Allscripts to evaluate strategic alternatives

(Reuters) – Healthcare IT firm Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc said it is evaluating strategic alternatives, sending its shares up 10 percent in extended trade.

“We are confirming today that in light of the ongoing interest expressed in the company by third parties, the company is evaluating strategic alternatives,” Allscripts Chief Executive Glen Tullman said.

The company, which reported a lower third-quarter profit on Friday, had spoken to several private equity firms including Blackstone Group LP, Bloomberg reported in September.

The company faced shareholder activism earlier this year, when its largest investor, HealthCor Management, demanded the resignation of Allscripts chief executive.

Allscripts agreed to nominate three of the investor’s candidates to its board in early June.

The company said it is withdrawing its forecast for 2012 in light of its decision to evaluate strategic alternatives. It had forecast adjusted earnings of between 77 cents and 83 cents per share in August.

Allscripts’s net income fell to $ 9.4 million, or 5 cents per share, in the third quarter, from $ 19.1 million, or 10 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, earnings were 23 cents per share.

Total revenue fell nearly 1 percent to $ 360.7 million.

Analysts expected a profit of 22 cents per share on revenue of $ 377.01 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Shares of the Chicago-based company closed at $ 12.26 on Thursday on the Nasdaq.

(This story corrected paragraph six to say earnings outlook was between 77-83 cents per share, not 74-80 cents per share)

(Reporting By Pallavi Ail in Bangalore; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Giffords to shooter: 'Done thinking about you'

Former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords looked in the eyes of the man who shot her today and, through her husband, said she is now "done thinking about you."

Giffords was sitting in the second row of the courtroom with her husband, ex-astronaut Mark Kelly and she stretched to get a better view of Jared Loughner when he entered the courtroom.

She later stood alongside her husband astronaut Mark Kelly to deliver a victim impact statement. She was one of several of Loughner's victims who spoke about the day when he opened fire at one of Giffords street corner meetings, killing six and injuring 13.

Speaking on her behalf, Kelly addressed Loughner and both and he and his wife, known as Gabby, faced Loughner. The formrer congresswoman has difficulty speaking and is partially paralyzed because of her head wound.

To learn more about this story, including exclusive interviews with Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly, Click HERE.

"You may have put a bullet through her head, but you haven't put a dent in her spirit," Kelly told Loughner.

Kelly kept telling Loughner, "Jared, pay attention to this" during his statement.

"You tried to create for all of us a world as dark and evil as your own. But know this, and remember it always: You failed," Kelly said.

Following the sentencing hearing, Kelly gave an exclusive interview to ABC's Diane Sawyer, in which he said he and Giffords now had "some sense of resolution. Not exactly closure, but it is resolution."

Loughner, he said, was "a little defiant in the way looking at us and looking at Gabby. I got the sense he was trying to intimidate us, especially my wife."

Ross D. Franklin/AP Photo

Gabby Giffords Resigns, Revisits Shooting Site Watch Video

Gabrielle Giffords' Pledge of Allegiance Moves DNC Watch Video

Jared Loughner Pleads Guilty: Gabby Giffords Weigh In Watch Video

Giffords stared into Loughner's eyes while her husband addressed the court.

"She stared into his eyes the entire time. I saw a person [Loughner] who certainly has major mental illness, but who knew where he was and why he was there," Kelly said.

Loughner, 24, was given seven life prison sentences without parole plus 140 years. He pleaded guilty in a deal that allowed him to avoid the possibility of a death sentence.

Click HERE, for Mark Kelly's full statement.

Kelly saved some of his ire for Arizona's politicians calling their leadership "lacking" and Gov. Jan Brewer "feckless," for their refusal to address gun control. The state legislature, he said, named an official state hand gun just weeks after the shooting.

Before concluding his statement in court, Kelly also said to Loughner, "Know this, Gabby and I are done thinking about you."

Several other of Loughner's victims also gave emotional statements in court this morning about how Loughner's shooting spree impacted their lives.

"You pointed a weapon at me and shot me," Susie Hidelman, who was shot three times while trying to save her 9-year-old neighbor, told Loughner in court this morning. "I will walk out of this courtroom and into my life and I will not think of you again," she said.

Mavy Stoddard, who was shot three times and whose husband collapsed on top of her after being shot, said: "When you shot my precious husband Dorwans Stoddard, you ruined my life."

