Car dealer offers buy one, get one free as desperation grips industry
A car dealer desperate to shift stock has stunned the motor industry with an extraordinary offer: buy one car - and get another one free.The Colchester-based online...
2008-11-08 02:21:40Kids, curries, Kerala: the perfect recipe
It would be dark soon, we could tell, because the sun had dipped behind the far ridge of the absurdly picturesque valley, but there didn't seem to be any urgency to return to our bungalow. The tea country of the Western Ghats in southern India, the knuckle of mountains separating lush Kerala from the plains of Tamil Nadu, is tranquil to the point of caricature and the only danger lay in the eyes of our seven-year-old, Esme, who feared we might encounter more tea pickers. Earlier, walking up from the bungalow which had once belonged to the English manager of the vast Tallayar estate, the last of these to finish work had descended past us. Three women, Tamils wearing saris, had pinched Esme's cheeks so hard her smile had morphed into a grimace. Now the tea pickers had all reached their homes further down the valley, from where later in the dark we would hear Tamil film music drifting up. Instead, we were stopped by the recently installed manager of the estate, having first been alerted to his presence by the growl of his gleaming Enfield motorbike. Elephants, he said, roamed these hillsides; and yes, they could be very dangerous and yes, we'd best hurry back to the bungalow.Packing for this two-week adventure, we had not counted being savaged by wild pachyderms among the possible dangers. Instead, there had been questions about what would Sam and Esme eat and what sort of malaria pills should we take, or would they be simply overwhelmed by the country itself. Before Zoe and I met we had both travelled around India. The three weeks I'd spent in the south with a gang of teenage mates, rucksacks filled with filthy washing on our backs, had left me with the potentially foolhardy idea of wanting to instil the fascination I'd felt with this part of the world in two under-10s whose weltanschauung had hitherto been bound by Ryanair's flight routes.Kerala's history is intertwined with that of travellers seduced by its spectacular beauty. In Cochin, to which we flew via Sri Lanka, there is still - just about - one of the oldest Jewish diaspora communities in the world as well as India's oldest European church, St Francis, where the explorer Vasco da Gama was originally buried. Our own journey had seen Zoe pick up a bug on the flight, and the family's entrance into the country had been heralded by a fellow passenger announcing to the stewardesses, 'she is vomiting', with the sort of hard, percussive 'v' and elongated vowel sound that also announces India. So much for the children's welfare.But this was a holiday at which we were chucking the savings, and whereas last time it had been trains and buses, now we were met by our own car and driver, the heroic Rajesh, with whom we weaved calmly north for an hour-and-a-half to what we could see, in the warm light of morning, were the Athirapally Falls. This is a popular spot for local tourists, and the view from our adjoining bedrooms at our eco-friendly hotel of the Chalakudy River crashing down 80 feet was spectacular. The falls had also attracted a film crew shooting a Malayalam movie in the forest when Sam, Esme and I sweated past later in the heat, with a chorus line of extras and a troop of monkeys waiting in the shade. For the children, it immediately felt very different from the school playground on a Friday afternoon, and later, on a drive deeper into the forest, we saw deer and a giant red squirrel, but no elephants here either, despite the promised chance of a sighting.The deal had been that we would split the trip between wildlife, beach and culture and next morning, with Zoe recovered, we drove back to Cochin. The route was initially through lush countryside, with Rajesh pointing out the banana trees, tapioca, rubber trees and much more, as if this were a botany lesson. This is a fertile land for religion, too, and beside the temples and mosques, there were huge churches with gaudy paint jobs to enable them compete with their Hindu counterparts. Imposing mansions also studded the roadside, evidence of Kerala's growing prosperity.Long the most literate state in India, it is benefiting from workers at every level, from construction workers to medics, sending money home from newfound jobs in the Gulf. Tourism plays its part, too, and in Cochin the sort of boutique hotel that simply didn't exist in India twenty years ago - backpacker's budget or not -was awaiting us. Before dinner in the courtyard of the chic Malabar House, there was the inevitable visit to the city's famous Chinese fishing nets and then to a kathakali show. Genuine performances of this ancient form of dance-drama apparently last through the night, but even though this show was thankfully truncated and the protagonists looked