Calm Design Delivering great SEO results
Calm Design in The Observer Future 500 rising stars!
Calm Design works with St. Tropez
Calm Design features in Daily Express!
Drake Wales' new recruitment site is set live
Drive Learn Achieve is launched.
Recruitment web sites seem to be the trend...
3FOUR50.com goes live from South Africa
Fantastic new offers to get your business going!
Calm Design offer three new services
Sony has won a permanent ban in Australia of a hack for its PS3, but the code behind it has been released for free on the web.
A potentially revolutionary circuit component, once a laboratory curiosity, is to be mass-produced for the first time.
The global disparity in access to broadband around the world and the cost of a connection is revealed by UN figures.
Samsung has become the latest manufacturer to enter into the tablet computer market with its Galaxy Tab.
Apple launches a music-based social network called Ping as part of its latest upgrade to the iTunes music software.
The iPhone's no longer the only smartphone with a CNET News app. Our breaking stories and in-depth features are now even easier to read and browse on Android devices from the new, free CNET News app. Read about what it does and why it's worth downloading.
Internet privacy groups will be the beneficiary of the settlement, which came as the result of a lawsuit filed over Google's maligned Buzz launch.
VCs are funneling funds into Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt, and other apps that let users check-in and then broadcast their locations. We find out why on this week's show, featuring Claire Cain Miller of The New York Times and Adrianne Jeffries of ReadWriteWeb.
Facebook has added more functionality to its search results by including all the articles a user's friends have said they "like."
Attorney General Greg Abbott has asked Google for information regarding the complaints of several companies that Google is penalizing them in search results.
Around 1.4 million taxpayers owe up to £5,000 after computer system finds PAYE underpayments totalling £2bn
Nearly 6 million people in the UK are to be told they have paid the wrong amount of tax, with some facing bills demanding up to £5,000 in extra payments.
Around 1.4 million people will be told they owe an average of £1,400 because of errors in HM Revenue and Customs' calculations of the pay as you earn (PAYE) tax system over the past two years.
The errors were identified by a new computer system that found widespread underpayments by employers through the PAYE system, which total about £2bn.
Employees who moved jobs or accepted company cars or cash benefits from their employer were the most likely to be caught by the new system.
But 4.3 million people are set to receive a rebate because they have paid too much. With a total overpayment of £1.8bn, each could receive an average rebate of £418.
The first 45,000 letters from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are expected to arrive on doormats on Tuesday.
Around 30,000 letters will alert taxpayers that they are due a rebate and 15,000 will inform them that they have underpaid and will have their tax code altered next year to retrieve the money.
With an average additional payment of £1,428 being demanded, those affected by underpayments could be more than £100 a month worse off next year while the cash is recouped.
It is believed that in some cases individuals may have both underpaid and overpaid, and the amounts could cancel one another out.
In some cases, HMRC will consider writing off demands where taxpayers can demonstrate that they provided all the information necessary to calculate their tax correctly.
The problems arise because at the end of each year HMRC checks that the amounts deducted in tax and national insurance by employers using the PAYE system mach up with the information held on their records.
The process of checking contributions was done manually on a case-by-case basis until last June when a new computerised system was introduced, which HMRC says should help reduce mistakes in the future. It aims to reconcile information held on different systems within HM Revenue and Customs.
A HMRC spokesman said: "The vast majority of the 40 million people who pay through PAYE deductions are correctly taxed, but because circumstances change during the year there will always be a minority who have paid either too much or too little."
He said taxpayers could dispute extra tax charges by claiming on a ESC19 form that they had supplied information in good faith and retrospective bills should be dropped.
Anita Monteith, of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, said some people would not have to make the repayments if HMRC made the error while calculating the tax codes manually.
She said: "HMRC can agree to give up collecting an underpayment if they had the right information to calculate tax deductions and did not use it when they should have done.
"However, it would depend on what has caused the underpayment."
Monteith said anyone who receives a letter should first check that the HMRC's new calculation matches the information on the P60 for that year.
"If you disagree with what they are asking for then call or write to HMRC. However, you might find that the phone lines are jammed next week.
"People cannot refuse to pay the money because it is legally due."
State of emergency declared after earthquake with magnitude of 7.0 strikes 19 miles west of Christchurch
A powerful 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck New Zealand's South Island last night, causing widespread damage to buildings, although there were few injuries.
Christchurch mayor Bob Parker declared a state of emergency four hours after tremors rocked the region, warning that continuing aftershocks could cause masonry to fall from damaged buildings.
The quake hit 19 miles west of the city, on the east coast of the island, at 4.35am local time. Residents reported collapsed buildings and bridges, as well as power cuts. Christchurch, which has a population of around 400,000 people, was then rocked with a series of sharp aftershocks.
No deaths have been reported so far but doctors at Christchurch Hospital said they had treated two men with serious injuries. One was hit by a falling chimney and was in intensive care, while a second was seriously hurt after being cut by glass, a hospital spokeswoman said. Other minor injuries have also been reported.
