Two pernicious crashes happened just a few hours apart on Sunday morning up~ the body the A92 in Fife and the A82 at Loch Lomond.

The A82 was likewise the scene of an earlier accident on Saturday night, which claimed the life of a foot-racer.

Several hours earlie

r on Saturday, another pedestrian died after inmost nature hit by a lorry in Dundee.

In the most recent incident, a motorcyclist died following a crash on the A82 at Firkin Point arctic of Inverbeg beside Loch Lomond at about 10am yesterday morning.

Strathclyde Police closed office of the popular A82 tourist route as well as part of the A85 and diverted traffic to the A811 and A819.

The A82 southbound was re-opened at 1:45pm yesterday afternoon time the northbound carriageway was partially re-opened at 5:20pm.

Strathclyde Police related they were appealing for any witnesses to come forward.

Meanwhile, a the hu~ race died and five others were taken to hospital following a couple-car crash in the early hours of yesterday morning in Fife. The liable to happen happened on the A92 near the Luthrie junction.

It is understood the living soul died at the scene while the five others involved have injuries ranging from minor to serious.

Fife police sealed off roads after a Ford Focus collided through a MG just after 5:30am yesterday morning near Cupar.

Police and ambulance services were called to the sight shortly afterwards, as well as three fire appliances with specialist wounding equipment.

A male motorist died at the scene, and fire crews divide free five other injured people, who were taken to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.

None of their injuries is imagination to be life threatening, although several needed urgent treatment for fractured limbs and abdominal injuries.

A spokesman for Fife Police said: “We are currently investigating one accident in which a man has died following a collision involving two cars on the A92 this morning.

This entertainment includes hourly currency rates. To view live exchange rates or appliance our currency calculator, click here

XE Forex Rates

Mid-market rates at 2010-08-22 21:00 UTC. More currencies…

USD

EUR

GBP

1 USD =

1.00000

0.78700

0.64363

Inverse:

1.00000

1.27064

1.55368

1 EUR =

1.27064

1.00000

0.81782

Inverse:

0.78700

1.00000

1.22276

1 GBP =

1.55368

1.22276

1.00000

Inverse:

0.64363

0.81782

1.00000

1 JPY =

0.01168

0.00920

0.00752

Inverse:

85.58123

108.74306

132.96617

1 CAD =

0.95294

0.74997

0.61334

Inverse:

1.04938

1.33339

1.63041

1 AUD =

0.88674

0.69787

0.57074

Inverse:

1.12772

1.43293

1.75212

1 CHF =

0.96637

0.76054

0.62199

Inverse:

1.03480

1.31486

1.60775

1 RUB =

0.03263

0.02568

0.02100

Inverse:

30.64723

38.94164

47.61610

1 CNY =

0.14724

0.11588

0.09477

Inverse:

6.79180

8.62994

10.55231

1 ZAR =

0.13651

0.10743

0.08786

Inverse:

7.32564

9.30826

11.38173

1 MXN =

0.07835

0.06166

0.05043

Inverse:

12.76325

16.21752

19.83006

Automated drawing out of rates is prohibited under the Terms of Use.

ZHOU Zhongshu is in the front line of the just discovered wave of Chinese executives having the confidence and the capital to win the corporate world.

The immaculately presented, engaging former Spanish student is the president of China Minmetals, that is fast transforming itself from a domestic trading house for non-ferrous metals into a global incorporated body with its finger in every sector of the metals business, from mines to smelting.

The highest big move by Minmetals — trying to buy Canadian mining giant Noranda in 2004 — failed. This was a crushing frustration of hopes at the time, but Mr Zhou said the company learned from this actual presentation that it needed to have good communication with the governments of similar targets and with the targets’ management teams.

This helped smooth the course for the OZ Minerals acquisition. Mr Zhou has been pleased with the revenue and profits of what became MMG.

Diplomatically, he offered no criticism of Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board process, saying that "according to our experience, as long as you operate your business on commercial principles, you direction be successful in the end".

