Festival wellies. These ones were at Glastonbury last year, but they give the Leeds idea too. Photograph: PA
Thursday 4 January 2018
Saturday 30 December 2017
Experts warn the deadly 'Aussie flu' outbreak has hit the UK | Metro News
Cases of flu infection have more than doubled in the past week, with Public Health England reporting a 156% jump on the previous seven days."
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Friday 15 December 2017
Russia could chop vital undersea web cables, warns Brit military chief • The Register
In a speech made to military think-tank the Royal United Services Institute last night, the air marshal said: "There's a new risk to our way of life, which is the vulnerability of cables which criss cross the sea beds. Can you imagine a scenario where those cables are cut or disrupted? Which would immediately and potentially catastrophically affect our economy and other ways of living if they were disrupted."
Peach was giving the annual Chief of the Defence Staff Lecture, in which he talks about topical defence, security and geopolitical issues. He specifically highlighted Russia as the most likely nation state that might go around cutting cables and causing chaos."
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Thursday 14 December 2017
The pig farmer taking on Tesco - BBC News
But Mr Baugh says he's been forced to change the name of his business after Tesco rebranded its own label pork products as "Woodside Farms".
He's now threatening legal action if the supermarket giant doesn't drop its new branding.
"What bothers me the most is it's not necessarily British food they're putting it on," says Mr Baugh, who's changed his business name to "Bofs Hogs" to differentiate it from Tesco.
"It's European pork which sometimes isn't under our strict regulations."
A spokesperson for Tesco said the supermarket was not willing to comment, but in the past it has said the brands have been popular with customers."
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Home Office policy of deporting homeless EU citizens is illegal, High Court rules | The Independent
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Sunday 10 December 2017
Friday 8 December 2017
UK weather: Snow buries UK before Arctic chill brings 10 days of -12C | Daily Star
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Saturday 2 August 2014
Dead beggar ignored for hours at airport
Thousands of passengers departing from Majorca's busy Son Sant Joan airport failed to notice the dead body of a German beggar for at least six hours on Thursday morning. The body of 61-year-old René Becker lay unnoticed on a bench outside the departure lounge of the airport for several hours, local daily Diario de Mallorca reported on Friday. The man known locally as 'El Barbas' ('Mr Beard') had been living outside the airport for seven years, surrounded by his few possessions. Early on Thursday morning, however, airport staff noticed that he seemed to be sleeping more deeply than usual. When they approached, they found he didn't have a pulse and that his body was already cold. A coroner later determined he had been dead for at least six hours. In that time, thousands of passengers bound for destinations as diverse as Italy's Palermo and the northern English city of Doncaster has traipsed past his body. Becker, a former engineer who left Germany after divorcing his wife, was a minor celebrity on Majorca. Described as "friendly" and "affable", he had even made several appearances in Germany's tabloid press, according to local German-language daily Mallorca Zeitung. One article shone the spotlight on his brief reunion with his daughter Patricia.
Spanish police crackdown on organised crime
The Guardia Civil and National Police dismantled 497 criminal organisations in 2013 and detained 6,292 people for drug and human trafficking, said Security Secretary Francisco Martinez last Thursday talking to the media. Police operations to crackdown on organised crime in Spain had a 97 per cent success rate, he added. As much as 83 per cent of all groups dismantled had been operating for less than three years, while seven out of every 10 criminal organisations were made up of nationals from more than two different countries. Most criminal organisations were based in Barcelona and Madrid, followed by Cadiz, Malaga, Alicante, Valencia, Sevilla and Murcia. The large majority of them traffic in cocaine (31 per cent) and 21 per cent traffics in hashish, said Martinez. Following the nationwide operations launched last year to crackdown on organised crime, Spanish police seized almost 20 tons of cocaine, 146,708 kilograms of hashish, 103 kilograms of heroin, more than 10,000 ecstasy pills, 2,102 cars, 119 boats, six aircraft, 558 guns, 630 knives, 909 computers, 4,498 mobile phones and €30 million. Data show arrests for human trafficking also increased last year, with as many as 753 people detained or 33 per cent more than in 2012, said Martinez. A total of 1,180 victims - most of them Romanian, Chinese and Spanish nationals - were freed from the clutches of these criminal organisations, he added.
