Council taxation set to climb by 1.6% - the lowest travel given annals began in 1993

Council tax bills in England will rise by an average of 1.6 per cent to 1,194 per household in 2010/11, according to analysis released today.

If confirmed, it would mean the lowest increase since the tax began in 1993 and an effective reduction once inflation is taken into account.

The Local Government Association calculated the figure from a survey of the draft budgets of more than 100 councils, police and fire authorities.

Savings: The Local Government Association says the 1.6% increase in council tax represents a real-terms cut of 2.1% (file picture)

With RPI (retail price index) inflation running at 3.7 per cent, a 1.6 per cent increase represents a real-terms cut of 2.1 per cent in the tax, said the LGA.

For councils outside London, the average increase is 1.9 per cent.

The hike, which comes into effect in April, will add 36p a week onto the average household"s council tax bill, compared to 2009/10.

LGA vice-chairman Sir Jeremy Beecham said the real-terms cut came despite a sharp fall in income and an increase in demand for councils" services as a result of the recession.

More...Sterling plunges after Bank of England warns UK might have to print MORE moneyEnd of the stamp duty holiday sees mortgage lending slump to eight-year low

Councils have been hit by a 4billion deficit in income over the past two years - the equivalent of losing almost 11million a day - due in large part to a decline in sales of land and buildings, lower interest rates on cash deposits and reduced revenue from planning applications, car parking and leisure services.

Sir Jeremy said: "Everyone is facing a squeeze on their finances in the current economic climate and no one likes paying council tax. That is why councils have been doing all they can to keep council tax rises to a minimum.

"Councils have had to take tough decisions to carefully balance the need to protect essential frontline services while providing value for money for the taxpayer."

Teachers dangling after student Sam Linton dies from asthma attack

Joanna Sugden , : {}

A headmistress and four other members of staff have been suspended from a school that faces possible legal action after a pupil died from an asthma attack.

Sam Linton, 11, was made to sit in a corridor at Offerton High School, in Stockport, struggling to breathe while no ambulance was called. His parents are considering legal action against the school and the council after Sam died in hospital two hours later in December 2007. An inquest jury found that the schools neglect had been a significant factor in his death.

A spokesman for Stockport council said yesterday that the five staff had been suspended while an internal inquiry is carried out. Evelyn Leslie, the head teacher, and Jan Ford, the teacher who told Sam to sit in the corridor, are among those who have been asked to step down during the inquiry.

Sam had been wheezing continually and using an inhaler on the day that he died but staff failed to call 999. He was left to wait in a hallway until two other pupils found him and raised the alarm. By the time his mother arrived Sams lips had turned blue.

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The three-week inquest at Stockport Coroners Court was told that valuable time was lost while Sam was made to sit in the corridor. The jury found last week that Sam died from natural causes but said that neglect at an individual and systemic level had been a significant contributory factor.

Sams father, Paul Linton, described the councils move as too little, too late. He told The Times: We are considering legal action against the school and the local authority.

I would hope that the head teacher doesnt get another job as a head at another school. Education-wise I couldnt fault the school but on the policy for looking after a child that was ill they get a big fat zero.

The jury found that staff had failed to implement the asthma policy, were not sufficiently trained to deal with asthma and that a healthcare plan was not in place. Information about Sams attacks was not shared among staff and they failed to monitor Sams condition on the day of his death, the jury said.

The school, which was judged unsatisfactory in its latest Ofsted inspection, refused to comment. A spokesman for Stockport council said that detailed evidence presented to the inquest and the verdict of the jury had led them to carry out an inquiry.

While it has been some time since Sams death there has not been a period of inactivity, he said. Immediately following Sams death, the governing body reviewed the handling of pupils medical needs relating to asthma and other medical conditions, and has adapted systems and practices at the school.

The council has decided three times not to hold a serious case review, saying that the case did not meet the necessary criteria.

Fulham face German champions in Europa League quarter-finals Football

Ben Smith & , : {}

Fulham"s prerogative for their conspicuous quip feat over Juventus last night is a Europa League quarter-final opposite Wolfsburg, the German champions.

Roy Hodgson"s side constructed an implausible turnaround at Craven Cottage to redeem from a 4-1 necessity and secure a noted 5-4 total win. They will right afar face the Bundesliga pretension holders, who were knocked out of the Champions League this season, with the initial leg to be played in London. The leader will face Hamburg or Standard Liege in the semi-finals.

