Cheshunt, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – British supermarket chain Tesco on Tuesday reported solid third quarter performance, buoyed by double-digit growth in international markets and consumer recovery in the United Kingdom.

Total revenues for the world’s third-largest retailer in the period ended Nov. 27 rose 8.8 percent compared to a year ago, with value-added tax included but fuel costs excluded.

International sales increased by 15.7 percent, with revenues in Asia spiking 23.4 percent. Revenue from stores open at least a year in the region was down slightly from 5 percent in the second quarter but stayed strong at 4.3 percent.

Sales in the United States were up 38.5 percent, boosted by strong performance during the Thanksgiving holiday period. Same-store sales remained solid at 9.8 percent.

In Europe, same-stores sales in all businesses were positive for the first time in three years. Revenues rose 7.6 percent.

Revenue from the domestic market in the United Kingdom grew 5 percent. Same-store sales increased 1.5 percent while Tesco Direct, the company’s online shopping business, contributed 30 percent growth.

The Cheshunt-based company said there are signs that consumer recovery is continuing. Revenue from its higher-end Finest products has gradually improved and is now at double-digit growth on a two-year basis.

“Our continued investment in the shopping trip and our new space opening programme across our markets are giving us good sales momentum and market share gains,” chief executive Terry Leahy said in a statement.

“As the global economic recovery gathers pace,” Leahy added, “Our broad-based strategy, combined with our ongoing focus on productivity savings, is enabling us to maintain growth in a sustainable, profitable way.”

View full post on All Stories

Los Angeles, CA, United States (CNS) – Demi Lovato’s alleged victim is reportedly planning to sue the Disney star. Dancer Alex Welch has hired lawyer Donald Karpel, and is said to be “considering her legal options.”

Demi, 18, left the Jonas Brothers World Tour to enter a rehab facility last month to “seek medical treatment for emotional and physical issues she has dealt with for some time.” Reports then surfaced that she decided to check into the facility after a physical altercation with a backup dancer on tour.

The backup dancer is Welch. TMZ has obtained photos of her cheek and left eye bruises, taken days after the alleged incident.

According to sources, Welch was “minding her own business” on a private jet leaving Bogota, Colombia when Demi punched her on the left side of her face. She had to receive emergency medical attention, while Demi was immediately removed from the plane.

As to why Demi attacked Welch, no one knows for sure.

Welch is now said to be planning to sue Demi.

But before she does that, Demi’s estranged father issues a warning to the backup dancer. Patrick Lovato said that Welch doesn’t stand a chance of winning.

He told RadarOnline.com, “Demi has really good lawyers and so does Disney, this girl shouldn’t sue. She won’t win.”

Patrick also thinks that Welch is just after his daughter’s money, adding, “She wouldn’t do this if Demi wasn’t famous.”

View full post on All Stories

Atlanta, GA, United States (AHN) – Tons of fans will flock to the Southeastern Conference title game in Atlanta Saturday afternoon. In 2013, hundreds of thousands of fans will travel to the city’s College Football Hall of Fame.

According to a report from WSBTV.com, the Hall of Fame will be built on a parking lot adjacent to he Georgia World Congress Center, Philips Arena and the Georgia Dome.

The current hall of fame is located in South Bend, Ind. and has struggled with attendance.

Gov. Sonny Perdue said he believe the facility will be successful because the South has a passion for football and the fans to go with it.

“That’s some place. I want to take my grandchildren and you think about that destination venue and all the things that are there for them to observe,” Perdue said.

According to the report, the facility is expected to open in March, 2013, just prior to the Final Four, which is scheduled for the Georgia Dome that year.

“There are two conventions coming to town in 2013 and 2014 that want to rent the whole facility out for parties,” said Gary Stokan, president and CEO of the Chick-Fil-A Bowl and Atlanta Hall Management.

The new facility will cost at least $50 million, with $8 million coming from the city of Atlanta.

