FDA grants priority review to Roche’s breast cancer drug

(Reuters) – Roche, the world’s biggest maker of cancer drugs, said U.S. health regulators granted a priority review to its experimental breast cancer drug TDM-1, expediting the review process for the marketing application of the drug.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will announce its decision on the marketing approval by February 26, the Swiss drugmaker said.

The FDA grants priority reviews to medicines that are considered potentially significant therapeutic advancements over existing therapies.

Roche said its marketing application for the drug was accepted by European regulators.

TDM-1, or trastuzumab emtansine, is being developed with ImmunoGen, using ImmunoGen’s targeted antibody payload delivery technology.

Roche said in late-August that the drug significantly extended the lives of women with an aggressive type of breast cancer, compared with those receiving the standard drug cocktail.

(Reporting By Pallavi Ail in Bangalore; Editing by Maju Samuel)

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France to give businesses $25 billion tax break

PARIS (AP) — France‘s government has promised €20 billion ($ 25 billion) in tax credits to businesses as part of a “competitiveness pact” that it hopes will spark innovation and lower unemployment – but falls short of calls in a recent report for a “shock” to the economy.

The announcement of the plan Tuesday came a day after a government-commissioned report — by Louis Gallois, former head of Airbus parent EADS — said the country’s ailing economy needed a big kick to stay globally competitive.

Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the government‘s plan, which includes a €500 million fund to help struggling small businesses, would put the country “back at the heart of the world economy.”

“This new French model will consist of finding a way back to creating jobs and will no longer be financed by permanent deficits,” he said.

However, the government plan has fallen short of some of the recommendations in the Gallois report and raises fears that the Socialist administration of President Francois Hollande is not doing enough to revitalize the French economy.

For example, the $ 20 billion tax credit is to be implemented over three years — with €10 billion available in 2013 and the rest split over the following two years. Gallois recommended in his report for the government that the breaks should happen over one or two years to have the maximum effect.

The measure also takes the form of an income tax credit, rather than a reduction in the social charges employers pay on salaries, as Gallois had suggested. The government argues that its method is designed to have immediate impact, while deferring payment until 2014 when next year’s tax bill comes due. That, however, assumes that companies will start spending and hiring right away in anticipation of the credit.

France faces several major economic challenges, including an unemployment rate of 10.8 percent, and labor regulations that make firing so difficult it has discouraged hiring. Growth has ground to a halt, and several major companies have announced thousands of layoffs in recent weeks.

France has largely sidestepped the massive budget cuts and reforms undertaken by its neighbors, despite having one of the world’s highest proportions of state spending. Unions and companies are currently in discussions to overhaul the labor market – but the issues are so touchy in France that it’s unclear how far they’ll go.

Gallois warned in his report that the biggest problem in France is that because of high labor costs, companies have to slash prices in order to compete. Without high profit margins, companies have very little to invest in product innovation and quality. Ayrault promised that the pact would give companies more room to maneuver and address this problem.

The government’s plan focuses on small businesses, often the motors of innovation and employment. It calls for small businesses to receive special help to compete internationally, and billions of euros in a new public investment bank will be reserved for smaller companies.

The government also promised to reduce red tape and to limit changes to its tax and other policies over the next five years. France has a very complex tax code – a major thorn in the side of companies, especially small ones that spend tremendous resources to figure out what they owe.

Half of the money will come from spending cuts between 2014 and 2015. However, Ayrault did not detail what would be cut. The rest will come from new taxes, including a hike to most sales taxes – apart from basics like food which will benefit from a cut – in 2014.

The new measure follows a similar plan by former President Nicolas Sarkozy to lower the tax burden on companies via a blanket increase in sales tax. At the time, the Socialists campaigned against the plan and one of their first moves in office was to scrap it. The new government’s plan is similar, but lowers the sales tax on basic necessities, a move the Socialists hope will ensure the poorest people aren’t unduly burdened.

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Officials: New mass graves found in Ivory Coast

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Up to 10 new mass graves have been discovered near the site of a July attack on a camp for displaced people, officials said Tuesday, amid allegations that initial casualty totals were downplayed to mask killings carried out by the national army.

Rights groups claim summary executions were carried out by the Republican Forces of Ivory Coast, known by its French acronym of FRCI. Last month, officials found six bodies in a well close to the former campsite in the western town of Duekoue.

Government, army and U.N. officials toured 10 more graves in the same area on Saturday, said Paul Mondouho, vice-mayor of Duekoue. He said the graves had first been identified by civilians, and that officials did not know the number of bodies they contained because they had not yet been properly exhumed.

