Sandy gains strength near US east coast

FORECASTERS say Hurricane Sandy has picked up a little strength and is making a turn toward a projected landfall on or near the southern coast of New Jersey.

The National Hurricane Center says the storm's top sustained winds have risen to nearly 150km/h, with higher gusts.

The storm's centre is about 415 kilometres south-southeast of New York City and expected to make landfall on Monday night (Tuesday AEDT) along or just south of the southern New Jersey coast.

Sandy is on track to collide with a wintry storm moving in from the west and cold air streaming down from the Arctic.

The combination superstorm could menace some 50 million people in the most heavily populated corridor in the nation, from the east coast to the Great Lakes.

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Storm deaths inevitable: Maryland governor

MARYLAND Governor Martin O'Malley says fatalities are inevitable as Hurricane Sandy bears down on the Mid-Atlantic state with all its force.

"Hurricane Sandy is going to come over Maryland, she's going to sit on top of Maryland and beat down on Maryland for a good 24 to 36 hours," he told reporters at the Maryland emergency co-ordination headquarters.

"This is going to be a long haul," he said. "The days ahead are going to be difficult. There will be people who die and are killed in this storm."

O'Malley warned of "very high winds", lengthy power outages and severe flooding in the countless rivers and streams that feed into the Chesapeake Bay.

He urged motorists to stay off the roads until Tuesday night.

Ocean City, on Maryland's easternmost Atlantic coast, is already being lashed by a combination of wind, rain and "very heavy surf", with the resort town's pier sustaining heavy damage, the governor said.

The mandatory evacuation of downtown Ocean City has been completed, he said, and "there are few if any residents left in the town".

While the potential for loss of life was "my biggest concern right now", O'Malley said several days' warning had given Maryland time to prepare for Sandy's wrath, with help from reinforcements from other states.

Twenty-three emergency shelters have opened around Maryland for those most in need, he said, but others should "hunker down" and remain indoors with their families until the "monster storm" passes.

"There will undoubtedly be some deaths that are caused by the intensity of the storm, by the floods, by the tidal surge and by the waves. The more responsibly citizens act, the fewer people will die."

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Burger King's profit down amid turnaround

BURGER King's net income fell 83 per cent in the third quarter as the world's second biggest hamburger chain sold off more of its restaurants to franchisees as part of a turnaround push.

The private investment firm that owns a majority stake in the fast-food chain, 3G Capital, has been working to put the shine back in Burger King's crown since purchasing it in 2010.

In addition to unveiling its biggest ever menu expansion and a celebrity-studded ad campaign earlier this year, the firm has been shifting to an entirely franchisee-owned model to cut down on overhead costs and boost profit margins.

3G's turnaround push comes amid a time of intensifying competition in the US, with Taco Bell's introduction of popular new menu items such as its Cantina bowls and Wendy's looking to transform into a higher-end burger chain.

And although McDonald's Corp is seeing growth slow after years of dominating its rivals, the Oak Brook, Illinois-based chain has vowed to intensify its focus on its Dollar Menu and value message to boost results in the challenging economy.

Additionally, traditional fast-food chains are increasingly competing with a newer breed of chains, such as Panera Bread Co and Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc, which offer higher-quality food for a little more money.

Burger King, which until recently had focused on courting junk food loving younger men, has new offerings that are helping bring in more women and customers who are 55 and older, without eating into its core offerings of Whoppers and French fries.

Steve Wiborg, president of North American operations, noted that the Miami-based chain that has more than 12,600 locations worldwide is benefiting from new menu lines, such as fruit smoothies, coffee frappes and specialty salads.

"That's all new business for us," Wiborg said.

For the quarter, Burger King said global revenue at stores open at least a year rose 1.4 per cent. In the US and Canada, the figure rose 1.6 per cent as barbecue-themed menu items for the summer drove sales.

CEO Bernardo Hees said sales at restaurants open at least a year are showing signs of picking up again for the fourth quarter. The sales figure is a key metric because it strips out the impact of newly opened and closed locations.

For the three months ended September 30, net income fell to $US6.6 million ($A6.4 million), or 2 cents per share. That compares with $US38.8 million, or 11 cents per share, last year. Net income excluding one-items totalled 17 cents per share. Analysts expected 15 cents per share, according to FactSet.

Revenue fell 26 per cent to $US451.1 million, but was above the $US439.7 million Wall Street expected.

Much of the revenue decrease came from Burger King selling restaurants to franchisees, which means the company no longer includes sales from those stores on its books. As of September 30, Burger King said 95 per cent of its restaurants were owned by franchisees; the goal is to eventually reach 100 per cent.

Organic revenue, which excludes the impact of re-franchising and exchange rates, was flat.

In the Asia Pacific region, the sales figure fell by 2.2 per cent as weak performances at Hungry Jack's in Australia as well as Korea dragged down results.

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Lufthansa men pilots must wear caps: judge

A GERMAN court has thrown out a complaint by a pilot who felt he was being discriminated against by airline Lufthansa in being forced to wear a cap while on duty, while his women colleagues were not.

