LONDON: The UK’s largest engineering services company Amec PLC has been awarded a C$510m (£245m) project management contract by Canada’s largest nuclear generator Bruce Power.

Amec will oversee the rebuilding of the two nuclear reactors Unit Nos.1 and 2 that had been shut down in 1997 and 1995, respectively, when they were found to be needing upgrades. The contract is part of a £2bn investment to restart these reactors in order to help reduce the country’s heavy reliance on coal-fired power stations.

When the two units resume operation in 2009 they would replace about one fifth of the province’s 7,500 MW of coal-fired power. The Canadian government has ordered all coal-fired power generators shut between 2007 and 2009 as the carbon dioxide emissions from these plants were contributing to the greenhouse effect.

The refurbished units would also enhance Bruce Power’s output by over 6,200MW which is about 25 percent of Ontario’s power demand. Ontario is the industrialized province in Central Canada where 18 of the country’s total of 20 reactors are located.

In recent times, the province’s power generation has fallen far short of its requirements. Last summer this industrial centre had suffered several power outages. The country will need a further 25,000MW of generating capacity by 2020, according to the energy ministry’s calculations.

The government of Canada is convinced of the practicality and ecological sense behind nuclear generators and is expected to give its approval for building new nuclear power stations. It will also be honouring its commitment to the Kyoto agreement to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to below 6 percent lower than the 1990s levels by 2012.

Currently, Canada’s power needs are met 13 percent by nuclear generators and 57 percent by hydro-electricity. The remaining portion is met by coal-fired power stations.

Once the two units are restarted, Bruce Power will continue to generate nuclear power for the next 30 years instead of closing the final unit in 2018 as was earlier planned.

The British engineering company Amec is optimistic about the future and hopefully believes the Canadian contract is the first of many such contracts that should come their way. As governments and commercial organisations worldwide realize the environmental practicality of nuclear power, there would be more investment in this area asking companies such as Amec Nuclear to clean up, rebuild and restart once closed down nuclear reactors.

London City’s poorest areas have seen their house prices rise dramatically thanks to the Olympics 2012 to be staged here. Tower Hamlets, an East End borough, has seen prices jack up by an incredible 12,000 pounds in a month. This area has Britain’s most crowded dwellings. Likewise its neighbouring borough Newham, which includes Stratford, posted a hike of 3.1 per cent.

Property web site Rightmove said that the rise in house prices between September 11 and October 8 has been recorded at 0.5 per cent. It is the first time that the monthly prices have registered a rise since April. Rightmove’s commercial director, Miles Shipside, reacted surprisingly when he stated: “While price rises were to be expected, £12,000 a month is pretty exceptional”. He was of the view that the entire housing market was “on the turn”.

Translated into figures, according the Rightmove House Price Index, the period between Sept 11 and Oct 8 average asking prices rose from £195,407 to £196,348 compared with the month before. More than 100,000 new properties were added on to the market during this period.

Highest increase was seen in the detached houses market which registered a 2.2 per cent increase in asking prices compared to last year, while flats and apartments saw a surge of only 0.5 per cent in prices.

However, Rightmove did not see a return to boom conditions. It felt that such a situation needed a host of first time buyers, mortgage rates which are lower and more realistic pricing by sellers and their agents.

In London, in areas close to the venues where Olympic events would be held, average asking prices increased by 0.7 per cent in October when compared to September.

This study assumes significance for the fact that the housing markets are an important economic indicator in UK.

WASHINGTON – The US federal deficit was pegged at $319 billion for the budget year that just ended marking the fact that the deficit has come down after last year’s record deficit. However, the impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita is likely to send it soaring once again.

Last year the deficit stood at $413 billion and has improved this year due to the robust economy as well as a surge in federal revenues. US Treasury Secretary John Snow was pleased with the latest figures admitting that the fall was better than expected and was encouraging news for the administration. “While deficits are never welcome, the fact that we finished fiscal year 2005 with a much-lower-than-expected deficit is encouraging news,” said Mr. Snow.

“Lower taxes and pro-growth economic policies have created millions of jobs and a growing economy that has swelled tax revenues over the past year.” However, it must be pointed out that only $4 billion of the $62 billion allocated towards the Katrina relief effort has been spent in the last fiscal year meaning that the rebuilding process is likely to eat into a chunk of this years’ budget. Snow acknowledged this fact, but said that the impact would be minimal, “While the effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita will be felt in the short term, we remain on a path to meet the president’s goal of cutting the deficit in half by 2009.”

