After Garbo, Leigh, no defining “Anna Karenina”: Knightley

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Film adaptations of “Anna Karenina” have featured the likes of Greta Garbo and Vivien Leigh, but Keira Knightley isn’t fazed about measuring up to such silver screen luminaries with a new cinematic take on Leo Tolstoy‘s classic novel.

The British actress’s turn in the title role in the timeless story about a beautiful married socialite in 1870s Russia who embarks on a passionate affair with a cavalry officer, follows the 1935 version starring Garbo and the 1948 film with Leigh. It is released in the United States on Friday.

“Although there have been many famous actresses play her, there’s never been a definitive version of ‘Anna Karenina,’” Knightley said in an interview. “I think it’s partly because of the relationship you have with the character. She poses more questions than she answers, so it’s always open to different interpretation.”

Knightley stars opposite Jude Law as her husband, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the dashing Count Vronsky, and teams up again with filmmaker Joe Wright in their third film together after previous book-to-film collaborations with 2007′s “Atonement” and 2005′s “Pride & Prejudice.”

The film debuted at the Toronto film festival to warm reviews for Knightley‘s performance. Critics have said the film is overall technically and visually accomplished but lacks a cohesive emotional punch.

Adapted by playwright Tom Stoppard, Wright’s “Anna Karenina” takes place mostly in a theater setting and sees the title character more high-strung and less sympathetic than in previous incarnations.

The director said he cast Knightley, 27, because he felt she could tap into all the internal elements of Anna.

“She was 18 when we made ‘Pride & Prejudice‘, just a kid,” said Wright. “I’ve seen her develop from stunning ingénue to great actress. I felt that she was stronger, braver, even less conforming than she had been before.”

Knightley, newly engaged to musician James Righton, said she stood in moral condemnation over Anna,- “But am I any better than her? No.”

“I think we’re all her,” she added. “That is why she’s so terrifying. We all have bits of her personality within us. We can be wonderful, we can be loving, we can be full of laughter and full of life, and we can also be deceitful, malicious, needy and full of rage.”

WORLDS AWAY

While “Karenina” cements the perception of Knightley as a go-to actress for period pieces that also includes films like 2008′s “The Duchess” and 2004′s “King Arthur,” her career wasn’t always associated with roles grounded in the past.

Knightley spent the 1990s working in the British film and television industry before gaining international attention in the 2002 teenage soccer movie “Bend it Like Beckham.” After that, the actress said she was offered “an awful lot” of films in the teenage genre.

“The one thing that I knew right from the beginning was that I didn’t want to get into those high school movies,” she said. “I was never that interested in being a teenager. I was always interested in worlds away from my own.”

She credits the “massive” success of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise – which saw her play Elizabeth Swan in the first three installments – as an integral part of her career and “a lot of the reason I was able to do other kinds of smaller films, because my name would help in financing them.”

Coming up, Knightley takes a turn away from costume dramas, in “Can A Song Save Your Life?” – a musical drama that sees her starring as an aspiring singer who meets a down-on-his-luck record producer, played by Mark Ruffalo. She’s currently shooting a reboot of the Tom Clancy thriller “Jack Ryan.”

“I got to the end of ‘Anna Karenina’ and I realized that I’d done about five years of work where I pretty much died in every movie and it was all very dark,” she said. “So I thought, okay, I want this year to be the year of positivity and pure entertainment.”

(Reporting by Zorianna Kit, editing by Christine Kearney and Patricia Reaney)

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

CDC Report: Number of U.S. Adults with Diabetes Has Skyrocketed

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the findings from its latest Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) on Thursday, which focused on the prevalence of diabetes among American adults. The MMWR stated that the number of new cases of diabetes, particularly type 2 diabetes, has risen dramatically in the last 15 years across the country, especially in some of the southern states.

The report looked at self-reported data collected from the participants of the study between the years of 1995 and 2010. The data was sorted and analyzed using a CDC system known as the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to determine whether or not the average rate of diabetes had increased over time, and if so, by how much.

Here is some of the key information to emerge from the CDC’s latest MMWR release about diabetes.

* According to the MMWR, diabetes prevalence was higher than 6 percent of the adult population in only three states at the start of the study in 1995. Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., also had a greater than 6 percent prevalence of adult diabetes at that time.

