Vauxhall Introduces New Zafira Tourer Tech Line - The Auto Chanel
LUTON, UNITED KINGDOM – June 21, 2012: Vauxhall has expanded its Tech Line trim aimed at company car drivers to include the award-winning Zafira Tourer MPV with prices starting from 19,785 on-the-road.
Joining the Tech Line line-up of Astra, Insignia and the recently-announced Mokka SUV, Zafira Tourer Tech Line benefits from exceptional levels of standard spec combined with low P11D pricing and attractive Benefit-In-Kind charges.
The Zafria Tourer Tech Line comes with generous levels of standard equipment, including the Navi 600 satellite navigation system, Bluetooth and 17-inch alloy wheels. This is in addition to premium features such as chrome lower window mouldings, silver roof rails and high gloss black B-pillar and black mirror accents, and dark tinted rear glass.
Company car drivers have the choice of four engines: a 1.4 Turbo and 1.8-litre petrol or one of two 2.0-litre diesel units with 130PS or 165PS. The most eye-catching engine for company car drivers will be the 2.0 CDTi (130PS) ecoFLEX start/stop engine combining 119g/km of CO2 with 62.8 combined mpg.
“An array of eye-catching standard features paired with exceptional P11D values make the new Zafria Tourer Tech Line really stand out from the competition,” said James Taylor, Fleet Sales Director. “Zafira Tourer joins Astra, Insignia and the Mokka SUV in our Tech Line range aimed at company car drivers.”
The Zafira Tourer Tech Line is available to order now with first vehicles arriving in showrooms in September.
Woman who lost legs in 7/7 bombing after London Olympic party meant she caught later train makes Paralympic team - Daily Mail
- 'I was one of the lucky ones,' says mother-of-one caught in 7/7 bombing
- Sportswoman makes sitting volleyball team after losing legs in the terrorist attack
By Claire Bates
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A survivor of the July 7 suicide bombings said her dreams had come true after being picked to compete at the London 2012 Paralympics.
Martine Wright, 39, took up sitting volleyball after losing her legs in the 2005 terror attacks, and spends up to 25 hours training a week.
Martine Wright, a former marketing manager, is now on Britain's women's sitting volleyball team
After finding out she had made the squad, she said: 'I have dreamt of being part of it and now I am going there to do my country proud.
'I would like to thank my family and friends for all their love and support they have given me in my quest to become a Paralympian. They are all amazing'.
Mrs Wright, from Tring in Hertfordshire, was one of the last people to be pulled from the wreckage of the tube train at Aldgate. She lost 75 per cent of her blood, spent 10 days in a coma, and lost both her legs.
She only narrowly survived because off-duty policewoman Elizabeth Kenworthy braved the wreckage and tied a tourniquet around her legs. Seven people died in her tube carriage, while 52 people were killed in total in the terrorist attack.
'I was one of the lucky ones,' she told Trans World Sport.
'I'm still here. I got new legs and I survived.'
Martine Wright now walks with false limbs. She says she is lucky to have survived the 7/7 bombings
In a strange twist of fate, the sportswoman caught a later train than usual on July 7th 2005 because she was running late after celebrating London winning the Olympics the night before. She was sitting just 3ft from one of the bombers when they detonated.
She spent 10months in hospital before learning to walk again at Queen Mary's Hospital in Roehampton.
She returned briefly to her job in marketing but then turned to sport as she felt something was missing from her life.
'Someone who goes through something traumatic can lose their confidence and lose their goals,' she said.
'I think sport revives these things in people.'
The mother-of-one tried a taster Paralympic day and fell in love with the team sport of sitting volleyball.
The sport is in its infancy in Britain, potentially putting them at a disadvantage in comparison to their rivals, but with London 2012 on the horizon the team has made a determined push to try and prove they are worth their home nation spot.
ParalympicsGB had only sent a standing volleyball team to compete at the Games before London 2012.
Martine, pictured in 2010, married her partner Nick and had son Oscar after the bombings
Also on the women's team is Sam Bowen, a former soldier who lost a leg in a mortar attack in Iraq.
When Volleyball England took control of the British Sitting Volleyball programme in 2009, there were just a few male players training.
Now there are a men's and women's squads with players training daily with a full time coach.
ParalympicsGB Chef de Mission Craig Hunter said: 'Today we have announced a group of athletes who are truly phenomenal.
