Pizza Hut plans stand-alone wings stores Nearly 10 years after venturing into the chicken-wing business, Pizza Hut, the nation's largest pizza chain, will try to see if its chicken concept can fly solo. Pizza Hut on Tuesday quietly opened the doors in Denton, Texas, to the first stand-alone WingStreet location. More than 3,600 WingStreet locations already are nested inside Pizza Hut locations. The stand-alone pilot, a company-owned location, will give the chain a chance to test the popularity of its wings and sauces in an increasingly crowded field. The largest bird in the field is Buffalo Wild Wings, with $2 billion in 2011 U.S. sales and 817 locations.

Bank of New York to pay $210M over Madoff A Bank of New York Mellon subsidiary will pay $210 million to settle claims it concealed red flags showing Bernard Madoff was running a massive Ponzi scheme. Due diligence by Ivy Asset Management revealed discrepancies in Madoff's stated investment strategy, according to a statement by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. While Ivy steered clients to invest in Madoff, thereby collecting fees for itself, some at the firm had reservations about Madoff, the attorney general said.

Inflation accelerated last month in Britain British inflation accelerated more than economists forecast in October as higher university tuition fees pushed consumer price growth away from the Bank of England's target. Consumer prices rose 2.7 percent from a year earlier, the fastest since May, compared with a near three-year low of 2.2 percent in September, the Office for National Statistics said in London today. Inflation was forecast to quicken to 2.4 percent, based on the median of 36 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. The figures come on the eve of the Bank of England's quarterly inflation report.

Washington Post changes newsroom leaders The Washington Post, facing steep financial challenges and striving to find profitability as readers abandon print newspapers for digital formats, changed its newsroom leadership. The Post announced that Marcus Brauchli, its executive editor for the past four years, will be stepping aside but remaining with the company. Martin Baron, 58, editor of the Boston Globe, will replace Brauchli, effective Jan. 2. Brauchli joined the paper in 2008, leaving the Wall Street Journal several months after it was taken over by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

AMF Bowling files for Chapter 11 protection AMF Bowling Worldwide Inc., the world's largest bowling-alley operator, on Tuesday filed for bankruptcy for the second time in 11 years with a plan it says will "significantly" cut debt and strengthen its balance sheet. The company listed both assets and debt of $100 million to $500 million in Chapter 11 documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, Va. The company, based in Mechanicsville, Va., runs about 300 bowling centers with more than 20 million visitors a year, according to its website.

Vodafone hurt by business in southern Europe Vodafone wrote down the value of its network businesses in Spain and Italy by 5.9 billion pounds as the British carrier struggled to weather southern Europe's economic downturn. The nearly $9.3 billion charge pushed Vodafone to a 1.9 billion pound loss in the six months through Sept. 30 after a 6.6 billion pound profit a year earlier. The Vodafone chief executive, Vittorio Colao, blamed southern Europe's economic woes, which have led to rising unemployment and economic stagnation in Spain and Italy, where Vodafone owns the No. 2 carriers.

Latest 'Call of Duty' video game is a big seller GameStop Corp., the video-game retailer, sold more than 1 million copies of Activision Blizzard Inc.'s "Call of Duty: Black Ops II" in its first day. "'Call of Duty: Black Ops II' is shaping up to be our biggest game launch of all time," Tony Bartel, president of GameStop, said in an e-mail. "Black Ops II," the latest installment in the top-selling video-game series, began sales Tuesday, ahead of the holiday shopping season. The game retails for about $60 in the U.S.

Macy's pressured over Donald Trump apparel Macy's Inc., the second-largest U.S. department-store chain, is under pressure to ditch Donald Trump-branded apparel after the billionaire mounted political attacks on President Obama in the election campaign. Almost 500,000 people have added their names to an online petition urging Macy's to end its partnership with Trump, said SignOn.org, the hosting site, which lets anyone start and run their own online campaigns and is linked to MoveOn.org, a group that supports Obama.

AMD: We're not looking for a buyout Advanced Micro Devices Inc., the second-largest maker of personal-computer processors, said it isn't actively pursuing a sale of the company or a significant sale of assets. The statement came after Reuters reported that AMD hired JPMorgan Chase & Co. to explore options, including a potential sale of the company or its patent portfolio.

FROM NEWS SERVICES