Liverpool will have to overcome dual of European football"s greatest names if they are to reach the last of the Europa League.

Rafael Benitez"s side, who kick Lille 3-1 on total last night, will fool around Benfica in the quarter-finals, with the leader assembly possibly Valencia or Atletico Madrid in the last four.

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Benitez is heedful of the hazard acted by Benfica carrying formerly been dumped out of Europe by them. Four years ago the Portuguese side finished the Reds" hopes of apropos the initial side to win back-to-back Champions League titles when they lost 3-0 over dual legs.

Benfica are now 3 points transparent of Braga at the tip of the Portuguese Liga and Benitez will not blink their last-eight opponents, who embody between their ranks Pablo Aimar, who Benitez managed at Valencia.

"We know they are a great group and, of course, we have played them prior to in the Champions League," Benitez said. "They are a large bar with a lot of await from their fans and it will be a formidable game. They are tip of the list and personification unequivocally well at the moment. I know a series of their players well - Aimar, Javier Saviola, Javi Garcia - so we know they have a lot of quality."

Benitez has got his elite sequence in conditions of the afar leg being initial but he is endangered the Anfield cause might not have as most of an outcome on Benfica as it has had on alternative on vacation sides over new years. The Lisbon side won 2-0 on Merseyside behind in 2006 and the Liverpool trainer believes that will give their opponents confidence.

"It"s regularly critical that the second leg is at home in front of the fans," he added. "We know we have to perform afar and afterwards fool around well at home. We have the certainty to do that and are seeking brazen to the games. Because we have played Benfica prior to they will know Anfield and so might not be as frightened as alternative teams, but we have to do things scrupulously and try to go through."

Should they get by opposite Benfica Liverpool will face possibly Valencia or striker Fernando Torres" former bar Atletico Madrid in the semi-finals. "You know my thought is regularly to take one diversion at a time," he said. "We are usually meditative about Benfica at the moment. They are on a great run so it will be difficult."

Quarter-final pull for the Europa League (first legs will be played on Apr 1 with the second legs on Apr Eight)

Fulham v Wolfsburg

Hamburg v Standard Liege

Valencia v Atletico Madrid

Benfica v Liverpool

Semi-final pull for the Europa League: (first legs will be played on Apr twenty-two and the second legs on Apr 29)

Hamburg/Standard Liege v Fulham/Wolfsburg

Valencia/Atletico Madrid v Benfica/Liverpool

hair wig

Swiss women liberated after being hold warrant in Haiti for five days

Foreign Staff, Port-au-Prince & , : {}

Kidnappers have liberated dual Swiss women assist workers who were snatched from the streets of Haitis quake-hit collateral and hold for five days.

A security rapt pronounced that the women, who were abducted at night nearby the Plantation resaurant in the suburb of Petionville, were operative for Mdecins sans Frontières. The French assist group did not brand them.

It was the initial reported abduction given the harmful trembler on Jan 12. Of some-more than 5,000 prisoners who transient from jails that collapsed or were damaged, usually about 200 have been recaptured.

Michel Peremans, a orator for Mdecins sans Frontières, pronounced that the women were expelled on Wednesday night. He would not contend if a ransom was paid.

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Aid groups told the AP headlines group that they had imposed dusk-to-dawn curfews after the abduction and among augmenting signs of distrust in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Doctors contend that they are treating gunshot wounds and it is usual to listen to gunfire at night. Many women have reported being raped in a little of the hundreds of temporary tent camps.

The Swiss assist workers were hold during a week end in that majority of the thousands of US infantry that had helped to discharge assist and yield security were leaving. A small series of US infantry will stay to assistance the Haitian military and UN peacekeepers to reassert control.

Kidnappings were singular in Haiti until the domestic disharmony in 2004. Since afterwards domestic officials, unfamiliar assist workers and young kids have increasingly been taken hostage.

hair wig

Police criticize Facebook reserve jot down after Ashleigh Hall attempted murder UK headlines

Peter Chapman and Ashleigh Hall. Photograph: Durham Police/PA

Senior military officers clashed with the UK"s most-used amicable networking site today, accusing Facebook of ignoring worrying trends that it is on condition that a protected breakwater for rapacious paedophiles by refusing to pointer up to a "panic button" for immature kids and immature people.