* In 2010, at the conclusion of the study, every U.S. state, along with Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., reported a prevalence of diabetes among its adult population that was greater than or equal to 6 percent. In addition, six states as well as Puerto Rico reported a prevalence of diabetes among their adult populations of greater than or equal to 10 percent.

* All of the participants in the study were 18 years or older. The study was conducted through telephone surveys.

* According to a report by Reuters regarding the study, Oklahoma was the state that had the largest increase in the percentage of adults living within its borders who have been diagnosed with diabetes. Kentucky was next, followed by Georgia, Alabama, Washington and West Virginia.

* Linda Geiss, the lead author of the study, told CNN on Thursday that she was surprised by the research team’s findings, saying that the “level of increase was shocking to me.” Specifically, Geiss was referring to the fact that the team found that the number of adults living with diabetes increased by at least 100 percent in 18 different states over the course of their research.

* The states that charted the highest percentage increases in the number of new diabetes cases also have had some of the highest increases in the number of adults who are considered obese, according to the CNN report.

* Geiss told CNN on Thursday that a person “should know that” they “can prevent the disease or delay it” by getting more exercise, adjusting their diet, and losing weight.

Vanessa Evans is a musician and freelance writer based in Michigan, with a lifelong interest in health and nutrition issues.

Diseases/Conditions News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

China’s commerce minister voted out in rare congress snub: sources

BEIJING (Reuters) – China‘s commerce minister was surprisingly blocked from a spot on the ruling Communist Party’s elite body during a conclave this week, sources said, a rare snub for an official that could raise questions about trade policies during his tenure.

The failure of Chen Deming to secure a seat on the 25-member Politburo marks one of the few surprises to emerge from the party’s five-yearly congress that wrapped this week with the anointing of a new slate of top leaders who will run the world’s second largest economy.

It is also the first time in more than two decades that an official designated for a Politburo spot has been voted out of the party’s 205-member Central Committee in elections. Central Committee membership is a prerequisite for a Politburo seat.

“Chen Deming was voted out during multi-candidate elections to the Central Committee,” one source told Reuters. State news agency Xinhua said there were eight percent more candidates than seats in a preliminary vote before the formal election on Wednesday.

Not being name as an alternate or full member during the party’s 18th congress means Chen, who was previously an alternate member, is almost certain to step down as commerce minister next March. Party regulations require cabinet ministers to be Central Committee members.

It is unclear why Chen, who was seen as a strong candidate for a vice premiership and at 63 is young enough to serve another five-year term under party rules, did not secure the votes for a seat on the Central Committee.

Tianjin Mayor Huang Xingguo, 58, who was elected a full member of the Central Committee, is front-runner to replace Chen as commerce minister, two sources with ties to the leadership said.

Ma Kai, 66, secretary general of the State Council, or cabinet, is tipped to become a vice premier now that Chen is out of the running, the sources said, requesting anonymity to avoid repercussions for discussing secretive elite politics.

Until now, a politician designated to become a Politburo member has not been barred from the Central Committee since 1987, when Deng Liqun, an ultra-conservative and reviled Marxist ideologue, was voted out at the 13th congress in a deeply embarrassing fall from grace.

Chen’s imminent retirement as commerce minister, a post he has held since taking over from now disgraced politician Bo Xilai in late 2007, would come as China faces growing tension with major trade partners in Europe and the United States and Chinese officials warn of increasing protectionism.

China’s leaders set a goal for 10 percent export growth this year, but it is more likely to come in at around 7 percent as the world has struggled to recover from financial crisis.

DEFENDED RECORD

Some experts suggest that Chen’s age was the main factor in his ouster.

“Minister Chen didn’t get onto the Central Committee because of his age. He was born in 1949 and that makes him too old to serve a full term,” said a Commerce Ministry official who declined to be identified.

But exceptions to the mandatory retirement age of 65 are often made for cabinet ministers and provincial governors and politicians can become a vice premier before they turn 68.

Du Qinglin, 66, a vice chairman to parliament’s advisory body, was just elected to the Central Committee.

At a news conference last week on the sidelines of the congress, Chen declined to answer questions about whether he was being considered for a vice premier post, but he defended the ministry’s record at the World Trade Organisation.

