The Internet isn’t big enough for two Old Spice guys, challenger Fabio says. The Italian muscleman has declared himself the new Old Spice guy on the brand’s YouTube channel and challenged old Old Spice guy Isaiah Mustafa to an online duel, Mashable reports. Former NFL player Mustafa responded yesterday that…
Continue reading …As debt ceiling talks drag on, the Federal Aviation Administration is already feeling the effects of lawmakers’ failure to agree. The agency was forced into partial shutdown yesterday after Congress failed to extend its funding, the Los Angeles Times reports. Construction work at airports around the country has ground to…
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List of potential activities to fill empty coffers sound more like protection rackets and organised crime scams than jihad Al-Qaida in Iraq has made an online appeal for new fundraising ideas, saying it is in dire need of money to help thousands of widows and children of dead fighters. Insurgents of the Islamic State of Iraq – an umbrella organisation for Sunni militants in the country – have funded their operations in the past by robbing jewellery stores, banks and offices where the government pays out monthly salaries. But the group has seen its main source of money – funding from abroad – dry up, leaving the group strapped for cash. In an Arabic statement posted on AQI’s online forum, website administrator Seif Saad lamented the state of the group’s finances and launched an urgent appeal for money to “feed the widows and the orphans” of mujahideen. “A few days ago a brother was martyred, leaving behind a wife and children. There is no need to explain how we were running here and there to collect money for their minimum requirements of life,” wrote Saad. Among the new ideas to raise funds, Saad suggested insurgents find a way to extort money from foreign oil, construction, transport and mobile phone companies, as well as international media agencies. If the companies refused to pay, insurgents would disrupt their operations. He did not elaborate. He also said businessmen and wealthy families should be forced to pay annual zakat , or charity, which is one of the Five Pillars of Islam and stipulates should be roughly 2% of assets. Saad also called for fines to be imposed on wealthy Shia Muslims in Iraq “who receive aid from America and the west and steal the country’s oil revenues”. Mohamed Abdel-Hadi, who identified himself online as another administrator for the website, dismissed the idea of taking money from foreign companies, but said he strongly supports fining Shias. “All the Shias, including merchants or government officials, are infidels and confiscating their money is part of jihad,” he wrote. Another contributor advised recruiting specialised hackers to transfer money from US banks. al-Qaida Global terrorism Iraq Middle East guardian.co.uk
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GlaxoSmithKline’s plans for expansion will see it pay more tax in the UK but also deliver the prospect of new jobs GlaxoSmithKline lent its support to the UK economy on Tuesday by pledging to hire more staff and pay more taxes – in stark contrast to its US rival Pfizer, which is shutting a key centre in southern England . Glaxo’s chief executive, Andrew Witty, reiterated that the government’s patent box – which will offer lower rates of corporation tax on profits generated from the fruits of UK research and development from 2013 – had made the UK more attractive. He has previously attacked British companies that relocate in search of lower taxes, lambasting businesses that turn themselves into “mid-Atlantic floating entities” with no connection to society. The UK’s largest pharmaceuticals company, based in Brentford, west London, employs about 16,000 people in Britain of a global workforce of 98,000, and is promising to expand at a time when Pfizer is shutting its R&D centre in Sandwich . “We expect over the next several years to be increasing our activity in the UK. What we want to do is have more manufacturing and do more R&D work in Britain,” Witty said on Tuesday. “We would expect this to lead to us paying a greater tax yield in the UK.” This will increase the corporation tax paid by the company – £500m last year, with 97% of sales made outside Britain – because more profits will be deemed to be generated here. He added the company would be a “net hirer of personnel” in the UK in the next few years, which also means higher employee taxes. Witty cautioned that any further cuts to drug prices could make the UK less attractive as a base but added that the UK managed to strike a good balance between setting competitive prices for medicines and supporting research. Glaxo has started to bring back some manufacturing that had been moved to India and intends to build a
