First Choice sued after Dominican Republic holidaymakers tumble ill

Hundreds of travellers, whose dream trips to the Dominican Republic were turned into "holidays from hell" are suing tour giant First Choice.

Over 400 holidaymakers, including honeymooners, claim they were struck down by acute gastroenteritis due to poor hygiene standards at the four-star Bahia Principe Hotel in San Juan in 2007.

Despite allegations of "appalling" conditions at the all-inclusive hotel, the tour operator is still denying liability for problems faced by customers who were staying at the resort during a sickness outbreak which saw fleets of ambulances ferrying guests to and from hospital.

Holiday from hell: More than a thousand British holidaymakers were struck down by sickness at the Bahia Principe in San Juan in 2007

The legal firm representing the claimants has urged First Choice to "face up to its responsibilities" particularly as rival tour firms Thomas Cook and My Travel reached a settlement a year ago for 3.5 million awarded to their 500 customers affected by the same outbreak.

A writ issued by the High Court includes allegations that piles of vomit in the restaurant were not cleared up properly, faeces was fished out of the swimming pool which was then left untreated and water bottles were refilled with tap water.

Other complaints also included cockroaches and ants in the bedrooms and indifferent staff who were unwilling to record complaints.

Honeymooners Aonghus Morrison, 35, and his wife Karen, 29, from Darklands in Glasgow had been hoping to spend two weeks enjoyibng their luxury Caribbean surroundings, but were struck down with the sickness within days of their arrival. More...BA strike: Passengers advised to "sit tight" as urgent talks go aheadMadeira floods: 42 dead but travellers advised NOT to cancel their holidaysLufthansa cancels 3200 flights as pilots begin four-day strike

Karen said: The state of the hotel was really awful we were told we were booking a four-star resort, however the hotel room didnt even look like it had been properly cleaned.

"The dining area was very off-putting as there were always birds flying around and landing on tables. The food on the buffet was left uncovered for long periods of time, exposing it to the insects that were constantly flying around and we often saw plates covered in flies."

After the honeymoon couple both fell ill, Aonghus went to visit the hotel doctor only to find that there was a huge queue of people also waiting to be seen and who were complaining of the same symptoms.

Aonghus had to wait for several hours before he was seen. Eventually he was given two different types of antibiotics and pain killers for his stomach and was told to drink Electrolytes. He had to bring my dose back to the hotel room for me as by that point I was too weak to move anywhere, she added.

But, two-and-a-half years after the incident, during which a returning plane was even quarantined at Gatwick, the holidaymakers are no closer to receiving compensation.

Clive Garner, head of travel law at representing legal firm Irwin Mitchell, said: The huge catalogue of complaints our clients have encountered shows just how appalling the conditions were.

That was why Thomas Cook and My Travel, to their credit, held up their hands quickly, admitted they were in the wrong, worked with us to agree the right level of compensation for each of our clients and allowed their customers to move on with their lives.

Its nothing short of ludicrous for First Choice to continue to deny it was at fault. Its customers were there at the same hotel at the same time suffering from the same illnesses. At the very least they deserve the same treatment as Thomas Cook afforded its customers.

Denial: First Choice refuses to accept responsibility for the outbreak and claims the Bahia Principe is still one of its most popular destinations

Problems at the Bahia Principe Hotel began in early 2007 and continued throughout most of the year as more guests arrived from the UK and fell ill.

In August that year, Dominican Republic Minister for Public Health, Bautista Rojas, confirmed that the tourists had become ill due to contaminated foodstuffs at the hotel. In total more than 1,000 British visitors were struck down.

A spokesperson for First Choice said: "The health and well being of our customers is of paramount importance to First Choice. We are concerned to learn of any alleged illness in any of our properties. However, as the matter in question is currently subject to a legal process, it would be inappropriate of us to comment any further at this time so as not to prejudice future court proceedings.

"Bahia Principe San Juan in the Dominican Republic is and continues to be a very popular resort. We are very confident that guests due to travel there in the future will have a wonderful holiday, experiencing the excellent levels of quality and standards they expect from a First Choice property."

41 passed after shaft collapses at Morocco mosque during sunrise prayers

At least 41 people have been killed and 72 have been injured after a minaret collapsed during crowded morning prayers in Morocco.

The structure and part of the ceiling buckled into the courtyard of the 16th-century Bab Berdieyinne in the historic city of Meknes.

