Lumberton, NC, United States (AHN) – The U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs has filed an administrative complaint against a North Carolina company, Nash Finch Co., with systematic job discrimination against 80 women.

Minneapolis, MN-based Nash Finch is the second-largest publicly traded wholesale food distributor in the U.S. It has contracts with the federal government to provide goods and services to more than 200 military bases in the U.S. and overseas.

OFCCP charges that Nash Finch discriminated against 80 qualified women who had applied for positions as order selectors at the Lumberton, NC, plant. Order selectors pull stock from warehouse shelves to fill orders.

In monitoring files, the OFCCP found that the company hired 6 percent of qualified female applicants versus 26 percent of qualified male applicants.

Moreover, this was not the first instance of discrimination that the OFCCP found at a Nash Finch facility, according to the complaint.

Previous investigations at Nash Finch facilities in Norfolk, VA, St. Cloud, MN, and Omaha, NE, have found violations of the law and discrimination in the company’s policies and procedures that “created an uneven playing field for women, minorities and veterans seeking employment with the company,” according to an OFCCP statement.

“It is unacceptable that a company which profits from lucrative federal contracts would repeatedly violate the law in this manner,” said OFCCP Director Patricia A. Shiu. “Nash Finch has demonstrated an unfortunate pattern and practice of hiring discrimination, and the American taxpayers should not have to bankroll this company’s bad behavior anymore.”

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Jerusalem, Israel (AHN) – Nearly half of Israel’s population was left without cellphone service today when one of the country’s three carrier services collapsed. An estimated three million or 44 percent of the country’s population are unable to use their mobile phones.

A statement on Cellcom’s website, signed by company CEO Amos Shapira, apologized for the “serious fault.”

Shapira is calling the incident “the worst technical problem since the founding of the company”in 1994.

The repair time to fix the problem could take hours or as long as days to fix.

“Hundreds of our company’s engineers and employees are working to put an end to this outage as soon as possible,” he said.

He added that Cellcom’s Vice President of Technology was one of the employees working with Nokia engineers in Finland looking into the problem and trying to resolve the network issues.

According to reports angry and irate customers lined up at Cellcom service centers throughout the country. At one service center extra security guards to protect employees from disgruntled customers.

Many of the company’s customers took to the social networking site Twitter to voice their anger or humor over the situation.

When asked if the company would bereimbursing customers, Shapira said he was “focused only on fixing the technical problem, and then we’ll look at other problems.”

It currently remains unclear what caused the crash.

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Knoxville, TN, United States (AHN) – FedEx officials are searching for a package containing radioactive material that went missing on Thursday.

Although company officials put all FedEx facilities on alert, they are focusing the main search in the Tennessee area. FedEx reassured the public that as long as the protective packaging is intact there is no danger.

The package containing radioactive rods was enroute from a supplier in North Dakota to a person in Knoxville who uses the material in medical equipment. The radioactive rods were in cylinders that are used in hospital machinery for quality control calibration.

Two FedEx employees who handled the shipment return to work on Friday and company officials hope to learn more from them.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission notified the other appropriate government agencies, including the FBI, CDC, EPA and Department of Homeland Security.

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Payday loans no credit check are preferred by people for if you fulfil the basic requirements of the lending company which are, you must be above age of 18, have an authorised bank account in any bank in United Kingdom, and have a job in hand then these companies takes less than twenty hours to pass your loan. Under these loans, there is no need for submission of any documents which is why these are called fax less or paperless loans. This means that you do not have to fax or give any kind of proof to the company in order to pass your loan.

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Paris, France (AHN) – Is this the start of a battle between two of France’s luxury goods companies? Hermes reportedly rejected an “attack” on its capital from Louis-Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH).

LVMH, the French holding company and the world’s largest luxury goods group that owns more than 50 global brands, including Christian Dior perfumes, Givenchy fashion and TAG Hauer watches, now owns a bit of stake in Hermes. Hermes is a French fashion house that has branched into perfume and luxury goods.

Bernard Arnault, head of LVMH, announced he had bought 17 percent of his rival Hermes. However, he insisted that he is not trying for a hostile takeover. Instead, according to Le Figar, Arnault is calling himself a “friendly” long-term shareholder.

It’s unclear which – his stake in the company or the term “friendly long-term shareholder” – rubbed Hermes the wrong way, but it appears the company was irked.

“If you want to be friendly, Mr. Arnault, you should withdraw,” Hermes executives Bertrand Puech and Patrick Thomas reportedly told French daily newspaper Le Figaro. Puech is a fifth-generation heir of Hermes’ founder Emile Hermes, while Thomas is the family owned firm’s manager. The pair alleged Arnault’s tactics in taking the stake were questionable and said they hoped the financial services watchdog would investigate.

“This entry has nothing friendly about it. It was neither wanted nor asked for,” said Thomas, as Puech complained that he had had barely one hours notice from Arnault before LVMH released a statement confirming its purchase.

But, both executives, while clearly angry, said that Arnault’s move would not change the culture at Hermes. In addition, Arnault has not asked for a seat on the board.

“We’re artisans; our goal is to make the best products in the world,” Puech told Le Figaro. “We’re not in luxury, we’re in quality.”

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