Apple Profits Up As Jobs Takes Medical Leave

11:20pm UK, Tuesday January 18, 2011

Adam Arnold and Lorna Blount, Sky News Online

Apple says its latest profits were $6bn - a 78% rise on a year ago - which may help ease investor concern after boss Steve Jobs decided to take medical leave.

It is not known how long Mr Jobs will be away for

The tech giant's figures were better than expected and were helped by impressive sales of the iPhone and iPad over the Christmas period.

Apple says it sold over seven million iPads, about a million more than predicted, and also shifted more than 16 million iPhones in the first quarter which ended on December 25 2010.

The $6bn (£3.76bn) profit figure, or $6.43 per share, compared with $3.4bn (£2.13bn), or $3.67 per share, for the same period a year earlier.

Analysts had forecasted $5.41 per share for the latest quarter.

The figures were announced after regular trading ended, which saw the company's share price close down 2.3% at $340.65 on the Nasdaq.

But the shares then rose 1.9% to $347.57 in extended trading after the release of the results.

The company is firing on all cylinders. The iPad continues to be a game changer.

Colin Gillis, analyst at BGC Partners

Chief executive Mr Jobs' decision to temporarily leave the firm comes two years after he took a six-month break during which he underwent a liver transplant.

In his latest statement, the 55-year-old did not say how long he expected to be away or provide any details about his latest health issues.

Chief operating officer Tim Cook will look after the firm's day-to-day operations in his absence.

Colin Gillis, analyst at BGC Partners, said the latest Apple profits were "crazy good".

He added: "The company is firing on all cylinders. The 7.3 million iPads, that is a great number, that is about one million more than people are looking for."

"The iPad continues to be a game changer."

Tim Cook will be responsible for Apple's day-to-day operations

On Mr Jobs' health, Mr Gillis said: "Steve is an important part of what Apple is, everyone wants to know does the company fall apart? No.

"More data is always better than less (on health issues). But nonetheless they disclosed what they are going to disclose consistent with patterns."

In an email to Apple employees, Mr Jobs said: "At my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health."

"I will continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company," the e-mail read.

I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can. In the meantime, my family and I would deeply appreciate respect for our privacy

Apple CEO Steve Jobs

Mr Jobs added: "I have great confidence that Tim and the rest of the executive management team will do a terrific job executing the exciting plans we have in place for 2011.

"I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can. In the meantime, my family and I would deeply appreciate respect for our privacy."

The company's fortunes have been uniquely linked to its CEO, who returned to the company in 1997 after a 12-year absence to turn around the flagging tech giant with innovative and wildly successful products like the iPod and iPhone.

Mr Jobs underwent an operation in 2004 for pancreatic cancer, which was kept under wraps until years later.

Questions about his health have resurfaced periodically since the cancer diagnosis, and have been the subject of much debate among corporate governance experts over the obligations the company has to its shareholders.

Doubts Over Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs

1:27pm UK, Wednesday January 19, 2011

Pete Norman and Alison Chung, Sky News Online

Evidence is lacking to support widespread use of cholesterol-lowering drugs among the "worried well", a study has found.

Statins are highly effective at reducing blood cholesterol levels and are routinely given to heart patients.

But some GPs also advocate their wider use for at-risk patients, and a number of healthy doctors take the pills themselves on a precautionary basis.

Low dose statins are also available over-the-counter at pharmacies without prescription.

Statins generally have mild side-effects but, in rare cases, can lead to a serious muscle-wasting condition.

The new findings from a review of 14 statin trials found the drugs did reduce death rates and helped prevent heart attacks and strokes.

This review highlights important shortcomings in our knowledge about the effects of statins in people who have no previous history of CVD.

Dr Fiona Taylor

But the researchers concluded there was insufficient evidence to justify widespread use of statins in people with no previous history of heart disease.

They stressed the need for caution when balancing the risks and benefits of statins - and questioned the validity of drug company-sponsored trials.

Lead researcher Dr Fiona Taylor, from the Cochrane Heart Group at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: "It is not as simple as just extrapolating the effects from studies in people who have a history of heart disease.

"This review highlights important shortcomings in our knowledge about the effects of statins in people who have no previous history of CVD (cardiovascular disease).

"The decision to prescribe statins in this group should not be taken lightly."

But Dr Laurence Gerlis, a GP who prescribes statins to his patients, told Sky News he disagreed "entirely" with the report.

"Statins are the best invention of the last century. They are life-saving drugs.

Statins: Best invention of last century

"We have to remember that heart disease and strokes are still the major killer in the western world, way ahead of cancer, and statins will change all of our lives dramatically - they will add 10 or 20 years to our lives."

He added: "Anyone with diabetes must be on a statin and anyone over 50 probably should be on a statin.

"If you wait until people have heart disease it's too late, and we have to prevent a build-up of cholesterol on the arteries before it happens."

The researchers pointed out all but one of the studies they looked at were industry-sponsored.

Dr Taylor added: "We know that industry-sponsored trials are more likely to report favourable results for drugs versus placebos, so we have to be cautious about interpreting these results.

