Man City losses halve in 2011-12

14 December 2012 Last updated at 11:49 ETManchester City has revealed that its financial losses for 2011-12 have halved from a year earlier.The Premier League champions announced a pre-tax loss of £93.4m, down from £189.6m in 2010-11.Revenues increased 51% to £231.1m, with the club’s first appearance in the Uefa Champions League contributing more than £22m in new revenue.The club’s sponsorship deal...

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Cuban lawmakers meet to consider economy, budget

HAVANA (AP) — Cuban lawmakers are holding the second of their twice-annual sessions with a year-end report expected on the state of the country’s economy.Legislators are also to approve next year’s budget.Cuban leaders have sometimes used the parliamentary gatherings to make important announcements or policy statements.Observers will be watching for word on the progress of President Raul Castro‘s...

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A Minute With: Director Peter Jackson on shooting “The Hobbit”

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – After bringing J.R.R. Tolkien‘s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy to life, filmmaker Peter Jackson is back in the world of Middle Earth with the author’s prequel, “The Hobbit.”The three-film series is due to open in U.S. theaters on Friday with “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.”The Oscar-winning director, 51, told Reuters about the 3D film, including the 48 frames per second...

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Vision insurance tied to better eye health

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Older adults’ eyesight may suffer irreversibly if they don’t have vision insurance, suggests a new study that argues eye health should be a mandatory part of regular health insurance policies.Researchers found that people between 40 and 65 years old with vision insurance were twice as likely to see an eye doctor in the past year, compared to those without coverage.And people...

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Google Maps Restores Order to the Universe

Well, that pretty much settles it. Everyone please go back to whatever you were doing.Today, Google (GOOG) released its free Google Maps for iPhone app in Apple’s (AAPL) App Store. Besides reestablishing galactic tranquility, the new app brings iPhone users all the features they were missing by using Apple’s new home-grown Maps app. Apple’s Maps were pretty and slick, but the service was crippled...

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The Hobbit: Richard Armitage Talks Preparations For Playing Thorin Oakenshield

British actor Richard Armitage admitted it wasn’t a walk in the park to play a J.R.R. Tolkien character in Peter Jackson’s reimagining of “The Hobbit,” the first installment of which is on its way into theaters.Upon touching down in New Zealand, where the trilogy was shot, the cast had a lot of character preparation to do.PLAY IT NOW: Martin Freeman Discusses The Hobbit’s ‘Good Chemistry’ & Playing...

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How “Life of Pi” animators visualized Ang Lee’s blank slate

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – “Life of Pi” is a movie that has the proverbial cast of thousands… of animals, that is. In one shot set on the ocean, there are 40,000 flying fish. In another one set on a floating island, there are 60,000 meerkats. And not one of them was living and breathing, of course.“No real meerkats were used,” senior animation supervisor Erik-Jan De Boer told the audience at an effects-themed...

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Mandela’s Infection May Be Pneumonia

Nelson Mandela is being treated for a lung infection, a term often used synonymously with pneumonia.Elderly people are at an increased risk for infections in general – more so if the person has many chronic medical problems, but as people age their immune systems are less capable of fighting off infections.South African officials say Mandela’s lung infection is “recurring.” The former president is...

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Fed ties rate pledge to a threshold as new stimulus set

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve, announcing a new round of monetary stimulus, took the unprecedented step on Wednesday of indicating interest rates would remain near zero until unemployment falls to at least 6.5 percent.It was the latest in a series of unorthodox measures taken by central banks around the world as major economies face erratic, sub-par recoveries from the global financial...

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Corruption probe shrouds Quebec in new darkness

MONTREAL (Reuters) – Half a century ago, a new crop of Quebec leaders sparked the so-called Quiet Revolution to eradicate the “Great Darkness” – decades of corruption that kept Canada‘s French-speaking province under the dominance of one party and the Catholic church.The revolution’s reforms, including cleaning up the way lawmakers were elected and secularizing the education system, seemed to work,...

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