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UKIP Hoovers Up Protest Vote In Local Elections

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 23 Mei 2014 | 14.59

By Michael Thrasher, Sky's Election Analyst

Once again Sunderland demonstrated the speed of its vote counting machine by declaring the first ward results. Although Labour's council majority remains formidable the devil lay in the detail.

Close analysis demonstrated UKIP was not only hoovering up the protest vote that once upon a time went to the Liberal Democrats but it was also halting Labour's progress.

Just a few ward results foretold the flavour of the overnight counting in 66 local authorities.

Slowly, UKIP began to translate voter support into seat gains. 

At first these were typically victories from the Conservatives, repeating a pattern at last year's county council elections, particularly in southern and eastern England.

Then, after five recounts in Hartlepool, UKIP finally got the headline it needed - a gain from Labour.

Just two votes separated victor and vanquished, but that did not stop the newly elected UKIP councillor from basking in his triumph.

More spectacular still was the outcome in Rotherham. 

Nigel Farage Nigel Farage's party enjoyed a breakthrough night in the polls

At the parliamentary by-election, prompted by the imprisonment of Denis McShane for expenses fraud, UKIP had come a creditable second. 

Now, it had its breakthrough, making ten gains, the majority from Labour.

The balance of gains and losses then took on an unfamiliar theme. 

Instead of showing Conservative/Liberal Democrat losses and Labour gains, at one point it showed all three of the established parties as net losers.

Labour struggled to find the correct line to take. 

It queried predictions that it should be making net gains of about 500 seats, preferring instead its own modest claim that 160 gains would be good news.

That level would certainly not be the launch pad that Ed Miliband needs to take him into Downing Street.

Certainly, Labour's progress was being compromised by UKIP's unexpected bounty of local votes. 

Ed Miliband launches Labour's European election campaign Results from London could provide a better story for Ed Miliband and Labour

Councils such as Tamworth that are critical barometers of the likely outcome of next year's general election provided evidence that Labour's plan A needed revising. 

The Conservatives held on to power there and also in Swindon, the scene of the Labour leader's campaign gaffe.

After 47 of the overnight 66 councils had declared, the table of gains and losses had an unfamiliar look. 

Under normal circumstances the party of opposition would be leading the way in gains but UKIP eclipsed the Labour tally by a sizeable fraction.

The results from London, where a large fraction of the 4,200 seats at stake are located should provide a better story for Labour when they declare their results throughout Friday. 

But even here there could be a surprise or two in store for all of the main parties. 

Most of these wards elect three councillors but UKIP has chosen to field a single candidate in many of them. 

This might have led some voters to remain mostly loyal to their usual party but donate their third local vote to UKIP, thereby boosting an already good night for the party.

For the latest results from around the country as they come in follow Sky's live election blog.


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Local Elections: UKIP Makes Significant Gains

Nigel Farage has claimed his party will win double the number of seats predicted as UKIP makes significant gains across the country.

Early on Friday morning UKIP had already surpassed the 80 seats it had been expected to take, dealing a significant blow to the main parties.

UKIP took seats off both Labour and the Conservatives in their heartlands, which was particularly damaging to Ed Miliband, who has been accused by his own party of running a "unforgiveably unprofessional" campaign.

Local Election Count In Croydon A ballot box is emptied at Trinity School in Croydon

Labour lost its grip in the north and, in a serious blow, the party lost control of Thurrock, a key marginal for the General Election in 2015, to no overall control, losing two seats to UKIP.

Mr Farage said UKIP would now be "serious players" in the General Election and said the party was expecting to win double the 80 seats that had been predicted.

He said: "The UKIP fox is in the Westminster henhouse" and added: "The idea the UKIP vote just hurts the Tories is going to be blown away by this election." 

Decision Time: The Local and Euro Elections

However, Mr Farage, who has consistently warned the local and European elections would deliver a UKIP "earthquake", admitted that the party was unlikely to be successful in London.

Douglas Alexander, Labour's election co-ordinator, was forced to deny fighting a "lacklustre" campaign.

He told Sky News the only way to tackle the march of UKIP was by deploying an "army of activists" on the doorsteps and said that Labour had knocked on seven million doors.

Joey Essex and Ed Miliband Joey Essex may have supported Ed Miliband but Essex man voted UKIP

Mr Alexander said there was a "deep antipathy to how politics has been done" and UKIP had scooped up that vote but that "strengthening and growing the ground operation" was the only strategy for 2015.

