Blancer.com Tutorials and projects
Freelance Projects, Design and Programming Tutorials
world news,online new,us news,uk news
Workers at the company that provides the warheads for Trident, the UK’s nuclear weapons system, are to protest in a row over pay.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Severn Trent’s pre-tax profits halve despite a rise in revenues, as the water company faces a series of exceptional charges.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Planned austerity measures have proved unpopular with the Irish people Asian shares have fallen sharply on fears that the Irish Republic’s debt crisis could spread to other European countries with high budget deficits.
All major stock indexes in the region fell, with China’s Shanghai Composite down 2% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 1.8% lower.
Investors are particularly concerned about high debt levels in Portugal and Spain.
Over the weekend, the Irish asked for 90bn euros (£77bn; $124bn) of loans.
The money will come from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and will be used to help reduce the government’s budget deficit to a target of 3% of GDP by 2014.
The Irish government will also publish a four-year budget plan on Wednesday, which will provide some detail of spending cuts and tax rises amounting to 15bn euro, including 6bn euros next year.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Most Afghan or US officials have never set eyes on Taliban leaders, such as Mullah Omar An impostor posing as a leading Taliban negotiator held secret talks with Afghan officials, according to the New York Times.
The Afghans thought they were dealing with Mullah Akhtar Mohammed Mansour, a top Taliban commander.
But he was not Mullah Mansour and may not even have been a member of the Taliban, reports the newspaper.
He was paid “a lot of money”, and then disappeared, according to diplomatic sources.
The man in question came from Pakistan – where it is thought the Taliban’s leadership is based – and reportedly had three meetings with government officials.
President Hamid Karzai has said that talks with the Taliban will be essential to ending the nine-year war in Afghanistan.
But diplomatic sources say meaningful negotiations are still some way away.
In many cases the government is not sure who it is dealing with or whether they have the authority to speak on behalf of the Taliban.
Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader, has said consistently he will negotiate with the Afghan government only after all foreign troops have left the country.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
A report on the government’s methods of testing people’s fitness for work is to be published.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Little progress is made on improving the delivery of housing services for people with mental health needs, says a report.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Houses on the island are said to be on fire after the artillery exchange North Korea has fired artillery shells across its western maritime border, prompting return fire from South Korea, officials say.
Dozens of the shells landed on a South Korean island, from which plumes of smoke are rising. At least four soldiers are said to have been hurt.
South Korea has issued its highest non-wartime alert in response.
A BBC correspondent says this is one of the most serious incidents between the two Koreas since the end of the war.
Top leaders are meeting in an underground bunker in Seoul over the incident, Reuters news agency reported.
The incident comes days after North Korea revealed it had a modern uranium enrichment plant – potentially giving it a second route to a nuclear weapon.
Earlier, the US ruled out more denuclearisation talks while Pyongyang continued to work on the facility.
South Korean officials said artillery rounds landed on Yeonpyeong island, near the disputed inter-Korean maritime border to the west of the Korean Peninsula.
“A North Korean artillery unit staged an illegal firing provocation at 1434 PM (0534 GMT) and South Korean troops fired back immediately in self-defence,” a defence ministry spokesman told AFP.
A resident on the island told the agency that dozens of houses were damaged, while television pictures reportedly showed plumes of smoke rising above the island.
“Houses and mountains are on fire and people are evacuating. You can’t see very well because of plumes of smoke,” a witness on the island told YTN television station.
“People are frightened to death and shelling continues as we speak,” the witness said.
South Korea had deployed fighter jets to the island, Yonhap news agency said.
This western maritime border has been the scene of numerous clashes between the two Koreas in the past.
In March, a South Korean warship went down near the border with the loss of 46 lives.
International investigators say a North Korean torpedo sank the ship, although Pyongyang denies any role in the incident.
Since then relations between the two neighbours – who have not signed a peace treaty since the 1950-53 Korean War – have been very tense.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Bob Hoskins starred as a reformed alcoholic who runs a pub in The Street British TV productions are hoping for a winning night at the International Emmys, with nine nominations in all.
Bob Hoskins is up for best actor for his role as a reformed alcoholic in BBC One’s The Street, while the programme itself is nominated for best drama.