"Somehow, when you shot him, I got out from under him. ... I was screaming, 'Oh God, oh God, help me,'" she said. "I said to him, 'Breathe deeply,' and he did. Therefore, I believe that he heard me say, 'I love you.'"

"You took away my life my love my reason for living," she told a rapt courtroom.

Loughner chose not to speak at today's hearing. When asked by Judge Larry Burn if he understood he has a right to make a statement, Loughner responded "Yes, sir" in a long monotone.

Following the shooting, Loughner was diagnosed with schizophrenia and is under orders to forcibly receive anti-psychotic medication.

Many of the victims welcomed his decision to accept a federal plea bargain and avoid a lengthy trial. It remains unknown whether state prosecutors will try him anyway and seek the death penalty.

Loughner is currently being held at a prison medical facility in Missouri.

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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)

Europe News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Apple slides to five-month low, uncertainty grows

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Phase 4 Films Acquires “Precious” Producer’s Directorial Debut “Long Time Gone”

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Phase 4 Films has acquired U.S. and Canadian rights to Sarah Siegel-Magness‘ “Long Time Gone,” a drama starring Virginia Madsen, Amanda Crew and Zach Gilford.

Connecticut resident who has a nervous breakdown after discovering her husband is having an affair. Her son tries to comfort her with the help of his older brother (Gilford) and live-in girlfriend (Crew).

Anthony LaPaglia and Eva Longoria also star in the directorial debut of Siegel-Magness, who produced “Precious.”

“We are thrilled to be working with Sarah on her directorial debut after her past success as a producer,” Phase 4 president and CEO Ben Meyerowitz said in a statement. “We cannot wait until audiences see the great performances by Virginia Madsen and the rest of the wonderful cast involved.”

Phase 4 will release the film day-and-date in theaters and across all VOD and digital platforms Spring 2013.

“I am thrilled to have Phase 4 release my directorial debut. From the very start, they understood and appreciated our film and their enthusiasm has us very excited to move forward in the next chapter of our film’s journey,” Siegel-Magness said in a statement. “Their understanding of the ever changing landscape of the marketplace has us feeling confident that our film is in the right hands.”

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Mass. pharmacy board director fired

BOSTON (AP) — The director of the Massachusetts pharmacy board has been fired for ignoring a complaint that a company linked to a deadly meningitis outbreak was violating its license by shipping drugs in bulk.

The Colorado pharmacy board complained about the New England Compounding Center in July, before the third of three batches of tainted steroids tied to the outbreak was shipped in August. A spokesman said state investigators are still looking into any sickness or deaths related to that third batch.

After receiving the report, director James D. Coffey told Colorado officials that the Board of Registration in Pharmacy would “respond as soon as possible following a thorough analysis of (the report).”

Coffey forwarded the complaint to the board’s attorney, Susan Manning, who also failed to act, state officials said.

The two didn’t notify leadership at the state Department of Public Health about the Colorado complaint, which investigators discovered last weekend while sifting through Coffey’s emails, said Massachusetts Office of Health and Human Services spokesman Alec Loftus.

Coffey was fired Tuesday; Manning has been placed on administrative leave. Their replacements have not been publicly announced.

Massachusetts Interim Public Health Commissioner Dr. Lauren Smith said it was ultimately Coffey’s duty as board director to initiate an investigation.

She called it “incomprehensible” that Coffey and Manning did nothing, especially given past problems at the NECC.

“I … expect the staff charged with oversight to perform their duties to the highest standards,” Smith said. “That failed to happen here.”

Efforts to contact Coffey and Manning for comment were not successful.

Compounding pharmacies custom-mix drugs in doses or forms that generally aren’t commercially available.

A contaminated steroid produced at the New England Compounding Center and used mainly to treat back pain has been linked to a fungal meningitis outbreak that has spread to 19 states, sickening more than 400 people, including 31 who died.

In September, the company recalled three batches of steroids, totaling 17,676 single-dose vials of medicine, made since May.

The NECC, located in Framingham, outside Boston, was authorized by its state license only to fill specific prescriptions for individual patients.

Pharmacies that produce drugs in bulk are subject to federal oversight, and state officials have accused the NECC of masking its true nature as a drug manufacturer to escape more stringent regulation.

Colorado officials first dealt with the company in April 2011, when the board there issued a cease-and-desist order for the NECC, ordering it to stop “the unlawful distribution of prescription drugs in the state of Colorado.” The order came after an inspector discovered NECC drugs stored for general use at a hospital in Lone Tree, Colo., near Denver.