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Builders and developers back simplified planning process to boost jobs and growth but conservationists predict mass revolt London’s green belt could be sacrificed to Los Angeles-style urban sprawl in the name of economic growth under sweeping reforms to the planning system unveiled by the government this week, the National Trust has warned. The 3.6 million-member organisation voiced “grave concerns” on Tuesday over government proposals to slash 1,000 pages of planning policy to just 52 pages in a move that has won the ringing endorsement of property developers. Opponents claim the new draft policy effectively removes the national target for recycling brownfield land and allows local communities to support building on the green belt. It is set to be the biggest change to the planning system in more than 60 years and scraps detailed planning guidance notes and circulars. Instead, the government insists there should be a presumption in favour of “sustainable development” to house a rising population. The national planning policy framework (NPPF) is intended to speed up and simplify often complex laws at the same time as encouraging economic growth. In a foreword to the new policy, Greg Clark, the minister for decentralisation, said: “We must accommodate the new ways by which we will earn our living in a competitive world … Development that is sustainable should go ahead, without delay.” Fiona Reynolds, director general of the National Trust, warned the policy could lead to unchecked sprawl in the countryside on a scale not seen since the 1930s. “The government’s proposals allow financial considerations to dominate and with this comes huge risk to our countryside, historic environment and the precious local places that people value,” she said. “This finally sounds the death knell to the principle established in the 1940s that the planning system should be used to protect what is most special in the landscape.” The new policy was drawn up with the help of a “practitioners advisory group”, members of which included a Conservative councillor, a director of the housebuilding firm Taylor Wimpey, a planning consultant who represents major developers at government level and an official from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. “By replacing over a thousand pages of national policy with around 50, written simply and clearly, we are allowing people and communities back into planning,” said Clark. But the changes to planning appear likely to produce a popular backlash, according to conservationists. The National Trust is asking its members to sign a petition urging ministers to reconsider. Shaun Spiers, chief executive of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said the government appeared to have declared “open season” on countryside not designated as green belt or an area of outstanding natural beauty. “The new framework will make the countryside and local character much less safe from damaging and unnecessary development,” he said. “If it is not amended, there will be battles against development across the country that will make the public revolt against the sale of the forests look like a tea party.” The Campaign for Better Transport and Friends of the Earth have also attacked the plans. Campaigners said if the proposals were not amended they could backfire on the government in the same way that plans to sell off the forestry estate in England earlier this year resulted in an embarrassing U-turn. Ominously for the government, many of the same groups who opposed the sale of the forests are at the forefront of the criticism of the draft NPPF, published on Monday by the Department for Communities and Local Government. Most of the groups objecting have strong representation in Tory-held constituencies. Britain’s biggest property companies welcomed the proposals, saying they would help boost economic growth and create jobs. “It’s refreshing to have a concise national planning framework which supports and encourages growth, and at same time protects our heritage,” said Francis Salway, chief executive of Land Securities. “The focus on economic growth is very welcome, while also acknowledging the important role that planning has in protecting the environment,” said Chris Grigg, chief executive of British Land. “We particularly welcome the presumption in favour of sustainable development.” Planning policy Rural affairs Conservation Housing Construction industry Communities Building and town and country planning Housing market Robert Booth John Vidal guardian.co.uk
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Chancellor’s meetings – including five with Rebekah Brooks – show full extent of government’s links to News International George Osborne met Rebekah Brooks on five occasions in the year following the 2010 general election, according to figures released on Tuesday afternoon, that show how the chancellor cultivated relationships with senior figures at News International. The chancellor, who expressed regret on Monday for recommending Andy Coulson as the Tories’ communications chief, met James Murdoch on four occasions, and Rupert Murdoch twice. In total, he attended 16 meetings at which News International executives were present. The figures show the full extent of the government’s links with News International: • Michael Gove, the former Times journalist who is now education secretary, met Rupert Murdoch six times after the election, more often than any other member of the cabinet. They first met for dinner, along with Brooks, on 19 May last year. Gove and Murdoch had dinner twice in the space of 10 days last month – on 16 and 26 June. • Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary, met James Murdoch on two occasions in January this year to discuss the News Corp bid to take full control of BSkyB. Hunt was handed control of media takeovers in December after Vince Cable was stripped of his powers in the wake of the disclosure of a recording in which he told undercover journalists that he had “declared war” on Murdoch. The culture department