Savile during his tenure at the BBC as he had told British lawmakers, saying his lawyers had written to the paper addressing the allegations in early September, while he was still director general.

(Editing by Kevin Liffey and Sophie Hares)

TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Study tentatively links flu in pregnancy and autism

Label: Health

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Kids whose mothers had the flu while pregnant were slightly more likely to be diagnosed with “infantile autism” before age three in a new Danish study. But the children’s overall risk for the developmental disorder was not higher than that of other kids.

Researchers said it’s possible that activation of a mother’s immune system – such as by infection with the influenza virus – could affect a fetus’s developing brain. But they urged caution with the new findings, especially because of statistical limitations in their number-crunching.

“I really want to emphasize that this is not something you should worry about,” said lead author Dr. Hjordis Osk Atladottir, from the University of Aarhus.

“Ninety-nine percent of women with influenza do not have a child with autism,” she told Reuters Health. “If it were me that was pregnant, I wouldn’t do anything different from before, because our research is so early and exploratory.”

Her team’s data came from a study that originally recruited more than 100,000 pregnant women in Denmark between 1996 and 2002. The women were called multiple times during their pregnancies, and once afterward, to ask about any new infections they had or medications they had taken.

The new report includes 96,736 kids born from that initial cohort who were between 8 and 14 years old at the time of the analysis.

Using a country-wide register of psychiatric diagnoses, Atladottir and her colleagues found that 1 percent of all kids were diagnosed with autism, including 0.4 percent with infantile autism – in which the main symptoms all show up before age three.

There was no link between a range of infections in pregnancy – including herpes, coughs and colds and cystitis – and the chance a baby would develop autism or infantile autism, according to the report published Monday in Pediatrics.

And among 808 women who reported having the flu while pregnant, there was no increased risk of autism in their children. However, seven of those babies, or 0.87 percent, were diagnosed with infantile autism, compared to the rate of 0.4 percent among kids in general.

There was also an increased – albeit sometimes borderline – risk of both autism and infantile autism in babies of women who had fevers for a week or more during pregnancy, as well as mothers who took some types of antibiotics.

Atladottir said there is some research in rodents suggesting women’s activated immune cells can cross the placenta and affect chemicals in a fetus’s brain. But how those findings apply to humans is still a question mark.

“It’s all very unsure now – we don’t really know anything,” she said.

In the United States, about one in 88 children is now diagnosed with autism or a related disorder.

One limitation of the new study, the researchers noted, is that they did 106 statistical tests comparing the risk of autism or infantile autism with various infections and drugs.

In medical research, a significant finding is typically considered one where there is less than a five percent likelihood the result would have occurred by chance.

But when so many calculations are done, scientists would expect that at least some would pass this test of significance, even if there is no real link between the pregnancy variables and autism.

In addition, women’s flu reports weren’t confirmed by doctors – and the frequency of mistaking the flu for another infection, or vice versa, is “likely to be considerable,” the researchers noted.

Because of those limitations, Atladottir said the findings could encourage future research, but shouldn’t be at the front of pregnant women’s minds.

“We don’t want to create panic,” she said.

Still, one expert who wasn’t involved in the new study thought the researchers were “soft peddling” their conclusions.

“It is highly recommended that women avoid infection during pregnancy, and there are a variety of very practical ways to decrease the likelihood of this,” Paul Patterson, who studies the immune system and brain development at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, told Reuters Health by email.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend all women get a flu vaccine during pregnancy – in part because serious flu complications are more common in pregnant women.

But, said Patterson, “It is also worth emphasizing that even though the risk (of infantile autism) is significantly increased, the risk is still quite low.”

SOURCE: http://bitly.com/kSEGVh Pediatrics, online November 12, 2012.

Medications/Drugs News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Japan’s economy shrinks 3.5 percent in 3rd quarter

Label: Business

TOKYO (AP) — Japan‘s economy contracted in July-September, its first contraction in three quarters, foiling hopes for a rebound and signaling to many economists it may already be in recession.