“People were suspecting the presence of bodies in these graves because of the smell coming out of them and because of the shoes we saw nearby,” Mondouho said.

Prosecutor Noel Dje Enrike Yahau, who is based in the commercial capital of Abidjan, confirmed that multiple new graves had been discovered but could not provide details. U.N. officials and the local prosecutor in charge of investigating the suspected killings could not be reached Tuesday.

U.N. spokeswoman Sylvie van den Wildenberg confirmed that U.N. forces helped Ivorian authorities secure a perimeter around 10 wells “similar to the one in which six bodies were found,” and that “some of those wells are suspected mass graves.”

She stressed that Ivorian authorities were leading the investigation but that the U.N. was able to provide assistance.

Army spokesmen could not be reached Tuesday. The Justice Ministry has previously vowed to investigate the discovery of the initial grave.

On the morning of July 20, a mob descended on the U.N.-guarded Nahibly camp, which housed 4,500 people displaced by violence in Ivory Coast, burning most of the camp to the ground. Officials said at the time that six people were killed.

The attack was prompted by the shooting deaths of four men and one woman on the night of July 19, according to local officials and residents. In response a mob of some 300 people overran the camp on the morning of July 20 after the perpetrators of the shootings reportedly fled there.

The victims in the July 19 attack lived in a district dominated by the Malinke ethnic group, which largely supported President Alassane Ouattara in the disputed November 2010 election. The camp primarily housed members of the Guere ethnic group, which largely supported former President Laurent Gbagbo.

Gbagbo’s refusal to cede office despite losing the election to Ouattara sparked months of violence that claimed at least 3,000 lives.

Albert Koenders, the top U.N. envoy to Ivory Coast, said one week after the attack that U.N. security forces had been inside and outside the camp at the time but that no Ivorian security forces were present. He said the U.N. forces decided not to fire at a large group of people that were attacking the camp in order to avoid “a massacre.”

Several witnesses have said soldiers and traditional hunters, known as dozos, participated in the attack on the camp. Both military and dozo leaders have denied the claims, saying they had tried to protect the camp.

In a statement released Friday, the International Federation for Human Rights, known by its French acronym of FIDH, said it had information — including the preliminary results of autopsies — confirming that the six bodies found in October were men who had been summarily executed by the army.

“The disappearance of dozens of displaced persons after the attack, as well as confirmation of cases of summary and extra-judicial executions, suggest a much higher victim rate than the official figures report,” said the organization, which counts Ivorian civil society groups among its members.

Duekoue was one of the hardest-hit towns during the post-election violence. The U.N. has established that at least 505 people were killed in and around the town, including during a notorious March 2011 massacre that claimed hundreds of lives and was allegedly carried out by fighters loyal to Ouattara.

Duekoue residents belonging to ethnic groups that supported Gbagbo have long complained about abuses carried out by the FRCI, with some pointing to the direct involvement of the local commander, Kone Daouda. FIDH said in its statement that Daouda had been transferred following the discovery of the grave in October, and called for him to be interrogated over the matter.

The group also said two FRCI members were being “actively sought” after failing to return to their barracks on Oct. 16, noting that they are believed to have fled to neighboring Burkina Faso.

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Apple Hides its Second Faux-pology to Samsung

For all that its products are (arguably unfairly) associated with elitism, Apple as a company has a pretty good track record when it comes to apologizing for screw-ups.

For example: When people complained about the iPhone 4′s poor reception, back in 2010, Steve Jobs took reporters on a tour of Apple’s antenna testing center, and gave everyone who bought an iPhone 4 a free case if they wanted one. More recently, Apple CEO Tim Cook publicly apologized for “the frustration [iOS 6's maps have] caused our customers,” and suggested they use Google’s app instead. The Wall Street Journal even reported that Scott Forstall — formerly Apple’s exec in charge of iOS — was asked to leave the company for refusing to be the one to apologize.

But when the British courts ordered Apple to apologize to Samsung for accusing the Korean tech giant of copying Apple’s designs? Cue the snark and passive-aggressiveness.

The lawsuit(s)

Apple filed suit against Samsung in numerous courts worldwide, claiming its designs infringed on Apple’s and seeking injunctions to ban them. (Pseudonymous Redditor MarsSpaceship published a graphic which ironically points out the uncanny similarities.) Courts in Australia and the United States ruled in Apple’s favor, and Samsung was ordered to pay more than $ 1 billion to Apple in damages.

