I set up the fraud attempt because I was in an extremely difficult financial situation," Mrs Gsell told the court.Mrs Gsell stands accused of attempted fraud and concealing her crime from police. A German society hostess and former Big Brother contestant who once boasted that she was a "woman of luxury" yesterday admitted setting up a bizarre insurance fraud that led to her elderly husband being beaten to death by a gang of Eastern European car thieves. "I would say the speech was surprisingly pro-Nato," she said It showed Russia wanted to co-operate with the alliance.. Russia warned Nato yesterday against deploying forces in the former Soviet bloc and said that the Baltic states' failure to respect the rights of ethnic Russians represented a "threat" to the country.

All of the geeks have loved it - the fans of the original who have stayed with it for 40 years."Thunderbirds is due for release in Britain on 23 July.. But I knew damn well if I stood in front of that car saying, 'isn't it wonderful?' there'd be people asking, 'how much did they pay you, Gerry?'"Mr Livingstone said: "We'd had an incredible response to this 27ft big pink car. The company sent him a letter saying his creative services were not needed. Anderson said: "I thought, right, that's the biggest insult I've ever had in my life I didn't read the script. Gerry anderson, the Thunderbirds creator, has attacked the producers of the Hollywood film version of the 1960s puppet series, branding them "arrogant" after they dropped him as a creative consultant. Anderson is furious with Working Title, the British company which is co-producing the movie with Universal.

I just cut myself off from the whole thing."David Livingstone, Working Title's director of marketing, replied that Anderson was "a pain in the arse". Outer London becomes 0181; inner London, 0171.2000: London area codes changed again to 020 7 and 020 8, plus seven digits.2005: 020 3 to be introduced in the summerSource: Ofcom, Bob Freshwater's online UK Telephone History. London gets the first area code - 01.1990: 01 code expanded to "inner" 071 and "outer" 081 to cope with demographic shifts and expansion of the city.1995: extra "1" added to area codes around the country on "PhONEday" to cope with growth in demand. LONDON ON THE LINE1877: William Preece brings the first pair of telephones to Britain following their invention in the US in 1876.1878: first lines erected in London at Hay's Wharf, south of the Thames, to the Hay's Wharf office on the north bank.1879: first public telephone exchange opens at 36 Coleman St, with eight subscribers.1902: the "Central", "City", "Mayfair", "Western" and "Victoria" exchanges open.1950s-1960s: STD codes introduced, and the "name" exchanges are gradually phased out.

At that time David Edmonds, the director general of Oftel (the telecoms regulator now subsumed into Ofcom), said the change should be enough to last at least three years.The slower growth is probably due to increasing uptake of broadband internet connections, which do not require extra phone lines because they can simultaneously carry voice and high-speed data on a line.Demand for new phone connections peaked in the mid-1990s, with the initial popularity of the internet, because people were getting extra dial-up lines and higher-quality ISDN lines.The change forms part of the regulator's National Telephone Numbering Plan. They don't need to change any of their existing numbers or set ups."The introduction of 020 3 is happening later than was forecast when London last went through the upheaval of the new codes, introduced during the "Big Number" change of April 2000, when 0171 and 0181 codes became 020 7 and 020 8. The point to remember is that this doesn't mean any change to existing residential or business customers. The numbers starting with 7 and 8 will still be issued, but we will also be phasing in those starting with 3. The suspicion is that the supply of 020 7 numbers will start to run low next autumn, driven by the growing number of small businesses and multiple-occupancy flats.Ed Knight, a spokesman for Ofcom, said: "The city needs about 400,000 extra numbers each year "We anticipate that that demand will continue. The 020 3 prefixes will not be decided by geography and will be allocated to phone companies for their clients in blocks of 10,000.The prefix has been introduced because London is running out of numbers for the other prefixes.