Clapton platinum watch nets $3.6 million at auction

GENEVA (Reuters) – An Asian collector bought a platinum chronograph Patek Philippe wristwatch owned by British rock guitarist Eric Clapton for 3.44 million Swiss francs ($ 3.63 million) at auction on Monday, Christie’s said.

The “ultra-rare” reference 2499/100 by the Swiss luxury watchmaker, one of only two cased in platinum, was acquired by Clapton some 10 years ago, it said.

It fetched a combined hammer price and commission that was in line with Christie’s pre-sale estimate of 2.5-4.0 million francs while also setting a world record price for this reference at auction, it said in a statement on its semi-annual Geneva sale.

“The Eric Clapton watch was bought by an Asian private collector,” Christie’s spokesman Cristiano de Lorenzo told Reuters, adding that the buyer had been in the room.

But the top lot at the seven-hour sale was another platinum chronograph Patek Philippe, reference 2458, made in 1952 for legendary American collector J.B. Champion. It fetched nearly 3.78 million Swiss francs and set a world record for a watch without complications, or features beyond the display of hours, minutes and seconds, it said.

Precious Time, an investment watch fund launched by Luxembourg-based Elite Advisers, was the buyer, Christie’s said in a statement.

In all, 96 percent of the 315 lots on offer found new owners, netting 27.04 million Swiss francs ($ 28.52 million), the auction house owned by French billionaire Francois Pinault said.

Clapton’s Patek Philippe, made in the Swiss city in 1987, has a perpetual calendar with moon phases, as well as windows for day and month and dials for seconds and minutes.

Most experts would rank it among the world’s 10 most significant wristwatches that stand out for historical importance, mechanical complexity, beauty, original condition, rarity and superior provenance, Aurel Bacs, international head of Christie’s watch department, said before conducting the sale.

Clapton, the former Cream musician, last year sold more than 70 of his guitars at a charity auction in New York, raising $ 2.15 million for the Crossroads Centre drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre that he founded in Antigua.

Last month in London he sold an abstract painting by German artist Gerhard Richter at rival Sotheby’s for $ 34.2 million, setting a new record for the price paid at auction for the work of a living artist.

Antiquorum’s sale of modern and vintage timepieces, held in Geneva on Sunday evening, netted 8.63 million Swiss francs ($ 9.10 million) for 485 lots sold out of 613 on offer, it said in a statement issued on Monday,

The top lot was a Rolex Single Red Prototype, known as the Sea Dweller Submariner, one of only six produced in 1967 for use by divers. It sold for 490,900 Swiss francs — four time its pre-sale estimate – in its first appearance at auction.

“It is the highest price ever paid for a Rolex sport watch and for a Sea Dweller,” Antiquorum said.

($ 1 = 0.9482 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by Patricia Reaney)

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Facebook jumps on biggest lock-up expiration day

NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook‘s stock is up more than 7 percent despite expectations that it would fall because more than 850 million additional shares in the company are being freed up for sale.

Shares of Facebook Inc. are up $ 1.48, or 7.5 percent, at $ 21.34. Facebook went public in May at $ 38 in a much-hyped initial public offering of stock that turned out to be a letdown for investors. Its stock price hasn’t hit $ 38 since.

Wednesday marked the expiration of Facebook’s biggest lock-up period, which is a time following an IPO that prevents insiders from selling stock. In all, 773 million shares became eligible for sale, along with 31 million restricted stock units. And about 48 million shares held by former Facebook employees also became eligible for sale, bringing the total to 852 million. These shares would be on top of what’s already been available for trading, increasing the supply and potentially lowering the overall price.

Lock-ups are common after initial public stock offerings and are designed to prevent a stock from experiencing the kind of volatility that might occur if too many shareholders decide to sell all at once.

The previous lock-up expired on Oct. 29, when U.S. stock markets were closed because of Superstorm Sandy. Facebook’s stock fell nearly 4 percent two days later, when the stock market reopened.

Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Youssef Squali believes a potential increase in the capital gains tax on Jan. 1, when Bush-era tax cuts would expire unless Congress acts, could pressure Facebook’s stock. That said, he called the Menlo Park, Calif.-based social media company a “long-term winner.”

Facebook’s stock saw its biggest one-day gain on Oct. 24, the day after the company reported stronger-than-expected third-quarter results and detailed for the first time how much money it made from mobile ads. The stock, which added 19 percent that day, closed at $ 23.23. Even with Wednesday’s gain, it is still 8 percent below that price.