UKIP made its greatest gains in Essex, where Margaret Thatcher once identified the "Essex Man", a man who moved out of London, once voted Labour but switched to the Tories.

UKIP took seats from Labour in Hartlepool, won 10 seats in Rotherham and polled more than a third of the vote in wards in big cities, such as Sunderland, Birmingham and Hull, where it previously had little or no presence.

According to the latest Sky News projection, the results so far would give a hung parliament at the 2015 General Election.

Nigel Farage Mr Farage casts his vote in Cudham, Kent

Sky's election analyst Professor Michael Thrasher said UKIP's success suggested the party would claim at least one seat in the House of Commons next year

Conservative Education Secretary Michael Gove said the results had not been as bad as expected. He categorically ruled out any chance of a pact with UKIP.

Most councils will not declare their results until later on Friday.

Ed and Justine MilibandDavid and Samantha Cameron The Camerons and the Milibands cast their votes

As predicted, the Liberal Democrats suffered significant losses, particularly in Portsmouth where it lost control with UKIP gaining six seats.

However, it managed to hold on in Eastleigh, where UKIP had been expected to make gains, which was a significant victory for the party.

Business Secretary Vince Cable admitted it would be a bad night, adding: "We take a kicking for the things that government does that are unpopular."

:: Follow all the results as they come in on Twitter with @skyelections.


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Hundreds Discharged From Hospitals Every Night

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 22 Mei 2014 | 14.59

By Thomas Moore, Health Correspondent

Thousands of NHS patients are being discharged from hospitals every year in the middle of the night despite bosses ordering a crackdown on the practice, a Sky News investigation has found.

The number of patients leaving hospital in England between 11pm and 6am has actually risen in the last two years, new figures show.

In almost half of cases, the proportion of patients discharged overnight has increased.

In April 2012 NHS England medical director Professor Sir Bruce Keogh called on hospitals to cut down on overnight discharges following a series of cases where vulnerable patients had been left to make their own way home.

Dr Mike Smith Dr Mike Smith has said the practice is driven by the need for beds

The NHS was accused of discharging patients overnight to try to free up beds.

However, figures obtained by Sky News following Freedom of Information (FOI) requests show that since Sir Bruce's intervention the practice is still widespread and in many cases rising.

According to the figures more than 300,000 patients have been discharged late at night since 2012 - an average of around 400 a night. Tens of thousands of those patients were over 75.

As only 72 of England's 160 NHS trusts were able to provide full figures for the last three years, the true number is certain to be far higher.

Dr Mike Smith, chair of the Patients Association, said: "They have got people in A&E chomping at the bit, lying in corridors, they have got to be admitted and they have no beds.

Hospital The number of patients discharged overnight increased at 41 hospital trusts

"It's for the convenience of staff and the person they are admitting but at the gross detriment to the person they are chucking out."

Experts say that patients often end up in care homes in the middle of the night.

Nadra Ahmed, chair of the National Care Association, said: "They are going back without any relevant information about how their care might have changed, what the diagnosis might have been, their paperwork is not following because people are off duty and often without the relevant medication they need for the following day or even through the night."

Patient Michael Atkinson told Sky News that in March 2013 he was discharged from the Royal Bolton Hospital A&E at 3am, despite being in a confused state.

He was found by police an hour later wandering on a cricket pitch almost a mile away.

He said: "I did not know who I was, where I was. I did not know where I was going. I was just wandering basically. I was in pain."

Patient Michael Atkinson Michael Atkinson was found wandering after he was discharged overnight

His wife Helen said: "He could have died. He was blue with cold. Something must be done to stop this happening. You are in hospital for a reason - to be looked after."

The hospital said that Mr Atkinson had left before transport could be arranged for him but said that staff had tried to learn lessons from the incident.

Sky News asked 160 NHS trusts in England how many patients had been discharged between 11pm and 6am in the past three years.

Of those, 72 trusts provided figures for all three years. In 41 cases, the number of patients discharged overnight increased.

In 31 cases the proportion of patients discharged between 11pm and 6am increased. In three trusts it remained the same.

Of the 72 trusts that replied, 152,472 patients were discharged between 11pm and 6am in 2011/12, rising to 152,479 in 2013/14.