A labour court in Cologne found there was no sexual discrimination on Lufthansa's part in enforcing a rule that male pilots had to wear caps in all public areas of airports, while female pilots were not obliged to.

The court, overturning an earlier ruling which had found in the pilot's favour, accepted Lufthansa's argument that the cap was part of the historical development of a male pilot's uniform and not an expression of any difference in treatment of the sexes.

A pilot's uniform differed depending on whether they were male or female and a cap was part of the male pilot's uniform, Lufthansa argued.

Similarly, there was no discrimination in the fact that women pilots were allowed to wear skirts, but their male colleagues were not, judge Jochen Sievers argued.

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Spanish leader says no need for bailout

SPAIN'S Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy says his debt-laden economy has no need of a European bailout, after holding a summit with Italy.

The leaders of Italy and Spain, the eurozone's third- and fourth-largest economies, met at time of uncertainty about if and when Madrid will be forced to reach out for a European Central Bank rescue line.

If Spain does so, some analysts fear that Italy could be next in line as financial markets seek out the next weak link, creating a domino-like ripple across the most fragile members of the 17-nation region.

In a joint news conference with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti on Monday, the Spanish leader was asked about the possibility of Madrid asking for eurozone aid including bond-buying support from the ECB.

"The government has not requested it because it understands that at the moment it is not essential to defend the interests of the Spanish people", Rajoy replied.

Instead, the Spanish leader agreed with Monti that the eurozone must be kept together, and its powers strengthened.

"Europe is not stopping, Europe is carrying on advancing and it is doing so with Spain and Italy more united than ever," the 57-year-old grey-bearded Spanish leader said.

"Our commitment to the euro is unbreakable and we will adopt all necessary measures to guarantee its stability and irreversibility," the prime minister added.

Rome and Madrid thus underlined their commitment for Greece to stay in the single currency region, he said.

Greece is far behind in a program to recapitalise its banks as it battles to meet conditions for new international debt funding to avert bankruptcy the country.

Athens hopes to help recapitalise its banks, hard hit by the national debt, deep recession and flight of capital, with money from the next instalment of rescue funds from the IMF and European Union.

Italy and Spain were going through a "fairly difficult time in this adolescence of the European Union towards something satisfactory ", Monti told the same news conference.

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Hulk Hogan settles sex tape lawsuit

FORMER pro wrestler Hulk Hogan has settled a lawsuit with a disc jockey over a sex tape involving Hogan and the DJ's wife.

A statement by Hogan's publicist says the terms of the settlement are confidential.

Hogan said in a lawsuit earlier this month that he had consensual sex with his best friend's wife, Heather Clem, six years ago in the Clems' home, but he didn't know he was being videotaped.

The disc jockey, Bubba the Love Sponge Clem, apologised to Hogan on Monday.

Clem also said he's convinced Hogan was unaware he was being filmed.

A lawsuit is pending against the gossip website Gawker, which put excerpts of the video on its site.

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Ukraine's Tymoshenko goes on hunger strike

UKRAINE'S jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko says she is launching a hunger strike to protest against violations in the weekend parliamentary election in which the ruling party has taken a decisive lead.

"I am announcing a hunger strike to protest election falsifications," Tymoshenko's lawyer, Sergiy Vlasenko, read from a statement written by the ex-prime minister and 2004 Orange Revolution leader.

President Viktor Yanukovych's ruling Regions Party had 34.2 per cent of the vote against 22.5 per cent for Tymoshenko's opposition party with 61 per cent of the precincts reporting.

The ruling party was also on course to win at least 114 seats out of the 225 that were determined on Sunday in first-past-the-post, single-mandate constituencies.

But the results for Tymoshenko's supporters in parliament showed the opposition alliance trailing the ruling party by just four or five percentage points.

Vlasenko was speaking outside the state hospital where Tymoshenko has been recovering from a bad back she developed shortly after being sentenced in October to a seven-year jail term for abuse of power while prime minister.

The lawyer said Tymoshenko has already informed the Ukrainian penitentiary systems about her action and had only been drinking water since Monday afternoon.

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Boy killed in India grenade blast

A 10-YEAR-OLD boy has been killed and five more people injured when suspected militants lobbed a grenade into a crowded market in India's tense northeast, police say.

"Militants riding a motorcycle threw a grenade as they drove through a busy market, killing one child and wounding five other people," senior police official Debajit Deuri said late Monday.

Two of the injured were in critical condition, he said.

The attack took place in the small town of Udalguri, 71 kilometres north of Assam state's capital Guwahati.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but in the past police have blamed similar attacks on groups fighting for independent homelands for their tribal followers in the tea and oil-rich region of Assam.

Last year, one of the strongest militant groups, the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), announced it would join peace talks with the Indian government in a move to end a 33-year-old rebellion.

A faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) militant group also recently agreed to a ceasefire with New Delhi.

Since then, factions of both groups, which oppose the peace overtures, have carried out bomb and grenade attacks in the state, according to police officials.

More than 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have lost their lives to insurgency in Assam during the past two decades.

India has been wracked by separatist conflicts since its independence in 1947, with deadly insurgencies in its northwestern Kashmir region and the northeast.

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