LOS ANGELES, July 31 (UPI) — Tim Conway, Paul Dooley, Ron Glass, Marion Ross and Doris Roberts will guest star on an upcoming episode of the U.S. police drama “Major Crimes,” TNT said. …read more
TNT Express NV, the Dutch-based package delivery company, says it will restructure operations, taking €150 million ($195 million) in charges and cutting 4,000 jobs, or 6 percent of its work force, by the end of 2015.
The news comes after a proposed €5.2 billion takeover by United Parcel Services Inc. was blocked by European regulators in January because the combined company would be too dominant in European express mail. At Friday’s close, TNT‘s market capitalization had slumped to €3.25 billion.
TNT said Monday it will dispose of its Brazilian and Chinese operations.
In 2012 the company posted a net loss of €83 million on revenues of €7.33 billion. Former Chief Executive Marie-Christine Lombard departed before the takeover process was complete and CFO Bernard Bot is acting as interim CEO.
ATLANTA, March 21 (UPI) — Nadine Velazquez is to be a series regular on the Los Angeles-set television drama “Major Crimes,” TNT announced Thursday.
Filed under: Company News, Media
By RYAN NAKASHIMA
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Time Warner Inc. (TWX) said Wednesday that it will spin off the magazine unit behind Time, Sports Illustrated and People into a separate, publicly traded company by the end of the year.
CEO Jeff Bewkes said in a statement Wednesday that the decision to split off the Time Inc. magazine company will give Time Warner “strategic clarity” and enable it to focus on its TV networks including TNT, HBO and CNN, and its Warner Bros. studio, which produces movies and TV shows.
He said the move would create value for shareholders, similar to the company’s previous spin-offs of Time Warner Cable (TWC) and AOL (AOL).
In recent weeks, Time Warner had been in talks to combine all of Meredith’s magazines with Time Inc.’s lifestyle titles such as People, InStyle and Real Simple. But talks broke down over a value for the combined company and over which magazines from Time Inc. would be included in the mix, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Meredith said Wednesday that it respected Time Warner‘s decision and hoped to work with it on future opportunities. Meredith publishes magazines aimed at women such as Better Homes and Gardens, Fitness and Family Circle.
Time Warner shares rose 79 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $56.25 in after-hours trading following the announcement, after closing up 41 cents at $55.46. Shares of Des Moines, Iowa-based Meredith fell 80 cents, or 2 percent, to $39.50 in after-hours trading after closing down 86 cents at $40.30.
Analysts have estimated that the Time Inc. division is worth around $2.5 billion.
Time Warner said the spin-off would be tax-free to its shareholders.
The move completes the years-long unwinding of a media and telecoms giant formed in 2001 when America Online, an Internet access company, used $147 billion worth of inflated stock to buy Time Warner, in what has been regarded as the worst corporate merger of all time.
Expected company synergies never materialized. Over the years, Time Warner moved to spin off the cable TV hookup business as well as AOL in order to focus on its profitable and growing TV and movie businesses.
Matthew Harrigan, an analyst with Wunderlich Securities, said shareholders have wanted the spin-off of the challenged magazine business for some time, mainly because the rise of Internet advertising has steadily eroded ad revenue from print publications.
Investors had come to see the magazine business as a drag on revenues and profits. According to the Publishers Information Bureau, U.S. magazine advertising revenue fell 3 percent in 2012 to $21 billion.
“Investors like pure plays and some instances where there are genuine synergies,” he said. “I think they concluded it was a bit of an odd duck.”
The person said …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
By The Huffington Post News Editors
“Southland” star Ben McKenzie has scored the lead role in CBS’ new legal pilot “The Advocates,” but what does that mean for his future on the TNT cop drama?
According to TVLine, McKenzie will play Henry Bird in “The Advocates” pilot. His character is described as a “quietly determined” man who “is freed after being unjustly imprisoned for 16 years.” He and a female lawyer will join forces to become “victim advocates,” who will often skirt the edges of the law in the interests of representing the legal underdogs of the world.