Tuesday 22 January 2013
Saturday 8 September 2012
Police have several leads in the investigation of the large forest fire that started a week ago.
Suspicions that it was started malicously has possibly strengthened. Sources claim that the fire spread quickly because there was more than one fire. Witnesses stated inter alia, have seen an unidentified jeep coming from a farm between Ojén and Marbella exactly where the fire then got an awesome course. In Marbella, it was announced yesterday that it is now able to restore electricity, water and telephone networks in all affected areas. It is now under the companies just the kind of disruption that is "normal". In areas Elviria Ricmar has repaired water pipes, power lines and 3000 meters telephone and fiber optic cable. It has also been launched several campaigns to restore nature and conduct tree plantings. Biologists say that tree planting may be necessary until next year. The hotel chain Fuerte Hoteles has among other things promised to donate a tree for every hotel guest you have in Marbella. The hotels have also started a fundraiser where guests can help by buying a tree, which will then be planted in the affected area.
Thursday 6 September 2012
experts believe we can actually become "addicted" to stress.
Stress can be physical,And then there’s the kind that’s in our heads — that OMG I’m so overwhelmed right now feeling. While psychological stress has some definite downsides (chronic freak-outs may increase our risk for cancer and other diseases), take a moment to exhale. In moderate amounts, stress can boost our focus, energy, and even our powers of intuition.
Still, in some cases, stress does more than light a productivity-boosting fire under our butts. Both emotional and physical stress activate our central nervous system, causing a “natural high,” says Concordia University neuroscientist and addiction specialist Jim Pfaus. “By activating our arousal and attention systems,” Pfaus says, “stressors can also wake up the neural circuitry underlying wanting and craving — just like drugs do.”
This may be why, experts believe, some of us come to like stress a little too much.
Type A and Type D personalities — or people prone to competitiveness, anxiety, and depression — may be most likely to get a high from stressful situations, says stress management specialist Debbie Mandel. Stress “addicts,” Mandel says, “may also be using endless to-do lists to avoid less-easy-to-itemize problems — feelings of inadequacy, family conflicts, or other unresolved personal issues.”
Some stress junkies have difficulty listening to others, concentrating, and even sleeping because they can’t put tomorrow’s agenda out of their minds, explains Mandel. Others tend to use exaggerated vocabulary — craaazy busy right now, workload’s insane!! And some begin to feel anxious at the mere thought of slowing down their schedule.
But psychologist and addiction researcher Stanton Peele cautions against labeling anyone a stress addict. “Only when that pursuit of stress has a significant negative impact on your life could it qualify as addiction,” he said, adding that many people are able to effectively manage — and in fact thrive under — high stress conditions. (Think: Olympic athletes or President Obama.)
Study: Stress Shrinks the Brain and Lowers Our Ability to Cope with Adversity
For budding stress “addicts” or for those who just, well, feel overwhelmed, here are some tips to dial down that anxiety:
- Seek professional help if you’re verging on burnout. (Not only can hashing it out with a therapist take a load off your mind. Some studies suggest it also boosts physical fitness.)
- Do something creative. Mandel recommends carving out a once-weekly time not to think about tomorrow’s agenda by painting, cooking, writing, dancing, or anything else that’ll take you off the clock temporarily.
- Take it outside. Numerous studies show spending time in nature improves general well-being, lowers anxiety, stress and depression, and even boosts self-confidence. Especially for women. (As it turns out, most addiction recovery centers offer outdoor-immersion programs.)
- Calm down quickly. If you really don’t have time for any of the above, these 40 tricks to chill take five minutes or less.
