MEXICO CITY, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Mexico"s peso firmedsharply on Wednesday, helped by speculation that FederalReserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will signal in testimony toCongress that U.S. interest rates will remain low for sometime.
The peso MXN= MEX01 firmed 0.5 percent to 12.8656 perU.S. dollar. Low U.S. interest rates boost the appeal ofemerging market assets. (Reporting by Michael O"Boyle; Editing by James Dalgleish)
CurrenciesThe death toll from horrific the Madeira floods that claimed the life of a British holidaymaker was feared to be at least 74 today.
A total of 42 bodies have so far been pulled from the water and 32 people remain missing after a torrents of mud and rainwater crashed down the Portuguese island"s steep slopes four days ago.
Many of those uncounted for may never be found because they are likely to have been swept out to sea, officials said.
Nineteen shoppers are also feared drowned in the basement car park of a mall. Divers were searching the shopping centre in the capital, Funchal.
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A rescue worker helped by a sniffer dog searches though debris for victims in the village of Santo Antonio
A man is pulled from the flood in Madeira: At least 40 people have died in the mudslides caused by torrential rain
The scars left by landslides are seen on the slopes of Curral das Freiras, a village in the interior of the Madeira
People view a street in Funchal where cars lay buried under debris after heavy flooding
More...Madeira floods: latest travel advice for holidaymakersMachu Picchu: Peru flights slashed to attract tourism to flood-hit region
Rescue teams were also using sniffer dogs to scour debris and dig cars out of mounds of sludge to see if anyone was inside.
Last night it emerged that the three sons of a woman killed when a taxi carrying four Britons was hit by the deluge have flown to the holiday isle to comfort their grieving father.
Pamela Gaines, 50, from Garton-on-the-Wolds, East Yorkshire, was swept away along with the Portuguese driver.
Her husband George, 54, escaped, as did Roger and Gillian Wilson.
Mrs Wilson, in her 50s, is in hospital with serious chest injuries.
Three other Brits are feared injured after torrential rain sparked mudslides and flooding.
The two British couples, who were holidaying together, were travelling in the hills above the Madeiran capital, Funchal.
Madeira is popular with UKholidaymakers, but the Foreign Office said last night it had receivedno other reports of Britons being hurt by the floods and mudslides onSaturday, which followed hours of torrential rain.
People walk along a flooded street in downtown Funchal, Madeira in the aftermath of the floods
Rescue team members take a dead body from the mud in Ribeira Brava after heavy rains and strong winds hit Madeira Island
A local boy died at the same spot after trying to flee with his mother when their car was caught up in the flood.
His father Norberto Castro told howhe saw his five-year-old son Rui Norberto and wife Eulalia swept away.She is still missing. He said: "The car began to slide and I couldn"tcontrol it. I told my wife to make a run for it with our child.
"I saw them fighting against thewater and I saw a man trying to help them. Then they were swept away bythe water and I didn"t see them again."
Portuguese officials said theyexpected the death toll to rise. Hundreds of people have been lefthomeless by the worst tragedy to hit Madeira for a century.
Parts of Funchal resembled theaftermath of a tsunami. Cars were piled on top of one another instreets covered in mud, rocks and stones.
The debris of a taxi is seen lodged between the roofs of two buildings after heavy flooding in Funchal, Madeira
Flood water rushes towards Funchal harbour: The Portuguese government is considering whether to declare a state of emergency in the region
Military personnel look for flood survivors in a building along the streets of downtown Funchal
German tourist Andreas Hoisser said:"It was horrible, there were cars on rooftops, there were vans andtrucks that had been totally crushed".
Hotels in the main tourist area ofFunchal escaped the worst flooding and were getting-back to normal lastnight. Madeira"s most famous son, former Manchester United footballerCristiano Ronaldo, spoke of his devastation and offered to helpvictims.
Most of his immediate family were inthe Portuguese capital, Lisbon, where his sister has given just birth.Ronaldo said: "No-one, especially me as I was born and grew up inMadeira, can remain indifferent to this calamity. I am ready to helpout in any way I can."