spectacular in their lurid make-up, there was still the question of why the children should be subjected to it when I had suffered a similar show that had bored me close to tears 20 years ago. But it proved a surprise hit thanks to the woman who explained the action to the audience and could have passed for Les Dawson in drag; coincidentally, she also shared his comic timing.The cultural trail was leading us to Madurai across the Western Ghats in Tamil Nadu, but to break the nine-hour drive we stopped for the night in tea country, 45 minutes on from the town of Munnar. En route, the children were entertained by the scenery but also by a CD of the Just William stories we'd brought with us to play on the car stereo; it turned out that the sound of Martin Jarvis recounting the adventures of William, Ginger, Douglas et al proved the most apposite soundtrack to our arrival at the Tallayar Estate bungalow - a perfect throwback to the Raj. Delphiniums and forget-me-nots prettified the garden and the strawberries were just coming into season; later, the cook asked the children to identify the veg patch cauliflower they fancied for dinner. We were the only guests, treated to vast bedrooms and chipped ceramic baths, and the cook and housekeeper were there at 4am to see us off.The early start wasn't in the itinerary however relentless it seemed, but the stoic Rajesh had been alarmed by news of a hartal - a strike - called to protest against rising fuel prices in Kerala. So we wound through the mountains as dawn crept up - privilege to the most spectacular views - in order to make the state border before angry picket lines could stop us; Rajesh was genuinely relieved when we made it down into the plains without incident. The ancient city of Madurai with its rubbish-strewn streets served as a sharp contrast to the more genteel charms of Cochin. But to visit its stellar attraction, the Meenakshi temple, we took rickshaws from the hotel and the children loved the mayhem of our race there. If ever any journey made a mockery of the demand that they put their seat belts on when in the car back home, this was it. The vast temple complex, with its 12 gopurams, beats an Anglican church hands down when it comes to child-friendliness, too: we could pad around barefoot, play hide and seek among the sculptures, visit the temple shops - and gain a keen sense of a religion practised in near-unbroken form for millennia. Sam said later that the temple was - and here he adopted the sort of formulation that would see Rajev tell us that from Madurai to our next destination it was 'near ... and also far' - both 'boring and ... interesting'. Serious praise.In Madurai we also visited a tailor, who kitted out both children in Indian clothes, which seemed like a further measure of their acclimatisation. The food, too, was proving a breeze - the idea of a curry provoked few fears, with biscuits and bananas coming to the rescue if there really wasn't anything they fancied. Only a ritual of our own cast a pall; advice on whether it was really necessary to take precautions against malaria in southern India was mixed, which meant that the children were bullied into wolfing down their bitter pills every evening before dinner. This, Esme maintains, was, cheek-pinchers included, 'the absolute worst thing about India'.From Madurai it was a scramble back to the coast, but the journey was broken by two nights at the Periyar Wildlife park, the biggest in south India. The first time I had visited here, if memory serves, there were few buildings and little in the way of hotels and it was in the adjacent town of Thekkady that my friends and I had been approached by a wiry fellow asking, 'sirs, would you be interested in seeing marijuana growing', followed by his sales pitch. Now it was shop owners inviting us in to look at artefacts from around the country - pashminas from Kashmir and such like. The advantage of Periyar remains that it is easy to visit - a vast artificial lake dominates the park and every hour three or four boats with Indian honeymooners and Western tourists sputter off across the water.But first we hired a guide to take us walking into the jungle, which meant more monkeys and a raccoon, as well as tiger scratch marks but no tigers and no elephants. Easy to imagine they were scared off by the occasional moan from a child still sweltering in the becalming, relative coolness of the thick interior. But it was still fantastically like The Jungle Book. Later, the boat ride proved restive, apart from the sudden frenzied gesticulation necessary when anyone thought they had spotted a big beast on the shore. Sadly, they were only deer.Never mind, because next day, finally there were elephants, tame ones that we rode around a patch of jungle in Thekkady. The Madurai rickshaw race was recreated at ambling pace - the danger now in the possibility of Zoe panicking and falling off. This was, Esme later said, 'the best thing we did in India'.From there, we bumped down