Earnshaw wants back in the Welsh side

Mar. 06 Sport no comments

In a move that has received extensive coverage in current sports and betting news, Former Premier League striker Rob Earnshaw has confirmed he still harbours hopes of playing again for Wales after making his debut for MLS side Toronto FC last weekend.

Earnshaw played 85 minutes on his first appearance for the Canadian side but failed to convert a handful of chances as his team lost to Vancouver 1-0. It was nevertheless a promising performance and fans in the Premier League betting world are expecting a big season ahead for the 31-year-old.

Evidently the striker is also confident of making an impact in American soccer, which could earn a return call-up from Welsh boss Chris Coleman.

“I love playing for Wales. I’m never going to give that up,” Earnshaw, who hasn’t played for the national side since last August, told BBC Sport.

“The reason I actually came out here was to carry on my Wales career. I spoke with Chris Coleman at the end of last year and he said ‘listen, go and play games and you’ll be involved’.”

Indeed, while some fans argue playing in the MLS is a means to seeing out your career in obscurity, many others agree the games Earnshaw will get for Toronto can greatly boost his chances of playing for Wales again.

His fitness, match sharpness and hunger will all be rekindled in the MLS after spending the last few months without a club. Since dropping out of the Cardiff first team, the 31-year-old joined Maccabi Tel Aviv on loan but failed to make a major impact and was soon back in his home country.

After discussing the Toronto opportunity with Coleman, it is clear Earnshaw can benefit from a stint in the MLS and his presence in America can only aid his chances of playing in the famous Welsh shirt once more.

Queen Elizabeth II treated in the hospital

Mar. 04 Prominent People no comments

There has been something bugging the Queen and it has something to do with her health. Queen Elizabeth II is 86 years old and continuously performing her role as the Queen of England. She has engagements to attend to and numerous visits to different locations including charities, institutions, town visits and international visits. The Queen is also still actively involved in various activities within the palace.

It was reported by officials in the palace that the Queen was admitted at King Edward VII hospital located in central London as she felt something’s wrong with her stomach. She stayed at the hospital for two days and went back to the palace on Monday. The Queen received a treatment to cure symptoms of gastroenteritis. Due to the Queen’s health condition, she was not able to push through with her other commitments for the week.

This week, the Queen was scheduled to visit Rome for two days. She was also expected to visit the HMS Lancaster in London. All of the said confirmed appointments were cancelled since the Queen was in the hospital. The Palace reported the details regarding the Queen’s health Friday last week. She was said to have rested in Windsor Castle during that day. She also cancelled an engagement on St. David’s Day in Swansea last Saturday. She was already experiencing discomfort last Saturday and the decision was made to bring her to the hospital. Last Sunday after she was treated, she felt better and was already in good shape. By Monday afternoon, the Queen was admitted out of the King Edward VII hospital. The stay was her first one overnight at a hospital in a decade.

Millions of Britons not Saving for the Future

Feb. 25 Economy, Finance no comments

Saving should be encouraged among others who often work hard and spends more but does not leave any amount to spare for future needs. People nowadays are having a hard time doing all the budgeting because everything seems to be increasing but jobs are not that stable and the salary is not even increasing. It is a challenge to those who have spent most of their lives at work. Devoting their time to their profession to earn more money and to live and pay for their daily needs. A lot may have been affected by the recession and most of the time people have debts that they can’t even handle.

A new study has revealed and alarming result among the Britons. It was found out that there is fifteen million Britons who do not save or even thinking of saving for their future. The study also included that there were more and more Britons borrowing money in the form of loan and this are big amount of money to be able to sustain their needs on a daily basis. In the United Kingdom’s population there are 31% who fail to save last year. The study has shown that families fail to save because they loan money to give to their children. It would turn out that the burden is placed on the parents.

The finances of the parents would probably fall and they could no longer have the chance to save. Same research has found that many grandparents would offer help to their grandchildren. Most of the Britons often cut their savings since they need to prioritize the cost of living which has been drastically rising. The annual living cost that has increased was caused by many factors that include lifestyle, education, and the increase of life expectancy.

Horsmeat Scandal reaches School and Hospital

Feb. 18 Health no comments

The United Kingdom and Europe is facing broader problems because of the on going horsemeat scandal. The Food Standards Agency and other concerned parties in and out of the government have joined hand in hand to probably stop the problem that did not just affect the food businesses as well as the schools and hospitals. It is somehow alarming for some that the issue already widen its scope before it can even stop. The FSA has started checking all the meat produced by food suppliers. A lot of meat was tested and they will be posting the results soon for the concerned public to be aware.

