| SNP’s Budget balancing act
For 18 months the SNP told Scottish students that it would write off their debt immediately," he said. "This pledge took Mr Swinney 18 seconds to ditch this afternoon." He accused the SNP of backtracking on its pledge of lower class sizes in primary schools. Tory finance spokesman Derek Brownlee called for an independent assessment of the local government deal to see if council tax could be frozen without cutting services. LibDem leader Nicol Stephen said: "This is a Budget of sham promises, shifty auditing, a Budget of deception, spin and half-truths. "And on the public services that people care about most, this Budget deceives the most." He added: "They promised everything to everyone and now they cannot deliver." Ups and downs High points Finding the money to freeze council tax, and an agreed concordat which will see councils given more freedom to spend their money as they wish.
Sleep apnoea operations more miss than hit
SURGERY for obstructive sleep apnoea is increasing even though it is still considered experimental and research shows it does not work for most patients, an Australian study has found. The operation had side effects such as a dry throat and voice changes, the study found. A review of 48 studies around the world showed 62 per cent of 21,346 patients reported persistent problems after surgery, including infrequent vomiting through the nose, which generally required corrective surgery, Adam Elshaug of the University of Adelaide, said yesterday. Up to 22 per cent regretted the surgery, Dr Elshaug said. The analysis by the university's discipline of public health department was published in the British Medical Journal yesterday. It cited a review of seven randomised trials in 2005, which concluded that surgery generally failed to alleviate symptoms.
All That She Can Be
It's a little past eight in the morning, and Katharine T. Waterman '09 is doing the high knee crawl across the floor of the gym, a fake M-16 cradled in her arms. It's a drill she does over and over. Wait for the signal, race forward, drop to the ground. She drags herself ahead with her elbows, knees scraping against the floor. The hard rubber M-16 is heavier than it looks. Waterman woke up two hours ago to catch the 6:20 a.m. shuttle to MIT. She didn't eat breakfast, just put on her camouflage uniform and combat boots and headed out the door. Harvard's seven-minute rule doesn't apply to ROTC. When you're in the Reserve Officer Training Corps, there are no excuses for being late. Waterman starts every Wednesday much like this, dressed in her BDUs (army slang for battle dress uniform), studying military tactics, and practicing the skills she'll need as an officer in the U.S.
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