MoD to destroy future UFO reports

The Ministry of Defence will destroy all future UFO reports it receives so it does not have to make them public, a previously secret memo reveals. Britain's official UFO investigation unit and hotline were closed down at the start of December. Since then reports of strange sights in the skies sent to the MoD have been kept for 30 days before being thrown out, the newly released policy document shows. This stance was adopted so defence officials would not have to publish the information in response to freedom of information (FoI) requests or pass it to the National Archives. The memo, dated November 11, 2009, sets out the MoD's reasons for shutting its UFO unit and ceasing to invite the public to send in details of sightings. It notes that the number of reports the department received soared last year, taking up extra resources and diverting staff from "more valuable" defence-related activities. The MoD recorded 634 UFO sightings in 2009, the second highest annual total after 1978, when there were 750, according to UFO expert Dr David Clarke.

This compares with an average of about 150 reports a year over the past decade.

The memo states: "The dedicated UFO hotline answer phone service and e-mail address serve no defence purpose, and merely encourage the generation of correspondence of no defence value. "Accordingly these facilities should be withdrawn as soon as possible."

Downing Street aide 'barged' by PM

A senior No 10 aide described in a tape-recorded interview how he was physically pushed aside by an angry Gordon Brown, it has been disclosed. Stewart Wood, an Oxford don and senior foreign policy adviser to the Prime Minister, said that he had been left feeling "pretty shocked" by what had happened. He said that No 10 staff used to apologise for the way Mr Brown behaved saying "Oh that's just Gordon". However, Mr Wood had increasingly come to see his conduct as an issue, saying "how you deal as an individual with human beings is actually a core part of the job". A version of the incident in which Mr Wood was brushed aside was recounted last week in a new book by the political journalist Andrew Rawnsley, The End of the Party. Mr Brown has strongly denied shoving or hitting people. However, Mr Wood gave his own account of what happened in a tape-recorded interview with the author Suzie Mackenzie, who is writing an authorised biography of Mr Brown, which has been obtained by The Mail on Sunday. "I was standing at the top of the stairs at No 10. There was a reception for EU ambassadors and I was waiting with a one-pager (one page-briefing note) to show him before he went in, to say these are the three people you need to speak to," he told her. "And... and he was in a really bad mood. He walked up the stairs. And I leant forward and he went 'Outta my way' and he did that (the paper said that he raised an arm in a strong, sweeping gesture imitating Mr Brown's action), 'outta my way'. And then just walked in and then did it, smile on his face." In a statement, Mr Wood said: "As I recall, he was in a hurry that day, and barged past me on his way in to the room, but he didn't shove me. It did annoy me at the time, but it was an isolated incident. And the many acts of generosity and kindness that he has shown me in my years working with him mean a lot to me."(my view)-Brown IS GUILTY....always has been always will continue to be.

Virgin Media promises to speed up to 100Mbps broadband

Virgin Media says it will start rolling out broadband with speeds of up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps) to homes by the end of this year. It says the high-speed service will provide "very close to advertised headline speeds". The company says this is due to its use of cable, rather than the more widespread ADSL technology used by competitors.

In some areas Virgin says it will offer even faster speeds of up to 200Mbps.

Virgin Media's chief executive, Neil Berkett, said: "There is nothing we can't do with our fibre-optic cable network, and the upcoming launch of our flagship 100Mbps service will give our customers the ultimate broadband experience." The extra-fast service, says Virgin Media, will let customers download a music album in as little as five seconds, as opposed to the 75 seconds the same download would take on a 24Mbps ADSL connection.

Catch-up

Currently, most internet services are provided at speeds from 10Mbps to 50Mbps, depending on the chosen package. A BT spokesman said: "Virgin are playing catch-up as customers are already using 100Mbps over BT's network. It is fair to say we are bigger than them and we are growing faster too." Virgin Media has has 4.1 million broadband customers and added 46,000 over the last quarter, while BT has just over five million subscribers - some 25% more - and is currently growing at around twice the rate of Virgin Media, adding 102,000 customers in the last quarter.

Revenues up

Virgin Media has not yet said where it will first offer the 100Mbps service, which is expected to be deployed across Virgin's entire cable network by the end of 2011.

It would also not say how much it would cost.

