More than 30 Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine guns and M1911 pistols that had been stored at the training facility were stolen, Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman Karen Rayner said.The weapons had been altered to fire blanks, and it would be “difficult” — although not impossible — to convert them back to full use, she said.”If somebody knew what they were doing, it would be rather labor intensive but it is possible to get them fully functional again,” Rayner said.The guns were discovered missing last week after they were kept overnight in a warehouse without cameras or alarms on the SWAT training grounds, Rayner said. She said there have so far been no arrests in the case or leads in the recovery effort.Police were considering the possibility of the theft being an inside job, Commander Andrew Smith told a news conference to announce the thefts.”It’s embarrassing,” Smith said. “Once in a while we’ll have a police car get stolen. That’s certainly embarrassing, and any time we lose any of our property it’s embarrassing and we want to get it back.”
* Could be first drug-coated stent for peripheral arteriesOct 13 (Reuters) - U.S. health advisers on Thursday
unanimously backed a new Cook Medical stent coated with a
common cancer-fighting drug to treat clogged arteries in the
thighs.A panel of outside experts to the Food and Drug
Administration said the Zilver PTX stent was safe and effective
for keeping blood vessels above the knee free from plaque.The device could become the first drug-coated stent to
treat peripheral arteries in the U.S. market if the FDA follows
the recommendation of the panel, which it is not required to
do.Privately-held Cook Medical, based in Bloomington, Indiana,
competes against device makers such as Boston Scientific and Covidien , which also make leg stents, in a
stent market estimated at $5 billion worldwide.Stents are tiny mesh-like tubes used to prop open arteries
that have been cleared of blockages from plaque, a build-up of
cholesterol, fatty deposits and scar tissue.”This hasn’t really been about bringing a product to
market; it’s been about bringing a new option to patients,”
David Timlin, distinguished regulatory affairs advisor at
Medtronic Surgical Technologies and the industry
representative on the panel, said at the meeting, which was
webcast.”It’s just a prime example of how things should work,
especially in an environment where industry and the FDA are
sometimes adversarial,” he said, echoing generally glowing
reviews from panel members.The most commonly used drug-coated stents are placed in
heart arteries following angioplasty procedures, when doctors
open clogged arteries with an inflated balloon.The Cook Medical stent is coated with paclitaxel, an
anti-cancer drug. The drug is used to help prevent re-clogging
of the artery by inhibiting the growth of scar tissue.The device was approved for sale in Europe in 2009.The Zilver PTX stent is meant to treat peripheral arterialdisease, which according to the company affects about 30
million people a year. The disease develops when arteries
outside the heart build up plaque, causing them to narrow and
restrict blood flow.Patients with the disease may have pain when walking, sores
or ulcers, or weakness in the legs. Total loss of circulation
can lead to gangrene and limb amputation, although that is
rare.
The programing deal, for shows from the current schedule through 2014-15 season, is the latest in a string of deals Netflix has been reaching to bulk up its streaming service and convert more subscribers from its more costly DVD mail delivery service.Programmers had initially appeared hostile to what appeared to be Netflix’s threat to the lucrative cable TV programing ecosystem but have recently been reaching new deals. Warner Bros. is owned by Time Warner Inc, whose chief executive Jeff Bewkes had been one of Netflix’s loudest critics until a few months ago.In the past few months Netflix has reached programing deals with Lions Gate Entertainment Corp and Sony Pictures Entertainment for award-winning shows “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad”, as well AMC Networks for “Walking Dead” and other shows.The new deals with Netflix appear to have tighter restrictions such as when they can first be shown, for example.In The CW pact, older-season episodes of some shows, including “One Tree Hill” and “Nikita”, will available October 15 while others are set for January.But episodes of all scripted shows of The CW this season will only be available to Netflix subscribers in the fall of 2012. Other shows through 2014-15 will have about a year’s delay before running on Netflix.Netflix has inked the CW deal in the wake of a major fallout with its subscribers after a series of missteps by Chief Executive Reed Hastings in the last few months.Last week, in response to a subscriber uproar, Netflix was forced to drop a plan to split off its DVD business with a new Qwikster brand.Before that the company had already raised its prices by 60 percent for many customers who want to get both online streaming and DVDs, leading to hundreds of thousands of subscribers dropping the service.Netflix shares have dropped more than 60 percent since early July when it first announced the price hikes.Netflix shares rose 2.7 percent to $116.75 on Nasdaq at mid-afternoon.