'Not only have they worked incredibly hard to get to this point, but as individuals many of them have gone through difficult personal circumstances in order to do so.
'These athletes epitomise the power of the Paralympic Games to inspire people, both disabled and non-disabled, and the power of sport to change peoples' lives.'
Speaking at the selection announcement at City Hall, London Mayor Boris Johnson wished the team 'the very best of luck when they battle it out against the best teams from around the world this summer.'
For more information on the London 2012 Paralympics visit www.london2012.com/paralympics
London 2012 Olympics: Andy Murray selected for Team GB tennis squad - Daily Telegraph
The final takes place on August 5, and Murray will hope to still be in the competition, if only to keep up a rich tradition of success.
Team GB top the all-time Olympic tennis medals table, having accumulated 16 gold, 13 silver and 16 bronze medals between 1896 and 1924.
The sport did not feature on the Olympic programme for the next 64 years, but Tim Henman and Neil Broad returned Team GB to the podium with a men’s doubles silver medal at the Atlanta 1996 Games.
“I can't wait for the Olympics to start, it's such an incredible event and for it to be in London is extra special," said Murray.
"I remember being part of the Olympic ceremony in Beijing, which was an unbelievable atmosphere and like nothing I'd experienced before.
"Winning a medal this summer for Team GB is one of my major goals.”
London Indian Film Festival launches with star-studded premiere - Digital Spy
London 2012 festival: reasons to be cheerful - The Guardian
When Les Commandos Percu's On the Night Shift explodes across the sky over Lake Windermere in Cumbria on 21 June as part of Lakes Alive, it should provide a fitting celebration for the opening day of the London 2012 Festival. But it is also a reminder of how much Ruth Mackenzie's London 2012 programme is asking questions around the nature of art itself, participatory activity in the arts, and who goes and why. I reckon she's done a good job.
The fact that a great many of the events are free is also crucial, but even paid events are attracting support. Yesterday it was reported that the festival has already sold half of its four million tickets, and even more interestingly, 80% of those who saw a play in the Globe to Globe season, which was part of the festival, were new attenders.
Perhaps it does seem odd that some of the theatre events included in the 2012 festival are already over, and others, such as Jonathan Pryce's King Lear, will continue long after the Olympics are but a distant memory. Checking through the theatre entries in the brochure, it does look as if there are a fair number of productions that would have been scheduled whether there was a festival or not. Not that it really matters – the more the merrier, I say. I want to see acrobats swinging around in cavernous English cathedrals, fell runners lighting up Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh and epic tales unfolding on Weymouth beach.
Even more exciting is just how much of the work, such as On the Night Shift or Belfast's Land of Giants, is operating outside of traditional theatre spaces, is family friendly and participatory and reflects a growing awareness of the changing nature of theatre, whether it's Punchdrunk's Dr Who-inspired adventure, The Crash of the Elysium in Ipswich, or Unlimited's The Giant and the Bear at West Yorkshire Playhouse, in which the audience are also playing a game.
Marc Rees's Adain Avion in Wales is one of many hybrid projects that cross all the artform boundaries. I love the link-up with the fabulous sounding Ghost Parade in Ebbw Vale, which marks the closure of the steel works almost 10 years to the day. A great deal of the work in the festival has a strong social factor, springing from communities and creating a community out of those who attend. It's a reminder that the arts play a crucial role in making people feel happier in themselves but also about each other, their surroundings and their futures.
Many of those going to see performances simply because they are listed in the London 2012 festival brochure are probably unaware they are seeing work which is pushing the boundaries of what we mean by theatre and performance. If people go, and have a good time, it doesn't matter what it is called. If they go and have a good time, maybe some of them will come back demanding more. That alone is a reason to celebrate.
• Which London 2012 events are you looking forward to most? Tell us by posting a comment below.
Football: New club crest for Vauxhall Motors underlines club’s Ellesmere Port connection - Chester Chronicle
London’s miners dominate FTSE 100’s losses - Financial Times
Last updated: June 21, 2012 11:44 am
London politicians call for Munich '72 remembrance - Reuters UK
LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) - London politicians urged the International Olympic Committee to show political courage and allow a minute's silence during the opening or closing ceremonies of the London Games to mark the 40th anniversary of the Munich massacre.
Eleven Israeli team members died at the 1972 Olympics in Munich after being held hostage by Palestinian gunmen.
The London Assembly unanimously voted on Wednesday for a motion supporting a minute's silence for the athletes and coaches who died in the attack.
