Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Advantages Of Staying In A Discount Hotel In London

Although London is a paradise for visitors from all corners of the world, it is an expensive city as well. As such it is better to stay in a budget hotel offering attractive discounts to its guests. Staying in these hotels would not only save you on money, but provide you with an easy access to the major tourist attractions of the city.

London is one of the most famous cities in Europe, it is also the capital city of England. The city of London is known to offer a huge range of attractive tourist sites that will keep any visitor entertained thus enjoying the stay in London. The strategic location of the city ensures that most amenities are easily accessible by the public. London is one of the expensive metropolitan in Europe thus to experience all that London has to offer within a lean budget can be achieved by staying at a discount hotel in London.

Many hotels are located in the city of London, these include cheap budget hotels which will come in handy when a tourist desires to cut on cost and at the same time have a good experience in London. The hotels are suitable for an overnight stop over, short stay or a long vacation. The accommodation facilities also come in different classes to cater for the budget tourists, the hotels will cater for a business traveller, leisure tourist etc. Staying in the discount hotels will enable the traveller to save on cost of accommodation and use the savings on other fun and leisure activities.

Different affordable hotels come with various packages to suit a visitor, among services offered in the accommodation facilities include room service, internet connectivity, phone service, a wide collection of mouth watering delicacies, gym facilities, swimming pool, beauty centres, car parking services, curio shops, local as well as exotic beverages etc. the town also has road side cafs, inns, fast food joints to cater for a tourist while on the move.

The location of your discount hotel in London will allow the visitor to easily access other social amenities while staying in London, such amenities will include food joints and restaurants, shopping complexes, recreational facilities, entertainment joints, museums, art galleries and parks among other amenities. Visiting these sites is easily done by taking a walk, using public transport or taking the famous 'London taxis'. London is served by a well kept and efficient transport network that is very convenient for movement around the town. Some of the places that are worth visiting while in London include River Thames, Big Ben, Buckingham palace, Westminster palace, London eye, the British Museum, Madame Tussauds, Saint Paul's Cathedral, Hyde park, Tower of London and London bridge among many other famous tourist attraction sites.

While in London a visitor can engage in social fun and enjoyment by visiting the casinos in the area to try out his luck, engage in some merry making in the discotheques, night clubs, bars etc. for fun that extends all through the night. London is quite famous for providing good hang out joints that play good music. For the more reserved traveller a visit to the cinemas, theatre or the opera house will allow the tourist enjoy a movie, watch a play or listen to classical music. Being home to the world famous 'premier league' their always soccer matches to give the football lover a memorable experience.

The author of this article is associated with Hanover Hotel Victoria, one of the popular budget accommodation facilities in Central London. To know more about the hotel, visit hotel32.com.

Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Advantages-Of-Staying-In-A-Discount-Hotel-In-London/4545438

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Venezuelan opposition calls for protests to demand recount

By Marianna Parraga and Todd Benson

CARACAS (Reuters) - Opposition leader Henrique Capriles on Monday called on Venezuelans to take to the streets and peacefully demand a vote recount if election authorities formally proclaim Hugo Chavez's chosen successor as the next president.

The day after Venezuela's election board declared acting President Nicolas Maduro winner of Sunday's presidential vote by a tight margin, Capriles insisted the opposition's own count showed he was the victor and accused the government of conspiring to hide the truth to remain in power.

"We think we won the election. The other side thinks they won and we're both within our rights," Capriles, a 40-year-old state governor, said in a televised news conference.

"All we're asking is that our rights be respected, that the will of the people be respected, and that every single vote be counted, every little piece of paper, that paper isn't for recycling, it's proof."

The request appeared to fall on deaf ears.

Shortly after Capriles spoke, senior ruling party official Dario Vivas told Reuters the proclamation ceremony would go ahead and accused Capriles of trying to "destabilize" the country, which is home to the world's largest oil reserves.

Conscious of Venezuela's long history of turbulent protests, Capriles urged his supporters to resist temptations to resort to violence. He called for Venezuelans to bang pots and pans in protest on Monday night if Maduro is formally proclaimed winner.

