MI5 Recruitment Drive Hampered By Violent TV Spy Show
London, United Kingdom (AHN) – A British TV spy show, “Spooks,” where many of its female intelligence operatives die violent deaths, is hampering the real MI5 in its recruitment drive for women to join the service.
When the highly rated British TV spy show, known abroad as “MI5″, airs every Monday night, there is a corresponding increase in online visits to the real MI5′s website from an average of 500 an hour to 1,500. But it has been putting off women from actually filling out the application because of the show’s portrayal of its female characters defusing bombs, chasing terrorists, getting injured in the line of duty or dying violently.
Despite an announcement of severe budget cuts, MI5 has begun an active recruitment drive for more female intelligence officers at starting salaries of just under £25,000 a year. On its website, the agency says it wants women to know that unlike the female characters in “Spooks,” they will be facing more cerebral challenges such as analyzing terrorist threats to the UK inside MI5′s Thames Intelligence headquarters.
A senior Whitehall source the Mail newspaper, “Spooks is a great TV show, but the violence can put women off applying for jobs at MI5. A career in the Service is about brain not brawn, carefully piecing together vital intelligence to protect the UK and its people.”
The Intelligence Service is made up of 41 percent women. Officials are looking for candidates with strong analytical and communication skills, patience, dedication, discretion, honesty and integrity, who work well in a team under pressure – not the ability to defuse nuclear devices or leap from exploding cars.
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Debit Card Loans: Assuring Emergency Finance
Debit card loan is a kind of short term loan and the borrower can secure small amount of loan. People who possess debit cards are eligible for debit card loans. The debit cards are used as a security against which the lenders offer loans. The lenders accept the debit card as a kind of guarantee. The debit card reflects that the loan-seeker has an active account in the bank and that he deposits money with the bank regularly. Debit card loans are free from any sort of hassle. The borrower can secure the loan amount fast and he does not follow any complicated procedure.
Debit card loans help you securing a small amount of loan within the range from £100 to £1500. The borrowers are to pay back the loan amount within 14 to 31 days. Interest rates for debit card loans are comparatively high. It is important that the borrowers must clear the loan within the time given unless which burden of loan may become terrifying for them.
The loan-seekers are entitled for debit card loans if they satisfy the following criteria:
a) The borrowers must be citizens and regular residents of United Kingdom.
b) They must have reached adulthood and have completed 18 years of age.
c) They must provide documents in support of address proof (electricity bill, telephone bill etc).
d) It is important that they have been employed in a legally approved establishment at least for the last six months.
e) Monthly income of the loan-seekers must not be less than £1000.
f) They must hold running bank account which ill allow them online transactions.
Debit card loans have element of secured form of loans as the debit cards are used as security. On the other hand, debit card loans have features of unsecured form of loans. People having history of bad credit are allowed to apply for debit card loans as credit record of the borrowers is not checked. Again, faxing of several documents in papers or tedious paper works are not required to secure debit card loans. Online application is really simple and it saves time. The applicants are to submit some of his personal information. The payment of loan is made almost instantly.
Debit card loans are for the benefit of the people who find sudden necessity of emergency finance.
Cameron Pushes Through With 2 New Royal Navy Aircraft Carrier Projects
London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – British Prime Minister David Cameron gave the go ahead for the Royal Navy to push through with two new aircraft carriers the British government ordered from BAE Systems.
Cameron decided to move forward after he received notice from BAE System Chief Executive Ian King that cancelation of the orders would cost more taxpayers’ money and jobs.
King explained that if the two carriers are delivered, the total cost would reach $7.875 billion (5.25 billion pounds), while if only one would be made, the cost would be lowered to only $7.2 billion (4.8 billion pounds).
Ministers and defense officials were pushing for the cancelation of the second carrier, The Prince of Wales. The orders were made by the previous Labor-led government.
King warned that if one of the orders were canceled, BAE would shutter three shipyards by early 2013 and cause the loss of over 5,000 jobs in BAE alone and thousands more in companies that are part of BAE’s supply chain.
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Survey: Pay Of British Executives Almost 200 Times Average Salary
London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – Like bank executives, officials of FTSE 100 top companies enjoyed fat pay even while the rest of British workers continue to tighten their belts.
