LONDON, October 24 /PRNewswire/ --

- Unite the Union has Crunch Meeting With Strategic Health Authority on 27 October

Creeping privatisation of the NHS - with knock-on adverse effects for patients - is on the march in the Greater Manchester area, Unite, the country's largest union, has warned.

Unite, along with other health unions, plan to meet NHS North West, the strategic health authority, at Gateway House in Manchester on Monday, 27 October to thrash out the implications of the continuing privatisation process in the region.

Unite is protesting at the latest private health scheme in Stretford, given permission by Trafford Council last month.

LONDON, October 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Welcoming the announcement today from the government that more women and carers will be able to take action to ensure they receive the full state pension, Diana Holland, Assistant General Secretary of the TG section of Unite the union said:

For too long, too few women have been able to receive a full state pension. Caring responsibilities, part-time working and unequal and low pay have all resulted in further disadvantage on retirement.

The state pension is about solidarity between generations. Today's announcement recognises the vital contribution to our society made by so many women in previous generations and today. This is an important step on the road to dignity in retirement for all.

PARIS, October 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Novexel, a speciality pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of novel antibiotics designed to overcome the significant global problem of microbial resistance, announces that its pipeline will be the subject of five posters at the joint annual meeting of the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy and the Infectious Disease Society of America (48th annual ICAAC/IDSA 46th annual meeting), which takes place in Washington, DC, October 25-28, 2008.

LONDON, October 24 /PRNewswire/ -- VocaLink, the payment transaction specialist, and BankGiroCentralen (BGC), the Swedish Automated Clearing House (ACH), have won the National Outsourcing Association (NOA) Award for Innovation in Outsourcing. The award has been given in recognition of the groundbreaking clearing and settlement business model that was developed to outsource the processing of Sweden's automated payments to VocaLink. The deal represented the first time the processing for a national payments scheme has been transferred to a non- domestic player.

BERLIN, October 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Electronic books, super sharp flat-screen TVs, and printed solar cells are all being produced in Germany, helping to make the German printed electronics industry a world leader in innovation and product development: Excellence and innovation in the field of printed electronics will be honored at this year's Global Plastic Electronics conference in Berlin, running from October 27-29, when the Plastic Electronics Foundation presents its Awards for Innovation.

CAMBRIDGE, England, October 24 /PRNewswire/ --

- Technology In-Licensed by Stem Cell Sciences From University of Cambridge

- (Stem Cell Sciences, SCS, the Company)

LONDON, October 24 /PRNewswire/ --

Northern Trust has become one of the first asset servicers to adopt the Financial Product Mark-up Language (FpML) messaging format in processing over the counter (OTC) derivative trades. As part of Northern Trust's move towards increasing automation and straight through processing (STP) in OTC derivative trade processing, this format can be used for Northern Trust's clients across the globe.

FpML is a messaging format which automates the flow of information between an asset servicer like Northern Trust and its clients and operates independently of any underlying software or hardware infrastructure pertaining to derivative trades.

For the second time this year, The University of Western Ontario Meteor Group has captured incredibly rare video footage of a meteor falling to Earth. The team of astronomers suspects the fireball dropped meteorites in a region north of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, that may total as much as a few hundred grams in mass.

The Physics and Astronomy Department at Western has a network of all-sky cameras in southern Ontario that scan the sky monitoring for meteors. 

On Wednesday, October 15 at 5:28 a.m., all seven cameras of Western's Southern Ontario Meteor Network recorded a bright, slow fireball in the predawn sky. 

WILLEMSTAD, Curaçao, October 24 /PRNewswire/ --

- The New Flash Game From Fortunanzo

Fortunanzo Inc. is releasing Obama's Tower Race, the first online 3D flash game that features both Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his Republican opponent, John McCain. The game is funny, cleverly built and rewards players with ton's of cash prizes.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081024/325911 )

Barack Obama is standing on top of a sky scraper, waving triumphantly. John McCain is standing at the base, angry.

See if you can move McCain along the side of the sky scraper, avoiding the windows that light up, breaking glass and falling objects, and kick Barack Obama from the top of this Tower of Power.

Does your boss  feel like an environmentally aware entrepreneur?   If so, it might  be worth mentioning that business travel, conferences and meetings have an  effect on the environment.   Virtual participation is possible but computers, networks and the entire data infastructure consume massive amounts of power as well.

What is needed is a way to quantify meetings in terms of energy use.   At a recent “Informatics Day at the Technopark Zurich" , a Microsoft booth allowed visitors were able to test how much CO2 they would save, if any, if they replaced a “real” meeting with a videoconference. Using life cycle analysis methods and the «ecoinvent» database, Empa researchers produced comparative data showing what environmental effects were created, and where.