Jim Gamble, arch senior manager of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Unit (Ceop), was assimilated by the country"s lead military military officer on carnage to plunge in to the site about the steady warding off to pointer up to a key reserve have use of adopted by most alternative identical websites.

The American-owned site has twenty-three million active users in the UK but refuses to arrangement an central "panic button" that links users without delay to Ceop to inform suspected activities by rapacious paedophiles.

The military officers spoke out after the self-assurance of Peter Chapman for the rape and attempted murder of 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall.

Chapman, a convicted stand in rapist, acted as a immature man called Peter Cartwright on Facebook and outlayed time bathing Ashleigh prior to the span exchanged mobile phone numbers and concluded to meet. Ashleigh was raped and suffocated by Chapman, who dumped her physique in a margin nearby Sedgefield in County Durham last October.

Facebook has refused steady requests by Ceop to embody a be scared symbol on the site. Information from the symbol is used to set up comprehension reports on suspects that can turn piece of military investigations in to paedophiles, rapists and aroused individuals.

Ceop suggested currently that scarcely half of the reports perceived about Facebook last year concerned people who were suspected of bathing immature people on the site. But since Facebook does not have the Ceop symbol on the site, usually one or dual complaints came from Facebook itself.

Children have use of the symbol to have reports to Ceop"s dilettante military teams about suspected abuse, bathing and serious bullying. More than 500 such reports are perceived each month, 4 a day engage cases where immature kids are in evident danger. Although Bebo and MSN have adopted the button, Facebook has refused.

Gamble said: "We have been asking amicable networking sites for as well prolonged to do the right thing.

"Since we launched the symbol in 2009, we have carried out clever research to see at varying sites who haven"t adopted the use and the trends are worrying."

Last year 267 reports were perceived about questionable wake up on Facebook. Almost half – 43% – associated to cases of suspected grooming. But in 81% of cases, the people who felt underneath hazard had to find out alternative sites to have their reports to Ceop since Facebook has not adopted the approach couple button.

"This is only not great enough," pronounced Gamble. "Their justification for not putting the symbol in to their environment, in my opinion, doesn"t hold water."

Last year Ceop comprehension reports led to 334 people being arrested.

Jon Stoddart, the Association of Chief Police Officers"s lead military military officer for carnage upheld Gamble"s call for Facebook to adopt the button. Facebook pronounced it has nonetheless to see any justification that the Ceop stating resource helps plunge in to the problem. A mouthpiece insisted the site was "one of the safest" places on the web.

Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrats" home affairs spokesman, additionally called on Facebook to repair the "glaring failure" to embody the Ceop button.

Alan Johnson, the home secretary, pronounced the supervision was seeking at ways to rapt authorities when convicted sex offenders were online.

"What the people in the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (Ceop) organisation do is go online themselves to try and captivate in these people," he said.

"Whether we can get the record to dwindle up when they"re [sex offenders] online is something we need to see at."

Merseyside police, who should have been monitoring Chapman, currently referred itself to the Independent Police Complaints Commission. The force acted after revelations that it waited 9 months prior to arising a inhabitant longed for rapt for Chapman, after realising last year that he had dead from his home.

There was some-more debate for Facebook currently when a 27-year-old man, David Calvert, was poorly identified as Jon Venables on Facebook, and a little 2,370 people assimilated a organisation to plead the "new identity" of one of the Bulger killers.

Calvert, creatively from Liverpool, was the theme of likewise fake rumours five years ago and has publicly described the loathing destined towards him, and fears for his family"s safety.

Ten tip eco ski lodges and hotels Travel

1. Alta Terra, Lavigerie, France

A stone"s throw from the laid-back encampment of Lavigerie, in the volcanic Auvergne segment - one of France"s majority undiscovered ski destinations - this board ticks all the boxes. Once a used 1920s hotel, it is right away a cool, eco-friendly BB, renovated utilizing internal materials (wood abounds). Kick behind in the sauna, hammam and outside prohibited cylinder after a tough day"s cross-country skiing or snowshoeing, prior to re-fuelling on local, organic food (every alternative night the list d"hote menu is vegetarian). Next morning, design a take a break of cheese, ham and yogurt from a beside farm.

