NEW YORK, Feb 24 (Reuters) - U.S. gold futures dropped inchoppy trade on Wednesday, hurt by volatile currency movementsand as disappointing U.S. new home sales dampened the metal"sinflation hedge appeal. * For the latest detailed report, click on [GOL/]. GOLD * COMEX April GCJ0 down $3.20 at $1,100 an ounce at 10:32a.m. EST (1532 GMT). * Ranged from $1,090.20 to $1,108.80. * Gold weakened as dollar cut losses after report showedU.S. new home sales drop to record low in January.[ID:nN24373288] * Follow-through selling due to uncertainty amid Bernanke"sCongressional testimony, options-related selling - traders. * Support seen in $1,098 to $1,094 area -- downward trendline connecting the record high, January and February peaks, aswell as 20-day moving average - technical analyst. * Comex estimated 10 a.m. volume at 99,495 contracts. * Spot gold XAU= at $1,100.20, compared with $1,102.95late in New York in the previous session. * London gold afternoon fix XAUFIX= at $1,103. SILVER * March SIH0 up 70 cents at $15.895 an ounce, asinvestors buy at bargain prices after Tuesday"s decline. * Range $15.620 to $15.985. * Spot silver XAG= at $15.87 an ounce compared with theprevious session"s $15.82 late quote in New York. * Comex estimated 10 a.m. volume at 39,725 contracts. * London silver XAGFIX= fix at $15.76 an ounce. PLATINUM * April PLJ0 up 70 cents at $1,511 an ounce, asindustrial metals erase losses. * Spot platinum XPT= at $1,508 an ounce. PALLADIUM * March palladium PAH0 down $6.75, 1.6 percent, at$427.25 an ounce, as troubles from Toyota Motors dent sentimenton autocatalyst demand. * Spot palladium XPD= at $425 an ounce.Prices at 10:38 a.m. EST (1538 GMT) Last Change Pct 2009 YTD Chg Close % ChgUS gold GCJ0 1100.90 -2.30 -0.2 1096.20 0.4US silver SIH0 15.915 0.027 0.2 16.845 -5.5US platinum PLJ0 1513.10 2.80 0.2 1471 2.9US palladium PAH0 427.10 -6.90 -1.6 408.85 4.5Gold XAU= 1100.10 -2.85 -0.3 1096.35 0.3Silver XAG= 15.90 0.08 0.5 16.84 -5.6Platinum XPT= 1510.00 0.00 0.0 1465.50 3.0Palladium XPD= 425.50 -3.00 -0.7 405.50 4.9Gold Fix XAUFIX= 1103.00 10.00 0.9 1104 -0.1Silver Fix XAGFIX= 15.76 -34.00 -2.1 16.99 -7.2Platinum Fix XPTFIX= 1504.00 7.00 0.5 1466 2.6Palladium Fix XPDFIX= 427.00 2.00 0.5 402 6.2 (Reporting by Frank Tang; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
CurrenciesSaturday, July 31, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Budget 2010: A simple bank comment for each adult
The Chancellor guaranteed today that every adult in the UK would have access to a basic bank account. He said that the measure would lead to one million adults opening an account over the next five years.
The heavily trailed measure, designed to tackle financial exclusion, builds on existing efforts by the Treasury and the banking industry to encourage every adult to open a transactional current account.
About eight million adults have a basic bank account at present, according to the British Bankers" Association, aimed at those on a low income or those with poor credit histories who would not otherwise be approved for a standard account.
Basic bank accounts allow individuals to pay in wages, benefits and a pension and provide a cash card to withdraw money.
Related LinksBudget boost for Isa investors with limit increaseQA: how will the Budget affect my finances?Darling"s plan: at-a-glance guideMultimediaLIVE: analysis by our economic and money team IN FULL: Budget 2010 LIVE: deconstruct the Budget with our expertsAccount holders are not offered overdraft facilities or a cheque book and do not receive interest on in-credit balances.
A number of accounts also restrict standing orders, and others prevent customers from setting up direct debit payments from the account.
Since 2003, when the Government and the industry established a Financial Inclusion Task Force, the number of adults in the UK without a bank account has fallen from 3.75 million to 1.75 million.
The banking industry has questioned the need for the Government to guarantee access to banking facilities, insisting that any adult in the UK can open a bank account if they want one, except those individuals who cannot prove their identity a legal requirement when opening a new account.
The majority of banks and building societies will also refuse basic bank accounts to individuals with a record of fraud. Meanwhile, only two providers, Barclays and The Co-operative Bank, offer basic bank accounts to undischarged bankrupts.
A spokesperson for the British Bankers" Association said: "Everybody can have a bank account if they want one, unless (and this is rare) the law says they can"t.