The state of Georgia is adding $10 million in bonds, and the remainder of the money will come from private business and Atlanta’s larger corporations.

View full post on All Stories

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The Federal Communications Commission is preparing to vote Dec. 21 on a plan to limit the ability of Internet service providers and governments from restricting access to the Web.

FCC chairman Julius Genachowski, a Democrat, described his proposal that is set for the vote in announcement this week.

The two Republican FCC commissioners immediately criticized the plan as imposing too much regulation over the Internet, indicating that reaching net neutrality is unlikely to be completed soon, according to industry analysts.

Net neutrality refers to a policy for preventing censorship by Internet service providers and governments on content, sites, platforms, the kinds of equipment allowed and the means of communication over the Internet.

The policy also would require that any two Internet subscribers could communicate with each other without restriction under terms of their access.

The policy fell into doubt Thursday – a day after Genachowski’s announcement – when the Internet company Amazon shut down the tell-all Web site Wikileaks in response to government pressure.

In recent years, Internet service providers have been criticized for exerting too much control over access to the Internet.

Large Internet companies like Google and Yahoo have escaped most of the criticism.

However, niche companies like Facebook and Twitter have sometimes been accused of being restrictive.

Congress stepped into the debate by ordering the FCC to develop a plan to ensure unbiased access.

Genachowski’s plan calls on the Internet companies to upgrade analytic components of their services in return for being regulated under existing Internet regulations. The analytics can filter out some Internet content.

If the companies fail to upgrade their analytics, they would be regulated under more restrictive rules, similar to telephone companies.

“This framework, if adopted later this month, would advance a set of core goals,” Genachowski said. “It would ensure that the Internet remains a powerful platform for innovation and job creation; it would empower consumers and entrepreneurs; it would protect free expression; it would increase certainty in the marketplace and spur investment both at the edge and in the core of our broadband networks.”

However, his fellow commissioners disagreed.

Ranking Republican commissioner Robert McDowell issued a statement saying, “Pushing a small group of hand-picked industry players toward a ‘choice’ between a bad option (Title I Internet regulation) or a worse option (regulating the Internet like a monopoly phone company under Title II) smacks more of coercion than consensus or compromise.”

He accused Genachowski’s proposal of exceeding his authority.

“This ‘agreement’ has been extracted in defiance of not only the courts, but a large, bipartisan majority of Congress as well,” McDowell said. “Both have admonished the FCC not to reach beyond its statutory powers to regulate Internet access.”

Ironically, political pressure from a member of Congress prompted Amazon to stop allowing Wikileaks to use its servers on Thursday.

Wikileaks is a Web site that publishes government documents leaked to the news media.

Its release this week of more than 251,000 U.S. State Department communications with its embassy staff and heads of state created a huge international incident.

The outrage fell as much on the State Department for some criticisms of foreign governments mentioned in the documents as it did on Wikileaks.

Amazon dropped WikiLeaks following inquiries from the staff of Sen. Joseph Lieberman (Ind.-Conn.), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Lieberman issued a statement saying, “I wish that Amazon had taken this action earlier based on Wikileaks’ previous publication of classified material. The company’s decision to cut off Wikileaks now is the right decision and should set the standard for other companies Wikileaks is using to distribute its illegally seized material. I call on any other company or organization that is hosting WikiLeaks to immediately terminate its relationship with them.”

Lieberman called the documents published by Wikileaks “stolen, classified information.”

Wikileaks protested the Amazon shut down with a Twitter message that said, “If Amazon are so uncomfortable with the first amendment they should get out of the business of selling books.”

View full post on All Stories

Coral Gables, FL, United States (AHN) – Donald Trump, who once pushed the University of Miami to hire Mike Leach, is once again lobbying for the former Texas Tech coach for the Hurricanes post.

The American business magnate wrote a note on a copy of The Palm Beach Post’s Sunday sports section that was sent to UM president Donna Shalala, scrawling it over the newspaper’s story announcing Randy Shannon’s firing.

