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HIGHER ENERGY BILLS
Thousands of consumers are to be hit with higher energy bills after Npower became the first utility provider to hike its standard tariffs. The company said its domestic customers would be hit with an average increase across the industry, blamed on the rising cost of wholesale energy and other cost pressures, such as growing distribution and transmission costs. Wholesale electricity costs have risen by 66 percent and gas by 60 percent since mid-February last year, and consumers will now be hit by that increase.
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PAKISTAN POWER CRISIS
Pakistan has shut all steel melting units across the country for two weeks and ordered hundreds of textile mills to reduce operations to cope with an acute power shortage. All business and shopping centres have been told to close early. Pakistan is suffering a power defecit of up to 3,600 MW due to low water levels at major resevoirs and damage to two main power lines inflicted during the violence that erupted after opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was killed on December 27. Nearly 50 people were killed in the violenc
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LONDON METAL EXCHANGE TO EXPLORE ALL MINOR METALS
The London Metal Exchange (LME) will look at the feasibility of launching futures contracts on all minor metals and ferro alloys during 2008, according to its chief executive Martin Abbott.
However, no new contracts will be launched unless certain criteria are met, Abbott said.
“There must be sufficient (price) volatility in the market place already and there must be liquidity,” he said at a ferro alloys conference organised by Metal Bulletin.
The market must be large enough to trade without being dominated b
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AMAZON LAUNCHES WIRELESS BOOK READER “KINDLE”
Amazon.com, the world’s largest web retailer, has begun selling an electronic book reader with wireless access, in the latest attempt to build consumer interest in portable reading devices.
Although the market for e-books is limited, and competing devices have yet to catch on, one analyst said Amazon’s book reader could eventually evolve into one that is able to capture all of the company’s many offerings.
The battery-operated Amazon Kindle sells for $399 and lets users download books, newspapers and blogs over
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HEALTH & SAFETY ANNUAL STATISTICS
The annual figures on work related accidents and illnesses published in November by the Health and Safety Commission show that there was a significant rise in the number of work related fatalities in the West Midlands, while 3.2 million days were lost due to injury or illness.
Judith Hackitt, the new chair of the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) says that the latest figures demonstrate that people should concentrate on the real issues of health and safety, and not be detracted by trivia.
She said: “Never min
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CANCER RESISTANT MOUSE
A mouse resistant to cancer, even highly-aggressive types, has been created by researchers at the University of Kentucky.
The breakthrough stems from a discovery by UK College of Medicine professor of radiation medicine Vivek Rangnekar and a team of researchers who found a tumour-suppressor gene called “Par-4” in the prostate.
The researchers discovered that the Par-4 gene kills cancer cells, but not normal cells. There are very few molecules that specifically fight against cancer cells, giving it a potentially ther
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U.S. BOOSTS TAIWAN
Taiwan’s December exports rose from a year earlier at their strongest pace since mid 2006, boosted by surprisingly strong demand from the United States for steel, electrical products and information technology. Recent Finance Ministry data showed hefty exports growth to China, and Southeast Asia as well, but more modest growth to Europe, defying broad expectations that exports from Asia will stumble in the face of a U.S. economic downturn. As is the case for several Asian economies, exports are a major driver of Taiwa
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UGANDAN OIL REFINERY
President Yoweri Museveni has announced plans to construct an oil refinery, a first step towards lessening Uganda’s reliance on foreign fuel. “We intend to construct a mini-refinery, in Hoima, using petroleum products there,” Museveni said on state-owned television. “This refinery will commence its operations in mid-2009, with the production of Heavy Fuel Oil, paraffin and diesel.” Last year, Uganda discovered oil deposits at Hoima near Lake Albert. Museveni has come under strong criticism as the country has no fuel r
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THE JANUARY EFFECT
Sharp falls in equity markets over the first days of 2008 may be robbing some investors of their best chances of gains this year and setting the stage for a grim 12 months ahead. It is January and according to financial market folklore - or “streetlore” as it has been called - what happens in this month is both a predictor of things to come and, for some, as good as it is going to get. Under this scenario, the early losses in stock markets battered by slowing economies, credit bottlenecks and soaring oil prices are do
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NOKIA SIEMENS IN SAUDI
Nokia Siemens Network has won a $935m order for a mobile network in Saudi Arabia, while U.S. Motorola will deliver a smaller share of the deal. Nokia Siemens and Motorola won the deal awarded by Kuwait’s Zain telecom operator to build the whole second and third generation wireless networks in Saudi Arabia from Ericsson and China’s Huawei Technologies. The network will support up to eight million mobile users.
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| Brains and beauty |
Furness and West Cumbria’s West Coast is about to experience a major investment that will strengthen the tourism and industry s ...
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| National Stadium, Beijing |
At the pinnacle of its construction, the National Stadium in Beijing had 7,000 workers toiling over the infrastructure. ...
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No smoke without fire
It seems that commentators, industry heads, central bankers and, dare I say it, Industrial Focus’s own journalists have made so ...
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Innovation for the nations
Hope for the future has arisen from the turmoil of the last few months, as industrial technologies have spun out some marvels o ...
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Supposedly the construction
materials of the future, composites are increasingly seen in
applications where optimum efficiency is paramount including
aircraft construction and renewable energy. As two research
examples show in this video, composites really are the future
for efficiency.
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