However, in spite of this improvement over last year’s budget, this shortfall was the third highest ever recorded in history. The economy has continued to enjoy growth of over 3 percent over the last nine quarters. The effects of the hurricanes could peg it back by 0.5 percent over the next year.

LONDON – The London Metropolitan Police have announced that they will be working with money transfer giant Western Union in order to stop fraudsters from using that service for nefarious purposes. This means that all Western Union customers will be required to sign a form stating that they are confident that they are not being defrauded.

The Met have also entered into a similar agreement with online auction company eBay Inc. “There are businesses that fear their reputation will be damaged through the publicity that the police are involved and that will have a negative impact on their share price,” said Detective Chief Superintendent Nigel Mawer, head of economic and specialist crime at the Metropolitan police. He added that all they would do is ensure that the banks as well as the customers are not taken for a ride.

It is estimated that such frauds cost the public something in the tune of 1 billion a year. US-based Western Union will also cooperate with the police in spreading awareness about the dangers of fraud. Peter Bucher, Western Union’s Financial Services vice-president for operations said that even though the fraud cases were a small volume of the firm’s overall transactions, they cost them a lot reputation-wise. “Education is one of the best tools we have in the fight against consumer fraud and the educated consumers are better able to protect themselves,” he added. “We are heavily engaged with eBay to get the same kind of partnership. We are optimistic we will get somewhere with it,” said Nigel Mawer.

As a part of the agreement, Western Union will encourage its staff to reject suspicious transactions. “Money transfer should never be used for sending money to a stranger, someone whose identity cannot be verified,” said Bucher. Staff will also issue forms to customers warning them about potential scamsters lurking in the shadows.

Scottish dentists have resoundingly rejected the £295 million package proposed by the Executive to lure them back onto the NHS. Talks between the government and dentists have ended in stalemate with both sides sticking to their respective stands.

The Executive had proposed the Dental Action Plan, which required dentists to pledge that they would treat a fixed number of patients on the NHS. The British Dental Association (BDA) was unhappy with this clause and decided to withdraw from the talks. The dental crisis on the NHS has only deepened after this latest twist. Already thousands of patients have been forced to re-register with private dentists after their NHS dentists shut their practices down.

“The Executive is putting Scotland’s dental health in jeopardy by removing the ability for dentists to see only children or those exempt from NHS charges. The levels of funding and investment available for NHS dentistry in Scotland are not sufficient to provide for a universal, comprehensive service for all,” said Andrew Lamb, the BDA director for Scotland.

The deputy health minister Lewis McDonald had launched the DAP in March this year and promised to recruit an extra 200 dentists by 2008. He was disappointed that any agreement had not been reached, “It is disappointing we haven’t been able to reach agreement with them, but our priority now is to deliver our action plan for NHS dentists,” he said. Shona Robison MSP, the SNP’s health spokeswoman echoed his views, but said that the Executive should ensure that there was adequate time to treat the patients.

Margaret Davidson, from the Scotland Patients’ Association, said, “The BDA is putting people’s lives at risk. Dental check-ups are vital for spotting serious health conditions, such as mouth cancer, and everyone should have the right to see a dentist.”

LONDON: Reckitt Benckiser Plc has won the bid finally. It is buying Boots Group’s non-prescription drugs business, Boots Healthcare International (BHI), for 1.9 billion pounds in cash. There will be synergies of sort, when the company’s Lemsip and Disprin cold remedies will be placed alongside of Boot’s Nurofen painkiller.

Boots, which is in the process of merging with Alliance Unichem Plc, is required to divest the healthcare business for the merger to secure the regulator’s approval. It is returning around 1.43 billion pounds to its shareholders through a special dividend.

Reckitt Benckiser’s chief executive Bart Becht admitted the price was a full price, but there are considerable synergies and the company is acquiring a high growth and high margin business with earning enhancing from year one. The company hopes to have cost savings of 75 million pounds and 130 million pounds of net working capital gains by 2008.

Becht said he is paying around 20 times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) against recent similar deals which were priced at about 13 or 14 times, but contended that the Boots business had important brands and strong growth potential.

Apart from Nurofen, Reckitt Benckiser will add Clearasil skin products and Strepsils throat lozenges to its health and personal care division, which already has an array like Dettol antiseptic, Veet depilatories and heartburn treatment Gaviscon. The company is committed to continue operations at BHI’s three sites in Nottingham, England and in Germany and Thailand.

