Queens Jubilee parties

RENDITIONS of the national anthem and mass tea parties and dances are among celebrations planned at schools across Notts for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.
Organisers of events at schools throughout the city and county say staff, pupils, and parents have pulled out all the stops to mark the celebrations.
All 420 pupils at Highwood Player Junior and Infant Schools in Bilborough will join together for a big party on Wednesday.
The two schools, in Highwood Avenue, are due to merge in September.
The new combined school will be renamed Jubilee Primary School following a vote by staff, parents and friends of the school.
Party organiser and Year 3 teaching assistant Lisa Conway said the occasion had been three months in the making.
It will kick-off with a jubilee dance at noon, and be followed by a tea party, parade, and fairground entertainment including a balloon race.
Mrs Conway said: "The children have been practising the dance.
"We've also had a group of 30 children playing the national anthem on ukeleles and trumpets. They are really good at it.

"We're also having a parade and the kids are all going to be dressed as kings, queens, princes, princesses, or in red, white, and blue clothing, as well as singing and playing instruments.
"It'll be a really colourful occasion."
Celebrations have already taken place at Arnold Hill Academy's Lower School, where a class of BTEC Hospitality students hosted a jubilee tea party for 75 local pensioners on Friday.
The pupils made and served food, including Victoria sponge cakes, while other students provided entertainment.
Footage of the Queen's coronation was also shown, before the group sang the national anthem together.
The school's website editor, Nina Simpson, who helped organise the event, said: "We do a similar party at Christmas each year. It's about the generations meeting, and with it being the Diamond Jubilee we thought it appropriate for young and old to chat together as to how things have changed over the years."
Meanwhile, youngsters at Lowdham C of E Primary School are due to hold their jubilee celebrations today.
The 200 pupils learned a special jubilee dance last week, which will be performed en masse. There will also be a school picnic and charity cake sale.
Head teacher Heather Rattenberry said: "We're also planning a best crown competition. The children were challenged to make their own crowns over the weekend – I can't wait to see what they've created."
Toddlers at Carlton Hill Playgroup will also experience their first Royal-theme occasion on Thursday.
Around 40 children aged between two and four will take part in celebrations, with local residents and members of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Carlton Hill invited to join in.
Playgroup secretary Esther Coleman-Smith said: "It'll be their first jubilee party, so we want to make it memorable."

Taylor was previously Scottish Football Association chief executiveUefa general secretary David Taylor says that a British Olympic football side could be fatal for the Scottish national team's continued existence.
Great Britain's Scottish Prime Minister Gordon Brown is among those keen for a united team to compete in 2012.
But Taylor said: "It is the quickest way for Scotland to disappear off the international stage."
The Scottish FA, along with their Northern Irish and Welsh counterparts, have rejected a united team for London.
Britain has not had a united team competing at the Olympics since 1960.
"The official position of Uefa, indeed of Fifa, whose responsibility it is, is that this has to be purely a football matter and nothing to do with world of politics," said Taylor. It's difficult to see what guarantees can be given
Uefa general secretary David Taylor
"It is about the identity of the countries and it is a matter for the football associations.
"But, when I was in Scotland and chief executive of the Scottish FA, we had a clear and firm position and I understand that is still the position - that Scotland should not take part in an Olympic GB team."
Taylor did not envisage a change of position by any of the three Celtic nations, even though there are other sports where they compete as a GB team at the Olympics and separately in other competitions.
"When I was there, which was not a long time ago, those other countries had the same sort of feelings as we do," he said while stressing that he was speaking as a Scot rather than Uefa's general secretary.
"We have more than 100 years of history of competing as a separate national in football terms.
"It is not like other sports as Scotland competes as a separate entity in all international football competitions."
Taylor was not swayed by assurances from Fifa that competing at the Olympics would not compromise their position.

"Fifa is comprised of 208 countries and we have had situations in the past when the privileges of the British associations, one of which is to compete separately in international football tournaments, has come under attack.
"What I would say is that we should be very careful about that as it's difficult to see what guarantees can be given."