towards the sea, entering the part of Kerala famous for its luscious backwaters, where the distinction between land and water threatens to disappear. First we stopped for two nights at an absurdly luxurious hotel called Privacy on the shores of the vast Lake Vembanad and then hit a beach resort.This stretch of the frenzied journey served as a reward for everyone - lazing by the swimming pool, cycling through country lanes, being buffeted by the warm waves of the Arabian Sea, drifting through backwaters in a modified canoe. By this stage, for the adults, there was little of the sense of adventure that had characterised our earlier trips to India, though we continued to marvel at recent developments in the country that made our lives easier now - such as functioning cash points. But every day brought something new to Sam and Esme.The only shame was that we had to part company with Rajesh who, like everyone we met, could not have been nicer to the children. Sam gashed his foot in the pool at Privacy but by then Zoe and I were beyond worrying. The junior contingent started moaning, but only that we absolutely had to return to Kerala at the earliest possible opportunity.EssentialsCaspar Llewellyn Smith travelled with Transindus 020 8566 2729; transindus.com. A 16-day family trip staying at the Rainforests, Malabar House, Tallayar Estate, Taj Garden Retreat, Spice Village, Privacy and Marari Beach, costs from £2,298 per adult, and £2,048 per child under 12, including flights, sightseeing tours, all transport, and breakfasts. A shorter, nine-day escorted group tour 'Kerala in Style' costs from £1,629 per adult, £1,498 per child. Caspar and family flew with Sri Lankan Airlines 020 8538 2000; srilankan.lk.IndiaSri LankaFamily holidaysguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
2008-10-26 20:43:19GM to lay off 1,500 hourly workers as demand slows Reuters
Reuters - General Motors Corp will lay off 1,500 hourly workers at plants in Michigan and Delaware where it builds pickup trucks, large cars and a two-seat roadster due to slowing demand, a spokesman said on Thursday.
2008-10-16 13:40:07British commuter trains to get closer to can of sardines
INT37International/EconomyBritish commuter trains to get closer to can of sardinesLondon, Oct 16 IANS British commuter trains may soon resemble Mumbai’s overcrowded suburban services, if new passenger capacity rules are any indication.The department of transport has chosen a simple way to increase passenger loads on tracks without adding a single seat. It has raised the limit on standing passengers from the existing 10 for every 100 seats to 30. The department said that its loading standard assumed that each standing passenger would have 0.45 sq m of floor space: any less and the train would be officially overcrowded.The announcement has elicited only smirks, with people saying the department is blind to the fact that the revised limit is already in breach on scores of trains. For instance, the most overcrowded service is First Capital Connect’s 7.15 a.m. service from Cambridge to King’s Cross, which has 76 people standing for every 100 seats. The figure could have been higher had there been an inch of extra space.Train commuting is a major problem in Britain, with demand outstripping supply. Passenger numbers have gone up by 50 percent, but not the carriages. Out of 1,300 new carriages promised by this year, only 423 have been ordered and none delivered so far, according to The Times.But then, the government alone is not to blame for this. An investigation by The Times last year revealed that hundreds of train carriages are lying idle in sidings all over the country. They add up to roughly 10,000 extra seats.The carriages are owned by three banks and leased to train companies. The companies are trying to save money by hiring as few as possible. A prominent company has so few trains that some of its peak services have four carriages instead of the usual eight. The lopsided situation has made daily travel dearer. Private train operators have hiked current day, peak-time prices steeply to keep the crowds in trains manageable. For example, Virgin charges 215 pounds for an open single in standard class from London to Warrington, but as little as 13 pounds for passengers able to book several weeks in advance.Centro, the public transport authority in the West Midlands, has already complained to the National Audit Office NAO that the new standing passenger rules would result in even worse conditions on trains in the region and encourage people to travel by car, thereby adding to road congestion.There is a worry that the government’s offhand approach to the problem will only increase fares to a point where affording a train trip will be a greater headache for passengers than travelling standing. --Indo-Asian News Serviceven/sh/jg476 Words16101258
2008-10-16 04:00:00Child seats fail council checks
Council officials in Powys urge parents to take advantage of a free child's car seat safety check.