Its latest results, released on Thursday, showed revenue increased to £980m, a year-on-year jump of 3.3%. Its average revenue per cable customer rose 5.8%. In November 2008, Virgin Media said it planned to cut 2,200 jobs by 2012, about 15% of its workforce, as part of a group-wide overhaul. (my view)-YeahYeahYeah!...from day 1 they have broken all of their promises.....ie:my Internet bill has double and is planning on raising again(i had a letter a couple of weeks ago telling me so)when they promised to keep the price down as it was(£15 years ago when they started and took over NTL) Richard branson is a fucking lying sack of shit!

'Zombies' have free speech rights too, US court rules

They're said to utter little more than an occasional groan, but zombies -- the blood-drenched monsters of Hollywood "B" movies -- still have a right to free speech, a US court ruled this week. An appeals court in the northern US city of Minneapolis, Minnesota on Wednesday allowed a group of zombies -- or rather, several protesters costumed as such -- to press ahead with their lawsuit against police who arrested them for disorderly conduct. The appeals court overturned a lower court in finding that the group of seven "zombies" had been wrongfully detained during a 2006 shopping mall protest against consumerism. The three-judge panel, by a two-to-one vote, ruled that Minneapolis police lacked probable cause to arrest the demonstrators for disorderly conduct. At the time of the protest, the plaintiffs were wearing makeup that gave them a "living dead" look: white face powder, fake blood and black circles around their eyes. They lurched stiff-legged through the halls of the mall urging shoppers to "get your brains here" and "brain cleanup in aisle five." In various bags, the protesters carried audio equipment including loudspeakers and wireless phone handsets, which police had described as "simulated weapons of mass destruction." The judicial panel upheld the lower court in dismissing the plaintiffs' claims of "false imprisonment" and "First Amendment retaliation" by Minneapolis police after being put in jail for two nights. But the appeals court sided with the protesters in ruling that police had no reason to imprison them simply for "dressing as zombies, and walking erratically in downtown Minneapolis," the court decision said. "An objectively reasonable person would not think probable cause exists under the Minnesota disorderly conduct statue to arrest a group of peaceful people for engaging in an artistic protest by playing music, broadcasting statements (and) dressing as zombies," the appeals court ruled. The decision allows the protesters to revive their lawsuit against Minneapolis and its police, which according to the Star Tribune newspaper seeks damages of at least 50,000 dollars per person arrested.

Britain's oldest stabbing victim: Son, 61, held after 100-year-old mother is knifed to death

A 100-YEAR-OLD woman found knifed to death in her home is thought to be Britain's oldest stabbing victim. Hannah Fitzgibbon, who received a telegram from the Queen in September, was discovered with a fatal knife wound to her neck at her house in Whitechapel, East London shortly before 10am today. Police have launched a murder inquiry and have arrested a 61-year-old man, believed to be her son Michael, who a neighbour said was a black cab driver. Neighbours said frail Hannah was partially deaf, short-sighted and walked with a zimmer frame. She lived with her son in a sheltered housing one-bedroom bungalow. Her son is believed to have slept in the lounge. A friend and neighbour called Julia, 74, said: 'She was a lovely lady and this is absolutely terrible I can't believe it. 'She turned 100 in September and she even got a telegram from the Queen. 'It took pride of place on her cabinet in the lounge and I remember her saying to me how thrilled she was to get something from the Queen. 'Michael her son is a nice person, who looked after his mum and did a lot for her. 'She was very deaf and a bit short-sighted. She needed a zimmer frame to walk, so she never left her home. 'I last saw her a couple of weeks ago and she seemed fine. They were a lovely family and she has lived there a long time, more than 10 years. 'Michael slept in the sitting room because there's only one bedroom.' Another male neighbour who did not want to be named said: 'She was an East End girl and she had lived here for years. Michael was a quiet bloke who kept himself to himself. He worked as a black cab driver.' Neighbour Susan Lowe, 54, said: 'I heard she was stabbed in the neck and that the police have taken him away. That poor old lady, I remember her 100th birthday, because everyone took flowers round to them and there were balloons with 100 on outside." A police spokesman said: 'A murder inquiry has been launched after the fatal stabbing of an elderly woman in E1. 'Police were called at 9.45 on Wednesday 24th February to an address in Hainton Close, E1 to reports of an elderly female stabbed. 'London ambulance service and police attend and discover a 100 year old female suffering from a single stab wound to the neck. 'She was pronounced dead at the scene. Next of kin have been informed. 'A 61 year old man has been arrested and is currently in custody.' A post mortem is due to take place.