Infozone Breaking World News

Administrators to the stricken retail chain Woolworths, has stated that all of the 807 stores in the UK will close in the next two weeks. The first Woolworths stores to close will shut their doors just after Christmas on the 27th December, and the rest of the stores will be closed by the 5th of January.

In each of the Woolworths stores, window displays will countdown the days before the shop closes. The 27,000 staff will be left jobless unless a last-gasp buyer is found, but all employees will be entitled to redundancy pay and be kept on for a couple of days after the stores closure.

Woolworths went into administration last month, after spiralling debts of £385 million and the current economic climate contributed to huge losses.

It is hoped that some stores will be sold and reopened by other retailers eager to buy the leases for prominent stores and locations; it is unsure what will happen to the rest of the stores.

A spokesman for the administrators said: “We are confident that we will sell the leases of the 300 stores currently under offer and are hopeful that our ongoing discussions with other parties will also prove successful.”

After it was revealed that Microsoft’s browser Internet Explorer had a serious security fault last week, Microsoft yesterday released a patch for the fault.

The security flaw, which has hit an estimated 2 million Windows users and up to 10,000 websites; allowed hackers to take over users computers by sending them to infected websites. Called the ‘Zero Day’ exploit, once a computer was infected, the downloaded programs could record keystrokes and steal passwords, credit card details and other information.

 In a statement released by Microsoft, it said that it “encourages all IE customers to test and deploy this update as soon as possible”. The new patch is said to consist of more than 300 updates, for six different versions of Internet Explorer in over 50 languages.

Windows users who have automatic updates turned on will receive the security patch over the next few days, or can download it directly from the Microsoft website.

Today, the BBC was fined a total of £95,000 by Ofcom for broadcasting radio quizzes that listeners could not win. The fine covers 13 quizzes between 2005 and 2006, including 8 from Dermot O’Leary’s Radio 2 show and 5 competitions broadcast on Tony Blackburn’s BBC radio London shows.

The media watchdog Ofcom found that all of the shows had been pre-recorded, so there was no way that listeners could take part in them. The Ofcom report stated that a full apology should be broadcast by BBC Radio 2 at a time to be decided by the watchdog.

The BBC has accepted the fine, saying that Mr O’Leary’s show was pre-recorded on certain occasions due to “the presenter’s other work commitments”, and stated that the competition winners were selected via the programs website or newsletters.

BBC Radio 2 will be fined £70,000 and BBC Radio London will be fined £25,000; both stations will have to broadcast apologies at a time deemed by Ofcom.

Legendary pop star Madonna has paid Guy Ritchie over £50 million as part of their divorce settlement it was revealed today. The pop stars spokesperson Liz Rosenberg said that the settlement included the value of the couple’s multi-million pound house in Ashcombe, Wiltshire.

She went on to say that the financial side of the divorce had been settled, but custody of the children was still to be finalised.

The couple, who wed in December 2000, were granted a divorce at the High Court in London. The divorce was made public last month and at the time Guy Ritchie told press that the break up was “never, ever about money”.

Madonna’s £50 million plus payout is set to be the biggest from a female celebrity, and is far bigger than the £24.3 million Heather Mills received from divorcing Sir Paul McCartney a few months ago.

Virgin Media has become the first internet service provider to offer a 50Mbps broadband package to UK internet users. This next generation broadband service will cost around £51 a month, but is reduced to £35 a month if users sign up for a Virgin phone line, which costs an additional £11 a month.

The 50Mbps broadband package makes Virgin the fastest internet provider in the UK, followed by Be Broadband that offers a 24Mbps package for £17.50 a month. Trials of the new service were carried out in Kent during 2008 and will now be offered country-wide over the next six months.

Following the news, BT announced that it will be trialling its new fibre optic broadband service in London and Cardiff in 2009. The trials will cover up to 15,000 business and home users and will be able to deliver speeds of 40Mbps.

Children’s charity Barnardo’s has been at the centre of an investigation by the Advertising Standards Authority over its advert showing child abuse and drug taking. The advert, which shows a young girl being hit by a man and later on taking drugs has had nearly 500 complaints since it was first aired.

But in a ruling by the ASA, the advert will still be shown and said that the adverts use of shocking images was justified. In a statement by the ASA they said, “The scene involving violence, although shocking to watch, showed the violence as unacceptable behaviour and did not encourage or condone it.”

