Millbank was plunged into darkness with the iconic tower acting as the canvas for a never-before-seen spectacular. Each of the 120 metre high building’s 800 windows were covered with vinyl as 16 powerful projectors, stationed 300 metres away on the other side of the river, beamed 3D images onto the structure.

The ICE train made its inaugural test run on Wednesday, becoming the first passenger train not run by Eurostar — an operator jointly owned by France, Britain and Belgium — to use the tunnel.

The Siemens-built ICE 3 train, which has a maximum speed of 320 kph (200 miles per hour), will undergo further test runs and approval measures to use the Channel Tunnel, Deutsche Bahn said.

The service uses the UK’s first high-speed train line, High Speed 1, which was completed in 2007 and linked London directly to the continental high-speed rail network for the first time.

Eurostar, which is jointly operated by the national rail companies of France and Belgium and a British subsidiary, is currently the only operator to run passenger trains through the tunnel, serving Paris and Brussels directly as well as ski resorts in the French Alps.

It is expected the journey from London to Amsterdam would be around four hours.

Photo By kaffeeeinstein

In the first ever detailed ranking of 60 of the world’s financial hubs, published today by the international research agency Tax Justice Network (TJN), The Netherlands ranks 15th of the 60 financial “tax havens” in the world.

Delaware in the US is officially the world’s most secret financial location. Delaware was found wanting in 11 out of 12 secrecy indicators. London was also ranked in the top five most secretive jurisdictions.

The researchers looked in particular to banking secrecy, the transparency of financial legislation and the degree of financial activities abroad. The Dutch Antilles are ranked at the 38th place in the “Financial Secrecy Index”. The most important tax haven is the U.S. state of Delaware, followed by Luxembourg, Switzerland, the Cayman Islands, the city of London, Ireland, Bermuda, Singapore, Belgium and Hong Kong.

In the fight against tax evasion Tax Justice Network calls for international regulation including the automatic exchange of financial information.

The Elephant Parade is founded by father and son Mike and Marc Spits. With their project, they aim to raise attention for the Asian elephant, that is threatened with extinction. Their project has proven to be succesful: the first two editions of the Elephant Parade, held in Rotterdam and Antwerp, raised a total amount of over 700,000 euro. The benefits of the Elephant Parade are donated to the Elephant Family, the largest elephant charity in the world and was founded in 2002 by Mark Shand. He is a globetrotter, philantropist and writer and maker of the BBC documentary Queen of the Elephants.

Especially for the Elephant Parade Amsterdam, a tour is set out that will lead you along all the elephants that are located at several hotspots in the Amsterdam city centre: Museum Square, Spui, Westermarkt, Koningsplein, Kalvertoren.

If you’d like to take an elephant home but can’t afford the life-size model, replicas ranging from 4 inches to 30 inches tall will also be on sale in the city center.

The Elephant Parade in Amsterdam is running from 5 september – 31 oktober 2009.

The Elephant Parade will visit London from May to July 2010. Find more details at www.elephantparade.com

Photo by: PjotrP