Review: Wii U Filled With Potential

The Nintendo Wii turns six this month, making the video game system past its prime in console years. Nintendo and third-party developers have been slowly grinding Wii titles to a halt as all prepare for its successor, the $ 300 Wii U (say it with us, We-you), to launch today.

WATCH: Wii U Video Review

The latest Nintendo comes with a shiny new console and a shiny new GamePad tablet controller. (They may actually be a little too shiny, as the system and controller easily pick up smudges and fingerprints.) A mess of long cords also come with the system, including the Wii U’s power cord, the GamePad’s charger, the HDMI cord and the motion sensor’s long, thin cord.

The box is packed with contents, but also high expectations.

The Console
The GamePad controller, which we will get to in a second, is one of the biggest changes to the system, but there are a lot of other changes inside the actual console. With an IBM multi-core processor, 2GB of RAM, and an AMD Radeon graphics chip, a Nintendo console is capable for the first time of pushing along full HD, 1080p games on your HDTV. It connects to your HDTV via that aforementioned HDMI cord, which is kindly included in the box.

At least for a brief period we have a Nintendo with better internal organs than the Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation, though not many expect that to last.

Of note, the graphics processor on the Wii U is far more advanced than its competition, but the computer processor has been hinted to be a little less powerful than both rivals. This means stronger graphics, but potential processing issues when more moving items are presented on screen.

The GamePad
Back to the main event — the Wii U’s GamePad controller. Nintendo’s latest toy takes the best aspects of the company’s top-selling handheld, the Nintendo DS, and has supersized them, putting a larger, 6.2-inch touchscreen in your hands. But that’s not all that is found in the controller. It also has a front-facing camera, stylus, dual analog sticks, an accelerometer and a gyroscope.

At 1.1 pounds the controller is easy to hold and very light. And while it is a bit wide, it is durable enough to avoid much damage when in the hands of an enraged 7-year-old. Yes, I slammed it on a carpeted floor a few times and it withstood the abuse.

There is only one GamePad included in the box and you can expect there to be fighting over it. At the moment, Nintendo isn’t selling GamePads separately, but that’s intentional; there are no games that support dual GamePad experiences at the moment.

Nintendo calls its one-pad approach “asymmetric gameplay,” where the person using the GamePad has a different role in how games are played, equivalent to being “it” in tag or the dungeon master in “Dungeons & Dragons.” For this role, what they see on the controller’s screen is sometimes completely different than what others see on the TV.

For instance, in “Nintendo Land‘s Animal Crossing: Sweet Day,” the person with the GamePad controls two characters while the person with the extra non-GamePad controller controls just one. The person using the GamePad sees their characters on the touchscreen, while the non-GamePad player sees theirs on the TV.

Nintendo is releasing a Pro controller with the Wii U for an extra $ 50. The controller looks very similar to the Xbox 360 controller, and while we do wish it was included for the $ 300 price, you don’t have to buy that controller if you want to add more players. That’s because your original Wii games and Wiimote controllers will work with the new system.

Nintendo sold 97 million Wii consoles in six years and plenty of Nintendo fans have stashes of iconic white wands sitting around the house. All those still in love with motion controls can rest easy, this move means all your past, present and future arm flailing will endure.

Word to the wise: if you haven’t already purchased WiiMotion Plus add-on accessories for your old Wiimotes, now is the time, they’re crucial for games like Zelda Battle Quest in “Nintendo Land.”

Since the Gamepad is wireless, it can be used when away from the TV, but not too far away. You can play a game on it while in another room in the house, but it needs to be in close proximity to the console. You’ll want to make sure you’re in close proximity to the charger, too. All that technology inside the Gamepad takes a hit on battery life; after four hours of continuous gameplay it begins to warn you of its need for juice.

The Games
In 2006, the Wii launched with “Wii Sports,” a game included in the box and built to demonstrate the capabilities of the system. “Wii Sports” was big on simplicity, utilizing just a few buttons and bit of stick waving, making it the ultimate casual gaming experience.

