London Underground workers have launched a 24 hour strike.

The industrial action began Sunday evening, 6.30pm, as part of a long-running dispute over changes to ticket office staff across the capital.

The strike by RMT and TSSA union members affects underground services all day Monday November 29.

Transport for London (TfL) who run the underground network have promised to run as many tube services as possible Monday but passengers can expect some lines to have a restricted service and some stations to be closed.

It is expected London Heathrow Terminal 4 will be among stations closed all day Monday.

All lines will operate a partial service except the circle line which will be closed.

Travellers relying on the tube for transport to London Heathrow and other major transport hubs should contact TfL for live updates and consider using an alternative route or different method of transport if possible.

Docklands Light Railway, London overground trains and other rail services will be operating as normal. Bus and river bus services will also be available.

TfL have condemned the strike over 800 ticket office job cuts, saying that half of the cuts have already been achieved and that union members have walked out intent on disrupting travellers, despite an offer of a six week safety review to assess the situation.

“We want an end to this dispute and believe that a resolution will be only achieved through talks, not by further threats to disrupt London,” said Howard Collins, Chief Operating Officer of London Underground.

The RMT claims there are serious safety concerns over the staff reductions.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:

“This strike is about safety and we will be taking that message to passengers as we build the campaign against the tube cuts.”

Services are expected to return to normal on Tuesday November 30.

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Students have been rioting in London this afternoon about forthcoming increases in student fees announced last month by the government. Mobs attacked a police van as thousands of students gathered for a second mass protest.

Video of Student Protest

The riots were further aggravated by news that the UK’s favourite student website Netfreestuff is likely to be down for a couple of hours at the weekend whilst it undergoes routine maintenance.

Netfreestuff is the UK’s best freebie website and its 200,000 subscribers rely on the site to save tons of money with the help of thousands of offers, vouchers and other freebies.

With fees set to rise, students will be reliant on websites such as netfreestuff to survive the academic year.

So if you’re a student and you need some supplies (including spray cans, window repair equipment and fire extinguishers) and want to save loads of money, check out netfreestuff.co.uk and you might save a huge fortune.

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Google has announced who its $10 million prize money will be going to as part of the celebrated Google 10 Project which set out to seek original ideas that have the potential to change the world for the better.

The search engine/IT giant has revealed five organisations will share in the massive pot of prize money for submitting ideas as part of an initiative which was launched by Google two years ago.

Google has announced the winners in conjunction with its tenth anniversary celebrations.

After receiving more than 150,000 ideas put forward by both individuals and organisations from an incredible 170 countries around the world, the project has cemented Google’s reputation as a truly global phenomenon.

The tens of thousands of entries were eventually whittled down in 2009 to 16 finalists. The 16 big ideas were then voted on by the public to reach the five prize winners.

Google, in a statement, said that the spirit and participation surpassed even the company’s most optimistic expectations.

The five ideas include the making of educational content available online for free; a scheme to improve science and engineering education; a campaign to make Government more transparent; as well as innovations in public transport and improving education in Africa.

The winners include the Khan Academy, a non-profit educational organisation that provides high-quality, free education to anyone, anywhere via an online library of more than 1,600 teaching videos. Their idea to make educational content available online for free was endorsed by Google and they receive $2 million to help their work reach a wider audience.

FIRST, a non-profit organisation that promotes science and maths education around the world through team competitions was another winner to the tune of $3 million. Google will fund its mission to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders by giving them real world experience working with professional engineers and scientists.

Public.Resource.Org, a non-profit organisation focused on enabling online access to public government documents in the United States receives $2 million from Google.

Shweeb, an innovative concept for short to medium distance urban personal transport, using human-powered vehicles on a monorail receives $1 million to fund research and development.

Finally, the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), a centre for maths and science education and research in Cape Town, South Africa, receives $2 million to fund the opening of additional AIMS centres to promote graduate level maths and science study in Africa.

Google says it is excited about the potential of the ideas and projects and encourages people to follow the progress of each of the projects on the organisation’s websites.

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Festival fever is hitting the UK over the August Bank Holiday weekend with the Notting Hill Carnival just one of the key events cementing the UK’s reputation as one of the festival capitals of Europe.

Other big festival events over the bank holiday include Manchester’s Pride Festival, one of the largest Pride events in Europe; and also the Reading and Leeds music festivals, with headliners Guns N’ Roses among the big names set to wow the crowds.

Held each August Bank Holiday since 1966 the Notting Hill Carnival is the largest street festival of its kind in Europe.

Every year the streets of West London come alive, with the sound of reggae, dance hall and calypso music. Twenty miles of vibrant colourful costumes, the stunning parade, over 40 static sound systems, hundreds of Caribbean food stalls and more than one million revellers transform West London into party town.

A full-blooded Caribbean carnival but one welcoming party goers from all over the world, this year is expected to be among the biggest and best attracting millions of visitors from around the globe.

Partygoers can expect steel drum bands, booming beats plus popular food and clothing stalls.

Highlights include the main parade on Bank Holiday Monday travelling from Great Western Road to Ladbroke Grove. The 2010 musical line-up includes everyone from newcomers Poirier to reggae legend David Rodigan.

From down south to up north, now established as one of Europe’s biggest Pride events the Manchester Gay Pride 2010 festival is also expected to be buzzing this year, welcoming Lord of the Rings star, Sir Ian McKellen as the official Grand Marshal for the colourful 20th annual Manchester Pride Parade, held Saturday 28 August.