"The numbers eligible for treatment with statins are potentially great so there might be motivations, for instance, to stop trials earlier if interim results support their use."

Number Of Unemployed Soars To 2.5 Million

1:08pm UK, Wednesday January 19, 2011

Lucie McInerney, Sky News Online

Unemployment has soared by 49,000 to 2.5 million - with a record number of young people out of work, according to the latest figures.

One in five 16 to 24-year-olds is jobless - an increase of 32,000 in the three months to the end of November.

While the unemployment rate is 7.9%, it stands at more than 20% for young people.

About 951,000 of 16 to 24-year-olds are now jobless, which is the highest figure since records began in 1992.

While the number of unemployed has risen, the claimant count - those claiming Jobseekers Allowance - has fallen by 4,100 to 1.46 million.

Redundancies swelled by 14,000 to 157,000.

Vacancies for the three months to November 2010 stood at 469,000 - with more than five people chasing every job.

Employment experienced its biggest fall since the summer of 2009, dropping 69,000 to 29 million.

Employment minister Chris Grayling said: "These figures serve to underline the scale of the challenge we face.

"We inherited the largest budget deficit in peacetime history and high levels of worklessness, which we are determined to bring down by rebalancing the economy and supporting private sector jobs growth."

David Kern, chief economist at the British Chamber of Commerce, said: "These figures are disappointing and once again slightly worse than expected.

"Employment has declined for both full-time and part-time jobs, and the number of people working part-time because they could not find a full-time job rose to its highest level since comparable records began in 1992."

He continued: "We reiterate our forecast that unemployment is likely to increase to 2.6million over the next year, with a net rise of around 100,000."

Joanna Yeates 'Did Not Eat Missing Pizza'

11:11am UK, Wednesday January 19, 2011

Martin Brunt, crime correspondent

Police have confirmed that murder victim Joanna Yeates did not eat the pizza she bought on her way home the night she vanished.

The 25-year-old's shopping trip was re-enacted last night by an actress playing Joanna in a TV reconstruction, as detectives urged anyone who saw the victim to call them.

Joanna stopped in a Tesco Express at around 8.40pm on Friday, December 17, and then left with the pizza to walk 10 minutes or so to her flat in Clifton, Bristol.

She vanished soon after and police have found no trace of the pizza, a Tesco-brand tomato-and-mozzarella variety.

So, what does it mean now that a pathologist has established that Joanna did not eat the pizza?

It may help them with timings, because police still don't know where or when she died.

Joanna Yeates was filmed on CCTV buying the Tesco pizza

The revelation suggests that Joanna left her flat, dead or alive, soon after she arrived, assuming that she bought the pizza to eat that night.

That means detectives can focus on identifying anyone who was in or around the area between Tesco's in Regent Street and her flat in Canynge Road, Clifton, at that time.

The revelation also adds weight to reports from neighbours who heard screams around 9pm.

But where is the pizza?

Joanna's killer may have destroyed or thrown it away to remove evidence if it was caught up in a struggle, or if it was touched in some other way and got traces of the killer on it.

What’s a girl to think? Or, more importantly, what’s a girl in Bristol to do about her protecting herself while Jo Yeates’s killer is still free?

Sky's crime correspondent Martin Brunt

If the killer threw it away, it would show police he was forensically aware. That might help them narrow down a list of suspects.

The pizza is considered such a vital bit of potential evidence that investigators have spent many hours sifting through 300 tons of domestic rubbish collected by refuse workers since before Christmas.

The killer might have kept it as a souvenir, using it to remind him of the murder.

Other killers have kept otherwise valueless things, even body parts, that belonged to or were connected with their victim.

BBC Crimewatch reconstruction of Joanna's final steps

That is more usually a phenomenon of a serial killer, though in this case detectives continue to insist they are not hunting such a suspect.

Meanwhile, Joanna's parents have appealed to the country's "armchair detectives" to help police find their daughter's killer.

David and Theresa Yeates believe millions of people have been moved by the murder and have urged anyone with information or suspicions to call police.

They made a direct appeal to anyone trying to protect their daughter's killer, saying they would be prolonging the family's torment.

In a joint statement, the couple said: "Many of us are armchair detectives, but if this activity triggers anything please come forward.

"If you do know something and you do not come forward you are consciously hampering the apprehension of Jo's killer and the perpetrator is still free."

Speaking of the anguish the couple had been going through, Mrs Yeates told reporters: "We spend much of our time - as I imagine most of the country does - thinking of scenarios which took Jo, alive in her flat, to being found dead by the side of a country lane."

Joanna Yeates Murder

See all the key locations in the case

Police believe Joanna made it as far as her home in the Clifton area on Friday, December 17, before she was attacked.

Her snow-covered body was found on Christmas Day in a country lane three miles from her home. She had been strangled.

Latest From Ex-Tory Peer's Expenses Trial

1:39pm UK, Wednesday January 19, 2011

Kat Higgins, Sky News Online

The trial of a former Tory Peer accused of false accounting in relation to his expenses claims has continued for a third day.