• Book it: +33 4 71 twenty 83 03; altaterra-cantal.com; doubles from €65 per night, together with breakfast.

Get there: Ryanair (0871 246 0000; ryanair.com) flies from London Stansted to Rodez from around £28 return; from the airfield it is about 3 hours" expostulate to Alta Terra. To plan your outing by sight see seat61.com.

2. Monte Rosa Mountain Refuge, Zermatt, Switzerland

Tucked next the strong Matterhorn, with jaw-dropping views over the Gorner, Grenz and Mount Rose glaciers, this metallic, bony construction looks some-more similar to a little unconventional space hire than a towering lodge. Sleeping up to 120 hikers and climbers, the state-of-the-art retreat is embellished out in internal timber and is written to acquire 90% of the energy it needs from the sun. It will free from 10 Mar to mid-May, with the summer deteriorate starting in mid-June. This is a board for critical skiers, and is reached by a three-hour travel from Rotenboden, together with a glacier span (crampons recommended).

• Book it: +41 44 632 70 82; neuemonterosahuette.ch; monterosa.sac@rhone.ch; from CHF35.50 per night, room only.

Get there: easyJet (as before) flies from 10 UK airports to Geneva from around £40 return; from the airfield it"s a four-hour sight tour to Zermatt. To plan your outing by sight see seat61.com or Rail Europe.

3. Maison Coutin, Tarentaise Valley, France

This small, family-run board is situated in the desirable encampment of Peisey-Nancroix in the heart of the Tarentaise Valley, but comes with assent and still you don"t get in the swarming resorts. With an eco-friendly ethos, it has usually 3 bedrooms (sleeping up to three, 4 and six) all with towering views, and serves robust organic suppers (the ripened offspring and veg come true from the garden), baked in the outside timber oven. Go cross-country skiing, snow-walking or take the ski lift, 500m away, to the immeasurable ski area of Les Arcs.

• Book it: +33 4 79 07 93 05; maison-coutin.fr; one week"s stay from €558 for dual people, together with breakfast.

Get there: easyJet (as before) flies from London Gatwick and Stansted to Lyon from around £40 return; from the airfield it"s an hour-and-a-half expostulate to Peisey-Nancroix. Or take the sight from Lyon to Landry, where the owners will pick up you.

4. Chic Choc Mountain Lodge, Quebec, Canada

This ski-in ski-out towering hideaway, located in the immeasurable Matane Wildlife Reserve, is as remote as ski lodges get: in winter, it is usually reachable by snowcat from Cap-Chat. Pronounced "shick shock", the 18-room, heavily insulated board has been written as an energy-saving building, though it"s not but the share of apres-ski comforts, from the log-fire loll to the shower room and outside spa. Click in to your skis or tag on a span of snowshoes to try the 60-square kilometre area of the haven that is for guest-use only. Look out for moose, caribou and mountainous eagles.

• Book it: +1 800 665 3091; sepaq.com/chc/en; three-night stays begin from C$697.50pp (£446), together with all meals, transfers from Cap Chat, ski guide, all apparatus and facilities.

Get there: Air Canada (0871 220 1111; aircanada.com) flies London Heathrow to Montreal from around £300 return. A manager send from Montreal to Cap Chat costs around C$138 lapse (orleansexpress.com), incompatible internal taxes.

5. Iglu-Dorf, Grandvalira, Andorra

For a stylish, low-impact nap in the snow, you can"t kick Iglu-Dorf in the Pyrenean review of Grandvalira in Andorra, that non-stop last winter. Part of a sequence of five sites opposite Germany and Switzerland, this cluster of intricately-carved snowdomes sleeps 34 guests, and whilst they are positively cool (temperatures inside the igloos float around 0°C) they are gentle too, with big air mattresses and lots of blankets and candles. The customary igloos have space for 6 people, or for couples there are igloos-for-two, finish with sheepskins and in isolation prohibited tub. After a morning"s ski or snowshoeing, go on a rough sleigh float or snowmobiling, prior to retreating to one of Iglu-Dorf"s dual bars, Jacuzzis or sauna.

• Book it: +376 89 eighteen 00; iglu-dorf.com; igloos begin from €99pp per night, together with transfers from Grau Roig, all meals, skiing and snowshoeing.

