LONDON (Reuters) - The government is still considering banning company branding on cigarette packets even though it omitted the plan from its legislative agenda laid out in Parliament on Wednesday, an official spokesman said.

Britain had looked set to become the first European country to force cigarette makers to use plain packaging - a step opposed by the tobacco industry, which sees it as harming their profits.

But the Queen made no reference to the plans in a speech setting out the government's legislative plans for the year ahead, disappointing anti-smoking groups.

A spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron said no decision had been taken and the government was still considering the right way forward.

The Department of Health held four months of consultations last year to gather evidence on whether standardised tobacco packaging would discourage young smokers and help existing smokers ditch the habit.

"This an important decision and we make no apology for taking time to get it right. We are closely watching what is happening around the world," a department spokesperson said.

Last year, Australia implemented a law saying cigarettes must be sold in olive green packets carrying graphic health warnings.

Cuba, whose luxury cigars are world renowned and feature distinctive packages, launched a challenge against the Australian law at the World Trade Organisation last week.

Campaign groups wrote to Health Minister Jeremy Hunt expressing disappointment over the omission of the plan from the government's programme.

"The failure to bring forward legislation fatally undermines the Government's credibility on public health issues," said the letter from the Smokefree Action Coalition, an alliance of more than 100 health organisations.

Companies such as Philip Morris and British American Tobacco fear that plain packaging would eat into sales of higher margin brands and say it would encourage the global black market in tobacco.

Imperial Tobacco shares have risen marginally since reports circulated in the British media that Cameron had dropped the initiative.

(Additional reporting by Rosalba O'Brien; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Hamlin insisted he'll again give Vickers the car at some point Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.

But with a sly smile, Hamlin left the door open to run a full race in his return from a compressed fracture of a vertebra in his lower back. After missing four races, he was cleared Thursday to get back in the car this weekend and said doctors gave him permission to run the entire race.

He said his intention was to "take a knee" after the start by getting out of the car during a caution and allowing Vickers to finish the race. That slightly contradicted crew chief Darian Grubb, who said earlier Friday they'd play race-day by ear and see how the race flows.

When asked about that after his practice stint, Hamlin stammered about his true plans.

"Ummm, yeah. I'd say there's going to be a caution at some point and I'd like to get out and just ensure myself of one more week of healing," Hamlin said.

So bet on Hamlin getting out of the car?

"Is there that bet in Vegas?" Hamlin asked.

He doesn't particularly like Talladega, or restrictor-plate racing, for that matter. But he found himself tossing and turning Thursday night, unable to sleep because he was so anxious to get back in his firesuit, back into his race car and back onto the track.

"If it wasn't for my crew chief, I would have ran it out of gas," he said of his only run Friday. "I just wanted to feel speed again. We're competitors and when you see the people on TV in other sports fighting through injuries to come back to the field or the court, we feel that same thing. We have alligator blood. I don't know what to say. We're a different breed. We're willing to throw caution to the wind just to get back to what we are doing."

His return drew mixed reactions in the garage.

Race car driving by nature is dangerous and every day on the job has its risks. Now Hamlin is coming back from a serious injury that not everyone would treat the same.

"This is how we make a living," Clint Bowyer said. "You've got to put food on the table and we're all in the same boat. We're all given a wonderful opportunity to get paid doing what we love to do, so anytime a racer is OK to get back in the car, he's going to do it whether he's sore or whatever the case is. We'd do it even if it didn't pay anything. It's just the nature of the beast."

Jeff Gordon, at 41 years old and the father of two young children, wasn't sure what his approach would be.

"You have to take yourself out of that and understand what the dangers are, what the risks are and if you re-injure yourself, can that be life-threatening or something that ends your career," he said. "I think for me, I'm later in my career and have a family and so an injury like what Denny went through, I don't know. I might not come back from that just because, is it worth it?

"For Denny, I think it's worth it for him to really take his time and do it right. What he's doing this weekend, to me that makes sense. It's Talladega, there's ways to avoid those incidents," Gordon said. "I'll be interested to see if he gets out or stays in there. If I know Denny, he's going to have a hard time getting out. Sounds like he is ready to go."

Hamlin was supposed to get out of the car in his return race at Phoenix after knee surgery three years ago. But he stuck it out to prove something to his team because he was injured playing basketball and felt he owed it to his crew to fight through the pain.