A submerged car on a destroyed downtown Funchal street
People look at cars carried down a hillside by floodwaters outside Funchal: Local authorities called in employees to operate heavy machinery like bulldozers to clear roads and remove debris
British holidaymaker Cathy Sayers said Funchal was like a ghost town and that the infrastructure had been wrecked.
She told the BBC: "The drains justcannot cope with the water that"s coming down from the mountains - theyare just overfilled with sludge.
"There wasn"t really any warning,particularly any warning that it would be quite so bad because it isexceptional for this island."
Ricardo Macedo, a rep forBournemouth tour operator Palmair, said: ;Theres a Dunkirk spirit inFunchal. As far as I know all 93 of my clients are safe. Most ofFunchal is without fresh water.
A man and a dog walk by as people recover their belongings from a taxi damaged by the heavy flooding
People look on as a street with vehicles is engulfed by heavy flooding in Funchal
Aftermath: Swept-away cars and debris piled up to first-floor balconies
TV footage showed torrents offast-moving, mud-filled water tearing through the streets of thecapital Funchal, dragging cars and nearly sweeping away two policemen.
Parts of the island were isolated by blocked roads and downedbridges as winds reached 70mph early yesterday. Electricity and phonelinks were also cut.
The Portuguese government is considering whether to declare a state of emergency in the region.
"We"re overwhelmed by calls from people asking for help after thetorrential rains," a duty officer at the civil protection service said.
Homes have been destroyed by the floods and electricity and phone links have also been cut, forcing emergency rescue services toappeal over local radio stations for off-duty doctors and nurses toreport for duty.
The islands government said it wasfinding temporary accommodation for hundreds left homeless by theflooding.
Local authorities called in employees to operate heavy machinery likebulldozers to clear roads and remove debris.
People in low-lying areasof Funchal fled as flood waters rose, state-run Lusa news agency said.
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In Funchal, the airport has been closed and the city"s mayor advised residents to stay at home.
Prime Minister Jose Socrates expressed his "profound shock" at the sizeof the calamity affecting Madeira.
Madeira regional president Alberto Joao Jardim spoke to EuropeanCommission president Jose Manuel Barroso, who is Portuguese, to appealfor emergency aid from the European Union.
Mr Socrates promised that help would be sent from the Portuguese mainland.
Cristiano Ronaldo is ready to help "in whatever possible way" following the storm on the Portuguese island of Madeira.
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Ronaldo celebrates after scoring against Villarreal during a Spanish La Liga soccer match at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid
The 24-year-old, who moved to the Bernabeu from Manchester United in a world record 80million deal last summer, scored a brilliant free-kick opener in last night"s 6-2 defeat of Villarreal, which he dedicated to the victims of the disaster.
"Nobody can be indifferent to such a tragedy, especially me," said Ronaldo on Real Madrid"s official website.
"I was born and raised on the island. It"s given me so much. This is why I want to make myself available to help in whatever possible way.
"I would like to help official bodies and organisations to minimise the effects of this great tragedy and to get over them as soon as possible."
Allan Hall, Berlin & , : {} They have faced makeshift bombs, been ambushed by guerrillas and shot at by al-Qaeda. Now, British infantry precision for their subsequent conflict with Afghan insurgents have been foiled by German inlet lovers.
Plans to make ridicule Afghan villages in the heathland of Gütersloh, northwest Germany, to hope for the Army for close-contact crusade were put on hold this week after a German justice ruled in foster of the singular silt lizard and the even rarer blue-winged grasshopper.
They are between those class pronounced to be in jeopardy by the multimillion-pound plan that could right away be put on hold for a year whilst environmentalists lift out tests on water, sound levels and air quality, as well as on the intensity impacts on flora and wildlife.
Gütersloh councillors authorized the plans to set up dual ridicule communities and to reconstruct an existent Potemkin encampment on Feb 19.