Except in the United Kingdom

The courts in the UK not only found that Samsung’s designs don’t infringe, they ordered Apple to publicly apologize to Samsung on its website and in newspapers, in words big enough to be read. Apple faux-pologized by stating the facts — that the court found Samsung’s designs don’t infringe — then going on to point out how every other court in the world said otherwise, and quoting the judge when he said that the reason people wouldn’t mistake Samsung’s products for Apple’s is because “They are not as cool.”

Try again, Apple

The British courts were not amused, and told Apple to try it again. You can read Apple’s new “apology” on its UK website, assuming you can translate the legalese which calls an iPad a “Community registered design No. 0000181607-0001″ … and assuming you can find it.

Say what, now?

Another anonymous Redditor, Dismiss, discovered that Apple had reprogrammed its UK website to hide the apology to Samsung. Not only did it redesign the site’s front page, making graphics larger and pushing the legal text out of view, it used custom code to make it so that you have to scroll to see the apology, no matter how big your screen is. This effectively hides it from view for most people, unless they go out of their way to look for it.

Round three, coming up?

The UK courts haven’t responded to Apple’s second faux-pology, which may be partly because they aren’t aware of what Apple did yet. Either way, Apple seems to have come out the winner worldwide, and Samsung’s latest designs — like the Galaxy S III smartphone — are much less derivative of Apple’s.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

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William Shatner – there’s an app for him

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) – Actor William Shatner is having a moment. A couple of years after CBS canceled his Twitter-inspired “$ #*! My Dad Says” TV comedy, Shatner is at the top of the tech world.

The former “Star Trek” captain, now 81, is featured in Blindlight Apps “Shatoetry”, which catapulted to the top of the entertainment app list on Apple iTunes last week on its first day of release.

The celebrity app allows users to choose from hundreds of words to arrange sentences, which Shatner will then recite in his trademark voice and style. There is also a mode that allows Shatner fans to collaborate on “Shatisms” and there are single-player challenges like creating Haiku and poetry.

Shatner, who is currently touring the country with his critically-acclaimed one-man Broadway show, “Shatner’s World,” took a few minutes to talk technology with Reuters.

Q: How would you like to expand this app moving forward? Perhaps adding music?

A: “Well, we have that in mind. Words to music. We have in mind holiday things. We have in mind events in your life, words so that you can use them as well. We will increase this if people love it and tell other people that they love it. When we get an audience we know that is worthwhile, we will add to it.”

Q: One audience you know you definitely have out there is “Star Trek” fans. Do you see any opportunities with special app add-ons for them?

A: “Well, yes. I don’t think we’ll leave opportunity unexplored, but I wanted to be very careful about how we introduce it so it is not something that is derogatory or stupid. I want to make sure that it’s used in the way it’s meant to be used, which is for your entertainment.”

Q: Do you see opportunities for other actors to work with you on this app?

A: “We hope that it becomes popular enough to interest people into doing some words.”

Q: So users would be able to mix your words with other actors’ words through this app?

A: “Yes. Exactly. Have them do keywords like ‘love.’ There are certain words that everybody wants to use like ‘love’ and ‘hate’ and words that you use somewhere in your conversation… Commonly used words that are positive, I think that would be a way of getting a well-known person to take a chance in interpreting that word several different ways and know that they won’t look foolish, or be made to look foolish.”

Q: How are you taking advantage of today’s technology to connect with fans?

A: “I’m using it in as many ways as feasible. I’m doing podcasts. I’m certainly doing everything else, Facebook, Twitter and all that kind of thing. I’m taking advantage of communicating with the people out there as much as possible, and this app is one of those ways.”

Q: What technology do you have?

A: “I have iPhone, an iPad and I will be getting an iPad Mini shortly.”

Q: How do you use those devices?

A: “I don’t play games. I read the newspapers. I’ve got a dictation sound-to-print app and since I don’t type very well, I find myself dictating to it and sending the notes on. It’s a truly creative tool with. Once you have a means of communicating – there’s so much wrong with the world and so many crises in the mix here that, if we can communicate faster and better, we may be able to fix them before the end of the world, as far as human beings are concerned.”

Q: How’s the tour going for your show “Shatner’s World”?

A: “I’m going to be in Connecticut and New Jersey this week. I’m playing about four different places that are just opening up now. My heart goes out to the nightmare that these people are in. I feel a little awkward in talking about providing a laugh or two, but on the other hand some people may need that, and that’s what I’ll be doing….I will be with my heart on my sleeve trying to entertain people who have had a great deal of hardship in the last week.”

