BRITAIN & IRELAND :
LONDON’s Savoy Hotel will close for an 18 month, £100 million refurbishment at the end of the year.
A NEW NAME IN HOTELS: The Hilton Hotel Corporation is to open a new tier of hotels called Hilton Garden in competition to Holiday Inn. This brand has already opened in Europe and America and will be all new-build.
IN & OUT: Record numbers of people are leaving Britain with an annual loss of 350,000 native Britons emigrating – including 71,000 to Australia, 58,000 to Spain and 42,000 to France. 574,000 new people arrived in the country in the same period with 75,000 from East Europe. A quarter of new births in Britain are to couples with at least one foreign-born parent.
IN MEMORIUM: The huge £6m stone circle in Alrewas, Staffordshire, bears the names of 16,000 service personnel, with room for 15,000 more names to be carved on the Portland stone walls of the memorial, at the National Memorial Arboretum. It opens to the public on 29 th October. Other memorials recently opened include the New Zealand Memorial at Hyde Park Corner which faces the refurbished Australian one. There are also memorials erected recently to Police Officers on the Mall, Women at War in Whitehall, and Animals in Battle in Park Lane. The website of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission is constantly updated and can be a useful site http://www.cwgc.org/ The Royal British Legion also has a site http://www.roll-of-honour.com/ which has details of memorials across Britain and the World.
IRELAND: This year has seen the first Black mayor elected and the first all-black school opened. While Bracken Educate Together is the third emergency school to open this year, it is the first with all black pupils. The Tiger Economy has meant an influx of immigrants into the Republic resulting in a shortage of school places. 4.8 immigrants per 1,000 people are expected this year where 585,000 already live – just under 14% of the population. 47,551 Irish Work Permits were issued to NON EU nationals in 2003.
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AROUND EUROPE :
MOSCOW: Starbucks has opened its first Russian outlet, selling a large ventimocha for €6-50, 50% more than in London, proving the capital’s status as the most expensive city in the World.
KRAKOW: The cobble stones of All Saints Square in Krakow are being eroded by fat dripping from Kebabs bought at stalls in the area. This new menace is breaking up the surface of the stones that have withstood the ravages of invasions from Russia and Nazi Germany.
GRAPE HARVESTS are at a low in Southern Europe following a summer of wet weather and outbreak of mildew and millerandage (where grapes in a bunch mature at different rates). France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece all expect shortfalls of about the levels of the 2003 heat wave. Central European producers report an expected rise in harvests. Wine prices are likely to rise as Australian production has been hit by drought.
GERMANY – EAST & WEST: When the Iron Curtain came down the Euphoria was soon replaced by the realisation that it wasn’t going to be cheap. Two Governments fell as €2.000 billion was spent on unification in propping up the economy of the defunct former communist DDR. Now Germany has reported its first surplus. However, despite a loss of around 10% of its population as they have moved westwards, the Eastern part of Germany still suffers an unemployment rate of over 18% “Unification meant that Germany added 7% to the economy, 25% to it's population, 40% to it's size, 50% to it's unemployment rate, and 100% to it's problems.”
FLORENCE: A tunic said to have been worn by Saint Francis has been long revered in Santa Croce, but new carbon dating methods have shown it to be made at least 80 years after his death in 1226. The rope belt in the display however is of the correct period. Another relic, a tunic said to have been worn by the saint on his deathbed, along with the cushion he rested his head upon have been confirmed as coming from his lifetime. These are kept in the Church of San Francesco in Cortona.
FATIMA: Another claimant to the biggest, highest most voluminous church has opened. Fatima is the place where three secrets were revealed in apparitions by the Virgin to children in 1917. It has been a pilgrimage site since that time and in 1953 a basilica was erected to contain worshippers. Now a new Church of the Holy Trinity has opened. This will cater to the 5 million visitors that visit the site each year. It has 13 bronze doors (the number at the last supper) weighing 3.2 tonnes, on the 125 metre diameter, circular structure that can hold 8,600 of the faithful, with a 500 sq. metre presbytery – the World’s largest. It ranks with: The Basilica of our Lady of Peace in the Ivory Coast – largest area -30,000 sq. m., St Peter’s in Rome – highest dome at 119m., The Basilica of Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil – biggest church in the Americas with a volume of 1.2 million cu. m., Munster Cathedral, in Germany – tallest church at 162 metres.
REST OF THE WORLD :
NORTHWEST PASSAGE: The first expedition is underway to navigate the North-West Passage, the sea route around the north of North America. Already, as the melting Ice Cap has opened the previously frozen sea, claims are being made for its strategic control and the now accessible wealth below. The Russians were quick off the mark to prove that expected, extensive oil/gas deposits are part of their continental shelf. The United States wants to control the water way, and Canada is steadfastly saying “hands off our waters”.
KATMANDU: After continued technical problems with one of its new Boeings, Nepal Airlines has sacrificed 2 goats. They report the drastic move has proved successful.
PLANE TRUTH: All the worlds aircraft carry identifying national letters on the tail and are allocated by an UN agency, the ICAO, which also sets international regula- tions and standards for air travel. Celebrating 60 years of Independence from British Rule, India applied to change from the old VT. Australia still uses VH, New Zealand uses ZK-, while Britain’s code letter is G-
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