A series of earthquakes and heavy snowfall triggered an avalanche in Abruzzo region, Southern Italy, which destroyed the four-star Hotel Rigopiano, killing twenty-nine and injuring eleven.

The avalanche hit in the afternoon of January 18 and was said to comprise a total of 60,000 tonnes of snow, ice, rocks and uprooted trees travelling at 60 mph.

Investigations are taking place into the failure of the Italian authorities to respond quickly to the reports of the avalanche, and whether the hotel was built on the debris of previous avalanches taking the same route down the mountainside.

It is a sobering fact that the huge increase in the number of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s or drones) in our skies – one million sold in 2015 and growing – has also increased the chances of your passenger jet being brought down by one being flown too close to an airport, or flight path, either through total stupidity or deliberate malice.

According to the UK Airprox Board there were 13 near misses of drones and passenger jets using Heathrow airport in 2016, nearly four times the number in 2015, with 10 of the incidents being graded category A, meaning “Serious risk of collision”. Some have been caused by drones being used to capture “cool” close-up views of aircraft taking off and landing, these shots then being posted proudly by their lethally stupid takers on the internet. Continue reading →

Northumbria University in Newcastle has been fined £400,000, plus £26,468 costs after it mistakenly gave a toxic dose of caffeine powder to two male sports science students who had volunteered for a test to measure the effect of caffeine on exercise in 2015.

The test dose was supposed to be 0.3g, or 3 times the amount of 0.1g in a cup of coffee. However the students were given 30g, or 100 times too much and both were hospitalised and lost more than 20 pounds in weight.

The university told Newcastle crown court that is was ‘genuinely sorry’ for what was ‘an isolated event’. Both students have recovered but are pursuing a civil action against the university.

o A wedding rehearsal for a £25,000 ceremony in the Cuban resort of Playa Esmerelda was interrupted when the roof of the lobby of the four-star Sol Rio De Luna y Mares hotel collapsed, trapping the bride and groom under the debris. The couple, both of whom suffered injuries, are suing tour operator Thomas Cook.

o Nearly a hundred Britons, including two wedding parties, are suing the Marelen Hotel on the Greek Ionian island of Zakynthos (Zante) after they became ill with the Cryptosporidium stomach parasite. Contamination of the swimming pool was blamed by the guests for the outbreak last August.

Plans to turn the vast War Office on London’s Whitehall into a £1 billion five-star hotel and 88 apartments complex by 2020 have been met with opposition from more than 30 objectors who say the plans to alter it will “mutilate” the Grade II listed “masterpiece of Edwardian architecture” The plans include the adding of three additional floors.

The building comprises 580,000 square feet of space, with two miles of corridors linking 1,100 rooms and was sold by the Ministry of Defence last year for £350 million to the Hinduja Group, a huge London-based Indian conglomerate employing 72,000 people, and Spanish construction group OHL which operates in 30 countries.

Two UK conference venues are currently changing hands (Business Desk)

In Blackpool the historic 180-bedroom four-star Imperial Hotel, with 14 conference rooms for up to 600, has been sold to an un-named buyer for £10 million+

And in Berkswell, West Midlands the 49-bedroom Nailcote Hall Hotel, Golf and Country Club, which has five function rooms for up to 180 and a 9-hole championship golf course, has just come onto the market for an un-named asking price.

The 17-bedroom Penny Lane Hotel in Penny Lane, Liverpool is up for sale at £950,000

The sellers, Christie and Co., are stretching the Beatles connection to breaking point, gushing that the hotel, as well as bearing the name of 1967 Beatles song, is close to some Beatle’s childhood homes, the Beatles Story museum and the (newly re-built) Cavern Club. Continue reading →

To the annual Performing Artistes Speaker Drinks showcase at the IOD, London, where we mingle with the likes of the elegant dancer John Sergeant and Gerald Ratner, the retail jeweller who cleverly described some of his products as “crap” at the IOD many years ago and thus launched himself into a lucrative speaking career as his shops closed.

However the main entertainment was the showcasing of four young comedians on the company’s books, all looking for corporate and conference work Eshaan Akbar had a likeable, self-deprecating approach, Paul Sinha claimed to be the only openly gay comedian on the circuit, (was he joking?) Tom Ward did a bitingly accurate Jools Holland impression and Tiff Stevenson made friends with her digs at Donald Trump, all in all an enjoyable way for organisers to evaluate some up-and coming talent.

www.performingartistes.co.uk

The Scarborough Art Gallery makes an interesting visit for those, like Victorian artist William Etty, who appreciate the beauty of ladies without much on. Such as in his Judgement of Paris work hanging there whereby the coveted golden apple inscribed “To the Fairest” is given by Paris to a lovely, svelte, if rather smug Aphrodite, who looks as if she knew she was always going to win over her more curvy rivals. Complementing this is the Rose of Youth, a large and more modern work, recently restored, and by Herietta Roe featuring a flame-haired, teenage. pre-raphaelite temptress seated naked on a throne with a headband of roses and with the floor strewn with pink oleander flowers, actually toxic and, sobering thought, a symbol of death for other artists. Continue reading →

Though some may find this exuberant 1944 musical as corny as Kansas in August there’s no denying that it’s a feel-good dancing treat dished up by some of Hollywood’s finest, pairing the skills and style of bill-topping beauty Rita Hayworth, 24 at the time, with the athletic choreography of balletic Gene Kelly, an energetic 32, and the affable humour of Phil Silvers, himself no mean hoofer at 33. Continue reading →