On Wednesday, Miami officials confirmed the authenticity of the note.

“You made a big mistake when you did not take my advice and hire Mike Leach of Texas Tech … and you can now get him for the right price,” Trump wrote in the letter.

It marked the second time Leach got the backing of Trump, who in 2006 pushed to get Leach hired after UM fired Larry Coker.

Miami interviewed Leach but eventually chose Shannon, who was dismissed after a 28-22 record in four seasons.

“Now, he’s probably not the easiest guy to get along with, but who cares,” Trump said of Leach, who was fired by Texas Tech last fall for his alleged treatment of a concussed player, as reported by Palm Beach Post.com.

The business tycoon added: “He’s a brilliant guy, a brilliant coach.”

Meanwhile, multiple reports indicate that UM is also considering Jon Gruden for its coaching vacancy.

Gruden, the former Raiders and Buccaneers coach and current Monday Night Football color analyst, is reportedly a “golfing friend” of Trump.

“He’s a phenomenal coach,” Trump said of Gruden, who has a Super Bowl title on his resume, as reported by Palm Beach Post.com. “Either one of those two guys brings [wins] to the school.”

View full post on All Stories

Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico (AHN) – The U.S. and Mexican governments signed agreements Tuesday designed to improve airline security as Mexico continues its war against drug cartels. The two countries also agreed to seek ways to protect immigrants, who are often targeted by criminals as they cross over the international border.

“In the face of ever-evolving multinational threats, the United States is committed to working with our international partners to enhance information-sharing and our mutual security,” U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a statement.

She signed the treaty on behalf of the United States at a ceremony in Mexico City.

A key part of the agreement is a trusted traveler program that allows airline passengers who have undergone rigorous background checks to bypass lengthy screenings at airport checkpoints. They also must provide biometric information – such as fingerprints – that can be encoded onto trusted traveler cards and run through electronic card readers.

The travelers also must answer customs declaration questions on touch-screen kiosks, then present transaction receipts to customs agents before leaving the inspection area.

The program thereby gives Customs and Border Protection agents more time to focus on searching other travelers and their baggage, or what Napolitano called the “greatest risk.”

The new method for screening passengers is based on Customs and Border Protection’s Global Entry program.

Another part of the agreement called for greater information sharing about travelers.

Mexican Interior Ministry Secretary Jose Francisco Blake Mora signed the treaty on behalf of Mexico.

He said the treaty opens a dialogue on methods “to reduce the flow of arms into Mexico and strengthen border security.”

Illegal weapons imported into Mexico are a hot topic in the drug war that started in December 2006, when Mexican President Felipe Calderon ordered troops to help crack down on gangs.

Mexico blames the United States for failing to prevent weapons from being shipped illegally across the border to be used against the police and military.

The U.S. government says Mexico shares the blame for allowing drug cartels to gain too much power.

Blake Mora said about 84 million Mexicans could qualify for the Global Entry program.

“It facilitates the entry of business travelers and tourists, whose activities are key factors for economic development, growth of trade and cultural exchange,” he said.

Napolitano and Blake Mora also signed a “letter of intent” to develop a plan for protecting immigrants from attacks by criminals as they cross the border.

The Mexican government occasionally has expressed anger at the way illegal immigrants are robbed, beaten or murdered but are given no protection by U.S. law enforcement agents.

Blake Mora said the letter of intent is supposed to create cooperation that would help “combat trafficking and reduce the risk to life and security of migrants who are victims of crime.”

View full post on All Stories

Los Angeles, CA, United States (CNS) – MTV has responded to the allegations of a screenwriter who claims the network ripped off his idea for a reality TV show and called it “Jersey Shore.” Christopher Gambale claims he first came up with the idea of guidos and guidettes in 2006, but MTV insists they’ve been in the business of guidos since 2004.

According to Gambale, he pitched the idea of a show called “Guidos: The Reality Series” to MTV in 2006. The show would focus on “stereotypical guidos and guidettes” that are obsessed with “GTL before hitting the clubs.”