McKenzie’s pilot role is in second position to “Southland,” but there’s obviously enough interest from “Advocates” production studio Warner Bros. (which also produces “Southland”) to raise questions about the TNT show’s longevity, since actors with job security rarely audition for other parts. It’s also possible that should “Southland” be renewed and “The Advocates” be picked up to series by CBS, McKenzie’s character could simply be written out of the cop drama.
LOS ANGELES, March 4 (UPI) — Actor DJ Qualls has landed a guest spot on the Chicago-set investigative drama series “Perception,” starring Eric McCormack, TNT announced.
Filed under:
The streaking meteor event in Siberia last week has led Jon Stewart to spare a few minutes on The Daily Show to examine footage of the explosion 20 miles high and said to be equal to 300 kilotons of TNT.
But his real interest is asking why so many Russians were able to get the footage in the first place, i.e., why are there so many dashcams? Coincidentally, Wired asked the same question just a few days ago. Using plenty of examples to illustrate his point – akin to this, and this, and this, that we have become oh so used to – Stewart surmises that Russian roads are “A live-action Grand Theft Auto” and that “Russians in their daily lives see so much amazing [expletive] that they have become unfazeable.”
You can watch his amusing take on our comrades across the Pacific in the video below.
Continue reading Jon Stewart investigates the Russian dashcam phenomenon
Jon Stewart investigates the Russian dashcam phenomenon originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 24 Feb 2013 12:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments
…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog
YouTube.com
…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at AOL
Police in Russia‘s restive province of Dagestan says a suicide bomber has killed policemen and injured six others at a traffic police post in northwest of the province.
Dagestan’s police spokesman Vyacheslav Gasanov said Thursday that an unidentified driver blew himself up after officers at the post just outside the town of Khasavyurt asked him to pull over.
The Investigative Committee said in a statement on Thursday that it estimated the bomb to have contained between 100 and 120 k (220-265 pounds) of TNT.
Russia‘s North Caucasus and Dagestan in particular has for years been plagued by Islam-inspired insurgency which spread throughout the area after two separatist wars in Chechnya.
ATLANTA, Feb. 11 (UPI) — U.S. television actress Heather Locklear has joined the cast of the legal dramedy “Franklin & Bash,” TNT announced.
The city’s glitziest, most star-studded parades of the Carnival season roll this weekend, including one with a float being touted as the biggest in New Orleans‘ history.
Mardi Gras is Tuesday, but more than a dozen parades roll in the days leading up to Fat Tuesday. The big ones that feature celebrity float riders include Endymion, Orpheus, Bacchus and the all-women Krewe of Muses. Dozens of others will roll elsewhere in Louisiana and along the Gulf Coast in Mississippi and Alabama.
While Endymion boasts that it will have the biggest float the city’s Carnival has ever seen, the Bacchus parade is shaping up to be a larger-than-life experience for more than two dozen child cancer patients from seven hospitals across the country.
Bacchus is providing costumes and throws — trinkets for tossing to the crowds — to 28 teens and pre-teens being treated for cancer. They’ll ride in Sunday’s parade with this year’s celebrity king, actor G.W. Bailey, co-star of the TNT show “Major Crimes.”
Bailey, 68, is known for his roles in the “Police Academy” movies and the cable TV crime drama “The Closer.” He also serves as executive director of the Sunshine Kids, a nonprofit that takes patients on trips to major U.S. cities. It regularly takes kids to New Orleans during Carnival, but not usually during the season’s big weekend.
Bailey said the trips give patients a break from treatments and the opportunity to spend time with teenagers going through similar experiences.
“When you’re a teenager, the worst possible thing that can happen to you is isolation,” he said. “Even if you’re in a room full of people, if you’re not with another teenager losing their hair, going through what you’re going through, you feel alone. We bring those kids together. We give them a common experience, and within two days, the wigs come off and they don’t have to worry about their scars, their missing limbs. It just doesn’t matter anymore.”
