The NHS is spending £350m a year to provide maternity services for foreign-born mothers, £200m more than a decade ago, the BBC has found.Immigration has raised the birth rate so fast that some units have closed, so that midwives could be moved to areas of urgent need.
The heaviest snow in decades is continuing to cause transport chaos throughout China ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday. BBC News website readers have described their experiences of travelling across southern China.
The last Saturday of every month has been designated "Cleaning Saturday" by Sierra Leone's new government.The capital, Freetown has gained a reputation for filthy living conditions and overcrowding following the brutal 1991-2002 civil war when tens of thousands fled their villages to shelter in the city.But now once a month men and women, old and young, can be seen tidying up their country.
10 pictures available here
Hundreds of village schools across Britain are being closed, despite a long-term pledge by the government to maintain education in the countryside. The policy U-turn will affect 30,000 children in up to 300 schools in its first stage, The Observer has learnt. Campaigners warned last night that the 'nightmare scenario' would see more than 1,000 small schools in England and Wales at risk. The closures are taking place despite a promise by education minister Stephen Byers in 1998 that village schools would be protected.
"Load shedding" is suddenly South Africa's most commonly used phrase.The state's power utility, Eskom, says load shedding occurs when it becomes necessary to interrupt the electricity supply because demand cannot be met. More simply, load shedding is a euphemism for the blackouts that have beset the nation for the past two to three weeks. The traffic in Johannesburg is at a standstill more than usual at the moment. With the lights out, there is chaos at intersections as frustrated motorists find their journey to and from work taking twice as long.
Britain is likely to face a shortfall in electricity generation within five to seven years, a report concludes.Energy and environment consultancy firm Inenco says that the number of nuclear and coal plants coming out of service over the period makes shortages likely. Old coal plants, whose operating hours are limited under European legislation, have been running more than expected because of higher gas prices.
The Brazilian government has announced a huge rise in the rate of Amazon deforestation, months after celebrating its success in achieving a reduction.In the last five months of 2007, 3,235 sq km (1,250 sq miles) were lost.
The fragile strips of green that make up the small islands of Tuvalu are incredibly beautiful but also incredibly vulnerable.The group of nine tiny islands in the South Pacific only just break the surface of the ocean - but for how much longer?
The fragile strips of green that make up the small islands of Tuvalu are incredibly beautiful but also incredibly vulnerable.
The group of nine tiny islands in the South Pacific only just break the surface of the ocean - but for how much longer?
The Geograph British Isles project aims to collect geographically representative photographs and information for every square kilometre of theBritish isles.
click on one of the photos on the homepage and it gives bullet pointed summaries of how airports, airlines, manufacturers and Air Traffic Control claim they are trying to improve their sustainability
While a litre of orange juice is 57p in Lidl, it sells for 99p in the Co-op. Such products, and staple foods like eggs, bread, frozen peas, butter and cheese have seen price rises of between 20 and 30 per cent in mainstream supermarkets. Mysupermarket.co.uk, which collates supermarket prices daily, puts the overall rise last year at 12 per cent. That means the average family's shopping bill has gone up by £750 a year.
Jacques Diouf, head of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, spoke recently of a 'very serious crisis' brought about by the rise in food prices and the rise in the oil price. Various global economic bodies are forecasting rises of between 10 per cent and 50 per cent over the next decade.
There have been four chief drivers of food price inflation in the last two years.
1. the huge rise in oil prices
2 climate: drought, hurricanes and floods around the world last year made for terrible harvests.
3. the massive rise in the price of the staple-food commodities due to market speculation and the increasing demand for crops for Biofuels.
4. the financial boom in India and China. Around the world, and through history, people have eaten more meat as they have become richer. This is called the nutrition transition and it's now happening, very quickly, in the two most populous nations on the planet.
Our aim is to reduce the gap in productivity between the least well performing quartile of rural areas and the English Median by 2008, demonstrating progress by 2006, and improve the accessibility of services for people in rural areas.
The evidence for poor economic and social conditions in some rural areas is both compelling and measurable. Our target is to lay solid foundations to achieve sustainable and long term regeneration in these areas.