He claims MTV never got him a response about his pitched show until he threatened to sue them in a letter.

But according to a letter MTV has recently fired, which TMZ obtained, the network says the portrayal of stereotypical Italian Americans is nothing new, citing “My Cousin Vinny,” “Saturday Night Fever,” and “Growing Up Gotti” as examples.

And even before then, they have been in the business of showing guidos since 2004 when they ran a special titled “True Life: I’m a Jersey Girl,” which featured “Tan young men with spiked hair and tight shirts.”

MTV is now threatening Gambale not to fire a lawsuit or else they will unleash their legal firepower on him. The screenwriter told TMZ he is not threatened.

View full post on All Stories

United States (CNS) – 119 minutes

In theaters November 24, 2010

Rating: PG-13, Musical drama

Glitzy, campy, and unabashedly shallow, Burlesque is a contemporary musical drama with a dozen song-and-dance numbers, a “Let Me Entertain You” spirit, and absolutely no pretensions about what it all “means.”

It’s a style-over-substance successor to Flashdance, and might well have been titled Fleshdance. But although it embraces its movie-musical cliches as if they were farm-fresh produce, and doesn’t try to hide the hoariness of its overly familiar showbiz plot, it also delivers the bouncy, mindless entertainment implied in the title alone without even trying for memorability or significance.

Burlesque is set in a near-bankrupt, neo-burlesque club on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles called The Burlesque Lounge, home of a musical revue that showcases uncomplicated eye and ear candy for its patrons.

Christina Aguilera makes her big-screen acting debut as Ali Rose, a plucky small-town girl from Iowa with a big-time voice from heaven who ventures to L. A. and gets a job as a waitress at the club, where she is befriended by the bartender (Cam Gigandet), the stage manager (Stanely Tucci), and the host (Alan Cumming), and is in immediate jealousy-fueled conflict with an unreliable performer played by Kristen Bell.

Cher plays Tess, the club’s owner and headliner, who’s desperate to ward off threatened bankruptcy and keep her cherished club open for business.

But what Ali wants to do is to sing at the club. And she gets her chance, impressing Tess with a surprising audition and getting hired as a full-time dancer. And they haven’t even heard her sing yet.

Once they do, she begins performing at the club and wowing the customers, helping return The Burlesque Lounge to its former glory and thus helping Tess stave off the efforts of a wealthy real estate developer (Eric Dane) to buy the place from her and tear it down in the name of progress, a transaction which Tess’s nervous ex-husband and current business partner (Peter Gallagher) is pushing for.

Debuting writer-director Steve Antin has concocted a razzle-dazzle amalgam of Chicago, Cabaret, Dreamgirls, and Sweet Charity, borrowing bits and pieces from each of them — and, really, as they say, is that so wrong? His script seems intent on helping to bring back the naughty but not sleazy burlesque tradition of suggestive song-and-dance numbers performed by scantily clad but still clothed women.

The musical numbers are a mix of the old and the new — Aguilera performs eight of them, Cher two: pity there’s no double-icon duet — making up for in energy what they lack in variety.

Given the potential for tawdriness here, Antin’s script and style stay on the relatively tame and tasteful side, as the PG-13 rating indicates. The let’s-put-on-a-show innocence isn’t exactly front and center here, but it’s never completely out of the picture either, as the film celebrates in its own way the talent and perseverance of all gotta-sing-and-dance entertainers.

But it’s not textual complexity that Burlesque is selling. It’s the talents of Cher and Aguilera (the latter also serving as the film’s “executive music producer”) that the audience comes to see, and both of them deliver. Aguilera’s voice is a force of nature, but you knew that going in. The revelation here is her on-screen naturalness in her virtual acting debut: she’s impressively assured in the a-star-is-born manner and not because the lines she’s been assigned are her best friends.

