Oil falls to lowest level since July

The price of oil tumbled nearly 5 percent Wednesday, its biggest decline of the year, as traders shifted their focus back to the struggles of the global economy.

Benchmark oil fell $ 4.27 to finish at $ 84.44 per barrel in New York. It was the lowest price since July 10.

Hours after President Barack Obama won re-election, concerns about global economic growth re-emerged to dominate the oil market.

European leaders offered more warnings about the region’s economy, which has been saddled with a debt crisis for more than three years.

The European Union‘s executive arm predicted economic growth across the 27-country region would shrink 0.3 percent this year. In the 17 countries that use the euro, growth was expected to contract 0.4 percent. Unemployment is predicted to remain high into 2014.

That could further weaken oil demand in the region. According to the Energy Department, oil consumption in Europe fell to 14.1 million barrels per day in the third quarter from 14.7 million a year earlier.

In the U.S. the focus is turning to a package of tax increases and spending cuts known as the “fiscal cliff” that will take effect unless Congress acts by Jan. 1. Economists are warning of another recession if Congress and the Obama administration can’t strike a deal.

Meanwhile, the government reported another increase in supply last week, reminding traders that crude inventories are nearly 11 percent above year-ago levels while demand remains anemic.

“I think that right now, the economic uncertainty that has probably been a real dominant factor in the market in the past six months is still here,” Tradition Energy oil analyst Gene McGillian said.

He predicted that the price of benchmark oil would make small moves until there is a better idea of whether the U.S. will tackle its budget issues.

“I just don’t think you’re looking for a significant sell-off from these levels unless we see signs that the U.S. economy is really dropping back into recession And right now, that doesn’t seem like that’s in the cards,” he said.

Meanwhile, the national average price for gasoline remained at $ 3.46 per gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and the Oil Price Information Service. That’s nearly 36 cents less than it was a month ago but still about 6 cents higher than a year ago on this date.

Most analysts say motorists should continue to see prices drift lower through at least Thanksgiving.

In other trading, Brent crude fell $ 4.25, or 3.8 percent, to finish at $ 106.82 per barrel in London.

Other futures also fell in New York trading:

— Wholesale gasoline dropped 11 cents, or 4.1 percent, to end at $ 2.5889 per gallon.

— Heating oil dropped 9.08 cents, or 3 percent, to finish at $ 2.9621 per gallon.

— Natural gas dropped 3.9 cents to end at $ 3.578 per 1,000 cubic feet.

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Merkel says Germany, Britain must work together on EU

LONDON (Reuters) – Germany and Britain must cooperate to work round their differences on the European Union‘s long-term spending plans, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday.

“Despite differences that we have it is very important for me that the UK and Germany work together,” Merkel said through a translator before a meeting in London with Prime Minister David Cameron to discuss the EU‘s 2014-2020 budget.

“We always have to do something that will stand up to public opinion back home. Not all of the expenditure that has been earmarked has been used with great efficiency … We need to address that,” she said.

EU leaders meet in Brussels on November 22-23 to try to secure a seven-year budget for the 27-nation bloc amid signs of differences of opinion over what action should be taken.

(Reporting by Peter Griffiths; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

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VCast Closing Reveals Hidden Danger of “App Stores”

If you bought a smartphone from Verizon Wireless in the last couple of years, you may have noticed that it came with not one, but two app markets: the Google Play store (formerly known as the Android Market), and VCast, or Verizon Apps. VCast debuted in 2010 as an alternative app market which supported Verizon carrier billing, back when Google Play did not, and sold apps on Blackberry smartphones as well.

Now Verizon is closing the doors on the Verizon Apps store, as it’s just informed app developers. Verizon customers aren’t scheduled to be notified until January of next year, but work is already in progress behind the scenes to remove Verizon Apps from millions of smartphones. Once it’s removed, it will have unpleasant — and completely avoidable — consequences for some of Verizon’s customers.

How app stores work

Before app stores existed, buying “computer software” online was very much a do-it-yourself experience.

First, you had to find the store, which was sometimes no easy feat. Then you had to download and install it yourself, often with no guarantee that it’d actually run on your hardware. Finally, whenever your app got an update you’d either have to go download and install it all over again, or else be interrupted by that specific app’s updater (sort of like how Java and Flash do even today).

App stores changed all that

But they did so at a cost: Nearly all apps bought through Google Play and the iPhone’s App Store are affected by DRM, or Digital Rights Management software. This ostensibly makes apps harder to pirate, by tying your apps to your app store account and keeping you from making copies of them. But it also means that at any time, the company which runs the app store can kill your apps that you already purchased.

