Christmas celebrations
Christmas decorations are seen at a traditional Christmas market in Vienna December 21, 2010. 
A boat, the traditional Greek symbol of Christmas, is illuminated in Aristotelous Square in the northern Greek port city of Thessaloniki, Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010.
A man looks at Christmas decoration in Sin El Fil, northeast of Beirut December 21, 2010.
NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 21: Thousands of hoiday tourists visit Rockefeller Center on December 21, 2010 in New York City. With only four shopping days left before the Christmas holiday, many New York businesses are experiencing robust sales as shoppers ease economic concerns to buy clothes, appliances and technology goods.
NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 21: Thousands of shoppers converge along 34th St. and Herald Square on December 21, 2010 in New York City. With only four shopping days left before the Christmas holiday, many New York businesses are experiencing robust sales as shoppers ease economic concerns to buy clothes, appliances and technology goods.
Children look at Christmas decoration in Sin El Fil, northeast of Beirut December 21, 2010.
Shoppers walk through a street illuminated with Christmas lights in Valletta December 21, 2010.
A boat, the traditional Greek symbol of Christmas, and a Christmas tree are illuminated in Aristotelous Square in the northern Greek port city of Thessaloniki, Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010.
Crowds throng to a shopping mall decorated for Christmas in Hong Kong on December 21, 2010. Christmas shopping is now in full swing with restaurants and retail outlets jam packed all over the territory.
People visit a traditional Christmas market in front of the Empress Maria Theresa monument in Vienna December 21, 2010.
A woman looks at Christmas tree ornaments at a traditional Christmas market in Vienna December 21, 2010.
Crowds throng to a shopping mall decorated for Christmas in Hong Kong on December 21, 2010. Christmas shopping is now in full swing with restaurants and retail outlets jam packed all over the territory.
A picture shows the skyline by night with some buildings showing fetive decoration from the Kowloon peninsula in Hong Kong on December 21, 2010. Christmas shopping is now in full swing with restaurants and retail outlets jam packed all over the territory.
A photographer takes pictures outside a shopping mall decorated for Christmas in Hong Kong on December 21, 2010. Christmas shopping is now in full swing with restaurants and retail outlets jam packed all over the territory.
A woman takes pictures of Christmas decoration in Ashrafieh, east Beirut December 21, 2010.
Hundreds of people queue outside St Pancras Station in London for the Eurostar train to France and Belgium Tuesday Dec. 21, 2010. Major delays and cancellations persisted Tuesday at European airports including London's Heathrow, and on the Eurostar train link, leaving thousands stranded across Europe as Christmas approached.
Passengers queue for Eurostar trains on December 21, 2010 at Paris gare du Nord railway station during ongoing delays caused by the weather. Thousands of angry travellers forced to sleep in airports and train stations across Europe faced more misery Tuesday as fresh snowfalls paralysed transport systems just days before Christmas.
Crossing guard Lisa Green dresses as a ginger bread house on the final day of school before the Christmas holiday break, Tuesday, Dec 21, 2010, in Brunswick, Maine. Green wears a variety of hand-made costumes to celebrate a half-dozen holidays each school year.
Pakistani Kaleem Masih paints Santa Claus and a Christmas message on a wall as he and others decorate their colony ahead of Christmas celebrations, Islamabad, Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010.
A girl wearing an Angel costume talks to children at the 16th annual Christmas Celebration for the Homeless at the Estrel convention center on December 21, 2010 in Berlin. German singer Frank Zander founded the event, which offers an evening of Christmas goose dinner, performances and Christmas gifts for the German capital's many homeless.
People enjoy a dinner in Berlin, December 21, 2010. For the 16th time German Musician Frank Zander hosts his annual Christmas dinner for homeless and poor people in the German capital.
A view of Paris' snow-covered roofs on December 19, 2010 after heavy snowfalls. Heavy snow disrupted European air travel this weekend and stranded hundreds of drivers in their cars as far south as Italy as a white Christmas appeared increasingly likely for many places.
