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last updated on: 28/09/2010 11:54 am

28/09/2010 11:54 am RBS customers 'are able to stay'

Nearly two million customers from Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest must act soon if they do not want their accounts moved to Spanish bank Santander. Ugg Classic Tall Stripe Cable Knit Boots Santander has bought all the NatWest branches in Scotland and all the RBS branches in England and Wales. The deal involved all accounts automatically moving to Santander. But the BBC has learned that customers who ask to stay with their original bank can, but must ask to do so. Santander's deal forbids RBS to encourage customers to stay with the bank. But RBS told the BBC that customers who asked to stay with the bank would be able to. Cheap Nike Dunk SB Low In August this year, Santander paid ¡ê1.65bn to buy 318 branches of RBS and NatWest - now both part of Royal Bank of Scotland Group. The European Commission told RBS last year to sell branches to safeguard competition concerns after it was bailed out by the UK government. This means that the 1.8 million customers of RBS in England and Wales, and NatWest in Scotland will become Santander customers within the next 18 months if they do nothing and leave their account as it is. Right to choose The Money Box programme on Radio 4 has discovered that while there is no information about how to stay with RBS on it's website, that if customers call the bank's helpline and request to stay with the bank, there is a form that they can fill out to do just that. Gucci Jolicoeur Bags Chris in Surrey told the programme he planned to close his RBS account and open a new one with his local NatWest branch. "I thought that I had the right to change bank accounts when I felt like it, but for a bank to sell me off as some kind of commodity seemed to me to be a very impertinent action by them," he said. A spokesman for the RBS group told the BBC: "Customers have the right to choose where they receive their banking services from. "However, as part of the agreement reached with the European Commission, RBS has agreed not to actively solicit customers." There are also concerns that there will be a repeat of the problems that Alliance & Leicester customers have experienced when their accounts were transferred to Santander this year. Cheap Nike Dunk SB Mid RBS admits the change is potentially "unsettling for customers" but says its working with Santander to minimise any disruptions. Ugg Classic Tall Stripe Cable Knit Boots

19/09/2010 6:39 am Sri Lanka lowers death toll from police station blast

The BBC's Charles Haviland reports on what is known about the incident Ugg Classic Mini Boots Officials in Sri Lanka say 25 people were killed in an accidental explosion at a police station, lowering the toll from the 60 deaths given earlier. Explosives meant for road building blew up as they were being handed over to a Chinese construction firm, Maj Gen Ubaya Medawala told the BBC. He said 16 policemen, seven civilians and two Chinese were killed and 52 others injured. Sabotage has been ruled out as a cause of the explosion in eastern Sri Lanka. The general said the cause of the explosion was unknown and an investigation had begun. Women Nike Dunk SB Low He said the explosives were being loaded on to several vehicles at the police station when one of them blew up, setting off the other explosives. A local journalist has reported that a police jeep accidentally crashed into the trucks, says the BBC's Charles Haviland in Sri Lanka. The police station, in the small town of Karadiyanaru, was destroyed by the blast. Pictures from the scene showed the twisted wreckage of the lorries and heaps of rubble. Most of the injured were taken to hospitals in Batticaloa, but four critically injured people were flown to the capital, Colombo. Gucci Joy Bags Chinese firms are heavily involved in road building and other construction in Sri Lanka, including two ports. The Batticaloa area was once controlled by the Tamil Tiger rebel group and remains one of the most politically tense in the country, says our correspondent. Since the Tamil Tigers' defeat last year after a long-running civil war, the government has begun to rebuild roads and other infrastructure in the region. Ugg Classic Mini Boots