The Countryside Quality Counts project (CQC) provides a systematic assessment of how the countryside is changing. It helps us to understand where change is occurring and whether change matters to people, in terms of the way it affects the things about landscape that people value. This information can be used to inform decision-making and policies for achieving sustainable development - enhancing and maintaining the character and quality of our countryside for this and future generations.
Welcome to the South West Observatory - the regional information gateway. Here you can access a network of analysts and information across a broad range of demographic, environmental and economic services.
The Observatory is made up of six thematic Modules, seven sub-regional intelligence networks and a co-ordinating core unit. The network is working to a common vision; that policy making in, and about, the south west region should be based on sound evidence. It is the Observatory's aim to be the automatic first port of call for intelligence about the South West region and its parts, with any one of our constituent bodies being a portal to all of our network of experts and resources.
Tata Motors has unveiled the world's cheapest motor car at India's biggest car show in the capital, Delhi. The vehicle, called the Tata Nano, will sell for 100,000 rupees or $2,500 (£1,277) and enable those in developing countries to move to four wheels. The four-door five-seater car, which goes on sale later this year, has a 33bhp, 624cc, engine at the rear. It has no air conditioning, no electric windows and no power steering, but two deluxe models will be on offer.
The Geogdocs project is funded by an RGS-IBG Innovative Geography Teaching Grants, created in association with Homewood School and Sixth Form Centre's Geography Department and Key Stage 3 Total Curriuclum. It is also sister site to Geography at the movies.
A Geogdoc is a short 3-5 minute digital video documentary created by young people on a geographical subject. The digital video can be assembled using Microsoft Windows Movie Maker (WMM) and can include digital images, video, and voiceovers.
Completed Geogdocs is then uploaded to an online server and is available for parents and pupils to view and could be downloaded and used as a teaching resource.
According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the decade of 1998-2007 is the warmest on record. The global mean surface temperature for 2007 is currently estimated at 0.41°C/0.74°F above the 1961-1990 annual average of 14.00°C/57.20°F. WMO states that among other remarkable global climatic events recorded in 2007, a record-low Arctic sea ice extent was observed which led to first recorded opening of the Canadian Northwest Passage.
North and South Korea have been separated at the 38th parallel ever since the Korean War (1950-1953), which has never officially ended. In the ensuing ‘ceasefire’, North Korea developed into a communist dictatorship with a centrally planned economy, while South Korea became a capitalist democracy with a free market economy.
Economic hardship in the officially ‘self-reliant’ North has led to mass starvation, while the South has a vibrant economy able to compete with the best of the world. In 1996, the per capita GNP in the North was $920, while it was $11.270 in the South. A 1999 estimate of per capita GNPs put the South’s at 13 times that of the North. More recent figures will probably show an even wider gap.
Due to the different economic results on either side of the Demilitarized Zone, the ethnically quite homogenous Koreans have even begun to diversify physically, with the average North Korean male almost 7 cm shorter than his Southern counterpart (165,6 cm vs. 172,5 cm). North Korean females are on average 4 cm shorter than Southern women (154,9 cm vs. 159,1 cm). By 2025, the height difference is projected to increase to 11 cm for men, 6 cm for women. Unless the North’s economic situation changes drastically, that is.
So the South dwarfs the North, not just numerically (50 vs. 27 million), but also economically and even size-wise. Another stark reminder of the different worlds both Koreas now inhabit, is this map, a picture of the night-time illumination on the Korean peninsula.
The metropolitan area of Seoul, the South’s capital, holds 23 million people and is the second-largest conurbation on the planet (after Tokyo). Its huge lit-up area, close to the border with the North, is clearly visible from space. Other Southern cities, while quite a lot smaller than Seoul, are also clearly distinguishable on this satellite map, for example Gunsan on the western coast, directly below it the inland city of Gwangju, the cities of Masan and Busan on the southern coast, and several other cities, much smaller still.
By contrast (quite literally, even), the only speck of light north of the DMZ is the North’s capital of Pyonyang, a single, neat pinprick of white punched through an otherwise completely black canvas. The minimal lighting belies the fact that Pyongyang is home to an estimated 3 million people. Gunsan, in the South, has under 300.000 inhabitants.
