SonicZooms.com Link Exchange Directory

No websites in this category, yet!

---

News and Media Related Articles

Six million facing new tax bills - HM Revenue and Customs says some 1.4 million people each owe about £1,500 in tax, while 4.3 million will get an average rebate of £418....

Overnight curfew after NZ quake - Police declare an overnight curfew in Christchurch, New Zealand, after a powerful earthquake causes considerable damage but no fatalities....

Burned body found on golf course - A badly burned body is found in undergrowth between the 17th and 18th holes of an East Sussex golf course....

Blair pelted with eggs in Dublin - Shoes, eggs and plastic bottles are thrown at Tony Blair as he arrives at a book-shop in Dublin to sign copies of his memoirs....

Tory defects over schools scheme - A Tory councillor defects to Labour over cuts to the government's schools building programme, saying she was "ashamed to be a Conservative"....

Balls seeks phone hack statement - Labour leadership hopeful Ed Balls says the home secretary should make a statement about claims of phone tapping by the News of the World....

Protests over French Roma policy - Thousands attend rallies in Paris and other French cities to protest at the government's policy of deporting Roma people....

Chile miners advised to exercise - Scientists from the US space agency Nasa advise the trapped Chilean miners to exercise and regulate their day and night sleep patterns....

Nine die in New Zealand air crash - Nine people, including four tourists, are killed when a light aircraft crashes after taking off from Fox Glacier in New Zealand, say reports....

Karzai sets up Taliban talks body - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has formed a committee to seek peace talks with the Taliban, his office says....

Police chief raps Moat coverage - Chief Constable Peter Fahy says it was "not right" that TV broadcasters covered the last hours of gunman Raoul Moat on a live rolling basis....

Spud U Like? Gardener chipper over his super-spud - An amateur gardener grows what he believes to be the largest potato in the world....

Robbie Williams turns on Blackpool lights - Thousands of people watch Robbie Williams switch on Blackpool's illuminations....

Dawson facing spell on sidelines - England and Tottenham defender Michael Dawson will miss the game with Switzerland after being ruled out for at least six weeks....

Live text - US Open day six - Roger Federer, Caroline Wozniacki, Maria Sharapova and Novak Djokovic are among the players in action on day six of the US Open at Flushing Meadows....

England boss happy with Mushtaq - England coach Andy Flower says he is satisfied with spin bowling coach Mushtaq Ahmed's role within the team despite previous links with illegal bookmakers....

Pakistan trio keen to see row end - A lawyer for the three Pakistan players at the centre of allegations of corruption says they are keen for a "timely and satisfactory outcome" to the affair....

Chandhok impressed by Korea track - Hispania Racing's Karun Chandhok gives the Korean Grand Prix venue the thumbs-up after being the first F1 driver to drive it....

Officers could face crash charges - Two police officers who crashed a sports car seized from a suspected drink-driver could face prosecution....

Funeral for festival death star - The funeral is held of singer Charles Haddon from Northamptonshire who died in a fall in Belgium....

Council could cut over 1,000 jobs - One of Scotland's largest councils - North Lanarkshire - warns that it may have to cut more than 1,000 jobs....

Father and son die in bike crash - A father and his 15-year-old son are killed in a motorbike accident outside Galashiels in the Scottish Borders....

Name released after city death - Police release the name of a man who was found dead at his apartment in Armagh city on Friday....

Irish citizen dies in plane crash - A 26-year-old man from the Irish Republic is among nine people killed in a plane crash in New Zealand....

More cuts in councillors proposed - More plans to reduce the number of councillors in Wales are put forward to create what ministers say would be greater fairness for voters....

Village £550,000 broadband quote - Villagers told by BT it will cost £550,000 for a broadband connection receive an estimate from another company of £50,000....

Mozambique police fire at rioters - Police in Mozambique's capital fire rubber bullets on the third day of riots, as the violence spreads to the central city of Chimoio....

UN calls special food price talks - The United Nations' food agency calls a special meeting of policy makers to discuss the recent rapid rises in food prices....

South Korea FM offers to resign - The South Korean Foreign Minister, Yu Myung-hwan, offers to resign after it was revealed that his daughter was offered a job in his ministry....

Japan imposes new Iran sanctions - Japan imposes new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme but maintains its oil import schedule....

Netherlands coalition talks fail - Talks to form a coalition government in the Netherlands collapse as the leader of the far-right Freedom Party Geert Wilders walks out....

Six men jailed for Portugal abuse - Six Portuguese men are sentenced to up to 18 years in jail after being found guilty of multiple charges of sexual abuse at a state-run children's home....

Castro addresses rally in Havana - Fidel Castro addresses a rally for the first time since handing the Cuban presidency to his brother Raul in 2006....

Colombian troops storm rebel camp - Colombian troops storm an ELN guerrilla camp near the Venezuelan border, killing 11 rebels, a day after 14 policemen were killed in an ambush in the south....

