Y CITY, Ark. (AP) -- Flash flooding and tornadoes killed three people in Arkansas overnight in the nation's latest severe weather outbreak. Among the dead was a county sheriff who drowned while checking on residents whose house was eventually swamped by rising water.

More bad weather was poised to strike the nation's midsection Friday, with tornadoes and baseball-sized hail forecast from Oklahoma to Missouri.

But Thursday night and early Friday the danger was from torrential rain 6 inches or more in the rugged terrain of western Arkansas. The Fourche La Fave River rose 24 feet in 24 hours and for a time closed U.S. 71 north of Y City.

"The water just comes off that hill like someone is pouring a bucket in there," said Danny Straessle, a spokesman for the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department. "This was an incredible amount of water."

Sheriff Cody Carpenter and wildlife officer Joel Campora traveled by boat up Mill Creek to reach two people who had called for assistance. While they were in the home, the river swamped it.

"Other deputies heard a loud crash," Hollenbeck said. "They thought that the bridge had actually collapsed. Looking into it further, the house had imploded as a directly result of rising waters from Mill Creek," said Bill Hollenbeck, the sheriff of neighboring Sebastian County.

Campora and the two women inside the home remained missing Friday afternoon, Hollenbeck said. Carpenter's body was recovered about 1 mile downstream from the home.

Separately, authorities discovered a woman dead in a car in Scott County. That death is also being attributed to the flooding. And a man died after strong winds toppled a tree onto his car in Voll, just west of Little Rock.

The agency's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said large hail and tornadoes are likely Friday in Oklahoma and parts of the Ozarks in Arkansas and Missouri. The areas at greatest risk include Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Joplin, Mo., where the second-deadliest American tornado on record killed at least 158 people in 2011.

Flooding is also a concern in parts of Missouri, Iowa and Illinois through Sunday.

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Madea goes bye-bye?

A new petition published on Change.org is demanding that Oprah Winfrey's network remove Winfrey's friend and business partner Tyler Perry from OWN's airwaves, claiming that Perry "perpetuates stereotypes" about the black community.

Or, as the petition puts it more whimsically, Perry "is 'malt liquor' for the community!"

Perry's new series, "The Haves and the Have Nots," premiered Tuesday night on OWN to record breaking ratings.

"For decades Oprah Winfrey has used her television show to educate, empower, and uplift people of all races to be better versions of themselves. OWN has committed to be an extension of this work," the petition reads.

However, the petition argues, OWN's association with Perry tarnishes that legacy of education, empowerment and, um, upliftment.

"Where it is clear that neither Oprah or Tyler Perry are not experts on race and racism, they have also refused to utilize feedback from the conscious Black community and scholars on racism regarding the damage that Tyler Perry and his brand of entertainment perpetuate against the Black community," the petition continues.

Likening Perry to malt liquor, Vega's online campaign reads, "His entertainment is hurtful to the Black community. He perpetuates stereotypes and has no place on OWN."

As of this writing, the petition has amassed just 30 supporters - a relatively meager showing, especially considering that "The Haves and the Have Nots" was OWN's highest rated premiere in the network's history, with 1.77 million total viewers.

A spokeswoman for OWN has not yet responded to TheWrap's request for comment.

"Killing Kennedy" will take the form of a "factual drama" and will premiere on National Geographic TV channel later this year to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's assassination, the network said.

Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1963 in Dallas as the president's motorcade made its way through the Texas city.

Lowe, 49, who rose to prominence in the 1980s as an actor in such films as "The Outsiders" and "St. Elmo's Fire," will star alongside "Mona Lisa Smile" actress Ginnifer Goodwin, who will play first lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

"Gossip Girl" star Michelle Trachtenberg will portray Oswald's Soviet-born wife, Marina Oswald. It will be the first Russian-speaking role for the American actress, who is fluent in the language.

The actor who will portray Oswald will be cast within the next two weeks, a network spokeswoman said.

In April, Lowe narrated the network's documentary miniseries "The '80s: The Decade that Made Us."