Lord Taylor is accused of pretending his main home was outside London

Lord Taylor of Warwick denies dishonestly claiming £11,277 in House of Lords expenses.

The 58-year-old is alleged to have claimed his main residence was in Oxfordshire, when he was actually living in London.

He is accused of claiming for mileage between the two homes and overnight subsistence to cover being in the capital.

A former barrister, he faces six counts of false accounting under the 1968 Theft Act - allegedly committed between March 2006 and October 2007.

Lord Taylor became a government special adviser in the early 1990s and was enobled as the first black Conservative peer in 1996.

Funeral For Hero Boy Killed In Oz Floods

12:04pm UK, Wednesday January 19, 2011

Ian Woods, Australia correspondent

A 13-year-old boy swept away in the Australian floods after telling rescuers to save his younger brother first has been buried with his mother.

Jordan and Donna Rice were laid to rest in matching white coffins, with the boy's casket on top of his mother to symbolise lying in her arms.

The pair died last week when a wall of water hit the town of Toowoomba and washed away their car.

Rescuers who attempted to get to the family recalled how Jordan insisted they take his 10-year-old brother Blake first.

Blake attended the funeral, along with his father John Tyson who paid tribute to his son and partner.

Photo: AAP Jordan has been hailed as a national hero in Australia

Mr Tyson said: "I don't think I can put into words just how much I miss them, just the little things, warmness of their touch, the sound of children fighting even, the smell of the grass being mowed.

"Donna cooked, cleaned, doted on the kids, the perfect mum. Jordan was quiet, reserved but also loving and very protective.

"The fire in my heart will continue to burn until my time comes to join them.

"But, until then, all I can do is thank you both, and tell anyone who listens just how much I love you both, and how special you are."

There is no end in sight to the flooding crisis which is now affecting Victoria.

Hundreds of mourners turned out to say goodbye to Donna and Jordan

People of the small town of Kerang were told to flee their homes because more than 100 were expected to be inundated.

It could be isolated for days by the flood waters.

Other towns are on high alert, with more riverbanks and levees at risk of being breached.

As the clean up continues in Brisbane, British Foreign Secretary William Hague was invited to see the damage by his opposite number Kevin Rudd.

Australia Floods In Pictures

Images of the Queensland flooding - as people try to battle on through the devastation

The British government has offered expertise in flood recovery to Queensland.

Mr Hague told those involved in rebuilding efforts: " I just want to say that in Britain we admire your fortitude and resilience in what you've been through and we were with you in spirit all the way throughout it."

More than £60m has now been raised for those affected by the disaster, mostly from businesses, but a third of it has been donated by the Australian public.

Dozens Of NHS Trusts Set To Be Scrapped

10:18am UK, Wednesday January 19, 2011

Pete Norman, Sky News Online

Moves to pass controversial legislation that will lead to more than 150 NHS organisations being scrapped are set to begin.

The Health and Social Care Bill has attracted widespread criticism from unions and policy experts worried that the reforms are "too much too soon".

Under the plans, GPs will be handed the bulk of the £100bn health budget to buy-in services for patients and a new NHS commissioning board will oversee the process.

All of England's 152 primary care trusts (PCTs) will be scrapped alongside 10 strategic health authorities.

PCTs are already being streamlined into "clusters" as part of the transition, with the aim of getting them to work with GP practices and emerging "GP consortia".

The NHS commissioning board will formally establish consortia from April 2012.

But experts have warned that PCT staff are already leaving in droves, leading to concerns about patient services in the interim.

Nurses will have a pivotal role to play in the proposed new NHS structure, and we call on the Government to listen to their concerns.

Royal College of Nursing chief executive Dr Peter Carter

Leaders of major health unions have also queried how the NHS will implement the changes at the same time as finding £15bn to £20bn in "efficiency savings" - something no major health service has ever managed.

Doctors and nurses' leaders have joined unions in warning that plans to create greater commercial competition between the NHS and private firms are "potentially disastrous".

The Royal College of Nursing's Dr Peter Carter said: "This seminal bill has the potential to transform the NHS.

"However, at the same time as the service is being tasked with saving £20bn, we are concerned that the proposed reforms are too much too soon.

"We will be studying each and every clause of the bill to make sure that the reforms deliver better care for patients.

"Nurses will have a pivotal role to play in the proposed new NHS structure, and we call on the Government to listen to their concerns.

"It is nursing staff who spend the majority of their time directly with patients."

David Cameron has previously met with nurses to hear concerns

Staff and patients will become "victims" of the reforms, according to shadow health secretary John Healey.

"It's about taking off any limits for hospitals to treat private patients in NHS beds, it's about opening up the NMHS in every area to private health companies," he told Sky News.

"And fundamentally it will change the NHS, as well as being very high cost - £3bn which should be spent now on patient care and not on internal management reorganisation."

On Monday, Prime Minister David Cameron strongly defended the Government's reform of public services.

In a keynote speech, he dismissed the idea that the NHS could carry on as it was, supported by small amounts of additional public spending, as a "complete fiction".

He rejected suggestions that the Government was trying to do "too much at once" in pushing through reform.