London: Following introduction of a new technology, the profits of Britain's number one pizza chain sky rocketed from £21.6m to £53.8m last year as the number of people who downloaded the Dominos app rose from 3.2m at the start of 2014 to 8.2m customers by the end. Over the 12-month period, the company delivered 75m pizzas in the UK and Republic of Ireland equivalent to an average of 1.4m a week. Annual group sales rose 10 pc from £266.8m to £294.3m. All this was possible because the company has adopted new technology, including a new phone app and a revamped website with 70pc of delivered sales now generated online. In an attempt to pull in even more young customers, Domino’s has teamed up with Microsoft so orders can be made through an Xbox games console.
Major reshuffle in Standard Chartered bank board
London: There is major reshuffle in the board of Standard Chartered bank. Peter Sands, chief executive, will step down in June while Sir John Peace, chairman, will leave his post in 2016. Bill Winters, the former head of JPMorgan's investment bank, will join in May, and take charge as chief executive when Sands departs. The bank's three longest serving non-executive directors will also leave, while Jaspal Bindra, the head of the bank's Asian operations, will step down from the board.
The dramatic news comes less than a month after the bank's two largest investors - Temasek and Aberdeen Asset Management - had told Sir John that a plan to replace Sands must be enacted by the end of this year.
Immigrants blamed for people with poor maths
London: An academic said that immigration has added nearly 2.5 million people with poor maths to the population, while almost 700,000 numerically talented people have left Britain. While many immigrants are highly numerate, they have been outweighed by those with low-level maths over the past 50 years, research suggests. Britons who moved abroad ended up earning more but having a poorer life-work balance, according to the data. John Jerrim, of University College London’s Institute of Education, who analysed the qualifications and skills of people leaving Britain between 1964 and 2011, said, “Immigration has had its biggest impact upon the bottom end of the numeracy skill distribution; it has led to a significant increase in the supply of low skilled workers.” Each year, more than 300,000 people leave Britain to begin new lives overseas. In their place around 450,000 immigrants arrive.
Manchester given control of £6 bn health budget
London: In a move to devolve powers from Whitehall to city regions, 10 Manchester councils will be given control of over £6 billion of NHS spending. The move is part of the chancellor’s plan to create a “northern powerhouse” to rival London’s economy in response to the Scottish referendum. Doctors and nurses warned that the scheme must not become a way for councils to raid the NHS budget. If the deal works, it is likely to be extended to other areas such as Leeds, Sheffield and Birmingham.
People sleeping more than 8 hours have higher stroke risk
London: Scientists from the University of Cambridge said those over 40 who sleep more than eight hours have 46 per cent more risk to have a stroke. The researchers hypothesised that it was more likely the case that people prone to stroke slept longer, said Yue Leng, who is studying for her PhD. She said that increased sleep duration might be because of excessive sleepiness, which itself could be due to declining health. She said sleep could be a marker of underlying health problems. “Perhaps it is linked to change in the brain. However, Leng stressed that all the study showed that there was a link between sleep and stroke. She said that more studies were needed to see if long sleep duration could be used as an early warning sign of increased risk of stroke.
Universities told to double number of poorer students
London: Admissions watchdog, the Office for Fair Access, has urged universities to increase the intake of poor students each year so that in five years their number could reach 40,000. This direction has angered many of Britain's top academic institutions.
Fall in number of teenage pregnancies
London: Official figures show that the number of teenage conception in England and Wales are now at their lowest, while pregnancies among older women are at their highest. The data from the Office for National Statistics show a 13 per cent drop in conceptions for women under 18 in 2013 in one year, and a 14 per cent fall among those under the age of 16. In total, there was a rate of 24.5 conceptions per 1,000 women under the age of 18 in 2013 - amounting to 24,306 conceptions, compared with 27,834 in 2012, the figures show. Meanwhile, 28,665 women aged 40 and over conceived in 2013, compared with 12,032 in 1990. The 2013 conception rate was 14.2 per cent per 1,000 women - twice the rate of 6.6 per 1,000 women in 1990, and the highest since records began in 1969.
Scientists ‘grow’ replica of the Crown Jewels
London: Scientists, working with the Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Fair, have grown a replica of the Imperial State Crown, a key element of the world famous jewels held in the Tower of London. They have also managed to reproduce the Duchess of Cambridge's engagement ring. They grew their own jewels from ingredients included in common household items such as drain unblocker, sandpaper and antiseptic cream. The project saw scientists grow exact replicas of some of the most famous jewels in the world. The "crowning glory" of the Imperial State Crown, the St Edward's Sapphire, was made from a common cleaning powder mixed with boiling water to create a copper sulphate crystal. The experiment, which children can try themselves in the classroom, shows the science behind acid-base reactions which form the basis of nearly all biological processes in living things.
Douglas Carswell for a points-based immigration system
London: Douglas Carswell, the country’s first MP representing the UK Independence Party, has praised the controversial politician Enoch Powell but said he was wrong on immigration policy. Carswell, who defected from the Conservatives in October, said the party would introduce a points-based system for immigrants, allowing those with the skills needed by the British economy to be given priority.