Today’s Wii U’s launch is complimented by “Nintendo Land,” a world that contains 12 mini-games in one. (It comes in the box with the $ 350 Deluxe Wii U version and costs $ 60 on its own.) Some games take advantage of the stylus while others require a mix of the analog sticks, motion capabilities, and the actual touchscreen. The variety is a great showcase but lacks the level of simplicity that made “Wii Sports” an instant hit.

If anything, the Wii U’s sampling of gameplay varieties will get you excited thinking what might be possible with the new hardware. Drawing with the stylus on your GamePad and seeing the end result on a TV screen is extremely satisfying. A possible “Mario Paint” meets “Draw Something” could be gigantic. My colleague Joanna Stern couldn’t get enough of flicking stars on the touch screen in “Takamaru’s Ninja Castle,” I could see a full game centered around that mechanic doing very well.

At launch, there are almost two-dozen titles with various degrees of GamePad integration, spanning almost every genre. It feels like there should be more that directly take advantage of the touchscreen, however. We will be reviewing these over the course of the week, but I will say the $ 60 New Super Mario Bros. U seems like a must-have, just to experience Mario in HD for the first time.

The Social and Media Capabilities
With the Wii U comes a broadening of the Nintendo Network, the structure that has allowed Nintendo 3DS players to compete with each other online. On the Nintendo Network, video chat is now available through the GamePad‘s front-facing camera.

Mii avatars are being more integrated than ever into games, you can expect to be the star of the game more often and to see your Miis interacting with those of your friends, sharing screenshots, messages and accomplishments.

Even with more social networking and revamped cooperative play, the focus of this system is bringing back single players and defining Nintendo as a brand for both social gatherings and “me time,” hence the “U” in Wii U. More “hardcore” single player games will be in the mix as well, reflected at launch with “Call of Duty: Black Ops 2″ and “Batman: Arkham City” availability.

Like the competing consoles, Nintendo is also making moves to bring media capabilities to the console with YouTube, Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Amazon Instant Video integration. Nintendo has also announced TVii, an interface that integrates with those Internet video services and your cable box, but it has been delayed until December.

The Bottom Line
On paper, the Wii U sounds like a simple win. Take Nintendo’s best-selling handheld, their best-selling system (Wii), the graphics of their competitors and mash that up with latest developments in tablet technology. And in many ways it is, combining the best of the last five years in an incredibly unique and well-designed package. That said, there’s a ways to go in terms of games that take advantage of the touchscreen, the GamePad’s battery life, and we really do wish another controller was included in the box.

Wii U has major potential and if Nintendo plays their cards right, the system can become a major player, especially once the media capabilities and game options are fully stocked. The second-generation Wii might not be as game-changing as the orginal, but it certainly is a lot of fun to play with.

Joanna Stern contributed to this review.

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Aussie rockers AC/DC’s music to be sold on iTunes

NEW YORK (Reuters) – AC/DC‘S entire catalogue, including 20 studio and live albums and three compilations will be available on iTunes for the first time worldwide, Columbia Records and Apple said on Monday.

Until now the Australian heavy metal group that was formed by two brothers, Angus and Malcolm Young, in 1973, had refused to put their music on Apple Inc’s online music store.

“AC/DC’s thunderous and primal rock and roll has excited fans for generations with their raw and rebellious brand of music, which also resonates with millions of new fans discovering AC/DC everyday,” Columbia Records and Apple, said in a statement announcing the deal.

“Their growing legion of fans will now experience the intensity of AC/DC’s music in a way that has never been heard before,” they added.

The group’s 1976 debut album “High Voltage,” its classic “Back In Black” and 2008′s “Black Ice” are among the albums available on iTunes.

All the of music has been mastered for iTunes and fans can download entire albums or individual songs.

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; editing by Paul Casciato)

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Amid meningitis crisis, critics say Medicare may promote risky drug compounding

NEW YORK (Reuters) – With 34 deaths and 474 cases of fungal meningitis linked to tainted steroids from a Massachusetts compounding pharmacy, blame has fallen on everyone from the pharmacy to state and federal regulators. Now a new potential culprit has emerged: Medicare, which reimburses for almost all compounded drugs.

“Medicare’s reimbursement policy is certainly relevant in the government’s role in supporting purchases” of compounded drugs, Senator Richard Blumenthal told Reuters, referring to the customized medications meant to be prepared for an individual based on doctor directions.