"I felt like I had put my team in a very bad spot by getting hurt outside of racing," he said. "I stayed in to tell them basically that I was sorry and I was going to do whatever I could for them. That hurt worse than what this does in the race car."

There's no pain this time around, he said, and the only discomfort is when he actually gets out of the car. To alleviate that, the Joe Gibbs Racing team has taken the option of using a roof hatch and Hamlin is using it to exit the car.

He practiced the driver exchange with Vickers on Friday and twice did it in just over a minute fast enough to ensure the car would remain on the lead lap if they swapped under caution.

Hamlin now goes forward this week balancing risk versus reward and the challenge ahead. He's currently 28th in the standings and needs to climb to 20th in the Sprint Cup standings to be eligible to claim one of two wild-card slots in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

He'll earn the points Sunday if he starts the race.

"We're going to have to make a big, big run if we're going to be part of the postseason," he said. "Our Chase has to start right now. We have to perform each week like it's a Chase race and do everything we can to get wins. If we don't win, it doesn't matter."

But there is a risk, he admitted.

"I don't know the exact science, and no one knows the exact percentages. That's what makes this really, really hard," he said. "But, as far as I've been told, I understand it would take such a significant hit that you probably would be injured from it even if you were 100 percent healthy. I've got to let the doctors speak for that a little bit more than me because I don't know the risks exactly and neither do they. We're just trying to buy myself another week obviously until Darlington, but the risk is so minimal that it's almost not even there."

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Brad Gray kept dodging questions during an appearance on "Charlie Rose" Wednesday about why the Paramount's deal to purchase DreamWorks SKG ended with the exits of Steven Spielberg and David Geffen from the studio lot, but the tenacious anchor would not let the studio chief duck his queries.

Grey insisted he did not want to speak ill of anyone. He dissembled. He leaned back on the old standby, "I don't know."]

Pressed about reports that personality clashes with Geffen had doomed the pact, Grey countered with praise.

"My regard for David Geffen is extremely high," he said. "I think that David Geffen is one of the greatest, not only showmen, but one of the greatest businessmen."

He said that the $1.6 billion deal to purchase DreamWorks' library and bring its team to Paramount was critical to the studio, because it came at a time when there were very few films in its production pipeline. After Geffen and Spielberg's employment contracts ended, DreamWorks became an independent production company in 2008 with funding from Indian-based Reliance ADA Group.

"I can't tell you exactly what it was," Grey said, after Rose refused to let the subject drop. "I can only say that in life when you have the greatest expectations and you try to do things the right way, it doesn't always work out."

Grey insisted that the studio maintains strong ties with Spielberg, noting that the director is producing the next "Transformers" film for Paramount. He added that he expects they will work on future project together.

Grey also dipped his toe into the hot-button issue of piracy during the cordial twenty-five minute grilling. He noted that relations have started to improve between Silicon Valley and Hollywood despite the divide over issues like SOPA, the anti-piracy legislation that went down to defeat in Congress last year thanks to a grassroots campaign that was fostered by the online community.

"The biggest search engines in the world are trying to sort out how we handle this together to make sure that our artists and studios and all the people - all the thousands and thousands and thousands of people - at work are able to be legitimately paid and the product isn't being stolen," Grey said.

The three-member National Stock Car Racing Appeals Panel unanimously upheld all penalties levied against the organization, including defending champion Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano, over confiscated parts in the rear suspensions of the drivers' Fords. NASCAR chief appellate officer John Middlebrook will hear Penske's final appeal next Tuesday.

"Obviously a disappointing outcome with the panel," Penske said. "We have a good case and we are allowed under the NASCAR rules in the rule book to appeal this to the next level. We've notified NASCAR that we will appeal this ruling today to the next level."

Penske declined to discuss much of the case because the team will argue again Tuesday before Middlebrook. But he has previously said the team was working in a gray area of the rule book when NASCAR confiscated the parts. NASCAR docked both drivers 25 points, fined the two crew chiefs $100,000 each and suspended seven Penske team members.

"It's clear we have a process, and I am better off to wait to see that conclude and at that point I can make any other personal comments I want to make about this," Penske said. "All I can say about the process is that I think it's fair and equitable and we had the opportunity to explain the case and situation in detail and obviously the information we were able to demonstrate to the panel, they determined they would uphold the appeal."