If the stalemate continues, Capriles asked his followers to gather in protest on Tuesday in front of election board offices around the nation. If there is still no sign of a recount by Wednesday, Capriles pledged to lead a peaceful march through the streets of Caracas to the election board's headquarters.

UNCERTAIN FUTURE

The controversy around Venezuela's first presidential election without Chavez on the ballot in two decades ushered in new uncertainty in the OPEC nation of 29 million people.

It also raised doubts about the future of "Chavismo," Chavez's self-proclaimed socialist movement, without its charismatic founder, who died from cancer on March 5.

Before dying, Chavez named his longtime prot?g? Maduro as his preferred successor, giving the burly former bus driver a huge boost heading into Sunday's election.

But the endorsement was not enough to ensure an easy victory for the uncharismatic Maduro, who edged out Capriles with 50.7 percent of the votes, according to election board returns.

Capriles took 49.1 percent, just 235,000 fewer votes, according to the official count. Opposition sources told Reuters their count showed Capriles won by more than 300,000 votes.

The streets of Caracas were mostly calm early on Monday but tensions grew as the day progressed. By mid-afternoon, there were a handful of protests around the capital, with one seeking to disrupt traffic on the city's main highway.

About 200 pro-opposition students protested in an upscale district, trying to enter a hotel where unofficial foreign election observers were meeting. Outside the opposition's campaign headquarters, protesters shouted "No more fraud."

Maduro, 50, said he was open to a full recount, even as he insisted his victory was clean and dedicated it to Chavez. Senior government officials, on state television and Twitter, ridiculed the opposition as sore losers and praised Venezuela's election system as foolproof.

"It's impossible to manipulate the election result," Jorge Rodriguez, Maduro's campaign chief, said on state TV. "The only way the opposition will recognize an election is if they win."

The U.S. government backed the call for a full audit of the results and the Organization of American States offered to send election auditors to help. Chavista allies such as Russia and Cuba, which receives generous aid and subsidized oil from Venezuela, immediately congratulated Maduro.

Opposition leaders said they had gathered evidence of some 3,200 instances of voting irregularities, ranging from allegations of voters using fake IDs to intimidation of volunteers at polling centers.

Venezuela's election board is no stranger to controversy. Over the years, the opposition has repeatedly accused it of turning a blind eye to the blatant use of state resources in favor of pro-Chavez candidates. Critics say four of its five members are openly pro-government.

"The next few hours are critical," Pedro Benitez, a senior member of the opposition coalition, told Reuters. "The opposition has to get access to the ballot boxes, which are under custody of the (military)."

A similar situation gripped Mexico in 2006, when a leftist opposition candidate alleged fraud after losing a tight presidential race to Felipe Calderon. A partial recount followed and Calderon's victory was upheld.

INAUSPICIOUS START FOR MADURO

Maduro's slim victory provides an inauspicious start for the Chavismo movement's transition to a post-Chavez era. It also raises the possibility that he could face challenges from rivals within the disparate coalition that united around the towering figure of Chavez, an icon of the Latin American left.

Chavez beat Capriles by 11 percentage points and 1.6 million votes in October, an advantage the Chavista camp struggled to maintain without its former leader.

Opinion polls had all predicted a comfortable win for Maduro, due to emotion over Chavez's death and the popularity of his social welfare programs. The gap narrowed fast in the final days but even so the result took most Venezuelans by surprise.

The sympathy effect for Maduro following Chavez's death was clearly wearing off and Capriles' campaign message - slamming his rival as an incompetent and poor copy of Chavez unable to fix the nation's many problems - hit home.

Maduro was unable to match his former boss's electrifying speeches but nevertheless benefited from a well-oiled party machine and poor Venezuelans' fears that the opposition might abolish Chavez's slum development projects.

The short campaign apparently helped Maduro. If it had gone longer, he could have lost even more support.

"The death of Chavez was a game-changer that is leading to the gradual reorganization of political power in Venezuela," said Venezuelan political analyst Diego Moya-Ocampos.

