Scottish and Southern cuts gas bills

By Harry Wallop, Consumer Affairs Editor Published: 5:17PM GMT 04 Mar 2010

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However, it rught away came underneath conflict for the "token gesture" with appetite experts observant the association should have cut by far more.

A patron with a twin fuel comment with Scottish and Southern receiving both gas and physical phenomenon will see their bills tumble by �30, or 4 per cent, to �1,193.

Bills "must fall" after British Gas"s "dangerous" enlarge British Gas will be cheered by cold spell Scottish and Southern plans to set up Shetland Isles breeze plantation Scottish Power cuts bills, but experts contend it is insignificant Gas bills scarcely doubled in 3 years, notwithstanding indiscriminate prices being reduce E. ON drops prices for 4.1 million physical phenomenon customers, but not gas

Those that have usually gas will see their check tumble by �56, or 7 per cent, to �715.

However, bills are still at slightest a third higher than dual years ago and experts claimed Scottish and Southern had unsuccessful to pass on sufficient of the unemployment in the cost of indiscriminate appetite to customers. They additionally forked out that the cut usually comes in to outcome at the finish of March, when business are approaching to have incited down their heating.

David Hunter, appetite researcher from McKinnon & Clarke said: "This 4 per cent on gas alone is well short of a satisfactory understanding for customers.

"We are really disappointed, but not somewhat surprised, that the cut comes in from the finish of Mar once the rise heating deteriorate is over demonstrating once again the priority of shareholder dividends over business struggling to compensate heating bills."

The cut by Scottish and Southern follows a 7 per cent cut by British Gas at the begin of February, that took force with evident effect.

Mark Todd, executive of the cost some-more aged website energyhelpline.com, said: "Although any cut in domicile appetite prices is welcome, this is prolonged owing and usually a dump in the ocean.

"There should be copiousness some-more gas in the tank at SSE for serve falls and we would urge them to have some-more suggestive cost cuts."

The pointy tumble in indiscriminate gas and physical phenomenon prices usually a small piece of that have been upheld on to business has let suppliers enlarge their enlarge substantially. Ofgem, the industry regulator, calculates that on normal companies are creation �105 in distinction from each patron on an annual basis, up from usually �35 last year.

British Gas last week voiced jot down profits.

Scottish and Southern argued it could not cut prices any serve since the supposed brazen cost the cost for gas in 2011 was higher than it was for 2010. Alistair Phillips-Davies, appetite supply executive of the company, said: "Energy supply is still a severe business, with poignant ceiling cost pressures that run opposite to reductions in indiscriminate costs, but we hold this is a obliged package of measures."

Splinter Cell: Conviction video game preview

By Tom Hoggins Published: 5:52PM GMT 04 March 2010

Previous of Images Next There had improved be no some-more delays: A new Splinter Cell journey is set for recover this Apr Low-tech: Sam Fisher"s gadgets are left and he right away has to have do with bland apparatus in his environments Over you go: Sam can still secrecy kill opponents if he"s unresolved from a edge at the behind of them Shhhhh, we"re being stealthy: Conviction looks set to be a some-more movement focused diversion than the predecessors Take a closer look: Sam FIsher is presented as some-more battle-scarred and heartless than prior to Seamless: The mission objectives crop up on surfaces around Sam and don"t miscarry the upsurge of fool around

Format: Xbox 360, PCDeveloper: Ubisoft MontrealPublisher: MontrealReleased: sixteen Apr 2010

Its mocking that with nonetheless an additional check pulling Sam Fishers long-awaited lapse to Apr the ultimate Splinter Cell is receiving the time to climb out of the shadows; Conviction is stealth-action at a hundred miles an hour.

Most expected video games of 2010 Splinter Cell Conviction preview Top 10 video diversion low-pitched scores E3 2009: Top 10 video games Top 10 Xbox 360 exclusives E3 2009: Microsofts Xbox 360 lecture research

As Fisher, you attempt to keep out of steer as majority as possible, but watchful around is not in the remit. Sweeping in in in between cover with the press of a symbol Fisher scrambles towards his targets with stoic, fit determination. When he attacks, hes surgical. Disposing of his foes with steadfast pointing and speed prior to declining again. The rest of the passed mans celebration are terrified, banishment blindly where they thought they last saw the spook thats picking them off.