2008-10-14 07:28:16Austrian right-wing politician Joerg Haider dies in accident
INT19International/Accident/PoliticsAustrian right-wing politician Joerg Haider dies in accidentVienna, Oct 11 DPA Joerg Haider, the leader of Austria's right-wing Alliance for the Future of Austria, died in a car accident early Saturday, Austrian police confirmed. The accident occurred near Klagenfurt, capital of the province of Carinthia, where 58-year-old Haider was governor, around 2 a.m. Haider was driving by himself when his car veered off the road and flipped over. Police are still investigating the cause of the accident. The politician died of serious injuries to the head and chest, police said. According to police, Haider was on his way from an event to his home in Feistritz, about 30 kilometres from Klagenfurt. "For us, this is like the end of the world," Alliance spokesman and deputy leader Stefan Petzner was quoted as saying by the Austrian press agency APA. In parliamentary elections in late September, the populist leader's Alliance got almost 11 percent in the ballots, nearly doubling the votes from the previous elections in 2006. Haider's party split in 2005 from the Freedom Party FPOe, which gained prominence under Haider's leadership in the 1980s and 1990s. Haider was notorious for provocative statements, such as his assertion in 1991 that the Third Reich under Hitler had a "proper employment policy". Nazi Germany had enslaved Jews and foreigners for its wartime economy. In 2000, Haider led the Freedom Party into a government coalition as a junior partner of the conservative People's Party. When the Alliance was formed in 2005, its officials took over the Freedom Party's seats in cabinet until the coalition broke down in 2006. The 2000 centre-right coalition, where Haider was not a cabinet member, met with strong criticism from European Union members, who reacted by implementing diplomatic sanctions against Austria.--DPApb/jg322 Words11101117
2008-10-11 02:00:08Luck saved travelers from June 2007 terror strike at Glasgow Airport
London, Oct.10 ANI: Luck played a huge and significant role in saving hundreds of travellers at Glasgow Airport in June 2007 from an attempted terror strike by Indian-born medics Dr. Bilal Abdullah and Dr. Kafeel Ahmed, investigators have told a jury here on Thursday.Islamist extremists tried to set off a suicide blast by driving a jeep into the main terminal building on the busiest day of the year, a jury heard. The vehicle, which was packed with gas canisters and fuel containers, caught fire but was stuck in the doors of the terminal and failed to explode. The Sun quoted prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw , as saying: "It was simply luck that protected the people of Scotland." It was alleged Dr Bilal Abdulla, 29, a junior house doctor at the oyal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, who lived in Houston, Renfrewshire, and Dr. Mohammed Asha, 27, were behind the attack hours after they botched two car bombs in London. "These two were intent on committing murder on an indiscriminate and wholesale scale," Laidlaw claimed.It was alleged that Kafeel Ahmed, who suffered fatal burns on the attack in Glasgow, was the third man in the terror cell. Laidlaw claimed the terrorists launched the airport attack on June 30 last year knowing they had only a limited time before they were caught following the failed London bombings.Laidlaw alleged that Abdulla, who was arrested at the airport, had been in the passenger seat and had sprayed petrol around the inside of the vehicle. He added: "Material found in their possession after their arrests reveals they both hold or adhere to extreme Islamic belief and that both share, despite their profession and their obligation to save life and avert suffering, the same extreme religious and murderous ideology as has inspired other terrorists who have struck and threatened this country in recent years."Abdulla and Asha deny conspiring to murder and to cause explosions likely to endanger life. The trial continues. ANI
2008-10-10 02:55:38Thai Parliament surrounded by protestors, premier flees
