A stand-off has taken place at the Anaheim headquarters of the iconic theme park Disneyland.

A Muslim restaurant hostess, who has worked at Disneyland for over two years, has rejected what was termed a ‘compromise’ offer from her employer over a dispute involving her wearing of the traditional hijab.

Imane Boudlal, who has been aggrieved after being told that she would not be allowed to wear the hijab at work, said she has rejected management’s solution of wearing a hat which covers a makeshift head covering. Boudlal has filed a formal complaint with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Disney, saying the compromise offer was offensive.

Boudlal has worked for the company at their Grand Californian hotel’s Storytellers restaurant since 2008, and said through a statement by the Local 11 union Unite Here that the latest dispute was the seventh time in the past two years that she was ordered to leave the workplace and return home due to her refusal to remove her hijab. Boudlal called the directive ridiculous, claiming that the alterations made by Disney not only made her look silly but made a mockery of her as an individual and of her religion.

Officials at Disney say they had met with Boudlal and talked through several options as a way of reaching a compromise. They argue that it was Boudlal who requested the costume, which is reminiscent of the Wild West, and this was done in line with the group’s costuming guidelines and in such a way that her religious beliefs were accommodated. Boudlal said she would be happy to wear a simple headscarf with a Disney logo.

On the move shoppers take note; leading UK supermarket giant Tesco is to launch the country’s first drive-thru store.

Aimed squarely at those short on time, the drive through facility will also cater to people who neither want to make the weekly shopping trip into the mall themselves, nor shop online and wait for the delivery.

Instead, the new service will allow customers to pay a flat fee of £2 to be directed to a dedicated store area at a specific time and collect their purchases without ever having to leave the comfort of their vehicle. The first of the stores will be run as a pilot and will debut at Baldock’s Tesco Extra store in Hertfordshire. If all runs smoothly, then Tesco will roll out the initiative nationwide, though as yet no time frame has been put forward.

The Tesco dotcom will oversee the running of the service, and customers will still order their groceries online as they do now using the Tesco internet shopping facility. The only different is that rather than select home delivery, they will instead choose the Click and Collect option. By doing so, they will be provided with a two-hour collection window during which they are able to collect their purchases at any time. All that needs to be done on arrival at the store is head to the reserved area of the carpark and show a staff member the reference details of their online purchase and their goods will be loaded directly into their vehicle.

Twilight heartthrob Robert Pattinson has been named as the world’s sexiest man by Glamour magazine.

It is the second year running that Pattinson has won the award, with this year seeing the competition dominated by vampire characters.

Glamour magazines 50 Sexiest Men poll placed fellow Twilight star and on-screen for, Taylor Lautner, in second, while the Australian Xavier Samuel placed fourth and Kellan Lutz fifth. That Twilight provided four of the top five nominations is a testament to the vampire phenomenon. The current trend towards things with fangs was not broken by the third-place getter, Ian Somerhalder, who is the star of The Vampire Dairies.

According to Charlotte Duck, the acting editor for Glamour, women have been attracted to vampire characters because they are associated with an element of danger. She said that vampires were the ultimate bad boys that female followers wanted to tame. Around 50,000 readers voted in the latest poll, which saw traditional favourites falling well down the rankings.

Johnny Depp came in sixth, while David Beckham dropped from fourth to 21st. George Clooney could only place 35th, while Jude Law, Keanu Reeves and Leonardo Di Caprio did not even make the list. The top ten was rounded out by mop-haired teen idol Justin Bieber, Gerard Butler, Hayden Christensen and Channing Tatum.

Actor Orlando Bloom and musicians Chris Brown and Justin Timberlake also featured in the top 14, with Portuguese footballer Ronaldo voted into 15th place. Other screen stars including Ashton Kutcher, Ryan Gosling and Jake Gyllenhaal all made the top 20 which was completed by Bradley Cooper.

The Grooveshark music streaming application has been removed by Apple just days after it’s much anticipated release.

The app led to a major entertainment company launching a complaint, as the ink was still drying on the contract.

Launched around August 11, Grooveshark’s iPhone application had been approved by Apple according the director of marketing and business development, Vishal Agarwala. However, it was only five days later that Agarwala received a letter from the client in regards to the complaint. In the letter, Apple said that Universal Music Group UK complained, and subsequently the app would need to be withdrawn from retail stores. Grooveshark is in competition with other streaming services such as Spotify to provide digital music services.

The Grooveshark online blog said the company was totally surprised by the letter and will do everything they can to fix the problem and get the App Store restocked. Grooveshark said its biggest worry was the potential impact on the customer, who they called ‘loyal awesome users’. Luckilly, the app itself is still operational for those who managed to download during the five day period.

The exact nature of the Universal Music Group complaint has not yet been revealed, but music by artists such as Bon Jovi, 50 Cent and Amy Winehouse, all from Universal, was still available on the Grooveshark website. The provider said it would comply with any request made under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to withdraw its products.

UK shoppers are beginning to show signs of feeling the economic pinch.

Leading supermarket chain Asda, returned a second successive quarter of declining profits on underlying sales, prompting fears that this could be the start of a wider trend, as taxes and fuel costs rise. This comes on the back of the emergency budget, and ahead of the VAT increase at the end of the year.

The Walmart-owned UK supermarket said that sales fell by 0.4 per cent in the quarter ending July 31. This followed a previous quarter drop of 0.3 per cent in the first quarter, the first time Asda fell in underlying sales in the past five years.

Chief executive Andy Clarke took some of the responsibility for the returns, saying the group was not fully focused on their customers, which would hopefully change. The lack of attention to the consumer resulted from Asda dealing with its own budgetary constraints according to Clarke, who added that the supermarket was sticking to its everyday low price philosophy that emphasises fewer promotions and better quality products.

Asda removed one third of its multi-buy offers in the past three months, with staple groceries such as milk, eggs, sugar and bananas all returning lower prices in the past few weeks. Asda trailed its supermarket rivals when it came to sales growth, reporting a 2.9 per cent increase in the three months ending August 12. Morrisons was at 6.9 per cent, with Sainsbury’s improving by 5.9 per cent and Tesco 3.9 per cent.