Construction materials prices have risen fairly fast this year. For the period January – February 2011, the Price Index of Construction Materials recorded an increase of 4.01% compared with the same period last year. The index for February 2011 reached 123.30 (base year 2005=100,00), recording an increase of 0.68 % over the previous month.
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The Statistical Service’s figure for gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010 is provisionally estimated at EUR 17,465.1 mln at current prices compared with EUR 16,945.7 mln in 2009. At constant 2005 prices (chain linking method) it is estimated at EUR 15,173.6 mln compared with EUR 15,017.4 mln in 2009. The growth rate in real terms
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McLaren's Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton put the misery of winter testing behind them with the quickest times on the first day of practice for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Friday. The duo of British former world champions, who between them have won the Melbourne race for the last three years, had been expected
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China said on Friday two Japanese travellers who flew into an eastern city this week were found to have radiation levels well above safety limits. “Tests showed that the two travellers seriously exceeded the limit,” the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) said, referring to radiation levels. It said the travellers flew
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South Korea has banned food imports from four areas of Japan affected by the country's nuclear crisis until radiation concerns are lifted, the prime minister's office said on Friday. The ban applies to food products from Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi and Gunma prefectures and could be expanded if necessary, the government said in a statement. It
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Bahraini opposition activists will hold protests throughout the tiny island state on Friday, defying a ban on public gatherings under martial law declared last week. It was not clear who was behind the marches, plans for which were circulated by email and internet. Neither the mainstream Shi'ite Muslim opposition group Wefaq nor the Feb. 14
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The Nikkei average rose on Friday to round off a week of gains as foreign investors scooped up battered shares, but their buying could ebb next week on persisting concerns about a crippled nuclear plant and power cuts. Foreign investors' net buying of Japanese shares reached a record high last week, the week after a
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Stocks rose on Friday as optimism about upcoming company earnings encouraged foreign buyers back into Asian markets, and the dollar retreated as investors sold the low yielding currency in favour of riskier assets. The euro steadied despite a political crisis in Portugal that prompted a downgrade from ratings agency S&P and added to concerns over
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Rebecca Black has another famous fan: Lady Gaga. At a Musicians@Google event on Tuesday, Gaga stuck up for the 13-year-old singer — who has been widely mocked on the Internet for her song, "Friday." "I think it's fantastic," Gaga said of Black's fame through YouTube, where she has more than 35 million streams. "I say
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Helen Staudinger, 92, wanted a kiss… But authorities say after her 53-year-old neighbor refused, the central Florida woman aimed a semi-automatic pistol at his house and fired four times. "If my head would have been over just a little bit further, (a bullet) probably would have hit me in the back of the head,"
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