O'Reilly and Dugard's "Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot" was published in 2012.

The National Geographic Channel is jointly owned by the National Geographic Society and News Corp-owned Fox.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Steve Orlofsky)

CANNES (Reuters) - Actors and directors gathered for the world's leading movie showcase in Cannes this week said television was increasingly luring top talent and should no longer be seen as artistically inferior to the big screen.

TV series like "The Wire," "Homeland", "Mad Men," "The Sopranos" and "Game of Thrones", which have won critical and commercial success, were cited for breaking down the division between movies and TV, giving audiences innovative viewing.

At the 66th Cannes film festival, moviemakers said a new era of TV was presenting opportunities to take more creative risks.

Director Steven Soderbergh, known for Hollywood hits like "Ocean's Eleven" has announced plans to retire from filmmaking but expressed interest in working in television.

Soderbergh, 50, whose biopic on pianist Liberace, "Behind the Candelabra", is in the main competition at Cannes, said there had been a gradual migration of audiences towards television.

"There is a lot of great television being made in the States right now and I feel in terms of cultural real estate that TV is really taking control of the conversation that used to be the exclusive domain of movies," Soderbergh told reporters.

"I think it is the second golden age of television," said the director who was reported to have joined forces with actor Clive Owen for a TV drama called "The Knick" set in New York's Knickerbocker Hospital.

"Behind the Candelabra", with Michael Douglas as Liberace and Matt Damon as his gay lover, was made for TV, funded by Time Warner's HBO cable network after Hollywood studios rejected the gay storyline of the $25 million film as too risky.

MORE DEPTH IN TELEVISION

Directors have lamented the fact that the high cost of making and marketing a film is a deterrent to fund any project not deemed a safe bet, driving Hollywood studios towards action and spectacle rather than drama to win sales at the box office.

A second HBO project, a documentary called "Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight", about the boxer's court battle after he refused to go to the Vietnam War, is also on show at the 12-day Cannes festival on the French Riviera that ends on Sunday.

British director Stephen Frears said HBO's presence in the Cannes line-up showed a changed attitude towards television which he welcomed after spending most of his early career in television with Britain's state broadcaster, the BBC.

"I don't have the usual snobbish attitude towards television," Frears, who earned high acclaim for his 2006 film "The Queen", told Reuters.

"I just go where the good writing is and if it is TV, fine. Nowadays the best writing is in TV."

Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn, whose ultra-violent thriller "Only God Forgives" has sharply divided critics at Cannes, said he was a TV junkie.

"Television has become where people seek creativity in terms of challenge now," he said, adding that he was working on a TV version of the 1960s sci-fi film "Barbarella".

Winding Refn also highlighted the changes brought by online providers such as Netflix which this year released all 13 episodes of the big-budget "House of Cards" with Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright to its subscribers.

British actress Kristin Scott Thomas, who plays the evil mother in Refn's film, said television was a great medium for actors because it gave them a far larger audience.

"It is very satisfying when millions of people watch something you have made," she said.

(Additional reporting by Rollo Ross; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

The media company VICE arranged the trip and invited Rodman after its first choice, Michael Jordan, expressed no interest. A 30-minute documentary on the unexpected piece of basketball diplomacy will air on June 14 on HBO as the final episode of VICE's first season, and was previewed for some reporters on Wednesday.

The North Korean leader loves basketball so much that he overlooked the government's antipathy for VICE founder Shane Smith, who had made two critical documentaries on North Korea, and invited the crew in. Smith wasn't allowed back but VICE's Ryan Duffy accompanied Rodman and three members of the Harlem Globetrotters traveling basketball troupe.

"We just wanted to make a good documentary," Smith said in an interview. "We didn't do it as a stunt."

Duffy quickly learned his place: One of the first things one of his "tour guides" told him was, "I know who you are. I don't like you and I don't like your company," he said Wednesday. The crew was told when it could turn on its cameras and when they had to be off, and feared landing in a North Korean prison if it didn't comply, he said.

The North Koreans did not go through the footage shot by the crew, however. Some 36 hours of film was cut down into the half-hour HBO show, and some may surface later as online extras.

