United Kingdom

    Four rollercoasters across three of the UK's biggest theme parks are to close "for the foreseeable future" following a serious crash at Alton Towers on Tuesday. The Smiler, which left four people with "significant lower limb injuries" after two carriages collided earlier this week, will remain shut when Alton Towers reopens to the public "within the next few days". It has also been confirmed that Saw, a similar rollercoaster at Thorpe Park, will be closed indefinitely. Meanwhile, at Chessington World of Adventures, a further two rides - Dragon's Fury and Rattlesnake - are being taken out of service. According to Merlin Entertainments, which runs all three theme parks, the closures are while "an additional set of safety protocols and procedures" are introduced. The company'...

    Air taxes have been scrapped for children under the age of £12, but some airlines who were quick to take the cash from you, have been much less keen to hand it back. Fortunately, it doesn't have to be difficult to get your cash back, and one quick step could earn you a refund of up to £97 per child. The scrapping of air passenger duty was announced in the March Budget, and kicked in on 1 May. However, those who had already booked tickets before March for travel after May, had already paid tax that should be refunded. Some airlines have decided to automatically pay the money back, so if you have booked your flights through British Airways, Air France, Virgin, American Airlines, KLM, Thomas Cook, Thomson, BMI regional, Aer Lingus, and First Choice, you don't have to do anyth...

    Job losses are threatened among the 14,000 British employees of the German engineering giant Siemens. The manufacturer of heavy industrial equipment has confirmed it is to slash a further 4,500 jobs worldwide as part of a cost-cutting drive. Around 2,200 of the jobs are expected to go in Germany, but the firm said it was unable to give a breakdown of where the other redundancies will be made. "We cannot disclose any details," a spokesman said, adding staff and their representatives would be informed first. Siemens employs around 343,000 people in 200 countries, including the UK. The job losses are on top of the 7,800 redundancies announced by Siemens in February. The fresh round of cuts come as the company reported profits had fallen by 5% to €1.7bn (£1.3bn) in the first t...