“When you consider the volume of trade cases in which China is involved, we’ve won quite a few,” Chen said. “But we haven’t bragged about our wins, whereas some of our foreign colleagues have trumpeted theirs.”

Analysts said Chen had a reputation as a competent and moderate minister, suggesting his performance may not have been at the center of his failure to secure a central committee seat, and despite the questions that are bound to arise, policy would probably not change.

“China’s overall trade policy is not set by the ministry, but by the central government,” said He Weiwen, director of the China-U.S. Trade Research Centre at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.

Under Chen, the ministry has increased its use of WTO legal processes, in part to gain experience. China has a relatively short history of participating in multilateral institutions and while it has lost most of WTO cases filed against it, most countries defending against complaints have the same problem.

Scott Kennedy, director of the Research Centre for Chinese Politics and Business at Indiana University said Chen’s departure from the Central Committee was puzzling and political motives could be at play.

“I don’t think he could be punished for his record as minister of commerce. I think overall he’s done a pretty decent job with the hand he has been dealt,” Kennedy said.

(Additional reporting by Lucy Hornby and Nick Edwards; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Economy News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Jamaica to abolish slavery-era flogging law

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Jamaica is preparing to abolish a slavery-era law allowing flogging and whipping as means of punishing prisoners, the Caribbean country’s justice ministry said Thursday.

The ministry said the punishment hasn’t been ordered by a court since 2004 but the statutes remain in the island’s penal code. It was administered with strokes from a tamarind-tree switch or a cat o’nine tails, a whip made of nine, knotted cords.

Justice Minister Mark Golding says the “degrading” punishment is an anachronism which violates Jamaica’s international obligations and is preventing Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller‘s government from ratifying the U.N. convention against torture.

“The time has come to regularize this situation by getting these colonial-era laws off our books once and for all,” Golding said in a Thursday statement.

The Cabinet has already approved repealing the flogging law and amendments to other laws in the former British colony, where plantation slavery was particularly brutal.

The announcement was welcomed by human rights activists who view the flogging law as a barbaric throwback in a nation populated mostly by the descendants of slaves.

“We don’t really see that (the flogging law) has any part in the approach of dealing with crime in a modern democracy,” said group spokeswoman Susan Goffe.

But there are no shortage of crime-weary Jamaicans who feel that authorities should not drop the old statutes but instead enforce them, arguing that thieves who steal livestock or violent criminals who harm innocent people should receive a whipping to teach them a lesson.

“The worst criminals need strong punishing or else they’ll do crimes over and over,” said Chris Drummond, a Kingston man with three school-age children. “Getting locked up is not always enough.”

The last to suffer the punishment in Jamaica was Errol Pryce, who was sentenced to four years in prison and six lashes in 1994 for stabbing his mother-in-law.

Pryce was flogged the day before being released from prison in 1997 and later complained to the U.N. Human Rights Committee, which ruled in 2004 that the form of corporal punishment was cruel, inhuman and degrading and violated his rights. Jamaican courts then stopped ordering whipping or flogging.

Latin America News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Sina banks on Weibo but weak fourth quarter guidance spooks investors

(Reuters) – Chinese Internet company Sina Corp said its fourth quarter will be hit by a softer economy and posted weaker-than-expected sales guidance, despite a stronger revenue contribution from its hot microblogging platform Weibo.

Shares in Sina fell 7 percent after it forecast adjusted net revenue of $ 132 million to $ 136 million in the current quarter, below analysts’ expectations for $ 151.9 million according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Sina, which makes most of its revenue from online advertising both on its website and Weibo, is facing stiff headwinds as firms slash advertising budgets due to a worsening economic outlook.

“We are going to see a weaker quarter for advertising overall in the fourth quarter,” said Charles Chao, Sina’s chief executive on an earnings conference call. The firm forecast Q4 advertising revenues would rise 6-8 percent from a year earlier.

Chao said Weibo contributed 16 percent to total revenue in the third quarter, up from 10 percent in the previous quarter. The platform, which is very popular with white-collar workers, university students and celebrities, had 424 million registered users at the end of the quarter, up from 368 million three months earlier.

Advertisers, like luxury brands, that traditionally don’t advertise with Sina’s main portal website flocked to Weibo to test out the social platform, Chao said.