The figures also reveal that 20,152 were aged over 75 in 2011/12; 19,728 in 2012/13 and 18,548 in 2013/14.

The proportion of patients discharged overnight remained the same at 2.41%.

Some 25 trusts said they did not collect the data or that it would take too much time to find it and the remaining hospitals did not reply to the FOI request.

A spokesperson for NHS England said: "Discharging patients at night without appropriate support is unacceptable, particularly if a patient is vulnerable.

"Where a patient wishes to leave late at night or early in the morning, it should be accommodated only where it is safe and clinically appropriate and with the support of family, friends or carers.

"The decision to do this should always be based on what is best for the patient."

:: Have your say on Facebook or share your experiences on Twitter using the hashtag #nhsovernight


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Missing Yachtsmen Search: Floating Debris Found

Debris has been found by a vessel searching for the missing yacht that is thought to have capsized with four Britons on board.

The US Coast Guard told Sky News a catamaran, Malisi, had discovered random floating objects within the search area - but could not confirm it was from the missing Cheeki Rafiki.

Steve Warren, 52, Andrew Bridge, 22, James Male, 23, and Paul Goslin, 56, were on board the 40ft yacht when it ran into difficulties while returning to the UK from a regatta in Antigua.

A spokeswoman for the US Coast Guard said: "I can confirm that we have received reports (of debris) from the sailing vessel Malisi. They have found some debris in the search area. We can't tell at this time if they are from the Cheeki Rafiki as there were no identifying marks on them.

"The debris was a plank of wood and a small piece of floating foam, but there was nothing identifying the Cheeki Rafiki.

map of atlantic ocean with key locations

"Obviously it is a possibility, and we are definitely treating it very seriously and incorporating that into our search, but I can't say for certain that it was from the Cheeki Rafiki."

She said the report would be used in planning the search effort, but could not say whether vessels or aircraft would be diverted to the area.

The spokeswoman could not say if the debris was in an area already searched.

"A lot of these areas overlap and are searched several times, and it is possible that other vessels had been in the area," she said.

An initial search for the stricken vessel was called off on Sunday amid bad weather in the Atlantic Ocean, but began again on Tuesday after pressure from the men's families.

More than 200,000 people also signed a petition demanding the operation be resumed.

The search, around 1,000 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. now involves six ships and four planes - including an RAF Hercules.

Relatives of the sailors are due to meet Foreign Office officials in London.

More follows...


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Abu Hamza Faces Life In Jail After NYC Verdict

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 20 Mei 2014 | 14.59

A Terror Camp Inspired By Hamza

Updated: 9:38pm UK, Monday 19 May 2014

By Hannah Thomas-Peter, New York Correspondent

The hamlet of Bly, Oregon, is remote, arid and sparsely populated.

Only a few hundred people live there, many of whom enjoy the solitude, lack of law enforcement, and permissive gun laws.

On the face of it then, Bly did not seem a bad place to try to set up a terrorist training camp on US soil.

From his base at London's Finsbury Park mosque, Abu Hamza conspired to do just that; inspiring followers to find a location, and dispatching associates to train recruits.

The men intent on preparing for holy war might have gone unnoticed were it not for Sergeant Maurie Smith, at the end of his night shift in nearby Klamath Falls, spotting a white compact car with a lighting violation.

He said: "I noticed that they were wearing army fatigues, long trench coat jackets, they had head gear on, long beards, and (were) of Arabic descent."

The driver was "overly polite" and the three adult male passengers behaved oddly, said Sgt Smith, with one of them clutching a briefcase to his chest, the other trying to shelter a young child with his body.

They said some of them were going to San Francisco to sight-see.

With little back up and restrictive search and seizure laws in the state, the officer issued a citation and let them go, but he ran a check on the driver and entered a full report into the system.

The search alerted the FBI, who arrived in Klamath Falls just three hours later.

Sgt Smith said the FBI agents had lost track of the men until he contacted them and said he felt like he had "cheated death that day".

He said: "I was upset about not searching the vehicle, and they said 'well, they're highly trained individuals, we've been tracking them for a while, they are linked to some terrorist organisations', and that basically if you'd hit the right button at that very moment they would have shot you dead on the spot, without feeling any remorse about it."

But not everyone in Bly believes the camp was a hub for violent extremists intent on taking their new jihad skills to Afghanistan.

Many locals, as well as Abu Hamza's own lawyers, contend that little was achieved there other than some perfectly legal horse riding, fitness drills and target practice.

