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Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Disney profits lifted by Avengers

The Walt Disney Company has reported higher profits, driven by the success of films such as The Avengers.
Net income for the three months to June rose 24% to $1.83bn (£1.17bn) from the previous year.
"We had a phenomenal third quarter, delivering the largest quarterly earnings in the history of our company," said Robert Iger, Disney's chief executive.
Revenue at its parks and resorts increased 9% to $3.4bn.
At its film studio, operating income increased more than six-fold to $313m.
"Higher worldwide theatrical results reflected the performance of the current quarter releases including Marvel's The Avengers and Brave compared to Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Cars 2 in the prior-year quarter," the media giant said.
In May, superhero movie The Avengers smashed the record for the biggest US opening weekend, taking $200m.
Operating income at Cable Networks increased due to growth at the Disney and ABC Family channels in the US, offsetting a drop at sports channel ESPN.

Ernesto reaches hurricane strength over Central America

Tropical Storm Ernesto has reached hurricane strength while passing northern Honduras, and is approaching Belize and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.
The US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said it is bringing heavy rains and winds of up to 130km/h (80mph).
It was 185 miles (298 km) east of Chetumal, Mexico, at about 18:00 GMT on Tuesday, and moving north-west.
A hurricane warning is in effect along parts of the eastern Yucatan peninsula and the entire coast of Belize.
Tropical storm warnings are also in effect for much of the Honduras coast and remaining sections of the Yucatan peninsula.
Officials in Nicaragua and Guatemala are also on alert.
"These rains are likely to cause dangerous flash floods and mudslides over higher terrain," the Miami-based NHC said in its warning.
It forecast that the storm could still strengthen before hitting the coast of Yucatan and then moving across the peninsula overnight.
In Mexico, the authorities ordered the closure of the port of Chetumal port and evacuated a fishing village in the state of Quintana Roo, where the major city of Cancun is located, the AP news agency reports.
At least 1,500 people have been moved away from Nicaragua's coastal areas and its border with Honduras.
Officials in Honduras said they were monitoring the situation and working on plans for evacuation and delivery of humanitarian aid.
The Belize government has issued weather alerts for its residents, the Reuters news agency reports, and in Guatemala, relief supplies and rescue equipment are being sent to the vulnerable areas.

Asia Pacific Breweries: Thailand firm launches new bid

Heineken's bid to take control of Asia Pacific Breweries (APB), the maker of Tiger Beer, has taken a surprise twist after a Thai firm, Kindest Place, offered to buy a stake in the brewer.
It has offered S$55 ($44; £28) a share for a 7.3% stake in APB, currently held directly by Fraser and Neave (F&N).
That is 10% higher than Heineken's offer to F&N for its 40% direct and indirect stakes in APB.
F&N's board had accepted Heineken's bid but it requires shareholder approval.
Analysts said that the Dutch brewer may have to pay more if it wants shareholders to vote in its favour.
"With this latest turn of events, Heineken's current offer will fail," said Goh Han Peng, an analyst at DMG & Partners Securities in Singapore.
"It will have to offer more than S$55 per share to outbid the Thai group, possibly S$60 per share."
Battle for control Asia's beer market is expected to be among the fastest growing in the world in the coming years.
APB, which is one of the largest brewers in the region, is expected to benefit from the growth in the sector.
However, the brewer's current ownership structure is complicated and various stakeholders have been trying to increase their control on the firm.
Heineken currently controls 42% of the brewery and also owns a direct 9.5% stake in APB.
Singapore conglomerate F&N owns a 40% direct and indirect stake in APB. Meanwhile, Japanese brewer Kirin owns almost 15%of F&N.
If accepted, Kindest Place's bid will take its holding in APB to more than 15%.