Officials say heavy rain was to blame for the incident which happened as worshippers were about to perform the Friday prayer.

Devastation: Emergency workers remove the remains of the collapsed minaret

Rescue operation: Workers carry injured worshippers along the pedestrianised streets of Meknes after the incident at the Bab Berdieyinne Mosque on Friday

According to a statement released by the Interior Ministry, King Mohammed VI sent the interior and religious affairs ministers to the scene to ;supervise rescue operations and enquire after the conditions of the injured.

Officials also visited some of the victims in hospitals in the city, as the monarch ordered the re-building of the mosque as soon as possible.

The more seriously injured were taken for treatment in the nearby city of Fes. A team of psychologists was also sent.

Death toll: 41 people were killed in the incident and 72 people were injured

Old town: The mosque, seen left, was built four centuries ago. It is thought that the minaret and ceiling buckled due to heavy rainfall

The rescue operation has been hampered as the old town of Meknes 120 kilometres east of the capital Rabat - is a pedestrian zone.

The mosque was built four centuries ago under Sultan Moulay Ismail, who made Meknes his capital.

More heavy rain is expected next week.

Chaos: The incident happened as the mosque was packed with worshippers ready for morning prayers on Friday

Resuce operations have been hampered as the old town is pedestrianised, meaning the streets are too narrow to accommodate emergency vehicles

British Army meets the compare as German inlet lovers hindrance training

Allan Hall, Berlin & , : {}

They have faced makeshift bombs, been ambushed by guerrillas and shot at by al-Qaeda. Now, British infantry precision for their subsequent conflict with Afghan insurgents have been foiled by German inlet lovers.

Plans to make ridicule Afghan villages in the heathland of Gütersloh, northwest Germany, to hope for the Army for close-contact crusade were put on hold this week after a German justice ruled in foster of the singular silt lizard and the even rarer blue-winged grasshopper.

They are between those class pronounced to be in jeopardy by the multimillion-pound plan that could right away be put on hold for a year whilst environmentalists lift out tests on water, sound levels and air quality, as well as on the intensity impacts on flora and wildlife.

Gütersloh councillors authorized the plans to set up dual ridicule communities and to reconstruct an existent Potemkin encampment on Feb 19.

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Army workers had already privileged a large area of undergrowth when the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (Nabu) went to justice in Minden, Germany, on Monday in an try to hindrance construction a whole for at slightest twelve months. Protected biotopes have already been destroyed, pronounced Josef Tumbrinck, the authority of the internal Nabu branch.

In the perspective the preference to concede this construction to go forward was bootleg in the initial place. I am blissful that vigour has led to a stop so far.

We recognize that British soldiers going to Afghanistan contingency embrace optimal training. But because German authorities contingency assent the drop of singular healthy resources in the Senne stays unintelligible to us. In the perspective there are alternatives accessible to the army.

The Military Training Area Senne a unconditional 220 block kilometre tract of heath, moorland and fir tree forests has been personal by the Europarc inlet organization as fulfilling all of the criteria indispensable to be directed towards a inhabitant play ground in the own right.

The European Commission has reliable the stable status.

The Army uses rounded off half of the area for crusade practice. The range is home to 40 class of mammals, 111 class of tact birds, twelve class of fish, fifteen class of amphibians, 1,150 class of butterflies, 1,500 class of beetles, 47 class of dragonflies, twenty-three class of locusts, 800 class of ferns, 1,200 class of mushrooms and 313 opposite sorts of moss.

The meadow pipit is one of the birds on the involved list, the timber whim another. The silt lizard and the blue-winged grasshopper are both in jeopardy whilst the dune tiger beetle is coming the risk zone.

Their predicament has dumbfounded environmentalists far over Germanys shores. The World Habitat Society has called for general protests on the website, claiming: The British Army is on the approach to fall short one of Europes majority profitable inlet reserves.

It pronounced that programmed roads would sign off wildlife and bluster already involved species.

Senior armed forces commanders in Germany and London are murderous by the justice action, that could exceedingly bushel precision plans for the 5,000 British infantry stationed around the Senne area.

One comparison troops officer said: This tumult ignores the elementary actuality that the presence of singular class of healthy hold up on precision areas is attributable to troops make use of and the ostracism of the public. We have saved this land, not despoiled it.

Currently there is a 30-day cooling off duration in outcome as protests are lodged and no construction has begun.

