Media captionFootage captures an aftershock. The BBC's James Reynolds describes how it felt
Italy has declared a state
of emergency in the regions worst hit by Wednesday's earthquake as hopes
of finding more survivors fade.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has pledged €50m (£42m) in funds for rebuilding.
At
least 267 people are now known to have died and 400 were injured. Teams
have continued to search the rubble of toppled buildings for a second
night.
However, hundreds of aftershocks have hampered the efforts of the 5,000 rescuers.
Another magnitude-4.7 tremor struck early on Friday.
In addition to the funds, Mr Renzi cancelled taxes for residents
and announced a new initiative, "Italian Homes", to tackle criticism
over shoddy construction.
But he also said that it was "absurd" to think that Italy could build completely quake-proof buildings.
It follows criticism in the Italian press over building standards in high-risk areas. Some of the buildings that collapsed had recently been renovated.
Historic
towns do not have to conform to anti-quake building regulations, which
are also often not applied when new buildings are put up.
Image copyrightAPImage caption
Rescue efforts in Amatrice continued for a second night
Tourists among dead
The 6.2-magnitude quake hit in the early hours of Wednesday, 100km (65 miles) north-east of Rome in mountainous central Italy.
The
worst affected towns - Amatrice, Arquata, Accumoli and Pescara del
Tronto - are usually sparsely populated but have been swelled by
tourists visiting for summer, making estimates for the precise number
missing difficult.
More than 200 people died in Amatrice alone, Ansa news agency reported. At least three Britons died in the quake, a local official in Amatrice told the BBC. The Romanian government said 11 of its citizens were missing
Here’s
what bugs small-business owners the most: The thicket of government
regulations they must wrestle with instead of actually running their
businesses. A close second: Taxes that are too complex and take too
large a bite out of revenue.
Hillary Clinton seems to have heard those complaints, and produced a plan to “make life easier for small business.”
Clinton, a self-described detail wonk, has a plan for just about
everything, and if elected president there’s no way every policy
priority will see the light of day. But small business has been
struggling and reinvigorating Main Street would aid the broader economy.
“Maintaining the entrepreneurial dynamism of the American economy is
critically important for the future growth rate of the nation,” says
Austan Goolsbee of the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business,
who was a top White House economist under President Obama and is an
informal advisor to the Clinton campaign.
Clinton
wants to streamline the rules that govern many small businesses, offer
new tax breaks, let businesses choose a new standardized deduction
instead of itemizing deductions, and make it easier to get loans. Those
ideas dovetail pretty well with what businesses say they want, according
to the National Federation of Independent Business:
Former
Head of State General Yakubu Gowon Speaks with State House Press corps
after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the state House in
Abuja. PHOTO; SUNDAY AGHAEZE.
Former Military Head of State, General
Yakubu Gowon (rtd), on Tuesday begged Nigerians to be more patient with
President Muhammadu Buhari, saying all would be well very soon.
Speaking with State House correspondents
in Abuja after he met with Buhari behind closed doors, Gowon said the
president was trying to fix the country and that Nigerians would begin
to see the effect very soon.
On the kidnapped Chibok Secondary School
girls, the former military ruler said the government needed credible
information to work with, adding that at present, no one knew the actual
location of the girls.
When asked why he was in the State
House, he said: “I have come to see the president, to say hello to him. I
haven’t seen him for quite some time. This time I have come to see him
to pay my respect to him and to let him know that I’m going out of the
country on vacation on my programme on Nigeria Prays in the United
Kingdom and the United States towards the end of this month, and early
next month. So I have come to let him know that I would be out of the
country,” in case he wants me, he knows that I’m out and he is going to
pay my way back, if he wants me back for any programmes.
“Of course we discussed the general
affairs of the country, the problems of the country; his fight against
corruption and all the efforts that he is making to deal with it and of
course, the impatience of the public to see results of the fight which
have yet to be found, since people have not been prosecuted yet, which
would soon begin.”
Gowon said he appreciated Buhari’s
efforts and determination to rid the country of corruption, which he
said had been one of the problems holding he country down and creating
serious set backs for the country both nationally and internationally.
He said: “Of course, we also discussed
the current situation about the Chibok girls and the efforts the
government is making to rescue them.”
The former leader said the government needed to get credible information
about the whereabouts of the girls and also those that would assist the
government achieve that.
Gowon said: “I believe that the
government is certainly determined to ensure that a number of these
girls are brought back home safely as soon as possible. To achieve that,
certain credibility must be established of our sources on information
on their location, but at present, no one knows where these girls are,
and all these information that you have been getting, I don’t know
their sources, but all efforts at engaging the international media and
sources are necessary so that this matter can be resolved once and for
all.