Blair in 'radical Islam' warning - Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair tells the BBC that radical Islam is the greatest threat facing the world....

Clinton warns on Mid-East talks - The US secretary of state warns the current round of Mid-East peace talks may be "the last chance for a very long time"....

Pakistan rally bomb kills dozens - A bomb kills at least 50 people at a Shia Muslim rally in the south-western city of Quetta, the second attack on Pakistan's religious minority in days....

Afghan violence 'will get worse' - Violence in Afghanistan will get worse before it gets better, the UK's most senior military commander in the country tells the BBC....

US sees 54,000 jobs go in August - The US economy shed another 54,000 jobs in August, the third month in a row that jobs have been lost, official figures show....

BP blowout preventer 'removed' - BP replaces the blowout preventer that failed to stem the leaking Gulf of Mexico oil well and says it has paid $8bn (£5.2bn) in damage costs....

HSBC threatens to quit London HQ - HSBC may quit its London headquarters if the UK government decides to break up big banks, a senior executive says....

Petrobras files $65bn share offer - The Brazilian state oil company, Petrobras, unveils plans to sell up to $64.5bn of new stock, in one of the world's largest share offers....

BP says oil spill cost up to $8bn - BP says the cost of its Gulf of Mexico oil spill has risen to $8bn - a rise of more than $2bn in the last month alone....

Poll 'backs move from New Labour' - A poll commissioned by Ed Miliband's leadership campaign finds voters are less likely to vote Labour if there is not a shift from New Labour policies....

Lib Dem veteran Cyril Smith dies - The former Liberal Democrat MP Sir Cyril Smith has died aged 82, his family and party confirm....

Fox rules out French 'ship share' - Defence Secretary Liam Fox rules out the UK sharing aircraft carriers with France as part of closer defence co-operation....

Reading Arabic 'hard for brain' - Israeli scientists believe they have identified why Arabic is particularly hard to learn to read....

'No evidence' implants are toxic - Tests on a type of breast implant filled with an unapproved gel have shown no evidence they are unsafe, UK experts say....

Compost sparks Legionnaire's fear - Gardeners are being warned about the risk of Legionnaire's disease from compost after a pensioner developed the disease after handling compost....

Men in short supply in primaries - One in four state primary schools in England has no male teacher, statistics show....

Music tuition falling, poll says - Fewer children are learning to play a musical instrument than in their parents' generation, a survey suggests....

School lottery 'failed in aim' - England's first city-wide lottery system aimed at solving the problem of allocating places at over-subscribed schools failed to give poorer children equal access to top schools, academics say....

PS3 hack escapes court challenge - Sony has won a permanent ban in Australia of a hack for its PS3, but the code behind it has been released for free on the web....

Memristor revolution backed by HP - A potentially revolutionary circuit component, once a laboratory curiosity, is to be mass-produced for the first time....

Global broadband divide revealed - The global disparity in access to broadband around the world and the cost of a connection is revealed by UN figures....

Plans for solar 'close encounter' - Nasa is aiming to get closer to the Sun than ever before, with plans to plunge a car-sized unmanned spacecraft into the star's outer atmosphere....

Wolves fail to halt aspen decline - The re-introduction of wolves to a US National Park has not helped re-establish quaking aspens, as many researchers had hoped....

Method to trace persistent CFCs - Ultrafine measurements of atmospheric gases could help scientists track down the last sources of CFCs thought to be slowing the recovery of the ozone layer....

DJs unite for Love Parade track - Three of the world's most successful club DJs join forces to pay tribute to those who died at the Love Parade festival in Germany in July....

Sarah Kennedy leaves BBC Radio 2 - Veteran broadcaster Sarah Kennedy is leaving BBC Radio 2's Dawn Patrol show - 34 years after joining the station...

Cheryl and Ashley granted divorce - Cheryl and Ashley Cole are granted a divorce at the High Court after four years of marriage....

Don't let the bed bugs bite - The world is on the verge of a bed-bug pandemic, according to a report - how did the tiny biting insects come to pose such a threat?...

Autobiographies of the rich and famous - Tony Blair's memoirs has become the fastest selling autobiography in Britain. But what are the biggest overall sellers?...

Propping up a prime minister - Tony Blair used alcohol as a 'prop' during his time in power but how many of us do the same?...

Blair pelted with eggs in Dublin - Eggs and shoes have been thrown by anti-war protestors at former Prime Minister Tony Blair as he arrived at a book signing in Dublin....

Imran Khan on corruption in cricket - The former Pakistan cricket captain, Imran Khan, has said that if players are found guilty of spot fixing, they should not be given a life ban, which some officials are demanding....

Making music from children's old toys - The Modified Toy Orchestra is a band made up of five musicians - and 48 tweaked toy instruments....