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General investigated for emails to Petraeus friend

PERTH, Australia (AP) — In a new twist to the Gen. David Petraeus sex scandal, the Pentagon said Tuesday that the top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, is under investigation for alleged “inappropriate communications” with a woman who is said to have received threatening emails from Paula Broadwell, the woman with whom Petraeus had an extramarital affair.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a written statement issued to reporters aboard his aircraft, en route from Honolulu to Perth, Australia, that the FBI referred the matter to the Pentagon on Sunday.

Panetta said that he ordered a Pentagon investigation of Allen on Monday.

A senior defense official traveling with Panetta said Allen’s communications were with Jill Kelley, who has been described as an unpaid social liaison at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., which is headquarters to the U.S. Central Command. She is not a U.S. government employee.

Kelley is said to have received threatening emails from Broadwell, who is Petraeus’ biographer and who had an extramarital affair with Petraeus that reportedly began after he became CIA director in September 2011.

Petraeus resigned as CIA director on Friday.

Allen, a four-star Marine general, succeeded Petraeus as the top American commander in Afghanistan in July 2011.

The senior official, who discussed the matter only on condition of anonymity because it is under investigation, said Panetta believed it was prudent to launch a Pentagon investigation, although the official would not explain the nature of Allen’s problematic communications.

The official said 20,000 to 30,000 pages of emails and other documents from Allen’s communications with Kelley between 2010 and 2012 are under review. He would not say whether they involved sexual matters or whether they are thought to include unauthorized disclosures of classified information. He said he did not know whether Petraeus is mentioned in the emails.

“Gen. Allen disputes that he has engaged in any wrongdoing in this matter,” the official said. He said Allen currently is in Washington.

Panetta said that while the matter is being investigated by the Defense Department Inspector General, Allen will remain in his post as commander of the International Security Assistance Force, based in Kabul. He praised Allen as having been instrumental in making progress in the war.

The FBI’s decision to refer the Allen matter to the Pentagon rather than keep it itself, combined with Panetta’s decision to allow Allen to continue as Afghanistan commander without a suspension, suggested strongly that officials viewed whatever happened as a possible infraction of military rules rather than a violation of federal criminal law.

Allen was Deputy Commander of Central Command, based in Tampa, prior to taking over in Afghanistan. He also is a veteran of the Iraq war.

In the meantime, Panetta said, Allen’s nomination to be the next commander of U.S. European Command and the commander of NATO forces in Europe has been put on hold “until the relevant facts are determined.” He had been expected to take that new post in early 2013, if confirmed by the Senate, as had been widely expected.

Panetta said President Barack Obama was consulted and agreed that Allen’s nomination should be put on hold. Allen was to testify at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday. Panetta said he asked committee leaders to delay that hearing.

NATO officials had no comment about the delay in Allen’s appointment.

“We have seen Secretary Panetta‘s statement,” NATO spokeswoman Carmen Romero said in Brussels. “It is a U.S. investigation.”

Panetta also said he wants the Senate Armed Services Committee to act promptly on Obama’s nomination of Gen. Joseph Dunford to succeed Allen as commander in Afghanistan. That nomination was made several weeks ago. Dunford’s hearing is also scheduled for Thursday.

___

Associated Press writer Slobodan Lekic in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.

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Lilly arthritis drug shows durability in study

(Reuters) – A pill for rheumatoid arthritis being developed by Eli Lilly and Co and Incyte Corp maintained its effectiveness in reducing painful symptoms through 24 weeks of treatment in a midstage extension study, according to data presented at a medical meeting on Tuesday.

A sub-study of patients taking part in the trial of the drug, baricitinib, also showed that the two highest doses tested helped to reduce joint damage, based on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) tests.

The companies in June released positive data from the 301-subject Phase II study after 12 weeks of treatment in patients with mild to moderate RA who had an inadequate response to methotrexate. Data from the ongoing extension study, presented Tuesday at the American College of Rheumatology meeting in Washington, measured baricitinib treatment through 24 weeks.

After 24 weeks, 73 percent of patients who received 8 milligrams of the Lilly drug once daily achieved the ACR20 goal, or a 20 percent improvement in rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. That compared with 78 percent who hit ACR20 at 12 weeks.

For the 4 mg dose, 78 percent of patients hit ACR 20 at 24 weeks, up from 75 percent at week 12.

A 2 mg dose that failed to show statistical significance compared with a placebo at 12 weeks, had 63 percent of patients achieve ACR20 by week 24 of treatment, the data showed.

The study also measured ACR50 and ACR70 rates, or 50 percent and 70 percent improvement. All three doses showed improvement at 24 weeks from measurements taken at 12 weeks.