The crew went through an elaborate week-long organized tour of North Korea's capital of Pyongyang, visiting a well-stocked mall with no other customers and the country's version of Sea World. At one point, it was shown a classroom with students sitting behind computers, but only one person either knew how or was allowed to use one of the machines. One student sat before Google's home page and never searched for anything, just moving the cursor back and forth randomly.

The tour was taken in the hopes of catching one or two glimpses of the real North Korean people, which the group finally achieved toward the end when its minders let the bus stop at a park and the Globetrotters played around with some of the kids, helping them learn to spin a basketball on their finger.

Duffy said the group was surprised when Kim arrived to watch what was essentially a pickup basketball game with the Globetrotters and some members of a North Korean youth team. Rodman didn't play; he sat in the stands watching with Kim. After the game, the VICE crew and players were rushed across Pyongyang unexpectedly for a dinner with Kim and other members of the North Korean government.

Although Rodman was key to securing the visit and played the most prominent role of any of the visiting Americans, he's only a bit player in VICE's documentary. Smith said Rodman declined to be interviewed about the trip by VICE afterward.

The American group brought in some basketballs and basketball equipment to distribute to young North Koreans, but wasn't asked for anything else by its hosts, Smith said. VICE hasn't spoken to anyone in the Obama administration about the trip, he said. During the trip, the administration had refrained from commenting about it.

HBO and VICE have not agreed to continue its series of news documentaries beyond this season, but the arrangement is likely. HBO said the show gets solid ratings, while VICE said the network gives VICE valuable exposure beyond the young audience that traditionally follows its product.

Smith said he's open to heading back to North Korea at some point in the future.

Next time, VICE may take Scottie Pippen.

Michael Adebolajo, who was carrying a British passport, was then handed over to British authorities in the East African country, another Kenyan official said Sunday.

The information surfaced as London's Metropolitan Police said specialist firearms officers arrested a man Sunday suspected of conspiring to murder 25-year-old British soldier Lee Rigby. Police gave no other details about the suspect, only saying he is 22 years old.

The arrest brought to nine the number of suspects who have been taken into custody regarding Rigby's horrific killing in London. No one has been charged in the case.

The British soldier, who had served in Afghanistan, was run over, and then, witnesses say, was stabbed with knives by two men in the Woolwich area in southeast London on Wednesday afternoon as he was walking near his barracks.

Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, are the main suspects in the killing and remained under armed guard in separate London hospitals after police shot them at the scene.

In 2010, Adebolajo was arrested with five others near Kenya's border with Somalia, Kenya's anti-terrorism police unit chief Boniface Mwaniki told The Associated Press. Police believed Adebolajo was going to work with Somali militant group al-Shabab.

A video clip from a local TV station shows a man appearing to be Adebolajo speaking during a court hearing in the Kenyan city of Mombasa on Nov. 23, 2010.He says, "These people are mistreating us. We are innocent. Believe me," shortly before leaving the court with five other suspects.

Mwaniki said that Adebolajo was deported from Kenya after his arrest in 2010. Kenya's government spokesman said he was arrested under a different name, and taken to court before being handed to British authorities.

"Kenya's government arrested Michael Olemindis Ndemolajo. We handed him to British security agents in Kenya, and he seems to have found his way to London and mutated to Michael Adebolajo," spokesman Muthui Kariuki said. "The Kenyan government cannot be held responsible for what happened to him after we handed him to British authorities."

Kariuki said Adebolajo was traveling on a British passport, but he could not confirm if it was authentic.

When asked whether British security agents and embassy officials had handled Adebolajo in Kenya, a British Foreign Office spokeswoman said in a brief statement: "We can confirm a British national was arrested in Kenya in 2010. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office provided consular assistance as normal for British nationals." She did not elaborate and said she did not have information about what had happened to Adebolajo then.

Rigby's grieving family visited the scene of his killing in London on Sunday, pausing for a few moments in reflection and laying flowers to join the hundreds of floral tributes already left at the nearby Woolwich Barracks by well-wishers.