The decision was not surprising. Since NASCAR began keeping records in 1999, the panel has upheld 106 of 150 appeals.

Keselowski seemed to hint he'd already accepted his fate when he tweeted earlier Wednesday from a tire test at Indianapolis: "Inner peace is easily achievable once you realize that sometimes all you can do is hope for the best and prepare for the worst. (hashtag)Appeal."

Middlebrook, a former General Motors executive, heard two cases last year. He reduced similar penalties against Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Chad Knaus after the initial appeals board upheld his punishment. Middlebrook lifted the suspension and reinstated Jimmie Johnson's points, but left intact the $100,000 fine NASCAR levied against Knaus for altering sheet metal on the car before inspection at the season-opening Daytona 500.

Middlebrook upheld penalties on Richard Childress Racing for modifications made to Paul Menard's frame rails when they appealed to him last year.

Penske said Wednesday's appeal lasted between four and five hours. It was heard by Paul Brooks, former NASCAR senior vice president and president of NASCAR Media Group; Brandon Igdalsky, president of Pocono Raceway; and Dale Pinilis, operator of Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem.

"We take our inspection process very seriously, we believe we do a strong and credible job with it and the level playing field in the garage is the best it's ever been," NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp said. "As the sanctioning body, we've got to uphold the rules and regulations. That's part of our job. The inspection process we believe in very, very strongly."

The three panel members have administrative and operations backgrounds, but were not among the former crew chiefs or car owners on the list of 49 potential people who could have heard the appeal and might have had a better understanding of the inspection process. Tharp said panel members are often picked based on availability.

"A lot of times it's based on being able to get here in the time frame we are looking at," he said. "The people on the panel come from a wide variety of backgrounds and that is a positive for them because they are hearing from experts on both sides, from Penske and NASCAR. They do their best to make an equitable and fair decision."

Presenting the case for NASCAR was Sprint Cup Series director John Darby.

Penske had six people on hand for its presentation, which was headed by the team owner. Also present was senior executive Walt Czarnecki, who is listed as the car owner for Logano, team President Tim Cindric, competition director Travis Geisler and crew chiefs Paul Wolfe and Todd Gordon.

Geisler, Wolfe and Gordon are among the seven suspended for the infraction, along with car chiefs Jerry Kelley and Raymond Fox and engineers Brian Wilson and Samuel Stanley. All are suspended six races but were allowed to work at the track while waiting for the appeal to be heard.

Middlebrook will allow them to work this weekend at Talladega while waiting for the next phase of the appeals process.

NASCAR has already scheduled Joe Gibbs Racing's appeal to the three-member board for next Wednesday. JGR is appealing the severity of the penalties levied against Matt Kenseth, crew chief Jason Ratcliff and team owner Joe Gibbs for an illegal part being found inside Kenseth's race-winning engine from Kansas.

Red Blue Realty’s professional staff knows that an experiencedmust be aware of these basics and employ them in order to draw buyers, reach the price point that is most effective for home sellers, and move a property’s sale efficiently and quickly.

A broker’s efforts inshould include advertising, property showing, evaluation of the length of time a property has been on the market, and the consideration as to whether or not the seller is purchasing another property.

Basic marketing tips to follow include:

Marketing Tip One: Internet Listing

Theproperty being sold should always be listed in the local MLS or Multiple Listing Service, as well as being posted on the website REALTOR.com. Listing on these sites will allow the largest numbers of internet home searchers to see the property available.

Marketing Tip Two: For Sale Signs

Sometimes the most effective way of marketing a home is the most traditional: a “for sale” sign posted on the front of the home is still effective to attract buyers. Many real estate agents also employ brochure boxes that contain information about the property printed on flyers, along with the sign.

Marketing Tip Three: Local Outreach

Neighbors who love the neighborhood may have friends who want to move in. In many cases, it’s a good idea to offer listing information about the property for sale to area residents, particularly immediate neighbors. The ‘friend of a friend’ approach can sometimes reach a motivated buyer, fast.

Marketing Tip Three: Home Improvement

Basic home improvements such as painting, gardening, or addressing routine maintenance issues such as replacing torn screens or rusty door locks, can make a world of difference in terms of attracting potential buyers. Make the home look bright and cheerful inside and out, by clearing out clutter, emptying crowded closets, and eliminating as many space-consuming trinkets and souvenirs as possible. These steps will also help make a move after the sale easier and more efficient.