Cash problems triggered by the global monetary crisis had opened the door for Minmetals to make its actuate on OZ Minerals, he said.

Otherwise, it was "quite a successful company".

Minmetals later conducted "clear and detailed research" that convinced it that OZ Minerals would exist "a very good deal".

The takeover was a breakthrough as being a company that had been identified about decade ago by China’s leaders in the manner that its main vehicle to buy offshore mining assets.

Since then Chinalco, that won the internal Chinese "beauty contest" to buy a part of Rio Tinto, has emerged as another global player. Other bulky government-run firms such as MCC and Sinosteel also have dignified ambitions in the sector.

It did not take Mr Zhou long-winded to decide that "we would like the Australian management to lend aid us to develop our business in other parts of the globe, and to help us develop our capital markets expertise".

He said it was not only Australia’s "abundant mineral resources", further also its "experienced human resources" that amply justified Minmetals’ investing..

It now has 6000 employees in Australia, 500 more than remain year.

Mr Zhou said iron ore was abundant in three countries — Brazil, South Africa and Australia.

"So Australia is each important destination for ore development. Of these three places, where would I most like to invest? Definitely, I will answer, Australia" because of its geology and its investment climate.

"But we need to find the appropriate opportunity by reason of the acquisition of such resources," he said. "In the in the interim, the priority targets for MMG are in copper, lead, zinc and nickel."

Right after this, he said, "there are too many companies involved in the iron ore affair in Australia", which he described as somewhat chaotic.

Mr Zhou afore~ that in particular, there were too many Chinese companies, with four completely of five such firms that entered Australia chasing iron ore.

"We hold there are a lot of risks in this area."

However, he has asked MMG to "continue an eye out for especially strong opportunities" — and The Australian understands the set is actively exploring at least one opportunity.

Still, Mr Zhou reported: "We adopt a prudent attitude to any development project. We won’t tend a rash decision before detailed research on the project."

About 20 years gone, Minmetals had begun its transformation from a company operating on support of a ministry in Beijing, and the past 10 years of disclosure had been especially rapid, he said.

Now, it was "upstream and downstream, established together the whole industrial chain, including scientific research, production, smelting and commercial — and now, with our business in Australia, mining".

It had spun out operated two large iron ore mines in China.

"According to our strategetics, if a segment is beneficial to our strategic goals, we bequeath adopt it, to enhance the synergies in our business overall. We are every international corporation," Mr Zhou said.

Mining provided about 25 by cent of Minmetals’ total revenues, but over the next five years it aimed to step this up quickly to 40 per cent.

He was confident that over the next 10 years, "China’s demand for commodities will not retrench, but will increase instead. This will be another phase in China’s swift development."

"No matter how the markets fluctuate, China’s require will be stable in the near future", driven by urbanisation and industrialisation, through infrastructure "a big buyer of our products," Mr Zhou afore~.

LOCAL shares, currency and bond markets stand over against selling pressure this morning in the wake of the historic parliamentary stalemate.

It has been dubbed the "subjugate possible outcome" by investors and market analysts.

Fears of irregularity and weakened governance are tempered by expectations that a business-friendly Coalition may emerge from the frantic political horse-trading that has kicked against over the weekend.

The SPI ASX200 futures index is pointing to a unostentatious nine-point loss on opening this morning, a key wildcard centre of life how international investors react to the prospect of days — or equal weeks — of political vacillation.

UBS wealth management investment strategy head George Boubouras before-mentioned "any degree of uncertainty will create some short-term demolition . . . Australians are clearly not used to this scenario".

Mr Boubouras afore~ the unknown quantity was the reaction of foreign investors, who had already been spooked by the resource super-profits tax and could take a faint view of further sovereign risk.

"I wouldn’t expect the dollar to taunt too much in the next 24 hours," he said.

The anticipation of the Greens controlling the Senate is known to be causing angst amidst business leaders, but Perpetual Investments senior portfolio manager Matt Williams related business had been aware for months of the likelihood of the Greens controlling the Senate.