Medicare is the federal health insurance program for the elderly and disabled. Because it is such a large player in healthcare policy, its coverage decisions have an outsized impact on the market.

As long as a physician has prescribed a compounded drug, Medicare as well as some private insurers cover it even if the Food and Drug Administration has approved a version of the drug from a pharmaceutical manufacturer.

In a letter sent on Monday to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen charged that by paying for compounded drugs Medicare “created an economic environment that allowed large-scale drug production by compounding pharmacies to flourish.”

“Medicare played a role in fostering the widespread use of compounded drugs,” Dr. Michael Carome, deputy director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, said.

In reply, an HHS spokesman told Reuters that if the FDA finds that a company is producing compounded drugs in violation of the law, “Medicare will not reimburse for drugs produced in that facility.” But because the FDA’s authority over compounding pharmacies is severely limited, “we urge Congress to strengthen FDA’s authority to ensure these kinds of outbreaks do not happen again.”

In a letter to Medicare on Monday, Senators Debbie Stabenow, Al Franken, Dianne Feinstein and Blumenthal – all Democrats – also raised concerns about how compounded drugs are “reimbursed at the state and federal level.”

The senators cited a section of Medicare’s policy manual which explains how the program can deny payment for compounded drugs. In addition, they asked how Medicare works with the FDA “to determine which companies have received violations for mass compounding of drugs.”

Medicare pays for compounded medications mostly under what is called Part B, which covers drugs that patients cannot administer themselves, such as spinal injections and intravenous cancer drugs. “These medications are vital and often life-sustaining and should be covered in full,” said David Ball, a spokesman for the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists.

Also weighing in on compounding on Monday, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions asked all 50 state boards of pharmacy – which, rather than federal regulators, oversee compounding pharmacies – for information on “actions you have taken to address this meningitis outbreak.”

Specifically, the committee asked the boards whether they had reported problems with drugs from New England Compounding Center, the company that produced the tainted steroids, to the FDA, and whether they require compounding pharmacies to report whether they produce large volumes of drugs.

Although traditional pharmacy compounding is small-scale, producing one prescription for one specific patient at a time, the company that produced the tainted steroids in the meningitis outbreak manufactured thousands of doses for hundreds of patients at once, documents show.

OUT OF BUSINESS

The suspicion that Medicare’s payment policy encourages large-scale compounding has arisen in part because in the single instance when Medicare denied payment for an entire class of compounded drugs – respiratory medications used in special inhalers called nebulizers – the decision drove compounders out of that business.

At the time, Medicare said that because compounded drugs are not tested for safety and effectiveness, they have “the potential of putting a patient at increased risk of injury, illness, or death.”

The nebulizer-drugs decision came in 2007, after patient advocates led by Allergy & Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics argued to Medicare that the compounded nebulizer drugs had contamination and potency problems, said Sandra Fusco Walker, who led that effort.

That coverage decision “is absolutely relevant” to the question of Medicare’s support for compounding pharmacies, Blumenthal said, “because it reflects an awareness of this issue. Whether that should be a precedent for denying coverage of all such (compounded) drugs is a separate question.”

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which is part of HHS and runs the Medicare, regularly decides whether to cover diagnostic tests, medications, surgical procedures and other medical treatments. It bases those decisions on whether the intervention is “reasonable and necessary.” For drugs, that almost always means that the medication has received approval from the FDA.

“We believe that Medicare’s policy manual clearly establishes the agency’s authority to deny coverage for compounded drugs,” said Carome.

But he admits that the manual is “internally contradictory.”

In a section of the manual related to compounded drugs, CMS says that compounded drugs that have not received FDA approval – which describes essentially all compounded drugs – are excluded from Medicare coverage.

“If the FDA has not approved the manufacturing and processing procedures used by these (compounding) facilities, the FDA has no assurance that the drugs these companies are producing are safe and effective,” the manual adds.

But the same section also says that payment for such a drug does not stop unless CMS notifies the local carriers that it contracts with to process Medicare claims “that it is appropriate to do so.”