07/09/2010 6:08 am Student immigration levels unsustainable, says minister

The number of foreign students let into the UK is "unsustainable", immigration minister Damian Green has said. Ugg Roxy Boots In a speech, he questioned whether institutions were attracting the best students - with only half of student visas issued for university courses. Home Office research suggests a fifth of students are still in the UK five years after being granted visas. But the National Union of Students dismissed Mr Green's comments as a "misinterpretation" of the facts. The Home Office study tracked non-EU migrants who came to the UK in 2004. The largest group - some 185,000 people - were students, and 21% were still in the country five years later. Ugg Sunburst Tall Boots BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw says this, together with an increasing number of new overseas students, has led Mr Green to make reform of the student immigration route a priority. 'Out of control' Ministers also intend to examine work visas as two-fifths of people in this group remained in the UK after five years. Ahead of his speech, Mr Green said: "We can't assume that everyone coming here has skills the UK workforce cannot offer." He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I don't want to interfere with the success stories of our universities." Ugg Sundance Limited Edition 30th Anniversary Boots But he said there was a need to examine closely sub-degree courses and the reasons for students remaining in the UK. Mr Green said: "Why are they staying on? What are they staying on to do? This is part of a wider look we need to take at the immigration system." Office for National Statistics figures released last month showed net migration to the UK increased by 33,000 to 196,000 in 2009. The number of visas issued to students went up by 35% to 362,015. Ugg Tall Boots Mr Green said the figures were proof the coalition government had inherited an immigration system "largely out of control". In his speech at the Royal Commonwealth Club, Mr Green said an annual cap on economic migrants from outside the EU would not be enough to reduce net immigration to the "tens of thousands". 'Politically motivated' Internal Home Office estimates showed more than 90,000 people were coming into Britain every year to do courses below degree level at private institutions, Mr Green said. Ugg Tasman "The foreign students attending these various establishments may, or frankly may not be, the brightest and the best. "I want to ensure those who come here to study at language schools or any other institutions play by the rules and leave when their visas expire. "We need to decide whether this is right and also whether it is the best thing for the students themselves, given the high financial commitments required of them." Ugg Tasmina But Aaron Porter, president of the National Union of Students, said: "To suggest that the levels of those coming to the UK to study is too high is a politically motivated misinterpretation of the huge contribution which international students make to our colleges, universities and the economy. "The government should be proud that students choose to study in this country creating an education industry worth £12.5bn a year to the British economy." Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, said: "Populist policies on immigration might play well domestically, but on the global stage we risk looking foolish. Ugg Tasmina "Damian Green is making his speech today after returning from a trip to India where he encouraged students to come to the UK."

19/08/2010 9:57 am Barbie

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16/08/2010 12:19 pm Sun's 'quiet period' explained

Solar physicists may have discovered why the Sun recently experienced a prolonged period of weak activity. Air Max 1 The most recent so-called "solar minimum" occurred in December 2008. Its drawn-out nature extended the total length of the last solar cycle - the repeating cycle of the Sun's activity - to 12.6 years, making it the longest in almost 200 years. During a solar minimum the Sun is less active, producing fewer sunspots and flares. The new research suggests that the longer-than-expected period of weak activity may have been linked to changes in the way a hot soup of charged particles called plasma circulated in the Sun. Air Max 180 Plus II The study, conducted by Dr Mausumi Dikpati of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado and her US colleagues, is published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The Sun's activity strengthens and weakens on a cycle that typically lasts 10.7 years. Since accurate records began in 1755, there have been 24 such solar cycles. The 23rd cycle, which ended in December 2008, was both longer than average and had the smallest number of sunspots for a century. Sunspots are areas of intense magnetic activity that are visible as dark spots on the star's surface. Air Max TN Currents of fire The new research suggests that one reason for the prolonged period of weak activity could be changes in the Sun's "conveyor belt". Similar to the Earth's ocean currents, the Sun's conveyor transports plasma across its surface to the pole. Here, the plasma sinks into the heart of the Sun before rising again at the equator. During the 23rd cycle, these currents of fire extended all the way to the poles, while in earlier cycles they only extended about two thirds of the way. Air Max 2003 Dr Roger Ulrich of the University of California, Los Angeles, a co-author of the study, said the findings highlighted the importance of our monitoring of the Sun. The research team used sophisticated computer simulations to show how changes in the conveyor might have affected cycle duration. They found that the increased length of the conveyor and its slower rate of return flow explained the prolonged 23rd cycle. However, Dr David Hathaway, a solar physicist from Nasa's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, who was not involved in the latest study, argued that it was the speed and not the extent of the conveyor that was of real importance. Air Max TN 10 The conveyor has been running at record high-speeds for over five years. Dr Hathaway said: "I believe this could explain the unusually d solar minimum." Air Max 2009 Air Max 2009 II Air Max 2009 III Air Max 2009 Leather Air Max 2009 III