The soldier's gruesome slaying has horrified Britain, partly because it was captured by witnesses' cellphones. A video picked up by British media showed one of the suspects identified by hardline Muslim leaders as Adebolajo with bloodied hands, making political statements and warning of more violence as the soldier lay on the ground behind him.

The killing has also fed a spike in anti-Muslim sentiment, with police, politicians, and activists reporting a surge in hate crimes, including violence and vandalism.

A mosque in the northern England town of Grimsby was firebombed Sunday night, according to chairman Diler Gharib, who told a local newspaper he was discussing how to thank his neighbors for the support they had shown his community in the past days when the building was hit with gasoline bombs.

"We have all been feeling on edge and now this has happened," he told the Grimsby Telegraph. Local police said they had made two arrests in connection with the incident.

Adebolajo has been described by his associates as a convert to Islam who used to take part in London demonstrations organized by British radical group al-Muhajiroun. The group catapulted to notoriety after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by organizing an event to celebrate the airplane hijackers, and was banned in Britain in 2010.

More than 20 supporters of the group have been arrested over terrorism offenses, including a foiled plot to blow up central London nightclub Ministry of Sound and a bomb attack on London's Territorial Army base.

Abu Nusaybah, a friend of Adebolajo's, has asserted in a BBC interview that Adebolajo became withdrawn after he allegedly suffered abuse by Kenyan security forces during interrogation in prison there. Nusaybah was arrested by counter-terrorism police outside the BBC's London studios Friday night immediately after recording the interview, and police said Sunday his detention has been extended to May 31.

Anti-terrorism chief Mwaniki on Sunday rejected Nusaybah's allegations. Mwaniki said at the time there were no indications of torture or abuse, but that the unit would further investigate.

Mwaniki said dozens of foreign youth are arrested every year attempting to cross the Kenyan border to join al-Shabab, which claims to be fighting a jihad, or holy war, against the Somali government and African Union forces.

Al-Shabab controlled the Somali capital, Mogadishu, from roughly 2007 to 2011. The group still dominates most of south central Somalia but has seen its territory reduced after military pushes by African Union and Somali forces.

According to an August U.S. State Department report on terrorism, al-Shabab continues to maintain training camps in southern Somalia for young recruits, including Americans who have traveled there from Somali communities in the United States.

The camps have churned out dozens of bombers who've launched attacks in and outside Somalia.

Al-Shabab boasts several hundred foreign fighters, mostly East African nationals and veterans from the Iraqi and Afghanistan wars.

British officials have been on the lookout for security threats originating from Somalia for some years.

In a speech in 2010, Jonathan Evans, then head of Britain's MI5 domestic security service, warned that "a significant number" of British residents were training in al-Shabab camps to fight in the insurgency there.

"I am concerned that it is only a matter of time before we see terrorism on our streets inspired by those who are today fighting alongside al-Shabab," he said.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Osborne, head of Scotland Yard's counterterrorism command, said officers are pursuing CCTV, social media, forensic and intelligence leads in the Rigby investigation. He appealed for anyone who knew the two attackers to contact police with information.

British officials said Sunday they are also setting up a new terrorism task force to tackle radical preachers and extremism. Home Secretary Theresa May said the group will look at whether new powers and laws are needed to clamp down on religious leaders and organizations who promote extremist messages and who target potential recruits in British jails, schools and mosques.

___

Hui reported from London.Producer Khaled Kazziha in Nairobi and Raphael Satter in London also contributed to this report.

The company says the Xbox One, its next-generation entertainment console, will go on sale later this year.

The company is seeking to stay ahead of rivals in announcing that new content that can be downloaded for the popular "Call of Duty" game will launch first on Xbox One.

Microsoft says more games will be shown at next month's E3 video game conference in Los Angeles.

Microsoft executives are also touting the Xbox One as a replacement for the set-top box from your cable provider. It has its own guide and you can change channels by voice command.

The announcement came Tuesday at a presentation at its headquarters in Redmond, Wash.