"There is considerable damage in the central city," police inspector Mike Coleman told New Zealand's National Radio.
Police Inspector Alf Stewart told the station that some people had been arrested for looting. "We have some reports of people smashing [shop] windows and trying to grab some property that is not theirs … we've got police on the streets and we're dealing with that," he said.
Colleen Simpson, a Christchurch resident, said panicked neighbours ran into the streets in their pyjamas. She said some buildings had collapsed, there was no power and the mobile telephone network had failed. "There is a row of shops completely demolished right in front of me," she told the Stuff news website.
Another person from Christchurch, Kevin O'Hanlon, said the jolt was extremely powerful. "I was awake to go to work and then just heard this massive noise and 'boom'," he said. "It was like the house got hit. It just started shaking. I've never felt anything like it."
Bruce Russell, 50, said that although he lives in Lyttelton, a port town to the south of Christchurch, which is on firmer volcanic ground, the earthquake had been "very alarming".
"We were woken up at 4.30am and it swayed like a ship at sea," he said. "It was very alarming. We have no power, which is a problem across [Christchurch]. We're listening to reports on a wind-up radio. It's still very frightening."
Russell said he had not experienced an earthquake on this scale before. There have been local reports that some people many have been trapped in damaged houses.
Video footage showed some cars crushed by heaps of fallen bricks. Authorities were advising residents to stay inside until given the all-clear.
Residents have been asked not to flush toilets because of potential damage to the city's sewerage system which could lead to contamination. Christchurch airport was also closed as a precaution while runways were safety checked.
Despite tsunami fears by residents, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said "no destructive widespread tsunami threat existed, based on historical earthqake and tsunami data".
New Zealand lies above an area of the Earth's crust where two tectonic plates collide and the country records more than 14,000 earthquakes a year – but only about 150 are usually felt. Schoolchildren in the country regularly undertake earthquake drills.
Former prime minister attacked by anti-war protesters in Dublin as he promotes memoirs
Violence has broken out at the first public signing for Tony Blair's memoirs, with anti-war protesters hurling shoes and eggs at the former prime minister.
The projectiles did not hit Blair as he arrived at a bookshop in Dublin, Ireland, to be greeted by scores of demonstrators chanting that he was a "war criminal" and had "blood on his hands" because of the invasion of Iraq.
Irish police blocked off streets around the Eason store on O'Connell Street following the clashes with activists who tried to push down a security barrier.
The demonstrators also shouted: "Hey hey Tony hey, how many kids have you killed today?"
The city tram service was suspended and shops in the surrounding area also closed.
Buyers at the signing had to hand over bags and mobile phones before entering the store. Undercover detectives mingled with the crowds taking names before Blair arrived at the shop at about 10.30am.
In his memoirs, A Journey, Blair defends his decision to go to war with Iraq in 2003. The book, which was released earlier this week, has become one of the fastest selling autobiographies on record.
The protests came as the BBC World Service aired an interview with Blair in which he said "wicked and backward-looking" radical Islam was the greatest threat to global security.
Blair gave his first live television interview since his memoirs were published to Irish state broadcaster RTE last night.
He tried to convince the audience that he acted against the one million people who marched in opposition to the war in Iraq in 2003 because he simply couldn't take decisions "based on those that shout most".
The former prime minister, who was greeted by about 50 protesters at the RTE studios, also denied he had "blood on his hands" and said he didn't believe he was a "war criminal", showing a flash of exasperation when asked to explain why people thought that he was.
It is believed Blair chose Ireland for his only live interview since his memoirs' publication because he felt he would get a better hearing because of the peace he secured in Northern Ireland.
He said: "When we finally got the whole lot together, literally weeks before I left office in 2007, and there was Martin McGuinness sitting with Ian Paisley, and it was such a strange and extraordinary sight and it was one of the few times in politics I felt really proud actually."
• Pressure mounts as No 10 spin doctor's ex-colleague speaks
• Tessa Jowell says phone was hacked 28 times
• Prominent figures to sue Met for lack of warning
Andy Coulson, the No 10 communications chief, found himself in the direct line of fire in the News of the World phone hacking scandal tonight when a former colleague alleged that he issued direct orders to journalists to carry out the illegal practice.
As the former cabinet minister Tessa Jowell revealed that her phone had been targeted on 28 occasions, Coulson stood accused of presiding over a "culture of dark arts" which encouraged phone hacking.
The hacking scandal blew up again this week after the New York Times published a lengthy article including the claim that Coulson freely discussed the use of unlawful news-gathering techniques during his time as editor of the tabloid. Coulson resigned as editor of the News of the World after its royal reporter and a private investigator were jailed. He denies any knowledge of phone hacking.
Downing Street and Scotland Yard, which is facing criticism for failing to investigate the allegations properly, were facing pressure last night as:
• Tessa Jowell, the former culture secretary, told the Independent that her phone had been hacked into on 28 occasions.