* EFSF can be approved in repeated vote if cabinet falls* Slovakia is last euro zone nation to vote on EFSF dealBy Michael Winfrey and Martin SantaBRATISLAVA, Oct 11 (Reuters) - A Slovak ruling party said it
would abstain on Tuesday from a vote on expanding the euro
zone’s EFSF rescue fund, forcing the government to turn to
opposition parties to push through a deal agreed by the currency
bloc to contain the Greek debt crisis.The prospect of further delays to the ratification of EFSF
expansion, which has already been approved by the other 16 euro
zone countries, hit markets already under pressure from signs
that the crisis is spilling beyond Greece’s borders.Even as Slovakia wrangles over giving a green light to the
July agreement, euro zone leaders are scrambling to give the 440
billion euro safety net greater clout to staunch contagion that
has begun to seep into the rest of the currency area.Slovak Prime Minister Iveta Radicova put her government on
the line by tying a vote on the size and powers of the European
Financial Stability Facility to a confidence motion on her
cabinet in a session that was underway in the afternoon.Even if Radicova loses the vote, as looked likely, she and
two of her ruling coalition partners say they will be able to
produce a majority for ratification of the EFSF deal by
obtaining the support of the largest opposition party.”There is an assumption that the EFSF, one way or the other,
will be approved by the end of the week,” Finance Minister Ivan
Miklos, who supports the measure, told parliament before the
vote.The leftist Smer party led by former Prime Minister Robert
Fico has said it would be receptive — in exchange for major
concessions including a cabinet reshuffle or early elections.The fourth ruling party, Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), said
it would abstain from the ballot. It argues that, as one of the
poorest members of the single currency club, Slovakia should not
pay for the debts racked up by more affluent countries.”I consider the tying of the bailout ratification vote to a
confidence vote in the government as blackmail,” SaS leader
Richard Sulik said. “These are things that severely damage
Slovakia. Slovakia is not responsible for saving the world.”Parliament can submit the ratification to repeated ballots
once Radicova has struck a deal with the Smer party.”We are ready to talk to political parties seeking approval
of the EFSF. But let’s wait, this government is facing a test
now,” Fico told reporters.VOTING BREAKDOWNBy withholding 21 of the ruling coalition’s 77 votes, SaS
would prevent the government from mustering a majority in the
150-seat chamber. With Smer’s 62 seats, however, Radicova should
easily see the measure through.Radicova said last week she was personally committed to
ratify the agreement by Oct. 14 ahead of a meeting of euro zone
leaders originally planned for the weekend. That meeting has now
been pushed back to Oct. 23.The timing for a second ratification vote — if the new vote
fails as expected — is not clear, but a senior Smer leader said
there would be no delay.”We are confident that the EFSF expansion will be approved
as soon as possible,” Deputy Chairman Peter Kazimir said.Trepidation over the Slovak vote showed in markets on
Tuesday. European shares fell after a four-day rally while the
euro dipped but held in positive territory for the week after
hopes for a solution to the debt crisis sparked a squeeze of
short positions in the currency.Sulik said he understood markets welcomed when governments
poured people’s money into the private sector to save
institutions that should go bust, but this approach had to be
resisted even if markets fall.”We simply must not be afraid of this,” he said. “When
bourses fall and shares go down, let them. They will be cheaper
and more people will buy them. This is called supply and
demand.”A poll showed on Monday almost half of Slovaks support
expanding the euro zone safety net, versus 36 percent against,
and many cringe at the idea that Bratislava could help trigger a
new global economic downturn like the one that sent the
export-dependent country into recession two years ago.But with Slovak salaries averaging just 780 euros a month —
just a touch above Greece’s 750 euro minimum wage — many people
in the country of 5.4 million bridle at the thought of footing
the bill for overspending in Athens, Dublin or Rome.While Slovakia has been dragging its feet on the EFSF
approval, euro zone leaders are discussing further action.Germany and France, the leading powers in the bloc, have
promised to propose a comprehensive strategy to fight the debt
crisis at the EU summit, and there is a growing acceptance that
a second Greek bailout agreed in July along with the EFSF
expansion may not be sufficient.A rush is now on to further beef up the rescue fund and
shore up banks. European Central Bank President Jean Claude
Trichet said on Tuesday the crisis had become systemic and could
threaten global economic stability.The EFSF pact would increase its coffers, allow it to buy
bonds from the market to support countries under attack by
markets, bail out members who need funding and help them prop up
failing banks.Once Slovakia’s parliament ratifies it, lawmakers must then
approve domestic legislation to implement the deal — an issue
analysts say should not pose a problem once Radicova secures the
necessary support.
With rumors swirling that their six-year union is on the skids, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher spent the weekend silencing the gossips with three days of worship, communing with nature, and other no-doubt adorable activities, E! Online reports.The May/mid-October power couple proved their togetherness Friday night at the Los Angeles Kabbalah Center, where they attended Yom Kippur services. While the pair sat across the aisle from each other due to the Centre’s regulations, the pair left with each other.And their appearance together was no fluke.E! further reports that the pair spent Sunday at Cachuma Lake in California’s majestic Santa Ynez Valley, where they camped with an entourage that included Kutcher’s brother Michael and florist Eric Buterbaugh, who handled the flowers at the pair’s wedding.A photo of the couple during their weekend excursion which made the rounds Monday depicts Kutcher and Moore sitting around a campfire.The couple have been hounded by rumors of infidelity and estrangement lately, particularly after they spent their sixth wedding anniversary on separate coasts last month, with Moore promoting her movie “Five” in New York and Kutcher partying with former “That ’70s Show” castmate Danny Masterson at San Diego nightclub The Fluxx — after which, rumors began to surface that Kutcher spent the night with San Diego blonde Sara Leal.While neither Kutcher or Moore have directly addressed the rumors about their marriage, recently they seem to have obliquely referred to the scuttlebutt via their respective Twitter accounts, with Kutcher semi-cryptically tweeting, “When you ASSUMME to know that which you know nothing of you make an ASS out of U and ME.”
