House prices fall fastest rate 19 months - Telegraph.co.uk

"Confidence is also weak as a result of uncertainty about the economic and employment outlook. These factors are probably constraining housing demand and applying some downward pressure on prices."

But he said the group expected a "moderate improvement" in the economy during the rest of the year, and this, combined with ongoing low interest rates, should help to support housing demand.

He said: "This should prevent a further marked fall in prices and help to stabilise property values later in the year."

The monthly change was broadly in line with the figure reported by Nationwide for the same period, with the building society saying house prices edged ahead by 0.3 per cent during May, but it recorded a more modest annual decline of 1.2 per cent.

April was a difficult month for the housing market, as the long bank holiday weekends caused people to put their moving plans on hold.

The Bank of England reported a 4 per cent drop in the number of mortgages approved for house purchase during the month, and this fall in activity will have had a knock-on effect on completed sales during May.

Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, said: "The fact that Halifax reported that house prices could only rise fractionally in May after a particularly sharp drop in April reinforces our view that further weakness lies ahead in the face of ongoing muted housing activity and difficult economic fundamentals.

"We maintain the view that house prices are likely to end up declining by some 10 per cent overall by mid-2012 from their 2010 highs.

"This implies that they will fall by around 5 per cent to 8 per cent from current levels depending on which measure you take."

Megan Fox Too Feminist For Transformers, Says Shia - Defamer Australia

Shia LaBeouf says Megan Fox sucked at Transformers because she is a secret feminist and uncomfortable with her sexiness:

"Megan developed this Spice Girl strength, this woman-empowerment that made her feel awkward about her involvement with Michael [Bay], who some people think is a very lascivious filmmaker, the way he films women. Mike films women in a way that appeals to a 16-year-old sexuality. It's summer. It's Michael's style. And I think [Fox] never got comfortable with it. This is a girl who was taken from complete obscurity and placed in a sex-driven role in front of the whole world and told she was the sexiest woman in America. And she had a hard time accepting it.

"When Mike would ask her to do specific things, there was no time for fluffy talk. We're on the run. And the one thing Mike lacks is tact. There's no time for [LaBeouf assumes a gentle voice] 'I would like you to just arch your back 70 degrees.'"

So cleavage Nazi Michael Bay kept screaming at Megan to stick her tits out, and the result was the most scorched earth director-actor relationship of the decade? Fair enough. Megan's replacement is better, says Shia, because "Rosie [Huntington-Whiteley] comes with this Victoria's Secret background… she can get down with Mike's way of working and it makes the whole set vibe very different." Finally, no tiresome feminists to ruin the raging teenage boners. [LATimes, images via Getty]

UPDATE 1-Scottish Power increases energy tariffs from August - Reuters

Tue Jun 7, 2011 12:13pm EDT

* Power, gas up from Aug. 1, 2.4 million households affected

* Gas bills to increase by average of 19 pct, power 10 pct

(Adds Energy and Climate Change minister comment)

LONDON, June 7 (Reuters) - British utility Scottish Power (IBE.MC) will increase domestic power and gas tariffs from Aug. 1 in response to rising wholesale energy prices, it said on Tuesday. Gas bills will increase by an average of 19 percent, while power bills will be 10 percent more expensive, a rise that will affect 2.4 million British households.

"Prices for gas and electricity have increased significantly since the end of last year and continuing unrest in global energy markets means future prices are volatile," said Scottish Power's UK Retail Director Raymond Jack.

He said costly government programmes for meeting environmental and social targets and high transmission expenses were also reasons for the tariff rises.

The utility's 70,000 most vulnerable customers can receive a discount on energy bills through a dedicated scheme, Scottish Power said.

The company also said it was investing 4 billion pounds ($6.5 billion) between 2010 and 2012 into renewable energy projects, smart grid technology and modernising power networks.

Britain's Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Chris Huhne, called the tariff increase "disappointing".

"But it underlines why the government is building an escape route from a high fossil fuel future. We need to get off the oil price hook and on to clean, green growth," he said in a statement.

British parliamentarians have accused Britain's six largest utilities of passing on wholesale price gains to customers more quickly than falling prices. [ID:nLDE74A0LD] (Reporting by Karolin Schaps, editing by Anthony Barker)

Weekdays 4p et - Fox News (blog)

The sequel to 2009's grotesque German horror fest, "The Human Centipede" is so loathsome and foul that the British equivalent to the MPAA has refused to rate it, calling it "sexually violent and potentially obscene."

The original film's plot revolved around a mad scientist who sewed three kidnap victims together, mouth to anus, to form a sort of "Human Centipede."