Lord Coe talks about the olympics in biejing

Page last updated at 17:16 GMT, Wednesday, 20 August 2008 18:16 UKMihir Bose hears the thoughts of Lord Coe in Beijing
London 2012 chief Lord Coe has admitted that the current Olympics in Beijing will be the last Games of its scale. Coe insists that London's priority will be delivering a lasting legacy and community provision for the future.
"We've never viewed these Games simply as 16 days of spectacular Olympic or Paralympic sport," he told BBC Sport.
"The International Olympic Committee themselves recognise that this is the last edition of a Games which is going to look and feel like this."
Speaking to BBC sports editor Mihir Bose, he explained: "We work very closely with the IOC on a daily and hourly basis - they have set the agenda on sustainable venues, with sport as a bridgehead into other things.
"We recognise that - although instinctively I think we'd have been drawn to it as well.
"It's a mistake to think that Games model themselves on previous Games. Every Games I've been to has been very different.
"But we can be creative - we know that more people will probably come to London for the Games than to other cities.
"I think we can deliver a fantastic Olympic and Paralympic Games, but we can do great things in the city to drive other cultural values."
Olympics minister Tessa Jowell and London 2012 chief executive Paul Deighton recently said London "can match" Beijing's spectacular opening ceremony.
But while the 2012 stadium may not be on the same scale of the Bird's Nest, Coe is confident that it can play a central role in a lasting legacy for London.
"The stadium will be a very different concept [to Beijing] - we're talking about leaving a 25,000-seater all-purpose stadium, for which we've been discussing a number of anchor tenancies, as well as possibly an educational legacy, or even an entertainment legacy," he said.
 Sydney's 2000 Olympic Stadium hosted the Rugby World Cup in 2003"The days of just leaving 90,000-seater stadia - particularly in London, where you'd have two [with the new Wembley Stadium] - are over.
"You have to provide something for local communities to do more than simply press their noses up against."
The last few Olympic stadia are all still in use - with the Athens 2004 stadium hosting top-level football including the Champions League final in 2007, Sydney's Olympic Stadium from 2000 staging the Rugby World Cup in 2003 amongst other events, while Atlanta's stadium from 1996 was reconfigured to host Major League baseball.
The 2012 stadium's post-Games future has yet to be decided, although nearby Leyton Orient FC have been in negotiations about a move.
The strongest legacy we're witnessing at the moment is the performance of Team GB
But as well as the physical legacy, Coe has pointed out that Britain's achievements in Beijing have also given the country a "fantastic platform" for success in four years' time.
"We've been looking at the legacy from the very moment our teams started looking at the master plans," he said.
"But the strongest legacy we're witnessing at the moment is the performance of Team GB.
"I've always felt the primary purpose of a medal is that it signifies a big British moment - and big British moments in sport have to have a conversion rate.
"For the Chris Hoys of this world, and our rowers and swimmers, the real challenge for our governing bodies and for sport more broadly is, how many people can you get into the sport off the back of that great moment?
"I'm a football fan, and we have to accept that it's our national sport - but I do think we can really elevate the status of some of our Olympic sports.
"The BBC have had some of their highest viewing figures, and a large chunk of the population are now very familiar with the faces of swimmers, cyclists and rowers in a way they weren't 10 years ago.
"We want fewer couch potatoes and more participants, but I also want full stadia."

First A380 for Malaysia

LONDON (July 3, 2012): Malaysia Airlines' (MAS) much-anticipated first commercial flight on the Airbus A380 superjumbo touched down in Heathrow Airport here yesterday amid cheers from its passengers and crew.
Carrying a near-full load of 478 passengers, Flight MH02 landed at 5.30am local time after a 12-hour flight from Kuala Lumpur.
Speaking to Malaysian journalists upon arrival, MAS group CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said the A380 offers the national carrier the opportunity to reset its service level and products, and its first scheduled flight yesterday was a result of months of preparation and training on the part of the carrier.
"The A380 will become an icon of change for the airline. We are also looking at improving the Business Class of our other (existing) wide-body aircraft to make it consistent with the A380 and hope to complete the exercise in two years," he said.
The A380 flight got a grand send-off from Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on Sunday night.

Using the first of six A380s ordered, MAS operates thrice weekly services on the Kuala Lumpur-London route, which will be increased to daily flights come Aug 13 with the delivery of the second A380.

Manufacturing Slowdown

SHANGHAI (July 1, 2012): China's manufacturing activity fell to a seven-month low in June, official figures showed Sunday, despite government efforts to arrest a slowdown in the world's second largest economy.
The official purchasing managers' index (PMI) slipped to 50.2 in June from 50.4 in May, industry group the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said in a statement.
The June figure marked the lowest reading since November last year, when PMI hit 49, according to previously released data. A PMI reading above 50 indicates expansion, while a reading below 50 means contraction.
Analysts saw a glimmer of hope in the latest figure, as it was better than expected, but they believe the government must further ease monetary policy to avert a sharp slowdown in economic growth.
"June PMI continued to fall, but with an obviously smaller margin, which indicates the fall in economic growth may stabilise," Zhang Liqun of government think-tank the Development Research Centre said in the statement.

