"We are pleased with the prompt action by the bankruptcy court in approving our first day motions," CEO Joe Malugen said. "This approval will allow our stores to continue to operate so that we can continue to serve our customers while implementing strategies to enhance our financial performance."

Movie Gallery's Canadian operations were not included in the filing. The final hearing about its financing from creditors is scheduled for Nov. 6.

The company announced in September plans to close 520 unprofitable stores across the country, including 14 in Alabama. It also entered into a restructuring program to reduce $1 billion debt incurred after buying the Hollywood Video chain in 2005.

Canada's biggest toy maker said it was awaiting a court ruling on Wednesday about its fight against claims in a consumer advice magazine that one of its products contained elevated levels of lead.

Mega Brands is seeking an injunction in Quebec Superior Court to stop distribution of Protegez-Vous magazine, which the company claims used the wrong test on its plastic toy building blocks and published misleading results.

A ruling is expected at 2:15 p.m. on Wednesday, said Mega Brands spokesman Harold Chizick.

Protegez-Vous stood by the accuracy of its test results, several media reports said. A spokesperson for the magazine was not immediately available for comment.

Shares of Mega Brands sank to an all-time low of C$15.45 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, before reversing direction in early afternoon, to gain 5 Canadian cents to C$16.10.

Mega Brands said Protegez-Vous should not have used a total lead test on its molded plastic blocks, because that analyses paint or the coating on a product. It should have used a lead migration test, which the company called "the global standard" for uncoated plastic products.

"That's a test that simulates a child sucking on a plastic toy and how much lead will be transferred through the saliva," Chizick said.

The company wants to prevent the sale and further distribution of Protegez-Vous in advance of its scheduled newsstand distribution on Oct. 19. The French-language publication has already been mailed to subscribers, it said.

"While we respect and support Protegez-Vous' commitment to informing consumers about product safety, in this case, they made a very grave error," Mega Brands Chief Executive Marc Bertrand said in a statement.

There have been several high-profile recalls this year of toys made in China that contained excessive levels of lead in paint or involved small, easily ingested magnets.

Health Canada said on Wednesday preliminary results from its product safety lab indicate "no quantifiable total lead content" in the plastic. The toy was sampled from a retail location in Quebec late last week.

"Lead can be tested on objects in different ways and the results can vary greatly," said spokeswoman Joey Rathwell. "So we did our own testing, in the way that we test paint within hard plastic, and we found from our test that there was no lead in the product."

The company said the Canadian Toy Association has agreed the wrong test was used and that safety testing lab Bureau Veritas said the Canadian-made toy meets international safety standards.

Mega Brands is still recovering from an extensive, costly recall of some faulty Magnetix building sets. One child has died and 27 have suffered serious intestinal injuries after swallowing small, powerful magnets in the toys.

The Supreme Court is hearing challenges against his landslide victory in the October 6 presidential election, which was boycotted by most of the opposition.

Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup, cannot claim to have won re-election for another five-year term until the court decides. The general has not ruled out imposing martial law if the judgement goes against him.

"These threats have no value for us. This is an issue to be decided in accordance with the law and according to the merits," Javed Iqbal, the head judge hearing the challenges, told the court.

"The case will be decided in 10 to 12 days," he told the court.

The court started Wednesday hearing petitions against Musharraf's victory lodged by two candidates in the election who say Musharraf was ineligible to stand while he is still army chief.

The court had ruled earlier this month that the election could go ahead but the official result could not be announced until it resolved the challenges.

The general has vowed to step down as army chief and become a civilian ruler once his victory is declared official.

Three lawyers split from personal injury attorney William Mattar and formed their own practice.

Dean Smith, Joseph Bergen and Todd Schiffmacher broke from the Law Offices of William Mattar on Oct. 15 and opened Smith Bergen & Schiffmacher LLP the next day.

The office is located at 1207 Delaware Ave., Suite 219, in Buffalo.

Bergen said the three left because of differences in business practices including "increasing pressure on the attorneys to settle cases."

Mattar said the three "quit by their actions" and that their claims "are pure opinion and not substantiated."