The minus 3.5 percent annual growth rate for the quarter reported Monday was in line with gloomy forecasts for the world’s third-largest economy, which has suffered as a territorial dispute with China hammered exports already weakened by feeble global demand.

Based on the most recent data, economists are forecasting a further decline in October to December, which would officially put Japan in recession, marked by two consecutive quarterly contractions.

The government also said Monday that consumer spending fell 0.5 percent as subsidies for auto purchases expired and corporate capital spending fell 3.2 percent. Spending on reconstruction from the country’s March 2011 disasters has also weakened.

The drop for the current quarter may not be as severe as that in July-September.

“How far is hard to tell,” said David Rea, an economist in London with Capital Economics, adding that the decline could be a couple of percentage points.

“If the economy does recover in any way it will be a minute rebound,” he said.

More than two decades after Japan’s asset bubble burst in the early 1990s, its policymakers have yet to devise an effective strategy to help the economy break out of its deflationary funk. Meanwhile, the Japanese yen remains stubbornly high, discouraging its companies from investing either at home or abroad and undermining its export competitiveness, especially against rivals Germany and South Korea.

Strangled by weak consumer spending and public investment, the economy grew at an anemic 0.7 percent annual pace in April-June, according to figures that were revised down by half from the originally reported 1.4 percent.

Until recently, the government was still forecasting growth at about 2 percent for the year. It earlier was predicting a turnaround late in the year, but the renewed tensions with China over disputed islands in the East China Sea, coupled with sluggish growth in Europe and other key export markets, have doused hopes for a significant rebound before 2013.

A slew of dismal recent data releases offers little encouragement.

Squeezed by surging costs for imported fuel and sinking exports, Japan’s current account surplus plunged to 2.72 trillion yen ($ 34 billion) in April-September, its lowest level since monthly data began in 1985, as the trade deficit surged.

Although Japan will likely continue to run current account surpluses for some time to come, its decline is a stark reminder of the country’s persisting reliance on exports to support its energy-intensive standard of living through massive imports of food, fuel and other resources.

Adding to the squeeze on pocketbooks from hikes in electricity rates, winter bonuses are falling by an average of 4 percent this year.

Machinery orders for September fell twice as fast as expected. Meanwhile, the job market weakened, likely hurting prospects for stronger consumer spending to help offset weak exports. Slower-than-anticipated government spending on reconstruction has further undermined demand.

Japan’s local governments are running short of funds as lawmakers dicker over legislation needed to authorize bonds to pay for deficit financing.

Though the government and opposition parties look likely to reach a compromise on financing that would avert Japan’s own version of a “fiscal cliff,” the standoff has done little to inspire confidence in the potential for a strong rebound, says Klaus Baader, a regional economist with Societe Generale Cross Asset Research in Hong Kong.

Economy News Headlines – Yahoo! News

BBC must reform or die, says Trust chairman

Label: World

LONDON (Reuters) – The BBC could be doomed unless it makes radical changes, the head of its governing trust said on Sunday, after its director general quit to take the blame for the airing of false child sex abuse allegations against a former politician.

Chris Patten, chairman of the BBC Trust, said confidence had to be restored if the publicly funded corporation was to withstand pressure from rivals, especially Rupert Murdoch‘s media empire, which would try to take advantage of the turmoil.

“The basis for the BBC’s position in this country is the trust that people have in it,” Patten said. “If the BBC loses that, it’s over.”

George Entwistle resigned as director general on Saturday, just two months into the job, to take responsibility for the child sex allegation on the flagship news programme Newsnight.

The witness in the report, who says he suffered sexual abuse at a care home in the late 1970s, said on Friday he had misidentified the politician, Alistair McAlpine. Newsnight admitted it had not shown the witness a picture of McAlpine, or approached McAlpine for comment before going to air.