Then in July, another inspector found bulk quantities of other NECC-made drugs at a hospital in St. Delta, Colo.

After confirming with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that the NECC was not registered as a drug manufacturer, the Colorado officials emailed Coffey.

The NECC has been closed since early last month, and Massachusetts officials have taken steps to permanently revoke its license. Federal and state investigators have found evidence of unsanitary conditions and practices at the company, and federal investigators are conducting a criminal investigation.

A company spokesman has said it was always NECC’s intent to obey the law in every state in which it was licensed.

Medications/Drugs News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Latino groups to Obama: You owe us

Voters in a polling place in East Los Angeles on Tuesday (David McNew/Getty Images)

In initially off-the-record comments to the Des Moines Register's editors in October, President Barack Obama said that if he won re-election, he would owe it to Latinos.

"Should I win a second term," Obama said, "a big reason I will win a second term is because the Republican nominee and the Republican Party have so alienated the fastest-growing demographic group in the country, the Latino community."

Exit polls show the president's prediction was on the mark.

The national exit poll estimated that about 10 percent of those who voted in the presidential election identified as Hispanic, marking Latinos' highest-ever share of the electorate. Latinos backed Obama over challenger Mitt Romney a resounding 71 to 27 percent.

Gary Segura, a pollster for Latino Decisions and a professor at Stanford University, told reporters on Wednesday that he believes the exit poll understated Latinos' support for Obama by 4 points, and that the president actually won 75 percent of their vote.

Segura estimates that Latinos gave Obama an extra 2.3 percentage points in the popular vote. If Romney had managed to nab just 35 percent of Latinos, he would have won the popular vote, Segura said. (President George W. Bush captured at least that share of Latinos in 2000 and 2004, showing Republicans are backsliding with the group.)

Leaders of immigrant rights and Latino groups told reporters in a conference call on Wednesday that Obama owes his second term to Latino voters, and should repay them by passing comprehensive immigration reform. Obama promised to pass a law legalizing many of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the country while he campaigned four years ago, and he's been chastised by Latino leaders for breaking his promise.

"Obama is going to return to the White House more energized to take these issues seriously," said Ben Monterroso, the director of Mi Familia Vota, a national organization that encourages Latinos to vote.

Eliseo Medina, secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union, said Latino voters had sent a message to Obama. "We expect leadership on comprehensive immigration reform in 2013," he said. "To both sides we say: 'No more excuses.'"

The heavy pro-Obama Latino vote also sends a message to the Republican Party, which needs to make inroads in the fast-growing Hispanic community to survive. Ana Navarro, a Miami-based Republican political strategist who had warned Republicans to take a softer tone on immigration if they wanted to win the election, wrote on Twitter that gaining only 27 percent of the Latino vote is a "disgrace."

Most Latino voters said in the Latino Decisions poll that the most important issues to them in this election were the economy and jobs. Thirty-five percent of the voters listed immigration reform as their key issue.

"Our party needs to realize that it's too old and too white and too male, and it needs to figure out how to catch up with the demographics of the country before it's too late," Al Cardenas, the head of the American Conservative Union, told Politico. "Our party needs a lot of work to do if we expect to be competitive in the near future."

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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.

Africa News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Exclusive - Amazon to win EU e-book pricing tussle with Apple

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union regulators are to end an antitrust probe into e-book prices by accepting an offer by Apple and four publishers to ease price restrictions on Amazon, two sources said on Tuesday.

That decision would hand online retailer Amazon a victory in its attempt to sell e-books cheaper than rivals in the fast-growing market publishers hope will boost revenue and increase customer numbers.

"Faced with years of court battles and uncertainty I can understand why some of these guys decided to fold their cards and take the whipping," said Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, an ebook publisher and distributor that works with Apple.

"It's certainly another win for Amazon," he added. "I have not seen the terms of the final settlement, but my initial reaction is that it places restrictions on what publishers can do, slowing them down just when they need to be more nimble."

A spokesman at the EU Commission said its investigation was not yet finished. Amazon and Apple declined to comment.

In September, Apple and the publishers offered to let retailers set prices or discounts for a period of two years, and also to suspend "most-favored nation" contracts for five years.

