Tag Archives: United Kingdom

Angelina Jolie Designing Very Exclusive Jewelry Collection

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Anne Lu – Celebrity News Service Contributor

London, United Kingdom (CNS) – Angelina Jolie is releasing a very exclusive collection of jewelry with former Asprey CEO Robert Procop.

The “Tourist” star will create a high-end line of jewelry with statement stones to benefit her charity, but fans won’t be able to purchase any of the designs from stores.

Procop, who now makes jewelry under the name Robert Procop Exceptional Jewels, has been designing pieces for Jolie for the past decade. They started their collaboration over the last year. Just last summer, the actress was seen wearing one of the pieces they created together, a faceted spinel necklace bezel in rose gold, to the premiere of “Salt” in Berlin.

He told WWD, “Angelina has very classical style. These are pieces she wears herself.”

Unfortunately for those hoping to get a piece of Jolie, or at least her jewelry designs, this very exclusive collection won’t be sold in a trinkets shop near you. The collaborative designs will only be presented and sold privately to Procop’s network of clients.

Included in the exclusive range is a pebble-size, pal green 353-carat beryl pendant in rose setting with a chain of cushion-shaped beryl stones.

There is also a graphic, tablet-shape 12.02-carat vivid green emerald ring set in rose gold, which, Procop revealed to WWD, was inspired by “ancient tablet engravings” and is based on a similar design Jolie created with him as a gift for Brad Pitt.

All of the proceeds from the sales will go toward Jolie’s charity, the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict.

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Tuition Fee Vote Splits Britain’s Liberal Democrats

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AHN News Staff

London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – A Thursday vote at the House of Commons on a proposed tuition fee increase in Britain is expected to divide the Liberal Democrat Party.

LibDem leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and his ministers will abstain, but party backbenchers will vote against the measure.

At least 24 of 57 LibDem MPs plan to vote in favor of the increase, which creates a three-way split for the party vote.

Clegg, after a meeting with party leaders, admitted he failed to convince the some of LibDem MPs to abstain instead of voting against the planned tuition fee increase, which the party vowed to oppose during the campaign. However, he said LibDem MPs who would vote against the measure would not be sanctioned.

The deputy prime minister explained the coalition government had little option except to give priority to funding for basic education over university education because of the country’s tight finances.

If majority of the British MPs vote in favor of a tuition hike, the measure would triple the maximum yearly charge of tertiary educational institutions to $13,500 (GBP 9,000).

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130,000 British Students Protest Government Plans To Hike Tuition Fees

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AHN News Staff

London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – Thousands of British students on Wednesday protested planned government hikes in tuition fees and cuts in education budget.

Demonstration locations included Warwick, Sheffield, Birmingham, Newcastle and London.

Police estimate the number of protesters at 130,000 students.

There were isolated incidents of violence and clashes with police as protestors took over buildings in different parts of Britain. Police on horses charged 1,000 students near Trafalgar Square, which resulted in the protesters throwing chairs and traffic cones into the road.

There were also reports of property damage to bus and shop windows, including a police van in Whitehall.

Several arrests were made by the police for violent disorder and theft, while emergency medical services reported eight injuries at the London demonstrations.

The coalition government condemned the protests. Education Secretary Michael Gove asked media not to provide the students publicity. However, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg apologized to the students for not fulfilling his election promise to stop tuition fee increases. He admitted lack of control to deliver the pledge.

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India Celebrates National Education Day

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AHN News Staff

New Delhi, India (AHN) – India celebrated National Education Day Thursday with a range of events organized throughout the length and breadth of the country. The main function was organized in New Delhi with the vice president of India, Mohammed Hamid Ansari, the chief guest for the occasion.

The event, held at the Vigyan Bhawan, a premier government convention center, was organized by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, which celebrates Nov. 11 every year as National Education Day to commemorate the birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the first education minister of an independent India.

After inaugurating the function with lighting of the traditional lamp, Ansari called the attention of the concerned ministry as well as the government of India to the tenets of the education system as visualized by the founding fathers of the Indian democracy, including Maulana Azad.

Referring to Azad as an exceptional academician, a dedicated freedom-fighter and a remarkable visionary, Ansari recalled Azad’s views on the significance of education in independent India. Quoting Maulana, he said, “The democracy cannot function while its citizens remained illiterate.”

Ansari asked the government to focus on the issues pointed out in the Mid-Term Appraisal of the 11th Five-Year Plan of the country. He highlighted issues such as teacher absenteeism, teacher-student ratio, and the need to address equity concerns for the disadvantaged and vulnerable social groups.

At the same time, the vice president applauded the HRD ministry’s efforts to ensure “universalization of education” through the Right To Education Act, passed in 2009.

Kapil Sibal, minister for human resource development, stressed that a “paradigm shift” was required in the way children are taught in the schools. He said, “Education should be child-centric, instead of being exam-centric as it seeks to mushroom each child’s genius.”

Among others present were Davidson Hepburn, president of the General Conference of UNESCO; David Willets, United Kingdom’s minister of state for universities and science; Dr. D. Purandeswari, minister of state for human resource development and Vibha Puri Das, secretary of higher education.