Helena Bonham Carter is among the best actress nominees for her portrayal of children’s author Enid Blyton in the biopic Enid.
Winners will be announced at a ceremony on Monday evening in New York.
British actors have triumphed in the top categories for the past two years running.
Other British nominees include Channel 4’s Peep Show for best comedy, CBBC’s Shaun the Sheep in the children and young people category and Channel 4’s Heston’s Feasts for best non-scripted entertainment.
BBC war drama Small Island is also nominated for best TV movie/mini-series.
X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent and American Idol judge Simon Cowell will also receive a special Emmy founders award at the ceremony, hosted by actor Jason Priestly.
British productions were nominated in all but one of the 10 categories, missing out in the Telenovela category – where Argentina, The Philippines and Portugal scored the nods.
The International Emmys honour excellence in TV production outside the US.
Bruce Paisner, president of The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, said: “We congratulate the 2010 nominees for their outstanding achievements as their programs and performances enter into television history”.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Beer sales declined during the year as M&B concentrated on the eating-out market Pubs and restaurants group Mitchells & Butlers has seen its annual pre-tax profits jump 26.1% to £169m, but warned about the consumer spending outlook.
M&B, which owns Harvester and All Bar One, made revenues of £1.98bn, up 1%.
But the growth in like-for-like food sales rose 7%, underlining M&B’s strategy to concentrate on the eating-out market.
M&B said current trading is good, but warned that consumers may be hit by spending cuts and the VAT rise.
The rise in profits was boosted by M&B’s debt reduction programme, which cut the company’s interest bill.
Net interest paid during the year was £147m, down £13m from the previous 12 months, with M&B slashing net debt by almost £300m to £2.3bn.
The Birmingham-based company is selling many of its non-core pubs and late-night High Street bars.
Adam Fowle, chief executive, said that “excellent progress” is being made against this strategic goal.
Beer and other drinks sales were down 0.7%, held back by the sale of many of the company’s drinks-led pubs.
The company owns about 1,600 outlets, which it says are pitched towards the eating-out market. Some 47% of group sales came from food in the year to 25 September.
In the eight weeks to 20 November group like-for-like sales were up 3.7% continuing the underlying rate of growth seen over the last six months, the company said.
M&B is not paying a dividend.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
How the official watchdog allowed failing care homes to remain open
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Rural people typically pay much more for transport and fuel than urban dwellers People in rural areas need to take home up to 20% more than those in urban areas in order to reach an acceptable living standard, according to a report.
The Commission for Rural Communities said someone in a remote village needed £18,600 a year to make ends meet, against £14,400 for an urban dweller.
It means a villager must earn about 50% above the minimum wage of £5.93 an hour to reach a minimum living standard.
The report cited transport and fuel costs as the main extra cost burdens.
A team from Loughborough University that calculates the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s Minimum Income Standard index carried out the research for the CRC.
This index is based on what items people think households need to be able to afford to achieve a minimum acceptable living standard.
The CRC report found that, with low pay more common in rural areas, many rural workers fall well short of being able to afford their essential needs.
The findings show that the more remote the area, the greater the extra costs.
According to the report, to afford a minimum standard of living a single person needs to earn at least:
£15,600 a year in a rural town;£17,900 a year in a village;£18,600 in a hamlet or the remote countryside.
In comparison, urban dwellers need £14,400, to meet the specified minimum.
When factors such as taxes and tax credits are taken into account, that equates to a difference in take home pay of 10-20%, researchers said.
The report also found:
A car is a significant additional cost for rural households because people said public transport is inadequate;Many rural dwellers face higher energy bills because they are not always connected to mains gas, so must use other fuels;In a hamlet a family of four needs £72.20 more per week than a similar urban family.
The report’s author, Dr Noel Smith, said people in towns and rural areas had broadly similar expectations about what was a minimum living standard.
But, he added, “we were struck by the gap between how much people would need to earn to meet these rural requirements and the level of some of the wages actually available”.
“Workers in the most basic rural jobs can work very hard yet still fall well short of what they need for an acceptable standard of living,” Dr Smith said.
Nicola Lloyd, executive director at the CRC, said: “Although it is now widely recognised that one in five rural households experience poverty, this is the first time we’ve also had reliable data to show the minimum cost of living in the countryside is higher than in the city.