This can be a good thing

When Google discovered the “mother of all Android malware” on Google Play, it was able to kill the infected apps even on people’s devices, and clean things up very quickly. But on the other hand, this can also mean people losing their apps with no warning or explanation, like in Martin Bekkelund’s report of a person who lost her entire Kindle account and everything on it.

What about in Verizon’s case?

According to Verizon, “Apps that require a monthly license check will no longer work” after the Verizon Apps store is killed. It goes on to explain which apps this includes, and gives a list that encompasses pretty much every way to pay for an app. Anything on that list that you bought from Verizon Apps, simply won’t work pretty soon. Even if some of yours still work, you won’t be able to redownload them if you delete them, or put them on a new phone that you buy … unless, of course, you’re a hacker and know common techniques to defeat Verizon’s DRM.

Some people, of course, have already faced this … such as if they had to change their legal name and abandon an app store account linked to it, to escape being stalked or for other reasons. In that case, say goodbye to everything that you’ve purchased.

Does it have to be this way?

Popular game and app bundles, like MacHeist and the Humble Indie Bundle, sell apps which are DRM-free and can be copied to any device which can run them. There’s even a Humble Android updater, to keep your smartphone games up to date. Meanwhile, Linux “package managers” worked like app stores years before Apple’s, but were (and still are) often run by nonprofit organizations with democratically elected governing boards.

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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Broadway takes a big hit from Superstorm Sandy

NEW YORK (AP) — Superstorm Sandy, which darkened Broadway for four days, predictably ravaged the box offices around Times Square, with shows losing more than $ 8.5 million from the previous week.

The Broadway League, the national trade association for the Broadway industry, released data Tuesday that showed, as expected, all shows took a hit. One of the hardest hurt was the Matthew Broderick musical “Nice Work If You Can Get It,” which lost $ 538,853.

Since the storm actually affected two weeks of data, the League estimates that grosses managed just $ 33.66 million for that period, a drastic fall from the same time frame last year, where the box offices earned $ 42.2 million. Attendance also plunged 19 percent from the 10-year average.

The storm, which struck last Monday, forced all 40 Broadway theaters to shutter the night before. All shows were up and running by Thursday night, but the damage had been done, though few expect the pain to last.

“It will come back to its former life, there’s no question about it. Broadway is New York and everyone celebrates the theater in this city,” said Barry Weissler, who has been producing work on Broadway since 1982. “It’s catch-up time.”

Most shows on Broadway have eight performances a week, but Sandy forced many, including “The Phantom of the Opera,” ”The Heiress,” ”Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “Chicago” to put on just six shows. “Glengarry Glen Ross” and “Evita” only managed five shows. Altogether, 48 individual performances were canceled.

Other shows that took a beating include “Wicked,” which lost $ 490,996, though it still managed to pull in $ 1,166,275. The least hurt was “Rock of Ages,” which lost just $ 59,209.

Sandy joins other recent shocks to have rocked Broadway finances, including the Sept. 11 attacks, which shuttered theaters for two days, and Hurricane Irene in 2011 that wiped away a weekend’s revenue.

“Storms will not stop us, the terrible tragedy of 9/11 will not stop us. Theater will continue. It’s one of the oldest art forms known to man and it will continue,” said Weissler, who together with his wife, Fran, has produced such shows as “Grease,” ”Chicago” and “Annie Get Your Gun.”

The League said that the losses from Hurricane Irene were actually larger than for Sandy. Not only were 66 individual performances scrapped for Irene, but the storm struck during the busy summer, not the slower fall.

But Sandy may have hurt off-Broadway theaters more. The SoHo Rep and The Bank Street Theater lost power and had some flooding, while many other downtown theaters lost power, including the MCC Theatre and SoHo Playhouse. The Canal Park Playhouse canceled all November and December performances.

The infectious drumming show “Blue Man Group” was quieted, the immersive, genre-bending show “Sleep No More” was stilled, and The Public Theater was shut down for almost a week. The lobby at its home at Astor Place is now a collection site for post-Sandy supplies.

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Early sales of Vivus’s diet pill disappoint, shares slide

(Reuters) – Vivus Inc reported lackluster initial sales of its weight-loss pill Qsymia as a lack of reimbursement coverage prompted concerns about the drug’s adoption and dragged down shares of diet-drug makers.

Shares of Vivus were down 24 percent at $ 11.38 on Tuesday afternoon on the Nasdaq after recovering from an earlier low of $ 11.00.

Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc‘s shares were down 6 percent at $ 7.51, while those of Orexigen Therapeutics Inc were off 5 percent at $ 4.99.

Arena’s diet pill Belviq is set to launch early next year and Orexigen is planning a re-submission of the marketing application for its competing product, Contrave.

Earlier this year, Belviq and Qsymia became the first new diet pills to receive marketing in 13 years as pressure mounts on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve obesity treatments for some two-thirds of Americans who are considered overweight or obese.

Vivus recorded $ 41,000 in Qsymia sales since its launch on September 17 through the end of the month. Analysts on average had expected about $ 310,000, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company’s chief commercial officer Mike Miller flagged concerns over the drug’s lack of insurance coverage and said “about 30 percent of patients chose not to fill after receiving a (Qsymia) prescription due to cash outlay.”

“The average retail price for the patient for 30 days or the recommended dose is approximately $ 160,” Miller said on a post-earnings call.

“Currently, we are seeing one out of five (patients) being covered by third-party insurance with an average co-pay of $ 62.”

Robert Hazlett of Roth Capital Partners, who maintained his “neutral” rating on the stock, said reimbursement was an obstacle, but given that the company is in the very early stages of selling the drug, it can overcome these hurdles over time.

A total of 656 Qsymia prescriptions were shipped from certified network pharmacies in September. That number rose to 5,560 through the week of October 26.

Cowen & Co analyst Simos Simeonidis also said insurers will slowly start reimbursing obesity drugs over the next few months, following the example set by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which has started reimbursing weight-loss counseling.

“We continue to believe that in order for Qsymia to become a blockbuster, Vivus needs the help of a big pharma partner,” Simeonidis said in a note to clients, highlighting the importance of a large sales force.

Vivus’s shares saw much investor love during the period leading up to Qsymia approval in July, but have slid 30 percent since European health regulators rejected the drug in October, citing the potential for heart risks and birth defects related to its long-term use.

The company plans to appeal the decision and expects a fresh verdict in the first half of 2013.

(Reporting by Zeba Siddiqui in Bangalore; Editing by Maju Samuel)

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Accounts merged after name mix-up

6 November 2012 Last updated at 08:06 ET

Tens of thousands of pounds ended up in the wrong savings account following a mix-up over two customers with the same name and date of birth.

Insurance company Prudential mistakenly merged the records of the two customers in March 2007.

The mix-up, which continued for more than three years, resulted in large amounts of retirement savings ending up in the wrong account.

Prudential UK has been fined £50,000 by the Information Commissioner.

“This case would be considered farcical were it not for the serious sums of money involved,” said Stephen Eckersley, the commissioner’s head of enforcement.

A spokesman for the Prudential said that the confused names of the two savings customers were “not uncommon”. He apologised and said that the customers had been compensated.

But he added that the problem originated from a mistake by one of the customer’s financial advisers.

Years of inaccuracy

The two customers, who have not been identified, shared the same first name, the same surname, and the same date of birth.

This led to their two accounts being mistakenly merged by Prudential. It was 42 months later that the confusion was eventually resolved.

In the meantime, Prudential was told about the mistake on several occasions, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said.

Continue reading the main story

Inaccurate information on a customer’s record can have a significant impact on someone’s life”

End Quote Stephen Eckersley Information Commissioner’s Office

This included a letter from one of the customers involved in the mix-up pointing out that he had not changed his address for 15 years, so there was clearly a problem.

Warning

The fine imposed by the ICO related to the failure of the company to investigate fully when alerted to the problem.

It is the first penalty handed out by the ICO which does not relate to data being lost by an organisation.

Previous fines charged to other businesses have resulted from the loss of disks or memory cards containing customers’ information.

“In this case two customer files were consistently confused and the company failed to remedy the situation despite being alerted to the problem on more than one occasion before it was finally resolved,” said Mr Eckersley, of the ICO.

“While data losses may make the headlines, most people will contact our office about inaccuracies and other issues relating to the misuse of their information.

“Inaccurate information on a customer’s record, particularly when the record relates to an individual’s financial affairs, can have a significant impact on someone’s life.

“We hope this penalty sends a message to all organisations, but particularly those in the financial sector, that adequate checks must be in place to ensure people’s records are accurate.”

Prudential has now improved training for staff and updated its customer records processes, the ICO said.

A spokesman for the insurance company said: “We regret that this incident occurred and was not resolved more quickly. The circumstances surrounding this case are unique.