Q: A lot of my friends in New York and New Jersey are still without power after Hurricane Sandy.

A: “I know, and hopefully by the time I get there, there will be power. And hopefully by that time, they’ll be of a mind to be able to want to be entertained.”

(Reporting by John Gaudiosi, editing by Jill Serjeant and Marguerita Choy)

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When it comes to colon cancer checks, options exist

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – For people who have had a negative colonoscopy, less-invasive screening options may work just fine for follow-up cancer tests, a new analysis suggests.

“No one screening test is right for everyone,” lead researcher Amy Knudsen, from the Institute for Technology Assessment at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, told Reuters Health in an email.

The findings, which are based on a mathematical model, showed life expectancy varied by only a few days between people who continued getting colonoscopies every ten years and those who chose annual fecal blood tests and other less-invasive alternatives.

“The best test for you depends on your risk, your preferences, and which screening approach you are willing and able to adhere to, since no screening is effective unless it’s done,” she added.

“Patients should talk with their doctors to decide which test is best for them.”

Knudsen’s team fed colon cancer screening and survival data into a National Cancer Institute (NCI) model, starting with hypothetical study participants that had a negative colonoscopy at age 50.

The researchers found that with no further screening, 31 out of every 1,000 people would be diagnosed with colon cancer during their lives and 12 would die from it. For people who continued having colonoscopies every ten years, that would fall to eight colon cancer diagnoses and two deaths per 1,000 people.

With annual fecal tests starting at age 60, Knudsen and her colleagues calculated that 11 to 13 out of every 1,000 people would get colon cancer, and three or four would die.

And with the last screening method, known as computed tomographic colonography, or CTC, nine people would be diagnosed with cancer and three would die if the tests were done every five years. Like colonoscopy, CTC requires bowel preparation, but otherwise is not as invasive.

The less-invasive screening methods would each cause about half as many complications as colonoscopy – affecting one percent of patients versus two percent, according to findings published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Those complications include bleeding and colon perforations.

“All of these methods will work if your ultimate goal is to reduce deaths from colon cancer,” said gastroenterologist Dr. David Weinberg from Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study.

PAYING A LOT MORE

According to the NCI, about 143,000 people are expected to be diagnosed with colon or rectal cancer in 2012, and close to 52,000 will die of the disease.

Weinberg said one of the advantages of colonoscopy is that it finds pre-cancerous polyps that can be removed before they turn into cancer.

Fecal blood tests, on the other hand, typically catch very early cancers, so more patients screened that way will get cancer and need treatment, although they’ll have a good prognosis.

Colonoscopy is also more expensive than other options, at a bit over $ 1,000 a pop – and getting the procedure is typically not the most pleasant experience. A fecal test costs $ 20 to $ 50, and CTC about $ 500.

“If everybody gets a colonoscopy, you will have many fewer people who ever develop colon cancer, but you’re going to pay a lot more money to get that effect,” Weinberg told Reuters Health.

“What people and populations have to decide is, how do you want to spend your money?”

Although it’s a limitation that the results are based on a mathematical model and not on screening and outcomes for real people, Weinberg said a comparable human study will likely never be done because of the time and money required.

Based on the available evidence, the United States Preventive Services Task Force, a government-backed panel, recommends screening for colon cancer using colonoscopy, sigmoidoscopy or fecal occult blood testing between age 50 and 75.

Although both colonoscopy and fecal blood tests are available most places in the U.S., other tests including CTC may be harder to find, or not reimbursed by insurance, according to Weinberg.

SOURCE: http://bitly.com/MnBiCA Annals of Internal Medicine, online November 5, 2012.

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MF Global customers sue PricewaterhouseCoopers in amended lawsuit

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Former customers of MF Global Holdings Ltd‘s broker-dealer have added accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as a defendant in a lawsuit stemming from the collapse of the brokerage.

In an amended complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Monday, the customers of MF Global Inc accused PwC of failing to adequately audit MF Global’s internal controls over customer funds.

The complaint also repeated prior accusations against former officials at MF Global, including former Chief Executive Jon Corzine, who is accused of violating the Commodity Exchange Act, which restricts the use of customer funds.

Caroline Nolan, a spokeswoman for PwC, said it conducted its last audit of MF Global in March 2011 “in accordance with professional standards.” The audit at the time confirmed that MF Global had maintained its customer accounts in accordance with federal regulations, she said.

