ONCE upon a time, acclaimed Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar was all about women, with Women On The Verge of A Nervous Breakdown, All About My Mother, Talk to Her and High Heels. But not any more, as his latest controversial piece (pictured) - in Spanish
LAST week I mentioned my support for the campaign to extend entitlement to Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to people who become ill or disabled over 65. As requested, I expand. It may not be widely known, but currently only people who are under 65 are
AN ENJOYABLE year of hard work is how Councillor Gerry Traynor has characterised the last 13 months that he has spent as Mayor of Basingstoke and Deane. The South Ham Labour councillor's term of office was due to end last Thursday at the formal mayor-making
ALL three main political parties have reacted with horror to the news that the British National Party (BNP) is to set up a branch in the Basingstoke and Hart council areas, and may even put up a General Election candidate. Roger Robertson, a candidate
Today's Principal Arrivals: CFF Solent, ro/ro, 0530, 30; Adonia, cruise, 0900, 106; Shanghai Express, container, am, 207; Autoptrestige, ro/ro, 2030, 203; Tamesis, vehicle, 2330, 34/35. Today's Principal Sailings: OOCL Fortune, container, 0300, 207; APL
HAMPSHIRE engineers at IT giant IBM have won the Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award for an innovation that most people have never come across. WebSphere MQ software has helped businesses save billions of pounds by providing a fail-safe means
DOWNTON motorsport enthusiast Steve Venables is celebrating after breaking a European speed record on a bike he built himself. Venables, 38, established a new European speed record at the British Drag Race Championship heat held at the Shakespeare County
GEOFF Butler is back in football as the new manager of Bashley. The 57-year-old, who spent 18 years in charge of Salisbury City, was yesterday named as the successor to John Robson at the Recreation Ground helm. Butler has been out of football since the
SWIMMERS from the City of Southampton Swimming Club impressed in a biathlon at Fareham. Competing for the first time at a biathlon event, ten-year-old old Mhairi-Clair Stewart (Youth E girls age group), took the overall gold medal after finishing first
EMPLOYER hiring confidence in the South East is cautiously optimistic for the third quarter of 2004. This is according to Manpower, the UK's leading workforce management company. The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey shows that the balance of employers
GANGS of under-age drinkers have been enjoying booze-fuelled outdoor New Forest parties - with alcohol supplied by their parents, say police. Superintendent Barry Talbot told parish leaders in Hythe that groups of more than 100 rowdy youngsters have been
A NEW birthing pool is sitting unused at a Hampshire maternity hospital - because health chiefs cannot afford the plumbing. The £5,900 state-of-the-art pool was bought for Southampton's Princess Anne Hospital by league of friends volunteers earlier this
PRICEY drinks and expensive food. Those were the two main gripes from motorists at Rownhams Roadchef on the M27 this morning as Britain's motorway service stations were officially declared Europe's worst in a report out today. Overpriced food and poor
HAMPSHIRE cricketers made young Brad Burgess's day when he got the chance to meet them for a special event at the Rose Bowl. The 14-year-old from Winchester, who has a muscle degenerative condition and receives care at children's hospice Naomi House,
IT was a case of ready, teddy, go. The 18 entrants in a teddy bear drop discovered that what's taken up, takes much longer to come down. The bears' owners clambered up a spiral stairway and a ladder to reach the top of St Alban's Church on Southampton's
STAFF at Box hairdressers gave up their Sunday morning lie-in to raise money for a local boy with a rare genetic disease. The salon was open from 10am until 3.30pm, during which more than 30 clients got their hair cut, raising £1,500. Riccardo Amodeo,
Lemar, Portsmouth Guildhall AUDIENCES at Portsmouth Guildhall went crazy for ex-Fame Academy student Lemar. Losers in TV talent shows are the real winners it seems. It's a theory borne out by this soulful star, who has enjoyed a more successful career
A HAMPSHIRE head teacher is introducing random drug testing and sniffer dogs in a bid to solve an escalating drugs problem. Cheryl Heron believes pupils are regularly taking cannabis and possibly even ecstasy and cocaine. She is to start random visits
COUNCIL chiefs have admitted they made a mistake by not consulting residents of a Fareham estate over proposed insulation improvements to their homes. A council proposal recommended pressing ahead with a controversial £120,000 revamp of homes on the Red
UNEMPLOYMENT in Eastleigh has plummeted to its lowest level in 30 years. New jobless figures released by Whitehall reveal that there are just 575 people claiming jobseekers' allowance in the borough - the fewest since 1975. The news comes only a month
ASSOCIATED British Ports (ABP), owner and operator of Southampton docks, is reporting a buoyant first half of 2004 with both turnover and underlying operating profit set to increase. Still stung by the government's refusal to allow the proposed controversial
A MAJOR international marine exhibition opened its doors in Southampton to visitors from around the world when seawork2004 was launched on the city's waterfront yesterday. Since the first seawork exhibition in 1998, the event has grown in size to become
WORLD-CLASS blues/rock guitarist Larry Miller will perform a powerful evening of blues/rock at Aldershot's West End. Larry's mastery of the guitar is outstanding and he creates an electric atmosphere. He writes all his own songs, which vary in style from
