Archive for January, 2010

More youngsters from poor homes go to university

More of England’s poorest youngsters are going to university, but the wealthiest are three times more likely to win a place, a report says.
Youngsters in the poorest areas are 30% more likely to go to university than they were five years ago, England’s university funding agency Hefce said.
A fifth of the poorest youngsters go to university, up from an eighth in 2004. This compares to 57% of the richest.
Ministers said “record investment” was helping more people go to university.
The report by Hefce statisticians looks at trends in the university participation of 18 and 19-year-olds between 1994 and 2010.
It covers some major changes in higher education policy, including the introduction of tuition fees in September 1998, and their increase in September 2006 – when the requirement for them to be paid by students up front was ended.
Overall, the report found 36% of young people go to university today, compared to 30% in 1994-5.
It also compared participation rates of different social groups and discovered a “significant and sustained” increase in the share of youngsters from the poorest fifth of neighbourhoods going to university since 2004.
This grew from 15% to 19% over the period.
It compares to an increase of two percentage points, from 55% to 57%, for youngsters in the wealthiest fifth of neighbourhoods and represents a slight narrowing of the gap between income levels between 2004 and 2010.
However, the study also showed the gap between the richest and the poorest had widened slightly by one percentage point since 1994.
But Hefce statisticians pointed out youngsters from the richest areas were four times more likely to go to university than those from the poorest areas in 1994, compared to three times more likely today.
The director for education and participation at Hefce, John Selby, said the results were very significant.
“The main story from our point of view is that we have significantly increased opportunities in higher education across the whole spectrum.
“That has particularly been the case in the most socially-disadvantaged groups but the gap remains, it is still very large, and there is still a lot left to do,” he added.
He surmised that the increase in poorer students was down to a combination of work on improving schools in disadvantaged areas, outreach work by universities and improved GCSE attainment rates.
He also warned that there was a risk that the cap on university places could have an impact on attempts to widen participation to poorer groups.
The report also found an increase in the participation rate of men over the past five years, including those in the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

Double fatal Bolton fire police make TV appeal

Detective investigation into the fire that killed four-year-old girl’s grandmother, hope, and that use television to help catch a murderer.
Alana Mian and Hameeda Begum, 71, died, however, saved from the fire at his home in Little Holme Walk, Bolton, on June 23, 2008.
Police in Manchester I think the community is key to know who is responsible.
The reconstruction will be broadcast by the BBC on Wednesday night Crime Watch.
Alana’s mother, Saima Mian and firefighter Steve Morris, was also seriously injured, but the fire was later discharged from hospital.
Mr. Morris is recovering from severe burns in the home Chorley, Lancashire.
Forensic tests revealed that the scene where the fire started in a garbage can in front of the property.
While the four people charged with intimidation of witnesses in the police investigation, nobody has been brought to justice in death.
Det Ch Insp Jeff McMahon said: This terrible fire has left an indelible mark on the family, community and emergency services dealing with him.
We firmly believe that the answers will help us catch the murderer is within this closed community.
We hope once again to say that this tragic story, the community can gather and do not provide important information to give us the offender away.
I know there is much speculation in the community, and I’m sure there are people who know what happened that night and have not spoken to the police.

Climate e-mails row university ‘breached data laws’

A university unit involved in a row over stolen e-mails on climate research breached rules by withholding data, the Information Commissioner’s Office says.
Officials said messages leaked in November showed that requests under the Freedom of Information Act were “not dealt with as they should have been”.
But too much time has passed for action against the University of East Anglia.
The UEA says part of a probe into the case will consider the way requests by climate change sceptics were handled.
The leaked files include documents, detailed data and private e-mails exchanged between leading climate scientists.
But academics deny claims the material showed science had been manipulated.
Professor Phil Jones, who has stood down as director of the Climatic Research Unit while the review takes place, has said he stands by his data and insisted that the emails had been taken “completely out of context”.
In a statement, Deputy Information Commissioner Graham Smith said it was an offence under section 77 of the Freedom of Information act “to prevent intentionally the disclosure of requested information”.
He said the requests were made by a climate change sceptic in the 2007-2008 period and as the case was more than six months old “the opportunity to consider a prosecution was long gone” under existing legislation.
Mr Smith said the ICO was “gathering evidence from this and other time-barred cases to support the case for a change in the law”.
He added: “We will be advising the university about the importance of effective records management and their legal obligations in respect of future requests for information.”
Norfolk Police have launched an inquiry into the case.
Meanwhile, former civil servant Sir Muir Russell is heading an independent review to examine whether there is evidence that data was manipulated or suppressed in a way which was “at odds with acceptable scientific practice”.
The UEA said it would also explore how freedom of information requests had been acted on.