“We will defend this lawsuit vigorously,” Nolan said.

The lawsuit also named as a defendant CME Group Inc , the exchange that oversaw MF Global.

Neither a lawyer for Corzine nor spokesperson for CME Group immediately responded to requests for comment on the case.

An estimated $ 1.6 billion in customer funds went missing following MF Global’s collapse. MF Global filed for bankruptcy in October 2011.

Investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and Commodity Futures Trading Commission are ongoing.

PwC had served as independent auditor of MF Global in 2010 and 2011, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit, which is seeking class action status, contends that PwC failed to examine MF Global’s controls over customer funds. This amounted to professional malpractice and a breach of the auditors duties to the company and customers, the lawsuit said.

“If PwC had properly executed its duties and evaluated and reported on ‘s control problems in March 2011, there would have been ample time for management to institute proper controls over customer funds,” the complaint said.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs are cooperating with James Giddens, the trustee for the liquidation of MF Global Inc. Under the deal, the plaintiffs’ lawyers say Giddens has assigned to them certain claims against MF Global’s directors and officers and PwC.

The case is DeAngelis et al v. Corzine et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 11-07866.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Dan Grebler)

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Methane warnings ignored before NZ mine disaster

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A New Zealand coal mining company ignored 21 warnings that methane gas had accumulated to explosive levels before an underground explosion killed 29 workers two years ago, an investigation concluded.

The official report released Monday after 11 weeks of hearings on the disaster found broad safety problems in New Zealand workplaces and said the Pike River Coal company was exposing miners to unacceptable risks as it strove to meet financial targets.

“The company completely and utterly failed to protect its workers,” New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said Monday.

The country’s labor minister, Kate Wilkinson, resigned from her labor portfolio after the report’s release, saying she felt it was the honorable thing to do after the tragedy occurred on her watch. She plans to retain her remaining government responsibilities.

The Royal Commission report said New Zealand has a poor workplace safety record and its regulators failed to provide adequate oversight before the explosion.

At the time of the disaster, New Zealand had just two mine inspectors who were unable to keep up with their workload, the report said. Pike River was able to obtain a permit with no scrutiny of its initial health and safety plans and little ongoing scrutiny.

Key said he agrees with the report’s conclusion that there needs to be a philosophical shift in New Zealand from believing that companies are acting in the best interests of workers to a more proscriptive set of regulations that forces companies to do the right thing.

The commission’s report recommended a new agency be formed to focus solely on workplace health and safety problems. It also recommended a raft of measures to strengthen mine oversight.

Key said his government would consider the recommendations and hoped to implement most of them. He would not commit on forming a new agency. Workplace safety issues are currently one of the responsibilities of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

In the seven weeks before the explosion, the Pike River company received 21 warnings from mine workers that methane gas had built up to explosive levels below ground and another 27 warnings of dangerous levels, the report said. The warnings continued right up until the morning of the deadly explosion.

The company used unconventional methods to get rid of methane, the report said. Some workers even rigged their machines to bypass the methane sensors after the machines kept automatically shutting down — something they were designed to do when methane levels got too high.

The company made a “major error” by placing a ventilation fan underground instead of on the surface, the report found. The fan failed after the first of several explosions, effectively shutting down the entire ventilation system. The company was also using water jets to cut the coal face, a highly specialized technique than can release large amounts of methane.

The report did not definitively conclude what sparked the explosion itself, although it noted that a pump was switched on immediately before the explosion, raising the possibility it was triggered by an electrical arc.

The now-bankrupt Pike River Coal company is not defending itself against charges it committed nine labor violations related to the disaster. Former chief executive Peter Whittall has pleaded not guilty to 12 violations and his lawyers say he is being scapegoated.

An Australian contractor was fined last month for three safety violations after its methane detector was found to be faulty at the time of the explosion.

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Staples to have Amazon lockers in U.S. stores: spokeswoman

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Staples Inc, the largest U.S. office supply retailer, has agreed to install “Amazon Lockers” in its U.S. stores, a Staples spokeswoman said on Monday.

The Amazon lockers at Staples will allow online shoppers to have packages sent to the office supply chain’s stores. Amazon already has such storage units at grocery, convenience and drug stores, many of which stay open around the clock.

Amazon.Com Inc, the world’s largest Internet retailer, is trying to let customers avoid having to wait for ordered packages due to a missed delivery.