Related LinksSiberian tigers starve to genocide at Chinese zooJapanese fishmongers criticism over tuna banDeal could be struck to strengthen classArmy workers had already privileged a large area of undergrowth when the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (Nabu) went to justice in Minden, Germany, on Monday in an try to hindrance construction a whole for at slightest twelve months. Protected biotopes have already been destroyed, pronounced Josef Tumbrinck, the authority of the internal Nabu branch.
In the perspective the preference to concede this construction to go forward was bootleg in the initial place. I am blissful that vigour has led to a stop so far.
We recognize that British soldiers going to Afghanistan contingency embrace optimal training. But because German authorities contingency assent the drop of singular healthy resources in the Senne stays unintelligible to us. In the perspective there are alternatives accessible to the army.
The Military Training Area Senne a unconditional 220 block kilometre tract of heath, moorland and fir tree forests has been personal by the Europarc inlet organization as fulfilling all of the criteria indispensable to be directed towards a inhabitant play ground in the own right.
The European Commission has reliable the stable status.
The Army uses rounded off half of the area for crusade practice. The range is home to 40 class of mammals, 111 class of tact birds, twelve class of fish, fifteen class of amphibians, 1,150 class of butterflies, 1,500 class of beetles, 47 class of dragonflies, twenty-three class of locusts, 800 class of ferns, 1,200 class of mushrooms and 313 opposite sorts of moss.
The meadow pipit is one of the birds on the involved list, the timber whim another. The silt lizard and the blue-winged grasshopper are both in jeopardy whilst the dune tiger beetle is coming the risk zone.
Their predicament has dumbfounded environmentalists far over Germanys shores. The World Habitat Society has called for general protests on the website, claiming: The British Army is on the approach to fall short one of Europes majority profitable inlet reserves.
It pronounced that programmed roads would sign off wildlife and bluster already involved species.
Senior armed forces commanders in Germany and London are murderous by the justice action, that could exceedingly bushel precision plans for the 5,000 British infantry stationed around the Senne area.
One comparison troops officer said: This tumult ignores the elementary actuality that the presence of singular class of healthy hold up on precision areas is attributable to troops make use of and the ostracism of the public. We have saved this land, not despoiled it.
Currently there is a 30-day cooling off duration in outcome as protests are lodged and no construction has begun.
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Joanna Sugden & , : {} The Samson family find out on Monday, Mar 1, if their eldest child, Kieran, has been since a place at the propagandize of his preference in Harrow, northwest London.
It is worrying, pronounced Samantha Samson. Its the initial time weve left by this routine and Im not seeking brazen to you do it all again. It was utterly stressful.
She and her husband, James, an engineer, goal that their son, 10, will get a place at their closest school, Hatch End High, that has an superb rating for curriculum and alternative activities in the ultimate Ofsted report.
Kieran, who is one of the youngest in his year, will begin delegate propagandize only after he turns 11. This year the schools have to take pupils in the initial and second year. Im not certain they are ready, a little of the schools we didnt have sufficient space or buildings, Mrs Samson said.
Related LinksOne in 6 won"t get selected delegate propagandizeMrs Samson, 32, a stay-at-home mom who additionally has dual younger children, pronounced that Ofsted reports and formula were not as critical to her as how protected and accessible the propagandize felt. Kieran favourite the things that they offering and I favourite their clever anti-bullying policy, she added.
If they are not since a place at Hatch End, Mrs Samson pronounced that she would appeal. The alternative propagandize on the list is utterly a prolonged approach from us. I would be rebuilt to go by an interest since I have finished home drill prior to and we have got time to wait for for the propagandize that is right for him.
Theres no point promulgation him to a propagandize that he is not gentle with since if he doesnt wish to be there, hes not going to learn.
hair wigThe bruise suffered the greatest one-day tumble for some-more than a year yesterday among the awaiting of a hung Parliament and flourishing fears that this will forestall quick and wilful movement being taken over Britains open finances.