Get there: Take the Eurostar from London to Paris from £69 return, and take a joining sleeper sight from Paris to L"Hospitalet from £36 return, shift here for a sight send (£17 return) to Pas de la Cas, where it"s a short cab float Grau Roig. The sight tour can be requisitioned by Rail Europe (as before).

6. Mountain Living Residence Hotel Lagació, San Cassiano, Italy

The small but in vogue South Tyrolean encampment of San Cassiano, in the heart of the Italian Dolomites, was put resolutely on the eco ski map last December, with the opening of this really cool hotel. The twenty-four apartments are as superb as they are eco-friendly, built utilizing internal wood, slate, larch and spruce, with floor-to-ceiling thermally insulated windows. The road house has a Finnish shower room and steam bath (TLC for those post-ski muscles), a ski convey use to and from the Alta Badia ski area, and all the food is organic. Even the hotel"s H2O comes from the owner"s own spring.

• Book it: +39 0471 849 503; lagacio.com; doubles from €180 (£162) per night for dual people together with breakfast.

Get there: EasyJet (0905 821 0905; easyjet.com) flies from London Gatwick, Bristol and Liverpool to Innsbruck from around £60 return; from the airfield it"s a two-hour expostulate to San Cassiano. Or, take a sight from London to Innsbruck from £239 lapse by Rail Europe (0844 848 4070; raileurope.co.uk).

7. Nipika Mountain Resort, Canadian Rockies, Canada

This splendidly country review is located in the Canadian Rockies, circuitously the Kootenay National Park. Not usually does it beget all the physical phenomenon around solar, micro-hydro and breeze power, but passed wood, salvaged from the forest, is placed in a executive boiler to yield feverishness and prohibited H2O to each of the 7 pleasing log cabins and board (sleeping 13), all of that have fully-equipped kitchens. As well as skiing on the 50kms of ski trails, guest can go towering biking, hiking or fish, canoe, boat and raft in the circuitously Kootenay River.

• Book it: +1 250 342-6516; nipika.com; cabins (sleeping two) begin from C$230 per night; full board let starts from C$1,000 per night.

Get there: British Airways (0844 493 0787; ba.com) flies from London Heathrow to Calgary from around £500. Hire a car for the 250km expostulate to Nipika.

8. Aravis Lodge, La Clusaz, France

With the ski review of La Clusaz right on the doorstep, this 100-year-old chalet is located in the small encampment of St Jean de Sixt in the Aravis Mountains. With seventeen bedrooms, a gym, shower room and rub the body room, it takes the immature certification seriously: rubbish is composted or recycled, it has solar panels for feverishness and prohibited water, and it aims to source as majority satisfactory trade, local, and free range furnish as probable (there"s even a Vegetarian Society accredited menu). It additionally offsets the CO emissions. Ski by day (the board runs twice-daily mini-buses to La Clusaz and Grand Bornand), and go sledging or snow-shoeing at night - laid on for free by the lodge.

• Book it: +44 (0)1202 661865; karibuni.co.uk; from £650 per week, half-board, together with Aravis segment lift pass, dusk entertainments and airfield transfers from Geneva.

Get there: EasyJet (as before) flies from 10 UK airports to Geneva from around £40 return. Or revisit the Rail Europe website.

9. Whitepod, Les Cerniers, Switzerland

When this stay of low-impact "pods" non-stop in 2005 it was one of the majority innovative and sparkling projects the ski universe had seen. Last year, the pods relocated to a new site, perched on top of the encampment of Les Cerniers. The fifteen pods are splendidly cosy - think plush carpets, large comfy beds, timber stoves and Scandinavian-style bathrooms (sourced with warmed open water) - and are a short travel from the base-camp, where there"s a grill and spa. The stay has entrance to 10km of slopes (there are dual in isolation draw towards lifts), or for something a bit opposite try dog sledding or paragliding, both bookable by the camp.

• Book it: +41 twenty-four 471 38 38; whitepod.com; prices from €234 per pod per night.

Get there: easyJet (0905 821 0905; easyjet.com) flies from 10 UK airports to Geneva from around £40 return; afterwards take a sight to Aigle (it takes usually over one hour). Free transfers from Aigle hire to Les Cerniers are organized by Whitepod twice a day - differently the stay can organize a taxi.