"In recent years UK banks have worked with the Government to cut financial exclusion, halving the number of households without a bank account. Every month 40,000 more people open basic accounts."
Fears have been raised that a legal requirement to offer basic bank accounts could lead to an end of free banking for all customers as banks grapple with higher administration costs.
Michelle Slade, of Moneyfacts.co.uk, the financial website, said: "Banks will inevitably face higher costs if this legislation is passed, with the cost recovered through standard banking customers.
"The change could be another nail in the coffin for free banking, with banks looking to regain the additional cost potentially through the introduction of monthly fees."
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Camberley churches criticism at mosque that will building over Sandhurst
Fiona Hamilton, London Correspondent & , : {} Churches have assimilated together to criticism opposite plans for a mosque that would construction over the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, with one apportion describing it as a supremacist matter for Islam.
A common comprising each church in Camberley, Surrey, has lambasted plans for the hulk mosque, notice that will emanate usually multiplication and conflict in the town.
The offer has already caused security concerns in troops circles as the mosque includes 30m (100ft) minarets that would disremember Sandhurst.
The programmed mosque lies only 360m from the academy, where hundreds of newly commissioned Army officers take to the march belligerent each year for their flitting out ceremony. The eventuality attracts comparison members of the Royal Family as well as critical troops figures.
Related LinksThe Camberley mosque should be stoppedMega-mosque bid nearby Olympic site collapsesGerman steel locale widely separated over mosqueThe mosque offer has additionally generated widescale internal tension, with campaigners notice that the structure, that additionally includes an towering dome, is out of balance with the towns architecture.
Local Muslims have been worshipping at a former Victorian propagandize for the past fourteen years, but right away wish to set up their own mosque on the same site.
This week Churches Together, a common of Camberley churches, pronounced that it was not against to a mosque in the area but the due growth was environment the stage for enmity in between the Muslim village and the wider village in Camberley for years to come.
Rev Mark Chester, of St Pauls Church and the groups chairman, said: I think it satisfactory to contend that a mosque with dual 100ft minarets and a large towering architecture is creation not so most a spiritual, as a absolute cultural, or even domestic statement.
The Rev Bob Peck, of St Martins Church, pronounced that the place of the construction was inapt since of bad access. He combined that the churches were really happy for a mosque for be built but that it should be inside of the internal context.
They appear to have a domestic bulletin and they wish to have a big statement. Its a supremacist statement, he said.
Major-General Tim Cross (retired), who lives in the area, told The Times that the minarets and architecture acted a poignant security threat, quite since the inlet of the visitors to Sandhurst.
General Cross, who was second in authority of the bid to reconstruct Iraq after the toppling of Saddam Hussein, said: "Visitors self-evidently yield poignant intensity targets being plainly on arrangement around the college construction and elsewhere.
The redevelopment is being due by the Bengali Welfare Association, that runs the stream mosque, that attracts up to 300 people each week to Friday prayers.
Abdul Wasay Chowdhury, the spokesman, pronounced that there was a lot of misinformation about the mosque. This is not a domestic statement, we do not know anything about politics. We are elementary people who wish to do according to the conviction he said.
He combined that entrance inside of the minarets would not go over the tallness of a house, as they would be filled in with petrify and thus will not poise a security risk. He pronounced the pattern had been selected since of the high architectural quality.
The Ministry of Defence primarily lifted concerns about security risks from the tallest tools of the building. It pronounced in a statement: Plans were revised so that entrance to the towers would be limited to necessary upkeep work.
The formulation focus will be motionless by Surrey Heath Borough Council at a assembly tonight and is approaching to capture large protests.
hair wigBritish publisher Paul Martin expelled by Hamas in Gaza Strip
A British freelance publisher has been expelled by the belligerent organisation Hamas after spending scarcely a month as a restrained in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas officials had indicted Paul Martin of espionage for Israel. He was the initial Western publisher to be arrested by Hamas. I was never indicted of any crime, nonetheless I was interrogated for something that it was blatantly unfit for me to have done, Mr Martin pronounced on his release. I think in the future it was realised that there was no box opposite me, but it took a prolonged time for intensely questionable security people to catch this message.
Hamas did not record any charges opposite Mr Martin in justice but pronounced that it was deporting him since it believed him to be guilty.
Mr Martin had trafficked regularly to the Gaza Strip, filing reports for The Times and the BBC. My recover is a good feat for the right of reporters to be means to cover formidable stories in a intrepid and correct approach but being theme to arrest, or worse, at the hands of a organisation that dislikes their journalism, he said.
Related LinksBriton hold in Gaza as security threatUS launches tactful pull for Iran sanctionsParalysed Palestinian lady Marya wins a homeAt a headlines discussion to make known his release, Mahmoud al-Zahar, the Hamas leader, said: Paul Martin has been found guilty of being an representative for Israel. He combined that Mr Martin was operative on shaming the picture of the Palestinian people by observant that they filch weapons by tunnels.
