Utility giant and its residential arm British Gas likely to face criticism for £1.3bn half-year profits with price rise imminent Britain’s largest energy supplier, Centrica, faced more public outrage today after reporting £1.3bn in its half-year profits – including £270m for its residential arm British Gas – just weeks after announcing a price hike . But Centrica said adjusted operating profits at British Gas for the six months to 30 June fell by 54% compared with the same period last year, as it battled with a 30% increase in wholesale gas prices and lower consumption. Centrica, which also operates an upstream gas exploration business and a US residential arm, posted a 19% decline in adjusted operating profits from £1.6bn in the same period last year. British Gas plans to lift gas and electricity prices by an average of 18% and 16% respectively from 18 August . Some 9 million customers will be hit when British Gas raises the average dual fuel bill by £190 a year to £1,219, pushing the average monthly bill to £101.58. The price rise comes at a time when household incomes are becoming increasingly squeezed by high inflation and muted wage growth. But Centrica said British Gas saw an 18% year-on-year decline in gas usage in the period, as well as a 3% drop in electricity consumption. The FTSE 100-listed company said British Gas profits were made in the first quarter of the year – with energy being sold at a loss since April. Centrica said without the pending price rise in August, it would make a loss in the second half of the year. However, British Gas did record an increase in customers in the period – up 159,000 to 16.1 million accounts. The upstream gas operations, which include assets in the North Sea and Trinidad and Tobago, saw profits increase 14% to £414m. Centrica Utilities Gas Commodities Energy industry Household bills Consumer affairs guardian.co.uk
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Chatshow host made remarks about tabloid journalism practices on Desert Island Discs and in 2007 interview Piers Morgan, the former editor of the Daily Mirror, has for the second time in a week denied that he printed stories obtained through phone hacking. CNN, which now employs him in New York as a chatshow host, issued the latest denial over comments Morgan made in a Radio 4 Desert Island Discs interview , which threatened to drag him into the scandal. In another interview, Morgan expressed sympathy with the News of the World royal reporter, Clive Goodman, who had been jailed for phone hacking, saying he was merely a “fall guy for an investigative practice that everyone knows was going on”. The 2007 Press Gazette interview was tweeted by MP Louise Mensch. Last week she locked horns with Morgan on a CNN show, when he robustly denied any involvement saying he had “never hacked a phone, told anyone to hack a phone or published any stories based on the hacking of a phone”. Hours earlier, CNN issued a statement saying Morgan’s 2009 Desert Island Discs interview did not contradict that statement. In the interview, presenter Kirsty Young asked: “What about this nice middle-class boy, who would have to be dealing with, I mean essentially people who rake through bins for a living, people who tap people’s phones, people who take secret photographs, who do all that nasty down-in-the-gutter stuff. How do you feel about that?” Morgan replied: “Well, to be honest, let’s put that into perspective as well. Not a lot of that went on. A lot of it was done by third parties, rather than the staff themselves.” He continued: “That’s not to defend it, because obviously you were running the results of their work. I’m quite happy to be parked in the corner of tabloid beast and to have to sit here defending all these things I used to get up to, and I make no pretence about the stuff we used to do. “I simply say the net of people doing it was very wide and a lot encompassed the high and low end of the supposed newspaper market.” In the CNN statement, Morgan said there was “no contradiction between my comments on Kirsty Young’s Desert Island Discs show and my unequivocal statements with regard to phone hacking”. “Millions of people heard these comments when I first made them in 2009 on one of the BBC’s longest-running radio shows, and none deduced that I was admitting to, or condoning illegal reporting activity.” “Kirsty asked me a fairly lengthy question about how I felt dealing with people operating at the sharp end of investigative journalism. “My answer was not specific to any of the numerous examples she gave but a general observation about tabloid newspaper reporters and private investigators.” But the emergence of the tape shows how sensitive the issue of phone hacking has become for all newspapers. Morgan, who is a Twitter enthusiast, has been conspicuously quiet on the issue of phone hacking since the scandal blew up three weeks ago. Phone hacking Piers Morgan CNN Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers TV news Television industry United States Lisa O’Carroll guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Nintendo 3DS price drops from $249 to $169 August 12th, current owners get 20 free games
July 28, 2011 No Comment
The price of the Nintendo 3DS in the US is dropping precipitously August 12th from $249 to $169, with other regions getting a similar price break in their respective currency. If you’re one of the 830,000~ US gamers that have already shelled out, don’t be too disappointed as your early adopting ways will be rewarded with free games. The thank you gift for gamers that have logged into the eShop at least once before the price cut will be 10 free NES virtual console games before they’re widely available, plus 10 more Game Boy Advance virtual console games — that Nintendo is apparently not planning on releasing to the general public — before the end of the year. Think someone is feeling pressure from the oncoming PlayStation Vita ? ..developing Continue reading Nintendo 3DS price drops from $249 to $169 August 12th, current owners get 20 free games Nintendo 3DS price drops from $249 to $169 August 12th, current owners get 20 free games originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jul 2011 04:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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yasufumi63 says: 辞書で調べたら肝炎ウィールスの事ですね。RT @ CBSNews : One – third of world population infected with hepatitis viruses, WHO says http://t.co/lrE1EAZ
