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The competition watchdog is to press ahead with its plan to stop the growth of 'Tesco towns', where one retail group dominates a local market.

It began in 2007 with a few traders in the small town of Modbury in Devon refusing to give out plastic bags. But yesterday their small green revolution reached a national milestone: British shoppers have nearly halved the number of single-use bags they get through.Figures from Wrap, the government's waste and resources programme, show that whereas 870m single-use plastic bags were handed out in the UK in May 2006, the figure for May 2009 was down to 450m - a 48% reduction, and 4,740 tonnes to send to landfill against 8,890 tonnes in May 2006.Nationwide rejection of the bags, which take up to 1,000 years to decompose and clog drains and pollute oceans, followed a government challenge to retailers to voluntarily halve bag use by June 2009.'Over the past year or so, we've invested £3m to help our customers change the habit of a lifetime. We've cut the number of single-use bags our customers use by 53%,' said an Asda spokeswoman.But Asda still expressed frustration at the s

The UK Treasury's chief challenge is to restore the nation's crippled financial sector to health while also reversing the sharp deterioration in the public finances once economic recovery has been established, the International Monetary Fund's executive board concluded

Towns to tackle Britain's housing shortage while minimising damage to the environment by showcasing energy efficient homes and green transportThe government today gave the go-ahead for the construction of four eco-towns, offering 10,000 homes overall, which, it hopes, will showcase environmentally friendly living in the UK.The settlements, to be built by 2016, will include the latest in energy efficiency measures, streets with charging points for electric cars and numerous cycle routes as well as easy access to public transport.The locations are Whitehill Borden in Hampshire, the China Clay Community at St Austell, Cornwall, Rackheath in Norfolk and north-west Bicester, in Oxfordshire. Each site will be allocated a share of £60m for their 'green' infrastructure.The towns are designed to tackle Britain's housing shortage while minimising damage to the environment - more than a quarter of the UK's CO2 emissions come from energy use in houses.Launching the initiative Gordon Brown said ea

Banks must brace themselves for a rash of board-level bureaucracy, if the proposals of the Walker Review on financial sector corporate governance are accepted

Phnom Penh - A Cambodian court Thursday sentenced a Japanese man to six years in prison for taking pornographic photographs of a group of young boys while on holiday in the coastal resort town of Sihanoukville. Provincial judge Bou Bunhang said Shuni...

The Bahamas-based investor, the biggest shareholder in the owner of the All Bar One and O'Neill's chains, has been give one and maybe two board seats

Some interesting links I've found this week: ? Atchison - Most Ghostly Town in Kansas ? The town of Atchison has been proclaimed to be the most haunted town in Kansas,...

Many mothers envision a blissful experience when they bring their new baby home, but in reality the first weeks are often the busiest and most stressful. 'Most new parents are overwhelmed by... iParenting.com network has more than 40 community sites covering preconception, pregnancy, parents and families. research baby names, start a parenting blog, post a question on our extensive message boards or read expert advice in our articles, expert Q&A and news sections. No other parenting site has gathered more wisdom than iParenting.com ? Join the community! http://www.iparenting.com

The NAACP, the nation's oldest civil rights organization, today will consider approving a task force's recommendation to support gays who want to marry, a step that one national board member hopes could move the group toward supporting same-sex marriage....