Baricitinib belongs to a hot new class of oral medicines called Jak inhibitors that aim to compete with the multibillion-dollar injected rheumatoid arthritis drugs that currently dominate the market. Pfizer Inc last week became the first company to bring one of the new drugs to market with the U.S. approval of tofacitinib, which will be sold under the brand name Xeljanz.

Jak inhibitors block enzymes believed to be involved in the inflammatory process.

In the sub-study of 154 patients who underwent MRI testing, there was a statistically significant improvement in measures of inflammation and joint damage at the 4 mg and 8 mg doses after 12 weeks compared with placebo, the companies said. The effects persisted through 24 weeks, they said.

In order to compete with the biologic blockbuster injected drugs, such as Abbott Laboratories’ $ 8 billion a year Humira, the Jak inhibitors must show that they can prevent or delay joint deterioration as well as alleviate symptoms.

(Reporting by Bill Berkrot in New York; editing by Matthew Lewis)

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Congress' choice whether Petraeus testifies on Benghazi attack

Holly Petraeus and Gen. David Petraeus walk past a seated Paula Broadwell (rear right) at his confirmation hearing …The White House said Tuesday that it was "up to Congress" whether to call former CIA Director David Petraeus to testify about the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi, Libya.

"Congress [makes] decisions about who is called to testify," press secretary Jay Carney told reporters at his daily briefing.

The Intelligence Committees of the Senate and House of Representatives had been set to hear from Petraeus about the attack on the American compound in separate closed-door hearings on Thursday. But aides to both panels indicated that the retired Army general would be replaced by Mike Morrell, the acting CIA director.

"The president is confident that Acting Director Morrell is fully informed and capable of representing the CIA in a hearing about the incidents in Benghazi," Carney said.

Still, key senators have made it clear that Petraeus, whose shocking resignation came after the public disclosure of an extramarital affair, will ultimately need to be heard. The attack claimed the lives of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, told MSNBC on Monday that her panel "should go ahead with Mike Morell and the way it is now set up."

"But I also think that the community should know that this is not sufficient," she continued. "And I have no doubt now that we will need to talk with David Petraeus. And we will likely do that in closed session, but it will be done one way or the other."

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Comcast’s NBCUniversal unit lays off 500 employees: source

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Comcast Corp‘s NBCUniversal entertainment unit is laying off about 500 employees at cable channels, Jay Leno‘s late-night TV show and the Universal Pictures movie studio, a person with knowledge of the matter said on Monday.

The cuts add up to about 1.5 percent of the company’s workforce of 30,000 employees, the source said.

A large portion of the layoffs occurred at the G4 cable channel, a network about video games and the gaming culture, the source said. Two of the network’s shows were recently canceled.

Other layoffs occurred about two months ago at “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” which cut about two dozen crew members.

The company’s movie studio, Universal Pictures, also eliminated about 20 jobs, including some at the home entertainment division. Home entertainment sales have suffered across the industry as traditional DVDs fall from favor with consumers.

Other job cuts are expected at NBC News group and the company’s cable channels, which include USA, Bravo and E!, the source said.

Comcast bought a 51 percent controlling stake in NBC Universal in January 2011.

(Reporting By Ronald Grover; Writing by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Peter Lauria and Paul Tait)

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Verizon and HTC’s latest twist: The $199 Droid DNA

Verizon and HTC unveiled a new device that the two hope will appeal to customers during the holiday season, while helping to reverse HTC’s floundering fortunes.

The phone, the Droid DNA, sports a 5-inch screen, putting it more in the “phablet” category with Samsung‘s Galaxy Note. It runs on Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean and includes a boatload of powerful features, including a Super LCD 3 display with 440 pixels per inch, capable of playing 1080p HD video.

HTC noted the screen rivals traditional HDTVs, while the pixel density is among the highest available on any smartphone. The iPhone 5′s Retina display, for example, is 326 pixels per inch.

The device runs on a quad-core, 1.5Ghz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm, with 4G LTE integrated on the same piece of silicon as the application processor. Having one chip instead of two improves battery life.

The phone is also capable of wireless charging and full HD video chat. The device has an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 2.1-megapixel camera in the front. HTC noted its phone features HTC ImageSense and HTC ImageChip to create faster image processing and better quality photos, as well as a quick-launch camera option.

The Droid DNA also has Beats audio and two amplifiers, one for headphone and one for speaker. And it’s equipped with near-field communications technology to share music and other content by tapping other NFC-enabled devices.

Droid DNA goes on sale on November 21 for $ 199.99 with a two-year contract. Pre-sales begin today. The phone is available exclusively through Verizon.