MILITARY VOWS TO MAINTAIN ORDER

Under Chavez, Venezuela was the United States' main antagonist in Latin America, and Washington will be watching events closely while trying to avoid any impression of meddling.

Any weakening of Venezuela's socialist rulers could have a ripple effect around the region, given the importance of the government's economic aid and subsidized oil to fellow left-wing governments from Cuba to Bolivia, members of a Chavez-led alliance fiercely critical of U.S. policies.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said a full audit of the results would be "an important, prudent and necessary step to ensure that all Venezuelans have confidence in these results."

Venezuela's armed forces, who have played a major role in the country's tumultuous recent history, including three coup attempts from within the military in the last two decades, vowed to maintain order.

(Additional reporting by Eyanir Chinea and Mario Naranjo; Writing by Todd Benson; Editing by Bill Trott)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/venezuelans-vote-future-chavista-socialism-000101418.html

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Tuesday, April 16, 2013

WWE raises more than $500,000 for Hurricane Sandy relief

WWE has announced that Superstars for Sandy Relief, the largest ever global online auction to benefit Hurricane Sandy relief efforts in New York and New Jersey, raised $524,742. As part of WrestleMania Week activities around the New York and New Jersey region, the auction was a combined effort among WWE, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Hollywood celebrities and professional athletes with proceeds benefiting the?Mayor?s Fund to Advance New York City and Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund.

The Superstars for Sandy Relief online auction ran from March 25 through April 9, and featured unique, once-in-a-lifetime experiences with WWE Superstars and other international sports and entertainment celebrities. The auction generated more than 2,000 bids from 152 countries, making this the largest auction of the year on global charity auction site Charitybuzz.com.

In addition to the online auction, entertainment powerhouse Sean ?Diddy? Combs co-hosted a Superstars for Sandy Relief party with WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon and special guests Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno to kick off WrestleMania Week at Cipriani Wall Street. The live auction, led by sportscaster Joe Buck, raised more than $75,000 to support Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.

Check out photos from the party?|?Watch an exclusive video from the event

?Superstars for Sandy Relief helped raise significant funds and awareness to support the people of New York and New Jersey who are still affected long after the devastating storm,? WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon said. ?I?m proud that WWE and its global fan base supported such an important initiative.?

?The state of New Jersey is still recovering from Hurricane Sandy,? Governor Chris Christie said. ?The overwhelming support from WWE and a host of celebrities to help the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund is something that the people of New Jersey will never forget.?

?Hurricane Sandy relief is an ongoing effort,? Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said. ?We are grateful to WWE and all the celebrities involved for putting its global resources behind a cause that is so important to the City of New York and our more than 8 million residents.?

Source: http://www.wwe.com/inside/overtheropes/wwe-universe-raises-hurricane-sandy-relief-funds

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Tallygram, OkCupid's Foray Into Friend Finding On Facebook, Hits The Deadpool

tallygram okcupidTallygram, a Facebook-based friend finding app created by dating site OKCupid, has shut down, saying that the community never grew large enough to sustain the site. Tallygram, which originally billed itself as "a better way to surf Facebook," first opened for business in November 2012.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/h1HAGnoSZMY/

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Copper at lowest in 1-1/2 years after Chinese data

By Maytaal Angel and Melanie Burton

LONDON/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Copper fell to its lowest in a year and a half on Monday after disappointing data from top consumer China and weak U.S. data last week increased worries about a global growth slowdown.

China's economic recovery unexpectedly stumbled in the first three months of 2013 as the annual rate of growth eased back to 7.7 percent from the 7.9 percent pace set in the final quarter of last year, official data showed on Monday.

Industrial output in March also undershot expectations and added to investor sensitivity after a negative reading of U.S. consumer sentiment, soft retail sales and rekindled worries about sovereign debt in the euro zone late last week.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange fell to $7,085 a tonne, its lowest since October 2011. It was trading at $7,166 a tonne at 1028 GMT, down 3.25 percent on the day and some 10 percent for the year.