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Price of NHS reforms soaring out of control says Labour as new total put at £1.49bn – up £160m in six months The cost of the government’s plans to restructure the NHS is rising at almost £1m a day, the Guardian has learned. Buried in a spreadsheet put out by the Department of Health as part of its revised business plan last week, officials admitted that the cost of transition was now £1.49bn. This figure is £160m more than the previous estimate, issued six months ago, when the reforms bill was first published. In January the department estimated the total cost of the structural change to be £1.33bn. The health bill was amended after suggestions by a committee set up by David Cameron, the Future Forum, to head off criticism over the wide-ranging reforms. But the effect appears to have been to increase significantly the cost of the upheaval to the taxpayer. A new impact assessment will now be completed by the Department of Health following the forum’s recommendations. Analysis by the Health Service Journal has shown that the transition to placing health budgets in the hands of GPs had already cost £228m since July last year. The size, scale and cost of the reforms have long troubled MPs and health service professionals, who point out that cutting staff also costs huge sums in redundancy payments. Trade unions claim that three-quarters of the estimated cost of the transition will go towards redundancy payments to 20,000 staff, suggesting average settlements of more than £45,000. John Healey, the shadow health secretary, said: “People will be shocked at the scale of wasted cost due to David Cameron’s NHS upheaval. These new figures, slipped out by the Department of Health, show that the costs of this unnecessary reorganisation are spiralling out of control.” Alan Maynard, professor of health economics at York University, said: “The delays and time taken for the reforms have really begun to affect morale and work ethic. People just won’t work if they don’t know where they will be next year or whether they have a job.” The department said the benefits of the changes will “far outweigh” the costs. The Co-operation and Competition Panel (CCP), the government body that investigates competition issues in the NHS, says that patients are losing out as a result of restrictions on their choice of provider of NHS care. An investigation found that nearly half of the NHS’s primary care trusts were blocking competition by guaranteeing NHS providers set amounts of work before patients can be sent to the private sector, or restricting the number of services that private hospitals can offer. The panel said that the expected benefits of patient choice – to patients and taxpayers – will not be fully realised. Trusts are also rationing procedures to cut costs. A freedom of information request by the health service GP magazine has found that, out of a survey of 111 PCTs, two-thirds are rationing “non-urgent” treatments such as tonsillectomies, cataract surgery and hip replacements. The issue of competition in the NHS is explosive. A controversial study by academics at the London School of Economics claims almost 1,000 lives were saved by the NHS being subject to competition. But Allyson Pollock, professor of public health research and policy at Queen Mary, University of London, said the study was “fundamentally flawed”. The paper, written by Zack Cooper, of the London School of Economics, and quoted by the prime minister last month, showed patients with more choice of hospitals had lower death rates. Cooper found that mortality rates of patients with heart disease fell faster in the more “competitive areas of England”. Thus the academics estimate that the reforms led to relative reduction of about 900, or around 7%, in heart attack deaths in the English NHS between 2006 and 2008. NHS Health Public finance Randeep Ramesh guardian.co.uk
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America’s political leaders now have just six days to agree a deal to raise the limit on US borrowing Global stock markets suffered fresh losses on Thursday as the US debt talks remained deadlocked, leaving investors braced for shockwaves to rattle the financial world . With no sign of a deal in Washington, there were heavy losses in Asia overnight. There was also a scrabble to sell shares in Europe, as traders reacted to the worst day’s trading in two months on Wall Street on Wednesday. The FTSE 100 fell 54 points at one stage of 5,802, but later clawed back most of the losses as the nervy morning session continued. There were sharper falls on the German and French markets. America’s political leaders now have just six days to agree a deal to raise the limit on US borrowing, and traders are having to confront the possibility – unthinkable just a few weeks ago – that they will fail. “The rout in global equity markets continues as concern builds over the failure of US lawmakers to serve up any meaningful progress regarding the debt ceiling,” said Cameron Peacock, market analyst at IG Markets. “This one item really is dominating the agenda right now.” Europe’s own debt crisis was also in focus, with Standard & Poor’s downgrading Greece’s credit rating. Earlier, Asian markets had seen heavy falls amid concern that the US, the world’s biggest economy and its biggest creditor, might default on its debts. Japan’s Nikkei lost nearly 1.5%, closing 145,84 points lower at 9,901.35. The US government moved to crush speculation that America has more time