10. Hotel Terra, Jackson Hole, USA

There is eco-friendly, and afterwards there is Hotel Terra. From the 100% recycled roof tiles shingles over your head to the organic carpets underneath your feet, and all in in between (lots of bamboo, marble, granite, dejected potion and stone), this road house is as immature as they come. It even generates all the physical phenomenon around solar, micro-hydro and breeze power. Most of the bedrooms have oversized design windows - undiluted for gawping at those towering views - and there"s a rooftop spa, forever pool and prohibited tub, too.

Book it: +1 307 739 4000; hotelterrajacksonhole.com; doubles from $299 (£200) per night, room only.

Get there: American Airlines (+44 (0)20 7365 0777; americanairlines.co.uk) flies from London Heathrow and Gatwick to Jackson Hole (via Dallas) from around £450 return.

• For recommendation on receiving the sight to your ski review see seat61.com and find some-more ideas in the interactive guide to 10 ski resorts by rail.

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Smile Though Your Heart is Breaking by Pauline Prescott John Crace Politics The Guardian

Smile Though Your Heart is Breaking by Pauline Prescott. Photograph: Neal Fox/Illustration

I was 16, and about to give bieing innate to my own baby doll, anticipating that the US airman who had told me his name was Rock Hudson and had paid for me a little candy would come behind from Virginia to explain me for his bride. My relatives came from ordinary, important working-class families™ and were really unhappy. "We"d majority appropriate have baby Paul adopted," they said.

Two years after I met the majority large man I"d ever seen, a cranky in between Humphrey Bogart and Cary Grant. Unfortunately he walked past me and I had to have do with his corpulent friend. John was a man of couple of words, though not indispensably in the right order, but I recognized that this big-hearted, sensitive, passionate, crafty man™ was my soulmate. "Don"tcomesoppyalloverlass," he said, "Cardsplayrightmarrygetwhenbackfromboatnexttrip."

Our initial son was innate a year later. John longed for to call him John. I longed for to call him Athan. So we compromised on Johnathan. Who pronounced my big-hearted, sensitive, passionate, crafty John™ was stubborn? A year or so after we had an additional son, David, though by this time my big-hearted, sensitive, passionate, crafty John™ had been sacked from his job, being a kinship emporium steward. Luckily he shortly became MP for Hull East.

Nothing utterly engaging happened for the subsequent twenty-seven years. Initially I found it formidable that we were detached so most and I asked my big-hearted, sensitive, passionate, crafty John™ if I could stick on him in London. "Crampingstylemyyouwillbe," he said. And he was right. I was improved matched to being a normal mother who believes in being a doormat. And it"s not as if I didn"t have sufficient to do in Hull updating the soft furnishings at the castle.

There was a impulse after John Smith died when my big-hearted, sensitive, passionate, crafty John™ deliberate using for the leadership. After everybody in the Labour celebration stopped laughing, they told him he would be most improved off being Tony Blair"s incorporate to old Labour with no genuine shortcoming for anything, and I had to determine that was a purpose to that my big-hearted, sensitive, passionate, crafty class-warrior™ was perfectly suited. I positively had my work cut out when my big-hearted, sensitive, passionate, crafty John™ became emissary budding minister: there were soft furnishings at the Admiralty flat, the traffic kinship prosaic and Dorneywood to be updated, the croquet grass to be relaid and the swift of jags to be serviced. Imagine if one had damaged down usually after I had had my hair finished at a celebration conference.

My big-hearted, sensitive, passionate, crafty John™ upheld me when the press, whom I hatred solely when offered serialisation rights to the Mail, found my adopted son, Paul. How anxious I was to find he had turn utterly posh!

But we had difficulties. I"ve regularly attempted to feed my big-hearted, sensitive, passionate, crafty John™ ripened offspring and veg but he elite choccies and this gave him bulimia. Typically, he attempted to understanding with this alone. Much in the approach he never told me we were at fight with Iraq until after this book had left to press.

And right away to the formidable bit, the bit the publishers gave me income for. John"s affair. Yes, I know you"ve had to wait for "til page 240 but I"m still usually going to write 10 pages on it. When you"re as tasteful as John you"re going to have women throwing themselves at you and my big-hearted, sensitive, passionate, crafty John™ in the future succumbed. Once. That"s what he told me and I hold him. Especially as he"s been as great as bullion ever since and since me as most as I wish to outlay on soft furnishings. He"s even let me assistance him have TV programmes. Who"d have thought we would turn the new Neil and Christine Hamilton! And even though the son was attacked of inheriting his seat, my big-hearted, sensitive, passionate, crafty John™ reckons there"s a great possibility he"ll turn a duke and I"ll be a lady. My big-hearted, sensitive, passionate, crafty category warrior™!