INT39International/Politics/RightsThai Parliament surrounded by protestors, premier fleesBangkok, Oct 7 DPA Thousands of followers of the Thailand's People's Alliance for Democracy PAD surrounded parliament Tuesday, forcing the prime minister to flee the compound by helicopter, after police failed to disperse the anti-government protestors with tear gas. Riot police attempted to scatter the demonstration around parliament early Tuesday by firing tear gas into the crowd, injuring about 70 people, several seriously. At least two protestors lost their lower legs and another lost his right hand, apparently from tear gas canisters either shot at close range or detonated when the victims attempted to kick or throw them back at police. "We want the government to dissolve parliament by 6 pm," said Sonthi Limthongkul, a key leader of the PAD which has occupied Government House, the seat of government, since Aug 26. "If not, we will take strong measures against the government." Thousands of PAD followers marched on parliament Monday night in an effort to prevent the lower and upper houses from holding a session to approve the new government's policy statement. Although the PAD demonstration failed to prevent the parliamentary session from being held, they succeeded in surrounding the compound and locking the gates, blocking some with police vans and trucks whose tyres had been flattened. Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, after reading his government's policy statement, was forced to flee the parliament compound in a helicopter. Hundreds of legislators were trapped within the compound with no way out by car. After the initial attack on the PAD at about 6.20 a.m., demonstrators stormed the Metropolitan Police headquarters on Rajdamnoen Nok Road, around the corner from parliament, to protest the crackdown. "I was just sitting there. I didn't think the police would fire tear gas at us. This is barbaric," said Pradap Thaephu, 53, a woman PAD supporter who sustained a head wound from a tear gas cannister. Thai Queen Sirikit has reportedly donated funds for medical treatment of the injured. The police attack immediately drew criticism from human rights groups and the opposition Democrat Party refused to attend the Parliament session to protest the use of violence. The initial police attack left about 70 PAD followers injured, primarily from tear gas canisters but others from what appeared to be rubber bullet wounds, said medics who had set up emergency treatment stations in Parliament. The police have denied using rubber bullets, but eyewitnesses said they saw guns being fired. Rubber bullets were also found on the street in front of parliament. Despite the police crackdown, the PAD protestors, many of them in tears from the gas, refused to leave the road in front of the Parliament building. Some of the protestors had armed themselves with golf clubs, iron bars and wooden sticks. The PAD is a loose coalition of groups opposed to the return to power of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by a military coup on Sep 19, 2006. The current government is led by the People Power Party PPP, a group with close ties to Thaksin that is now led by Somchai, Thaksin's brother-in-law. There are fears among the PAD that this government is seeking to reinstate the 1997 constitution, a liberal, pro-political parties charter that paved the way for Thaksin's rise to power in 2001 to 2006 and allowed his Thai Rak Thai party to dominate the political scene unhampered by independent bodies and checks and balances. The arrest of PAD leader Chamlong Srimuang on treason charges Sunday was deemed an invitation to escalate the PAD protest and the derailing of efforts to reach a compromise with the movement that is fighting for an era of "new politics" in Thailand.--DPAdkg668 Words07101423
2008-10-07 05:00:00Poor ratings cited for 13 booster seats AP
AP - Several car booster seats do a poor job of positioning children to fit in their seat belts, according to a review by the insurance industry and researchers.
2008-10-01 05:00:002-week-old baby found alive atop garbage pile - Chicago Sun-Times
WBBM7802-week-old baby found alive atop garbage pileChicago Sun-Times - 49 minutes agoA salvager found more than garbage Tuesday morning in Franklin Park -- a 2-week-old baby. The Hispanic girl was left in a cream-and-green car seat in a pile of garbage in the 3000 block of Lee Street.2-week-old girl found abandoned in Franklin Park trash pile Chicago Tribune2-Week-Old Baby Girl Found In Garbage Pile CBS2 ChicagoABC7Chicago.com - Chicago Tribuneall 13 news articles
2008-10-01 05:00:00
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