Remains of a 1,000-year-old mummified monk found in Buddha statue
London: Scientists who conducted tests on an ancient Buddhist statue found that it contains the perfectly preserved remains of a 1,000-year-old mummified monk. The monk, who is sitting in the lotus position, is thought to have starved himself to death in an act of extreme spiritual devotion in China or Tibet in the 10th century. His preserved remains were displayed in his monastery. Some 200 years later, perhaps after his remains started to deteriorate, his mummified body was placed inside the elaborate, lacquered statue of Buddha. The unusual contents of the statue were discovered in the 1990s when the statue underwent restoration. Experts were unable to remove the mummy due to the risk of disintegration. Now, an international team of German, Dutch and Italian scientists has conducted a CAT scan which revealed the monk's skeleton in perfect detail.
Avalanches kill 216 in Afghanistan
Kabul: More than 216 people have been killed in north Afghanistan in some of the worst avalanches there for 30 years, officials said. Officials warned of an imminent humanitarian emergency in areas most severely hit by the bad weather, with snow sweeping through villages and blocking off roads.
"We haven't seen this much snow, or this many avalanches, for 30 years," said Abdul Rahman Kabiri, acting governor of the mountainous province of Panjshir, north of Kabul, where 216 people were killed and more than 100 injured in avalanches. Despite bringing misery to so many people, the snow is vital for Afghanistan, where much of the rural population dependent on agriculture relies on snow melting in the mountains to sustain crops in the spring and summer. Farming drives the troubled Afghan economy, with about three quarters of the people living in rural areas.
86 Indian fishermen arrested by Lankan navy
Colombo: As many as 86 Indian fishermen have been arrested and their 10 fishing boats seized by the Sri Lanka Navy for allegedly poaching in the country's waters, naval officials said. They were arrested off the eastern coast of Mullaithivu, Naval spokesman Commander Indika Silva said. The Indian fishermen will be handed over to the police at the port city of Trincomalee. Sri Lankan fishermen have been complaining that since the advent of new government in Sri Lanka, the number of Indian fishermen breaching the country's waters for illegal fishing have been increasing. The talks between Sri Lanka and India on the fishermen issue scheduled for March 5 have been postponed, Sri Lankan fisheries officials said.
Indian jailed for 16 years in Singapore
Singapore: An Indian construction worker was jailed for 16 years and ordered by a Singapore court to be caned 12 strokes for killing his fellow compatriot in 2012. Periyasamy Devarajan was 20 years old in 2012 when he bashed 31-year-old Raju Arivazhagen in the face and head with a rock, a branch and three concrete slabs each weighing more than 10 kg, The Strait Times reported. The High Court heard that the two men, both construction workers, were strangers but chanced upon each other when Arivazhagen was looking for his lost wallet. Arivazhagen’s body was recovered by police from under a flyover later. Devarajan was initially accused of murder but the charge was later reduced to culpable homicide. No reason was given in court for why the charge was reduced, according to the Times.
Indian-American appointed to key federal aviation post in US
Washington: An Indian-American aviation expert has been appointed to a key position in the national aviation authority of the US, where he will oversee and execute operations in nine different regions nationwide. Ravi Chaudhary, a former US Air Force officer, was recently named the executive director for regions and centre operations at the federal aviation administration (FAA), which regulates and oversees all aspects of American civil aviation. Chaudhary would be responsible for executing a $288 million operating budget and would lead more than 2,100 federal employees in the nine regions. As second in command to the deputy assistant administrator for regions and centre operations (ARC), Chaudhary would be responsible for providing department of transportation and FAA - wide services in the areas of operations, safety, policy, corporate and congressional outreach, emergency readiness, facilities management, besides centralised support for the National Aerospace System, said a media release.
Modi toon costs Indian teacher her job in Doha
Doha: A woman teacher at a prominent Indian school here was forced to resign after she posted a derogatory caricature of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on her Facebook account, a media report said. The caricature had triggered a huge outcry in a section of the Indian expatriate community here as some objected to it, saying the `photoshop' work was insulting to Modi. The teacher, who was not identified, said the caricature was circulating on social media and she had just picked, shared and posted it on her Facebook account. “I didn't create the caricature nor did I post it to insult Modi,” The Peninsula quoted the teacher as saying. “I just used it to protest against what has been happening back home.” The teacher was initially suspended for three days pending inquiry by the management, the paper said. Later she was asked to put in her papers, which the teacher said she did.
US issues travel warning for Pakistan
Washington: The US has warned its citizens to defer non-essential travel to Pakistan due to a threat posed by foreign and local militants throughout the country. The US continues to provide consular services for all its citizens in Pakistan, Geo news reported a statement from the state department.
"The US consulate general in Peshawar no longer offers consular services and the US consulate general in Lahore remains temporarily closed for public services," added the statement. Travel warnings have also been issued for Americans in Saudi Arabia and Algeria.
Pak wastes $ 3.7 mn worth of donated vaccines
Islamabad: Vaccines worth $ 3.7 million provided by UNICEF to protect Pakistani children from different diseases were wasted due to official negligence to store them properly, a senior minister said. Minister of state for national health services Saira Afzal Tarar said that some official have been suspended and a probe has been launched to find if more people were involved. The wasted medicines were combination of different vaccines and were used to immunize children against tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough, hepatitis B, meningitis and pneumonia. According to the standard procedure these vaccines must be kept at cold places like refrigerators but no precaution were taken by the officials responsible for maintaining the temperature, Tarar said. However, an official of health ministry said that the frequent power outage was the main cause of the loss as top bosses failed to address the problem despite complaints by lower staff.