Bailey and Sunshine patients arrived in New Orleans on Tuesday to a packed weeklong schedule that includes eating in some of the city’s finest restaurants, taking a south Louisiana swamp tour, and visiting the Audubon Zoo and Aquarium of the Americas.
But the trip’s highlight will be Sunday’s parade, said 17-year-old Paden Blevins who is in remission after two bouts with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
“I’m so excited,” she said. “When they told me I was going to be riding in the parade, I was like, are you kidding me?”
Bailey also will visit patients at Children’s Hospital in New Orleans on Friday. It’s a tradition held by previous Bacchus kings, including Saints quarterback Drew Brees and actors Will Ferrell, James Gandolfini and Kirk Douglas.
Bailey and the patients also plan to watch Saturday night’s Endymion parade, led by pop star Kelly Clarkson. Clarkson, the first winner of TV‘s “American Idol,” is scheduled to perform after the parade at Endymion’s ball at the Superdome.
The parade’s other star is the “super float” that organizers bill as the largest and most elaborate in Carnival history. Parade floats typically reach lengths …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
NEW YORK — Fourteen-time Grammy Award-winning artist Alicia Keys will headline the 62nd NBA All-Star Game as the sole performer of the halftime show on Sunday, Feb. 17. Keys will perform a selection of her chart-topping hits as part of the All-Star Game “Entertainment Series presented by Sean John at Macy’s.” The game will air live at 8 p.m. ET on TNT, ESPN Radio, and in 215 countries and territories and in 47 languages.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at NBA
The suicide bomber who struck the U.S. Embassy in Ankara spent five years in prison on terrorism charges but was released after being diagnosed with a hunger strike-related brain disorder, officials said Saturday.
The bomber, identified as 40-year-old leftist militant Ecevit Sanli, killed himself and a Turkish security guard on Friday, in what U.S. officials said was a terrorist attack. Sanli was armed with TNT and also detonated a hand grenade, officials said.
The U.S. flag at the embassy flew at half-staff and already tight security was increased. Police sealed off a street in front of the security checkpoint where the explosion knocked a door off its hinges and littered the road with debris. Police vehicles were parked in streets surrounding the building.
Sanli’s motives were still unclear. He had been a member of the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C, which has claimed responsibility for assassinations and bombings since the 1970s but has been relatively quiet in recent years. Compared to al Qaida, it has not been seen as a strong terrorist threat.
Officials said Sanil was arrested in 1997 for alleged involvement in attacks on the police headquarters and a military guesthouse in Istanbul and jailed on charges of membership in the group. While in prison awaiting trial, he took part in a major hunger strike that led to the deaths of dozens of inmates, according to a statement from the Ankara governor’s office. The protesters opposed a maximum-security system in which prisoners were held in small cells instead of large wards.
Sanli was released in 2002 after being diagnosed with Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a malnutrition-related brain illness that affects vision, muscle coordination and memory and that can cause hallucinations. Sanli fled Turkey after his release and was wanted by Turkish authorities, the statement said. He was convicted in absentia in 2002.
The Ankara governor’s office, citing the findings of a bomb squad that inspected the site, said Sanli had used 6 kilograms of TNT for the suicide attack and also detonated a hand grenade. Officials had earlier said that the bomber detonated a suicide vest at the checkpoint on the outer perimeter of the compound.
The guard who was killed was standing outside the checkpoint. A Turkish TV journalist was seriously wounded and two other guards had lighter wounds
The attack drew quick condemnation from Turkey, the U.S., Britain and other nations, and officials from both Turkey and the U.S. pledged to work together to fight terrorism.
It was the second deadly assault on a U.S. diplomatic post in five months. On Sept. 11, 2012, terrorists attacked a U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, killing U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. The attackers in Libya were suspected to have ties to Islamist extremists, and one is in custody in Egypt.
