Flirty Rita Ora impresses London crowds at 'X Factor' auditions - Digital Spy
London 2012 Olympics venues: Hadleigh Farm - Daily Telegraph
The farm is owned by the Salvation Army and covers a 550-acre site including grassland and woodland, making it a visual treat for spectators.
To get the venue up to scratch for hosting the event a new temporary course will be created within the farm, while temporary grandstands and facilities are also due for erection.
Spectators can access the farm via road, with the M25 and A13 providing easy access, or national rail from Fenchurch Street in London, while affordable general admission tickets should keep the event within the reach of regular fans.
After the Olympics the temporary structures will be taken down although discussions will take place to explore what course will be left in place for future use.
Useful links:
Olympic mountain bike schedule
You can also use our unique and fully interactive London 2012 Olympic Schedule to plan your Games.
London 2012 Olympics venues: North Greenwich Arena - Daily Telegraph
Hosting: Artistic gymnastics, trampoline, basketball, wheelchair basketball
Schedule:
Artistic Gymnastics: July 28 – Aug 7
Trampoline: Aug 3 – Aug 4
Basketball: Aug 8 – Aug 12
Wheelchair basketball: Aug 30 - Sep 8
Capacity: 20,000
Fact: In June 2008, the London auditions for the fifth series of The X Factor were filmed at the arena
Post games: will continue in its existing state as music and exhibition venue.
Test event: Jan 10-18, 2011: Gymnastics (Artistic, Trampoline, Rhythmic), Olympic qualifier
Transport: North Greenwich (London Underground), Charlton (National Rail)
GM's Vauxhall announces new Astra at UK plant - Yahoo Finance
LONDON (AP) -- General Motors' Vauxhall plant in northern England will build the company's top-selling Astra vehicles, the automaker said Thursday — a relief for U.K. politicians who had lobbied its American owner to keep the plant open.
The announcement comes after workers at the Ellesmere Port plant, near Liverpool, overwhelmingly backed a job deal which turned the factory into a 24-hour-a-day operation, a key cost-cutting measure pursued by parent company GM Europe.
GM Europe lost $700 million in 2011 and has been struggling to turn around its Opel and Vauxhall brands. It had been feared the company would close the Ellesmere Port facility in favor of consolidating production elsewhere — such as its headquarters in Ruesselsheim in Germany or Gliwice in Poland.
In a separate announcement, Opel said that the Ruesselsheim plant would switch to producing other models.
GM's announcement — which comes with a 125 million pound (nearly $200 million) investment and 700 extra jobs — is a break for leaders such as British Business Secretary Vince Cable, who fought to keep the British plant open.
Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking from the northern city of Manchester, called the decision "a fantastic vote of confidence."
"The U.K. government gave this its full backing. The unions supported the necessary changes. The workforce has responded magnificently. It is a British success story," he said.
Cable, who at one point traveled to the U.S. to plead the plant's case, told BBC television that no financial inducements were offered to General Motors Corp. to keep the U.K. facility open, saying the move underlined that Britain is "a good business environment for the motor industry."
Production of the new car is due to begin in 2015, with at least 160,000 vehicles scheduled to be produced every year.
'Judgement Day killer thought London imam antichrist' - BBC News
A blind Muslim cleric was strangled by a man who told police he had killed the "antichrist" and that it was Judgement Day, a court has heard.
Hamza Boutouil, 25, attacked Maymoun Zarzour with an ornamental rope at Muslim Welfare House in Finsbury Park, north London, on 2 September last year, the Old Bailey heard.
His defence claims that he was criminally insane at the time and should receive hospital treatment.
He was living in the country illegally.
Picked up pigeonThe imam, known as Sheikh Maymoun, had been blind from a young age from injuries he suffered in his native Lebanon.
After the killing, as witnesses were giving descriptions to the police, Algerian Boutouil returned to the centre and was "raving", the court heard.
Prosecutor Jonathan Turner QC told the court: "Among the things he was saying, which bystanders translated from Arabic so the police could understand, was that he had killed the antichrist, and that by that he meant the imam, and that this was Judgement Day."
It is accepted that Boutouil killed Sheikh Maymoun.
The prosecution argues that he should be found guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
In the hours before the killing, between 02:00 and 04:00 BST, Boutouil was seen behaving strangely on CCTV.
Covered in bruisesHe confronted a man and then two girls in the street before picking up a pigeon and walking off with it.
Later he went to the welfare centre and was heard shouting "Allahu akhbar" (God is great) repeatedly and was behaving strangely during morning prayers.
At about 08:40 BST he spent about an hour alone with the imam and killed him, the jury heard.
The primary cause of death was strangulation. Sheikh Maymoun was also covered in bruises consistent with a struggle.
Mr Turner said: "Whatever else had happened in that room, the imam had not sold his life cheaply. He had fought back, despite his blindness."
Boutouil, who entered the country last July, was living in a squat near Wood Green, north London.
London 2012 camping initiative offers budget sleeping under the stars - The Guardian
Very few things connected to the Olympics could conceivably be called a bargain. In the circumstances then, a night's accommodation for £10 – albeit under canvas and well into London's suburbs – might just about qualify.
That is the deal offered by a company, Camping at the Games, which has teamed up with a series of sports clubs around London and further afield to offer Olympic spectators an alternative to the wallet-lightening rates currently available at the capital's few remaining hotel rooms.
With a nightly charge of £10 an adult and £5 a child, more if you use one of their pre-erected tents, the company will have 3,000 pitches available each night, enough for up to 10,000 people.
Despite a launch photocall on Monday near Tower Bridge none of the six sports grounds-turned campsites are not quite so central. Dotted around east, south-east and north-east London, as far as Enfield, they all, however, promise straightforward travel connections. One, in Waltham Forest, is billed as being just a 15 minute bus ride from the Olympic Park. Outside the capital, one is in Reading, close to the rowing lake, one further north of London is close to the canoeing venue, while there are two in Weymouth for sailing fans.
All but two of the 10 sites are also open for the Paralympics.
The company is particularly targeting Olympic volunteers – some of whom are working fairly erratic and last-minute shifts – offering the chance to change their accommodation date and venue at no extra cost. There are dedicated volunteer-only sections as well.
One of the company's founders, Rhian Evans, said Monday's popup campsite in Potters Field Park, near Tower Bridge, was intended to "show people who were put off by accommodation prices that there is an affordable alternative".
He said: "The price of staying in London over the summer is extortionate but on our campsites a family of four can stay for £30 a night. Even staying in a budget hotel will cost a lot of money this summer and our campsites will have an Olympic atmosphere.
"We're also helping sports clubs by setting up these campsites on club grounds which will help raise funds for them. The grounds provide lots of space so people won't be crammed in, like in a festival."
0 Responses to "Flirty Rita Ora impresses London crowds at 'X Factor' auditions - Digital Spy"
Post a Comment