For ten days and nights of events and partying, Manchester Pride culminates in the Big Weekend over the August Bank Holiday with music stars Heaven 17 and Chicane amongst the massive line up.

But while there are festivals and events lined up all over the country over the August Bank Holiday, the capital, London certainly seems to be leading the way this year with a huge number of crowd pleasers to choose from.

As well as the Bank Holiday Notting Hill Carnival, other festival events lined up in the capital include FrightFest, the leading annual fantasy and horror film festival in Leicester Square, with many star guests this year including Tobe Hooper, director of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre; plus many other music events in and around the city including the popular Clapham Festival at Clapham Common featuring Pete Tong and Fat Boy Slim.

Bank Holiday weekenders have never had so much choice of festivals to choose from.

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Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife are celebrating the birth of their baby girl, born while the couple were on holiday in Cornwall.

A beaming Mr Cameron has been speaking to the media about his delight that both daughter and mother are doing well after their baby was born at the Royal Truro Hospital in South West England.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Cameron said: “We are absolutely thrilled. She is an unbelievably beautiful girl.

“I am a very proud dad. Both baby and mum seem to be doing very well.

“The other two children are bouncing up and down and dying to say hello to the new baby.

“It was very exciting, we were on holiday, thought we were going to get through the holiday and then have a baby, and then it just seemed to kick off a bit quickly.

“It all happened very, very quickly. It is absolutely thrilling, really exciting and it’s just lovely they are both doing so well.”

Mr Cameron thanked hospital staff and said his job had been consigned to making toast and tea.

Samantha Cameron gave birth at lunchtime on Tuesday August 24 while the family were on holiday in Cornwall.

Mr Cameron said it was a complete surprise with Mrs Cameron going into labour while they were on holiday but the birth had been over relatively quickly and smoothly.

The Prime Minister is now considering a Cornish name to celebrate the birthplace of his as yet unnamed daughter.

Mr Cameron’s office confirmed the baby was born at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro. His office said the baby weighed 6 lbs 1 oz (2.7 kg).

“The prime minister and Mrs Cameron would like to thank the doctors and nurses at the hospital for their help and kindness,” the 10 Downing Street official statement read.

Politicians on both sides of the House of Commons have been quick to send their best wishes to Mr Cameron and his family

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has said: “I’m really thrilled. It’s just brilliant news and Miriam and I are so happy for David and Samantha, as I’m sure everybody is, and I think they’re just really relieved it went so well, the baby seems incredibly healthy and I hope they get the time now to enjoy the new arrival to the family in peace.”

David Miliband, the Shadow Foreign Secretary and Labour leadership contender, was one of the first to offer a goodwill message, saying: “I would like to offer many congratulations to Samantha and David Cameron on the birth of their baby girl.”

It is only the second baby to be born to a serving Prime Minister in more than 150 years.

The last time was Tony and Cherie Blair. Their son Leo was born in May 2000.

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More smokers in the UK are deciding to say: “I quit” than ever before, according to latest research.

The recent figures on smoking in the UK follow a concerted Government/NHS campaign in recent years: combining online, print, TV and radio advertising aiming to encourage smokers to safeguard their health – by giving up cigarettes with the aid of free NHS Stop Smoking Services.

The latest official health survey statistics show that the stop smoking campaign is already starting to create tangible results.

Not only are more smokers than ever making use of free NHS Stop Smoking Services to help them quit smoking for good, more than ever before they are seeing the results they wanted, the transformation from smoker into ex-smoker.

In the year to March 2010, 757,537 people set a quit smoking date through NHS Stop Smoking Services, a 13 per cent increase on the previous year.

After four weeks, 373,954 people managed to successfully quit, 11 per cent more than in the previous year. The information comes from the new NHS Information Centre: Statistics on Smoking England, 2010.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley explains:

“Smoking is the biggest preventable cause of death in England. NHS doctors, nurses and health professionals in local Stop Smoking Services are dedicated to tackling smoking. It’s because of their excellent work that more people than ever have successfully quit.

“Over fifty years, we have halved the proportion of adults who smoked – but some other countries have lower smoking prevalence than this – so we should go even further and reduce the numbers who smoke.

“With smoking causing so many avoidable deaths and hospital admissions it is important people take up the offers of support available.”

The encouraging figures show that more and more smokers are really trying to kick the habit as more awareness of the dangers of smoking emerges, especially lung cancer, and it becomes seen to be, controversially to some, an increasingly anti-social habit.

However, smokers who have smoked over their lifetime – and are more dependent on nicotine – are the NHS’s next target, but are proving the hardest to reach.

Smoking remains the biggest preventable cause of death in the UK.

The Government is now reviewing how best to go on tackling the issue and encourage more people to quit. But the Government figures show that it is those hardened smokers who are the most stubborn.

The NHS is now looking at innovative ways of helping these smokers, such as treatment centres like the one at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust which has teamed up with local partners to set up a stop smoking service on site, encouraging patients (and staff) in the hospital to stop smoking.

Staff at the hospital learn about the role smoking plays in the diseases they treat and the short and long-term effect it has on their patients, then carry out a ‘mini intervention’ with patients. The scheme is already having an impact: more than half – 53 per cent – of staff who have been on the programme have successfully quit and similar success is being seen with patients.

Anyone who is interested in stopping smoking or taking advantage of any of the schemes available can call 0800 1 690 169 to find their local Stop Smoking Service. Up-to-date information on smoking statistics can be found at the NHS website: www.ic.nhs.uk.

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