“Again, we talked generally on the
country and efforts the government is making to give the people what
they want and to see that they have money, but please remember we used
to sell petroleum at $ 150 per barrel, but what is it today? It’s merely
around $ 30 per barrel and the amount of crude oil we used to produce
thrn was over two million and now it has gone down to about one million
because of the problem we have been having when people have been blowing
pipelines in the Niger Delta area.
So we have problem and there isn’t
enough money to go round. So very soon, with the efforts the government
is making to get things back to normal, making contacts with the
Avengers and other aggrieved militants in the Niger Delta who are
creating havoc there, we hope that all will be well soon.”
The post-vacation hangover may be dangerous for your marriage.
Filings
for divorce spike twice a year, in March and August, according to a new
study. University of Washington sociology professor Julie Brines and
doctoral candidate Brian Serafini found divorce filings seem to follow
the annual schedule of family holidays: lowest in November and December,
then peaking in March after the passage of winter holidays and
Valentine's Day. Filings drop in April and don't spike again until
August—after July, the most popular month for vacations.
"Family
life is governed by a 'social clock' that mandates the observations of
birthdays, holidays and other special transitions," Brines and Serafini
write in the study, presented this weekend at the annual conference of
the American Sociological Association. Their study provides "the first
systematic, quantitative evidence of a pronounced and durable 'seasonal'
pattern in the timing of filings for divorce."
The
authors analyzed 14 years of divorce data from 37 counties in
Washington State before, during, and after the Great Recession and found
seasonal trends were consistent regardless of the state of the economy.
Parents of dependent children were more likely to follow the seasonal
trend, but couples without kids also saw divorce filings peak in March
and August.
One
explanation for the trend is that couples may be delaying
divorces during "socially sensitive periods in the calendar," the
authors write. But this explanation would suggest divorce filings should
spike in January, immediately after Christmas and New Year's.
Instead,
couples wait until March. Why? Brines and Serafini argue that vacations
and holidays make people optimistic about the future and instill the
belief that they can repair relationships. But after spending lots of
time with spouses, or after the usual stresses and strains of holidays,
people find themselves more unhappy than before their vacations began.
They refer to this as the "broken promise" theory.
"These rituals
and transitions can be stress-inducing, and thus may intensify
dissatisfaction or discord past a breaking point in some couples," the
authors write.
One
grim data point bolsters the idea that vacations can raise, and then
dash, people's hopes: Brines and Serafini note that the month-by-month
trend in divorce filings is "remarkably similar" to the annual pattern
sociologists have previously identified in the U.S. suicide rate.
(Adds detail on the deal, background to the companies)
By Greg Roumeliotis
Aug
21 (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc is in advanced talks to acquire U.S. cancer
drug company Medivation Inc for close to $14 billion, as it seeks to
boost its oncology portfolio, people familiar with the matter said on
Sunday.
Pfizer
has agreed to pay a little more than $80 per share for Medivation, one
of the people said, a substantial premium to the $52.50 offer for
Medivation that France's Sanofi SA made in April, which eventually
resulted in the company putting itself up for sale. Medivation shares
ended trading in New York on Friday at $67.16.
Reuters
reported earlier this week that Pfizer, Sanofi, Merck & Co Inc,
Celgene Corp and Gilead Sciences Inc had submitted expressions of
interest to acquire Medivation.
The
strong acquisition interest in the San Francisco-based company
illustrates how demand for new cancer treatments, which can possibly add
years to patients' lives, could spell billions of dollars in revenue to
the companies that own them.
Pfizer
has so far prevailed in the auction for Medivation and could announce a
deal as early as Monday, although the negotiations still could fall
apart at the last minute, the people said. The deal is expected to be
paid for by Pfizer in its entirety, or at least mostly, with cash, one
of the people said.
The
sources asked not to be identified because the negotiations are
confidential. Pfizer and Medivation declined to comment. The Financial
Times first reported on Pfizer nearing a deal for Medivation on Sunday.
Pfizer,
whose oncology offerings include breast cancer drug Ibrance and several
other promising immuno-oncology products, is now set to get access to
Medivation's successful prostate cancer drug Xtandi, as well as
Talazoparib, another breast cancer treatment under development by
Medivation.
Medivation
earlier this year rejected two acquisition offers from Sanofi, the
latest for $58 per share in cash and $3 per share in the form of a
contingent value right relating to the sales performance of Talazoparib.
However,
Medivation agreed in July to share confidential information with
potential buyers after Sanofi agreed to drop a campaign to oust
Medivation's board of directors.
In
its second-quarter earnings call earlier this month, Medivation
reported continued double-digit year-over-year growth for Xtandi,
affirming the company's expectations of more than 50 percent revenue
growth for the year.
Medivation
also cited positive late-stage data for Talazoparib, a drug the company
believes will account for a significant part of its long-term value.
(Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Sandra Maler and Bill Trott)