Sterling crashed by some-more than 4 cents at one theatre opposite the US dollar, dropping subsequent $1.50 for the initial time in ten months. It additionally fell to the lowest turn opposite the euro for scarcely dual months.
At one stage, the bruise that had traded at $1.5247 on Friday dusk fell to $1.4784, prior to rallying. It was sterlings misfortune day given Feb last year and analysts warned that it could break serve in entrance weeks, as domestic doubt one after another presumably falling to $1.20 or less by the summer.
The decrease came after a Sunday Times perspective check referred to that Labour could sojourn the largest celebration in Parliament after the ubiquitous election, but but an altogether majority.
Related LinksA recipe for the pulsation of sterlingSterling sinks as King talks of releasing some-more moneySpending cuts contingency be spelt out MultimediaGRAPHIC: Pound contra the dollarNick Beecroft, comparison FX expert at Saxo Bank, said: We are witnessing what can justifiably called the beginnings of sterlings collapse. So prolonged as the markets could gulf a little goal that the subsequent supervision would be a fiscally prudent, business-friendly Conservative one that would action quickly to revoke the UK necessity and borrowing mountains, the bruise was means to only about hold the own opposite the euro that is, itself, entering a presumably fatally deleterious period.
But currently the dam burst, and it could not even do that, let alone opposite the strong dollar. This weekends choosing polls presaging a Labour Government, statute over a hung Parliament, put paid to that dream. Expect a exam of $1.40 inside of a month and, as the tellurian landscape turns ever-more nauseous on the behind of deflation and emperor debt concerns, a stability moody to the dollar, receiving argent down subsequent $1.20 by the summer.
Mark Deans, traffic physical education instructor at the brokerage Moneycorp, agreed: If the fears of a hung Parliament were to come true, argent could tumble even further, with a risk of us reaching relation opposite the euro.
Analysts pronounced argent had additionally been strike by rumoured offered by Prudential advisers forward of the programmed $35.5 billion takeover of AIGs Asian assets. They pronounced that since the Pru is carrying to sell argent for dollars when it completes the understanding but is not approaching to have lifted the supports until May, any falls in argent would potentially have the understanding some-more costly creation it essential for the word hulk to close in at benefaction rates.
On down payment markets, gilt prices additionally fell among the domestic uncertainty, with the produce on ten-year gilts that rises as the cost falls augmenting from 4.03 per cent to 4.106 per cent at one stage. Sentiment was serve undermined as the Bank of England published total display that unfamiliar investors sole a net �1.49 billion of gilts in Jan the top figure for 9 months.
Richard McGuire, a strategist at RBC Capital Markets, said: Concerns over a hung Parliament and worries about either we will have a domestic landscape gainful to bringing the necessity to heel have triggered a noted under-performance of gilts today.
Analysts pronounced it was probable that gilts had sole off aggressively as investors positioned themselves prior to the Debt Management Offices auction of �2 billion of 30-year gilts currently and a serve �4 billion of 5-year gilts on Thursday.
Manufacturing total display that wake up at British factories rose at the fastest gait in fifteen years in Feb unsuccessful to hearten investors.
Official total for debt approvals suggesting that the housing marketplace liberation was losing steam combined to concerns about the economy. The series of new home loans forsaken by roughly 10,000 to 48,198 in January.
Around one in 10 adults in England and Wales right away confess to carrying used heroin at a little point in their lifetime. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
The series of under-18s reception diagnosis for heroin obsession in England has increasing by some-more than 65%, NHS total reveal.
The recover of the total currently coincides with the proclamation by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) of a examination in to the drug"s goods formed on apart census data display that heroin make make make make use of of of of has increasing five-fold between 16- to 59-year-olds given 1996.
The NHS study, conducted by the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (pdf), found that the series of 18- to 24-year-olds reception diagnosis has doubled given 2005.
Three-quarters of users total heroin with alcohol, according to the report. Mixing causes some-more repairs to the heart and creates users some-more violent.