In May, the PMI index fell nearly three percentage points from April.
For June, economists had forecast the index would fall below 50 for the first time since November, predicting an average 49.8, Dow Jones Newswires said.
Zhang, who acts as an analyst for the federation, cited government stimulus policies aimed at spurring investment and boosting domestic consumption as well as a rebound in exports as factors supporting growth.
China on June 8 cut interest rates for the first time in more than three years, while the government has also trimmed the amount of cash banks must keep in reserve three times since December, most recently in May.
"China will likely continue to introduce easing policies in the second half," Liao Qun, Hong Kong-based economist at Citic Bank International, told AFP.
But he raised worries about exports. The latest figures showed new export orders -- a component of PMI -- slid into contraction at 47.5 in June from 50.4 in May due to overseas turmoil.
"The turmoil with the international situation has continued and will likely remain a big factor of uncertainty for China's exports in the second half," Liao said.
China's economy grew an annual 8.1 percent in the first quarter of 2012 -- its slowest pace in nearly three years. The government will release the gross domestic product figure for the second quarter on July 13.
The government has already reduced its economic growth target for this year to 7.5 percent, down from growth of 9.2 percent for all of last year and 10.4 percent in 2010.
Another gauge of PMI compiled by British banking giant HSBC has painted a more negative picture of manufacturing.
HSBC's preliminary measure of PMI fell to a seven-month low in June to 48.1, the eighth consecutive month of contraction. The bank will release its final figure for June on Monday.
HSBC's PMI measure gives more weighting to small firms, which have suffered more than state-owned giants in the economic downturn. – AFP

BAE systems

KUALA LUMPUR (July 1, 2012): Global defence, aerospace and security company BAE Systems is looking at expanding its relationship with local partners and doubling its efforts to engage with more small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as it continues to focus on the defence market in Malaysia.
BAE Systems Malaysia vice-president Mark Burgess told SunBiz: "Historically, there has always been a defence market for us in Malaysia and the focus will remain, as a business and in terms of the level of industrial participation that we can work toward here."
In the defence market, he said BAE Systems is looking at partnerships with DRB-Hicom Defence Technologies Sdn Bhd (Deftech) on armoured patrol vehicles for the army, as well as an upgrade to a military bridging system sold some eight months ago. In addition, there are also prospects for naval weapons for the new Second Generation Patrol Vessels through its ongoing negotiation with Boustead Heavy Industries Corp Bhd.
"We can expand our role in the same market. Rather than just focus on the maintenance and overhaul, we can look at joint ventures with Boustead. We can explore more opportunities for voyage repairs of allied navy and where they can stop for repairs on vessels," he said.
"In addition, we can also look at adjacent markets like oil and gas as it is significant in East Malaysia. There are also opportunities in renewable energy that produce turbines to generate electricity in remote areas. All in all, there is a diverse range of opportunities or technological scale that we can bring to the region.
"That said, cyber security, while it generally has a lower value and is slower to reap, is just as, if not more important, to the defence of the nation in many aspects. Cyber security is the day-to-day maintenance of the integrity of critical national infrastructure, whether it's the ATM network, power generation network, mobile phone network or communication."
The defence business currently accounts for 95% of BAE Systems' revenue in Malaysia with the balance coming from its security business.
"Over the next five years, we think this balance will shift to an 80% contribution from the defence market and 20% from security, simply because defence equipment is more expensive than security systems," said Burgess.
On cyber security, he said BAE Systems has ambitious plans and high hopes for its ability to leverage its strength in this market and sell to the Malaysian government and private sector.
"We're looking to use Malaysia as the home for back-up operations. We've been winning lots of work in Australia and US and we're looking to do the back-office IT cyber security work here. In the ICT environment, Malaysia has a high skill base and is low cost."
He said BAE Systems Stratsec conducts cyber consultancy, systems testing and has experienced significant growth, with expectations that its employee base would double over the next 12 months and double again in 24 months.
"The cyber security market includes the government, like Ministry of Home Affairs, CyberSecurity Malaysia and the National Security Council. But we also do a growing amount of work with the local financial sectors. We've won a number of contracts recently, particularly in the banking and financial sector."
He said BAE Systems has a successful history of working with local industries to develop their capabilities and buying their output from them, where it transfers skills and technology and the local industries become sources of supply for BAE's global markets.
"Increasingly, we'll be looking at working in close partnership with a range of different companies for the transfer of technology and know-how to exploit our product and technology for our own supply chain as well as for Malaysia and the regional markets."
As part of its long-term commitment to Malaysia, BAE Systems continues to broaden its industrial participation reach throughout the peninsula. Having visited East Malaysia in May to engage with the state government, regional development agencies and local businesses, the company is now targeting the East Coast, including Kota Bharu and Kuantan.
"We now turn our focus towards the East Coast where we will engage state government, regional development agencies and local businesses, thereby giving us new opportunities to forge strong, sustainable relationships and identify mutual growth opportunities," Burgess said.
BAE Systems will grow its three market segments in Malaysia, which are services, electronic systems and platforms.
Burgess said about 20-25% of the value lies in procurement while 70-80% is in services over the life of the platforms.
"The initial sale is from the platform segment. When you sell an aircraft, you have a big procurement value associated with the aircraft sale. But the majority of the value actually is supporting the equipment through its life."
BAE Systems has had a presence in Malaysia for more than 20 years with an established Southeast Asia regional headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. The company is looking to play a significant role in Malaysia's economic, technology and capacity development via partnerships with innovative SMEs, government agencies and key academic institutions, as well as supporting the development of skills and technology through vocational training