“Clearly, if compounded drugs weren’t covered to the extent they are, there wouldn’t be an economic environment that allows large-scale compounding to continue,” said Carome.

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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A Short To-Do List for Intel’s Next CEO

With Paul Otellini heading in May to the nearest 18-hole course, speculation is rampant about who will replace him. That’s a parlor game this post isn’t going to get into (although you can see a good roundup of likely candidates here). But no matter who gets the job, the new chief executive officer of Intel (INTC) has a refreshingly brief and direct list of priorities for the months and years ahead.

Evercore analyst Patrick Wang put it best: “Intel’s new CEO has one task and one task only,” he said. “Succeed in mobile.”

There’s no doubt that Otellini has fulfilled Intel’s primary objective of dominating PCs and laptops. Though Intel’s competitor, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), proved an able (and at times, superior) rival, that marketplace has settled into a fairly stable picture, with Intel continuing to command nearly 80 percent of the processors in notebooks and desktops.

But in mobile, the chipmaker serves less than 1 percent of the market. There, Intel has ceded ground to designs from British chip designer ARM (ARM:LN). ARM chips are made by Samsung (005930:KS), Qualcomm (QCOM), Nvidia (NVDA), and others and are in just about every smartphone and tablet you can think of. Here, Intel has a steep hill to climb. “The new CEO’s job is to grow mobile market share to somewhere north of 25 percent,” says Patrick Moorhead, a former AMD executive and now an industry analyst. According to Moorhead, Intel is not lacking technologically. “After two failed attempts at developing a mobile processor,” he says, “Medfield [Intel's latest mobile processor] shows they can create a competitive mobile product.”

But a manufacturer also has to sell what it makes, and that’s where things can get a little tricky for Intel. For starters, you have Samsung, the dominant manufacturer in mobile. Samsung is also the world’s second-largest semiconductor manufacturer, so it’s going to continue making chips for itself. Apple (AAPL) takes up another big chunk of the mobile and tablet market: Its processors are designed in-house, but manufactured by Samsung.

That leaves Intel with the not-Samsung/not-Apple part of the mobile market to go after. But it’s not even this simple, because that territory is already being fought over by Qualcomm, Nvidia, and Chinese manufacturers such as Fuzhou Rockchip Manufacturing. “Those Chinese manufacturers can do things so cheaply to satisfy domestic Chinese demand, ” says Wang. “Even Qualcomm and Nvidia can’t touch them.”

Everyone who follows Intel knows it remains the company to beat when it comes to technology and manufacturing ability. The company’s new CEO can rest assured that those parts of the company are where they need to be. But the mobile market is so competitive, with so many new players, that having a great product is only half the battle.

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Turbulence on Cuba-Italy flight leaves 30 bruised

ROME (AP) — An airliner flying from Havana to Milan abruptly plunged some 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) when it hit unusually strong turbulence over the Atlantic on Monday, terrifying passengers and leaving some 30 people aboard with bruises and scrapes, airline officials said.

The flight continued to Milan’s Malpensa airport after the plane’s captain determined that it suffered no structural damage and two passengers who are physicians found no serious injuries, Giulio Buzzi, head of the pilots division at Neos Air, told Sky TG24 TV.

The ANSA news agency quoted bruised passenger Edoardo De Lucchi as saying meals were being served when suddenly there was “10 seconds of terror.” He recounted how plates went flying and some passengers not wearing seatbelts bounced about.

Buzzi had said that the drop measured some 3,000 meters (10,000 feet) in a cloudless sky. But Milan daily’s Corriere della Sera’s web site, quoting Neos official Davide Martini, later reported that the plane first bounced up some 500 meters (1,650 feet), then dropped some 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) to some 500 meters (1,650 feet) below the original altitude.

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Android de Google resta cada vez más mercado a Apple

Los teléfonos inteligentes y tabletas informáticas con el sistema operativo Android de Google están acaparando el mercado de dispositivos móviles y robando espacio a Apple al saciar el apetito por la innovación y los bajos precios, estiman analistas.

El sistema operativo Android funciona en casi tres de cada cuatro teléfonos inteligentes vendidos en el mundo en el trimestre que acaba de finalizar en momentos en que la plataforma móvil domina el mercado, de acuerdo con los analistas de la industria de la firma IDC.