Aluminium fell to its lowest in three and a half years at $1,818 a tonne, while tin fell nearly 7 percent to $20,500, its lowest since late November 2012.

LME nickel fell to its lowest in more than seven months, while lead and zinc slumped to their lowest in five months.

"The Chinese market is being kept up by credit invested in state-owned enterprises, though even that wasn't enough to keep GDP on track to where the market expected it to be in Q1," said Tom Kendall, an analyst at Credit Suisse.

"We have a Q4 average of $7,000 a tonne for copper, because essentially demand is growing sluggishly and supply is rising."

Slowing factory output and investment spending in China has led analysts to start slashing full-year growth forecasts for the world's second-largest economy, despite official insistence that the outlook was favourable.

"Citi expects 2013 to be the year in which the death bells ring for the commodity supercycle after its duly noted sunset, ushering in a new decade of opportunities based on how individual commodities will perform against one another and against broader market indicators," said the bank in a note.

China consumes about 40 percent of the world's copper.

In the United States meanwhile, retail sales contracted in March for the second time in three months, while consumer confidence tumbled in April, a sign that tax hikes early this year stole momentum from the economy.

Shanghai copper hit 54,180 yuan a tonne, a 10-month low.

LITTLE SUPPORT FROM SUPPLY OUTAGES

A spate of supply-side problems offered little support for copper, unlike in previous years, as the market heads for its first year of surplus in several years, and inventories of refined metal are near decade highs both in London and Shanghai.

In the United States, a landslide at Rio Tinto's Bingham Canyon mine in Utah extended further into the pit than predicted, and there was greater

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/copper-lowest-1-1-2-years-chinese-data-113524559--finance.html

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Monday, April 15, 2013

Group: Syrian army bases in capital become prisons

BEIRUT (AP) ? A Syrian human rights group says a key military unit loyal to President Bashar Assad is running secret prisons holding hundreds of suspected regime opponents.

The Syria-based Violations Documentation Center said in a report Monday that the regime's 4th Division runs detention centers in its bases in and around Damascus.

The division is commanded by Maher Assad, the president's younger brother. It is considered a pillar of loyalist forces and is charged with defending the capital.

The Center has tracked the dead, wounded and missing since the start of the uprising in March 2011.

The claims could not be independently verified. Syria's government rarely comments on claims by rights groups.

Other rights groups say tens of thousands of opposition members of their families have been detained during the two-year conflict.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/group-syrian-army-bases-capital-become-prisons-070244627.html

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Factbox: Key figures around new Venezuelan leader Maduro

By Daniel Wallis

(Reuters) - Nicolas Maduro, a former bus driver who became Hugo Chavez's political disciple, was declared the winner of Venezuela's presidential election on Sunday in a tight vote that was contested by the opposition.

The 50-year-old Maduro was also a union leader before joining Chavez's government, eventually rising to become his foreign minister and then vice-president. Chavez named him as his preferred successor before dying from cancer last month.

Here are some of the important figures surrounding the new leader of the South American OPEC nation:

CILIA FLORES

Maduro's long-term partner, Flores is a tough lawyer who helped win Chavez's release from prison after he led a failed coup two decades ago. As a former attorney general and leader of the National Assembly, she was never far from the circle of power around the late socialist leader.

Described as the most powerful woman in Venezuelan politics, she often accompanied Maduro on the campaign trail, leaving behind the elegant outfits she favored as a senior official to dress down in jeans and casual wear at chaotic rallies.

A law graduate from the private Santa Maria university in Caracas, in 2006 she became the first woman elected as president of the National Assembly - taking over the position from Maduro.

She was seen as a strict enforcer of discipline in Chavez's ruling Socialist Party, and in 2012 he picked her as his attorney general. In the last weeks of the president's life, she staunchly supported the government at vital moments, defending it against opposition claims that there was a power vacuum as he battled cancer.

RAFAEL RAMIREZ

Energy minister since 2002 and president of the OPEC nation's state oil company PDVSA since 2004, Ramirez has been one of the government's longest-serving senior officials, and was seen as one of the closest to Chavez.