US veteran returns art album taken from Hitler’s villa

In 1945, in the heat of the war, the young John Pistone used a book. Now he has something back.
To be fair, Mr. Pistone, an Army soldier, George Patton would have never thought his act as theft. It takes only a test, was there.
I thought it means to believe that I was in Berchtesgaden, he said. I need evidence. As an American, moved to southern Germany in the spring of 1945, recalled D. Pistone, the soldiers are supposed to capture how many German soldiers as possible. And Hitler found.
It fell like crazy at the time, but we are looking for Hitler. As I said he was still alive, he said.
And so the young John Pistone walked through the doors of the Berghof, in the fall of Hitler’s mountain near Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps.
We have the feeling that you had just lost Hitler, said Pistone. It was like we were in a hurry …. The place was stripped from the left souvenir hunters from other U.S., but found in a case of Mr. Pistone has a large photo album full of the Immaculate reproductions in black and white images.
I had no idea what it was, but thought it looked interesting and would very much like a memory. Turned in the coming months, until he could return home to Ohio, the volume increased.
Go, The damn thing was hard, but I decided to go home, he recalls.
For decades, the album sat on the platform, John Pistone, done exclusively on family and friends to show. His children called him Hitler’s book .
But it was not until Mr. Pistone has decided a washer and dryer installed in a bedroom, the book came to the attention of the local history buff, who in his turn, contacted Robert Edsel, author and President of the Monuments Men Foundation.
Monuments Men were a group of roughly 345 men and women from 13 countries who traveled throughout Europe during and after World War II in search of artistic and cultural objects looted by the Nazis.
When he heard the album, Mr. Edsel thought I knew what it was, but he flew from Texas to Cleveland safe.
When I saw there was no doubt this is authentic, Mr. Edsel. But the question was, as always, where you get it? The review confirmed the first perception of the work of Mr. Edsel was one of the 31 albums that have selected a catalog of art by Hitler to appear on a major art museum, the national-socialist, planned for the Austrian city of Linz.
The museum, which was never built, were included masterpieces looted the entire continent, but the album Mr. Pistone, number 13, consists mainly of reproductions of little-known German and Austrian paintings from the 19th Century.

Avaya ‘considering’ Northern Ireland plant closure

U.S. telecommunications company Avaya has confirmed it plans to its plant in Monkstown, County Antrim, close Nortel bought last month.
Avaya, owned by private equity firm Silver Lake and TPG Capital, bought the division manager of U.S. $ 915m for Nortel in December.
About 40% of employees in the workplace Monkstown Avaya enterprise.
The union Unite want a meeting with management and said that 140 jobs are at risk.
Avaya is in a consultation, said the strategic business decision, which could potentially come close to Monkstown (Northern Ireland) office, said a spokesperson for the company of the BBC.
Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster Invest NI continues to build relationships with Avaya.
I understand that the employees have been spoken to about the intention to inform consolidate Avaya as part of a European restructuring plan, he said.
At this point it is unclear what it means for Northern Ireland, Invest NI continues to build relationships with Avaya, even in close collaboration with the local government in Northern Ireland as the greatest possible power position.
It would be inappropriate to speculate further Avaya is an official announcement. Earlier this month, Avaya describes what he calls a roadmap for integration of the existing activities of Nortel. The company said that it was interrupted in some areas of overlap and some products from Nortel.
On Thursday, it was announced that Hughes Christensen is drill factory in Belfast, the closure of the loss of 210 jobs.
The parent company, Baker Hughes said his business would move to Texas.
Castlereagh complex was done in operation for 55 years to exercises for oil and gas.
The company has released about 135 people last year, blamed on a drop in the drilling world.