Digested read, digested: Cash in when the bed is breaking.

Teenagers from capsized Concordia sailing boat adrift in Atlantic for dual days World headlines

Students discovered from high Atlantic seas after the their vessel the Concordia capsized are brought ashore in Rio de Janeiro Photograph: Felipe Dana/AP

Dozens of students, together with 3 British teenagers, were left floating on hold up rafts in the Atlantic for scarcely dual days after their vessel sank off the seashore of Brazil.

Sarah Calascione, 19, Nicole Turner, 18, and Gabriella Haines, 16, were between 41 students and twenty-three organisation aboard the SV Concordia, a 57-metre prolonged sailing vessel that capsized in bad continue off the seashore of Rio de Janeiro last Wednesday.

They scrambled for lifeboats and outlayed 40 hours in torrential sleet and surging waves prior to being discovered by the Brazilian navy, that has been criticised over the rescue operation.

"I didn"t think we were going to be rescued. It was horrible," pronounced Calascione, who assimilated the ship, that set cruise from Canada last September, dual weeks ago. "The air wave apparatus was shop-worn so we usually had an EPIRB [distress beacon] that sends out a heavenly body signal, but that wasn"t picked up true away. It wasn"t until thirty hours after that a watchman craft saw the hold up raft."

The ship"s operators, the Nova Scotia-based West Island College International, pronounced they were watchful for sum of the rescue response. "We unequivocally don"t have the answers as to because opposite decisions were done with the Brazilian rescue or with the army at assorted times," the college president, Nigel McCarthy, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

SV Concordia capsized during a microburst – a singular and remarkable downdraft of air in a small area – on Wednesday afternoon, about 300 miles off Brazil.

A mouthpiece for the Brazilian navy, Maria Padilha, pronounced that naval responders perceived a trouble vigilance about 10pm internal time on Wednesday and attempted to have air wave hit with the vessel.

They additionally communicated with circuitously ships and aircraft to see if they could mark anything wrong in the area, she said.

But it was not until late the subsequent day that a watchman aircraft located the hold up rafts.

The cruise vessel left Recife in north-east Brazil on 8 Feb and was sailing to Montevideo, Uruguay"s capital, where it was due to arrive on twenty-five February, as piece of a 10-month voyage. The vessel had already visited Ireland, the Mediterranean and north-west Africa.

The Canadian college"s category afloat programme offers propagandize and university credits for students embarking on a prolonged voyage, on vacation thirty ports in at slightest twenty countries. The outing costs £25,000 each.

Calascione was used to the sea after sailing with her relatives from Malta to Australia as a child. She is due to begin a story grade at Exeter University in September.

"We were told there had been a trouble vigilance and watchman planes and army boats had been deployed but there was no pointer of the Concordia," her mother, Caroline Calascione, said. "It was a really nerve-racking and romantic experience. It wasn"t until we perceived a phone call from Sarah on Saturday that we knew she was safe.

The ship"s captain, William Curry, pronounced the Concordia"s organisation had rebuilt a day previously for what they expected would be severe but not surprising weather. He was next rug when the vessel unexpected keeled – that was normal. But it was when it keeled a second time that he knew the vessel was in good danger.

A Brazilian naval vessel took about 10 students behind to seaside on Saturday with the rest nearing on businessman vessels.

"We had been in the hold up raft for about thirty hours when we saw a poke craft for the initial time," pronounced 16-year-old Lauren Unsworth, a Dutch-Canadian newcomer who lives in Amsterdam. "That"s when we knew we were not alone and that assistance was on the way."

She added: "The vessel proposed keeling a lot. It came behind up, keeled again, was fundamentally lying on the side and all the windows began to break. That"s when we knew it was time to flee."

Edgardo Ybranez, captain of the Philippine flagged load vessel that discovered 44 people, pronounced everybody from the Concordia was unhurt solely for the doctor, who suffered an damage prior to the rescue "but he is OK now." Ybranez gave no some-more details.