“Android ha sido uno de los principales motores de crecimiento del mercado de teléfonos inteligentes desde su lanzamiento en 2008″, dice el gerente de investigación de teléfonos móviles de IDC, Ramon Llamas.

“Cada año desde entonces, Android ha desbordado el mercado y robado participación en el mercado de la competencia”, agrega.

En las tabletas, la cuota de mercado de Apple cayó a poco más del 50%, desde el 65% que registró en el segundo trimestre, mientras Android ha ganado terreno, de acuerdo con cifras de IDC.

“Tener una gran cantidad de personas que construyen un montón de cosas que cubren una gran cantidad de rangos de precio con múltiples marcas en varios lugares hace una gran diferencia”, dice el analista de NPD Group Stephen Baker.

“La variedad es la fuerza cuando se trata de artefactos móviles”, estima.

Los pedidos de teléfonos inteligentes Android aumentaron a 136 millones de dólares, superando los del mismo trimestre del año pasado por un poco más del 90%, de acuerdo con informes de IDC.

Galaxy S3 de Samsung superó al iPhone 4S de Apple en el tercer trimestre para dar a la empresa de Corea del Sur el modelo de teléfono inteligente más vendido del mundo por primera vez, según la firma de investigación Strategy Analytics.

“El ritmo de la innovación en Android es más rápido que el de Apple”, dice el vicepresidente de computación móvil de Gartner, Ken Dulaney. “Ellos están tratando de hacerlo más fuerte, Apple está muy por detrás en esa área”.

Android se está beneficiando de ser una plataforma “open-source” que los fabricantes de aplicaciones usan gratuitamente y mejoran a medida que lo estiman conveniente, proporcionando a Google conocimientos en el camino.

Apple, por su parte, supervisa muy de cerca sus productos desde el software al hardware, e inclusive la tienda online de música, libros, juegos u otro contenido.

“Lo que se obtiene con Android es este increíble circuito de retroalimentación con los desarrolladores, fabricantes de equipos, clientes y diseñadores”, dice Dulaney.

“En Apple, si bien tienen una gran visión interna que está bien, no tienen la retroalimentación que Android tiene”, añade.

Tener miles de diferentes dispositivos Android disputándose el dinero de los consumidores es un fuerte estímulo cuando se trata de participación de mercado pero pone a los fabricantes de hardware en un escenario altamente competitivo, según Baker.

“Aparte de Samsung, no sé si otros chicos (vinculados a) Android están haciendo dinero”, estima el analista.

Google ofrece Android de forma gratuita, pero la plataforma está diseñada para hacer que sea más fácil para la gente usar servicios de Google, como el de búsqueda o de mapas, entre otros, y hallar contenido en sus tiendas en línea Google Play.

El analista de Forrester Charles Golvin estimó que parte importante del éxito coyuntural de Android tiene que ver con cambios demográficos de los compradores de teléfonos inteligentes.

Los primeros usuarios de teléfonos multifunciones apreciaban más las nuevas tecnologías que el precio, pero los dispositivos se han vuelto imprescindibles y con un costo cada vez más importante para los compradores, según Golvin.

“La gente está más inclinada hacia la plataforma Android, porque hay más posibilidades de elección y la mayoría de las opciones que da es de bajo precio”, dice.

La naturaleza abierta de Android y la variedad de modelos ofrecidos por los fabricantes de dispositivos funcionan como un “arma de doble filo”, señala no obstante el analista.

Apple lanza anualmente actualizaciones del sistema operativo móvil iOS a sus dispositivos, mientras que las nuevas versiones de Android, aunque lo hacen más a menudo, deben obtenerse a través de los fabricantes de hardware y servicios de telecomunicaciones para llegar hasta los teléfonos.

“Tú tienes esta lenta cadena de intermediarios que están retrasando la instalación del nuevo software y sus innovaciones en los dispositivos existentes en el mercado”, advierte Golvin.

Los teléfonos inteligentes y tabletas informáticas con el sistema operativo Android de Google están acaparando el mercado de dispositivos móviles y robando espacio a Apple al saciar el apetito por la innovación y los bajos precios, estiman analistas.