• Lord Prescott, who is joining forces with three other public figures to sue police over a failure to warn them they had been targeted by the private investigator at the heart of the scandal, said he has evidence that Glenn Mulcaire targeted him on behalf of News International.
• Alan Johnson, the former home secretary, is to invoke his rights as a former cabinet minister to review official papers relating to the case from his time in office.
• Brian Paddick, a former deputy assistant commissioner with the Met who is seeking a judicial review of the alleged failure of his former force to tell him his name had been found on a list of public figures whose phones may have been targeted, called for Coulson to be interviewed by police.
The figures spoke out as a former News of the World journalist quoted by the New York Times repeated his claim tonight that he had been ordered by the former editor to hack phones. Sean Hoare told BBC Radio 4's PM: "There is an expression called the culture of dark arts. You were given a remit: just get the story. Phone tapping hadn't just existed on the News of the World … I have gone on the record in the New York Times and said I have stood by Andy and been requested to tap phones, OK, or hack into them. He was well aware the practice existed. To deny it is simply a lie."
The government last night commented on Hoare's admission that he was sacked from the title at a time when he was struggling with problems with drugs and alcohol. Alan Duncan, the international development minister, told Radio 4's Any Questions: "What they are seizing on today are the words of someone who had an alcohol and drug problem who was sacked by the paper."
No 10 is standing by Coulson. Sources close to him said that Hoare had contradicted himself in the interview.
But Labour piled pressure on the government and Scotland Yard in the wake of the New York Times investigation. Alan Johnson is to review government papers from his time in office in the wake of quotes in the New York Times article from unnamed detectives alleging that their investigation had been cut short because of Scotland Yard's close relationship with the News of the World.
Johnson said that he considered summoning the police inspectorate because he felt "uncomfortable" with the investigation's progress. He decided against this after "reassuring conversations" with senior officers at Scotland Yard.
The government, which has been rattled by the renewed focus on Coulson, last night blamed Labour for stoking the saga. Alan Duncan said: "The Labour party, in a concerted campaign through Lord Prescott and Alan Johnson, has piled in to attack Andy Coulson about something that happened years ago in order to try to attack the government. This was looked at by News International lawyers, by a parliamentary select committee, by the police and the CPS. All of them concluded there was no case to answer."
Ed Miliband, the Labour leadership contender, said: "These are very serious allegations. If I was prime minister and Andy Coulson was working for me I would demand to know from Andy Coulson the truth. I don't see how he can stay working in Downing Street unless he clears this up and says whether his former colleagues are telling the truth or not."
The News of the World said: "The New York Times story contains no new evidence – it relies on unsubstantiated allegations from unnamed sources or claims from disgruntled former employees that should be treated with extreme scepticism given the reasons for their departures from this newspaper. We reject absolutely any suggestion there was a widespread culture of wrongdoing at the News of the World."
A Met police spokesperson responded to Johnson's statement:. "In July 2009, the [Met Police Service] examined whether any new evidence had emerged in the media or elsewhere that justified reopening the investigation. The clear view, subsequently endorsed by the director of public prosecutions with leading counsels' advice, was that there was no new evidence and consequently the investigation remains closed."
Exclusive: Education secretary had claimed that more than 700 'free schools' could be established due to high demand
Michael Gove, the education secretary, will next week be forced to announce a dramatic scaling back of the Tories' landmark plans to create a new generation of schools run by parents and voluntary groups.
Labour tonight accused the education secretary of presiding over a "chaotic shambles" after it emerged that as few as 20 free schools are on track to open in September 2011. In June Gove hinted that 700 could be established.
Ed Balls, the shadow education secretary, said: "This is another embarrassment for the education secretary's flawed, unfair and unpopular school reforms. Michael Gove took over a successful department which has helped to deliver record improvements in school standards over more than a decade, but in just a few months he has managed to turn it into a chaotic shambles."
Gove said in June that he had been inundated with expressions of interest from establish a new tier of free schools. "More than 700 expressions of interest in opening new free schools have been received by the charitable group the New Schools Network," he told MPs.
The announcement next week will echo Gove's claim in the summer that more than 1,000 schools had applied to become academies. In the end just 32 are opening this term.
The reduced number was a blow to Gove, who rushed through legislation to allow existing schools to obtain academy status by the start of the academic year. The free schools are due to start opening in a year's time.
One senior Tory said: "Michael clearly massively underestimated the challenge he had decided to undertake."
Cameron regards schools reform as one of the key elements in his plans to create a "big society" in which power is devolved to the grassroots.
Gove is relaxed on the grounds that it normally takes between three to five years to establish a new school. While relatively few free schools will open next year, many more are in the pipeline and will open in due course.
A source close to Gove said: "Under the last government only a couple of parent-promoted schools were created over 13 years. Now, within just four months … there are teachers, parents and community groups who have prepared high quality proposals for free schools starting as early as 2011. There are a significant number of proposals in the pipeline and an announcement will shortly be made about those at the front of the queue who are planning to open next year."