People climb snow-covered stairs to the Sacre Coeur basilica on December 19, 2010 in Paris after heavy snowfalls. Heavy snow disrupted European air travel this weekend and stranded hundreds of drivers in their cars as far south as Italy as a white Christmas appeared increasingly likely for many places.
People climb snow-covered stairs to the Sacre Coeur basilica on December 19, 2010 in Paris after heavy snowfalls. Heavy snow disrupted European air travel this weekend and stranded hundreds of drivers in their cars as far south as Italy as a white Christmas appeared increasingly likely for many places.
People enjoy ice skating on the snowcovered Trocadero gardens near the Eiffel Tower, on December, 19, 2010 in Paris. Heavy snow disrupted European air travel this weekend and stranded hundreds of drivers in their cars as far south as Italy as a white Christmas appeared increasingly likely for many places.
People enjoy ice skating on the snowcovered Trocadero gardens near the Eiffel Tower, on December, 19, 2010 in Paris. Heavy snow disrupted European air travel this weekend and stranded hundreds of drivers in their cars as far south as Italy as a white Christmas appeared increasingly likely for many places.
Christmastime in New York City 2010
Hong Kong Harbour City 2010 Christmas
Hong Kong Harbour City 2010 Christmas
Christmas in Vienna 2010
Snow Eiffel Tower
Snow Eiffel Tower
PARIS SOUS LA NEIGE #23 (Snow Eiffel Tower)
PARIS SOUS LA NEIGE #3 (Snow Eiffel Tower)
source: Daylife
photo: AP photo, Gettyimages, Reuters
2011 Ford Explorer Top Safety Pick
All-new 2011 Ford Explorer earns Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Top Safety Pick, adding to Ford's leading number of top safety ratings
The reinvented Explorer offers a class-leading array of airbags, including industry-exclusive inflatable second-row seat belts, Safety Canopy® side curtains, Trinity front crash architecture and collision warning with brake support
Explorer also features AdvanceTrac® with RSC® (Roll Stability Control™) with Curve Control, and MyKey® teen-safety technology – all class-exclusive innovations to help drivers reduce the risk of accidents on the road
The reinvented 2011 Ford Explorer, which offers a suite of innovative safety technologies, is the latest Ford vehicle to earn a Top Safety Pick rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
"The Explorer offers several new innovative technologies, including available industry-first production rear inflatable seat belts, and Curve Control, which can help drivers maintain control of a vehicle if they enter a curve too quickly."
"Explorer customers value safety and security. World's first production inflatable rear seat belts
Explorer's Curve Control
Additional driver-assist and safety features
"The new Explorer delivers features that both help prevent a crash and help minimize occupant injuries when a crash is unavoidable," said Erika Low, Explorer safety manager. Driver- aid and safety technologies include options such as:
Structural safety and crash protection
Other Ford vehicles that have earned a Top Safety Pick rating include:
2011 Ford Taurus
2011 Ford Fusion
2011 Ford Fiesta
2011 Ford Flex
2011 Lincoln MKS
2011 Lincoln MKT
2011 Lincoln MKZ
The award by the IIHS casts into doubt the popular auto mythology that trucks are inherently safer than cars.
The announcement about the Explorer was bundled into a larger list of vehicles joining the IIHS winner's list for 2011. The new winners include the 2011 Mercedes-Benz E-Class coupe, 2011 Kia Optima, 2011 Volkswagen Jetta, 2011 Chevrolet Cruze, 2011 Scion tC, 2011 Volkswagen GTI four-door, 2011 Volkswagen Touareg, 2011 Hyundai Santa Fe and 2011 Mercedes-Benz GLK.
The IIHS said that 66 vehicles have earned the Top Safety Pick award for 2011, including 40 cars, 25 SUVs and a minivan. Large pickup trucks have not been tested yet.
The £1.5bn freeze: As travel chaos continues, the country counts economic cost
By SEAN POULTER and RAY MASSEY
Cars on the A413 road near Amersham in Buckinghamshire first thing this morning
The economy has suffered a £1.5billion ‘big freeze’ shock from travel chaos, lost production and savaged High Street sales.
The cost is 50 per cent higher than a normal winter and has prompted a string of cut-price offers from shops desperate to lure back lost Christmas trade.