The publisher had created a extensive essay for The Times on that subject.
He was arrested when he trafficked to Gaza on Feb fourteen to attest on interest of a belligerent related to the Fatah faction, Hamass rival, who was indicted of collaborating with Israel.
His lawyer, Sharhabil Zayim, pronounced that he had sealed a oath prior to his recover that he would not lapse to Gaza.
Mr Martins family was watchful for him in executive Israel, where he assimilated them yesterday afternoon. His wife, Anne Martin, denied the Hamas accusations.
We are intensely relieved that Paul has been expelled and gratified that the authorities responded to the appeals, she told the BBC. Paul has confirmed his ignorance via this ordeal.
British officials who cumulative his recover had no evident comment, but a commission of the Britain-Palestine All-Party Parliamentary Group expelled a matter welcoming the release.
Lord Steel of Aikwood led the commission that discussed Mr Martins recover with the Hamas Justice Minister.
He said: I am gay that Paul has been expelled in to the hands of British officials. We twice lifted the issue of his apprehension during meetings with the Government on Sunday, and were speedy at the time by their joining to recover him as a gesticulate of organization to help the poor towards the visit. I am gratified that this declaration has been fulfilled.
hair wigMonday, July 26, 2010
Alan Murchison - aiming for the stars Life and character
Chef Alan Murchison in the kitchen at l"ortolan nearby Reading. Photograph: Rex Features
Talk about creation yourself a warrant to fortune. Meet Alan Murchison. If you don"t know the name, you shortly will.
Currently cook at the one Michelin star l"ortolan in Berkshire, and owners of the likewise starred La Becasse in Ludlow, Murchison - it is reported in this month"s Restaurant Magazine - has voiced plans to open an additional eight Michelin-starred restaurants by 2018, that would take his sum to 10. Speaking at the launch of his third venture, Paris House, he voiced that he and his commercial operation partner Richard Pursey have shaped a company, Ten In Eight, privately for this purpose, and that they are already seeking at a fourth site in Edinburgh.
At a little level, you"ve got to admire his chutzpah. This is the kind of death-or-glory, who"s-got-the-biggest-cojones plan we thought we competence never see again this side of a nearby 90% dump in increase at Gordon Ramsay Holdings. Moreover, if my new experience at La Becasse is anything to go by then, even permitting for the unconstrained variables that could derail such a hugely desirous project, Murchison competence only lift this off. La Becasse, that is run, mostly autonomously, by a unequivocally gifted thirty year-old cook called Will Holland, delivers a severely gratifying experience at the point where populism meets � la mode excellent dining. It is a grill where essence is emphasised over pyrotechnics in a relaxed, clubby atmosphere. If that is Murchison"s model, it might infer a unequivocally charming formula.
But, still, I"m left asking, why?
Money, I presume, is not the vital motivating cause here. Yes, if he pulls it off, Murchison will be a media prodigy able of leveraging that celebrity opposite all sorts of money-spinning side projects. But nobody ever got dirty abounding opening Michelin-starred restaurants. You can have a decent living, but even at one star turn margins are tight. Naturally, and somewhat depressingly, therefore, Murchison is acid for sites in abundant areas; seeking to open what, by excellent dining standards will be incomparable restaurants of up to 50 covers; and is penetrating set up in lucrative, status-purchase sidelines similar to in isolation dining and chef"s tables. He told Restaurant:
"It"s scarcely unfit to have income in a thirty cover establishment. You need value-added high domain things similar to chef"s tables."
But do we unequivocally need any of this? Do we wish it? What happiness will be combined to the universe by opening some-more Michelin-starred restaurants in places similar to Edinburgh that are already well served at that level? Much as I love the occasional posh meal, it should sojourn an sparse extravagance. It should be an unusual experience. And, on that basis, as a nation, we already have some-more than sufficient Michelin stars to go round.
What Britain lacks, however, opposite the spectrum from infrequent restaurants to coffee shops, is decent, democratically-priced places to eat and drink. If then, as I suspect, Eight In Ten is not essentially about money, but is some-more of a bequest project, couldn"t Murchison be putting his team"s talents to most improved use?
You open a couple of some-more restaurants, you suggest the same polished food to a well-heeled chosen of food fetishists, you get your gongs from Derek Bulmer. All well and good. If zero else, it"s a challenging technical challenge. But, ultimately, if Britain"s strong Michelin men wish the love, indebtedness and to consequence a couple of quid, shouldn"t they be directing their energies to on condition that wish and great food at an accessible, mass-market level? Could that even suggest a some-more suggestive compensation than in progress for guide inspectors?
