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&cat=19&pid=16419&cache=true " alt="Flight block hits airline shares" class="alignleft" />
Shares in major European airlines have fallen as most UK flights remain grounded for a second day because of the volcanic ash in the atmosphere. In London, British Airways shares were down nearly 1% in the first hour of trading. Meanwhile Germany’s flag carrier Lufthansa was down 1.5% and Air France-KLM shares fell 1.8%. Many German and French airports have been closed by authorities as the cloud of ash drifts south across Europe. Impact spreads Nearly all flights across the UK are to remain grounded on Friday, with the air traffic control body Nats having extended its restrictions on UK airspace until at least 0100BST on Saturday. However, a small number of services will be permitted into and out of Northern Ireland and western Scotland. Flights out of Frankfurt, Germany’s busiest airport, have been temporarily halted because of the conditions, joining 10 other German airports. Dozens of airports in France and Poland have also been closed. According to the European airspace controller Eurocontrol, about 17,000 flights are expected to be cancelled on Friday. Shares fell as investors worried about the impact the problems could have on the airline industry. But Douglas McNeill, a transport analyst at Charles Stanley Securities, said the financial impact would be small providing the stoppages were short-lived. “Clearly if you aren’t flying, you’re not generating revenue from passengers,” he told the BBC. “For a large network carrier like BA or Lufthansa your talking about
April 16, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=14209&cache=true " alt="Online sales bolster M&S results" class="alignleft" />
Sales at High Street retail giant Marks and Spencer have risen, boosted by the group’s online division. Sales at M&S Direct were up 48% in the 13 weeks to 27 March compared with the same period a year earlier. M&S’s UK like-for-like sales, which strip out the impact of new store openings, rose 5.1%. However, international sales fell 5.9% as a result of “particularly difficult trading conditions” in the Irish Republic and Greece. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 8, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=11909&cache=true " alt="Sky may be forced to cut prices" class="alignleft" />
Ofcom is expected to rule later that Sky will have to introduce a cap on the prices it charges its rivals to show its premium sport and film channels. The predicted ruling would effectively mean that Sky is forced to reduce the prices it charges Virgin Media and BT Vision to show such channels. Sky has already said it will appeal against such a move. Last year it said it would use all “legal avenues”. The Rugby Football Union has warned the ruling may cut its TV earnings by 60%. Other sporting bodies, including the Football Association, the England and Wales Cricket Board, the Professional Golfers’ Association, the Premier League and the Rugby Football League have also written to Ofcom to warn that their TV revenues would be reduced. ‘Promoting choice’ Ofcom said in a preliminary proposal last June that putting a cap on the wholesale prices Sky charged its rivals was the “most appropriate way of ensuring fair and effective competition”. It said the change would enable more rival broadcasters to access and offer the channels to viewers, “thereby promoting choice and innovation”. Ofcom added that “we do not believe that this proposed remedy would have a disproportionate impact on Sky”. Sky responded at the time by saying it “fundamentally” disagreed with Ofcom over the issue. BT said in January that if Ofcom’s final ruling did call for price caps, it was ready to enter a price war with Sky over the price charged for viewers to watch premium sports events, including football and cricket. BT said its BT Vision service would aim to undercut Sky’s own prices for such subscription channels as Sky Sports 1 and 2. Sky said in January that it “would be perverse” to force it to sell its sport channels “on the cheap to competitors who have shown no appetite to invest in content or support British sport”. “Consumers do not benefit if regulation undermines the incentives for companies to invest,” it added. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
March 30, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=9865&cache=true " alt="Army use of cluster bombs banned" class="alignleft" />
British armed forces are being banned from using cluster munitions under a law passed by the House of Commons. The law comes after the UK in 2008 signed an international convention outlawing the weapons – which have maimed and killed thousands of people. The bombs were withdrawn from use by the UK in May 2008 and stockpiles are due to be destroyed by the end of 2013. First developed in World War II, they contain smaller “bomblets” designed to cover a large area and deter armies. The Cluster Munitions (Prohibitions) Bill received the backing of all parties as it received an unopposed third reading in the Commons, having already completed its passage through the Lords. It now goes for Royal Assent. ‘Small step’ Cluster munitions eject dozens, sometimes hundreds, of tiny bomblets which can be dispersed over a wide area and are not detonated until later when they come into contact with vehicles or people, often children who pick up the devices to play with. HOW A CLUSTER BOMB WORKS 1: The cluster bomb, in this case a CBU-87, is dropped from a plane and can fly about nine miles before releasing its load of about 200 bomblets. 2: The canister starts to spin and opens at an altitude between 1,000m and 100m, spraying the bomblets across a wide area. 3: Each bomblet is the size of a soft drink can and contains hundreds of metal pieces. When it explodes, it can cause deadly injuries up to 25m away. Foreign Office minister Chris Bryant said understanding of the horrific impact of the weapons had led to a change of political mood in favour of their prohibition. He said a third of the people affected by them were children and at least 60% of those killed or maimed had been civilians. The bill allows the UK to enforce prohibitions set out in the Oslo Convention on Cluster Munitions. The convention prohibits the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster bombs. Non-signatories include the United States, Russia, China, Pakistan and Israel. Shadow foreign office minister David Lidington said at a time when there were concerns about nuclear proliferation “it is good this evening to be able to mark a small step towards ridding the world of at least one particularly unpleasant category of lethal weapons”. Liberal Democrat spokesman Edward Davey called on the government to work on clearing land where British forces had dropped cluster bombs and to press for non-signatories to support the convention. But concerns were raised about how the law would affect UK troops working alongside non-signatories in Afghanistan.