According to a study made by Incomes Data Services, the bonuses paid to the directors of FTSE 100 companies jumped by 34 percent, while basic pay grew by 3.6 percent. Overall, boardroom compensation went up by 55 percent.
Because of the hefty pay, the average FTSE 100 chief executive compensation is now $7.35 million (4.9 million pounds) a year, which is about 200 times the average wage.
Labor unions denounced the apparent greed of the executives while the rest of Britain copes with austerity measures imposed by the coalition government and suffer pay reductions or salary freezes.
British Business Secretary Vince Cable welcomed the report. Cable initiated a review of corporate behavior and compensation early this week. The review will study if the executive pay hike is linked to company performance.
Another survey by Incomes Data Services found out that 16 percent of British employers will still go ahead with plans to implement pay freezes.
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Developing: U.S. On Alert After Inbound Packages Contained Explosives
Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – American authorities say packages intercepted overseas contained explosives destined for the United States. President Barack Obama was alerted late Thursday night, according to the White House, and ordered security officials to be on alert.
“Last night, intelligence and law enforcement agencies discovered potential suspicious packages on two planes in transit to the United States,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said. Based on close cooperation among U.S. government agencies and with our foreign allies and partners, authorities were able to identify and examine two suspicious packages, one in East Midlands, United Kingdom and one in Dubai.”
“Both of these packages originated from Yemen. As a result of security precautions triggered by this threat, the additional measures were taken regarding the flights at Newark Liberty and Philadelphia International Airports,” Gibbs added.
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Willie Walsh Biggest Winner In BA-Iberia Merger
London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – Two key events will soon take place affecting the operations of British Airways. These are the final stages of the merger between BA and Iberia and the cabin crew vote on a peace offering from the air carrier.
If both events push through successfully, the biggest winner would be BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh. According to reports, the merger would result in a 12 percent pay hike for Walsh and a bonus of up to $2.475 million (1.65 million pounds) when the $6 billion (4 billion pounds) deal is sealed.
That would boost Walsh’s basic pay to $1.237 million (825,000 pounds) as chief executive of International Consolidated Airlines Group from his current base salary of $1.102 million (735,000 pounds) with BA.
If the airline’s 13,000 flight attendants accept the proposal from BA, it would relieve Walsh of a major headache and spare BA from further financial losses. Twenty-two days of strikes mounted by the cabin crew this year led to massive financial losses for BA, promoting the air carrier to offer the cabin crew a 2.9 percent pay increase for 2011 and another 3 percent hike in 2012.
Walsh’s responsibilities would also expand since he would run two airlines.
BA is expected to report later this week a first half pre-tax profit of $105 million (70 billion pounds). For the same period last year, BA logged a $438 million (292 million pounds) pre-tax loss.
Ahead of the merger, BA, Iberia and American Airlines announced early this month a revenue-sharing agreement that will provide passengers of the three air carriers access to a joint network that serves 433 destinations in 105 countries.
The deal allows the three air carriers to offer the same ticket prices for 5,178 daily departures that would yield a turnover of $7 billion (4.4 billion pounds) yearly.
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111 Crewmen Saved After Ship Blaze Near English Coast
London, United Kingdom (AHN) – The British coast guard immediately launched a rescue operation on Wednesday and rescued 111 crew members from a factory fishing ship. The ‘Athena’ caught fire 230 nautical miles southwest of the Isles of Scilly, England.
Coast guard officials received help from a French communications plane. The vessel’s Faroe Islands-based owners confirmed the safety of all crewmembers, adding that none of them face any immediate danger.
Shipping company Thor Ltd. explained, “Around 6:00 am this morning a fire broke out on board Athena while she was sailing to her next fishing area. The fire appears to have started in packing material store on the port side of the ship.”
It added that 13 of the fire safety crew remained on board to control the fire, adding that they were safe too.
Container ship, the Vega, picked up a distress call immediately after receiving the distress call, said Britain’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
The crewmen aboard Athena were from different countries such as China, Russia, Peru and Scandinavia.
