Cold weather causes travel disruption

Winter weather is continuing to cause disruption across the UK with road, rail and air travel all affected.

Channel Tunnel services remain badly affected and Gatwick airport's runway has been closed for essential "de-icing work" and will reopen when it is safe. Luton airport is currently closed because of snow.

Warnings about driving conditions have been issued in Strathclyde, Stirling and Dumfries and Galloway as well as for parts of Northern Ireland. Hundreds of people were also stranded at Manchester Airport overnight after flights were suspended. The airport later reopened.

A Met Office severe weather warning is in place for ice in many parts of the UK, where snow freezing on the ground is causing treacherous conditions. In Wales, 180 schools and nurseries had to close, while the M4 was shut after a crash. Heavy snow fell across north-west Scotland and the north of England as well as in north Somerset and south Wales.

Forecasters said a band of rain, which could turn to snow, was expected to hit the southern counties of England on Monday afternoon. The weather had its greatest impact on Channel Tunnel services, where Eurostar cancelled trains to mainland Europe for the third day, while Eurotunnel closed its shuttle car service to new arrivals. Eurostar said it hoped to resume a limited service on Tuesday.

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source: BBC News

More drivers using mobile phones

More drivers are using hand-held mobile phones than before tougher penalties were introduced two years ago, the Transport Research Laboratory has said.

It found 2.6% of car drivers used hand-held phones in 2006 - when fines rose to £60 and three points could be added to licences - compared with 2.8% now. Phone-using drivers are four times more likely to crash. The TRL said drivers' "reaction time is likely to be slower".

Its study in London involved almost 12,000 cars and taxis and 2,500 vans. The report's authors believe there is no reason to think the picture at the 30 sites studied in London is not the same right across the UK.

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source: BBC

Train drivers to strike over pay

Train drivers at Southern Railway are to strike in a row over bank holiday pay, their union has said.

Aslef said hundreds of its members at the firm would walk out on 28 December because the firm had refused to pay drivers extra on that day. Southern Railway said they were "extremely disappointed". The union warned of massive disruption to Southern's services which run between London, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Kent.

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source: BBC

Malware suspected of 'Black Screen' issue

Malware has been blamed for a problem with the Windows 7 operating system, dubbed the 'Black Screen of Death'. Some Windows users are confronted by a totally black screen after they log on to their system.

Initially it was thought that Microsoft's own security update could have caused the problem but that has now been ruled out. The software firm that suggested the security update was the problem has apologised for its claims. Reports suggest the problem also affects Windows Vista and XP.

In a blog posting on its security site, Microsoft said that it had investigated the claims and "found that our November Security Updates are not making changes to the system that these reports say are responsible for these issues".

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source: BBC

World's cheapest car goes green

India's Tata Group says it is planning to produce hybrid versions of its Nano, billed as the world's cheapest car.

Ratan Tata, the chairman of both Tata Group and Tata Motors - the biggest vehicle producer in India - made the comments on a visit to South Korea. A hybrid vehicle typically uses two or more distinct power sources to move it, usually petrol or diesel and a battery.

Mr Tata also said that low-priced goods would drive sales faster than high-end ones in India, and he predicted this so-called price revolution would also continue to spread across the world.

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source: BBC