The hefty specs should appeal to customers looking for alternatives to the latest gadgets from Samsung and Apple during the holiday season. For HTC, it’s pretty important that they do.

The Taiwanese handset maker really needs a hit phone. Previously the darling of the smartphone world, HTC has been having a tough time lately. Samsung and Apple are dominating the industry’s profits and market share, leaving little for HTC, Motorola, Nokia, and other handset vendors. HTC also has faced litigation, though it reached a settlement with Apple a few days ago.

The company has said it plans to go bolder with its messaging to consumers and the media, relying less on joint marketing campaigns with the carriers and standing more independently to tell the HTC story. It also has said it would try to generate buzz through social media and by seeing out influential celebrities and “superfans” for endorsements. So far, it’s unclear whether such steps are paying off.

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Canada seen needing to spell out rules for natural gas projects

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – The fate of a handful of liquefied natural gas projects planned for Canada’s Pacific coast may depend on the Canadian government‘s willingness to spell out rules for foreign investment in the country’s energy sector, according to a study released on Thursday.

Apache Corp, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Petronas, BG Group Plc and others are in the planning stages for LNG projects that would take gas from the rich shale fields of northeastern British Columbia and ship it to Asian buyers.

But the federal government’s decision last month to stall the C$ 5.2 billion ($ 5.2 billion) bid by Malaysia’s state-owned Petronas C$ 5.2 billion for Canada‘s Progress Energy Resources Corp could lessen the appetite of Asian buyers for Canadian LNG, energy consultants Wood Mackenzie said.

“Some potential off-takers of Canadian LNG like the idea … because it’s perceived as having low political risk, and another reason is because they see the potential for investment opportunities,” said Noel Tomnay, head of global gas at the consultancy.

“If there are going to be restrictions on how they access those opportunities, if acquisitions are closed to them, then clearly that would restrict the attractiveness of those opportunities. If would-be Asian investors thought that corporate acquisitions were an avenue that was not open to them then Canadian LNG would become less attractive.”

The Canadian government is looking to come up with rules governing corporate acquisitions by state-owned companies and has pushed off a decision on the Petronas bid as it considers whether to approve the $ 15.1 billion offer for Nexen Inc from China’s CNOOC Ltd.

Exporting LNG to Asia is seen as a way to boost returns for natural-gas producers tapping the Montney, Horn River and Liard Basin shale regions of northeastern British Columbia.

Though Wood Mackenzie estimates the fields contain as much as 280 trillion cubic feet of gas, they are far from Canada’s traditional U.S. export market, while growing supplies from American shale regions have cut into Canadian shipments.

Because the region lacks infrastructure, developing the resource will be expensive, requiring new pipelines and multibillion-dollar liquefaction.

Still Wood Mackenzie estimates that the cost of delivery into Asian markets for Canadian LNG would be in the range of $ 10 million to $ 12 per million British thermal units, similar to competing projects in the United States and East Africa.

($ 1 = $ 1.00 Canadian)

(Reporting by Scott Haggett; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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Cost becomes bigger question in treating heart disease

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The cost of treating heart disease has become a key factor in decisions by U.S. cardiologists grappling with the nation’s No. 1 killer.

Record prices for drugs and devices, reduced reimbursement by insurance plans and the looming full implementation of the healthcare reform law are convincing doctors to consider not only novel treatments, but also how to get the most bang for the buck.

The trend was reflected at the annual scientific meeting of the American Heart Association, generally a forum for groundbreaking research on medications and devices to combat heart disease.

The conference for the first time last year featured an entire session on the economics of healthcare, including a study showing that eliminating drug co-payments for heart attack victims significantly reduced the chance that they would suffer another major cardiovascular problem.

The 2012 meeting, held last week in Los Angeles, included several dual presentations with companion studies on the economic impact of a drug or therapy as well as its safety and effectiveness.

“We have an unsustainable economic model in healthcare delivery in the U.S.,” said Dr. Elliott Antman, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and chairman of the AHA Scientific Sessions Committee. “We all have to be conscious of ways we can be more cost efficient, and that includes understanding what the big breakthroughs mean in terms of cost.”

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States, accounting for one of every four deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It also is very expensive. AHA estimates that annual U.S. medical costs of cardiovascular disease will reach $ 800 billion by 2030 – nearly triple the $ 272 billion spent in 2010.

“Rising costs of medical care make it very pertinent for us to assess value,” said Dr. Mark Hlatky, director of the cardiovascular outcomes research center at Stanford University.

President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which has now survived a challenge in the Supreme Court and a presidential election, is structured to reward quality of care, not the traditional fee-for-service model that can result in unnecessary treatment.

But the equation is not always simple.