After 6 months of diagnosis with cognitive behavioural therapy, 4 in 10 people were no longer addicted, but scarcely a entertain had forsaken out of treatment.
Last year 12,354 people were treated with colour for heroin obsession in England. Between 2005-06 and 2008-09 the series of under-18s in diagnosis rose from 453 to 745, and the series of 18- to 24-year-olds doubled from 1,586 to 3,005.
Around one in 10 adults in England and Wales right away confess to carrying used heroin at a little point in their lifetime – a three-fold enlarge on 1996.
The authority of the ACMD, Professor Les Iversen, wrote to the home cabinet member (pdf) citing new British Crime Survey census data display that 6.6% of 16- to 24-year-olds used heroin last year, compared with 1.3% in 1996. Usage between those elderly sixteen to 59 jumped from 0.6% to 3% during the same period.
Iversen wrote that the total were deeply concerning. Along with cocaine"s increasing usage, the virginity of samples had been dwindling since some-more "cutting agents" were being added. He hoped the examination would "counteract the increasingly usual misapprehension that heroin is a comparatively protected drug".
Iversen – whose prototype Professor David Nutt was sacked last year for criticising supervision drug process – pronounced he did not design the inform to outcome in a call for a shift in the sequence of cocaine"s existent Class A status.
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats both called for a shift in the government"s proceed to rebellious addiction, with the shade home bureau apportion James Brokenshire criticising the closure of Middlegate Lodge, the country"s usually dilettante teenage residential drug reconstruction centre.
The Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, Chris Huhne, said: "Instead of posturing on penalties and ignoring systematic advice, the supervision should concentration on educating immature people about the critical health consequences of drug abuse."
A Home Office orator said: "Serious drug make make make make use of of of of between under-18s is declining. For the small minority of immature people who need treatment, it is straightforwardly available."
He concurred that the direction for heroin make make make make use of of of of had altered and pronounced the supervision had introduced in effect treatment, preparation and early involvement for those majority at risk.
Eric Daniels is the fourth bank arch in a week to spin down his reward Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
Eric Daniels, arch senior manager of Lloyds Banking Group, has bent to open vigour and waived a £2.3m reward that the loss-making bank awarded him, apropos the fourth bank trainer in a week to exclude a payout.
In an surprising development, the Lloyds authority Sir Win Bischoff released a matter to insist that the bank"s arrangement cabinet had longed for to endowment him a full reward even as the bank prepares to inform a loss of at slightest £3bn on Friday.
Bischoff pronounced Daniels had motionless not to take the reward since "he believes that the glorious swell the organisation is making, formed on the substantial grant of most colleagues opposite the company, is in risk of being vaporous by the stream discuss on senior manager reward awards in the promissory note sector.
"The house has supposed Mr Daniels" preference and severely appreciates the care shown by his action," Bischoff said.
Barclays management team John Varley and Bob Diamond incited down their bonuses last week whilst Stephen Hester, arch senior manager of Royal Bank of Scotland, has told his authority he will spin down any reward awarded to him.
In the extensive statement, Bischoff described Daniels as carrying directed the bank by a severe year by his "strong and focused leadership".
"We built organisation foundations by collateral raisings, rightsizing the change piece and delivering the formation programme," Bischoff said.
"We are, of course, aware of the ongoing open discuss on the issue of bonuses in the promissory note sector. We hold that it is suitable that the colleagues embrace suitable monetary approval when the stretching opening targets, that embody both monetary and non-financial measures, are met.
"In the case, as a sell and blurb bank, the altogether grant underneath the annual reward schemes represents a really small commission of revenues."
The arrangement committee, led by non-executive senior manager Wolfgang Berndt, had resolved that Daniels "merits the full payout underneath the company"s annual reward intrigue since of his poignant particular contribution, and the group"s altogether performance, in 2009".
The house had permitted the recommendation. Other senior manager directors will embrace bonuses – they will be paid in shares and utterly paid in instalments until 2012 and are theme to clawback if increase spin green later.