Some of us may seek out stress a bit more excessively than others and struggle to just relax. It takes skill to handle hectic agendas and long lists of responsibilities — without losing sleep or feeling frazzled. So try these tips and try not to freak out.
Worried that you or someone you know seeks out stress a little too much? Think stress addiction is a myth? Tell us about it in the comments section below.
For those red wine drinkers who’ve been feeling morally superior about all the health benefits of the relaxing glass or two sipped during dinner, there’s some bad news on the horizon.
Turns out, those glasses of wine would be a lot healthier if they were non-alcoholic, a new study shows. Spanish researchers led by Gemma Chiva-Blanch of the University of Barcelona found that non-alcoholic red wine reduced blood pressure in men at high risk for heart disease better than standard red wine or gin, according to the study published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation Research. Although the reduction in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure was modest, decreases of just 4 and 2 mm Hg have been associated with a 14 to 20 percent reduction in heart disease and stroke, the researchers pointed out. “The daily consumption of dealcoholized red wine could be useful for the prevention of low to moderate hypertension,” they concluded. Although there have been many studies on the impact of moderate drinking on health, the findings have been mixed, with some studies showing a benefit and others suggesting none. The new study found that 3 ounces of gin a day had no impact on blood pressure, while consumption of regular red wine led to a small, but not statistically significant, improvement. The new study suggests that if you’re going to have a drink, red wine would be the healthiest choice, said Dr. Kelly Anne Spratt, a heart disease prevention specialist and a clinical associate professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Still, Spratt said, “while there are those of us in cardiology who believe in the benefits of red wine, we want to be wary. We’re not going like gangbusters recommending people go out and start drinking. There are a lot of problems associated with drinking, like weight gain, cardiomyopathy, alcoholism, an increased breast cancer risk in women who consume two or more drinks a day.” Chiva-Blanch and her colleagues suspect that blood pressure improvements were due to the impact of polyphenols, a red wine component, on nitric oxide. The theory is that nitric oxide molecules help blood vessels relax, which allows better flow and more blood to reach the heart and other organs. For the new study, Chiva-Blanch and her colleagues followed 67 men with diabetes or three or more cardiovascular risk factors. During the study, the men were all required to consume the same foods along with one of three drinks: 10 ounces of red wine, 10 ounces of non-alcoholic red wine or 3 ounces of gin. During the 12 week study, the men tried each diet/beverage combination for four weeks at a time. The researchers determined that the standard red wine and its nonalcoholic counterpart contained equal amounts of polyphenols, an antioxidant which has been shown to decrease blood pressure. Men who drank regular red wine saw minor reductions in blood pressure – too small, in fact, to be statistically significant. Those who drank gin with their meals saw no change in blood pressure. But men who drank non-alcoholic red wine saw a blood pressure decrease of about 6 mm Hg in systolic and 2 mm Hg in diastolic blood pressure. Chiva-Blanch and her colleagues concluded that their findings show that the alcohol in red wine actually weakens its ability to lower blood pressure.
Tuesday 28 August 2012
Amber Gold affair is one of the biggest financial scandals to hit Poland since the fall of communism in 1989.
It was pretty much all the money Bozena Oracz had after a working life as an accountant: the equivalent of $15,000. She placed it in a fund investing in gold, with the hope of paying for her daughter's studies and getting treatment for a bad knee.
Those dreams were dashed when she discovered she had fallen victim to an elaborate fraud scheme that has left thousands of Poles, many of them elderly, facing financial ruin.
The so-called Amber Gold affair is one of the biggest financial scandals to hit Poland since the fall of communism in 1989. The extent of wrongdoing is still murky, but it seems to have some elements of a pyramid scheme, meaning the financial institutionused funds from new clients to pay off older clients rather than investing them.