U.S. diplomatic facilities in Turkey have been targeted previously by terrorists. In 2008, an attack blamed on al-Qaida-affiliated militants outside the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul left three assailants and three policemen dead.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 1 (UPI) — Production has begun on the fourth season of the Boston-set police drama series “Rizzoli & Isles,” TNT announced Friday.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at UPI Entertainment
United Parcel Service Inc. says weak global trade and a disappointing holiday-shopping season slowed it down in the fourth quarter.
Profit in the last three months of 2012 fell short of Wall Street expectations. So did UPS‘s outlook for this year as the company took a cautious approach toward the global economy.
UPS also forecast a “relatively flat” first quarter. Shares dropped 2 percent.
“Overall we still see 2013 as a slow-growth economy,” Chairman and CEO D. Scott Davis said Thursday on a conference call with analysts.
Davis said Europe was more stable than a year ago, and “in the U.S., I think we got off to a strong start in January.” But, he added, “We’re not banking on a robust economy.”
UPS is the world’s biggest package-delivery company and something of an economic bellwether. It operates fleets of trucks and planes that haul everything from trinkets to industrial equipment between companies and from businesses to consumers.
The Atlanta-based company said it expects 2013 adjusted earnings of between $4.80 and $5.06 per share. That would be an increase of 6 percent to 12 percent over 2012, but less than the $5.13 per share that analysts expected. UPS said the first quarter would be fairly flat, hurt by one less business day than in 2012.
UPS said that it lost $1.75 billion in the fourth quarter because of a $3 billion charge for pension liabilities, compared with a profit of $725 million a year earlier. Without the pension-accounting charge, UPS said that it would have earned $2.05 billion, or $1.32 per share.
Analysts expected adjusted earnings of $1.38 per share, according to FactSet.
Revenue rose 3 percent to $14.57 billion, beating analysts’ forecast of $14.48 billion.
The company said that disruptions from Hurricane Sandy lowered earnings by 5 cents per share and money spent on the failed pursuit of Dutch delivery firm TNT Express NV cost another penny per share.
UPS increased its plan for spending on buying back its own stock this year to $4 billion from $1.5 billion.
Peter Nesvold, an analyst for Jefferies & Co., said investors expected the company to make a “substantial” increase in share repurchasing after the TNT deal fell apart and freed up cash.
Standard & Poor’s analyst Jim Corridore said the stock buybacks would help protect UPS shares from falling.
UPS said consumer spending on holiday shopping was less than expected, although it still carried a record 500 million packages, including nearly 28 million on the busiest day, Dec. 19.
In January, UPS walked away from an agreement to buy TNT. It would have expanded UPS‘ presence in Europe, but antitrust regulators there insisted on concessions that UPS considered too costly. Davis said Thursday that the company is still interested in acquisitions but probably nothing as big as TNT, which would have been UPS‘ largest purchase ever.
Shares fell $1.71, or 2.1 percent, to $79.52 in afternoon trading Thursday. That pushed the gain for the month of January back below 10 percent.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
The European Union has confirmed its rejection of a $6.9 billion deal for UPS to acquire Dutch delivery company TNT Express — two weeks after the U.S. company pulled out of the venture because of EU objections.
Antitrust Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said Wednesday that European businesses “would have been directly harmed” by the takeover “because it would have drastically reduced choice between providers and probably led to price increases.”
UPS had offered in March to buy TNT, Europe‘s second-largest delivery company, to better compete with Europe‘s largest, Deutsche Post’s DHL. UPS said that it had proposed “tangible remedies” but Almunia said they were “simply not enough.”
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
EU antitrust regulators blocked a 5.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox Business Headlines
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 29 (UPI) — About 5.2 million U.S. viewers tuned in to Sunday’s simulcast of the 19th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on TNT and TBS, the sister networks said.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at UPI Entertainment
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 18 (UPI) — TNT says it has ordered a pilot for an untitled bounty hunter drama starring Oscar-winning Hollywood actress Geena Davis.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at UPI Entertainment