Your methods of dispatching Fishers enemies are pleasingly varied. OK, it often comes down to a bullet in the brain or an up close and personal neck-snap but the the follow -that ruthless diversion of cat-and-mouse- that gives the greatest thrill. Controlling Fisher has a outstanding heft, complimented by minute and organic animation. He scurries in in in between cover, scrambles up and conflicting pipes and rooftops, prior to crashing down on his foes with weight and power, heartless as Bourne.

Shorn of his heading gadgets, Fisher improvises with a snapped car mirror, slipping it underneath doorways to range out the forthcoming. A daub of RB on an gullible rivalry outlines them for execution -a stylish, one shot-kill- Fisher bursts by the door, the thup thup of his silenced pistol receiving out twin guards prior to they could even blink. Slip in to shadow, cool as you similar to and very, really satisfied.

Execution outlines are limited. To accumulate marks, Fisher contingency take down an rivalry in hand-to-hand combat. Along with customary gunplay, the trifecta of dispatch methods allows a breathless, energetic accumulation to play. How you proceed each target binds the own risk prerogative considerations, however. Picking off goons from a area is maybe safest, but a longed for could rapt the patrol to your whereabouts. Hand-to-hand is the stealthiest choice and adds to your execution stockpile, but covering any open belligerent could lead to you being spotted. Execution is the majority arguable form of attack, but youll need to cruise the most appropriate times to make make use of of them, lest they be wasted.

In an attack on a palace -searching for the man who could lead Fisher to his daughters killers- I make make use of of each arms at my disposal. I pound lights to expel shadows; lift goons from window ledges; scuttle around to the conflicting side and govern his squadmates; dump from suspended pipes; fire down chandeliers, slicing the bad guys underneath to ribbons. Each move is delicately thought out though, a inapplicable designation and youre in trouble. Fishers health club cant take some-more than a couple of hits, so a untimely pour out on an opponents on all sides is expected to lead to death.

When I fix up my target, the inquire time. This is arguably an interactive cutscene, but Fishers heartless doubt technique allows you to pull towards your whimpering rivalry to opposite tools of the environment, outstanding them by tables and lavatories, porcelain pinch on the tiled floor. The elementary action of a symbol press is brutally pleasing as Fisher grills his enemies. Hes a really indignant man, and you feel each damaged bone he administers. Flashes of his murdered daughter are expel on the wall in a tidy visible flourish, reminding you usually because youre enormous skulls.

Its a stirring territory of fool around from the campaign, a well-judged key display off Convictions target for the singleplayer draw. Its moulding up to be a grim, peppery story of revenge. Multiplayer looks to be lonesome too, with new commune mode Deniable Ops putting you in the boots of a tooled-up Third Echelon agent, tasking you and a crony with clearing out assorted rivalry encampments.

Paired up with a rather doubtful seeking French journalist, Im pitched in to what looks similar to a sprawling embassy. The area is filthy with terrorists, and a opposite pops in to the top-left of the HUD. There are ten terrorists in this sector, the pursuit simple: take them out. With twin agents, some-more rendezvous options turn available, flanking, distraction, even twin executions. One player can symbol a span of goons for execution, opening up the choice for his partner to place some-more outlines in one seamless tag-team firestorm, utilizing usually one mark.

Working by a Deniable Ops mission is deliciously tense, methodically dispatching enemies but being seen. Should a ensure mark you or your partner, reinforcements will be called in. That rivalry opposite in the tip dilemma will parasite upwards, definition you have even some-more targets to eliminate, all at a heightened state of awareness.