?We were woken by the earthquake? - A 7.0-magnitude earthquake strikes New Zealand's South Island, causing widespread minor damage and power cuts....

What does the future hold for television? - Rory Cellan-Jones tries out 3D video equipment and looks at the latest ultra thin and bright OLED TVs....

Panda twins delight Japanese zoo - New-born twin giant pandas made their first public appearance at a zoo in Japan on Friday in Shirahama....

Canine Cinema gets audience howling - In an attempt to reach people who do not normally go to the cinema, Shetland film festival is targeting their pets....

Sharks swarm off Australian coast - Hundreds of sharks have been spotted off the Queensland coast....

Reporter's dilemma - Should a journalist bear witness, or interfere to help save a life?...

Five Minutes - Author Ian McEwan on writing, walking and quantum mechanics...

'Death squad' - The merciless drugs gang spreading fear in Mexico...

Star Chamber secrets - The spending review's political arm-wrestling contest...

Eddie who? - The most famous comic you've never heard of...

Week in pictures - Striking pictures from around the world this week...

Clothes dryers given tepid welcome in China - As increasingly affluent Chinese embrace the trappings of modern, middle-class Western living - big-screen TVs, cars, washing machines, double-door refrigerators with automatic icemakers - one glaring exception stands out: the clothes dryer. ...

Bombing in Pakistan kills 65, prompting fears of rising sectarian violence - SUKKUR, PAKISTAN - A suicide bombing at a Shiite demonstration in the western Pakistani city of Quetta on Friday left at least 65 people dead, triggering fears of an outbreak of sectarian violence as the nation continues to struggle with ruinous floods. ...

Classic cars can cost millions, but are they good investments? - Peter Mullin, owner of one of the world's largest private collections of classic French automobiles, points to a 1935 Hispano-Suiza J12 Cabriolet sitting among 60 other cars in his museum in Southern California. ...

U.S. to temper stance on Afghan corruption - KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - U.S. military commanders in Afghanistan are developing a strategy that would tolerate some corruption in the country but target the most corrosive abuses by more tightly regulating U.S. contracting procedures, according to senior defense officials. ...

Ex-bank executives say their dismissals caused panic withdrawals in Kabul - KABUL -- The two ousted executives of Afghanistan's largest bank have blamed a hasty management purge for a run on the embattled institution this week. Afghanistan - ...

Hamas attacks show group is still strong in West Bank - JERUSALEM - Deadly drive-by shootings by Hamas gunmen this week proved that the Palestinian militant group can still operate in the West Bank when its leadership demands, despite a sustained crackdown by Israel and the Palestinian Authority. ...

Chinese firms look to team up with Hollywood - BEIJING - When Scarlett Johansson strode across the screen in "Iron Man 2," she was wearing a form-fitting outfit made by Semir, a Chinese brand and an official sponsor of the blockbuster movie this spring. Bu...

Scientists find evidence discrediting theory Amazon was virtually unlivable - SAN MARTIN DE SAMIRIA, PERU - To the untrained eye, all evidence here in the heart of the Amazon signals virgin forest, untouched by man for time immemorial - from the ubiquitous fruit palms to the cry of howler monkeys, from the air thick with mosquitoes to the unruly tangle of jungle vines. ...

Karzai calls aide's arrest reminiscent of Soviet times - KABUL - Afghan President Hamid Karzai spoke out angrily Thursday against the arrest of one of his closest aides this summer on corruption charges, saying that the detention was conducted in a manner "exactly reminiscent of the Soviet presence in Afghanistan" and that the investigation was illega ...

Karzai urges Afghans not to panic as bank withdrawals accelerate - DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - As depositors thronged branches of Afghanistan's biggest bank, President Hamid Karzai told Afghans on Thursday not to panic shortly after his brother, a major shareholder in the beleaguered Kabul Bank, called for intervention by the United States to head off a finan ...

In speech, Calderon acknowledges "central threat" of drug cartels to Mexico - MEXICO CITY - President Felipe Calderon acknowledged Thursday that an increasingly bloody war with powerful drug trafficking organizations continues to pose "the central threat" to Mexico. Mexico - ...

Abstinence program partners Chinese officials with U.S. evangelicals - BEIJING - If all goes according to plan, this fall a girl somewhere in China's Yunnan province will tell her boyfriend she can't have sex with him. And he'll have an abstinence program from the United States to thank. ...

After Iraq war, uncertainty and seemingly mixed messages - BAGHDAD - As President Obama declared Tuesday that it was "time to turn the page" in Iraq, Mahmoud Othman - tuning in to the Oval Office address here at 3 a.m. - listened in shock. Iraq - ...

As Mideast talks begin, Clinton urges Israelis, Palestinians to seek 'future of peace' - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton officially inaugurated a new Middle East peace process Thursday urging patience and leadership from the Israeli and Palestinian leaders, who soon after agreed to meet in less than two weeks for a second round of talks. ...