With the service, Amazon sends customers an email with a pickup code, which is entered on a touchscreen to open the locker containing the package. Shoppers have three days from the delivery date to pick up the package.

The online giant pays a small fee to the owners of the stores that house its lockers.

Staples did not give any further details of the service.

(Reporting by Dhanya Skariachan; Editing by Dan Grebler)

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“Wreck-It Ralph” hammers box office, sails over “Flight”

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – “Wreck-It Ralph,” Disney‘s animated film about a videogame character who destroys everything in his path, scored the highest-grossing opening weekend in Disney animation history with $ 49.1 million, as box office attendance picked up in the aftermath of superstorm Sandy.

The tally for “Wreck-It Ralph,” which features the voices of John C. Reilly and Jane Lynch, hammered the Denzel Washington film “Flight,” which generated ticket sales of $ 25 million at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to studio estimates on Sunday.

After a quiet box office last weekend with the U.S. East Coast preparing for superstorm Sandy, there was a jump in movie attendance this week in areas hit by the storm.

Dave Hollis, executive vice president of film distribution at Walt Disney Studios, told Reuters that movie attendance in affected areas was “very healthy,” boosted by school closures on Friday, which saw a bounce in matinee showings.

“In a nice way, ‘Wreck-It Ralph,’ in areas affected by the storm, ended up actually becoming an opportunity to relieve yourself from the reality that might be going on around you, we saw the theater business around areas affected by the storm very healthy,” Hollis said.

“The storm and its impact – I don’t know if it was a function of cabin fever or just escaping by getting into a movie theater, but there was definitely a gravitating-towards-the- theater phenomenon.”

Disney had developed “Wreck-It Ralph” for more than a decade and spent an estimated $ 165 million to produce the film, which featured cameo appearances by a Pac-Man ghost and Mentos candy.

The film was produced by the same team behind Disney‘s animated film “Tangled,” which earned the previous highest opening weekend gross with $ 48.8 million in 2010. “Wreck-It Ralph” was forecast to generate sales in the mid-$ 40 million range, according to Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box office division of Hollywood.com.

New release “Flight,” in which Washington stars as an airline captain who saves his plane from crashing but is accused of drinking before the flight, beat industry analysts’ $ 13 million forecast. The film, produced by Viacom’s Paramount Pictures unit, was made on a $ 31 million budget.

STORM BOOST

Unlike “Wreck-It Ralph,” “Flight” did not experience the same benefit from school closures in parts of the East Coast, according to Don Harris, president of distribution at Paramount Pictures.

“The Disney movie would benefit from school being out in a large number of big urban and suburban eastern markets, they were always going to have a very good opening, I think they got a little help on Friday,” Harris told Reuters.

He also said that the target adult audience for “Flight” would have probably been occupied with Tuesday’s presidential election and being “more active in helping people in their neighborhood” in the aftermath of Sandy, and not necessarily attending theaters this weekend.

“We did about what we expected to do but we certainly didn’t get a bump. I don’t think it hurt us very much either,” Harris said.

Critically acclaimed Iran hostage thriller “Argo,” last week’s box office leader, came in third this weekend after generating $ 10.2 million in sales.

Directed by and starring Ben Affleck, “Argo,” produced by Warner Bros. and GK Films for $ 44 million, is based on the true story of a mission to rescue U.S. government employees held hostage in Iran in 1979. It has totaled $ 75.9 million in three weeks at movie theaters and earned Oscar buzz after stellar reviews from critics.

New release “The Man With The Iron Fists” was unable to beat “Argo’s” momentum this weekend and came in fourth with ticket sales of $ 8.2 million.

Starring Russell Crowe and hip hop artist RZA, the film, produced on a budget of $ 15 million, follows a blacksmith in 19th-century China trying to defend his village from warriors and assassins searching for gold.

In fifth place, “Taken 2,” an action-thriller starring Liam Neeson as a former spy who is kidnapped in Istanbul, earned $ 6 million this weekend. It has generated a total of $ 125.7 million at the U.S. and Canadian box office since its release last month.

Overseas, the new James Bond film, “Skyfall,” enjoyed a stellar second weekend, earning $ 156 million in ticket sales at the international box office. The film will be released in North American theaters on November 9.

Walt Disney Co released “Wreck-It Ralph.” “Flight” was distributed by Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc. Warner Bros., a division of Time Warner Inc, distributed “Argo.” Universal Studios released “Man with the Iron Fists.” “Taken 2″ was released by 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy and Ronald Grover; Editing by Eric Beech)

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