The missions crop up considerably extensive too. When one zone is clear, you will have the possibility to reload and barter apparatus prior to relocating on to the next. The embassy we were pitched in was something of a labyrinth. We worked the approach by the gardens, in to good halls travelling twin floors prior to entrance behind on ourselves. Signposting did turn an issue in such a stretch however, conjunction of us sure where to go subsequent with the diversion awaiting us to double-back. It was a slight mood-killer for a multiplayer mode formed on satirical sweeps, as we unfit in to sealed doors and dull corridors, admittedly not aided by the denunciation separator in in in between my partner and I. When on lane and on method, however, Deniable Ops had a superb change of tragedy and excitement, quite during a well-choreographed takedown.

Question outlines sojourn over usually because Conviction is receiving so long. Ubisoft have pronounced the ultimate pushback is for bug-fixing and polishing. Indeed, a little of the Ubisoft reps belied a tangible angst as we approached sure points of the demo code, fearing a crash. These additional months should concede Ubisoft to iron out any technical creases. If we get the diversion that Conviction has the intensity to be, it should be well value the wait.

Lemon recipe: Crystallised lemon peel

By Xanthe Clay Published: 4:37PM GMT 04 March 2010

Crystallised lemon flay Photo: CHRISTOPHER JONES

This is tasty to drop in chocolate and eat with after-dinner coffee. It can be a bit of a bitch to make, so save it for a stormy afternoon. The same process functions well with orange and grapefruit peel.

Lemons: Discover a new liking for in progress Xanthe Clay: Iced cinnamon rolls, canapes and cheese bisquits Recipes: Paul Gaylers salsas Barbecued salt mire lamb with uninformed mint, immature chilli sauce, served with homemade pittas and a herb salad Summer salad recipe: singular grilled rib eye with roasted peppers and capers Summer salad recipe: cooking spelt with beetroot and watercress

The flay from 3 insensitive lemons (squeeze out the extract and save it for an additional recipe)

8oz/225g sugarine

Cut the flay in to in/5mm strips. Put it in a large vessel of water, move to the bring to bring to boil and cook for five minutes. Drain and repeat twice more. (Check that a throw of the lemon flay is right afar so soft that it will disintegrate afar to roughly zero when burnished in between finger and thumb. If it isnt, bring to bring to boil again until unequivocally soft.) Drain the flay and leave until the cool sufficient to handle. With a teaspoon, scratch and lift afar any surface still sticking to the inside of the peel. Try not to scratch afar the white pith.Put the sugarine in a small vessel with 8floz/225ml water. Heat gently, stirring until the sugarine is dissolved. Add the lemon peel, lift the feverishness and cook gently, basting and branch the ripened offspring often, until the liquid has marked down to 4 tbsp or so and the flay is translucent. Top up the H2O and keep simmering if the liquid reduces prior to the flay is ready. It will take a great hour and a half. Lay the flay on racks and dry overnight in a comfortable place, until the flay is only tacky. Dust the strips with caster sugarine and have use of in baking, or have petit fours by dipping one finish in melted dim chocolate. Leave to set and offer with coffee.

Oscars 2010 predictions: will the Academy follow the money?

By Tim Robey Published: 11:17AM GMT 04 March 2010

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Telegraph critics" predictions: David Gritten | Sukhdev Sandhu | Tim Robey

For all thats altered in the 2010 Oscar foe - a startling amount, starting with ten Best Picture contenders - a lot of things have stayed the same. It wouldnt be awards deteriorate but the cosy faith of a Best Actress assignment for Meryl Streep. Heads would hurl at Pixar if they didnt dip Best Animated Feature nonetheless again. And there are slight citations all over the behaving races - Morgan Freeman, Penlope Cruz, Helen Mirren - that appear utterly there to remind us theyve won before.

Ready for the Oscars Oscar predictions 2010: Sukhdev Sandhu Oscar predictions 2010: Tim Robey Oscar predictions 2010: David Gritten Up v Up In The Air Precious v The Blind Side

What has altered is the maths. Voters not usually have ten Best Pictures to select from, but contingency arrange them in order. This is the "preferential" choosing by cast of characters votes system, introduced specifically to forestall anything winning with a small 11% of the vote. Hypothetically, if it came down to a parsimonious call between, say, A Serious Man and The Blind Side - it unequivocally wouldnt - their second, or third, or fourth placings competence confirm the issue.