Mattar said Bergen was employed there for several years while Smith and Schiffmacher were there for one year each.

In that ruling, the court reinstated the case, which accuses Microsoft and Best Buy of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.

The Supreme Court allowed the ruling to stand.

The two companies will now face a class-action lawsuit involving thousands of consumers and potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

Allegation of RICO violations are typically seen in cases of organized crime, such as the conviction of mobster John Gotti. RICO, however, is now being used in some civil cases and plaintiffs can be awarded triple the amount of their claimed damages.

In the Microsoft/Best Buy case, plaintiff James Odom complained that during the purchase of a new computer at Best Buy he was enrolled in a free-trial subscription to Microsoft's MSN Internet service without his knowledge and then his credit card was charged for the service once the trial period had expired. He says other customers paying with credit or debit cards also were enrolled in the same fashion.

The suit alleges wire fraud in the transferring of his financial data and, therefore, a violation of the RICO Act.

Odom charged the pair violated RICO in part due to an agreement under which Microsoft invested $200 million in Best Buy and agreed to promote Best Buy's online store through its MSN service. In return, Best Buy agreed to promote MSN service and other Microsoft products in its stores and advertising. The agreement, Odom alleged, led to the MSN enrollment issue.

We conclude that plaintiffs have alleged facts that, if proved, provide sufficient evidence that the various associates function as a continuing unit', the 9th Circuit Court wrote in its findings. The continuing ruling means the behavior by Microsoft and Best Buy was ongoing and not an isolated incident. The court also wrote that if the allegations are true that they establish that the pair shared a common purpose to increase MSN subscribers through fraudulent means.

In papers filed with the Supreme Court, the two companies said their joint marketing did not constitute an ongoing enterprise.

Microsoft officials told Bloomberg News in May after the 9th Circuit Court's decision that the ruling was procedural and did not reflect on the merits of the case. The MSN subscription program at Best Buy concluded in 2003 when Microsoft began to offer refunds to customers.

"I said I thought we would bring this up prior to us leaving here," said Hoyer. "I have not changed on that, although I would be less than candid [not] to say that there are a number of people who are revisiting their own positions."

President Bush called on House leaders Wednesday to abandon the measure. "Congress has more important work to do than antagonizing a democratic ally in the Muslim world, especially one that's providing vital support for our military every day."

Bush also said at a Wednesday news conference that "... one thing Congress should not be doing is sorting out the historical record of the Ottoman Empire," the predecessor of modern Turkey.

By a 27-21 vote last week, the House Foreign Affairs Committee adopted the resolution, which formally identifies the killings as genocide. Turkish officials acknowledge the killings of Armenians during World War I but vehemently object to the designation "genocide."

The U.S. and Iraqi governments fear the proposed resolution could harm Washington's influence with Turkish officials who want to launch military raids against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. Washington officials are concerned the Turkish raids would further destabilize the region.

The IMF maintained its previous forecast, made in July, for 2007 global economic growth of 5.2 percent, but lowered the forecast for 2008 by 0.4 percentage point to 4.8 percent.

"While underlying fundamentals supporting growth are sound and the strong momentum in increasingly important emerging markets is intact, downside risks from the financial markets and domestic demand in the United States and western Europe have increased," the IMF said in its semi-annual World Economic Outlook.

The IMF said the global expansion was now firmly led by China, whose economy is expected to grow by 11.5 percent in 2007 and slow slightly to 10 percent next year.

The IMF's largest downward revisions in its growth forecasts were in the United States and in countries affected by the troubles in the U.S. subprime mortgage market, especially Canada, Mexico and some Asian economies. It said the U.S. economy was set to grow just 1.9 percent next year, a sharp downward revision from the 2.8 percent forecast in July.

The problems in the U.S. subprime mortgage market, which has seen a wave of foreclosures, spread quickly worldwide because the loans were packaged into complex financial securities and resold to investors.

The turmoil triggered a tightening of credit conditions in August, prompting central banks around the world to respond with massive injections of liquidity to ensure the global financial system did not feeze up. The U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates sharply in an attempt to limit economic damage from the credit crunch and market turbulence.