World News joined 0011

[JohnCenaFan28]

A man has died after he was shot inside a club during the early hours of Sunday, the Metropolitan Police said.

The 24-year-old received a gunshot wound at around 5.30am at the SE1 club, in Weston Street, near London Bridge.

He was taken to hospital but later died, Scotland Yard said.

Police said they believe they know the identity of the dead man. Next of kin have been informed.

Trident, the Metropolitan Police's specialist unit set up to deal with gun crime in the black community, is investigating the incident.

A post-mortem examination will take place.

Police said that they are keeping an open mind as to any motive to the shooting at this time.

Anyone with information should contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

-Ananova

[scorpionf]

I feel so bad for the animals.... When I first read this I wondered what the f*ck the parents were doing and why where they not keeping an eye on the little brat. I say they should go ahead and sue the parents like they plan to.

[Slayer_X]

thats fucked up

[Slayer_X]

So this guy did what he was told to do almost 70 years ago .They have a scared old man . This old guy has to deal w/ shit we cant understand . This could be your great grandfather .

[JohnCenaFan28]

More than £93 billion was wiped from the value of the UK's biggest companies as London's FTSE 100 suffered its biggest fall since Black Monday.

As fear swept through global markets and governments rushed to prop up banks across Europe the Footsie slumped 7.8% - its largest one-day percentage decline since the aftermath of Black Monday in October 1987.

The index closed 391.1 points lower at 4589.2 - its lowest close total since October 2004 - as investors were rocked by the latest turmoil in the European banking sector.

But Chancellor Alistair Darling - reportedly considering moves to shore up UK banks with taxpayers' cash - did little to restore shattered confidence with firm commitments.

He said "all practical options must remain open" for dealing with the crisis, but added that it would be "irresponsible" to give a running commentary on plans.

The pressure came after German lender Hypo Real Estate became the latest to receive state aid. Italy's largest bank, Unicredit, also warned on profits after announcing asset sales and plans to shore up its balance sheet with a 6.6 billion euro (£5.1bn) boost.

Meanwhile, French bank BNP Paribas agreed to buy a majority stake in struggling bank Fortis - which is already part-nationalised. Elsewhere, Iceland's stock exchange suspended trading in shares of six major banks as its Government works on an economic rescue plan. Iceland's Glitnir bank was nationalised last week.

The shockwaves reverberated through global stock markets. In the US, Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Average traded below the 10,000 mark for the first time in more than three years.

In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 average slid more than 4% to a four-year low, while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng tumbled 5% as Friday's backing of a US financial rescue was all but forgotten.

In London, investors were unnerved by reports that the Government could take big stakes in banks - effectively part-nationalisation - to strengthen their finances. Halifax Bank of Scotland and Royal Bank of Scotland both slumped 20%, while Barclays lost 15% .

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Gordon Brown will be speaking to Angela Merkel amid confusion over the extent of the German chancellor's commitments to protect bank deposits.

The Prime Minister is under intense pressure to match Mrs Merkel's actions or face an exodus of cash from British financial institutions.

It had appeared that Germany offered at the weekend to guarantee all private savings accounts, following similar moves by Ireland and Greece.

Britain has only extended protection to £50,000 - up from £35,000 - in UK banks.

The Prime Minister's spokesman said that the Government had been seeking clarification about Germany's position.

But he said: "Our understanding of the situation is that the German government will not be bringing forward legislation for a legally-binding guarantee of bank deposits."

He added that it was "really a matter for the German government to explain their position".

Mr Brown was on Monday morning chairing the first meeting of the new twice-weekly National Economic Council (NEC), set up to manage Britain's response to the financial crisis.

His talks with Mrs Merkel later on Monday follow a string of telephone conversations with foreign counterparts, including French president Nicolas Sarkozy, and the International Monetary Fund over the last 24 hours.

Germany's actions have taken British officials by surprise. Mrs Merkel gave no indication of the moves when she met fellow EU leaders in Paris on Saturday to seek a co-ordinated approach to the turmoil in the banking sector.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Millions of households are unfairly paying over the odds for their energy supply, a report by the industry watchdog found.