The BBC, celebrating its 90th anniversary, is affectionately known in Britain as “Auntie”, and respected around much of the world.

THOMPSON’S LEGACY

One of the BBC’s most prominent figures, Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman, said since the Iraq report furore, management had become bloated while cash had been cut from programme budgets.

“He (Entwistle) has been brought low by cowards and incompetents,” Paxman said in a statement, echoing a widely-held view that Entwistle was a good man who had been let down by his senior staff.

Patten, who must find a new director general to sort out the mess, agreed that management structures had proved inadequate.

“Apparently decisions about the programme went up through every damned layer of BBC management, bureaucracy, legal checks – and still emerged,” he said.

“One of the jokes I made, and actually it wasn’t all that funny, when I came to the BBC … was that there were more senior leaders in the BBC then there were in the Chinese Communist Party.”

Among the immediate challenges are threats of litigation.

McAlpine, a close ally of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, has indicated he will sue for damages.

Claims for compensation are also likely from victims who say Savile, one of the most recognisable personalities on British television in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, sexually abused them as children, sometimes on BBC premises.

INQUIRIES

Two inquiries are already under way, looking at failures at Newsnight and allegations relating to Savile, both of which could make uncomfortable reading for senior figures.

Funded by an annual licence fee levied on all TV viewers, the BBC has long been resented by its commercial rivals, who argue it has an unfair advantage and distorts the market.

He said that “one or two newspapers, Mr. Murdoch’s papers” would love to see the BBC lose its national status, “but I think the great British public doesn’t want to see that happen”.

Murdoch himself was watching from afar.

“BBC getting into deeper mess. After Savile scandal, now prominent news program falsely names senior pol as paedophile,” he wrote on his Twitter website on Saturday.

It is not just the BBC and the likes of Entwistle and Patten who are in the spotlight.

(Editing by Kevin Liffey and Sophie Hares)

Europe News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Are Twitter’s Sports Trolls Out of Control?

Label: Technology

The Los Angeles Lakers — a star-stacked superteam with four potential Hall of Famers — have struggled out of the gate this NBA season, and many have placed the blame squarely on new head coach Mike Brown, who was fired on Friday after just five games. Fan frustration, however, reached an ugly crescendo earlier this week, with sports trolls using Twitter to threaten Brown’s teenage son, according to an Orange County Register report.

That’s just the latest in a seemingly increasing series of harassments and even death threats against sports figures. When NFL player Kyle Wilson was hit with death threats in January, the incident was perceived as — if not unprecedented — novel and shocking. Since then, reports of players being threatened on Twitter have become more and more common. Sportscaster Erin Andrews was a high profile victim less than three weeks ago, and posted this response:

[More from Mashable: Twitter Hacked? Here’s How to Protect Your Account]

The growing frequency and severity of sports trolling has raised a number of relevant questions: Have Twitter’s sports trolls gone too far? Can anything be done about them? And, if not, what are the consequences?

A Spiraling Culture of Abuse

Bill Voth, whose company Spiracle Media helps with social media for a number of colleges as well as NBA star Stephen Curry and Olympic gold medalist Ricky Berens, says he’s seen a rise in venomous, execrable behavior by fans on Twitter. He also believes it could eventually lead athletes and celebrities — who played an integral role in raising the microblogging network to its current omnipresence and popularity — to migrate away.

“It just seems like it’s every week now, and it’s gone from just small trolling to threats of physical harm,” he told Mashable. “Trolls are getting louder and more powerful, and I think ultimately this is one of the biggest threats to Twitter itself.”

In addition to physical threats, players regularly receive racial abuse and overly harsh criticism after injuries or disappointing performances. According to Voth, Curry was inundated with “dozens” of messages, many of them vulgar, each day while dealing with nagging ankle problems that forced him out of fantasy basketball lineups last season.