Friday's draw for the clay-court Grand Slam tournament placed Nadal and Djokovic on the same half of the field, while Roger Federer could face David Ferrer in the other semifinal.

Federer, the owner of a record 17 major titles including the 2009 French Open, will face a qualifier in the first round and if he wins that, he'll play a qualifier in the second round, too.

Djokovic faces a far more intriguing start: The reigning Australian Open champion's first-round opponent is David Goffin, a 22-year-old Belgian who took a set off Federer in the fourth round in Paris last year after making it that far as a lucky loser.

No man has won the title at Roland Garros as many times as Nadal, who broke a tie with six-time champion Bjorn Borg by defeating Djokovic in last year's final and is 52-1 for his French Open career. Nadal also has reached the finals of all eight tournaments he's played in 2013.

But because the Spaniard missed about seven months with a left knee injury, his ranking slipped to No. 4, and the French Open decided not to bump him to a higher seeding.

If the tournament, which starts Sunday, had placed Nadal at No. 2, he and No. 1 Djokovic could have met only in the final; instead, a Nadal-Djokovic rematch for the championship can't happen in 2013.

"If you're not Nos. 1 and 2 of the world," Nadal said, "that can happen."

Jean Gachassin, president of the French tennis federation, said Friday his group has not yet discussed whether to switch to a seeding system similar to Wimbledon's, which takes into account past results on a specific surface rather than only the ATP rankings.

"That will be a debate that we will have after this French Open," Gachassin said.

Nadal has lost eight of his last 11 matches against Djokovic, including on clay at Monte Carlo last month.

"It definitely gave me the confidence boost," Djokovic said about that most recent encounter against the Spaniard. "Winning against Nadal on clay is not something that happens every day, you know. It's a big challenge."

Nadal is seeded No. 3 because second-ranked Andy Murray, the reigning U.S. Open champion, withdrew from the French Open with a back injury.

The possible men's quarterfinals are: Djokovic against No. 8 Janko Tipsarevic, his Davis Cup teammate for Serbia; Nadal against No. 7 Richard Gasquet of France; No. 2 Federer against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France; and No. 4 Ferrer against No. 5 Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic.

Berdych was drawn to face Gael Monfils of France in the first round, drawing groans from some members of the audience.

The last man from France to win the French Open was Yannick Noah in 1983, a 30-year gap mentioned more than once at Friday's ceremony.

Serena Williams wants to end her own, shorter drought in Paris her lone French Open title came in 2002 and her bid for a second championship will begin against 83rd-ranked Anna Tatishvili in the first round.

A year ago in Paris, Williams lost her opening match to 111th-ranked Virginie Razzano, the American's only first-round loss in 50 career Grand Slam tournaments.

Williams is seeded No. 1 this year and is on a 24-match winning streak, the longest of her career.

Tatishvili, from the former Soviet republic of Georgia, is 2-10 this season. She's also 0-2 at Roland Garros and 6-8 overall at Grand Slam tournaments. Williams, in contrast, has won 15 major titles.

The possible women's quarterfinals are: Williams against No. 8 Angelique Kerber, defending champion Maria Sharapova against No. 7 Petra Kvitova, No. 3 Victoria Azarenka against 2011 champion Li Na, and No. 4 Agnieszka Radwanska against 2012 runner-up Sara Errani.

"It's very meaningful to come back as a defending champion. It means you have done something pretty good, and you're coming back into that position and you're trying to defend it," said Sharapova, who completed a career Grand Slam by winning last year's French Open. "I think it's one of the best honors you can have as a tennis player."

One noteworthy first-round matchup is No. 10 Caroline Wozniacki, who used to be No. 1, against 35th-ranked Laura Robson, a British teenager who reached the fourth round at last year's U.S. Open.

___

Associated Press Writer Trung Latieule contributed to this report.

___

Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich

(Reuters) - A plan by American Airlines' parent to exit bankruptcy and merge with US Airways Groupis coming under fire from the U.S. Department of Justice over nearly $20 million in severance pay earmarked for outgoing boss Tom Horton.