said Hunt’s discussions with Murdoch “set out the process around the proposed BSkyB/News Corp takeover”. Hunt has mentioned before that he met Murdoch. The figures show how Osborne’s maintenance of contacts with NI figures, following his appointment as shadow chancellor by Michael Howard in 2005, paid off when the Conservatives came to power as part of the coalition. Osborne, who became particularly close to James Murdoch because they have children of a similar age, first met him after the election at a meeting also attended by Brooks. Murdoch and Brooks had another joint meeting in April this year. Osborne’s other meetings with Brooks and Murdoch were a mixture of social engagements and what are termed as general discussions. Osborne met Rupert Murdoch in May last year, the first of two meetings during the year. They also met for dinner in New York on 17 December last year, four days before Cable was stripped of his responsibility for media takeovers. The chancellor’s aides said that only 30% of his meetings with media executives were with executives from NI, a similar proportion recorded by Ed Miliband. But the chancellor appears to have kept this figure down by including public meetings, such as the Spectator’s Parliamentarian of the Year awards, that were beyond the formal requirements to register private meetings with proprietors and editors. Gove has used the same tactics to dilute his meetings with NI executives. Government sources said he had gone way beyond the formal requirements by naming working journalists in addition to proprietors and executives. A spokesman for Gove said: “Michael worked for the BBC and News International and his wife works for News International now. He’s known Rupert Murdoch for over a decade. He did not discuss the BSkyB deal with the Murdochs and isn’t at all embarrassed about his meetings, most of which have been about education, which is his job.” John Mann, the Labour MP for Bassetlaw, said: “Whilst we now have a list of meetings that George Osborne has had with News International, it is not enough. We now need full access, including the publishing of the minutes from these meetings. “In particular, we need to know the details of his December 2010 meetings and exactly what was said about the BSkyB bid. This information is particularly important because George Osborne was the person who initiated the Andy Coulson appointment.” George Osborne News International Rebekah Brooks Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers Michael Gove News Corporation Rupert Murdoch Andy Coulson Media business Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Jon Stewart has a message for Congress : If you can’t deal with the budget, “Get the F out.” Thanks, guys, we’re edging “ever closer to self-inflicted economic collapse,” says the frustrated comedian. “The 112th Congress has been completely unable to muster a debt ceiling agreement to avoid a wholly unnecessary…
Continue reading …Starving refugees and their children from famine-stricken Somalia are dying on their way to aid centers, the chief of the United Nations World Food Program warns. Desperate mothers have been forced to abandon dead or dying children along “roads of death” as they trek for days, sometimes weeks, to seek…
Continue reading …An Oklahoma man has shattered Antiques Roadshow records with a set of Chinese teacups carved from rhinoceros horn. The show’s experts appraised the cups, believed to be from the late 17th or early 18th century, at between $1 million and $1.5 million, making them the most valuable antiques uncovered…
Continue reading …Driver spends night teetering on cliff face after car plunges 300ft from road
July 26, 2011 No Comment
Woman, 56, lost control of car in thick sea mist near St Agnes in Cornwall and was found by jogger next morning A driver spent a terrifying night stuck in her car as it teetered on the face of a Cornish cliff. The woman, who was injured but conscious, was eventually winched to safety after a jogger chanced upon the vehicle at St Agnes, seven miles north-west of Truro, and raised the alarm. It is thought the 56-year-old woman swerved off the road on Monday afternoon. The car is believed to have bumped down the 90-metre (300ft) cliff, which is steep but not sheer, and somehow come to a stop. Nobody saw the car and the woman because the cliff was cloaked in sea mist. She spent the night stranded. The jogger who raised the alarm, holidaymaker Ben Stafford, told how he slid down the slope on Tuesday morning to get to the injured woman. He said: “I just tried to keep her calm, and told her help was on the way.” The woman had been driving along the road at around 4pm on Monday when it was really misty. “She missed the road and started tumbling down the cliff. It is only by the grace of God that the car stopped by the cliff edge,” said Stafford. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said: “Coastguard rescue officers on scene were able to establish that the 56-year-old woman inside the car was injured but conscious and that the vehicle had gone over the cliff the previous day. “The car was secured in place by the coastguards and fire and rescue officers and the woman was then extracted from the vehicle. “The coastguard rescue team winched the casualty up the cliff and she was transferred to Treliske hospital, Truro, by RAF helicopter.” Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
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