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Singing stars arrive for American Music Awards

Pink on a song with Lauryn Hill? The pop star hopes so.

Pink said on the red carpet of the American Music Awards that she’d like to collaborate with the acclaimed singer-rapper.

Cyndi Lauper said her musical playlist includes Pink, Nicki Minaj and Carly Rae Jepsen‘s “Call Me Maybe.” Boy band The Wanted is excited to see “Gangnam Style” star PSY and Colbie Caillat wants to watch No Doubt rock the stage.

The stars walking the red carpet before the AMAs were ready to take their seats as fans. Arrivals included Taylor Swift, 50 Cent, Gloria Estefan, Ludacris, Kelly Rowland, Lady Antebellum, J. Cole, Luke Bryan, the Backstreet Boys and Linkin Park.

“What makes the American Music Awards special is the fans choose the winning artists,” said Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, who is nominated for favorite artist alternative rock and will perform at the show.

Carrie Underwood arrived in a magenta dress and Kerry Washington was in a banana Stella McCartney number Sunday. Heidi Klum and Ginnifer Goodwin were also on the scene.

Along with Rihanna, Minaj is the top nominee at Sunday’s American Music Awards, but the rapper-singer isn’t concerned with her four nominations.

“I don’t do music for awards,” the 29-year-old said in an interview. “It’s so crazy because people always have to remind me that I’m nominated for an award when I go to award shows.”

“I know they’re going to come. I’m sitting here looking at my awards right now,” she continued with a laugh. “I never stress it. I think of myself as ‘I’ll have a career long enough to get all those different awards.’”

In the pop/rock category, Minaj is up for favorite female artist and album for “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded.” She’s also nominated for favorite artist and album in the hip-hop/rap category, two awards she won last year.

Minaj isn’t up for the night’s top award, though. Rihanna, Maroon 5, Drake, Katy Perry and Justin Bieber will battle it out for artist of the year.

But the American Music Awards are all about performances, and Sunday’s show will be no exception. Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood will perform. Justin Bieber will share the stage with Minaj. Ludacris and Chris Brown will perform with Swizz Beatz. And Stevie Wonder is set to provide the soundtrack for a tribute to the late Dick Clark.

“I’m really going there to perform ‘Freedom,’” Minaj said of her new single. “I’m very, very proud of the record and I’m happy that people are going to get to hear it. I’m performing a hip-hop song on the AMAs, and I think . that’s just a big look for hip-hop.”

Rae Jepsen, Kelly Clarkson and Usher are also among those set to sing during the three-hour program, which is to be broadcast live on ABC.

Other multiple nominees include Usher, Bieber, Drake, Maroon 5 and One Direction, who have three nods each. Perry, Underwood, Brown, Clarkson, Pitbull, fun., Gotye, J. Cole and Luke Bryan are all double nominees.

American Music Awards nominees were selected based on sales and airplay, and fans chose the winners by voting online.

The 40th anniversary show will also include the tribute to Clark, its creator.

“Dick changed the face of music back in the late ’50s,” producer Larry Klein said. “Dick is the one who made rock ‘n’ roll acceptable to come into people’s homes… We’re paying tribute to Dick because of the legacy that he’s left everybody and also the creativity of what he did on this show.”

___

AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen contributed to this report from Los Angeles. Follow (at)APSandy’s American Music Award updates at www.twitter.com/APEntertainment.

___

Online:

http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/american-music-awards

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Four year bans proposed under new WADA Code

(Reuters) – Athletes guilty of serious doping offenses will be suspended for four years from 2015 under proposals being considered by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), but there are no plans for a specific rule to ban offenders from the Olympics.

Currently, athletes found guilty of a first major doping offense are handed a two-year ban with any subsequent positive test incurring a life-ban.

The longer ban would be introduced for offenses that include the use of anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, masking agents and trafficking, according to a second draft of the 2015 WADA code which was reviewed over the weekend.

“It is clear … there is a strong desire in the world of sport, from governments and within the anti-doping community to strengthen the sanction articles in the code,” WADA President John Fahey said in a statement.