Tow company owner Dean Lawrence said he knew one of the men.

"He used to come by the store and buy gas, ask me for work a few times, seemed a nice guy," he said.

"I think it's been made out to be worse than what it was."

Former county sheriff Tim Evinger said his community was in shock after the discovery.

He said: "You know the biggest lessons were that this can happen anywhere, it can happen in our back yard here in remote Oregon, it can happen in the cities."

This conviction is the latest in a string of high-profile terror cases being tried in New York.

In March a jury found Osama bin Laden's son-in-law Sulaiman Abu Ghaith guilty of terrorism offences.

Richard Barrett, former head of counter-terrorism at MI6, said: "Abu Hamza was very typical of many people at that time in the late 90s and early 2000s, of skating along that line between being a complete rabble rouser and being a bit of a threat, a real threat.

"He probably wouldn't be able to do anything particularly operationally sophisticated because he's not that sort of guy, but there's no doubt that through his radical preaching and so on, he could persuade others that was the right thing to do."


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Pistorius Ordered To Go To Psychiatric Hospital

Oscar Pistorius has been ordered to attend a hospital for psychiatric evaluation.

Judge Thokozile Masipa ruled last week that Pistorius' state of mind when he shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp should be assessed, possibly delaying court proceedings for up to two months.

A psychiatrist giving evidence in the athlete's defence had earlier told the court he generalised anxiety disorder and that this may have influenced his judgement when he shot Ms Steenkamp through a toilet door at his home on February 14 last year.

The tests were requested by the chief prosecutor and opposed by Pistorius' lawyer.

More follows...


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Missing Yachtsmen: Pleas For Search To Resume

Written By Unknown on Senin, 19 Mei 2014 | 15.00

Relatives of four British sailors missing at sea have made a heartfelt plea for rescuers to resume their search in the Atlantic Ocean.

Speaking to Sky News, family members of the sailors said they believe their loved ones are still alive and that the US Coastguard should not have abandoned its rescue mission.

The overturned hull of a yacht matching the description of the Cheeki Rafiki was spotted and photographed by a cargo veseel assisting the search before it was called off on Sunday due to treacherous weather conditions. 

It reported no there were no signs of life on board and no life raft, however no one from the Greek-registered 1,000ft container ship Maersk Kure tried to climb down to the yacht top check if anyone was trapped alive inside.

The crew was returning from Antigua Sailing Week in the 40ft yacht when it ran into difficulties 620 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on Thursday.

Contact with Andrew Bridge, 21, James Male, 23, Steve Warren, 52, and Paul Goslin, 56, was lost in the early hours of Friday while they were diverting to the Azores.

Missing Yacht The yacht reportedly capsized on the way back from the Caribbean

Mr Bridge's aunt, Georgie Bridge, said her nephew was the captain of the yacht, named the Cheeki Rafiki.

She told Sky News the sailor's family remains hopeful that the crew will be found alive.

"Obviously the family are really concerned that the search has been suspended and we are really hoping that it will be resumed," she said.

"We are holding out great hope that Andrew and the guys on board Cheeki Rafiki will be found.

"We are hopeful that they were able to launch a life raft and that they are still on board that, so we would just really like the search to be resumed."

US and Canadian aircraft searched for the missing crew on Friday and Saturday, with help from three merchant vessels.

(L-R) Andrew Bridge, Steve Warren, James Male, Paul Goslin L-R: Andrew Bridge, Steve Warren, James Male, Paul Goslin

A US Coastguard spokesman said the crews searched more than 4,000 square miles of the ocean for pings from the vessel's personal locator beacons.

"After receiving no more transmissions we believe that we would have found them by now if we were going to find them.

"These beacons are small devices and the ones being used have a very short battery life."

The Coastguard defended the actions of the crew of the cargo vessel which spotted what was thought to be the yacht, saying it did not the capabilities to search or pick up the Cheeki Rafiki.

"Aircraft take four or five hours to get there and vessels can take over a week. This particular ship just happened to be in the area, they were not tasked specifically for this," he said.

Mr Bridge, from Farnham in Surrey, was being paid by the Southampton-based yacht training and charter company Stormforce Coaching for his role as captain, a spokeswoman for the firm said.

Stormforce director Doug Innes said that the yacht had first started taking on water on Thursday, but the skipper was in contact and the crew were keeping the situation stable.