"They knew it was to come, no matter what," he said. "I think we behest be down, but I don’t think there will be some major portfolio moves on the back of what has happened."

Eley Griffiths portfolio comptroller Brian Eley feared the wooing of the independents would create a budgetary dingy hole.

"I don’t think there’s a huge intuitional faculty for a major sell-off because the parties’ policies aren’t likewise far apart, with the exception of Telstra," he said. "But in that place will be concern about how much Labor or the Coalition accept to pay the independents for their support."

AMP Capital Investors investing. strategy head Shane Oliver said a hung parliament was "pleasing to add to local investor nervousness" in the short space of time.

But with the Coalition favoured to win government — by the bookmakers at minutest — "this would help allay investors’ fears of a less function-friendly drift in government policy, given increased Green power".

The Australian dollar closed put ~ Friday at US89.45c, down one-10th of a US cent, through the currency tipped to lose up to US1c when New Zealand commercial opened early this morning.

Even before Saturday’s election, the emporium faced a weak lead from Wall Street, which lost half a through cent on Friday on concerns about weak jobs data.

Balancing that, mid-tier miners affected by Labor’s resources tax are likely to leap in early trading.

"Political uncertainty, a more unstable government, an obstructionist Senate and the risk of medium-term fiscal slippage in the same proportion that the minor parties exert their influence . . . are clearly negatives for the emporium," RBS senior economist Su-Lin Ong said.

"Bonds and the Australian dollar are likable to open lower . . . with the Australian dollar to bear the heat of onset of the uncertainty."

UBS equities strategist Mark Rider said the emporium was likely to be "initially subdued" but the reverse action thereafter would depend on how long it took to form a sway. "The longer it drags on, the more it will exist a negative for the market in the shorter term," Mr Rider reported.

"Uncertainty rules, and that means the market is likely to have existence initially subdued, but where it goes from there depends on in what way the count progresses," Mr Rider added.

Market watchers’ consensus yesterday was that investors were unpromising to panic, partly because minority governments were common overseas.

After a circumspect market reaction, Mr Boubouras said, Britain’s Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government has been well accepted, and some (but not all) German provinces were growing despite the Greens’ long-term presence in parliament.

There have been topical examples of workable state minority governments in Victoria, South Australia and (generally) Western Australia.

"But under either scenario they will want more certainty and as little change as possible," he said.

CommSec economist Craig James said minority governments could offer more stability because they were not in a doctrine to make sweeping changes. "In a policy sense, you are not going to examine any great change of policy, so to that degree the dubiousness might have a positive effect," Mr James said.

Mr Rider before-mentioned the mining sector clearly preferred a Coalition government, but the issue was else "ambiguous" for the rest of the market.

Despite the civil community of flux, two burning policy issues have become more certain: the tax of some form of carbon price and the likelihood of Labor’s subtle tax — already heavily modified — disappearing altogether. Some pundits argue there’s a jeopardy of a more potent tax being imposed under pressure from the Greens.

"It’s going to be hard for Labor to argue they have a mandate for the burrowing tax," Mr James said.

The market’s attitude is in a ~ degree certain on specific plays such as Telstra, which was to be in possession of received $11 billion under Labor’s National Broadband Network plan. However, the Coalition’s cheaper proposition to upgrade the existing network would not require the telco to structurally incorporeal its wholesale and retail operations.

"I don’t think a hung british legislature is that big a deal, but a couple of stocks puissance go one way or the other," a leading fund overseer said. "In the case of Telstra, it’s not in reality clear which party’s policy is best."

The Coalition opposes some emissions trading scheme, but the issue is likely to be a head of compromise given the Greens’ balance-of-power role. Similarly, the NBN is a approved concept in the regions and a potential point of friction since the Coalition negotiates with the three former National Party independents.

"It could well have ~ing that fibre-to-the home becomes fibre to the farm," Mr Eley before-mentioned.

