Sterling National News: Luxury Chocolate Maker Set for Expansion

Friday April 6^th 2012
A luxury chocolate maker which started up in a small kitchen in a remote part of Scotland has expanded into international markets after reporting soaring sales.
 
Sutherland-based Cocoa Mountain said it was taking orders from as far away as Canada and New Zealand.
 
The company expects this year to see turnover more than treble to £1m and its workforce to increase to 25.
 
Cocoa Mountain is based in Balnakeil Craft Village, Durness.
 
The owner, Paul Maden, completed a professional chocolatier course in Vancouver, Canada, before setting up Cocoa Mountain in 2006, with partner James Findlay.
 
The company began by selling mainly to visitors to Balnakeil and to their café and retail outlet. Last year they opened...

Have A Happy Easter!

Saturday April 7^th 2012
Wishing you all a happy easter from The Onlines Team!May your belly be chocolate filled by all the eggs, we know ours will be!

Facebook Buys Instagram And Its Employees For $1 Billion(629m)

Tuesday April 10^th 2012
Facebook has recently shown interest into taking over the photo sharing network Instagram and its employees; it is said that Facebook is paying approximately $1 billion (629m) for the takeover. Instagram is a free photo application that was founded in October 2010; and was originally only available as an app for iPhone but last week also became available as an app for Android. The application allows users to apply 17 different digital filters to a photo they take. The user is then given the option to upload/share the image on a variety of social networking sites. The app is a huge success, with more than a billion photos uploaded; and with around 30 million users uploading 5 million new pictures each day. Kevin Systrom a CEO at Instagram has...

Sterling National News: Artificial Heart Allows A Three-Year-Old To Survive 251 Days

Wednesday April 11^th 2012
Three-year-old Joe Skerratt was kept alive by an artificial organ for 251 days whilst waiting for a donor heart; and has now undergone a successful heart transplant.   The toddler had been diagnosed with a dilated cardiomyopathy shortly after birth; this is a condition where the heart is enlarged and weakened. After being attached to a machine for 9 months about the size of a little chest fridge a donor heart was found for Joe. His was treated with medication at first, but his heart became weaker and stopped three times when he was taken quickly to Great Ormond Street Hospital; and when he arrived at the hospital, Joe was placed on a machine that took over his weakened lungs and heart. Shortly after it was discovered that the three-year-old...

Sterling National News: Energy Companies to Guarantee Best Deals

Thursday April 12^th 2012
Energy Companies are to be required to let customers know what the best deal available to them is, in a move which ministers say could save households up to £100 a year.
 
Firms will be obliged to inform a person of their most suitable tariff if they request it.
 
Deputy PM, Nick Clegg, announced the move saying that 7 out of 10 people have the wrong deal and are paying too much.
 
Labour have accused energy firms of “ripping people off” and said that there must be more competition in the market.
 
Environmental campaigners have not backed the initiative, classing it as “tinkering” and are calling for far-reaching changes to how energy is produced and consumed.
 
Increases between 15% and 18% where seen on...

Sterling National News: Do You Have Five Friends You Can Rely on?

Thursday April 12^th 2012
Due to a survey carried out it is said that the majority of people believe if in a crisis or need advice or help, they have five or less friends they can rely on. Even though people may have hundreds of friends listed on social networking sites.New research has alleged that around two-thirds of people said they have a group of five friends or less; and about half said they have one in ten of their true friends on social networking websites such as Facebook. Furthermore it is said that six out of ten people have less than a fifth of their friends online; who they can rely on, or they could ask for advice or support in difficult times.   “Every successful person needs people backing them and behind them to push them forward.” stated...