"Although the search efforts co-ordinated by Boston were exceptional we are devastated that the search has now been called off so soon," Mr Innes said.

"Our thoughts are with the four yachtsmen and their families and we hope and pray for them all."


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AstraZeneca Rejects Pfizer 'Final Offer'

AstraZeneca Rejects Pfizer: Full Statement

Updated: 8:09am UK, Monday 19 May 2014

The Board of AstraZeneca PLC ("AstraZeneca" or the "Company") notes the announcement by Pfizer Inc. ("Pfizer") of its final proposal (the "Final Proposal"), comprising £24.76 in cash (45%) and 1.747 Pfizer shares (55%) per AstraZeneca share, representing a value of £55.00 per AstraZeneca share (based on the closing price of Pfizer shares on 16 May 2014).

This proposal undervalues the Company and its attractive prospects and has been rejected by the Board of AstraZeneca.

Leif Johansson, Chairman of AstraZeneca said: "Pascal Soriot, Marc Dunoyer and I had a lengthy discussion with Pfizer over the weekend about the proposal Pfizer made on Friday evening at a value of £53.50 per share.

"During this discussion, Pfizer said that it could consider only minor improvements in the financial terms of the Friday Proposal. In response, we indicated, even assuming that other key aspects of any proposal had been satisfactory, that the price at which the Board of AstraZeneca would be prepared to provide a recommendation would have to be more than 10% above the level contained in Pfizer's Friday Proposal.

"The Final Proposal is a minor improvement which continues to fall short of the Board's view of value and has been rejected."

"Pfizer's approach throughout its pursuit of AstraZeneca appears to have been fundamentally driven by the corporate financial benefits to its shareholders of cost savings and tax minimisation.

"From our first meeting in January to our latest discussion yesterday, and in the numerous phone calls in between, Pfizer has failed to make a compelling strategic, business or value case.

"The Board is firm in its conviction as to the appropriate terms to recommend to shareholders."

"AstraZeneca has created a culture of innovation, with science at the heart of its operations, which will continue to create significant value for patients, shareholders and all stakeholders of AstraZeneca."

"As an independent company, the entire value of AstraZeneca's pipeline will accrue to our shareholders. Under Pfizer's Final Proposal, this value would be significantly diluted."

"We have rejected Pfizer's Final Proposal because it is inadequate and would present significant risks for shareholders, while also having serious consequences for the Company, our employees and the life-sciences sector in the UK, Sweden and the US."

Background

After the close of business on 16 May 2014, the Board received a letter containing a revised non-binding proposal from Pfizer comprising £21.57 in cash (40%) and 1.845 Pfizer shares (60%) per AstraZeneca share, representing a value of £53.50 per AstraZeneca share (based on the closing price of Pfizer shares on 16 May 2014) (the "Friday Proposal").

Pfizer's letter did not provide detail about other key aspects of its proposal, several of which are of importance to the Board's evaluation.

The Board of AstraZeneca met on 17 May 2014 and concluded that the financial terms of the Friday Proposal substantially undervalued the Company and its attractive prospects. Accordingly, the Friday Proposal was rejected.

The Board wrote to Pfizer on the evening of 17 May 2014 to confirm that the Board had rejected the Friday Proposal.

The Board offered to hold a meeting with Pfizer to explain its views around the substantial shortfall in value of the Friday Proposal.

The Board also offered Pfizer the opportunity to explain the key aspects of its proposal that were not described in Pfizer's letter, in particular four points central to the Board's concerns relating to value for AstraZeneca's shareholders. These are:

· The business operating model and segmentation which would allow AstraZeneca to deliver on its research and development pipeline and prospects; and which would protect and preserve its culture of science and innovation, especially given the likelihood of material cost savings and research and development reductions;

· The details of Pfizer's plans for cost savings, including around research and development, pipeline delivery and employment;

· Transaction execution risks, in particular Pfizer's proposed tax inversion and regulatory clearances; and

· Pfizer's plans for protecting the certainty of delivery of the value of any offer at closing.

Pfizer requested that this meeting be held by conference call. This conference call, between Leif Johansson (Chairman), Pascal Soriot (Chief Executive Officer) and Marc Dunoyer (Chief Financial Officer) of AstraZeneca and Ian Read (Chairman and CEO) and Frank D'Amelio (Chief Financial Officer) of Pfizer, took place on the afternoon of 18 May 2014.

