Why Marrakech is now the fashionable place to relax February 27, 2011 WANDER into Marrakech’s famous souk and you can find all manner of unctions, ointments and powders intended to cure ills, sooth skin, clear airways and put a spring in your step. Among alley after alley of cloth and leather merchants, pottery shops, brass vendors, blacksmiths, and hawkers of every kind of tat, are spice stalls [...]
Falling in love with Gstaad February 27, 2011 I HAVE never liked the idea of skiing. I was raised strictly on a diet of city breaks and cultural immersion holidays. I thought that was the noble way forward, holiday-wise, until I went to Gstaad and stayed in the Grand Hotel Park. It might have helped that my baptism of Alpine leisure took place [...]
Travel Notes February 27, 2011 ROCK OUT AT ZERMATT Those after late-season Alpine adventures – with a twist – should make for Zermatt, where Zermatt Unplugged, the resort’s annual music festival, will be rocking out in the shadow of the mighty Matterhorn. Past performers include Suzanne Vega, Alanis Morissette and Lionel Ritchie and this year Seal, David Gray and One [...]
THINK ROOMS… with LateRooms.com February 27, 2011 KENZI CLUB AGDAL MEDINA* Avenue Mohamed VI | Zone de l’Agdal | Marrakech | 40000 Enjoy the magic of the ‘Red City’ from this plush and tranquil hotel. After your time spent exploring the souks and sights of Marrakech (just use the hotel’s free shuttle to take you there and back!), you can relax around [...]
Shoppers hit by soaring petrol price February 24, 2011 RETAIL sales growth slowed substantially this month, with consumers increasingly squeezed by surging petrol prices, weak wage growth and spiralling price inflation. Elevated oil prices, driven up in recent weeks by the crisis in the Middle East and surging Chinese demand, are set to drive petrol close to £1.40 a litre, some observers said. The [...]
Cameron in bid to end Libya chaos February 24, 2011 DAVID Cameron and Obama last night vowed to finally bring an end to dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s 41-year regime in Libya. In a statement, after the Prime Minister spoke to the US?President, Downing Street said that it “had agreed to work together closely on the swift evacuation of nationals and co-ordinate on possible multilateral measures [...]
Asset sales lift AIG profit February 24, 2011 Bailed-out insurer American International Group (AIG) earned $11.2bn (£6.94bn) in the fourth quarter on asset sales, but charges to expand its reserves for old asbestos claims pushed its underlying operations into another loss. AIG, which was literally minutes from collapse in the fall of 2008, survived thanks to a $182bn government bailout and the divestiture [...]
Petrol prices are inflicting huge pain February 24, 2011 BRITAIN is not quite America, where the price of petrol is one of the most important determinants of who wins elections. But the fact that one litre of unleaded now sets you back a crippling £1.29 is starting to become a major issue for the public here in Britain – and it is also beginning [...]
Mulberry slams tax rate February 24, 2011 MULBERRY chief executive Godfrey Davis has blamed the stringent rates of tax for his refusal to open a second factory in the UK. The leader of the luxury goods retailer, famed for its handbags, said he had been put off opening a second plant to supplement Mulberry’s Somerset factory due to the impact of rising [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING February 24, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES AL-JAZEERA IN BATTLE FOR US COVERAGE Al Anstey, managing director of al-Jazeera English, entered Comcast’s Philadelphia headquarters on Wednesday with four cardboard boxes. Inside were printouts of 13,000 e-mails the Doha-based news channel had received, urging the US cable company to carry its signal. EAST EUROPEAN MIGRANT NUMBERS BACK ON THE RISE The number of [...]