In court papers filed on Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, U.S. Trustee Tracy Hope Davis, the department's official charged with regulating bankruptcy cases in the New York region, said the severance deal for AMR Corp'schief executive violates bankruptcy law.

She asked the court not to approve the outline of the plan that must also be approved by AMR creditors.

The initial merger agreement called for $19.9 million in severance payments for Horton, but when Judge Sean Lane approved the merger at a hearing in March, he refused to green-light the severance package, saying it was a matter that should be left for AMR's Chapter 11 exit plan. Davis at the time had opposed the severance on grounds similar to those she cited on Friday.

AMR filed its exit plan last month, laying out how it would effect the merger, pay back its creditors and exit bankruptcy.

As expected, it also built Horton's severance deal into the plan. In Friday's filing, Davis argued that in bankruptcy severance is only acceptable when it is part of a program applicable to all employees and is not more than 10 times the average severance given to non-management employees. Horton's package meets neither criteria, Davis said.

The severance has been a controversial issue from the get-go, drawing criticism from some AMR pilots. Horton was not liked by AMR's unions, which were forced to accept reductions in benefits as part of the bankruptcy and merger deal.

An AMR spokesman said he did not expect the objection to delay the court approval process.

"Consistent with what American indicated previously, the company expects that Mr. Horton's compensation arrangement will be addressed at the plan confirmation hearing," spokesman Sean Collins told Reuters.

Davis also objected to a component of the plan that would provide top-priority payments of attorneys' fees and other expenses to many of AMR's creditors. She added that AMR gave insufficient information about many facets of its plan, including settlements between various classes of unsecured claimholders.

AMR filed for bankruptcy in 2011, the last major U.S. carrier to go through the process after its competitors underwent restructurings in the last decade. It initially opposed a merger, but agreed to explore one under pressure from its unsecured creditors' committee and unions.

US Airways CEO Doug Parker would run the combined airline, but Horton would serve as non-executive chairman until the first annual shareholder meeting, probably in the spring of 2014, after which Parker would become chairman.

AMR shareholders would receive a 3.5 percent equity stake in the new company, which would make it one of the few major bankruptcies in which equity holders earn some recovery. An attorney for AMR's creditors committee has said the stake could be valued at between $350 million and $400 million.

The case is In re: AMR Corp et al, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 11-15463.

(Reporting by Nick Brown; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

Last February, he unveiled a $10 billion restructuring including thousands of job cuts after the world's largest household products company admitted it was not nimble enough, especially in emerging markets.

In April, Wall Street analysts roasted McDonald on a conference call after P&G's latest profit warning and having to rescind some price increases. The dour performance prompted activist investor Bill Ackman to call for change last summer when he bought the shares.

Since then, McDonald has refocused the world's largest household products maker on winning back market share for products ranging from Gillette razors to Tide detergent.

On Friday, Procter & Gamble delivered its strongest indication yet that its turnaround efforts are paying off, posting a better-than-expected profit and improved forecasts, helped by U.S. hits such as Tide Pods and new hair care products under the Vidal Sassoon brand.

The results and rosy outlook - it was the first time the company raised its annual profit forecast since April 2010 - led to a 4 percent rise in P&G's stock price, setting a high for McDonald's 3-1/2 year tenure.

Even Ackman, who for months has blamed McDonald's team for earlier missteps, said on CNBC that the results were an indication of "very significant progress."

Friday's report showed better-than-expected profit, helped in part by a gain from an acquisition, and sales that surpassed expectations, with growth in all divisions. Even so, some analysts think the company still has more to accomplish.

"The results are pretty good, but you know what? We know we're not done yet, we know this is work in progress, we know we have more to do," McDonald said in an interview.

P&G's long-term goals, along with cutting costs and developing more innovative products, include getting sales to grow 1 to 2 percentage points ahead of the market pace.

"They've been stuck in the mud for years, and this is kind of a ray of hope for the company and they should be commended on the quarter," said Channing Smith, co-manager of the Capital Advisors Growth Fund . P&G represents 2 percent of that fund and the firm overall holds roughly 75,000 shares of P&G.