March 23, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=9483&cache=true " alt="BA says strike will cost it £21m" class="alignleft" />
British Airways has estimated the three-day strike by its cabin crew will cost
March 22, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=6016&cache=true " alt="Ring may be giant ‘impact crater’" class="alignleft" />
By Paul Rincon Science reporter, BBC News, The Woodlands, Texas Deforestation has revealed what could be a giant impact crater in Central Africa, scientists say. The 36-46km-wide feature, identified in DR Congo, may be one of the largest such structures discovered in the last decade. Italian researchers considered other origins for the ring, but say these are unlikely. They presented their findings at the recent Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas, US. The ring shape is clearly visible in the satellite image by TerraMetrics Inc reproduced on this page. Only about terrestrial 25 impact craters are of comparable size or larger, according to the web-based Earth Impact Database. Giovanni Monegato, from the University of Padova, said the feature was revealed only after trees were cleared from the area over the last decade. The Unia River flows around the ring structure, underlining its round shape. The central part of the Wembo-Nyama feature is irregular and about 550m in elevation. This is about 50-60m higher than the depression where the river flows. Although this might sound counter-intuitive, experts say that impact craters can sometimes lift up dense rocks. The surrounding rocks may subsequently erode, leaving a dome. Confirmation needed The putative crater lacks a well-defined outer ridge, though the University of Padova team says this could be explained by deep weathering and erosion in the tropical climate. They add that the drainage pattern in the ring is very similar to those found in large impact craters in humid environments. LARGEST IMPACT CRATERS The Chicxulub crater is buried under Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula Vredefort: S Africa, 300km-wide, 2 billion years old Sudbury: Canada, 250km-wide, 1.8 billion years old Chicxulub: Mexico, 170km-wide, 65 million years old Popigai: Russia, 100km-wide, 35.7 million years old Manicouagan: Canada, 100km-wide, 214 million years old Mr Monegato said the team would now have to travel to the region to carry out field studies. Researchers would examine rocks from the site for tell-tale signs associated with space impacts. These might include shocked quartz – a form of the mineral which occurs where rocks have been hit suddenly by a massive force. It is found only at nuclear explosion sites and at asteroid impact sites. Finding such evidence will be crucial to confirm an impact origin over other processes which might explain the structure. The researchers have considered whether volcanism or salt diapirism (a process where evaporite minerals intrude vertically into surrounding rock, forming dome-like structures on the surface) could be responsible for the annulus. But Mr Monegato and his colleagues say the known geology of the region – along with other features of the structure (for example, no known salt diapirs reach such a great size) – appear to rule out such explanations. “I am quite optimistic about an impact crater origin for this ring,” Mr Monegato told BBC News. If it is an impact structure, the scientists estimate it could have been punched into the crust by a space rock measuring about 2km across. Further studies will be required to accurately determine an age for the ring, but it appears to post-date the Jurassic Period. Paul.Rincon-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk
March 10, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=3555&cache=true " alt="‘Health tourists’ face crackdown" class="alignleft" />
Visitors to the UK could be required to hold health insurance before they can enter the country, the government says. The move is an attempt to crack down on “health tourists” who come for treatment but fail to pay for it. In a separate immigration review, the UK could also refuse entry to foreigners owing money for health care. Ministers said this would stop people from overseas taking advantage, but the Tories said Labour had allowed the problem to develop in the first place. The NHS in England is paid more than
February 26, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=3557&cache=true " alt="‘Health tourists’ face crackdown" class="alignleft" />
Visitors to the UK could be required to hold health insurance before they can enter the country, the government says. The move is an attempt to crack down on “health tourists” who come for treatment but fail to pay for it. In a separate immigration review, the UK could also refuse entry to foreigners owing money for health care. Ministers said this would stop people from overseas taking advantage, but the Tories said Labour had allowed the problem to develop in the first place. The NHS in England is paid more than
February 26, 2010 | Posted in
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