The Chairman of Pfizer said that Pfizer could consider only minor improvements to the financial terms of the Friday Proposal.

The Chairman of AstraZeneca responded that, even if the other key aspects of the Friday Proposal had been satisfactory, the price at which the Board of AstraZeneca would be prepared to provide a recommendation would have to be more than 10% above the level contained in Pfizer's Friday Proposal. Pfizer stated that its Friday Proposal was final and would not be amended.

As a consequence the discussion ended.

The Board of AstraZeneca met on 18 May 2014 after this telephone discussion and reconfirmed its rejection of Pfizer's Friday Proposal.

A few hours later, without prior notice to AstraZeneca and contrary to its previous statement, Pfizer announced its Final Proposal to the market. The Board of AstraZeneca met again and rejected Pfizer's Final Proposal for reasons set out below.

The Board believes Pfizer's proposals fail to recognise the transformation of AstraZeneca and its attractive long term prospects as an independent science-led company

As set out in the presentation to shareholders on 6 May 2014:

· AstraZeneca has a growing and accelerating late stage pipeline, with aggregate risk-adjusted pipeline peak year sales potential of around $23 billion and non risk-adjusted pipeline peak year sales potential of around $63 billion;

· AstraZeneca's five key growth platforms are sustaining near-term growth, AstraZeneca remains confident that 2017 revenues should be broadly in line with 2013;

· AstraZeneca is targeting strong and consistent revenue growth from 2017, leading to annual revenues of greater than $45 billion by 2023; and

· AstraZeneca's core earnings growth is expected to be in excess of revenue growth during the period from 2017 to 2023 as a result of operating leverage.

AstraZeneca has excellent momentum in the delivery of its clearly defined strategy, underpinning the Board's confidence in long term revenue targets and profitability

AstraZeneca continues to demonstrate strong momentum across all elements of its strategy, as evidenced by multiple recent significant pipeline developments in its core therapy areas.

These pipeline developments, announced in 2014 after completion of the Company's 2013 Long Range Plan, underpin the Board's confidence in AstraZeneca's revenue targets due to increased probabilities of success for key oncology and other specialty franchise pipeline assets.

As a result, AstraZeneca's margins are expected to benefit from this improved revenue mix.

Given that AstraZeneca is at a point of inflection, the Board believes that selling AstraZeneca at the final price proposed by Pfizer would deprive shareholders of the value from potential future pipeline success.

Accordingly, the Board believes short term metrics, including premia over historical share prices, as referenced by Pfizer regarding the attractiveness of its proposals are not appropriate bases for assessing the value of AstraZeneca.

Pfizer's Proposals and Business Model Bring Uncertainty and Risk

The majority of the consideration is in Pfizer shares which many AstraZeneca shareholders will be forced to sell. Further, for those AstraZeneca shareholders able to hold Pfizer shares, the Board believes Pfizer's proposals would materially alter the investment case and create risks and uncertainties.

In particular the Board believes:

· Pfizer's proposals are predicated on the delivery of significant cost reductions and imply a meaningful reduction in research and development potential and capabilities;

· The associated integration would risk significant disruption to the delivery and value of AstraZeneca's pipeline;

· Pfizer's previous large scale acquisitions have highlighted the challenges around the negative impact of integration on research and development productivity and output; and

· Pfizer's announced business segmentation, if it were applied to AstraZeneca's business, would likely lead to value destruction.

In the context of the above, AstraZeneca notes the recent decline in Pfizer's share price, which has fallen by 5.3% since the release of Pfizer's Q1 2014 results.

The tax-driven inversion structure remains a key part of Pfizer's proposals. The inversion structure has already been the subject of intense public and governmental scrutiny, particularly in the US, as a result of Pfizer's possible offer for AstraZeneca. The Board believes this structure brings increased uncertainty as regards the delivery of value for AstraZeneca shareholders.

Rejection of the Final Proposal

The Board believes that Pfizer's Final Proposal, in relation to price, form of consideration and the four particular points that are central to the Board's concerns around value, remains inadequate. Accordingly, the Board has rejected the Final Proposal.

This statement is being made by AstraZeneca without prior agreement or approval of Pfizer.

There can be no certainty that an offer will be made nor as to the terms on which any offer might be made. Shareholders are strongly advised to take no action. 


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