Supreme Court quashes Treasury terror ‘asset’ order

The Supreme Court has ruled that British special command Treasury to
freeze assets of suspected terrorists is illegal.
The judges of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, said that the
government had exceeded its authority by controlling the finances of the
five suspects.
He lifted the ban on identifying the men who brought the challenge.
The court said the government should Parliament’s approval for the plan to
have tried the freezing of assets, instead of creating them automatically.
The five men in the middle of the case were 10 per week in cash and needs
a special permit for other expenses.
But the decision leaves the future of the system. The Treasury has a month
to answer some questions and the lower courts are again to others.
In its ruling, the judge said the Supreme Court that if the government
drastic measures to combat terrorism, then you need the consent of
Parliament.
Lord Hope said: Even under the threat of international terrorism, human
security is not the supreme law.
We must be careful to distinguish them from invasions without having to
escape restrictions on personal freedom. Both funds were closed led by
Gordon Brown when he was finance minister.
The origin of the Terrorism (United Nations Measures) Regulations 2006 and
2006, Al-Qaida and Taliban (United Nations Measures) Order made under 搂 1
of Act No. 1946 of the United Nations for the implementation of Security
Council resolutions of the United Nations.
The two orders became part of British law without parliamentary debate,
said the men, it is unfair because the government had created the crime,
without a vote.
The men also said that the British system, beyond what has proposed the
United Nations, those who are accused of links with terrorism, rather than
a link to the study was objective.
Lord Hope, said the Finance Minister’s powers in such form that has been
specifically designed and implemented terrorism had exceeded Order.
This is a clear example of an experiment, a negative impact on the
fundamental rights of citizens, without the clear consent of Parliament,
he said.
For the second type of restriction, which said al-Qaeda arrested, Lord
Hope of the five men, Mohammed al-Ghabra has been denied the fundamental
right to legally challenge inspections and that they are unfair.

Shoes may have changed how we run

Wearing cushioned running shoes may have changed the way in which many of
us run, new research suggests.
Using slow-motion footage, scientists have discovered that experienced
barefoot runners land very differently from runners who wear shoes.
The researchers showed that runners who have trained barefoot tend to
strike the ground with their forefoot or mid-foot, rather than their heel.
The team described their findings in the journal Nature.
Barefoot runners, the scientists say, may be at less risk of certain types
of injury than those who wear cushioned running shoes.
The question of how best to support and protect a runner’s feet is
something that has intrigued both scientists and sports shoe designers.
This analysis, the researchers said, took an evolutionary approach to that
question.
The research team used a combination of highly sensitive scales, high
speed cameras, and 3-D motion analysis to compare barefoot runners to
those wearing running shoes.
Their results showed that “shod” runners tended to strike the ground with
their heel first.
“This creates an impact; it’s like someone hitting your heel with a hammer
with up to three times your body weight,” said the lead researcher, Dr
Daniel Lieberman from Harvard University in the US.
“Those collision forces have been implicated, by several studies, in
certain kinds of repetitive stress injuries.
“Shoes work because they cushion much of that force – slowing it down,
mostly.”
But experienced barefoot runners appear to have developed a different way
to prevent the pain, striking the ground with the forefoot or mid-foot.
“By forefoot or mid-foot striking correctly, one can almost completely
eliminate that collision, making barefoot running comfortable,” said Dr
Lieberman.
He explained that the style adopted by barefoot runners may, in some
respects, be less damaging.
Dr Lieberman’s footage also demonstrated the specialised anatomy of the
human foot, and caused him and his colleagues to propose that modern
sports footwear may have altered how people run.
Many successful distance runners have competed barefoot, including the
South African-born athlete Zola Budd.

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