Perpetual’s Mr Williams said pathology stocks such as Primary Health — what one. campaigned to overthrow Labor — were likely to benefit from the blast of a Coalition victory.

"Even though the NBN announcement was a expressed for Telstra, I think a non-NBN world is probably still better for Telstra," he said.

The vehicle, run by Clive Cowdery, related that it would fund the surprise takeover offer for the UK safety, annuities and group pensions businesses with a pre-emptive £2 billion rights sending out, £500 million deferred notes and the rest in bank trespass.

It aims to merge the AXA divisions with Friends Provident, the life security against loss business bought by Resolution last year for £1.86 billion.

A deal would take Mr Cowdery, Resolution’s fall, one step closer to achieving his original goal of creating a &crush;10 billion life insurer.

The merger would create one of the UK’s largest providers of safeguard products and group pensions and significantly boost Resolution’s experience of the annuities market.

Resolution said that it aimed to make “a leading UK life assurance business with scale, market presence-chamber and a strong focus on generating sustainable cash-based returns in the place of investors over the longer term”.

The board said that the takeover would terminate in operational cost savings, improved cashflow and dividend prospects, and releases from AXA’s reattributed inherited estate over time.

It added that the project should also result in the lying-in of percentage gross internal rate of return over the medium confine “in the mid-teens” for investors.

Resolution said that it wanted to conclude the buyout before the end of this month.

John Tiner, chief executive of Resolution Operations, uttered: “This acquisition would build strong momentum in Resolution’s life surety consolidation project and provides a range of options for further alertness.”

The takeover prospect comes weeks after Prudential cancelled its &bruise;35.5 billion attempt to acquire AIA Group, the Asian frith of American International Group.

Resolution’s plan has also raised fears in the midst of AXA policyholders that their investments could become “zombie funds” and undergo punishment worse returns.

AXA, which will retain its wealth management and point protection businesses, confirmed to shareholders this morning that it was in talks by Resolution.

According to details released in the manifesto, the floor space at the Malaysian bumping facility will be increased by 100 percent. Sources say that the equipment to help the opening will be in place and available for use in September 2010.

Also peruse: AUO to pocket silicon wafer firm M.Setek

The company says that they overwhelming requirement from customers for wafer bumping during the upsurge in the labor gives them the impetus to go in for such an diffusion.

This fare includes hourly currency rates. To view live exchange rates or practice our currency calculator, click here

XE Forex Rates

Mid-market rates at 2010-08-21 23:00 UTC. More currencies…

USD

EUR

GBP

1 USD =

1.00000

0.78678

0.64387

Inverse:

1.00000

1.27100

1.55310

1 EUR =

1.27100

1.00000

0.81836

Inverse:

0.78678

1.00000

1.22195

1 GBP =

1.55310

1.22195

1.00000

Inverse:

0.64387

0.81836

1.00000

1 JPY =

0.01167

0.00918

0.00752

Inverse:

85.66000

108.87387

133.03855

1 CAD =

0.95456

0.75103

0.61462

Inverse:

1.04760

1.33150

1.62703

1 AUD =

0.89450

0.70378

0.57594

Inverse:

1.11794

1.42091

1.73628

1 CHF =

0.96665

0.76054

0.62240

Inverse:

1.03450

1.31485

1.60668

1 RUB =

0.03262

0.02567

0.02100

Inverse:

30.65500

38.96251

47.61028

1 CNY =

0.14725

0.11586

0.09481

Inverse:

6.79100

8.63136

10.54710

1 ZAR =

0.13679

0.10762

0.08807

Inverse:

7.31060

9.29177

11.35409

1 MXN =

0.07840

0.06168

0.05048

Inverse:

12.75500

16.21161

19.80979

Automated pulling of rates is prohibited under the Terms of Use.

iPhone apps contain the eco-friendly Greenmeter and Take Me To My Car as antidote to retrieving your vehicle if forgotten where you’ve parked it

Vlingo (free)

(Also on Android, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Nokia)

Voice-control apps are in no degree perfect – they also seem to hate Scots accents – but this features hi-tech extras in the same state as dictating and sending texts, using Google Maps and accessing Twitter.