GEOFF Butler is back in football as the new manager of Bashley. The 57-year-old, who spent 18 years in charge of Salisbury City, was yesterday named as the successor to John Robson at the Recreation Ground helm. Butler has been out of football since the
MICHAEL Owen has been eclipsed by Wayne Rooney in Euro 2004 - but all that could change if the Liverpool star opens his championship account against Portugal tomorrow. Former Saints and England centre-forward Peter Osgood admitted: "Owen has looked a
SOUTHAMPTON'S Sunday soccer team for the disabled competed in a Masters tournament in Bristol. They took two senior teams to play against Bristol City and Plymouth. Ben Leung was impressive for Southampton throughout while England international Mike Pearce
THE SOUTHERN Electric Premier League will help Hampshire warm up for this season's Twenty20 campaign. An SEP team will play the full Hampshire side in two 20-over matches next week, immediately before the county launches its Twenty20 Cup challenge against
WHERE would you find the largest collection of widows with hundreds of millions of pounds in the bank? This may be a question that bachelors in north west Hampshire ask themselves. Florida? Monte Carlo? Saudi Arabia? Having analysed my e-mails, I can
ASSOCIATED British Ports (ABP), owner and operator of Southampton docks, is reporting a buoyant first half of 2004 with both turnover and underlying operating profit set to increase. Still stung by the government's refusal to allow the proposed controversial
ASSOCIATED British Ports (ABP), owner and operator of Southampton docks, is reporting a buoyant first half of 2004 with both turnover and underlying operating profit set to increase. Still stung by the government's refusal to allow the proposed controversial
WEST END's Jon Barnes netted a brace of top-five placings in the Powertrain Caterham R400 Challenge on Sunday when he tackled the championship's seventh and eighth rounds at Castle Combe. The 20-year-old qualified his PremierRoadandTrack.com-backed car
THE Verwood-based Crescent Rizla Suzuki team were celebrating a bonus win at Brands Hatch on Sunday. Just two weeks after breaking his collarbone at Thruxton, the team's top rider, John Reynolds, turned out - and won - at the Kent circuit! It was a feat
WOOLSTON Regatta on Saturday and the Mayflower Park Southampton Town Regatta on Sunday kept Hants and Dorset crews busy over the weekend. Hypothermia was a real threat to crews waiting for the start of races at Southampton on Sunday following injury to
WINCHESTER councillors were set to elect Cecily Sutton as the city's new mayor tonight. Cllr Sutton, who represents Colden Common and Twyford, is currently deputy mayor and will replace Jean Hammerton who has held the post for the past 12 months. The
TRAFFIC chaos caused by students at a Winchester school has got so bad that emergency services access to nearby roads is in danger of being blocked, councillors have been told. Sixth formers at Peter Symonds College are being blamed for obstructing Lynford
A COUPLE have been ordered to dispose of more than 250 tropical birds that have shattered the peace of a New Forest village. A High Court judge has given Anthony Ward, 50, and Sarah Moore, 38, five weeks to sell the macaws, kookaburras and parakeets kept
More and more adults are returning to the classroom, whether they are training for a job or pursuing a new hobby... YOU'RE never too old to learn. That's certainly the message being sent out across Hampshire. Homes across the county are being hit by mail-shots
The Marriage of Figaro - The Motley Crew, The Barn, Breamore House THIS rarely performed comedy by Beaumarchais was done full justice by the performances of the Motley Crew actors. Figaro's wedding day is beset with plotting and intrigue as the characters
GOING, GOING . . . Bulldozers have moved in to what is left of the former Pirelli works in West Quay Road and soon the site will be razed. The demolition brings to an end Southampton's links with the Italian firm which stretch back to the beginning of
A COUPLE have been ordered to dispose of more than 250 tropical birds that have shattered the peace of a New Forest village. A High Court judge has given Anthony Ward, 50, and Sarah Moore, 38, five weeks to sell the macaws, kookaburras and parakeets kept
IT was her last official function in her year as Mayor of Southampton but Councillor Parvin Damani vowed to remain as busy as ever after hanging up her chain of office. Cllr Damani attended last night's seawork2004 gala dinner at St Mary's Stadium, where
COUNCIL chiefs will be urged to help save a priceless collection of Second World War boats being restored in a former Hampshire shipyard. Civic leaders have accepted an invitation to tour the British Military Powerboat Trust, which is facing a crisis
ARCHAEOLOGISTS believe Portchester Castle and its surroundings could have been an important Roman trading port. That is the main discovery of the first survey carried out on the historical site near Fareham for 25 years. Two teams of undergraduate students
RESIDENTS are staring at defeat in their battle to include a village green in a multi-million-pound housing development at Eastleigh. For two years people in Cranbury Road and Desborough Road have been fighting to have land off Derby Road officially registered
ENGELBERT Humperdinck's performance at The Anvil may not be until March next year, but tickets are already selling fast. As an artist, Engelbert (above) needs no introduction. A legend in the music industry, he has sold more than 130 million records,
TOP stage and screen actress Sheila Allen, recently seen in Love Actually, is to star in a poignant play about a woman's diary to her dead husband at Guildford's Mill Studio. To My Man is a new play from prestigious Norwegian playwright Finn Carling and