“This second draft has done that, doubling the length of suspension for serious offenders and widening the scope for anti-doping organizations to impose lifetime bans.”

The draft does not, however, consider a former International Olympic Committee (IOC) rule regarding Olympic participation, which was ruled in non-compliance with the WADA Code in 2011 by sport’s highest court, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The IOC rule, introduced in 2008, banned athletes from participating at the next Olympic Games if they had been suspended for six months or longer.

After the rule was ruled non-compliant, Britain was forced to overturn lifetime Olympic bans on their drug cheats.

“The rational is if more four-year sanctions are delivered, then there won’t be any need for (the IOC rule) because the athletes will be missing the next Olympics,” WADA spokesman Terence O’Rorke said by telephone from Montreal.

The new WADA Code draft also includes a proposal that to be prohibited, substances or methods must be performance enhancing, contrary to the spirit of sport or contrary to the health of athletes.

The proposed code will undergo further review between now and March 2013, when it will be presented to the WADA Foundation Board before a final draft is prepared for ratification at the world anti-doping conference in Johannesburg next November.

“Athletes must know that there is a heavy price to pay for intentional doping,” Fahey said. “I am confident this draft will deliver that message loud and clear.”

WADA also said its funding would be frozen for a second successive year at approximately $ 28 million in 2013.

“This freeze is not ideal for the fight against doping in sport,” Fahey said. “It is widely accepted that doping is a major issue no longer restricted to the sporting world, and that it must be addressed by society as a whole.”

(Reporting by Gene Cherry in Salvo, North Carolina, editing by Nick Mulvenney)

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Cameron pledges to lower hurdles to growth

LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister David Cameron promised on Monday to slash legal and regulatory obstacles to economic growth, seeking to ward off criticism that the government is doing too little to help companies and revive an ailing economy.

Cameron said he was determined to cut through officialdom and change a risk-averse government culture of consultation, review and audit that hindered enterprise.

“When this country was at war in the 1940s, Whitehall underwent a revolution,” he said, referring to the British government. “Normal rules were circumvented. Convention was thrown out,” Cameron said in advance extracts of a speech to business leaders.

“As one historian put it, everything was thrown at ‘the overriding purpose’ of beating Hitler. Well, this country is in the economic equivalent of war today – and we need the same spirit,” he added.

Cameron’s Conservative-led government has pledged to tackle its budget deficit and has little room to boost Britain’s stagnant growth with extra state spending.

It has instead been seeking to promote a private-sector-led recovery, identifying a series of job-creating infrastructure projects, but has since been frustrated by the slow pace of progress.

Cameron said the government would impose restrictions on the use of a legal process known as judicial review, used increasingly by opponents to delay big infrastructure schemes.

A planned high-speed rail line from London to Birmingham faces five such reviews in court hearings next month from residents and others affected by its construction.

In addition, officials would be barred from introducing costly business regulations unless they withdrew two other bureaucratic rules at the same time, in a doubling of an existing “one-in, one-out” procedure.

Cameron was due to make the remarks to the country’s main business lobby group, the Confederation of British Industry, which has demanded more action to boost the economy.

CBI head John Cridland called on Sunday for Chancellor George Osborne to inject a further 1.5 billion pounds into the economy to stimulate growth when he makes a budget statement in December.

Cridland said London’s successful 2012 Olympics were a model for an infrastructure-led recovery.

“I’d like to see the government bottle what worked with the Olympics, which is we did something on time, on spec – a fabulous construction project,” he told Sky News.

“And do that with a motorway, a big power station, a big offshore wind farm, maybe a tunnel under the Thames (River) for our waste sewerage. Let’s get these things happening,” Cridland added.

($ 1 = 0.6311 British pounds)

(Reporting by Tim Castle, editing by Gary Crosse)

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Rebels in Congo reach door of Goma

GOMA, Congo (AP) — A Rwandan-backed rebel group advanced to within 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) of Goma, a crucial provincial capital in eastern Congo, marking the first time that rebels have come this close since 2008.