Such clauses bar Simon & Schuster, News Corp. unit HarperCollins, Lagardere SCA's Hachette Livre and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, the owner of German company Macmillan, from making deals with rival retailers to sell e-books more cheaply than Apple.

The agreements, which critics say prevent Amazon and other retailers from undercutting Apple's charges, sparked an investigation by the European Commission in December last year.

Pearson Plc's Penguin group, which is also under investigation, did not take part in the offer.

The EU antitrust authority, which in September asked for feedback from rivals and consumers about the proposal, has not asked for more concessions, said one of sources.

"The Commission is likely to accept the offer and announce its decision next month," the source said on Tuesday.

Antoine Colombani, spokesman for competition policy at the European Commission, said: "We have launched a market test in September and our investigation is still ongoing."

Amazon declined to comment, while Apple did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Companies found guilty of breaching EU rules could be fined up to 10 percent of their global sales, which in Apple's case could reach $15.6 billion, based on its 2012 fiscal year.

AGGREGATE PRICING

UBS analysts estimate that e-books account for about 30 percent of the U.S. book market and 20 percent of sales in Britain but are minuscule elsewhere. When Amazon launched its Kindle e-reader, it charged $9.99 per book.

Apple's agency model let publishers set prices in return for a 30 percent cut to the maker of iPhone and iPad.

The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating e-book prices. HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Hachette have settled, but Apple, Pengin Group and Macmillan have not.

The DOJ settlement required that retailers must at least break even selling all ebooks from a publisher's available list, according to Coker and Joe Wikert, general manager and publisher at O'Reilly Media Inc.

It was not clear if EU regulators will include a similar requirement, which would prohibit Amazon from pricing all ebooks at a loss, said Wikert, a former publishing executive.

In the United States, Amazon will likely price popular titles at a loss and try to make up the difference on a publisher's other ebooks, he said.

Coker said any such rule could be dangerous in Europe, which still has distinct markets.

"It could allow a single retailer to charge full price in a large market like the U.K., and then sell below cost or for free in multiple smaller markets as a strategy to kill regional ebook retailing upstarts before they take root," Coker said.

FROWNING ON ONLINE TRADE CURBS

Antitrust regulators tend to frown on restrictions on online trade and the case is a good example, said Mark Tricker, a partner at Brussels-based law firm Norton Rose.

"This case shows the online world continues to be a major focus for the Commission," he said.

"These markets change very quickly and if you don't stamp down on potential infringements of competition rules, you can have significant consequences."

(Additional reporting by Alistair Barr in San Francisco; Editing by Rex Merrifield, David Goodman and David Gregorio)

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Controversial “SEAL Team Six” Film Gives Nat Geo Highest Ratings in a Year

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – “SEAL Team Six: The Raid on Osama bin Laden” might have drawn cries of partisan bias, but despite the controversy – or perhaps because of it – the film about the killing of the terrorist leader yielded big numbers with its premiere on National Geographic Channel on Sunday night, handing the network its best ratings in more than a year, and the sixth-highest ratings in the network’s history.

Sunday’s premiere of “Seal Team Six,” which was initially slated for theatrical release before getting snapped up by National Geographic Channel, posted a 1.4 rating in the 25-54 demographic – four times the network’s average in the Sunday 8 to 10 p.m. timeslot this season. In total viewers, the military dramatization drew 4.7 million people, with an average 2.7 million tuning in throughout the premiere.

“SEAL Team Six” posted the highest performance in the demographic since the August 2011 special “George W. Bush: The 9/11 Interview,” which drew a 1.7 in the 25-54 demo.

“We are overwhelmed that viewers across the country responded en masse to this socially relevant, factually based and entertaining film that highlighted the real inside story behind the manhunt for bin Laden and the heroes in our military and intelligence agencies,” said David Lyle, CEO National Geographic Channels. “It proved that no matter who Americans are planning to vote for, a good film is a good film, and we are happy to have had such success with our first original broadcast of a feature film inspired by real-life events.”

The film’s premiere date – just two days before the election – drew suspicion from some of the more conspiracy-minded segments of the population, who suggested that the premiere might have been planned to boost President Barack Obama‘s chances in the election by reminding the public of one of his major accomplishments during his first term. The criticism was fueled by the fact that unabashed Obama supporter Harvey Weinstein served as an executive producer on the film.

The network denied the allegations, with Lyle telling TheWrap last month, “The movie itself is its own defense; it’s a perfectly straightforward dramatization of what happened.”

TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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