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British Students Protesting Tuition Hikes Force Evacuation of Tory Party Headquarters

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Ayinde O. Chase – AHN News Editor

London, United Kingdom (AHN) – An estimated 50,000 British students took to the streets protesting a rise in tuition costs on Wednesday. A small group of the students attempted to force their way into the Conservative party’s headquarters, prompting authorities to evacuate the central London building.

A window of the 30-story Milbank Tower complex was smashed and reports of flooding have also surfaced. The building is the headquarters for the Tory Party in addition to numerous other government agencies.

Police intervened to disperse the placard-wielding students shouting “Tories Out.”

Organizers of the protest called the violent turn “regrettable.”

The government plans to cut university funding and raise tuition fees nearly $14,500 dollars a year in 2012. Students at universities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland currently pay just a third of that, $3,200 a year.

The Labor government of Prime Minister Tony Blair first introduced the fees for students shortly after he was elected in 1997. Scotland abolished tuition fees in 2000, and in the rest of Britain the cost is capped at about 3,000 pounds a year.

Current Prime Minster David Cameron’s government is also planning to cut funding to universities as it strives to cut $128 billion from public expenditure over the next four years.

There have been calls by some to unseat lawmakers who back the measures to cut funds to students.

The president of the National Union of Students, Aaron Porter, said, “We will initiate a right to recall against any MP that breaks their pledge on tuition fees,” Porter said.

Despite being a staunch supporter of the students, Porter took to Twitter to denounce the violence, “Disgusted that the actions of a minority of idiots are trying to undermine 50,000 who came to make a peaceful protest.”

As scenes of the marching students in London’s streets and images of the melee began pouring in, Cameron defended his tuition hike plan.

“In the past we have been pushing up the fees on overseas students and using that as a way of keeping them down for domestic students,” Cameron said. “We have done the difficult thing. We have put up contributions for British students.”

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Researchers Say Some Countries Have Better Chance Of Eradicating Malaria

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Linda Young – AHN News Writer

London, Great Britain, United Kingdom (AHN) – An article in The Lancet journal by a team of international researchers examines efforts to eradicate malaria worldwide over the past 150 years and outlines some of the remaining financial, technical and operational challenges that malaria-eliminating countries still face.

If not treated, malaria can quickly become a life-threatening disease.

The researchers found that some areas, including sub-Saharan Africa, might not have a chance of wiping out the disease, but Latin America might succeed. Researchers say that 32 of the 99 countries that have malaria are making progress toward eradicating it. In addition, the deadliest form of the disease, caused by the Plasmodium parasite, could be eliminated if transmission of the disease could be reduced by 90 percent of the 2007 rates of infection within 10 to 15 years.

Countries with better developed economies have the best chance of eliminating the disease, the article asserts. Those countries include the Dominican Republic, Saudi Arabia, Brazil and Iran, as well as Honduras, Djibouti and Botswana. However, poor countries in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa that have weak health care systems to begin with have a poorer chance of eradicating malaria, researchers found.

In 2008, an estimated 190 to 311 million people contracted malaria around the world and 708,000 to 1,003,000 people died. Most of the deaths were in sub-Saharan Africa among young children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Johnny Depp Surprises Primary School With Unannounced Appearance Dressed As Captain Jack Sparrow

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Anne Lu – AHN Entertainment Contributor

London, United Kingdom (AHN) – Johnny Depp is just plain awesome. The “Pirates of the Caribbean” star made a surprise visit to a primary school in London dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow after a 9-year-old girl asked him to help stage a mutiny against their teachers.

The Golden Globes-winning star was in south east London shooting the fourth installment of the adventure film, “Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides,” when he made a surprise visit at the Meridian Primary School along with his “co-pirates.”

According to the Daily Mail, Depp made the trip after Beatrice Delap, 9 wrote to him to ask for his help staging a mutiny against the teachers.

Beatrice wrote in her letter: “Captain Jack Sparrow… we are all a bunch of budding young pirates. Normally we’re a right handful but we’re having trouble mutinying against the teachers! We’d love it if you could come and help!”

She signed her name, calling herself “a budding pirate,” then drew skull and crossbones at the end of her letter.

The school was advised just ten minutes before the star arrived in full makeup and costume as his famous character. He asked Beatrice to come forward and gave her a hello hug before he showed her classmates the letter she wrote for him.

When interviewed by London Tonight, Beatrice recalled how Depp singled her out from the crowd.

She said, “He gave me a hug and he said, ‘Maybe we shouldn’t mutiny today ‘cos there are police outside monitoring me.’” I said, ‘Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.’”

This is not the first time Depp, who has two children with girlfriend Vanessa Paradis, went out of his way to surprise children. In 2008, he also made a secret visit to Great Ormond Street Hospital to donate 1 million pounds [$1.5 million] as a thank you for saving daughter Lily Rose’s life.

He came to the children’s wards dressed as Captain Jack to tell bedtime stories to the sick ones.