“The accidental merging of the two customers’ details was not the result of system or process failures. It originally happened when the financial adviser of the first customer mistakenly provided the address of the second customer to us and requested that we change the first customer’s registered address.

“We co-operated openly and fully with the review and we accept the fine imposed.”

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Officials: New mass graves found in Ivory Coast

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Up to 10 new mass graves have been discovered near the site of a July attack on a camp for displaced people, officials said Tuesday, amid allegations that initial casualty totals were downplayed to mask killings carried out by the national army.

Rights groups claim summary executions were carried out by the Republican Forces of Ivory Coast, known by its French acronym of FRCI. Last month, officials found six bodies in a well close to the former campsite in the western town of Duekoue.

Government, army and U.N. officials toured 10 more graves in the same area on Saturday, said Paul Mondouho, vice-mayor of Duekoue. He said the graves had first been identified by civilians, and that officials did not know the number of bodies they contained because they had not yet been properly exhumed.

“People were suspecting the presence of bodies in these graves because of the smell coming out of them and because of the shoes we saw nearby,” Mondouho said.

Prosecutor Noel Dje Enrike Yahau, who is based in the commercial capital of Abidjan, confirmed that multiple new graves had been discovered but could not provide details. U.N. officials and the local prosecutor in charge of investigating the suspected killings could not be reached Tuesday.

U.N. spokeswoman Sylvie van den Wildenberg confirmed that U.N. forces helped Ivorian authorities secure a perimeter around 10 wells “similar to the one in which six bodies were found,” and that “some of those wells are suspected mass graves.”

She stressed that Ivorian authorities were leading the investigation but that the U.N. was able to provide assistance.

Army spokesmen could not be reached Tuesday. The Justice Ministry has previously vowed to investigate the discovery of the initial grave.

On the morning of July 20, a mob descended on the U.N.-guarded Nahibly camp, which housed 4,500 people displaced by violence in Ivory Coast, burning most of the camp to the ground. Officials said at the time that six people were killed.

The attack was prompted by the shooting deaths of four men and one woman on the night of July 19, according to local officials and residents. In response a mob of some 300 people overran the camp on the morning of July 20 after the perpetrators of the shootings reportedly fled there.

The victims in the July 19 attack lived in a district dominated by the Malinke ethnic group, which largely supported President Alassane Ouattara in the disputed November 2010 election. The camp primarily housed members of the Guere ethnic group, which largely supported former President Laurent Gbagbo.

Gbagbo’s refusal to cede office despite losing the election to Ouattara sparked months of violence that claimed at least 3,000 lives.

Albert Koenders, the top U.N. envoy to Ivory Coast, said one week after the attack that U.N. security forces had been inside and outside the camp at the time but that no Ivorian security forces were present. He said the U.N. forces decided not to fire at a large group of people that were attacking the camp in order to avoid “a massacre.”

Several witnesses have said soldiers and traditional hunters, known as dozos, participated in the attack on the camp. Both military and dozo leaders have denied the claims, saying they had tried to protect the camp.

In a statement released Friday, the International Federation for Human Rights, known by its French acronym of FIDH, said it had information — including the preliminary results of autopsies — confirming that the six bodies found in October were men who had been summarily executed by the army.

“The disappearance of dozens of displaced persons after the attack, as well as confirmation of cases of summary and extra-judicial executions, suggest a much higher victim rate than the official figures report,” said the organization, which counts Ivorian civil society groups among its members.

Duekoue was one of the hardest-hit towns during the post-election violence. The U.N. has established that at least 505 people were killed in and around the town, including during a notorious March 2011 massacre that claimed hundreds of lives and was allegedly carried out by fighters loyal to Ouattara.

Duekoue residents belonging to ethnic groups that supported Gbagbo have long complained about abuses carried out by the FRCI, with some pointing to the direct involvement of the local commander, Kone Daouda. FIDH said in its statement that Daouda had been transferred following the discovery of the grave in October, and called for him to be interrogated over the matter.

The group also said two FRCI members were being “actively sought” after failing to return to their barracks on Oct. 16, noting that they are believed to have fled to neighboring Burkina Faso.

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Google says Apple patent lawsuit dismissed

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit by Apple Inc alleging that Google Inc-owned Motorola‘s patent licensing practices were unfair, Google said on Monday.

Apple had been set to square off against Motorola on Monday in a trial in U.S. District Court in Madison, Wisconsin, involving Google’s use of the library of patents it acquired along with Motorola for $ 12.5 billion in May.