Reckitt Benckiser, the world’s largest consumer and household cleaning products group, which had been scouting for acquisitions since 1999, had lost two earlier chances — to buy Bayer’s household insecticide unit and Schick razors — mainly because of cautious bidding. In its bid for BHI, it was pitted against GlaxoSmithKline Plc.

The path is now clear for Boots to buy Alliance Unichem to create drug retailing major with pan-European footprint.

LONDON: T-Mobile UK, the British arm of Europe’s largest telecom operator Deutsche Telekom AG, threw a challenge at its fixed line rivals by announcing a mobile Internet service called “Web ‘n’ Walk”.

The new service, believed to be crucial for the company’s business in the UK, allows customers full Internet access for £9 a month. Customers will have 40 MB of data usage which equals around 2,500 emails or 500 web pages. They will be able to use the mobile in exactly the same way as they would a computer; such as making online purchases, browsing, etc. The service comes through a portal headed with the search engine Google.

The mobile operator’s managing director Brian McBride told journalists over a teleconference that the company aimed to displace fixed-line usage with their total Internet usage. He pointed out that Internet services on mobile devices had so far been slow, difficult to navigate and “bloody expensive”. But T-Mobile’s “Web ‘n’ Walk” would change all that.

The company despite losing market share had been busy planning high-speed broadband mobile data services to its customers by integrating its networks with upgraded technology. It has also planned a launch of the HSDPA next year, a technology which enables broadband Internet speed on 3G networks.

The company also announced five devices for the new service and promised three more by Christmas. These include the MDA Pro Smartphone handsets that make browsing the Net much easier than on conventional mobile phones. These handsets are designed for 3G and WiFi networks as well as the analogue spectrum.

McBride said he expected hundreds of thousands of people over the next two years to begin using the Internet through their mobile phones. The service had already been launched by its parent Deutsche in Germany. The UK launch will be marketed using a £10 million advertising campaign.

T-Mobile customers will have a choice of three tariffs that will include ‘Web ‘n’ Walk”: £30, £38 and £55 a month. Each would offer 40 Mb worth of data download but with differing voice minutes.

For most mobile operators, including Internet service as part of the services package is crucial for business in the current “overheated market” according to an analyst. It seems like the only way to increase data revenue.

LONDON: The government plans to snatch junk food, chocolates and crisps from 8 million school children. According to an announcement yesterday, the School Meals Advisory Panel is going to revise national school curriculum with the inclusion of cookery classes for boys and girls between 11 and 14. It will also ban junk food and sugary fizzy pop type drinks from school and canteen vending machines.

Under the enforced “healthy eating” plan, reconstituted meats will be replaced with at least two portions of fresh fruit and vegetables daily; oily fish will also become a regular 3-weekly feature; fried food will be limited to two dishes a week. And pupils will be barred from leaving the school gate; which means pupils have no choice but to eat what the school canteen provides.

The panel said it aimed to instill the concept of ‘healthy eating’ among pupils by phasing out all old unhealthy meal menus and eating habits. This may prove more difficult than is imagined. A separate study by the Foods Standards Agency showed that half of all students chose burgers and chips whereas barely 2 percent chose fruits.

Knowing that children are not going to welcome the food changes, the panel plans to implement the changes gradually – over the next two years for primary schools and until 2009 for secondary schools. By that time stringent nutrient-based standards will be in place at all schools across the UK. These will feature a total of 23 standards of which 14 will regulate the proportion of nutrients that children must get and the remaining nine will require children to get at least one portion of fruit and one of vegetables or salad every day. Pupils will have access to “unrestricted” quantities of bread and free, fresh, chilled drinking water.

Pupils would be made to understand what kind of food is good for them; they will also be taught practical cooking skills, especially how to prepare vegetables and other healthful dishes.

Education secretary Ruth Kelly supported the panel’s recommendations and said that even parents needed to be told what food is permitted in packed lunches. She also welcomed the suggestion that pupils be barred from leaving school grounds to buy fast food products.

The panel comprises teachers, public health organisations, caterers, unions, consumer groups and local authority representatives.

Until now pupils were required only to study food technology in design and technology classes. With the panel’s efforts a course in cooking is set to become a requisite of the new curriculum.

The panel pointed out that the government was expected to provide an additional Ł266 million to fund the programme for improving school meals. Ms Kelly had earlier allowed Ł220 million which would not be enough for the three year transition period to the new ‘healthy eating’ standards, the panel said.