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Exploding Children in Climate Change Video Sparks Outrage

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Lawrence Mijares – AHN News Contributor

London, United Kingdom (AHN) – The video-sharing site, “You Tube”, withdrew a four-minute video campaigning for climate change after several viewers and climate change skeptics were outraged by its graphic depiction of exploding children who refused to listen to a carbon cutting emission project.

Ironically, the video was made by Richard Curtis, film writer and director of such romantic comedy and feel-good films such as “Love Actually”, “Blackadder”, “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and “Notting Hill.”

The video entitled: “No Pressure” is part of the “10:10″ climate change campaign and had an intentional comical tone where it had other “disinterested” guest cameos exploding. For example former footballer, David Ginola and former X-Files star, Gillian Anderson exploded.

In explaining that the detonation of the children was for maximum impact in driving home the campaign’s point, 10:10 in a public statement said, “With climate change becoming increasingly threatening, and decreasingly talked about in the media, we wanted to find a way to bring this critical issues back into the headlines whilst makgin people laugh.”

The statement continued to say, “Many people found the resulting film extremely funny, but unfortunately some didn’t and we sincerely apology to anybody we have offended. As a result of these concerns we’ve taken it off our website. We won’t be making any attempt to censor or remove other versions currently in

circulation on the internet.”

Franny Armstrong, 10:10 founder, was more direct and unapologetic in justifying the video’s graphic explosion scene: “We ‘killed’ five people to make No Pressure – a mere blip compared to the 300,000 real people who now die each year from climate change.”

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Study: More Children Know How to Operate TV, Internet Than Can Write, Read

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Ayinde O. Chase – AHN News Editor

London, United Kingdom (AHN) – A recent British study finds that children under 10 are more likely to know how to turn on the television than write their own name or read a book.

Researchers found that three quarters of children aged between three and 10 years old can easily switch on the television and put on their favorite program. Another six in 10 can turn on a computer or laptop, while 59 percent can operate a DVD player.

Using and navigating the Internet is also a skill that more and more young people can master from a young age. However, just 63 percent knew how to write their name and only half could read a book. And only four in 10 youngsters could make their own breakfast.

Stephen Ebbett, spokesman for Protect Your Bubble, which carried out the study, said: ”No parent likes to be told what to do by their own children, but it seems this is the case when it comes to working household gadgets. Children now are surrounded by technology from the moment they learn about the things around them.”

The study of 3,000 parents also revealed that 47 per cent think their children know more about working gadgets than they do. And a third feel embarrassed that their children have better knowledge when it comes to technology.

As a sign of the technological times, the study found that four in 10 parents have even had to ask their offspring for help when it comes to working certain gadgets, with the mobile phone most likely to cause a problem for almost a quarter of people.

Another 19 percent turn to their youngster when they can’t figure out something on the computer, while 16 per cent ask the kids to get the DVD player going.

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Education Grants

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Education Grants
Millions of dollars are offered in the form of education grants depending upon the assignments and objectives of the tasks and projects assigned. Education grants are also dependent on the governance of the institutions. By default, state schools, colleges and universities are provided education grants to keep competitive with the changes in the education industry and have long term goals in mind. The grants are already predefined and the projects are long term that intended to hone the society and the intellectual minds living in those vicinities. Education grants can either come from states, governments or privately funded organizations.
For the most part, education grants are for the students who have the willingness to learn and thrive but the financial implications hinder the goals of obtaining a degree. There are thousands of grants available for all different segments of the disciplines, schools, and countries. http://www.360career.com  Grants also have different contracts and laws governing the use of the money. Grants are not like loans where the amount of money has to be paid off in a certain amount of years. Rather, grants do not require a pay back and are of prestigious value for students who can earn grants and scholarships. Though, there are many of the grants that have certain laws and implications associated with the grant. Many of the countries that give grants to their students to go to United States or United Kingdom sign off agreements that ensure that the specific student will come back and teach for a particular number of years in a defined role and institution.
Applying and acceptance of grants is not as easy as one thinks. Institutions grants loans or financial packages go through an extensive checklist of your previous education records, financial standing of parents and your future objectives.
Being accepted for a grant is most certainly an achievement by all standards and practice. It is also imperative to get a grant that aligns its money with your future growth. Private institutions provide grants in their particular field and allow for students that do not have the money to grow in that particular field. This not only contributes to the overall efficiency of the field but grows the understanding of that knowledge base. There are dedicated grants for animal doctors to explore disease and bio chemical hazards in remote areas of the world. The grants allows the students to partake education in chemistry or medical sciences any where in the world and provide the opportunity to go to the areas where the field of study and research is required.
Public grants have similar intent and goals in mind and that is to uplift the society with contributing and adding more civilized and education people within its domain. Each grant encourages the people to pursue higher education and specialize in their fields of study.
Federal grants are also available that are allocated by congress and applicable for all students in all classes.
Colleges and universities do not discourage the students coming to their institutions on grants rather it is a source of pride that the students granted the grant plan on pursuing their education at that particular university.
For more information about Education Grants visit:
http://www.360career.com/content/Education-Grants.asp

Steve is a staff writer for Ticket Nest ( www.ticketnest.com ) and enjoys writing about his travel, theater and concert experiences. He can be reached at steve@ticketnest.com