Profile: Wisconsin Sikh temple shooter Wade Michael Page

How did an apparently sensitive child who used to enjoy family camping trips turn into a hate-filled extremist who went on a gun rampage at a Sikh temple?
Wade Michael Page appears to have been a ticking time bomb of rage long before he opened fire on worshippers in suburban Milwaukee on 5 August.
Originally from the US state of Colorado, the 40-year-old was living in the southern Wisconsin town of Cudahy in the days before he launched his attack.
Neighbours have said Page, who was shot dead by police at the scene, seemed friendly and told them he had recently broken up with his girlfriend.
"We talked, but it was really about nothing," said Kurt Weins, who rented a room to Page in June. "He seemed pretty calm. He didn't seem like the type to raise his voice."
Peter Hoyt, who lives nearby, said: "He was friendly with me. When I found out it was him, I was astounded."
A civil rights group described the heavily tattooed skinhead as a "frustrated neo-Nazi" who had been a part of the white power music scene since 2000.
'Racial holy war'
He played in bands called Blue Eyed Devils and Definite Hate, and in 2005 created a group called End Apathy, the Southern Poverty Law Center said.
They performed songs with lyrics that mentioned killing Jews, black people, gay people and other minorities.
The house Wade Michael Page was living in at the time of the shooting at the Wisconsin Sikh temple 6 August 2012  
Neighbours remember seeing Wade Michael Page sitting on the front porch or walking in the area
In a 2010 interview posted online, Page said his lyrics "vary from sociological issues, religion, and how the value of human life has been degraded by being submissive to tyranny and hypocrisy that we are subjugated to".
Band members were shown performing in front of extremist flags, including one bearing the swastika emblem of the Nazi Party.
A former friend, Christopher Robillard, of Oregon, told CNN that Page would "talk about the racial holy war, like he wanted it to come".
Page was active in online, far-right forums, encouraging others to action.
He posted as many as 250 comments on one website between March 2010 and mid-2012.
"If you are wanting to meet people, get involved and become active," Page wrote last year, "stop hiding behind the computer or making excuses."
'Precious little boy' In November, Page challenged someone who commented online that he would leave the US if black Republican candidate Herman Cain became president.
"Stand and fight, don't run," he wrote.
A memorial for the six victims of a shooting at a Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, on 7 August 2012  
A memorial for the six victims of the Sikh temple shooting
Page described himself as a member of the Hammerskins Nation, a skinhead "brotherhood" based in Dallas, Texas.
He spent his childhood in the Denver area of Colorado and lived with his mother until her death, when Page was about 13 or 14 years old.
His former stepmother, Laura Page, told the New York Times that the boy had struggled to cope with his mother's death.
She said: "He was a precious little boy, and that's what my mind keeps going back to."
She also said that the family used to camp and fish and do "normal things" together.
In 1992, after finishing high school, Page joined the US Army and was stationed at various points in Oklahoma, Texas and North Carolina. He was not deployed overseas.
He was a qualified parachutist who received several good conduct awards and a National Defense Service Medal. He was also trained in psychological operations and as a Hawk missile systems repairman.
But in 1998, Page was discharged from the army later that year for "patterns of misconduct" and ruled ineligible to re-enlist.
He had been demoted from sergeant to the rank of specialist after getting drunk on duty and going absent without leave, defence officials said.
Page was also fired from his job as a lorry driver in 2010 after he was pulled over in North Carolina for driving while impaired, the Washington Post reported.

Bank of England expected to cut UK growth forecasts

The Bank Of England is expected to cut growth forecasts close to zero from the 0.8% predicted in May as the double-dip recession intensifies.
The quarterly inflation report is likely to indicate no growth for 2012 compared with 2% predicted a year ago.
Governor Sir Mervyn King is expected to be asked about a possible interest rate cut from the current record 0.5%.
Presenting his last report in May, he said the UK would not be "unscathed" by the eurozone "storm".
The UK recession deepened between April and June, with output falling by 0.7%, official data released at the end of July showed.
The Office for National Statistics said the bigger-than-expected contraction, which followed a 0.3% drop in the first three months of the year, was largely due to a sharp slowdown in the construction sector.
BBC economics editor Stephanie Flanders said many in the City would be bracing themselves for bad news on Wednesday morning when they opened the Bank's latest quarterly report.
She said that, when it drew up its last forecasts, it was expecting the economy to do poorly in the first half of the year - but not shrink by more than 1%.
And the Bank thought the UK economy would get bigger, not smaller, over the course of 2012 but that now looked increasingly unlikely, she added.
Funding for Lending The Monetary Policy Committee has continued its programme of quantitative easing (QE) in which it pumps fresh money into the banking system to try to boost lending and thus the wider economy.
In July, it injected a further £50bn into the system, taking the total value of the Bank's QE programme up to £375bn.
The Bank and the Treasury have also launched launched a new scheme to increase lending to households and companies.
Under the Funding for Lending initiative, the Bank of England is initially expected to lend about £80bn at below-market rates to banks and building societies.
The BBC's economics editor said that, if the quarterly inflation report showed the Bank expecting much lower growth and inflation even with this extra help, the City would be betting on more action to support the economy by November.
This could include a cut in interest rates to another all-time low, she added.
Meanwhile, eurozone speculation is currently focused on Spain, which has already secured a 100bn-euro rescue deal for its banks.
It is feared that if Spain's government is cut off by the markets and has to seek a full-blown bailout, Italy may follow not far behind which would exhaust the eurozone's current bailout capacity.

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