Marketing Tip Four - Open House Preparation

If a homeowner elects to have an open house to attract potential buyers, preparation is important. Make the home inviting with fresh towels in the bathroom, lamps lit, drapes drawn back to let in sunlight. Consider baking something aromatic or simmering a little vanilla on the stove to create a clean, inviting scent throughout the home without artificial air fresheners.

Marketing Tip Five - Price Properly

If a property has been on the market a long time, prospective buyers will get a message that perhaps the property isn’t worth the asking price. An experiencedwill make certain that the pricing on the property meets the marketplace expectations. If priced correctly, a home will sell, quickly.

Marketing Tip Six: Buying Another Home

Timing is key. If another property cannot be purchased until a home sale is complete, a seller should make sure to alert his or her real estate agent to this fact, and organize, if possible a contingency that allows a new sale to be completed only when the original home is purchased.

Website:

Email: Contact(at)redbluerealty(dot)com

Phone Number: 1-(855) 66-RBREALTY or 1-(855) 667-2732

Christopher RosiakRed Blue Realty1-(855) 667-2732

The 1913 Liberty Head nickel is one of only five known to exist. But it's all the more prized because of its unusual back story: It was surreptitiously and illegally cast, discovered in a car wreck that killed its owner, declared a fake, forgotten in a closet for decades and then declared the real deal.

It was offered up for sale Thursday by four Virginia siblings at a rare coin and currency auction in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg where it sold for well over the expected $2.5 million.

The winning bidders were two men from Lexington, Ky., and Panama City, Fla., who bought the coin in partnership, according to Heritage Auctions.

"Not only is it just one of only five known, genuine 1913-dated Liberty Head design nickels, this particular one was off the radar for decades until it literally came out of the closet after a nationwide search," said Heritage Auctions Vice President Todd Imhof.

The coin was struck at the Philadelphia mint in late 1912, the final year of its issue, but with the year 1913 cast on its face the same year the beloved Buffalo Head nickel was introduced.

A mint worker named Samuel W. Brown is suspected of producing the coin and altering the die to add the bogus date, according to Douglas Mudd, curator of the American Numismatic Association Money Museum in Colorado Springs, Col., which has held the coin for most of the past 10 years.

The coins' existence wasn't known until Brown offered them for sale at the American Numismatic Association Convention in Chicago in 1920, beyond the statute of limitations. The five remained together as a set under various owners until 1942.

A North Carolina collector, George O. Walton, purchased one of the coins in the mid-1940s for a reported $3,750. The coin was with him when he was killed in a car crash on March 9, 1962, and it was found among hundreds of coins scattered at the crash site.

One of Walton's heirs, his sister, Melva Givens of Salem, Va., was given the 1913 Liberty nickel after experts declared the coin a fake because of suspicions the date had been altered. The flaw probably happened because of Brown's imprecise work casting the planchet the copper and nickel blank disc used to create the coin.

"She kept the nickel in a box with family items in the closet, and it stayed there for four decades," said Givens' son, Ryan Givens of Salem.

After his mother's death, the siblings brought the coin to the 2003 American Numismatic Association World's Fair of Money in Baltimore, where the four surviving 1913 Liberty nickels were being exhibited. A team of rare coin experts concluded it was the long-missing fifth coin. Each shared a small imperfection under the date.

Since its authentication, the Walton nickel has been on loan to the Colorado Springs museum and has been publicly exhibited nationwide.

"This is one of the greatest coins at that price range," said one of the successful bidders, Jeff Garrett of Lexington, Ky.

That stance, and others, are part of the response that was signed by Jonathan F. Duncan, the NCAA's Interim Vice President of Enforcement, in response to a motion Miami filed with the association's Committee on Infractions to have the case brought to an end.

"Overall, the enforcement staff believes that the institution is again grasping at straws in an attempt to disqualify members of the enforcement team with the most knowledge about the case," Duncan wrote in the response, a copy of which was obtained Sunday by The Associated Press.

In late March, citing impropriety by the NCAA throughout the investigation, the Hurricanes asked the Committee on Infractions a group separate from the association's investigative arm to throw out the case. Four former Miami coaches, including current Missouri basketball coach Frank Haith, filed similar motions.