“This sounds cheesy, but these athletes and celebrities are humans too,” Voth says. “When you keep picking at them and sending them messages that they suck, it could get out of hand and eventually affect Twitter’s business model.”

There’s also the question of what would happen if crazed but, by all appearances, delusional and harmless online troll actually carried out a tweeted threat of physical harm. That would obviously raise the stakes and attention paid to harassment, but likely not have any direct effect on Twitter, according to Bradley Shear, an attorney who specializes in social media issues.

“It would be very difficult to hold Twitter and/or any other social media liable for death threats made on their platform,” Shear told Mashable in an email. “However, under the right set of facts, it is conceivable that a digital platform would be liable if they knew or should have known about a potential danger and they did not properly warn others.”

Anti-Troll Legislation

A Twitter spokesperson pointed to the company’s terms of abusive behavior and law enforcement guidelines, but also emphasized the notion that social media doesn’t motivate people to express feelings they don’t already have. The company says it follows up on every reported case of abuse, and works to facilitate law enforcement investigations when applicable. Twitter, however, has also long been vocal about its stance on not moderating content.

While it may seem repulsive in the United States, where freedom of speech is a sacred trope of national identity, trolls who harass athletes in England can be prosecuted and land in jail. In one high-profile case this summer, British diver Tom Daley outed a hateful abuser during the Olympics, and the troll was later arrested. In March a racist Twitter troll was sentenced to 56 days in jail.

Voth, for one, doesn’t rule out the possibility that similar legislation could eventually be a necessity stateside.

“It’s gone from bad to worse in just a year or two, so what’s it going to be like in another year or two?” he says. “Is this something where we need to pass laws against trolls?”

Do you think sports trolls — or Twitter trolls in general — are out of control, or just an unfortunate reality that can’t be dealt with? How would you like to see the issue addressed, either by Twitter or legally?

BONUS GALLERY: Our Favorite Sports Social Media Moments of 2012

1. Devin McCourty Tweets While Playing in the Super Bowl (Sort of)

As New England Patriot Devin McCourty took on the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI, his followers were still able to receive real-time updates from his social feeds. But he wasn’t sneaking tweets between plays or during timeouts. Devin and twin brother Jason, who plays for the Tennessee Titans, share their Twitter and Facebook accounts. The Super Bowl showcased one of the more creative approaches to social media in the sports world.

Image courtesy of Devin and Jason McCourty’s Instagram.

Click here to view this gallery.

Thumbnail image credit: Mashable composite, iStockphoto asiseeit

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Will Ferrell, Liam Neeson join voice cast for “Lego”

Label: Lifestyle

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Will Ferrell, Liam Neeson, Nick Offerman and Alison Brie have joined the voice cast for Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow’s “Lego: The Piece of Resistance,” Warner Bros. said on Friday.

Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett and Morgan Freeman were previously announced for the upcoming 3D animated feature. The first full-length Lego theatrical feature has a February 7, 2014 release date.

The story revolves around an average Lego figure (Pratt) who is mistakenly identified as having extraordinary abilities that would enable the character to save the world.

Ferrell will voice President Business, an enemy of the film’s hero, with Neeson as his powerful henchman, Bad Cop. Offerman is a pirate obsessed with revenge against the president.

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (“21 Jump Street,” “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs”) are directing from a script they wrote.

Ferrell, Neeson and Offerman all have films in current release: Ferrell in “Wreck-it Ralph,” Neeson in “Taken 2″ and Offerman in “Smashed.” Offerman is a regular on NBC’s “Parks & Recreation.”

The story was first reported by Deadline.com.

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Boehringer Ingelheim to start late-stage hepatitis C drug trial

Label: Health

BOSTON (Reuters) – Boehringer Ingelheim said on Saturday it plans to initiate a late-stage clinical trial of its experimental hepatitis C treatment following promising results from earlier studies.

The company announced final data from a mid-stage trial of its treatment regimen which showed that 69 percent of patients in the study were free of the virus 12 and 24 weeks following the end of treatment.