“We’re pleased that the court has dismissed Apple’s lawsuit with prejudice,” a Google spokeswoman said in an emailed statement on Monday.

Dismissal of a case with prejudice means the case is over at the trial court level, though it can be appealed.

Apple could not immediately be reached for comment.

“Motorola has long offered licensing to our extensive patent portfolio at a reasonable and non-discriminatory rate in line with industry standards,” Google said in its statement. “We remain interested in reaching an agreement with Apple.”

(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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No Doubt apologize to Native Americans for Wild West video

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The Pop band No Doubt was forced to remove a new Wild West-themed music video and issue an apology after getting complaints from the Native American community, saying its intention was “never to offend, hurt or trivialize” their culture or history.

The Southern California band – made up of lead singer Gwen Stefani, guitarist Tom Dumont, bassist Tony Kanal and drummer Adrian Young – posted an apology on their official website on Saturday following the release of their latest video for the single “Looking Hot.”

“As a multi-racial band our foundation is built upon both diversity and consideration for other cultures. Our intention with our new video was never to offend, hurt or trivialize Native American people, their culture or their history,” the band said.

The video, which debuted on Friday, featured Stefani dressed in tribal garments as a Native Indian princess captured by Young and Dumont dressed as cowboys, while Kanal played a tribe chief who rescues Stefani.

Some users took to social media platforms to criticize the band’s use of tribal imagery, leading No Doubt to remove the video online, adding that “being hurtful to anyone is simply not who we are.”

“Although we consulted with Native American friends and Native American studies experts at the University of California, we realize now that we have offended people … We sincerely apologize to the Native American community and anyone else offended by this video,” they said.

“Looking Hot” is the second single from No Doubt’s latest album “Push and Shove,” their first studio release in a decade. The band initially rose to fame in the early 1990s in the new wave ska-punk scene and crossed over into pop with hits such as “Don’t Speak” and “Just A Girl.”

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Paul Simao)

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Multivitamins don’t cut heart disease risk in men – study

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Taking a daily multivitamin does not reduce the risk of heart disease for older men, according to data from a large study presented on Monday.

About half of U.S. adults take at least one daily dietary supplement, the most popular being a multivitamin, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The U.S. Physicians Health Study II monitored nearly 15,000 male doctors aged 50 and older for more than 10 years. Participants were randomly assigned to take a multivitamin or a placebo.

“We found that after more than a decade, there is neither benefit nor risk,” in terms of cardiovascular disease, said Dr. Howard Sesso, study author and associate epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Researchers reported last month that the same trial showed that a daily multivitamin reduced the men’s overall risk of cancer by 8 percent.

“We still feel very comfortable with the conclusions for the cancer findings,” Dr. Sesso said. “The lack of effect for cardiovascular disease versus cancer benefit isn’t necessarily inconsistent. There could be a difference in mechanism of effect.”

The findings were presented in Los Angeles at the American Heart Association scientific meeting and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“It is hard for us to recommend, at this point in time, taking a multivitamin to avoid cardiovascular disease,” Dr. Sesso said, noting that patients need to discuss all over-the-counter medicines with their doctors.

He said patients often view multivitamins as a “quick fix,” which can lead them to let up on other efforts to improve their health.

“The danger of taking multivitamins is that it will lead you to think you can forgo other lifestyle changes,” such as not smoking and maintaining a healthy diet, said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, associate professor in the department of epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health.

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and with a grant from BASF Corp. The multivitamins and packaging were provided by BASF, Pfizer Inc and DSM Nutrition Products.

“Many patients think that because they are getting an OTC (over-the-counter) medication it is safe and the risk of complications is low,” said Dr. Elliott Antman, chairman of the AHA Scientific Sessions Committee and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. “That appears to be right, but we still need to remind them of the need for lifestyle changes.”

Two other studies involving Omega-3 fatty acids derived from fish oil that were presented at the meeting on Monday also failed to help specific heart conditions.

In one, taking fish oil for a year failed to limit recurrent symptomatic atrial fibrillation, a type of irregular heartbeat that significantly raises the risk of stroke.

In the other trial, short term use of fish oil failed to decrease incidence of atrial fibrillation that commonly occurs after patients undergo heart surgery.

Dr. Peter Wilson, from the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta who was not involved in the studies, was disappointed by the results.

Every time we’ve looked at Omega-3, he said, “we’ve come up short. It’s very discouraging.”

(Reporting By Deena Beasley and Bill Berkrot; Editing by Stacey Joyce, Bernard Orr)

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