Consumed with anger and desperation, 58-year-old Oracz traveled last week from a small town near Warsaw to a law firm in the capital to consider whether, after losing 50,000 zlotys, she should risk another 3,000 zlotys ($920; €730) on the fee to join a class-action lawsuit seeking to recover some of the losses.
"This was a lot of money to me — it was my savings," Oracz said, fighting back tears. Now retired and living on a small pension, she sees no way of building another nest egg. "My pension barely covers my needs," she said.
The affair has raised questions about the effectiveness of Poland's justice system and government because authorities failed to act against the scheme despite red flags from regulators and the criminal record of its young owner. Scrutiny has also focused on the prime minister due to business dealings his son had with those running the scheme. The scandal has even touched democracy icon Lech Walesa, who fears it could tarnish his good name.
Prosecutors say investors lost about 163 million zlotys ($50 million; €40 million), a number that has been mounting as more and more victims come forward. Any law suits could take care years to go through the courts, with no guarantee of their outcome.
"People are desperate," said Pawel Borowski, a lawyer preparing the class-action suit that Oracz is considering joining. "In most cases the clients lost life savings or sold family properties to make investments."
The financial institution, Amber Gold, promised guaranteed returns of 10 to 14 percent a year for what it claimed were investments in gold. Many of its clients were older Poles who grew up under communism and lacked the savvy to question how a financial firm could guarantee such a high return on a commodity whose value fluctuates on the international market. The promised returns compared well to the 3 to 5 percent interest offered by banks on savings accounts — earnings essentially wiped out by the country's 4 percent inflation rate.
"These were people with a low level of financial education," said Piotr Bujak, the chief economist for Poland at Nordea Markets. "They think it's still like in the old times, where everything was guaranteed by the state. They underestimated the risk."
Amber Gold launched in 2009, opening branches in city centers alongside respected banks, with white leather sofas and other sleek touches that conveyed sophistication and respectability. It bombarded Poles with convincing advertisements. Some early investors got out with their expected gains, adding to the fund's credibility.
The company, based in Gdansk, capitalized on gold's allure while playing on people's anxieties in unpredictable financial times. "We are dealing with a loss of confidence in the entire financial system and an urgent need for safe investments," one ad said. "The environment for gold is perfect."
Amber Gold drew in 50,000 investors over its three years of operation, though the company's founder, Marcin Plichta, said there were only about 7,000 at the time of liquidation.
Soon after Amber Gold began operations, the Polish Financial Supervision Authority put it on a "black list" of institutions that operate like banks without authorization. There are 17 other such black-listed institutions in operation, but the regulators lack the authority to shut them down. This has sparked a debate in the government and news media about whether courts should be more aggressive in intervening.
According to prosecutors, the company did use some of its money to invest in at least one legitimate business: It was the main investor in budget airline OLT Express. It was this investment that brought Amber Gold down — when the airline filed for bankruptcy, Amber Gold entered liquidation and its scheme of investments unraveled. Its bank accounts were blocked and it was unable to return the money of thousands of its customers.
Plichta was charged this month with six counts of criminal misconduct.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk's center-right government went into damage-control mode when it emerged that the leader's son, Michal Tusk, had done PR work for the airline. Tusk said he had warned his son against doing business with Plichta but that ultimately he son makes his own decisions.
Leszek Miller, the head of the opposition Democratic Left Alliance, asked how Tusk could warn his son against involvement in the airline but not warn the thousands of Poles who invested in the fund. Miller has called for a parliamentary inquiry into the scandal.
Public discontent is also centering on the justice system because Plichta, 28, has past convictions for fraud, and many Poles are asking why authorities — aware of his criminal record — didn't stop him sooner. Born Marcin Stefanski, he took his wife's last name to distance himself from his past crimes.
The country's top prosecutor, Andrzej Seremet, admitted Monday that prosecutors were negligent in failing to heed multiple warnings since 2009 about Amber Gold from the financial supervisory body. He announced personnel changes in the office he blamed for mistakes.