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Avram Grant to stay at Portsmouth notwithstanding administration department Portsmouth

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Andrew Andronikou, the director brought in to save Portsmouth, has reliable that Avram Grant is expected to stay as physical education instructor until the finish of the season.

"I have oral to Avram and it would be really genuine to proceed seeking for a new physical education instructor now," Andronikou said. "He will stay until the finish of the season, I"m a organisation follower in receiving small steps. Avram has finished a really great pursuit in formidable resources and I only wish him to concentration on handling the group over the subsequent twelve games."

Andronikou additionally suggested that the bum bar will have to sell players to survive. With the send window closed, he is to interest to the Premier League for special management to concede players to pointer for alternative clubs and revoke Portsmouth"s debts of about 70 million.

"There will be no firesale," Andronikou said. "But we will have to sell one or dual players and we will be articulate to the Premier League to try to get a benefaction from them. I have a shortcoming to all the creditors and I will try to maximize their positions."

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For all Adronikou"s optimism, it is doubtful that the League will determine to his ask to sell players outward the window. If alternative League clubs sealed Portsmouth players and they were to measure goals or fool around heading purposes in matches confirming an additional club"s relegation, it would emanate a furore.

Portsmouth are now bottom of the Premier League. When their nine-point chastisement for going in to adminstration is confirmed, they will be left on 7 points with relegation roughly a certainty.

In that event, Adronikou is anticipating that the Premier League could allege the bar a little income from the initial of dual sixteen million "parachute" payments that it will embrace in the Coca-Cola Championship. "That is one of the subjects to be discussed with them," he said.

He additionally appealed to the Portsmouth fans to be patient. "Please bear with us," he said. "Our target is to control the administration department on an wholly pure basis. Please stay at the back of us, I guarantee that we will save your club."

It was reliable that Peter Storrie, the arch senior manager officer, is to leave the club. Storrie voiced progressing that he would be station down, after he and his family had turn targets for abuse from discontented supporters. "After new events, I think his on all sides had turn illogical here," Andronikou said.

Earlier, Storrie had shielded his jot down at Portsmouth. "Whilst usurpation as arch senior manager that it was unavoidable that critique would come my way, the altogether appropriation of the commercial operation was the shortcoming of the owner, he said. "What I am not rebuilt to accept is the really personal turn of abuse on websites, e-mails and internal air wave that I have perceived over the last integrate of days."

Andronikou has denied sketch up a list of staff who will lose their jobs, but Gary Double, the head of media operations, is pronounced to have found that his name was on such a list and consummated his consultancy agreement with the bar yesterday.

Malcolm Clarke, authority of the Football Supporters Federation, pronounced he hoped Portsmouth"s predicament would offer as a notice to clubs who reach beyond their ambitions. Portsmouths box nonetheless again shows the dearth of the Fit and Proper Person exam and is a disaster by the Premier League and FA to safeguard owners have genuine and tolerable funds," he said.

"We acquire the Premier Leagues new, tighter regulations around monetary and tenure but they simply dont go far sufficient and, in Pompeys case, the locking the fast doorway after the equine has bolted. The monetary mismanagement of a little the clubs is astounding.

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Ghost orchid comes behind from annihilation Environment

Ghost orchids, spoken archaic in the UK last year, have not long ago been sighted in this country. Photograph: BerndH

Three class thought to be archaic have been found again, to the pleasure of conservationists.

In the UK, the singular spook orchid, spoken archaic in this nation usually last year, has been found in England, and a caddisfly – a small drifting insect – last seen some-more than a century ago has been detected again in Scotland. On the tellurian theatre the yellow-spotted bell frog, reputed "possibly extinct" by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, has been seen on a creek-bed in Australia.

The great headlines stories follow a notice by a heading IUCN consultant that humans are right away pushing plants and animals to annihilation faster than new class can evolve.

Simon Stuart, the IUCN consultant who chairs the Species Survival Commission that declares class involved or extinct, pronounced that nonetheless rounded off one "possibly extinct" class each year was re-discovered, most some-more plants and animals were combined to the list.

There will additionally be stability regard for class that are re-discovered in really small numbers. For e.g. usually a singular 5cm high spook orchid was found by the botanists who suggested it is still alive in the UK. The sighting of the caddisfly by a PhD tyro next to a stream in north-west Scotland – 350 miles north of the prior record, according to the charge gift Buglife – could serve indicate the shift of meridian shift in pushing class out of their normal habitats, something a little plants and animals will be means to conform to improved than others.