The sequel, directed by Tom Six, involves a man who becomes "sexually obsessed" after repeated viewings of the original film on DVD, and sets out to recreate the "Human Centipede" to satisfy his own perverted needs.

The director promised that the sequel would make original look like "My Little Pony."

The Daily Mail reports that the British Board of Film Classification has ruled that "no amount of cuts would allow them to give the new film a certificate" and that the film may be guilty of violating Britain's Obscene Publications Act.

The rejection by the BBFC means that "The Human Centipede Part 2: Full Sequence" will not legally be available in the UK.

Furious with the film board's refusal to rate the sequel, Six fired of an angry email to the UK's Empire magazine's web site, "Thank you BBFC for putting spoilers of my movie on your website and thank you for banning my film in this exceptional way."

"Apparently I made a horrific horror-film, but shouldn't a good horror film be horrific?" the Dutch director asked rhetorically. "It is all fictional. Not real. It is all make-belief. It is art. Give people their own choice to watch it or not. If people can't handle or like my movies they just don't watch them. If people like my movies they have to be able to see it any time, anywhere also in the UK."

Billed as "the sickest movie of all time," the BBFC concluded that the brutalization, degradation and mutilation shown in the film posed a "real, as opposed to a fanciful, risk that harm is likely to be caused to potential viewers."

Sri Lanka hold on for draw in second Test - Times of India

LONDON: Sri Lanka safely negotiated a draw on the final day of the second Test against England at Lord's on Tuesday after being set a daunting 343 from 58 overs to win.

Scorecard

The Sri Lankans, who collapsed for 82 in their second innings within 25 overs in the first of the three Tests in Cardiff last week, reached 127 for three when play was called off.

Andrew Strauss declared the England second innings closed at 335 for seven after Alastair Cook had completed his sixth century in his last nine Tests. It was also his third hundred in four innings after he fell four short of a century in the first innings.

Cook batted for more than five hours before he was finally stumped off left-arm spinner Rangana Herath for 106.

Kevin Pietersen, out in single figures in both his previous innings in the series, played with all his old authority to reach his half-century from 85 balls.

He was dismissed by Herath 10 minutes before lunch for 72 by a ball which spun sharply out of the rough to knock back his off stump.

Ian Bell then played a delightful cameo as England forced the pace, stroking three boundaries from his first four deliveries, and finishing with 57 not out from 43 balls as wickets tumbled at the other end.

SANGAKKARA FAILS AGAIN

When Sri Lanka batted, Kumar Sangakkara, opening the batting in place of captain Tillakaratne Dilshan who sustained a hairline fracture of his right thumb during an epic 193 in Sri Lanka's first innings, was again out cheaply.

Sangakkara (12) pushed Chris Tremlett tamely to Eoin Morgan in the covers. His average of 26.6 in English conditions is 30 runs less than his overall Test average.

Mahela Jayawardene, with two previous centuries at Lord's, was caught at fourth slip by Pietersen off Stuart Broad for 25 from a ball which moved sharply away from the right-hander.

Graeme Swann, bowling with fielders clustered around the bat, appealed successfully for lbw when Thilan Samaraweera was struck on the pad after offering no shot.

However, Billy Doctrove's decision was over-ruled when the batsman asked for a referral and the television replay showed the ball was missing off stump.

Strauss turned to Jonathan Trott for some variation and the part-time medium-pacer responded by dismissing the obdurate Tharanga Paranavitana lbw for 44 pushing forward to a straight delivery.

With 25 overs still remaining, Dilshan injured and a long Sri Lankan tail, Strauss turned to Steven Finn and Tremlett.

But the fast bowlers were unable to break through and the captains settled for a draw with 15 overs remaining. The final Test starts in Southampton on June 16.

Essex police told of harassment weeks before mother and toddler shot dead - The Guardian

A mother shot dead with her toddler daughter had reported to police that she was being "pestered and harassed" by the suspected gunman less than two weeks before she was killed.

Christine Chambers, 38, contacted officers on 27 May in the latest of a number of calls to Essex police over two years reporting incidents concerning the man suspected of the double murders, named locally as David Oakes, 50.

Details of her last complaint were made public by the Independent Police Complaints Commission as it launched a formal investigation into the case. The bodies of Chambers and two-year-old Shania were found following a stand-off between police and the gunman inside their home in Bartram Avenue, Braintree in the early hours of Monday.

The suspect, a former partner of Chambers and father of Shania who has not been formally named, is currently under police guard at a nearby hospital after undergoing treatment for injuries.