The affair also has an unlikely connection to the Solidarity leader and former president, Lech Walesa, because an Oscar-winning director, Andrzej Wajda, was relying on money from Amber Gold to produce a film about Walesa's struggle in the 1980s.
Walesa came out publicly to make clear he is not involved in any way, saying he doesn't want his name "dirtied."
Many of the unlucky investors are not only furious but wracked by shame and guilt.
Engineer Andrzej Malinowski, 61, put three months of salary — 25,000 zlotys ($7,660; €6,100) — into Amber Gold. He made the investment without consulting with his wife, sensing that there was some risk and that she would not have agreed.
Now he is so shaken and embarrassed that he doesn't want to talk about it, leaving his wife, Danuta Malinowska, to help unravel the mess.
"He saw that gold was going higher and higher so he believed that maybe it would be a good deal," Malinowska said. "Now he has so much guilt that I am trying to help — contacting the lawyer, filling in the forms, writing to the prosecutors. But the justice system is very ineffective. I don't believe we will be getting any of this money back."
The Government is prepared to help seven hospital trusts with the “burden” of their private finance initiative (PFI) repayments
Minister of State for Health (Photo credit: Wikipedia)The Government is prepared to help seven hospital trusts with the “burden” of their private finance initiative (PFI) repayments, a minister said today.
The trusts are facing major problems because of PFI deals they have entered into.
The Daily Telegraph said senior government lawyers and auditors are to be sent into seven trusts which are struggling with such contracts.
It quoted Health Minister Simon Burns as saying he would be sending in "hit squads" to make savings at hospitals where the contracts had gone "horribly wrong".
The newspaper said the trusts involved were Barking, Havering and Redbridge; Dartford and Gravesham; Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells; North Cumbria; Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals; and St Helens and Knowsley NHS Trust.
Experts would also be sent into South London Healthcare which has already been taken over by a specialist management team, it added.
Mr Burns said: "There are these seven which are at the top of the scale, which are having a significant drag on their day-to-day running because of the PFI costs.
"The trusts have got significant problems as a result of these irresponsible PFI schemes that the last Labour government allowed, and we have said, with those, that if they have a regime in place that ensures that the other financial running of the trust, with regard to the provision of healthcare, is either sound or there are realistic measures to ensure they become sound, then we will be prepared to financially help them, solely with the burden of the PFI repayments, because it is a millstone round their neck."
72 pairs of wellies (what did their owners wear to trudge out?), 177 portable chairs, 164 mats and 238 tents, including the pop-up type.
Last week the Guardian Northerner brought you news of the startling number of tents abandoned at last year's Leeds Festival – over 700 – and the imaginative community trading scheme which collects and resells them.
Here's how things are going this year, with sixty volunteers from all over Europe scavenging the dumped stuff in spite of bucketing rain and the traditional English summer festival sea of mud.
They have so far reclaimed 72 pairs of wellies (what did their owners wear to trudge out?), 177 portable chairs, 164 mats and 238 tents, including the pop-up type. A lot of the kit is new and some of it was deliberately donated, but the rest was just too much for tired and soaked shoulders to hike with back to the buses or a hitching spot.
A wet but good time had by all. Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine at Leeds. Photo: Gary Wolstenholme Redferns via Getty ImagesThe Green Messenger project, organised by the Everything is Possible group, will now pass the equipment on to community organisations and individuals in Leeds and in the Yorkshire at a community exchange sale this week. Scavengers from countries including Italy, Poland, Portugal, Estonia, Spain and across the UK got a good deal for their good work, a free ticket each to the three day event, and everyone seems to be happy.
Carmen Avoledo, from Italy, says:
I enjoy the project because it is a good thing to do for the society. It increases awareness of the waste problem. I will never throw anything away anymore. I am also learning a bit more of the culture of the other volunteers.
