Category: news

Academy-award winning characters Wallace & Gromit are to feature on Royal Mail’s 2010 Christmas stamps.

The animation man and dog are shown posting cards on the 1st class stamp, carol singing on the 2nd class and dressing a tree on the 60p version.

Gromit carries a big pudding on the 97p stamp and wears a jumper on the £1.46.

Royal Mail designers worked closely with Wallace & Gromit creator Nick Park and Bristol-based Aardman Animations on the scenes for the stamps.

The stamps, which go on sale from 2 November, were created using the same approach as in the films featuring the clay models.

Mr Park drew scenes and visual jokes involving the characters, then refined the designs to work in the smaller stamp format.

He said it was an honour to have his characters “immortalised” on their very own stamps and it was one of the biggest challenges his team had ever faced.

Royal Mail spokesman Philip Parker said the festive stamps were one of the finest sets ever produced.

He said: “Nick and his team’s attention to detail is legendary… keen-eyed collectors armed with a magnifying glass will see that the envelope seen being posted on the 1st class stamp features the actual 1st class stamp.”

Royal Mail’s policy for its official Christmas stamps is to alternate non-secular and secular themes each year – but non-secular festive issues are always available.

This year the 1st and 2nd class Madonna and Child stamps – first issued in 2007 – can be bought alongside the Wallace & Gromit set.

Previous secular stamp issues include Raymond Briggs’ much-loved Father Christmas Book in 2004, traditional Christmas images in 2006 and pantomime dames in 2008.

The Royal Mail first issued Christmas stamps almost 50 years ago.

Mr Park’s short Wallace & Gromit films The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave, and the full-length feature The Curse of the Were-Rabbit have all won Academy Awards.

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London’s New Bond Street is now the most expensive retail location in Europe, according to a report.

Rents for shop premises have topped those on Paris’s Avenue des Champs-Elysees, real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield said.

The street, through Mayfair, is home to many exclusive brands including Armani.

New York’s Fifth Avenue remains the most expensive shopping strip in the world for firms, followed by Causeway Bay in Hong Kong and Ginza in Tokyo.

Rents on New Bond Street jumped by 19.4% year-on-year to £925 per square foot per year, the report said.

Demand from firms to secure premises was easily outstripping supply, driving rents higher said Cushman & Wakefield’s head of central London retail, Peter Mace.

“New Bond Street remains one of the most sought after locations in the world for luxury brands.

“This trend is likely to continue for the foreseeable future on the basis that there are still a large number of retail requirements that remain unsatisfied.”

International retailers looking for prime locations and strong tourism meant that emerging markets were seeing steep rent rises, added the report which looked at data from 59 countries.

Haddock Lobo street in Sao Paolo, Brazil saw rents climb by 92%. In Asia, costs on Mumbai’s Linking Road climbed 33%. But some Bulgarian streets saw retail rents slide by 50%. Paris’s Avenue des Champs-Elysees fell by 9.5%.

The report said that, having seen sharp dips of up to 25% in some parts of the world in 2008-09, two-thirds of locations had seen retail rent prices rise or remain static in the year to June.

“The aftershocks of the global economic recession are still being felt in the retail property market and the path leading from recession to recovery has been far from smooth,” said John Strachan, Cushman & Wakefield’s global head of retail.

“In the more mature markets, occupiers are expected to remain cautious and selective about the space they take. However, on the great shopping streets of the world in cities such as London and New York, demand has continued to exceed supply and the appetite of international brands has resulted in rental uplift.

“The world’s emerging economies looks set to experience significant growth in the retail sector, thereby boosting demand for good quality, well-located property.”

The UK’s five most expensive retail areas were all in the English capital, with Birmingham’s High Street ranked number six, followed by Newcastle’s Northumberland Street.

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An elderly British couple are found dead in their holiday home in the Canary Islands.

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The new coalition government faces many tests in difficult economic times, but the change of government poses an entirely different challenge for political cartoonists.

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A US court issues an arrest warrant for actress Lindsay Lohan, who faces 30 days’ jail after failing a court-enforced drugs test.

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An alcoholic barrister who was shot dead by police during a stand-off sent a text to his friend saying, “This is the end”, an inquest has heard.

Mark Saunders, 32, was hit in the head and chest by five police bullets at his Chelsea home in May 2008, following a five-hour siege.

Westminster Coroner’s Court heard he texted Alex Booth, the best man at his wedding, during the stand-off.

The message said: “This is the end, my only friend, the end.”