Miami's motion to dismiss included allegations that the NCAA used "impermissible and unethical" tactics when interviewing Haith and former men's basketball assistant coach Jake Morton, that the association misled the school on other issues, and other claims of wrongdoing.

One of Miami's biggest questions about the investigation has revolved around why the NCAA did not interview former Hurricanes athletic director Paul Dee, who died in May 2012.

Dee was Miami's AD for much of the time that the former booster at the center of the scandal, convicted Ponzi scheme architect Nevin Shapiro, was providing impermissible benefits to athletes, coaches and recruits.

Duncan's motion suggested that the NCAA was targeting June 2012 as the right time to interview Dee, who had battled health issues for many years.

"Because Dee's death was unexpected, the enforcement staff could not have predicted that he would not be available for an interview in June 2012," Duncan wrote. "Had the institution or enforcement staff known of Dee's condition or impending death, the enforcement staff would have exhausted all reasonable efforts to preserve Dee's testimony."

Duncan's response also strongly defended investigators Brynna Barnhart and Stephanie Hannah.

Miami alleged that Barnhart misled the school about the circumstances surrounding a February 2012 interview the NCAA conducted with former Hurricanes quarterback Kyle Wright, and that Hannah should have been disqualified from the case because the extent of her relationship with Shapiro attorney Maria Elena Perez was not revealed to the school.

"Not only are these personal attacks based on no evidence that would support the removal of Barnhart and Hannah from the case, they are also not a basis for dismissal of the case in its entirety," Duncan wrote.

Also, Duncan said that Miami was incorrect in its assertion that the NCAA was "incompetent, unprofessional, and uncooperative" in the timing of how basketball guard Durand Scott was declared ineligible on the very day the Hurricanes began play in the 2012 Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. Duncan's response included emails suggesting that the NCAA tried to rectify the Scott matter as fast as it could.

"While the enforcement staff acknowledges that the timing was unfortunate, nothing in the record indicates the enforcement staff intentionally orchestrated the timing to coincide with the ACC tournament," Duncan wrote.

There has already been one victory for Miami with regard to the motion to dismiss.

The AP first reported Friday that the enforcement staff made one concession that Miami wanted, that being the NCAA's decision to throw Wright's testimony out of the notice of allegations.

Miami argued that some things Wright was asked about by investigators in February 2012 stemmed from information the NCAA collected through depositions that Perez conducted under subpoena in Shapiro's bankruptcy proceeding. The NCAA does not have subpoena power.

Perez was paid by the NCAA after doing that work, though she contends that she never actually was employed by the association and that it was simply paying her for work that she conducted on Shapiro's behalf.

After the NCAA hired a firm to look into investigators' relationship with Perez, NCAA President Mark Emmert said that all the information that came in any way from clues or answers gleaned from those depositions was removed from the notice of allegations that Miami received in February. Wright was listed in that document with relation to claims of a half-dozen rules that the association said the Hurricanes violated.

The Committee on Infractions is scheduled to bring the case to a hearing June 14. Any sanctions against Miami would likely be decided weeks after that, unless the Hurricanes and the NCAA somehow resolve things beforehand.

Miami believes the Committee on Infractions has authority to dismiss the case, a stance the enforcement arm disagrees with.

Cyprien was a standout in the Sun Belt Conference and really solidified his stock with an excellent performance in the Senior Bowl. He was the first player taken from that conference in this draft, from which Commissioner Roger Goodell said, "We expect a lot more excitement" after a first round that featured 18 linemen chosen.

Yet to be chosen were the likes of Notre Dame All-America linebacker Manti Te'o and quarterbacks Geno Smith of West Virginia and Matt Barkley of Southern California.

Instead, the other early picks Friday were Tennessee wide receiver Justin Hunter by the Titans, who traded up with San Francisco, and Stanford All-America tight end Zach Ertz by Philadelphia.

___

Online: http://pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL

Both women were dominant in the first two elimination rounds, but Ricker had the last word over her rival in the final.

The first-place finish means Ricker, a native of Squamish, B.C., has secured a spot representing Canada at the Sochi Olympics next year.

Maltais, from Petite-Riviere-Saint-Francois, Que., finished a few meters behind Ricker in the final race.

On the men's side, Alex Pullin of Australia won gold, while Robert Fagan of Cranbook, B.C., was the top Canadian and finished in seventh.

The competition is taking place at the Stoneham Mountain Resort north of Quebec City.

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