One study presented at the AHA meeting showed that diabetics with diseased arteries not only fared better if they underwent bypass surgery rather than a less expensive stent procedure, but the surgery was also more cost effective.

Researchers, funded by the National Institutes of Health, found that up-front costs for bypass surgery and hospitalization were about $ 8,600 higher than costs for stent patients. But more stent patients either died or needed repeat artery clearing, while those who had surgery lived longer, higher-quality lives, resulting in lower, long-term healthcare spending for them.

Another study found that angioplasty to clear blocked arteries costs more at hospitals not equipped for emergency heart surgery, due mainly to follow-up costs. Elective angioplasty is becoming increasingly common at hospitals that do not conduct more complicated heart procedures.

“Surprisingly, there was no difference in procedure cost,” said Dr. Eric Eisenstein, lead author of the study and assistant professor of medicine at Duke University Medical School in North Carolina. “We did find a difference in follow-up cost.”

New research paid for by Johnson & Johnson, one of the makers of the new anti-clotting drug Xarelto, showed that the costs of a heart attack, angina, or chest pain go well beyond actual hospital care.

The study, led by Robert Page, a clinical specialist in the division of cardiology at the University of Colorado School of Pharmacy in Aurora, Colorado, found that every short-term disability claim for acute coronary syndrome cost employers nearly $ 8,000, and each long-term claim carried a price tag of more than $ 52,000.

Annual healthcare costs for each worker, including out-of-pocket expenses, totaled nearly $ 8,200 during the four-year period studied.

About half of all patients with acute coronary syndrome – a term used to describe conditions in which the blood supply to the heart is blocked – are working adults under the age of 65, Page said. That means the burden for their care will more likely fall on employers and employee co-payments rather than on the Medicare system.

The AHA estimates the rate of coronary heart disease in the United States will increase by 16 percent between 2010 and 2030.

Xarelto is one of three new blood-thinning medicines that offer potential advantages over older drugs to prevent strokes and other dangerous conditions caused by blood clots. Another is Pradaxa, made by Germany’s Boehringer Ingelheim.

“These drugs are expensive. They cost more than warfarin which is relatively cheap to use,” said Dr. Stuart Connolly, director of the cardiology division at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. “Cost-effectiveness studies have been favorable. The reason is that even though purchase of the drug is not cheap, there are savings from preventing ischemic strokes.”

Even so, physicians can face significant hurdles to secure insurance coverage for patients they think need to be on a new, more expensive drug.

“It is a cost firewall,” Antman said, explaining that it can take considerable time for him to talk to insurance telephone operators, claims supervisors and, eventually, medical directors to secure coverage for a patient.

(Additional reporting by Bill Berkrot; Editing by Martin Howell and Leslie Adler)

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How did the FBI access Petraeus' email?

So how and when can the FBI access a citizen's personal email account? That is a key issue in the investigation surrounding General David Petraeus.

The governing law is the Stored Communications Act, which provides that a "government entity" may require a provider of electronic communication service to disclose "contents of a wire or electronic communication" that has been in storage for 180 days or less, as long as it has a warrant. A warrant requires a specific showing of probable cause that a particular crime is being committed.

If the email has been in storage for 180 days or more, the government must provide an administrative subpoena or a court order. This is a less exacting standard that does not require probable cause.

But what about if the email is the private account of a government official - such as the director of the CIA? Here there could be some exceptions.

For one, people with high security positions often sign disclosure forms, saying they could waive their rights to private email accounts. Also, standards are more lax if the government is accessing or investigating the use of a government email account.

"The million dollar question," said Stephen I. Vladeck of American University Washington College of Law, "is why, before it became clear that General Petraeus was involved in this investigation, was it such a high priority for the FBI in the first place? The answer might be that someone just called in a favor."

Vladeck said that the FBI might flag a cyber harassment claim between two citizens, but absent a large threat or a deeper connection to another ongoing investigation they would not drop everything to investigate.

Catherine Crump of the ACLU said that until the details come out it is almost impossible to draw conclusions regarding the government's action.

In broad terms, civil libertarians believe the government should always have a warrant to access email even if it is more than 180 days old.

Crump said she believes that if the government got a warrant to access historical emails, and then even got another one when it discovered it needed more, it was complying with the law.

If, on the other hand, the government was monitoring emails in real time, that could raise questions.

"If there is a lesson here, it is about how incredibly difficult it is for anyone to do anything anonymously," said Crump. "You leave an electronic trail wherever you go. Given this new reality in which we all create permanent records of everything we say and do, it is all the more important that law enforcement be subjected to clear rules about what they can or cannot do."

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