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Man flushes banknotes down the toilet
18th of July 2011A Scottish businessman flushed hundreds of pounds worth of banknotes down the toilet believing them to be fake - only to find out afterwards that they were real.
The unnamed man, who lives on the Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles, had been told by his bank that the £20 notes were fake following a suspected counterfeiting operation in the
Fimap wins quality accolade
15th of July 2011Cleaning machine manufacturer Fimap, which has its headquarters in Italy, has been awarded the Top Performance 2010 award by the Italian Quality Certification Bureau (QCB).
The award, founded in 2005, is presented annually to the company that has shown consistent compliance with the QCB quality standards, and has been certified for at least three
Iceland begins talks to join EU
14th of July 2011Iceland has started detailed European Union accession talks, setting off a process that could take several years. The early phase of those talks should run smoothly, say diplomats, because the country comes to the negotiating table well prepared in many areas thanks to its membership of Europe's economic cooperation zone - unlike other EU hopefuls
Purus award finalists announced
13th of July 2011Organisers of the CMS professional cleaning exhibition, which takes place in Berlin this September, have announced the 14 finalists for the final round of the Purus Award, which will be presented during the fair.
The Purus Award focuses on good product design and this year's competition attracted 47 entries from among CMS exhibitors - more than
Children evade school with no toilet facilities
8th of July 2011Pupils in a Ghanan suburb are playing truant because their school has no toilet facilities. In fact the entire community of Sankor has only one block of public loos - and just five per cent of households in the village have a toilet at home.
Sankor, on the south coast of Ghana, is a fishing village comprising 2,000 residents. Schoolchildren are
EU maternity leave directive set to be shelved
7th of July 2011A controversial draft EU law that would give women 20 weeks of maternity leave on full pay are set to be shelved by EU employment ministers.
A consortium of member states led by Germany and the UK are to freeze the Pregnant Workers Directive in the hope that the European Commission will later abandon it.In its original proposal for a directive