"The total point of the "possibly extinct" list is they can come in and out," pronounced Stuart. "But we"re adding class on to the "possibly extinct" list most faster than we"re receiving them off it."

The IUCN has most stricter manners about dogmatic a class entirely extinct, together with that it contingency have been actively searched for by teams of experts in the field. However in 2008 the Switzerland-based organization did have to move the Miles" pirate frog (Craugastor milesi) from the archaic to critically involved list after a singular citation was found in Honduras.

Among the reasons conservationists be vexed a class being spoken archaic are that it is no longer probable to get income to investigate and safety the habitat. The locations of the orchid and the Australian frog are both being kept tip to strengthen them, however one of the bell frogs and a tadpole have been taken to Taronga zoo in Sydney for a serf tact programme.

Prudential gambles on Middle East with $35bn understanding Business

Prudential plans to lift $21bn (£14bn) from the investors to account the understanding with AIG. Photograph: PA

Prudential, Britain"s largest insurer, shook off the dejection that has stubborn the City for the last dual years with a record-busting financing package to account a £23bn concluded takeover of Hong-Kong-based American International Assurance.

The merger signals a vital pull by the insurer in to China and the Far East, where AIA was the main rival, with twenty million customers.

In a show of monetary strength, Prudential told investors some-more than two-thirds of the sale will be saved by a £13.5bn rights issue – the largest ever seen in London – with the change paid in shares and a £3.3bn down payment issue.

With the cost of the takeover set at about $1bn in attorney fees and word opposite banking movements, a little traders pronounced the bulk of the understanding partly accounted for the pointy tumble in argent today.

Several City analysts welcomed the deal, that they pronounced authorised the Pru a fast enlargement in to the fastest flourishing markets of China, Korea and Indonesia, that have built up outrageous assets in new years but have comparatively underdeveloped investment and word markets..

Others pronounced they indispensable to know some-more about AIA prior to they could decider either the takeover fit the rights issue, when the cost of shares on suggest would usually be voiced in May and deduction will scarcely next to Prudential"s stream marketplace worth of about $15bn.

AIA was held up in the fall of AIG in Sep 2008 and has struggled to arise from the shadow. An $180bn rescue package by the US Treasury has valid hugely argumentative and the White House has been underneath vigour to collect taxpayer supports by sell-offs.

In contrast, majority UK insurers came by the monetary predicament mostly protection after they were forced to put in reserve large collateral buffers following a batch marketplace pile-up in 2003. The UK word market, the second largest in the world, is deliberate to be well placed to enhance whilst rivals such as AIG are forced to sell off tools of their business.

AIG had programmed to boyant AIA in Hong Kong but pronounced yesterday it would be quicker and give larger faith to sell the commercial operation to Prudential. It pronounced the deduction of the sale would be used to pay off a little of the supervision bailout.

Prudential shares fell 12% to 530p yesterday opposite a somewhat higher FTSE 100, whilst AIG shares were up 6% at $26.30.

"(The deal) is going to be enormously dilutive," pronounced ING researcher Kevin Ryan. "No one knows just what AIA contains or how essential it is, or how it overlaps with Pru"s existent businesses."

Pru arch senior manager Tidjane Thiam deserted concerns that increase could be jeopardised. He said: "Transformational is an stale word, but this understanding is indeed transformational."

He conceded that AIA"s formula last year were down and it was formidable for outsiders to magnitude the operation"s success, but he claimed the AIA bosses had presented a "clean" commercial operation for sale.

"It is is loyal that it was less essential than the Pru"s Asian businesses and it is bouncing behind from a really formidable year. But it is a commercial operation at an inflexion point, that is what I similar to about it. We are catching it at a really great time."

Thiam pronounced the wider design in Asia, together with the intensity for expansion in China, was a consequential reason for the deal.

"Asia has been really obviously a vital motorist of worth for Prudential for multiform years and in 2009 it accounted for 44% of new commercial operation distinction after tax. The total organisation would have 60% of 2009 new-business distinction entrance from Middle East and puts us in a clever care on all sides in all the vicious expansion markets in the region," he said.

Thiam additionally reliable that Prudential"s tellurian domicile will sojourn in London, and pronounced that the UK remained "key" to the company"s prospects. Once the understanding is finalised, Prudential will confederate AIA with the alternative Asian operations. The total association will be the heading hold up insurer in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines.