“The rural minimum income standard clearly shows that many ordinary families living in rural areas will struggle to afford the everyday essentials; for some this will make rural life unsustainable.”
She said that there were ways to lessen the need for expensive travel to reach essential services in rural communities.
These included greater access to broadband and mobile technology, “and creative solutions to providing employment and services closer to home,” Ms Lloyd said.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
CCTV footage of the explosion has been broadcast Efforts to investigate the New Zealand mine where 29 people have been missing since an explosion Friday have resumed following the arrival of a new robot.
The first one to be sent down the Pike River mine on South Island broke down.
Engineers are also close to completing the drilling of a test shaft that will allow them to assess the air quality.
Earlier, the head of the police force said it was still not safe for rescue teams to go in, and that the situation was getting “bleaker by the hour”.
“This is an extremely dangerous situation, I can’t stress that enough,” Police Commissioner Howard Broad told reporters.
He said the risk of a secondary explosion remained high.
But the chief executive of the mine’s operator, Pike River Coal, insisted there was still hope that there were survivors.
“I think it’s becoming obvious there’s not 29 guys sitting together waiting to be rescued,” Peter Whittall said.
Dangerous levels of methane and carbon monoxide inside the mine have hampered rescue efforts “How many of them there are I don’t know. But those are the ones we need to rescue, and those are the ones I’m waiting to see.”
There has been no contact with the miners – 24 New Zealanders, two Australians, two Britons and a South African – since Friday.
Mr Whittall said the drilling of a bore hole into the mine is still 10m short of its target of 162m, and would be completed overnight.
His comments came after CCTV footage of the explosion – the cause of which has not been confirmed – was broadcast.
It showed stonedust being blown out of the entrance to the mine tunnel for several seconds after the explosion.
Mr Whittall said they know that the blast went on for a long time, and occurred 2.5km (1.55 miles) away from where the video was taken.
Each miner carried 30 minutes of oxygen, enough to reach oxygen stores in the mine that would allow them to survive for several days in spite of the build-up of carbon monoxide and methane.
While the men would reportedly have been carrying flasks of water, there is no food underground. Their cap lamps’ batteries last 24 hours.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Connecting to a bogus internet network could enable thieves to access email and social networking sites.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Mason Jones died during the E. coli outbreak in south Wales in 2005 The mother of a five-year-old boy who died in Wales’ biggest E. coli outbreak has vowed to fight for justice for him as the inquest into his death is held.
Mason Jones, from Deri, near Bargoed, Rhymney Valley, died during the 2005 food poisoning outbreak in south Wales.
Sharon Mills spoke ahead of the hearing in Newport, which is expected to last for two days.
About 160 people became seriously ill before the outbreak was declared at an end in December 2005.
The first cases of E.coli were reported in September 2005.
A butcher, William Tudor, of Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan, was jailed for 12 months for supplying the infected meat.
The source of the outbreak was traced to William Tudor’s Bridgend-based food supplier John Tudor & Son.
The business had a contract to supply cooked meats for school dinners at primary schools across south Wales.
William Tudor admitted placing unsafe food on the market and failing to protect food from risk of contamination at John Tudor & Son of Bridgend.
“Whatever the outcome of this inquest, it’s never going to change anything for myself and my family… I just want justice for my son”
Sharon Mills Mason Jones’s mother
He was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment in September 2007.
A public inquiry into the outbreak was held in 2008.
Ms Jones said: “Sadly, whatever the outcome of this inquest, it’s never going to change anything for myself and my family but I just want justice for my son.
“There have been changes made which I’m so proud to say is down to my son’s memory but there’s still so much more to be done.
“There’s been the consultation for the separation of raw and cooked meats, there’s been the food hygiene rating system which was rolled out in September so there has been improvements.
“But E. coli such a deadly bacteria, it’s not going to go away and there’s still a heck of a lot more to be learned.
“The inquest may come to an end in the next few days, but the fight is to stop this bacteria getting into the food chain.
“I’m not going away and I’m going to carry on fighting. I’m determined not to let my son have died in vain.”
The inquest will beheld at Newport Civic Centre.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
England’s World Cup 2018 international president David Dein tells BBC Sport the bid team needs the country behind it ahead of next Thursday’s vote.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.