The police watchdog said it was "still collating" previous contact between Chambers and police as the father of her 10-year-old daughter, Chelsea, who escaped from the house, said he had "begged" police to enter the house immediately before the killings. Chelsea had managed to get out of a back window and fled at 3am to her father Ian Flitt, half a mile away, telling him Oakes had a gun, said Flitt.

"The police had been told for the past two weeks that he has been making threats and they were not doing nothing about it. After Chelsea came here and told me what had happened, I phoned police and said he is not a bluffer – I can't tell you your job but I am telling you now, if you try to negotiate with him, it is not going to work," he said. He added: "Police called me from the scene two hours after I phoned them and said 'would Chelsea be lying?'. "I told them, of course she is not lying – you needed to get in there – he is in there and is torturing her."He said of Oakes: "He was clued up, he had a firearm – I am so angry, this is unbelievable. It could have been totally avoided."

"I totally hold Essex police responsible – not any individual, but I was begging them to get into that house. They need to be investigated for what happened there."

Police were called to a firearms incident at the house at 3am on Monday. Neighbours have spoken of seeing officers attempting to negotiate with the gunman through the letterbox before shots were heard at around 4.45am.

It is understood Chambers and Oakes were involved in a custody dispute over Shania, and had been due to attend a family proceedings hearing at Chelmsford County Court hours after the murders.

The IPCC said Chambers had reported she was being "pestered and harassed". Commissioner Rachel Cerfontyne said: "Nobody could fail to have been shocked by what happened in Braintree yesterday and my thoughts are with Christine and Shania's family. Our independent investigation will focus on the previous reports to police and how they responded.

"At this stage, it is too early to say whether police responded appropriately to each incident and this is something that will take time to establish, but we will make our findings public as soon as we are able."

Flowers and cuddly toys have been left as tributes outside the house where the shootings took place.

News of the World Apologizes for Hacking Sienna Miller's Phone - New York Times

LONDON — The News of the World formally apologized to the actress Sienna Miller on Tuesday for systematically, and illegally, intercepting her cellphone messages in the mid-2000s and using the information to publish articles about her private life.

The apology comes as part of a settlement between Ms. Miller and the newspaper, which also agreed to pay her £100,000 in legal fees and damages, about $164,000. It is the latest development in a long-running drama in which the newspaper has had to contend with growing evidence that its practice of hacking into the cellphones of public figures, politicians and celebrities was widespread and pervasive.

At least four other people who say their phones were hacked into have reached out-of-court settlements with the newspaper; numerous lawsuits against it are still pending. The newspaper has offered to settle with at least seven other possible victims of its phone-hacking practices.

For several years, News of the World said that its phone hacking had been limited to a single case — that involving its former royal editor, Clive Goodman, and a private investigator hired by the paper, Glenn Mulcaire, who were both jailed in 2007 for illegally intercepting voice mail messages of members of the royal household. But that claim began to lose credibility as more evidence came to light, and this year the company admitted that it had hacked the phones of eight public figures, including Ms. Miller, in the mid-2000s.

Meanwhile, the police are conducting a criminal investigation. Two News of the World editors and a reporter have been arrested and released on bail in connection with the case.

The apology, read aloud in London's High Court by a lawyer for News Group Newspapers, the subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News International that publishes the News of the World, was notable for how thorough, and how abject, it was.

The company, said the lawyer, Michael Silverleaf, "acknowledges that the information should never have been obtained in the manner it was" and that "the private information should never have been published." The paper, he added, "has accepted responsibility for misuse of private information, breach of confidence and harassment."

Ms. Miller was not in court and did not make a statement. But her lawyer, David Sherborne, said that in 2005 and 2006, the News of the World published numerous articles containing "intrusive and private information" about her, much to her puzzlement.

She did not know "whether someone close to her was leaking information or whether her mobile telephone was somehow being hacked into," Mr. Sherborne said. "Both possibilities were extremely distressing."

He said that she had become suspicious about the security of her cellphone when she missed a number of voice mail messages and received calls from people who hung up. She changed her phone number three times in three months, but information kept leaking out, he said.

The information was used for at least 11 articles about Ms. Miller's private life, including details about her romantic relationships with the actors Daniel Craig and Jude Law. One of the articles drew on discussions between Mr. Law and Ms. Miller about the possibility of their having children together. The two have since split up.

News Group said that it would lay out the full extent of its phone-hacking operation to Ms. Miller privately.

Her case relied on notes seized from Mr. Mulcaire after his arrest. The notes contained details about Ms. Miller's cellphones, including phone numbers, PINs and passwords, as well as similar details about the phone numbers of her mother, her publicist and Mr. Law.