It has taken P&G months to reignite growth in sluggish markets such as the United States while also expanding in emerging markets, where products are typically less expensive.

P&G expects Tide Pods, the single-dose detergent launched in the United States in 2012, to become a $500 million brand this year. It says the premium-priced product is attracting both loyal Tide users and those who used to buy less expensive brands.

Tide Pods will be followed by an Ariel-branded version of the product in Europe this spring. Other launches this year include updated Pantene and Vidal Sassoon hair care products, as well as new versions of Bounty paper towels.

ANSWERING ACKMAN

Last summer, Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management bought P&G's shares and began pushing for more change.

While results have improved since then, P&G's growth still lags that of peers such as Unilever Plc .

P&G's organic sales, which strip out the impact of divestitures and foreign exchange, grew 3 percent last quarter, while Unilever's sales rose 6.9 percent.

P&G's rivals such as Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive Coand Kimberly-Clark Corphave done well in recent years while Procter struggled, and now perhaps it has the firepower to bounce back, said Edward Jones analyst Jack Russo.

"Procter's been left out of the party a little bit, so it's nice to see them reappear here and kind of exert their influence on the group," he said.

Ackman's Pershing Square has a 1.02 percent stake in P&G, making it the company's eighth-largest shareholder, according to Thomson Reuters data. Ackman said in the fall he understood the board wanted to give McDonald more time to repair years of damage.

"When the company is performing, obviously the pressure from Ackman will probably fade somewhat," said Capital Advisors' Smith, adding that while he does not know Ackman's intentions, it is clear that Ackman's investment in P&G is worth a lot more today than when he bought the shares.

Ackman spoke about P&G on CNBC on Friday, saying that over the last three years it "certainly looked like" McDonald was not the right person for the job. He added, "if the company can make dramatic progress - and I think this quarter is an indication of very significant progress - then I hope that Bob can be successful and can make it."

McDonald did not say whether he has spoken with Ackman lately, but said he considers it a great honor to lead P&G, which he joined in 1980.

"I'm totally focused on doing what I have to do," he said.

HIGHER PROFIT

Even before Ackman took a stake, P&G was going through a $10 billion restructuring and other changes. It cut 5,500 nonmanufacturing jobs through December, near its goal of reducing 5,700 positions by the end of June.

Competitors such as Colgate and Kimberly-Clark are also trimming their ranks.

Meanwhile, rival Kimberly-Clark also posted a better-than-expected profit on Friday.

P&G has seen U.S. volume growth continue in January, said Chief Financial Officer Jon Moeller. At the same time, it believes it can improve market share in Europe over the next few months.

Some analysts still see room for improvement. Stifel Nicolaus analyst Mark Astrachan called the results "solid and encouraging," particularly the sales growth, but said P&G still lags in categories with strong growth trends, such as beauty.

P&G earned $4.06 billion, or $1.39 per share, in the fiscal second quarter ended in December, up from $1.69 billion, or 57 cents per share, a year earlier.

Stripping out unusual items such as restructuring charges and acquisitions, P&G earned $1.22 per share. That topped the company's own forecast of $1.07 to $1.13 per share and analysts' average target of $1.11, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Net sales rose 2 percent to $22.18 billion, topping analysts' forecast of $21.91 billion.

P&G expects fiscal 2013 core earnings of $3.97 to $4.07 per share, up from an earlier forecast of $3.80 to $4. Analyst estimates were at the bottom of that new range.

It expects organic sales to rise 3 to 4 percent this year, narrowing a prior forecast of 2 to 4 percent growth.

P&G also said it now plans to repurchase $5 billion to $6 billion in stock after calling for $4 billion to $6 billion in buybacks.

For the current quarter, P&G forecast core earnings per share of 91 to 97 cents, with sales up 3 to 4 percent. Analysts' average forecast was 95 cents per share.

Shares of P&G ended 4 percent higher at $73.25, the highest closing price since September 2008.

(Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe, Nick Zieminski and Matthew Lewis)