Four more riders have been killed at this years Isle of Man TT races. This brings the total to more than 260 people killed since the race, which brings in more than £250 million and attracts up to 50,000 valuable visitors every year, was started in 1907.

One of this years fatalities was Paul Shoesmith, 50, who has been honoured with a “Spirit of the TT” PR award by race sponsors Poker Stars, a gambling website based on the island. Race organisers are ACU Events Ltd. Continue reading →

The Lush Bar in Magaluf, where a British teenager claimed to have been egged on by bar staff as he drank 75 Sambuca and caramel vodka shots, is being charged with illegally supplying alcohol to a customer who was obviously drunk, a law that also applies in the UK. The teenager, an 18 year-old man from the Midlands collapsed in the street and was treated in hospital for alcohol poisoning. Continue reading →

EasyJet passengers arriving at the security check with less than half an hour before their flight leaves will not be allowed to board.

The new policy, which is similar to that of BA at Heathrow Terminals three and five, will please all those who always allow plenty of time for the irritating but essential security checks but annoy those types who like to cut it fine with just hand luggage to carry on and who are often to be seen jumping the queues to make their flights. These passengers can pay EasyJet an extra £7.50 “missed flight cover” and then be entitled to a full refund, or a booking on the next available flight, without paying the normal £80 for switching flights.

The famous Glastonbury Festival could be moving 15 miles west, from Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset to Longleat, Wiltshire in 2019.

The organisers, who only own part of the site say that this makes the future of the show less certain, and that there are concerns that a mains gas pipe that runs through the site could be fractured under the strain of 250,000 revellers. Continue reading →

To the Hilton London Metropole hotel, Edgware Road, one of Europe’s largest with 1,059 bedrooms, dining space for up to 2,000 and conference space for up to 3,000.

Bedrooms are modern, comfortable and stylish, and all at Guest Room grade (274) have air-conditioning, mini-bars, tea and coffee making facilities, laptop safes, telephones and LCD satellite TVs, hairdryers, irons and ironing boards, 24hour in-room dining, work stations and wireless internet for which charges may apply. Deluxe Rooms (239) are on the higher floors with city views and Superior Rooms (307) are larger, with Family Superior Rooms (45) offering two queen-size beds, sofa and two TVs. Executive Rooms (170) and Suites (20) offer free access to the Executive Lounge for a complimentary continental breakfast and alcohols and snacks. The Executive Rooms have a large work station with an ergonomic chair and a bathroom with a separate shower stall. Suites offer a lounge, bedroom and bathroom, with Studio Suites (4) also incorporating a fully fitted kitchen for self-catering and longer stays. Continue reading →

o Twelve guests were rescued by fire crews at the 22-bedroom three-star Rushmore Hotel in Trebovir Road Earls Court, when a blaze broke out on the second floor there on Sunday June 5. Ten fire engines and 72 firefighters were at the scene and 150 people were evacuated from nearby buildings. The cause of the fire is unknown and being investigated.

o BLOC Hotels, which currently has a unit in Birmingham and one in Gatwick, is planning its second hotel in Birmingham. (Business Desk) This will be a 25 storey tower building housing 238 bedrooms and will be located close to New Street Station and the Grand Central shopping area.

o The St Regis Hotel, Dubai has opened the Sir Winston Churchill Suite. This is 9,828 square feet in area (913 square metres) and features a huge living area, a study, a dining room seating twelve around the table, three bedrooms, a large majlis or Arabic meeting room, a spiral staircase leading up to a rooftop plunge pool with views over the city and another dining area, reproductions of fifteen of Winnies 500 paintings and one of his Cuban cigars. Oh and a rate of £13,950 a night, which may or may not include breakfast…

It could be argued that when Italian film director Bernardo Bertolucci made “Twentieth Century” forty years ago in 1976, his memorable five-hour art-house epic about the rise of facism in Italy in the first half of the last century, he benefitted from a dream team of acting talents at the peak of their powers.

The film chronicles the lives of two men from different sides of the tracks who grow up together. Alfredo Berlingheri, who inherits his father’s farm is played by American actor Robert de Niro when he was 33 and in the same year he was Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, two years after playing Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II in 1974 and before being Michael Vronsky in The Deerhunter (1978) and Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull (1980). His friend is Olno Dalco, an illiterate peasant who works on the farm and is played by the 28 year old French character actor Gerard Depardieu, near the beginning of a career spanning 170 films. Continue reading →