There were about 230,000 Weibo advertising accounts in the quarter, and Sina was in the process of rolling out a online payment system and new Weibo advertising product to increase monetization at the end of the fourth quarter.

“We believe a ‘promoted feed advertising’ will become one of the major forms of (Weibo) advertising going forward,” said Chao, adding that the product will be effective also on mobile platforms, allowing Sina to tap into Weibo’s growth on mobile devices.

Q3 PROFIT BEAT

For the third quarter, Sina’s net profit was $ 9.9 million compared with a loss of $ 336.3 million a year earlier, and slighly ahead of analysts’ expectations of $ 7.5 million.

Sina’s quarterly advertising revenue rose 19 percent to $ 120.6 million, while non-advertising revenue rose 9 percent to $ 31.8 million.

The company started monetizing Weibo by offering special services to business accounts and selling VIP memberships to regular users earlier this year.

For its mobile-value-added-services business, Sina said it expects revenue to continue to decline due to new regulatory policies.

The company was also affected by a spat between Japan and China over islands in the East China Sea as Japanese automakers cut back on advertising in China. Chao said he expected the impact to last into the fourth quarter.

“It did have an impact on our third quarter as well as our fourth quarter. We did see cancellations from customers related to Japanese automobiles in the month of September and it impacted the fourth quarter (too),” Chao said.

Sina shares fell 6.74 percent to $ 49.52 in extended trading. They closed at $ 53.10 on the Nasdaq on Thursday.

(Additional reporting by Aurindom Mukherjee in Bangalore; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Richard Pullin)

Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

With TV and film production heading overseas, should Uncle Sam get into showbiz?

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Is it time for Uncle Sam to go Hollywood?

With the exodus of film and TV production to foreign shores – and with the states’ incentives plans frequently out-gunned by countries outside the U.S. – there is some thought that it may be time for the federal government to step in.

The idea of the federal government helping out Hollywood while it is drowning in red ink is sure to raise hackles in some quarters. But filmmaker Michael Moore, for one, thinks it’s an idea whose time has come. And he’s not alone.

“That is one good thing the government can do in terms of being helpful and supportive, whether it’s filmmaking or other artistic endeavors,” Moore told TheWrap.

And he added, it’s also time for the states to stop fighting each other with differing tax-incentive plans. “I’ve always opposed New Mexico against North Carolina, or Michigan against L.A. I don’t like that. It’s not right. We’re Americans.”

Moore is not alone.

There are reasons to keep TV and film production from going abroad. The industry provides more than 2.4 million American jobs and adds nearly $ 180 billion to the U.S. economy annually and $ 15 billion in federal and state taxes, according to the Motion Picture Association of America.

Joe Chianese, executive VP at showbiz payroll giant Entertainment Partners Financial Solutions, believes the idea of getting the feds involved makes sense.

“You watched the debates and heard both President Obama and Gov. Romney talking about how it’s all about jobs, and they talked about how the manufacturing industry has basically been lost to overseas,” Chianese told TheWrap. “Well, we’re looking at the same sort of situation with the TV and film industry if something isn’t done.”

As he spoke to TheWrap, Chianese was about to set off for Japan, where government and film-industry officials were considering an incentive program that would align them with the more than 30 foreign countries trying to lure U.S. entertainment productions.

“You can’t blame filmmakers for taking their business elsewhere,” he said. “They’re taking their work overseas for the same reasons manufacturers are: It’s cheaper.”

Until recently, the federal government provided some help. Section 181 of the current tax code lowered the cost of capital for domestic film and TV production by providing immediate expensing on the first $ 15 million of production costs. To be eligible, 75 percent of the production had to occur in the U.S.

But it expired at the end of 2011.

California Republican Congressmen David Dreier has co-authored legislation to bring 181 back for another two years, but it is mired in Congress, along with a number of other tax-law extensions.

“Jobs are our No. 1 priority, and this bill will help more people find good jobs in California and across the U.S.,” said Dreier, who represents much of the San Gabriel Valley. “We need to create an environment that will keep entertainment productions here so that caterers, makeup artists and other small businesses that support them can create jobs too.”

Amy Lemistch, executive director of the California Film Commission, shares the world view on keeping show business here.