His wide responsibilities include running his ministry as well as one of the world's biggest oil companies, particularly as PDVSA took on more and more social programs during Chavez's rule, from providing food to building apartments.

Ramirez was previously a student of Adan Chavez, the late president's older brother, at the University of the Andes where he qualified as an engineering graduate.

A passionate and diehard supporter of "Chavismo" socialism, Ramirez has created controversy and infuriated the opposition by declaring Venezuela's oil industry "roja, rojita" (red from top to bottom).

DIOSDADO CABELLO

Cabello, a former soldier who joined Chavez's attempted coup against President Carlos Andres Perez in 1992, wielded considerable power in business, military and government circles during the socialist leader's years in power.

Often seen as a possible contender for the presidency one day, his loyalty to Chavez was rewarded with numerous senior roles. He currently holds the powerful and delicate position of president of the National Assembly.

Seeking to squelch opposition whispers of a rift between himself and Maduro, Cabello has stressed their unity over and over again on the campaign trail, often putting an arm around Maduro while describing them both as "sons" of Chavez.

As vice president in 2002, Cabello became one of the world's shortest-serving heads of state when he assumed the top job during a two-day coup against Chavez. His first order then was to send elite troops to rescue Chavez, who was being held prisoner by renegade forces at a base on a Caribbean island.

He governed Venezuela's second most populous state, Miranda, from 2004 until 2008, when opposition leader Henrique Capriles defeated him.

Opposition critics question Cabello's business interests and portray him as the quintessential "boli-bourgeois," a term used derisively for those who made good during Chavez's "Bolivarian" revolution, named after independence hero Simon Bolivar.

Despite his repeated vows of unity, many Venezuelans believe Cabello may eventually challenge Maduro for power.

ELIAS JAUA

Jaua, Venezuela's foreign minister, was a prominent face of the government during Chavez's long absences for cancer treatment last year, calling for unity in the Socialist Party and assuring the world that the president remained in charge.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he rose to prominence among university activists, frequenting rock-throwing university protests linked to a leftist party called Red Flag.

Considered ambitious and precociously smart, he was nominated to be Venezuela's ambassador to Argentina in 2002. But Buenos Aires rejected his appointment on concerns that he maintained ties with radical leftist groups.

Chavez tapped Jaua in 2006 as agriculture minister to lead a land reform crusade applauded by the rural poor but harshly criticized by business leaders as weakening property rights. He was promoted to vice president in early 2010 - then was replaced by Chavez's son-in-law Jorge Arreaza after Chavez's death.

Born in 1969, Jaua is a sociologist and former university professor who helped found the Socialist Party that swept Chavez to power, and he was one of the authors of a new constitution in 2000.

JORGE ARREAZA

Married to Chavez's daughter Rosa Virginia, Arreaza has retained his role as Venezuela's minister of science and technology after he was also appointed as vice president by Maduro in a ceremony hours after Chavez's state funeral.

During the last stages of Chavez's illness, Arreaza was often at his bedside. His profile rose as he gave updates on his father-in-law's condition and he turned into something of a spokesman for the family.

Born in 1973, Arreaza studied at the Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV) in Caracas before working as a university teacher, journalist and local television presenter.

JORGE GIORDANI

A Marxist academic, Giordani was nicknamed 'the Monk' as a university professor and was known for his hard left-wing views on the economy before joining Chavez's government in 1999. He served on and off as planning minister, a senior position in the economic cabinet, before being named finance minister in 2008.

He is among the architects of Venezuela's complicated system of price and currency controls, which he says helps combat speculation and capital flight. He is seen by many as being a counterweight to the central bank's less ideologically driven solutions to perennial problems such as high inflation.

Giordani who was born in the Dominican Republic. He studied electrical engineering in Bologna, Italy and completed post- graduate studies in Sussex University in England, where he was influenced by Marxist philosopher Istvan Meszaros.

(Additional reporting by Caracas newsroom; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, Kieran Murray and Eric Walsh)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/factbox-key-figures-around-venezuelan-leader-maduro-055143596.html

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