Mr Mercer said Newark accepting urgent cases would take the strain off ambulances - giving them the option to take patients to Newark as well as hospitals in Grantham or Kings Mill.

BBC: Newark Hospital

Christmas is Tuesday, meaning many traders will likely take off Monday as well for a four-day weekend.

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Is enterprise social networking, the so-called Facebook-like model at work, starting to take off as well or is it still in its infancy?

FORBES: Social At Work: Facebook's Lessons For The Enterprise

The other 10 people on her staff, all part-timers, can take off whenever they're not feeling well or need to care for a sick loved one, she says they just won't get paid during that time.

WSJ: Debate Over Sick Leave Intensifies

The election will take place in a sealed-off area of the Vatican, well away from prying eyes, and will continue in conditions of the strictest secrecy until a new pope emerges, however long that takes.

BBC: Analysis: Choosing the next pope

If you sign up, your Tweet will be automatically finished off with a pre-set message about Fair Trade, encouraging others to take part as well.

FORBES: Tweets For Ben & Jerry's

For the European Commission, it means a lot more references to the word growth in Brussels policy documents - and a lot of new European infrastructure projects which might well take years to get off the ground.

BBC: Greece, France and the future of the euro

Relatively well-off farmers who wanted the benefit of radio programs from the outside world could take batteries into town where they could be charged over a period of a couple of days, much as people journey to distant towns in Africa today to charge their cell phones at great expense.

FORBES: The Good Grid and why bragging about being "off the grid" is silly

She may well be right if the iPad and other tablet computers take off, the prices of dedicated e-readers such as Amazon's Kindle keep falling and more consumers start reading books on smart-phones.

ECONOMIST: The future of publishing: E-publish or perish | The