“We see California’s runaway production problem as a global issue,” she told TheWrap “not a state vs. state issue. People are going to the U.K. and Canada as much as they are going to other states.”

Smaller nations like Sri Lanka have begun offering breaks, and others like New Zealand have ramped up state-of-the-art production infrastructures. Even Iceland recently lured the HBO series “Game of Thrones” and the feature films “Noah” and “Prometheus.”

Particularly galling to California Film Commission officials is when productions set in the state are lured overseas. Recent examples would be the now-canceled Fox TV series “Alcratraz” and the L.A.-set movie “This Means War,” both of which shot in Vancouver.

Unlike Moore, Chianese, a tax specialist who worked with the commission when it was crafting its credits program, sees the federal incentives coming on top of state credits, rather than replacing them.

“You add, say, a 15 percent jobs credit, where companies would get 15 percent of the salary of every hire they make,” he said. “Add that on top of, say, the 25 percent credit California offers, and you’re up to 40 percent credit. That would make a real difference when it comes to keeping entertainment jobs here.”

Chianese said he’d be willing to see Section 181 go away in favor of more direct and immediate incentives. But with Obama and Congress focused on cutbacks and new taxes to pare down the national debt before the end of the year, the timing’s not good now.

It will always be an uphill fight, particularly with the House of Representatives controlled by the budget-conscious GOP.

“You’d face the same question you always do with incentives, which is: Why favor one industry over another?” Chianese said.

Not to mention major blowback from the segments of the right, which see liberal politicians as too tied to Hollywood already.

As for state credits, Hollywood breathed a sigh of relief in late September when California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a two-year extension of the state’s film and TV production-tax credit program. But no one expects it to be a game-changer when it comes to California’s fight to remain the world’s production capital.

New York, for example, is offering 30 percent tax credits, has $ 420 million available and recently added a 25 to 30 percent credit for post-production work. By comparison, California offers a 25 percent credit, has just $ 100 million available and has tougher eligibility rules.

Still, Lemisch said, the extension was critical.

“It sends a signal to the production community that California is committed in the short and long term,” she said. That’s vital, she pointed out, especially for the producers of TV dramas, which are the most desirable shows to land because they’re typically an hour long and shoot multiple episodes.

California’s output of TV dramas fell more than 11 percent last year, while While New York was hitting record production levels.

California does have some built-in advantages that aren’t going away. If you’re based in Hollywood, staying here can be cheaper than going out of state even with incentives, because you’re not paying to ship equipment and transport crews. The state’s infrastructure of studios and post-production facilities is still the most extensive.

But that doesn’t mean other states aren’t beating California to the production punch.

North Carolina – which made headlines when it enticed the feature film “Battlefield Los Angeles” to shoot there instead of in L.A. – is very busy these days. The first “Hunger Games” was filmed there, as was “Iron Man 3.’ NBC’s new drama “Revolution” and Showtime’s “Homeland” are in production there now.

Georgia, too, has seen a recent surge in feature filming. Paramount’s “Flight,” Fox’s “Parental Guidance” and Warner Bros.’ “Trouble With the Curve” all shot there.

(Steve Pond contributed to this report)

TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

J&J, Lilly, Merck plan clinical trial site database

(Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co Inc and Eli Lilly & Co, plan to launch a one-stop database of global clinical trial sites aimed at streamlining paperwork and speeding the process for testing new drugs.

The partners have begun securing approval from as many as 100,000 clinical investigators to enter their details into the database, Andreas Koester, head of clinical trial innovation/external alliances at J&J’s Janssen unit, said in a telephone interview.

“The feedback we have gotten so far is … they can’t wait to get rid of the administrative burden and red tape,” he said.

The initiative was limited to three companies while the kinks are ironed out, but the goal is for additional pharmaceutical companies to join in.

Ten drugmakers – J&J, Lilly, Abbott Laboratories Inc, AstraZeneca Plc, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Pfizer Inc, Roche Holding AG and Sanofi SA – announced in September the formation of the nonprofit TransCelerate BioPharma with the wider goal of simplifying and standardizing trial practices.

The clinical investigator database will contain key information such as infrastructure details and good clinical practice (GCP) training records.