It was reported that horsemeat was found in cottage pies that is usually sold to student in Lancashire schools and also the burgers distributed in the hospitals of Northern Ireland. After the said report, the authorities has advised these affected school and hospital to pull out the contaminated products and for precautionary measure include all beef products served in the said location. There were about a number of forty-seven pies ready to be delivered in the Lancashire school but automatically taken after it contained horse DNA. The local government of Lancashire also alarmed with the situation has acted promptly.

The crisis was growing said some local authorities. They are also monitoring the suppliers of the contaminated meat and would want to question them about it. Locals were angered and dismayed because the said scandal was causing a lot of problems and the retailers should give valid reasons why some of the affected meat products contained the horse DNA instead of what it should contain base on its labels.

FSA’s Investigation on the Horsemeat Scandal

Feb. 11 Health Comments Off

The horsemeat scandal has been viral. A lot of meat sellers including, the supermarket giant TESCO, have pulled out their meat products for possible tests. The Food Standard Agency has ordered that a number of processed meats should undergo a series of tests for possible contamination of horsemeat.

The food and farming minister and the environment secretary have the full support of FSA’s ongoing investigation. They were set to hold a meeting involving all the heads of the meat suppliers and retailers in London for the emergency on meat contamination.The horsemeat scandal has taken its toll and if not handled well, it could probably be a propagating problem. Likewise, other food businesses were also asked to examine further their meat products and test it for possible contamination. Not all of the suppliers were cooperative enough to the concerned agencies that were on a thorough study on the meat scandal. Some of them have already complained to the departmental authorities that they were already in too much pressure because of the scandal.

Even the schools were asked to test the meat products that were provided by their suppliers. Moreover, the hospitals are part of the institutions to put their meat on check for it is what is best to do in order to prevent contaminate food served to the patients. There were some baby food manufacturers who also complied with the emergency test.
News that came out recently about the beef lasagna that was pulled out by TESCO was found out to contain a hundred percent horsemeat DNA. The UK authorities are working hard for the said issue to be solved as soon as possible.

£700m Put Aside by Banks for New Mis-selling Scandal

Feb. 06 Finance no comments

A new scandal has emerged which could cost banks around £2bn in putting things rights. Barclays, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds have put aside £700m in order to compensate the small businesses who were victims of the mis selling of a complex financial derivative known popularly as ‘interest rate swaps’. The Financial Services Authority, the city regulator has urged the banks to review all cases which may have been mis sold financial products. They have said that around 40,000 cases have been the victims of the mis-selling of interest rate swaps since 2001.

Interest rate derivatives were originally designed to protect businesses from rising interest rates. Many small businesses have now however been faced with large amounts of debt and a struggle to pay the banks. However a pilot study carried out on 173 cases found that 9 out of 10 sold to small and medium sized businesses did not meet the regulatory requirement.

Vince Cable, business secretary, said “This is an example of the little guy paying for the big banks
wrongdoing. The immediate priority is to ensure small businesses are not driven out of business by
banks pursuing liabilities for swaps that they mis-sold.”

The FSA is still reviewing sales by Allied Irish Bank (UK), Bank of Ireland, Clydesdale and Yorkshire
banks, Co-operative Bank, and Santander UK. It aims to announce the scale of customer reviews at
those banks from 14th February.

Some affected by this scandal have said that the financial products were a condition of taking out
the loan, others have said that banks had used strong sale tactics in order to sell. As a result many
businesses are now waiting to have their cases reviewed in order to be compensated for any loss. Britain’s biggest banks have already set aside around £12bn in order to compensate those victimised in the Payment Protection Insurance scandal. To find out more go to www.InterestRateSwapsClaim.co.uk.

Human Trafficking in Europe

Feb. 04 Crime no comments

How many people are actually much aware that human trafficking has been occuring right on our doorsteps in the UK and Europe? There is a need to be well informed that in the kind of society that we have today, the vulnerable in particular should not easily trust anyone who they do not know.  They say that we are no longer safe wherever we are in the world for violent crimes, kidnapping and human trafficking has been circulating all around the globe.

In Europe, the authorities have arrested a shocking number of 103 people coming from all over the countries and all being accused of human trafficking. The said accused people were caught in different destinations such as the buses, trains and trucks. They were said to have come from countries like Afghanistan, Syria, Turkey, Pakistan and Iraq. Truly, Human Trafficking would bring a lot of money to whoever is the key person operating the said illegal business round Europe.

Human Trafficking is being eyed by the United Nations and monitoring possible growth of this illegal business that is being known worldwide. It had become a very serious matter which is alarming to different countries. This kind of business, although not legal could bring someone a big amount of money just by exploiting people and forcing them to be used by the said kind of business. The said situation that had happen recently caused a number of 1,200 European police to continue their search for possible more might be just around their areas.