Andrew Dismore, who proposed the motion, said the deaths went beyond politics and nationality.
"The IOC say to have a minute's silence to commemorate these victims of terrorism would be a ‘political gesture', but surely not having a minute's silence is, in itself, the political gesture," he said in a statement.
"This is not about the nationality of the victims - they were Olympians."
Londoners have forked out about 10 percent of the 9.3 billion pound public bill to stage the Games, with the rest coming from central government and the national lottery.
Roger Evans, another lawmaker, who seconded the motion, said: "The IOC needs to show some political courage and allow the commemoration of a tragedy that affected their guests during their event in their venue 40 years ago.
"This important decision should not be dictated by a small number of their members."
The London organising committee (LOCOG), responsible for staging the Games, said it was a matter for the IOC.
The IOC was not immediately available for comment.
(Reporting by Avril Ormsby; Editing by Robert Woodward)
Three crash victims 'serious' in hospital - This is Derbyshire
THREE people seriously injured in a car smash remain in hospital.
A Peugeot 306, Peugeot 106 and Vauxhall Corsa were involved in the crash on the A515 in Fenny Bentley, just north of Ashbourne.
The 17-year-old driver of the Peugeot 306 and the 25-year-old driver of the Vauxhall Corsa had to be cut free and both are in intensive care at the Royal Derby Hospital. They are said to be "serious but stable".
A 24-year-old female passenger in the Vauxhall Corsa is in the high dependency unit at the same hospital with serious injuries. A fourth person, in the Peugeot 106, suffered facial injuries.
Police have spoken to several witnesses but still want to hear from people who may have seen the vehicles before the crash, at 9.20pm on Monday. Call police on 101.
London amongst the most congested cities in Europe - The Independent
London, Manchester and Liverpool were all among the most congested cities in Europe last year, statistics from traffic information company INRIX showed.
Based on rush-hour commute-to-city travel in 2011, the figures revealed that UK drivers spent 32 hours of the year stuck in traffic, although this was four hours less than in 2010.
Heading the congestion list last year was Belgium where drivers wasted 55 hours in traffic. The Netherlands was the next-worst country for jams, followed by Italy.
The INRIX figures also showed that in the London commuter zone last year, drivers wasted 66 hours in traffic, with the Greater Manchester figure being 45 hours and Liverpool being 39 hours.
The worst time for congestion in London was Friday from 4pm to 5pm, while Greater Manchester's worst time was Tuesday from 9am to 10am, with Liverpool's jams being at their worst between 4pm and 5pm on Wednesdays.
Nationwide, the worst time to be on the roads was in London between 4pm and 5pm, when it took an average of 33% longer to complete a journey than in uncongested conditions.
Overall, a journey along a UK major motorway during peak-time driving hours took, on average, 17% longer than in jam-free conditions.
All 18 UK cities analysed had fewer jams last year than in 2010, with Friday being the worst traffic day and Tuesday being the worst weekday morning.
The best weekday for traffic in the UK last year was Monday, with the worst commuting hour being 9am to 10am on Tuesdays and the best being 7am to 8am on Fridays.
Among UK cities, the biggest decline in hours wasted in traffic last year was in Birmingham, where drivers spent eight hours less in queues than in 2010.
Londoners spent seven hours less, with drivers in Newcastle upon Tyne, Nottingham and Glasgow all spending five hours less.
For European countries, the biggest drops in congestion between 2010 and 2011 were in Portugal (down 49%), Ireland (down 25%), Spain (down 12%) and Italy (down 12%).
INRIX Europe senior vice president Stuart Marks said: "So goes traffic, so goes the economy.
"Traffic congestion is an excellent economic indicator telling us whether people are going to work, businesses are shipping products and consumers are spending money."
These were the 10 most congested areas in the UK in terms of hours drivers spent stuck in traffic in 2011:
1. London commuter zone 66
2. Greater Manchester 45
3. Liverpool 39
4. Birmingham 34
5= Belfast-Lisburn 33
5= Newcastle upon Tyne 33
7. South Nottinghamshire 32
8. Leeds-Bradford-Harrogate 30
9= Sheffield 29
9= Edinburgh-Lothian 29
Well done Martine. What an inspiration you are. Wishing you every success and hope you enjoy every minute of the Olympics/Paralymics.
- Julie, London, 21/6/2012 15:00
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