to resolve the crisis, insisting that the Treasury only has enough funds to last until 2 August. “The problem is there is not enough money because we can no longer borrow money to pay all our bills. You’re basically running on fumes,” White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters in Washington. “It is a crisis situation.” President Obama continues to push for a long-term deal to raise the debt ceiling. Republicans, though, are proposing a short-term extension – followed by fresh negotiations in 2012. Carney denied that Obama is looking to avoid a repeat of the current debacle in an election year. “It’s not about the re-election,” he said. “The issue here is the effect on the economy.” A short-term deal also raises the chances of America losing its AAA credit rating , warned Michael Hewson of CMC Markets. “Politicians do appear to be making some progress, however a major sticking point would appear to be the Republican insistence of a second vote on a debt ceiling rise before the 2012 election. Given recent comments by ratings agency S&P this may not be wisest course of action by US leaders and could well precipitate a ratings downgrade in the coming months,” Hewson said. The Republican plan is due to be debated and voted on this Thursday, after House speaker John Boehner was forced to rework the legislation – which did not initially deliver the spending cuts he had promised . Gary Jenkins of Evolution Securities is also concerned that the US is flirting with a downgrade, although rating agencies could be placated by a credible long-term fiscal plan to tackle America’s debt. “On the current proposals a downgrade is still likely in my opinion, but at this stage of more concern is the possibility that they don’t even raise the debt ceiling. Surely they couldn’t be that stupid?” Jenkins wrote in a research note. The interest rate on US 10-year government debt remained slightly above the UK equivalent, at 2.97% v 2.963% suggesting that Britain’s gilts are seen as a less risky investment than American Treasuries . Another Greek downgrade S&P warned that banks holding Greek debt will suffer significant losses via the rescue package announced last week, as it cut the country’s rating to CC. S&P said that the upcoming restructuring of Greek debt was a “distressed exchange” because private creditors will suffer losses if they agree to swap or rollover their loans into new 30-year bonds, and accept a “haircut” on the value of the the debt. S&P added that it will probably assign a “low-speculative-grade rating” to new Greek debt. In other banking news, Credit Suisse announced plans to cut 2,000 jobs. HSBC is also reported to be planning to eliminate thousands of positions worldwide in a cost-cutting drive. US economy Economics United States Ratings agencies Financial sector Stock markets European debt crisis Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk
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I don’t remember growing up seeing the president of the United States being rebutted each time he gave a speech. When did this become part of our democracy? Isn’t the whole point of winning the office of president that you can talk to the nation without others talking after you, belittling what you say and giving their own point of view? I began to think of some of the great presidential moments and what their rebuttals might have sounded like, had they been allowed at the time. Franklin Roosevelt: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Henry Rainey, speaker of the House, giving his rebuttal: “The president has obviously not taken a walk around Washington for quite some time. With all the thugs and the crime and the poverty which he is not addressing, we now must fear every individual that approaches us on the street. Fear is the last thing I’m afraid of. I’m afraid of the president and his inability to act.” John F. Kennedy: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Sam Rayburn, speaker of the House, his rebuttal: “The president is afraid to ask his country to help him because he knows he has bankrupted the nation we live in and our great land can no longer take care of us. Countries are meant to help their citizens. To ask how you can help your country is putting unnecessary burden on yourself and your family. If President Kennedy would run a better ship that ship could take us anywhere.” Abraham Lincoln: “You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” Schuyler Colfax, speaker of the House, in his rebuttal: “Mr. President, the fact that you are even thinking about fooling people suggests your presidency is a sham. A true president does not want to fool anyone. He trusts his constituency and treats them with respect. He does not idle away the time wondering who he can fool. You should be ashamed.” Ronald Reagan: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Tip O’Neil, speaker of the House, from his speech following the president: “Is Ronald Reagan really asking the Soviets to do the work that the United States should have been doing for decades? That is the problem with this country. We have to ask our enemy to do the heavy lifting. Can we not tear down this wall ourselves? The America I grew up in certainly could have, and I would like to return us to that era. What are we going to ask the Soviets to do next, cook us our dinner?”
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The hotel maid who accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sex assault met with prosecutors Wednesday morning for the first time since the district attorney’s office publicly announced it had doubts about her credibility. (July 27)
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6 days away from government default, House Republicans appeared to be coalescing around a work-in-progress plan by House Speaker John Boehner. But Senate Democrats and tea part activists alike are dismissing the proposal. (July 27)
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