A Future Under the Jackson Reforms

Jan. 29 Legal no comments

On the 1st of April of this year, Lord Jackson’s reforms concerning the recovery of legal costs in civil litigation will come into place. These new laws are supposed to put an end to the excessive financial success fees (and ATE premiums) in the Personal Injury sector.

Consequently, the reforms will involve the policing of rigid costs budgeting by the judiciary. They will have further authorities to control legal costs by using fixed budgets to limit sums of money that can be recovered.

Third party funding will experience a rise due to these reforms. This is mainly because the new costs procedure puts civil litigation in a very attractive light and a powerful investment opportunity for funders.

Contingency fees will become permissible. This will allow lawyers who advise on commercial disputes to charge fees of up to 50%, (dependent on whether they win the case) of the damages that they recover.

However, could we be heading for disaster with these reforms? Last week, the chief of the LSLA (London Solicitors Litigation Association) described the lack of regulations and practice directions just 10 weeks before the introduction of the reforms as “wholly unacceptable” and predicts that civil litigation could descend into chaos. Ms Kaye added that if a set of draft rules had been issued and consulted six months ago “rather than the overwhelming and dark impenetrable silence we have experienced”, lawyers and consultants may not be dreading the introduction of the Jackson Reforms.

These reforms mean considerable change in the Personal Injury Compensation Claims industry, but as of yet their full impact is unknown. Only April will reveal their effects on PI claims, and the management of these changes will be eagerly and perhaps warily anticipated.

PM David Cameron Threatened by Starbucks

Jan. 28 Business, Economy no comments

The company of Starbucks that is based in Seattle, Washington who is known to be providing Britons their morning lattes and mochas has threatened Prime Minister David Cameron on issues regarding tax. Starbucks Coffee, known to be the largest coffeehouse chain in the world, that serves both hot and cold quality beverages and pastries have more than 20,000 branches around the world. The company first entered the United Kingdom in the year 1998 having a lot of chains in different cities.

The threat of the company was said to be suspending some of its investments in Britain due to a negative attack on matters of tax that was brought about by the Prime Minister and its government.

During the World Economic Forum 2013 in Davos, Switzerland the Prime Minister has released a statement that read, “Wake up and smell the coffee”, thus reported by telegraph that was referring to the company who has been avoiding their tax obligations. Kamal Ahmed, Business Editor of the telegraph.co.uk, on his article said that the statement of the Mr. Cameron was used to attack Starbucks in Britain for failing to pay the corporation tax.

In every country, no one can escape from paying taxes. Even individual citizen contributes taxes to the government for its general use in the country’s improvement. Most of the countries in the world really impose the so called corporate tax or company tax but on a case to case basis there are others who are exempted to pay such taxes. The issue on tax evasion is common already. Big corporations and establishments are often involved in this kind of situation.

PM David Cameron’s Marvelous Speech

Jan. 24 Political News no comments

Prime Minister David Cameron delivered his long-awaited speech last night on the relationship of UK with the European Union. He declared that Britain rejects “ever closer union.”He also cited EU regulations on employment, the environment, social affairs and crime as among ‘so many areas’ where he wanted to ‘examine whether the balance is right.

The Prime Minister pulled a seemingly impossible speech last night with his EU referendum pledge. It united Eurosceptic Tory, Britain’s business leaders, and won the support of Germany’s Angela Merkel. He gave a guarantee of an in/out vote on the membership if he is prime minister after 2015. He persuaded other EU leaders and Eurocrats to back his calls for reform against the strong opposition from the likes of Spain and Italy. His announcement left the Labor in chaos as Ed Miliband told MPs he did not want an in/out referendum, only for other senior figures to insist later that he might.

Mr. Cameron’s speech gained a positive feedback from prominent leaders including London Mayor Boris Johnson who said, “No doubt, the British people would vote for the kind of renegotiated membership the Prime Minister envisaged. What most sensible people want is to belong to the single market but to lop off the irritating excrescences of the European Union.”

A member state of the European Union is a state that is party to treaties of the European Union (EU) and thereby subject to the privileges and obligations of EU membership. Unlike the membership of an international organization, EU membership places each member under binding laws in exchange for representation in the EU’s legislative and judicial institutions. On the other hand, EU states retain considerable autonomy compared to the constituent states of a federation (such as a U.S. state), maintaining their national military and foreign policy ,where they have not agreed to European action in these areas.

Mr. Cameron, who was forced to postpone his speech, last week because of the Algeria hostage crisis, set out a hugely ambitious vision of a transformed EU.