Yesterday the freezing weather meant tens of thousands of airline passengers remained stranded at major airports, with many huddled in tents outside Heathrow’s terminal buildings.
Snow gathers on canal boats moored along the frozen Kennet and Avon Canal in Bath
But Heathrow bosses snubbed an offer from transport secretary Philip Hammond to use troops to help clear snow and ice which has crippled a runway since the weekend.
He said the airport’s Spanish-owned operator BAA told him they already had the manpower they needed.
It also emerged that the airport has slashed its snow defence budget by two-thirds to £500,000, compared with Gatwick’s £8million investment.
Passengers queue for Eurostar as a train leaves at St Pancras station today. Anyone without a ticket was told 'not to bother' turning up
The £1.5billion lost to the economy would buy 9,247,842 grit bins or 75,000 snow ploughs.
Hundreds of supermarkets and shopping malls will open late today and tomorrow as shoppers try to catch up.
Not just Britain: Ireland is suffering from freezing conditions too as this picture taken in Dublin shows
Heathrow’s second runway was finally cleared last night, but the number flights leaving will remain far lower than scheduled until at least early tomorrow morning.
There were also flight disruptions at Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow, as well as Gatwick, London Luton and London City airports yesterday.
Meanwhile, about 200 passengers were evacuated from stricken trains following damage to overhead power lines at Huntingdon near Peterborough. Eurostar was operating a reduced service with the company asking customers not to travel unless essential.
Crash: A Waitrose lorry struck a farmhouse in Newton Poppleford, East Devon, after skidding on ice
Frozen poet: Frost clings to the cobweb-covered statue of Lord Alfred Tennyson at Lincoln Cathedral
A swan struggles to break free of the ice on a frozen lake at the Fairburn Ings Bird Sanctuary near Castleford
Snow angel: Photographer Alison Parsons-Smith captured this heavenly image on the Isle of Wight
Not all bad: A baby elephant enjoys a frolic in the snow at Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire
Enough now: The youngster is led back to the warmth of an indoor enclosure by adult elephants at the zoo
National scandal: Despite Heathrow's importance to the UK economy, the government is powerless to intervene because of its foreign ownership
It will have hardly helped his cause that the Chancellor was held up in New York – unable to return to London – for nearly two days while pictures of the Third World conditions at London’s premier airport (which ironically boasts a ‘world class service’) filled American television screens.
This was as far as it is possible to get from the image of the efficient, modern, bustling commercial centre that the Chancellor was seeking to promote.
But who is to blame? Step forward the dopey, inefficient BAA (the former British Airports Authority) who own Heathrow.
The real scandal is that despite Heathrow’s economic and strategic importance to Britain, the Government is virtually powerless to do anything because the Authority is owned by a foreign company.
Powerless: While in other countries there has been investment ministers have been unable to get BAA to buy adequate snow-clearing and de-icing equipment
And it is a scandal that goes back to 2006, when the Labour government stood idly by while a little-known, family-controlled Spanish construction group called Ferrovial was allowed to buy all of Britain’s airports at the knockdown price of £10.3billion.
What’s more, the purchase was made despite the firm already having huge debts.
This was just the latest squalid example of a British government selling key parts of this country’s infrastructure to foreign buyers. For example, control of our ports passed from one of the nation’s great historic companies, P&O, into the hands of Dubai World; and most of our power utilities have been sold to continental giants EDF of France and E.ON of Germany.
Shocking: Neither the Coalition government nor its Labour predecessor has taken proper responsibility for Heathrow and Britain's other airports
The problem with our airports is that the Government is powerless to force the foreign owners to ensure there are the necessary systems to prevent flights being grounded in bad weather. While sensible investment is made in other countries’ airports, ministers have been unable to get BAA to buy adequate snow-clearing and de-icing equipment.
Equally culpable is the regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority, which has been supine in its refusal to raise any serious objections over Ferrovial’s behaviour.
source: dailymail
Cars on the A413 road near Amersham in Buckinghamshire first thing this morningThe economy has suffered a £1.5billion ‘big freeze’ shock from travel chaos, lost production and savaged High Street sales.