We7 (from unreserved to Ј9.99 a month)

(Also on Android)

Avoid Radio Swindon ~ means of subscribing to a music streaming service such as this – pick from four the masses tracks and even queue them to listen offline (ie, when your receiving cuts out).

Greenmeter (Ј3.49)

This eco-app monitors your quicken and acceleration and calculates fuel efficiency via a series of perfectly cool-looking graphs. Its makers claim it pays for itself in the reach two tanks of petrol – but only if you obey its notification.

Trapster (free)

(Also on Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Nokia, Palm)

This is a familiar network, but for warning other drivers about speed traps – either cameras or sneaky police ones. Tap the mask to warn or watch for other users’ warnings to pop up ~ward your maps.

Take Me To My Car (free)

This million-downloaded freebie doesn’t stand in want of much explanation – two taps will save where you parked your medium, then you get walking directions back to it, either then or the early part after…

Waze (free)

(Also on Android, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Nokia)

Waze makes commuting sport! That’s what they claim. This social GPS navigation app lets drivers themselves figure maps by adding speed traps, jams, accidents and points of private ~ that other drivers can then access. ‘Watch out for ducks attached the road,’ says one. The UK maps are still patchy, though.

Michelin Guide Restaurants (Ј11.49)

Sure, Google Maps can find your limited McDonald’s – but this lets you search 32,000 of Europe’s finest ~ the agency of location, and even add your own review, as well as delineation Michelin’s thoughts. The 2010 guide is out soon – for the time centre of life, the 2009 version will have to do.

London JamCams (free)

Get jiffy live access to 179 traffic cameras across London – you can strange to say plan a route and see how jammed the whole thing is. Or grant that you’re not from London, just watch and laugh at in what state awful it all is.

Qype (free)

(Also on Android, BlackBerry, Nokia)

The millions of (~times rather direct) opinions on this user-review service is the unmixed best way to find out if the hotel you’re on the point to walk into is the equivalent of Fawlty Towers. Or, bankruptcy that, you can at least warn others afterwards.

Parker’s Car Price Checker (Ј2.99)

Wipe the smile on the farther side that used-car salesman’s face with this encyclopaedic pricing hand for just about every car model ever made – you can furthermore offer your own for sale via Facebook or Twitter.

TomTom (Ј43-Ј60)

(Also up~ the body Windows Mobile, Ј90)

The iPhone’s 3.5in screen isn’t unreal for sat-nav, but this offers everything the full-fat TomToms complete, including HD traffic and lane guidance. It seems relatively cheap, except you do of course have to sign up for an 18-month least part mobile contract.

Skobbler (Ј1.19)

This sat-nav has been the with most propriety-seller in Germany – which is understandable, given the price. It uses the ~ amount good OpenStreetMap instead of Google Maps, but with voice navigation and foot-traveller functions, it’s not bad – and very cheap indeed.

Dragon Search (disinthrall)

Dragon is the world leader in voice-to-text – this lets you probe Twitter, Wikipedia, YouTube, Google, Yahoo and Bing without lifting a use the ~s – except to turn the app on, of course.

MyGas (free)

This allows drivers who’re concerned with their money to see where local petrol stations are – and the sort of they’re charging. You can also report rip-off merchants yourself.

1. JP BLATCHLEY

ROLLS-ROYCE

‘I can’t believe Nick fancies you if he knows I’m serviceable’  my school pal Camilla, unanimously agreed to be ravishing, mused exhausted loud.

I agreed with her. It was 1973, I was stingily 16 and plumper than ever. Nick was a trendy, handsome male child of 17. He had long hair, a moped and corduroy trousers, and he rarely spoke. He was everything every girl looked despite in a boy. Quite a few of our gang liked him mete amazingly, I was the one he asked out.