The Statement went on to say, “We concluded that the aim of the ads justified the use of such strong imagery,”

The ASA added that the advert was only shown after 2100 hours and away from programs that were popular with children.

In a separate statement, a Barnardo’s spokesperson said: “We hoped that viewers of the advertisement would be able to look beyond the challenging story and realise that this is a very real issue and that the shocking fact is that for some children the story will keep repeating itself until someone stops it.”

UK retail sales have fallen by 0.4% in November compared to the same time last year, a survey by the British Retail Consortium revealed. The new figures show that sales have fallen for the 2nd consecutive month, with October seeing a 0.1% drop; this is the first time sales have dropped for two months since the survey began in January 2005.

The report went on to say that UK retailers were in for a “nerve-wracking Christmas”.

The food and drink sector was the only one to see a rise in November, and is thought to be lifted by heavy discounts offered by the large supermarkets.

For many retailers Christmas is the most important period of the year, with many of them taking up to three quarters of their annual income in the six weeks leading up to the festivities.

It is hoped that the recent government VAT cut from 17.5% to 15% will raise sales, but with major UK retailers like Woolworths and MFI entering administration, there is a growing concern that other companies could see a similar fate.

The government has announced that shops in England and Wales will be banned from displaying cigarette and tobacco products. There were also plans to ban cigarette vending machines and tobacco branding on packets, but this idea has been scrapped.

MP’s hope that the ban will reduce smoking, and is being considered in both Scotland and Northern Ireland. Anti-smoking lobbyists are not impressed with the latest plan, and have criticised the move as not going far enough to stop younger people smoking.

In recent figures released on smoking behaviour, it was found that people who started smoking between the ages of 11 and 15 were three times more likely to die younger than someone who started when they were 20 years old. Younger smokers are also more likely to be hooked for life, the report said.

The Tobacco Manufacturers Association has opposed the ban saying that it could have hidden consequences such as raising the sales of illicit tobacco, and damaging the income of small shops that rely on tobacco sales.

The government stated that the first tobacco displays to be taken down will be in the large supermarkets, and if there were signs of an improvement in younger smokers it will remove all tobacco displays.

Honda has announced that it will be pulling out of Formula One next season. Blaming the current economic climate for the decision, Honda is currently looking for a buyer for the team.

This latest news leaves British driver Jenson Button and his team mate Rubens Barrichello without drives, and the workers at Honda’s Brackley headquarters facing redundancies. There has been a deadline of January set for finding a buyer for the team, but in a sport where you would expect to spend more than £300 million a year, it is unlikely to find one in time.

In a statement from Honda’s president Takeo Fukui, he said “Honda Motor Co. has come to the conclusion that we will withdraw from all Formula One activities, making 2008 the last season for participation,”

He went on to say, “Honda must protect its core business activities and secure the long term as widespread uncertainties in the economics around the globe continue to mount.”

Honda has struggled to make an impact since rejoining the F1 constructors in 2006, earning only 14 points last season and being largely uncompetitive in the last two seasons.

Last month Honda announced that it would be building fewer road vehicles in the US, Europe and Japan, as the economic climate hits the motor industry hard.

The new 2009 Formula One season will kick off on the 29th March in Australia, and if a buyer isn’t found there will only be 18 cars on the grid.

Sources at Geffen Records, who put out the new Guns n’ Roses album Chinese Democracy have been slating the bands frontman Axl Rose and blaming him for the disappointing sales of the album, because the singer didn’t promote it properly.

The album, which has been 15 years in the making, missed out on the top spot in the British album chart last weekend, piped at the post by The Killers new album ‘Day & Age’. Chinese Democracy also looks like missing out on the number 1 slot in the US, with over 200,000 fewer sales than Kanye West’s ‘880s & Heartbreak’.

Bosses at Geffen Records are said to be angry about not hitting their targets for the album, blaming Axl Rose for not publicising the LP enough.

Speaking to a British newspaper, a source at Geffen said, “The label is really glad to have him back, but it is frustrating because the album would have had a much better chance of going to number one if he had only been prepared to show his face.”

The source went on to say, “People have been trying to contact him for two months and he’s been completely AWOL.”

“You would have thought after spending 15 years on an album you might do a few weeks promotion.” The source added.