The cost is 50 per cent higher than a normal winter and has prompted a string of cut-price offers from shops desperate to lure back lost Christmas trade.
Yesterday the freezing weather meant tens of thousands of airline passengers remained stranded at major airports, with many huddled in tents outside Heathrow’s terminal buildings.
Snow gathers on canal boats moored along the frozen Kennet and Avon Canal in BathBut Heathrow bosses snubbed an offer from transport secretary Philip Hammond to use troops to help clear snow and ice which has crippled a runway since the weekend.
He said the airport’s Spanish-owned operator BAA told him they already had the manpower they needed.
It also emerged that the airport has slashed its snow defence budget by two-thirds to £500,000, compared with Gatwick’s £8million investment.
Passengers queue for Eurostar as a train leaves at St Pancras station today. Anyone without a ticket was told 'not to bother' turning upThe £1.5billion lost to the economy would buy 9,247,842 grit bins or 75,000 snow ploughs.
Hundreds of supermarkets and shopping malls will open late today and tomorrow as shoppers try to catch up.
Not just Britain: Ireland is suffering from freezing conditions too as this picture taken in Dublin shows
Heathrow’s second runway was finally cleared last night, but the number flights leaving will remain far lower than scheduled until at least early tomorrow morning.
There were also flight disruptions at Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow, as well as Gatwick, London Luton and London City airports yesterday.
Meanwhile, about 200 passengers were evacuated from stricken trains following damage to overhead power lines at Huntingdon near Peterborough. Eurostar was operating a reduced service with the company asking customers not to travel unless essential.
Crash: A Waitrose lorry struck a farmhouse in Newton Poppleford, East Devon, after skidding on ice Frozen poet: Frost clings to the cobweb-covered statue of Lord Alfred Tennyson at Lincoln Cathedral A swan struggles to break free of the ice on a frozen lake at the Fairburn Ings Bird Sanctuary near Castleford Snow angel: Photographer Alison Parsons-Smith captured this heavenly image on the Isle of Wight
Not all bad: A baby elephant enjoys a frolic in the snow at Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire Enough now: The youngster is led back to the warmth of an indoor enclosure by adult elephants at the zoo National scandal: Despite Heathrow's importance to the UK economy, the government is powerless to intervene because of its foreign ownership
It will have hardly helped his cause that the Chancellor was held up in New York – unable to return to London – for nearly two days while pictures of the Third World conditions at London’s premier airport (which ironically boasts a ‘world class service’) filled American television screens.This was as far as it is possible to get from the image of the efficient, modern, bustling commercial centre that the Chancellor was seeking to promote.
But who is to blame? Step forward the dopey, inefficient BAA (the former British Airports Authority) who own Heathrow.
The real scandal is that despite Heathrow’s economic and strategic importance to Britain, the Government is virtually powerless to do anything because the Authority is owned by a foreign company.
Powerless: While in other countries there has been investment ministers have been unable to get BAA to buy adequate snow-clearing and de-icing equipmentAnd it is a scandal that goes back to 2006, when the Labour government stood idly by while a little-known, family-controlled Spanish construction group called Ferrovial was allowed to buy all of Britain’s airports at the knockdown price of £10.3billion.
What’s more, the purchase was made despite the firm already having huge debts.
This was just the latest squalid example of a British government selling key parts of this country’s infrastructure to foreign buyers. For example, control of our ports passed from one of the nation’s great historic companies, P&O, into the hands of Dubai World; and most of our power utilities have been sold to continental giants EDF of France and E.ON of Germany.
Shocking: Neither the Coalition government nor its Labour predecessor has taken proper responsibility for Heathrow and Britain's other airportsThe problem with our airports is that the Government is powerless to force the foreign owners to ensure there are the necessary systems to prevent flights being grounded in bad weather. While sensible investment is made in other countries’ airports, ministers have been unable to get BAA to buy adequate snow-clearing and de-icing equipment.
Equally culpable is the regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority, which has been supine in its refusal to raise any serious objections over Ferrovial’s behaviour.
source: dailymail