It was misleading how the association would work after Thiam pronounced the AIA code would remain. AIA has 320,000 scored equally agents who have prolonged seen the Pru"s 400,000 employees as their main rivals. Competition manners in a little countries could additionally force the sale of a little divisions.

The insurer"s formula for 2009 emphasised the change afar from the UK to some-more remunerative unfamiliar markets. Sales in the UK marketplace fell 12% as the association refused to write unprofitable commercial operation or sell products corroborated by large amounts of capital.

Pru"s main UK rival, Aviva, has additionally looked abroad for profits, customarily in the US and Europe, though it has a small but fast flourishing commercial operation in India and alternative countries in Asia.

Crystal Palace dealt blow by Neil Warnock"s switch to QPR Football

Neil Warnock was given accede to leave Crystal Palace after QPR concluded to compensate £500,000 compensation. Photograph: John Walton/Empics

Crystal Palace"s prospects of progressing their Championship standing were dealt a serve blow tonight when Neil Warnock was allocated physical education instructor at Queens Park Rangers.

Warnock sealed a three-and-a-half-year stipulate to turn QPR"s 12th physical education instructor in 4 years after the director at Palace gave the financially stricken club"s physical education instructor given 2007 accede to hold talks over personal terms. Warnock had a £1m recover proviso created in to his understanding with Palace – he sealed a year-long prolongation last summer to take him to 2011 – though the administrators at Selhurst Park are supposed to have supposed a remuneration of around half that amount. Warnock said: "I hold this is the undiluted time for me to come in, with the new make up and authority in place. Together we can give QPR the fortitude that it needs."

Brendan Guilfoyle, of PA Partnership,who were called in by the sidestep account and creditor Agilo at the finish of January, was acutely wakeful that Warnock was the third-highest paid physical education instructor in the Championship on £15,000 a week and, with Palace due to compensate a formerly variable one-off assign of £1m on their make use of of Selhurst Park after this month, has been forced to change his position carrying insisted no proceed for his physical education instructor would be successful. The £500,000 cumulative by Warnock"s depart will go a little approach towards assembly that payment, with Palace already reliant on supports cumulative by their new FA Cup run, the £2.5m sale of Victor Moses to Wigan and a serve £1m loan cumulative from Agilo to see them by to the finish of the season. Another of their players, the midfielder Neil Danns, could nonetheless stick on Swansea City on loan as a serve cost-cutting measure.

Palace would perfectly similar to to reappoint Steve Coppell as physical education instructor on a short-term basis. Coppell left Reading last summer. The academy coach, Gary Issot, might be in assign for Saturday"s revisit of Warnock"s former club, Sheffield United.

Case for third runway at Heathrow is deeply injured contend opponents

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Opponents of Heathrow enlargement take their plea to the High Court on Tuesday, arguing that the Governments box to set up a third runway by 2020 is deeply flawed.

A bloc of 7 London councils, 3 heading environmental groups, dual internal criticism groups and the Mayor of London will disagree that the plans submitted to Parliament one year ago do not compare the proposals that had been consulted on in public.

They will disagree that enlargement is exclusive with the Governments climate-change targets. In particular, lawyers will disagree that a key inform from the Committee on Climate Change in Dec last year has fatally undermined the box for expansion.

They will additionally have the box that environmental safeguards voiced last year whereby a third runway would have to work at half-capacity until sound and air wickedness targets had been met criticise the commercial operation box for expansion. The Government has unsuccessful to comment scrupulously for the highway and rail overload a third runway would cause, they will say. BAA, the airports owner, and British Airways, the main client, demand that enlargement is critical to secure Heathrows destiny as a essential heart airport. It is handling at 99 per cent genius and at slightest one airline has in jeopardy to move the heart operations.

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But enlargement would lead to 2,000 people being forced from their homes and the encampment of Sipson and piece of Harmondsworth being buried underneath the third runway. Hundreds of thousands of people would be subjected to some-more sound and air pollution.

A decider is approaching to broach a statute by the finish of subsequent week.

The Conservative Party has vowed to overturn the Governments enlargement plan if it wins the ubiquitous election. Theresa Villiers, the Shadow Transport Secretary, said: Labours await for a third runway leaves them some-more removed by the day.

Six Tory councils heading the plea are assimilated by the Liberal Democrat Richmond Council. Susan Kramer, Lib Dem MP for Richmond, said: It creates no mercantile clarity and will means infinite environmental damage.