As for Oscar winner Cher (1987′s Moonstruck, remember?), she continues to be a powerful and appealing larger-than-life screen presence, her line readings unfailingly persuasive, even if her presentational signature number, “You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me,” is a shade too calculated as it falls short of its bring-down-the-house aspirations.

The guilty-pleasure musical, Burlesque, gives Christina Aguilera the chance to grab her fair Cher of the movie spotlight.

View full post on All Stories

Westchester, NY, United States (AHN) – Family and friends of a Pace University student killed last month by police gathered outside the Westchester County courthouse on Sunday to call for justice.

Several hundred people attended the rally that began at Bethel Baptist Church and ended at the courthouse. The family of Danroy “D.J.” Henry, jr., who played wide receiver and defensive back for the Pace football team, is calling on federal prosecutors to take control of the investigation of the student’s death.

Henry died Oct. 17 after being shot by Mount Pleasant police officers who were trying to contain an unruly crowd in a bar in Thornwood. The business management junior allegedly two struck officers with his car.

Police say an officer had knocked on the window of a car parked in the fire lane outside the bar during the brawl. The car, driven by Henry, accelerated and struck the officer, who ended up on the hood of the vehicle.

A second officer attempted to pull the first officer from the hood but was also mowed down by the vehicle. The first officer then fired at the car and another officer shot into the car before the vehicle crashed into a police cruiser.

Two officers were treated for minor injuries after the incident. There were two other passengers in the car with Henry, and only was was hurt with a minor gun shot wound. Henry’s family and fellow students who witnessed the incident have raised doubts about the the way events have been reconstructed by authorities.

The family last week hand-delivered letters to the Justice Department asking the agency to take charge of the investigation. They believe the probe by local authorities has been compromised, citing missing gunpowder evidence on Henry’s car and video cameras on police cars that “for some strange reason weren’t recording” at the time of the shooting.

View full post on Education Stories

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – U.S. President Barack Obama was instrumental at the recently concluded 2-day Summit in Lisbon, Portugal. In which NATO was placed on a fresh-start with Russia that paved the way for renewed diplomatic relations between Washington and Moscow.

Political pundits welcomed decisions adopted at the Summit saying they would change the way NATO does business, making the Alliance more effective, more efficient and more engaged with the wider world.

Contrasting U.S. previous statements, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen signed an agreement with Afghan President Hamid Karzai that involved a long-term partnership between the alliance and Afghanistan.

With this deal, NATO announced the alliance will stay as long as necessary to support Afghanistan until it was no longer a safe haven for terrorism.

In addition to that, the two agreed to let Afghan security forces increase their position in security operations across the country, starting early 2011 and be completed by 2014.

NATO with the aim of making global partners in a changed post-cold war scenario announced a new equation with Russia to build a true strategic partnership.

Addressing the earlier controversial issue with Russia about missile deployment in Europe, NATO leaders extended an offer to Moscow to cooperate with NATO as it reiterated its decision to develop the capability to defend European territory and populations against missile attack as a core element of collective defense.

To address new threats, the alliance agreed to enhance its cyber defense capabilities in the coming years.

Accepting that cyber attacks are becoming more frequent, more organized and more costly and have the potential to inflict damage on – businesses, economies and potentially also – transportation and supply networks and other critical infrastructure, the statement said, “They can reach a threshold that threatens national and Euro-Atlantic prosperity, security and stability.”

“Foreign militaries and intelligence services, organized criminals, terrorist and/or extremist groups can each be the source of such attacks,” the statement added.

With an aim to rope in support and cement cooperation with other regional and global groups, NATO leaders adopted a new strategic concept to guide its mission over the next ten years.

The new roadmap assured Euro-Atlantic security through a wide network of partner relationships with countries and organizations around the globe, such as the United Nations and the European Union, and kept the door open to consultation with any partner country on security issues of common concern.

The 28 NATO Allies were joined during the Summit by the 20 partners who are contributing forces to the ISAF mission in Afghanistan, as well as representatives of the United Nations, the World Bank and the European Union, and Afghan President Karzai.

View full post on All Stories