In practice, this might equate opposite the favoured front-runner Avatar, utterly if certain Academy factions confirm theyre fed up of the blue people, and opinion opposite Cameron by ranking his movie last. The Hurt Locker might not utterly be a exile favourite, but it stands a utilitarian possibility of being a lot of peoples second choice.

Weve been speedy to pleasantness this title quarrel as the classic David-vs-Goliath contest, that equates to uneasily cast of characters The Hurt Locker as the heroic eccentric loser and Avatar as simply the big, foolish college of music behemoth. This is only wrong, and entirely dubious in conditions of the drive-in theatre overlapping genres and technical virtuosity - both, if were profitable attention, have receptive to advice modifying to kill for. It additionally neglects the point that Cameron and Bigelow were once assimilated at the hip professionally as well as matrimonially. Without doubt, theyre filmmakers of a closely associated stripe.

Whats loyal is that the campaigns the dual drive-in theatre waged to get here could frequency have been some-more divergent. Way behind in June, The Hurt Locker non-stop in the US to glorious reviews and crushingly small box office. Its takings mount at a insignificant $12m, that by majority calculations would have it the lowest-grossing movie ever to win Best Picture. Avatar, of course, would be the highest, violence even Camerons Titanic record. It non-stop in late December, to a far some-more eager accepting than any one had predicted, and stratospheric business, the multiple of that now propelled it to the front of the race. Meanwhile, The Hurt Locker has had to cling to in there, buoyed mostly by word of mouth, whilst alternative ostensible standing heavyweights such as Nine, Invictus and The Lovely Bones have crashed and burned, withdrawal an ever wider berth for it to take up as Camerons brainy competition. In the process, it has gained lots of new fans. But will they outnumber Avatars fans?

In one sense, the Academy will be foresaking all the common follow-the-money impulses if electorate plump for a unanimously acclaimed melodramatic wave over a megabudget epic thats been successful over the studios wildest dreams.

Then again, a scholarship novella goods blockbuster has never taken Best Picture either, so yes or no wins, theyre creation news.

Odd to think that Up in the Air and Precious, that arguably appearance as well early, were ostensible to be heading the assign a couple of months ago - at this stage, they might have to console themselves with only an Adapted Screenplay drum and a sure-fire win for MoNique. The canniest personification of the Oscar diversion was pleasantness of Fox Searchlight, that plucked Crazy Heart probably from the balderdash store on noticing a cavity in the Best Actor race, handing Jeff Bridges his esteem probably on a plate, and concealment Maggie Gyllenhaal her initial assignment in to the bargain. Meanwhile, Tarantinos Inglorious Basterds has hovered in the wings all season, as well divisive a tender to get out in front, but great for eight tasty nominations and a certain esteem for Christoph Waltz. In the face of these certain things, weve longed for a small disharmony and novelty, that were delivered the second The Blind Side was review out as a Best Picture nominee, securing Sandra Bullocks from-nowhere standing as the heading woman to beat. Academy Award leader Sandra Bullock? Its a somewhat uncertain prospect, but a fun one.

Tree exorcist arrested for attacking trees by Eiffel tower

Peter Allen, in Paris Published: 11:36AM GMT 04 March 2010

The man was speckled baying at the tip of a large reddish-brown tree on the Champs de Mars Photo: GETTY IMAGES

The 38-year-old beaten nails in to branches and trunks, and embellished wall scrawl on them.

Gardeners, in Paris, called military on Monday after the man was speckled baying at the tip of a large reddish-brown tree on the Champs de Mars.

Nigerian magician doctor? claims to have killed 110 young kids hexed by immorality spirits? Prince of Wales visits Japanese timberland charge plan Britain at War: marriage, hymn and abroad use Hollins: One of Britains last very old holly forests is saved Ancient trees in risk of failing out says National Trust

The unnamed man told officers that he was "trying to absolved the trees of devil forces" prior to being taken in to custody, tentative psychiatric reports.