Test flights to protest the European ban April 18, 2010 A RAFT of European commercial airliners launched test flights this weekend, despite flight bans, in a bid to protest against decisions to ground flights in the UK and most of Northern Europe as the Icelandic volcano continued to erupt. British Airways (BA), Air France, KLM and Lufthansa each flew a collection of test flights throughout [...]
Berlin is still emerging from the shadows of the past November 8, 2009 WHEN you walk across the joint expanse of Potsdamer Platz and Leipziger Platz in central Berlin, you’re surrounded by futuristic architecture, vast advertising hoardings, neon-lit brand names and thundering traffic. It makes it easy to forget you’re crossing what was once known here as the “Death Strip”. A cobbled line marking the old route of [...]
When weather is a matter of life and death June 10, 2009 TURBULENCEBy Giles FodenFABER & FABER, £16.99 GILES FODEN’S The Last King of Scotland was a masterful book and became a masterful film because of its compelling combination of historical fact, fiction and painstakingly realised detail in an unusual context. It is reason enough for Turbulence, his latest piece of historical fiction, to be read with [...]
Oscar-winner who loves London stage June 7, 2009 I ARRIVE 20 minutes early at Ronald Harwood’s Chelsea mansion block, and rather than knock, I sit on the steps outside. I don’t want to risk the ire of the man who won an Oscar for The Pianist and who has two West End plays about Nazi Germany on simultaneously – Taking Sides and Collaboration [...]
Benitez gets his man as £8m Riera arrives from Espanyol September 2, 2008 Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez finally ended his long search for a leftwinger last night when he completed the £8m signing of Albert Riera from Espanyol. The Spain midfielder, who spent a loan spell at Manchester City during the 2005-06 season, signed a four-year contract at Anfield after rejecting interest from other Premier League clubs. Riera, [...]
Budget airlines have become a part of modern life, for better or worse August 1, 2008 Rising oil prices mean that cheap flights are under threat. But is that a good or a bad thing? Such arcane things as the price of oil were until recently beyond the ken of most ordinary folk. But the workings of massive Kazakh exploration companies and the politics of laying pipelines across Uzbekistan are now [...]