Congolese army spokesman Col. Olivier Hamuli said the fighting has been going on since 6 a.m. Sunday and the front line has moved to just a few kilometers (miles) outside the city. After more than nine hours of violent clashes the two sides took a break, with M23 rebels establishing a checkpoint just 100 meters (yards) away from one held by the military in the village of Munigi, exactly 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) outside the Goma city line.

Contacted by telephone on the front line, M23 rebel spokesman Col. Vianney Kazarama said the group will spend the night in Goma.

“We are about to take the town. We will spend the night in Goma tonight,” said Kazarama. “We are confident that we can take Goma and then our next step will be to take Bukavu,” he said mentioning the capital of the next province to the south.

The M23 rebel group is made up of soldiers from a now-defunct rebel army, the National Congress for the Defense of the People, or CNDP, a group made-up primarily of fighters from the Tutsi ethnic group, the ethnicity that was targeted in Rwanda‘s 1994 genocide. In 2008, the CNDP led by Rwandan commando Gen. Laurent Nkunda marched his soldiers to the doorstep of Goma, abruptly stopping just before taking the city.

In the negotiations that followed and which culminated in a March 23, 2009 peace deal, the CNDP agreed to disband and their fighters joined the national army of Congo. They did not pick up their arms again until this spring, when hundreds of ex-CNDP fighters defected from the army in April, claiming that the Congolese government had failed to uphold their end of the 2009 agreement.

Reports, including one by the United Nations Group of Experts, have shown that M23 is actively being backed by Rwanda and the new rebellion is likely linked to the fight to control Congo’s rich mineral wealth.

The latest fighting broke out Thursday and led to the deaths of 151 rebels and two soldiers. On Saturday U.N. attack helicopters targeted M23 positions in eastern Congo.

Also on Saturday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon had called Rwandan President Paul Kagame “to request that he use his influence on the M23 to help calm the situation and restrain M23 from continuing their attack,” according to peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous who spoke at the U.N. headquarters in New York on Saturday.

North Kivu governor Julien Paluku said Saturday that the Congolese army had earlier retreated from Kibumba, which is 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Goma, after thousands of Rwandans, who he says were backing the rebels, attacked early Saturday.

“Rwandan forces bombarded our positions in Kibumba since early this morning and an estimated 3,500 crossed the border to attack us,” he said Saturday.

In downtown Goma, panicked residents had come out to try to get more information on what was happening. A 45-year-old mother of five said that she has nowhere to go.

“I don’t really know what is happening, I’ve seen soldiers and tanks in the streets and that scares me,” said Imaculee Kahindo. Asked if she planned to leave the city, she said: “What can we do? I will probably hide in my house with my children.”

Hamuli, the spokesman for the Congolese army, denied reports that soldiers were fleeing.

In 2008 as Nkunda’s CNDP rebels amassed at the gates of Goma, reporters inside the city were able to see Congolese soldiers running in the opposite direction, after having abandoned their posts. The Congolese army is notoriously dysfunctional with soldiers paid only small amounts, making it difficult to secure their loyalties during heavy fighting.

“We are fighting 3 kilometers from Goma, just past the airport. And our troops are strong enough to resist the rebels,” said Hamuli. “We won’t let the M23 march into our town,” he said. Asked if his troops were fleeing, he added: “These are false rumors. We are not going anywhere.”

U.N. peacekeeping chief Ladsous said that the rebels were very well-equipped, including with night vision equipment allowing them to fight at night.

Reports by United Nations experts have accused Rwanda, as well as Uganda, of supporting the rebels. Both countries strongly deny any involvement and Uganda said if the charges continue it will pull its peacekeeping troops out of Somalia, where they are playing an important role in pushing out the Islamist extremist rebels.

The U.N. Security Council called for an immediate stop to the violence following a two-hour, closed-door emergency meeting. The council said it would add sanctions against M23 rebels and demanded that rebels immediately stop their advance toward the provincial capital of Goma.

“We must stop the M23″ because Goma’s fall “would, inevitably, turn into a humanitarian crisis,” said France‘s U.N. Ambassador, Gerard Araud. He added that U.N. officials would decide in the coming days which M23 leaders to target for additional sanctions.

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Associated Press writer Maria Sanminiatelli at the United Nations and Rukmini Callimachi in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report.

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