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Loans Till Payday: Best Financial Help in Urgency
Loans till payday are special unsecured finance for UK citizens involving small amount and short period. Basically, these funds are good to bridge the gap between two paydays. Most of the time, salaried people face monetary issues in mid of the months and it is not possible for them to wait for next salary to handle the situation. In such situations, this money fills the gap of first payday to next payday. While going through with the procedure, applicants do not need to deposit any collateral or security against the cash. This loan is getting huge popularity and appreciation in United Kingdom especially in the salaried segment of society. Reason behind the popularity is that borrowers get opportunity to face any unanticipated expenses without any tension or stress.
These payday loans are easily available at the high street banks, sub-prime lenders, finance companies and financial institutions. These funds do not take much time to get approval as all the banks and lenders have adopted online process. Everything has become so easy for lenders and consumers from application to approval. There is no discrimination among the people on the basis of credit history or collateral. Finance is available for each and everyone either you have good or bad credit history. Usually, it takes few hours to credit the loan amount in to the account but in bad credit condition, it can take up to 24 hours. It is strongly recommended to make the online application from Monday to Thursday because it would help to get the money on same or next working day.
Applicants are not required to do anything extra to achieve the eligibility criteria of loans till payday. Any UK citizen having voting right and regular source of income can easily qualify for the finance. Make sure that you have active checking bank account because banks prefer to credit the money into the account of borrower only. A bank account is also important because you need to deposit a post dated cheque into the bank. This plays the role of security and banks recover the loan amount through it on next payday.
Coalition Government Freezes BBC License Fee For 6 Years
London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – The British coalition government froze on Tuesday the license fee of British Broadcasting Company for six years. In exchange, the publicly-owned broadcasting company will be responsible for the funding of its World Service.
The TV license will be kept at $218.25 (145.50 pounds) a year until 2016. In turn BBC will pay for the $408 million (272 million pounds) yearly upkeep of World Service, currently being funded by the Foreign Office. BBC also agreed with coalition government ministers to pick the tab for the Welsh language channel S4C , which costs $153 million (102 million pounds) yearly.
Other agreements under the deal would have the BBC shoulder $225 million (150 million pounds) a year to provider superfast broadband connection to rural communities and another $37.50 million (25 million pounds) to fund BBC Monitoring, which tracks and reports activities of mass media worldwide.
BBC was initially asked by the government to also pay for the free TV licenses of Britons over 75 years old, which would cost the broadcasting firm $834 million (556 million pounds) yearly, but the proposed was shelved. The cost, which is expected to escalate as Britain’s population turns grey, is currently shouldered by the Department of Work and Pensions.
The freeze on the license fee, according to experts, is equivalent to a 16 percent reduction of the company’s fees in real terms. The license fees provide $5.4 billion (3.6 billion pounds) to BBC’s coffers yearly.
While the discussions for the license fees – which normally takes two years to negotiate – is seen as a victory for the license fee payers, experts said the deal also provided BBC long-term security while acceding to the coalition government’s spending cuts in its bid to reduce Britain’s budget deficit.
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Britain Outlines Serious Military Cutbacks
London, United Kingdom (AHN) – Britain is considering slashing its armed forces as well as scrapping a flagship aircraft carrier as part of an overall public sector cut. Prime Minister David Cameron disclosed his government’s plan to layoff a total of 17,000 service personnel from British Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy in next five years.
However, he said that proposed cuts would not affect Britain’s level of support for forces in war-hit Afghanistan.
Cameron further said that Royal Navy’s flagship HMS Ark Royal aircraft carrier as well as Britain’s fleet of Harrier jets would also be scrapped immediately as part of an 8 percent cut to its $58 billion Defense Ministry budget.
The premier said that he wanted to retain and renew the Trident nuclear deterrent, hence, delayed any decision on it until 2016. Speaking to parliamentarians at the House of Commons, Cameron said that his government had received around $60 billion of debts in inheritance in the defense budget when it assumed power six months ago.
The prime minister said that his government could not go on like this. “Britain has traditionally punched above its weight in the world and we should have no less ambition for our country in the decades to come. But we need to be more thoughtful, more strategic, and more coordinated in the way we advance our interests and protect our national security and that is what this review sets out to achieve,” he added.
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