Although day in Massachusetts will be over soon, I still take the chance and wish Republican Scott P. Brown best of luck in today’s election for the late Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat.
It’s definitely not an easy task to win in such a Democratic stronghold as Massachusetts, but recent polls have indicated that Brown really has a strong chance. And, for the people of Massachusetts, it’s also a referendum on President Barack Obama and his policies.
I …

I’m sorry for recent radio silence and lack of posts, but as many of you know, I found a job and I am now dedicating my time and efforts on excelling in that – which also effectively means that the amount of daily posts in this blog is reduced significantly.
I promise, however, that I won’t neglect you, my dear friends and readers, and time permitting, in some evenings I’ll try to write occasional posts about …

Pubs, bars and off-licences will be forced to ask under 21s for proof of identity under the Government’s latest crackdown on binge drinking, the Daily Mail reports.
Ministers will next week announce that alcohol retailers will be legally obliged to make compulsory checks if they have a “reasonable suspicion” that drinkers look under 21.
Current guidelines encourage this, but the Government wants to toughen up the law amid growing concerns about “binge drinking” among young people.
Pubs, bars …

Belgians will next week face supermarket shortages of Stella, Leffe and Jupiler, the country’s most popular beers, as a workers blockade of breweries in protest over job cuts continues over the weekend, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Trade unions have kept a stranglehold over the main breweries of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest beer maker, which has its origins and headquarters in Belgium.
Workers have blockaded breweries at Leuven, home of Stella Artois, Jupille, where Jupiler is made …

Two people were killed today in a plane crash close to Oxford Airport, the BBC reports.
The two-seater plane came down and burst into flames, just after 14:00 at Grove Road in Bladon, close to the main A44.
The type of plane involved in the crash is not yet known.
The Air Accident Investigation Branch sent a team to the scene to investigate.

A floor collapsed beneath a group of about 20 members of WeightWatchers as they gathered to compare how many pounds they had shed over Christmas, The Times reports.
Members of the weight-loss club were lining up to compare readings on the scales when they heard a bang as the floor came away from the walls of their meeting room in Växjö in southern Sweden.
They abandoned the room as the floor started to give way in other …

American company called SarcMark invented a written sarcasm icon or a punctuation mark that is designed to be used in the same way as an exclamation or question mark, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Anyone concerned that the irony of their email or text message might not be appreciated by its recipient can use the symbol to close their sentence, thereby avoiding awkward misunderstandings.
The symbol – a dot inside a single spiral line – can be installed …

iPhone users can now become clients of a new loan company that allow people to borrow cash within minutes, using their phones, but the interest rate of the loans can be up to 3,000%, the Daily Mail reports.
Borrowers can access up to £1,000 from Wonga’s short-term loan app if they need bridging over before their next payday. But if they debt is not repaid rapidly, the £1,000 could turn to a debt of £2,861 within …

Camera maker Kodak will sue Apple and Research In Motion (RIM), the makers of the iPhone and Blackberry, over technology used in their handsets, the BBC reports.
Kodak filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission (ITC). They allege the iPhone and Blackberry use technology for previewing pictures that infringe Kodak’s patents.
They also filed two separate suits against Apple that claim infringements of patents relating to digital cameras and certain computer processes.
Kodak asked the ITC …

China’s population of internet users jumped by nearly a third to 384 million at the end of last year, Reuters reports.
A report from the state China Internet Network Information Center underscored the growing scope of the internet in the country.
Throughout 2009, the number of Chinese internet users grew by 86 million — more than the total population of Germany — or a rise of 28.9 per cent compared to the end of 2008.
The survey, based …

Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged Britons to donate to an emergency appeal for Haiti after the Government pledged more than £6 million in aid, ITN reports.
Brown called for the whole world to respond as the first UK search teams arrived in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
“The problem at the moment is that there are still many, many people who are trapped or buried under rubble, and we do not know the full scale of that catastrophe,” Brown …

Vodafone delivered 50,000 iPhones to their customers on the first day of sales, as the UK’s appetite for Apple’s iconic device continues unabated, the Independent reports.
The group became the third UK operator to offer their customers the iPhone yesterday, four months after Orange announced they had broken O2’s exclusive hold over the phone in Britain. Tesco, which operate their own brand mobile business in partnership with O2, also sell the iPhone.
Vodafone offer customers the device …

Families have less to spend than at any time over the past ten years, the Daily Mail reports.
An official analysis found that an average household paid £471 a week for everything from the cost of housing to buying lottery tickets in 2008, the lowest spending per home since 1999.
The statistics, released by the Office for National Statistics, reveal the amount that a typical family can afford has been falling since 2004.
Independent economists put the trend …

The Conservatives say that they would start cutting Whitehall spending plans from day one of a David Cameron Government, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said for the first time that Whitehall budgets for the financial year which starts in April would be ripped up. He confirmed that it meant some middle class tax breaks will be scrapped.
Osborne added that the Tories needed to show they were willing to start cutting costs immediately.
“Programmes that …

A senior figure in Hizb ut-Tahrir, a hardline Islamist group that the Government keeps “under continuous review” and the Conservatives want to ban, is teaching and preaching at a top university, The Times reports.
The Times has learnt that Reza Pankhurst, who was imprisoned in Egypt for membership of the group, is a teacher at the London School of Economics and regularly preaches to students at Friday prayers.
The group are supposedly barred from organising and speaking …

Private and single sex schools continue to dominate league tables published today for last summer’s A level and GCSE results, The Times reports.
Of the top 50 schools with the highest scores at A level, all but three were in the independent sector. St Paul’s Girl’s School in London heads the table with an average of 267.4 points per A-level student, followed by Westminster School, Perse School for Girls in Cambridge and Guildford High School.
The three …

Haiti’s Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said that hundreds of thousands of people have died in Haiti’s earthquake, CNN reports.
Haitian authorities also said that the powerful quake destroyed most of the capital city of Port-au-Prince. A top envoy called it a “major catastrophe.”
Haiti’s first lady, Elisabeth Debrosse Delatour, reported that “most of Port-au-Prince is destroyed” and that many Government buildings had…