It is a realization that most tip chefs have already come to, either for commercial operation or reliable reasons. Ferran Adrià has his shining burger chain; Nigel Haworth has his pubs; Jamie has his Italians; Heston has the Hinds Head and his Little Chef project; Rick Stein has his chippy, boozer, delicatessen and cafe; Claude Bosi, Simon Rogan, Nathan Outlaw and Phil Howard all have cheaper, freeing venues; Sat Bains (last time I asked) was still seeking for brasserie premises in Nottingham, and the list goes on.
Do you admire Murchison"s plan? Does this kind of thing expostulate up customary opposite the industry? Should I be praying he opens in Manchester? Or do you haven your indebtedness for those chefs who, carrying proven themselves at the top level, seek, not to repeat themselves, but to variegate and widespread the love around at an affordable price?
Sunday, July 25, 2010
British infantryman killed in Afghanistan World headlines
British soldiers on unit in Helmand province, Afghanistan. Photograph: John D McHugh/AFP/Getty images
A British infantryman from 3rd Battalion the Rifles has been killed in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence pronounced today.
The MoD pronounced the soldier"s subsequent of family had been informed. His death, that brings the sum of British fatalities in Afghanistan to 268 given the dispute began, was not continuous to Operation Moshtarak, an descent opposite the Taliban.
The method pronounced the infantryman had been killed at a car checkpoint in southern Afghanistan.
The serviceman was the second piece of of UK forces to be shot passed nearby Sangin, in the north of Helmand province, in dual days.
He died after entrance underneath glow whilst piece of a organisation partnering Afghan soldiers at the checkpoint.
Lieutenant Colonel David Wakefield, a orator for Task Force Helmand, said: "It is my unhappy avocation to surprise you that a British soldier... was killed by small arms glow in Sangin, northern Helmand.
"He was piece of a organisation from 3 Rifle partnering Afghan inhabitant armed forces soldiers at a car checkpoint to the south-east of Sangin district centre when the checkpoint was dismissed on.
"He died safeguarding the people of Sangin. He will be sorely longed for by us, his comrades – we will recollect him."
The MoD yesterday pronounced a infantryman from A Company, 4th Battalion the Rifles, had died as a outcome of small arms glow nearby Sangin.
In alternative developments, an Afghan comprehension central blamed the Pakistan-based belligerent organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba for last week"s car explosve and self-murder attacks that killed sixteen people in the heart of the capital, Kabul. The Afghan Taliban have claimed shortcoming for the attack.
Lashkar-e-Taiba is the same organisation India blames for the 2008 Mumbai militant attacks in that 166 people were killed, bringing serve tragedy to family in between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan.
Saeed Ansari, a orator for Afghanistan"s inhabitant directorate of security, pronounced his group had justification that Pakistanis were concerned in the attacks on Kabul guesthouses busy by Indians and alternative foreigners. Six Indians were between the dead.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Business Big Shot: Greg Clarke
Greg Clarkes remarkable exit as arch senior manager of O3b, the Google-backed heavenly body broadband company, has sent a sputter of confusion by the industry, since that he was usually handed the pursuit in November.
Mr Clarke, 52, and a telecoms industry veteran, transposed owner Greg Wyler. He was charged with branch the start-up in to a force, charity poor broadband to areas feeble served by normal telecoms infrastructure the alternative 3 billion especially in Africa and the Middle East.
However, the pursuit requires most transport in between O3bs Luxembourg bottom and locations such as Lagos and Dubai. The association claimed that a critical knee damage hampered Mr Clarke, restricting the volume of time he could outlay in the air. He will sojourn a house part of at the venture, that is still raising the $1 billion indispensable to launch the initial satellite.
Mark Rigolle, Mr Clarkes replacement, has assimilated from SES, the heavenly body network user and O3bs largest shareholder, where he was arch monetary officer.
Related LinksGoogle backs $750m African internet project$150 million heavenly body created off as "space junk"Mr Clarke, a Leicester City believer who quickly served as the clubs chairman, built his repute at Cable Wireless. He assimilated from Nortel in 1994 to head the UK companys mobile business, that straddled 54 countries, prior to rising to the on all sides of arch senior manager of Cable Wireless Communications, the companys wire business, prior to the sale to NTL in 2000.
He assimilated ICO-Teledisc Global, a heavenly body commercial operation that was corroborated by Bill Gates, prior to rising as the head of Lend Lease, the Australian skill association that built the Bluewater selling formidable in Kent and the Millennium Dome in East London. It is right away construction the 2012 Olympic Village.
Mr Clarke, who is tied together with 4 daughters, outlayed 6 years at Lend Lease, relocating to Sydney during that time, prior to his abdication last year.