Ap Wral

The quest for the world’s first malaria vaccine appears to have taken a big step: A study in Africa shows experimental shots of a vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) cut the risk of disease in young children by half. The initial results from a final stage of vaccine testing were released Tuesday, and the vaccine’s developers called it a milestone in helping to tame one of the world’s most devastating killers. “These data bring us to the cusp of having the world’s first malaria vaccine, which has the potential to significantly improve the outlook for children living in...

Personal computer shipments continued to grow in the third quarter but at a sluggish pace, intensifying concerns about the industry’s dimming prospects going into the all-important holiday shopping season. HP retained its spot as the world’s No. 1 PC seller. But the No. 2 spot was up for grabs. Lenovo Group, which is based in China but operates its executive headquarters in Morrisville, N.C., overtook Dell Inc. and claimed the No. 2 spot for the first time, IDC and Gartner reported. Even as global shipments fell below expectations, Lenovo’s shipments grew by 25 percent or more. Lenovo increased its...

Facebook will start organizing users’ friends into smaller groups to make it easier to share photos, posts and links. Facebook has long allowed users to group their friends into categories. But most people have not used those capabilities. Beginning Wednesday, Facebook will automatically group many of your friends based on whether they live near you, went to your school or work with you. Then, you can read posts or share updates with specific groups instead of dozens, or hundreds, of “friends” at a time. Called “smart lists,” the feature is optional to use. “Lists have existed for several years,...

Enough with the fun and games. Watson is going to work. IBM’s supercomputer system, best known for trouncing the world’s best “Jeopardy!” players on TV, is being tapped by one of the nation’s largest health insurers to help diagnose medical problems and authorize treatments. “There are breathtaking advances in medical science and clinical knowledge, however; this clinical information is not always used in the care of patients. Imagine having the ability to take in all the information around a patient’s medical care — symptoms, findings, patient interviews and diagnostic studies. Then, imagine using Watson analytic capabilities to consider all...

“The continuing threat to the homeland is obvious. Terrorists continue to seek weapons of mass destruction, cyber and conventional capabilities to do us harm. It falls to the intelligence community, law enforcement at all levels, and other non-traditional partners to produce the homeland security intelligence that will protect our nation and still preserve our liberties. We have made improvements at this complex task over the past ten years, but the fact remains that we need to get even better because failure is not an option.” – INSA Chairwoman Fran Townsend ++++ A new study warns that the U.S. must...

Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) has named an executive from PC maker Lenovo Group as its new CEO Thursday, giving him a mission to improve the struggling company’s finances and turn the rise of smartphones and tablets into an opportunity rather than a threat. Rory P. Read, who was Lenovo’s chief operating officer, takes the helm of AMD from Chief Financial Officer Thomas Seifert, who had served as interim CEO since January, when Dirk Meyer was ousted. Seifert remains the company’s CFO. Read, a former executive with IBM, joined Lenovo when that company acquired IBM’s PC...

Tim Cook, who earned his master’s in business at Duke University’s Fuqua School in 1988, is taking over day-to-day operations at Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) now that Steve Jobs has given up the chief executive officer role. Apple announced the changes Wednesday night. (Read details here.) Cook, 50, has been Apple’s chief operating officer and is a former IBM executive. Cook had been acting CEO since January. For years, he has been running Apple’s day-to-day operations, and has long been seen as the natural successor. He also served as Apple’s leader for two months in 2004 while Jobs battled cancer,...