Hepatitis C is a blood-borne infectious disease of the liver that can lead to liver failure and transplant.

Historically, hepatitis C has been treated with pegylated interferon and ribavirin, but treatment lasts as long as 48 weeks and interferon is associated with flu-like side effects.

The goal of drugmakers now, including Boehringer, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc, Gilead Sciences Inc and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co is to develop products that do not need to be combined with interferon. Most analysts consider Gilead to currently be at the forefront of the race.

Full results from Boehringer’s trial, known as SOUND-C2, were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases in Boston. Preliminary data were presented earlier this year.

Boehringer’s trial tested a combination of BI-201335, a protease inhibitor, BI-207127, a polymerase inhibitor, and ribivirin.

Boehringer is a privately held company headquartered in Ingelheim, Germany.

(Reporting By Toni Clarke; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Chelsea’s first Abramovich profit

Label: Business

9 November 2012 Last updated at 09:32 ET

Chelsea Football Club has said it made a profit of £1.4m ($ 2.2m) for the financial year ending on 30 June, the first time the club has made a profit since Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich took over as owner in 2003.

The west London club also recorded a record group turnover of £255.7m.

The team, which won the Champions League last season as well as the FA Cup, are second in the Premier League.

The profit comes after a £67.7m loss in the previous financial year.

Chelsea says it is in a strong position to comply with UEFA’s Financial Fair Play criteria for the coming seasons, which require clubs over a fixed period to achieve a break-even figure when expenditure is measured against income from football-related activities.

The increase in turnover puts them above Arsenal in the money league and in fifth place in the world behind Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United and Bayern Munich.

Arsenal’s figure, released two months ago, saw overall turnover fall to £243m from £255m, but profits were £30.6m.

BBC business editor Robert Peston, a Gunners supporter, said that Chelsea’s profit “challenged Arsenal’s claim that its restrained spending will put it in a stronger position for financial fair play”.

‘Improving financial performance’

Club chairman Bruce Buck said: “We will never forget that night in Munich and now we are celebrating serious progress off the field, too.

Continue reading the main story

Football is only one of Mr Abramovich’s passions. He is also an art collector, a politician and, above all, a businessman”

End Quote

“While we draw huge satisfaction from the achievements of the past 12 months, we are more than ever focused on continuing the story of on-field success supported by improving financial performance off the pitch.”

Turnover was up from £225.6m the previous financial year.

“The club also enjoyed an uplift in revenues from commercial activities including new partners and merchandising,” a Chelsea statement said.

It added: “The club also negotiated a deal with BSkyB to acquire its interest in Chelsea Digital Media Ltd (the holder of certain Chelsea media rights). This deal allows the club to have full control of our digital media strategy.”

According to their statement Chelsea made “significant profits (£28.8m) …in the transfer market”.

However, there were a number of big-money signings during the year of the accounts – for example of Eden Hazard, for about £30m, Juan Mata (£23.5m) and Gary Cahill (£7m) – without any major sales of players.

Ten trophies

The Stamford Bridge club’s statement also said that debt of some £166.6m was turned into equity during the course of the year “making Chelsea FC plc debt free”.

Mr Abramovich took control of Chelsea in June 2003, when he bought the club from then-owner Ken Bates.

Since he took over the club has won ten major trophies – the Champions League, three Premier League titles, four FA Cups, and two League Cups.

In the year ending June 2005, Chelsea posted a record financial loss of £140m (€165m).

BBC News – Business

Twin explosions strike southern Syrian city

Label: World

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria‘s state-run news agency says two large explosions have struck the southern city of Daraa, causing multiple casualties and heavy material damage.

SANA did not immediately give further information or say what the target of Saturday’s explosions was.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the blasts went off near a branch of the country’s Military Intelligence in Daraa.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, says the explosions were followed by clashes between regime forces and rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad.

Middle East News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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