“GCP doesn’t get any better if the investigator takes it repeatedly,” Koester said. “We wouldn’t have to ask each site – do you have a centrifuge, or do you have a minus 70 degrees freezer?”

J&J estimated that the investigator databank will be operational by the end of the year.

(This story corrects spelling of Lilly in headline and throughout story)

(Reporting By Deena Beasley; Editing by Bob Burgdorfer)

Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

TSX sinks to a 3-month low, led by mining, financials

TORONTO (Reuters) – Canada‘s main stock index tumbled to a three-month low on Thursday, dragged down by the materials and financial sectors, as soft U.S. and European economic data dampened sentiment.

The Toronto Stock Exchange‘s S&P/TSX composite index <.GSPTSE> was down 143.03 points, or 1.20 percent, at 11,786.76 after the open. Earlier it had fallen to 11,761.34, its lowest since August 7.

(Reporting by John Tilak; Editing by James Dalgleish)

Economy News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Canada’s Carney says rate hikes “less imminent”

TORONTO (Reuters) – Interest rate hikes have become less imminent than the Bank of Canada once expected, although rates are still likely to rise, central bank Governor Mark Carney said in an interview published on Saturday.

“Over time, rates are likely to increase somewhat, but over time, so a less imminent timing relative to our expectation,” Carney said in an interview with the National Post newspaper.

Canada’s economy rebounded better than most from the global economic recession, and the Bank of Canada is the only central bank in the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations that is currently hinting at higher interest rates.

But Carney has also made clear that there will be no rate rise for a while, despite high domestic borrowing rates that he sees as a major risk to a still fragile economy.

“We’ve been very clear in terms of lines of defense in addressing financial vulnerabilities,” he said in the interview. “And the most prominent one, obviously, in Canada, is household debt.”

He said the bank was monitoring the impact of four successive government moves to tighten mortgage lending, which aimed to take the froth out of a hot housing market without causing a damaging crash in prices.

A Reuters poll published on Friday showed the majority of 20 forecasters believe the government has done enough to rein in runaway prices, preventing the type of crash that devastated the U.S. market.

The experts expect Canadian housing prices to fall 10 percent over the next several years, but they do not expect the recent property boom to end in a U.S.-style collapse.

(Reporting by Janet Guttsman; Editing by Vicki Allen)

Canada News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Texas Instruments cuts 1,700 jobs, winds down tablet chips

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Texas Instruments is eliminating 1,700 jobs, as it winds down its mobile processor business to focus on chips for more profitable markets like cars and home appliances.

Texas Instruments said in September it would halt costly investments in the increasingly competitive smartphone and tablet chip business, leading Wall Street to speculate that part of the company’s processor unit, called OMAP, could be sold.

The layoffs are equivalent to nearly 5 percent of the Austin, Texas-based company’s global workforce.

“A sale would have been better than a restructuring but a restructuring is certainly better than nothing,” Sanford Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon said.

TI has been under pressure in mobile processors, where it has lost ground to rival Qualcomm Inc. Leading smartphone makers Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd have been developing their own chips instead of buying them from suppliers like TI.

Instead of competing in phones and tablets, TI wants to sell its OMAP processors in markets that require less investment, like industrial clients like carmakers.

TI is expected to continue selling existing tablet and phone processors for products like Amazon.Com Inc‘s Kindle tablets for as long as demand remains, but stop developing new chips.

“This year, the Kindle runs on the OMAP 4 and next year’s Kindle is slated, we believe, for OMAP 5. We believe that program is well along to completion and do not expect that the termination of OMAP will disrupt those plans,” said Longbow Research analyst JoAnne Feeney.

Amazon had reportedly been in talks to buy the mobile part of OMAP.

TI said it expects to take charges of about $ 325 million related to the job cuts and other cost reduction measures, most of which will be accounted for in the current quarter. Its previously announced financial targets for the fourth quarter do not include these costs, TI said.

The company, which has 35,000 employees around the world, expects annualized savings of about $ 450 million by the end of 2013 from the action.

TI shares rose to $ 29 in after-hours trading after closing at $ 28.76, down 2 percent on Nasdaq.

(Reporting By Sinead Carew in New York and Noel Randewich in San Francisco; editing by Carol Bishopric)

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..