Salvage continues today and the community exchange will take place on Wednesday 29 August (for organisations) and Thursday 30 August (for organisations and individuals) at ReWork ethical office furniture in Leeds from 10am to 4pm. Equipment will be passed on for a small donation, with money raised going towards developing international projects for young people with fewer opportunities in the UK and all around the world. The project was supported by the festival's organisers, Festival Republic, the British Council and the European Union.
An average of just 10 motorists a day are using a £1.3m car park built near Bristol, a council has admitted.
Retro No Parking Sign for Deliveries (Photo credits: myparkingsign.com)The facility, intended as a park-and-ride, opened in June 2011 but will not get a bus service until 2015.
South Gloucestershire Council said it was used by only 139 motorists in its first three months and raised £13,899.74 in revenue last year.
The council said it wanted to make local firms more aware of the Stoke Gifford car park, which has 200 spaces.
The new rapid transit bus route, scheduled to come into operation in 2015, is planned to pass the park-and-ride facility.
Council 'look stupid'The nearest public transport is Bristol Parkway railway station, which is about five minutes walk away.
The council said that from September staff at the station would direct all overflow traffic to the car park while work was done to expand its own parking facilities.
"It's anticipated up to 400 cars will need to be redirected during the works," he said.
"We are hoping this will not only fill the car park but make more users of Parkway station aware of this parking option."
Liberal Democrat councillor Pat Hockey said the car park had made the council "look stupid".
Labour transport spokesman Roger Hutchinson admitted that "on the face of it at this time" the car park had been underused.
"The bus rapid transit is about three years off and that will make a difference," he added.
"We've used the land which became available and we've looked forward to what we expect the need to be in the future."
The Paralympics are a "once in a lifetime" chance to change attitudes to disabled people in the UK
Wheelchair basketball at the 2008 Summer Paralympics (Photo credit: Wikipedia)The Paralympics are a "once in a lifetime" chance to change attitudes to disabled people in the UK, says the head of a disability charity in Wales.
Ian Thomas, director of Scope Cymru, said the charity's recent survey had showed attitudes to disabled people were worsening.
He said the exposure of a home Games - billed as the biggest ever - would help change those attitudes.
The opening ceremony of the Paralympics takes place on Wednesday.
Mr Thomas told BBC Wales: "One of the things that came quite strongly out of the survey was the need for disabled people to be more visible, and I think visibility does change attitudes.
"The Paralympics will be these fantastic events [broadcast] into millions of homes all over the UK where we will see disabled people competing at the very highest level.
"This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to change these attitudes in the UK and, beyond the Games, we have got to keep a lot of the issues around disability in the public eye.
"I know for a fact that with the Games creating these celebrities [of Paralympians], that this is the chance to do it."
The Scope survey last month suggested many disabled people in Britain felt media coverage about benefit cheats had negatively affected attitudes towards them.
Almost half of the 500 disabled people and carers polled said attitudes to them had worsened.
"I think we shouldn't take away from the Games themselves," added Mr Thomas.
"This is going to be an incredible spectacle, [with] amazing athletes, endurance, and you will see fantastic performances."
Welsh former Paralympian John Harris said the Games would help the public feel more comfortable with disabilities.
"What we're doing, we're bringing to the fore people with disabilities. Very often, a lot of people don't see people with disabilities, only from a distance," he said.
"We're bringing them into people's homes.
"We're turning a lot of disabled people into celebrities, for want of a better word, which is fine by me because people feel far more comfortable with that and they will feel far more comfortable with a disability.
South Korea's coast guard says five crew members from two Chinese ships have been killed
South Korea's coast guard says five crew members from two Chinese ships have been killed and many are missing after a powerful typhoon blew the ships into rocks off the country's southern Jeju island.
South Korea has issued a storm warning for the capital, Seoul, as Typhoon Bolaven pounds the south and west regions uprooting trees, sinking ships and cutting power to almost 200,000 homes.