Ofgem said that 4.3 million people without gas supply were being "short changed" by their suppliers, forking out on average £55 a year by not having access to the best dual-fuel deals.

It added that millions more who do not pay by direct debit - including six million pre-payment customers - are being penalised to the tune of around £1.4 billion a year.

Ofgem said in the initial findings of its seven-month probe into the energy market that it was looking at imposing a ban on unfair price differences.

But the report found that while some consumers were missing out on the full benefits of competition, the market was working well for most.

It said it found no evidence of an energy supply cartel and that consumers have benefited from the greater choice since the gas and electricity market was opened up to competition 10 years ago.

The study was launched earlier this year following a series of hefty price increases in gas and electricity.

There were concerns of price collusion after the big six suppliers hiked tariffs at the same time.

Ofgem confirmed it found nothing to back-up these fears or that suppliers were quick to raise prices and slow to cut them.

On the whole, consumers gave the market the thumbs-up, it said, but added that there needed to be a fairer deal for all customers.

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

The widow of police chief Michael Todd said she has "forgiven" him after his inquest heard his tangled love life led to his death.

Depressed and suicidal, the former chief constable of Greater Manchester Police sent a text message asking for forgiveness in "another life" as he downed gin and pills.

After his wife discovered his affair with another woman, the 50-year-old surfed internet suicide websites before venturing on to a snowy mountainside in minus 18C temperatures where he drank alcohol and took the sleeping drug Nytol.

Possibly hallucinating, he took his clothes off, a sign of hypothermia and eventually drifted into sleep, dying of exposure, North West Wales coroner Dewi Pritchard Jones concluded.

The father of three was found face-down in the snow, frozen to death the next day, March 11, at Bwlch Glas, near the summit of Mount Snowdon, following a futile rescue search.

After the hearing, Mrs Todd, 47, said: "In his last email to me Michael said 'I really am so sorry for all the hurt I have caused you. I just hope that you will be able to forgive me at least in part some day'. I have forgiven him and Michael's family have forgiven him. The tragedy is that Michael never felt able during his career to seek the help he badly needed and he never knew that we could and have forgiven him."

Police were alerted after he sent a last mobile phone message to a person known only as C, at 7.33pm on Monday March 10. It said: "I'm sorry for what I have done, forgive me in another life."

A call from another person, known only as B, got through to his phone at 9.30pm and was "unintentionally" or "accidentally" answered - the implication being that Mr Todd was slumped on his phone. As he apparently lay dying, B could only hear an "urgent heavy breathing sound", the inquest was told.

He had been confronted by his wife five days earlier after she found out about his infidelity. He went on to send a series of intimate text messages and emails detailing how his life was unravelling in the days and hours before his death.

The coroner concluded that there was not enough evidence to give a definite verdict of suicide or accidental death through misadventure. Instead he recorded a narrative verdict, saying: "Mr Todd died of exposure when his state of mind was affected by alcohol, a drug and confusion due to his personal situation."

-Ananova

[Black Widow]

"G'day mate" and "Strewth" are words cemented in the Australian psyche but according to an academic they could soon become obsolete.

Bruce Moore says the change will come about as the nation shakes loose its colonial roots and moves towards a standard national pronunciation.

The Australian National University academic claims the nasal Australian twang - exemplified by the likes of the late Steve Irwin and actor Paul Hogan - will disappear within a few decades.

"Australians are becoming more confident with the standard Australian accent - and that means there's no longer the need for those sorts of extreme sounds," Mr Moore writes in his new book.

Words like "mate" would no longer be pronounced "mite" as some of the unique characteristics of Australian speech disappeared, he says.

"There's no doubt the broad accent does carry cultural values. I'm not doubting that. That's why it's used in advertisements," writes Mr Moore.

"But in the future that extreme form of it won't be so necessary because the standard accent will carry those same values."

Broad accents came from the need for cultural distinction in the late 19th Century, while 'posh' accents evolved from the use of Queen's English in education in the late 1800s, Mr Moore says.

The lexicographer makes the claims in his book titled Speaking Our Language: The Story Of Australian English.


sky news

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for this.