Mr Booth told the court they would often quote films and music to each other, and the message appeared to be quoting from a song by The Doors used in the film Apocalypse Now.

The hearing was told Mr Saunders had been attending Alcoholics Anonymous and sought help from his GP to control his drinking.

The family law expert had been prescribed anti-depressants and had also taken cocaine in the months leading up to his death.

His widow Elizabeth said she thought he had been drinking heavily on the day of his killing.

She said her husband was a “very sensitive and caring man” with “huge energy and love for life”.

Mrs Saunders, also a lawyer who worked at QEB chambers with her husband, said he had been teetotal apart from a few “blips”.

She said: “What Mark wanted to do was control the drinking, to be able to be a social drinker.

“He was successful in that for most of the time. There were occasions, probably every three months or so, when it went wrong.”

The death of Mr Saunders, who was once in the Territorial Army, was filmed from a police helicopter.

Police had been called after neighbours saw him firing a shotgun into a neighbouring flat.

The officers say they were firing in self defence, or to protect others.

None of them are to be prosecuted, the Crown Prosecution Service has said.

Mr Saunders’ family maintain he presented no risk to the public.

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Pakistan beat England by 38 runs to take the one-day series to a deciding match at the Rose Bowl on a day overshadowed by further off-field controversies.

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Hurricane Igor moves north-east towards Canada after bringing flooding and power cuts to Bermuda, but sparing it of the destruction feared.

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A former coach of the Togolese football team is suspended for three years after hosting a fake match against Bahrain earlier this month.

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Katy Perry and Lady Gaga lead the MTV Europe Music Awards nominations with five each.

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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is charged by the FA with improper conduct during his side’s 1-1 draw at Sunderland on Saturday.

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UK troops killed in Afghanistan did not die in vain, David Cameron says as a four-year mission in the Sangin area of Helmand province ends.

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The father of one of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing has been to Libya to visit the only man convicted of the atrocity.

Dr Jim Swire spent about an hour with Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi in hospital in Tripoli last week.

Dr Swire lost his 24-year-old daughter, Flora, in the 1988 bombing, but he believes Megrahi is innocent and wants a full inquiry.

He said the Libyan, who has prostate cancer, looked better than he expected.

Megrahi was released from Greenock prison on compassionate grounds last year.

Megrahi invited Dr Swire to meet him.

The two men last met in December 2008 when Dr Swire visited him in Greenock prison.

Commenting on the Libyan meeting he said: “I was very relieved to see him as well as he was.

“He is a very sick man but he can get out of bed and walk though not very far.”

Megrahi was jailed for life for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 which exploded over the Scottish Borders.

He was given a fresh chance to clear his name after the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) said there were six grounds where it believed a miscarriage of justice may have occurred.

Megrahi dropped his second appeal against his conviction shortly before he was released by the Scottish government on compassionate grounds after he was given three months to live.

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More than 8,000 civilians flee their homes in southern Yemen, as government forces launch an assault on al-Qaeda militants, officials say.

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An alcoholic barrister who was shot dead by police during a stand-off sent a text to his friend saying, “This is the end”, an inquest has heard.

Mark Saunders, 32, was hit in the head and chest by five police bullets at his Chelsea home in May 2008, following a five-hour siege.

Westminster Coroner’s Court heard he texted Alex Booth, the best man at his wedding, during the stand-off.

The message said: “This is the end, my only friend, the end.”

Mr Booth told the court they would often quote films and music to each other, and the message appeared to be quoting from a song by The Doors used in the film Apocalypse Now.

The hearing was told Mr Saunders had been attending Alcoholics Anonymous and sought help from his GP to control his drinking.

The family law expert had been prescribed anti-depressants and had also taken cocaine in the months leading up to his death.

His widow Elizabeth said she thought he had been drinking heavily on the day of his killing.

She said her husband was a “very sensitive and caring man” with “huge energy and love for life”.

Mrs Saunders, also a lawyer who worked at QEB chambers with her husband, said he had been teetotal apart from a few “blips”.

She said: “What Mark wanted to do was control the drinking, to be able to be a social drinker.

“He was successful in that for most of the time. There were occasions, probably every three months or so, when it went wrong.”

The death of Mr Saunders, who was once in the Territorial Army, was filmed from a police helicopter.

Police had been called after neighbours saw him firing a shotgun into a neighbouring flat.

The officers say they were firing in self defence, or to protect others.

None of them are to be prosecuted, the Crown Prosecution Service has said.

Mr Saunders’ family maintain he presented no risk to the public.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.