UK.,The privatisation of Royal Mail ..[ 1930 ]

Government admits Queen's head could be lost from stamps

•   The Telegraph , Sun Dec 19, 2010,01:26 GMT

Buckingham Palace is in talks with ministers to ensure the Queen's head remains on postage stamps if privatisation of Royal Mail goes ahead.

A representation of the monarch has appeared on every British postage stamp since 1840 

 Photo: REUTERS

By Harry Wallop, Consumer Affairs Editor 1:26PM GMT 19 Dec 2010

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Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, said discussions were taking place after he admitted that there was no specific clause in the Postal Services Bill, setting out the terms of privatisation, which forces any new owner to keep the Queen's head.

An image of the monarch's head has been on British postage stamps since they were invented in 1840.

The draft legislation already contained provisions requiring a future private operator to get Royal approval before issuing new postage stamps bearing Her Majesty’s image – but no clause obliging them to use it in the first place.

It is understood that no one believed that a new owner would want to drop the image, so felt it was not necessary to specify that the Queen's head should remain.

The Government is currently pushing through its plans to sell off up to 80 per cent of Royal Mail, either to a private operator or on the London Stock Exchange, most likely sometime in 2012. It keen to make the business – burdened with a vast pension deficit and declining postal revenues – as attractive as possible to any buyer.

Kosovo : PM Hashim Thaci's crimes ..[ 1929 ]

Kosovo PM Hashim Thaci's crimes 'known to the West'

The USA  Approval and ..love story

Hashim Thaci and Madeline Albright

The West elevated a man it knew to be a criminal boss to the rank of European statesman.
Although Western intelligence agencies warned that Hashim Thaci ran an organised crime network in the late 1990s, Western political leaders backed his Kosovo Liberation Army, according to a report published by the Council of Europe.

The report, adopted unanimously by the council's 47 member states, will add to pressure for an independent criminal inquiry into Mr Thaci, now Kosovo's Prime Minister. 
It also places an embarrassing spotlight on the actions of the NATO members who intervened in Kosovo in 1999 as the country engaged in a war of independence with Slobodan Milosevic's Serbia.

Click for Full story: www.theaustralian.com.au

NASA Image of the Day, Dec 17th..[ 1928 ]

The latest NASA "Image of the Day" image.

Wright Flyer

 

On Dec. 17, 1903, the Wright Brothers made the first powered flight and, in March 1999, a full-scale replica of the 1903 Wright Flyer was mounted in NASA Ames Research Center's 40-foot by 80-foot wind tunnel for tests to build a historically accurate aerodynamic database of the Flyer. For two weeks, engineers studied the replica's stability, control and handling at speeds up to 27 knots (30 mph) in the wind tunnel. 

 

The Wright Flyer replica was constructed by a team of volunteers from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics using plans provided by the Smithsonian. The replica featured a 40-foot-4-inch wingspan reinforced with piano wire, cotton wing coverings, spruce propellers and a double rudder. 

 

Although it replicated the 1903 Wright Flyer in design, size, appearance and aerodynamics, some changes were made to make it stronger for mounting in the wind tunnel.

 

Image Credit: NASA

Παρασκευή, 17 Δεκέμβριος 2010 7:00:00 πμ

EU budget freeze....{ 1927 ]

France, Germany, UK, others urge EU budget freeze

European Union flags are seen outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels ahead of an EU heads of state summit, October 27, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Francois Lenoir

PARIS | Sat Dec 18, 2010 5:25am EST

PARIS (Reuters) - Britain, France, Germany, Finland and the Netherlands called on Saturday for the EU budget to be frozen until at least 2020, in a joint letter to the European Commission.

The letter, addressed to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, said that the European Union's joint budget should not grow faster than the rate of inflation in the bloc's post-2013 long-term budget.

"European public spending cannot be exempted from member states' considerable efforts to get their public spending under control," the letter, which was released by the French presidency, said.

The EU's 27 countries will start talks in mid-2011 on the long-term budget, which runs from 2014 until 2020 or longer.

Next year's budget is worth 126.5 billion euros ($166.8 billion), with more than 40 percent of it going on agriculture and a third on aid to poor regions.

The joint letter was signed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Finnish Prime Minister Mari Kiviniemi.

Cameron used an EU summit in Brussels on Friday to drum up support for a leaner budget, telling reporters that the bloc "needed real budgetary restraint."

However, efforts to agree a tighter budget are likely to run up against stiff opposition from poorer eastern European countries that currently benefit most from EU largesse and Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said his country would resist cuts.

(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by John Stonestreet)

NASA Image of the Day, Dec 15th..[ 1926 ]

   The latest NASA "Image of the Day" image.  

Soyuz Heads for the Space Station
The Soyuz TMA-20 rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2010 (Dec. 16 in Kazakhstan), carrying Expedition 26 Soyuz Commander Dmitry Kondratyev of Russia, NASA Flight Engineer Cady Coleman of the U.S. and European Space Agency Flight Engineer Paolo Nespoli to the International Space Station. They're set to dock at the orbital outpost on Friday, Dec. 17.

 

Photo Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi

Τετάρτη, 15 Δεκέμβριος 2010 7:00:00 πμ