The Press Association is to send a live feed of information into the interactive, virtual world, Second Life.
Residents will be able to view updates at The Press Association’s Budget Info-Station. If they are users of BlogHUD, a community of bloggers within Second Life, they can pick up the Budget announcement on blogHUD.com.
Multimedia editor for The Press Association, John Angeli said: “It’s becoming more common for aspects of real-life to mix with virtual worlds and this provides us with an opportunity to provide a service to the residents of Second Life as well as proving that we and our partners have the technical capability to make this happen.”
PA will also be utilising the live notification capabilities of Twitter.com to communicate the Budget announcements quickly and effectively to a large audience.

A website has been launched to provide the most up-to-date information on commercial property in Hampshire, Dorset and south Wiltshire.
Buyers and sellers can log on to www.commercialpropertypages.co.uk to catch up with the latest news around the region in the sector. Newsquest centres in the three counties have collaborated to produce the website.

The Northern Echo is urging readers to back a fighting fund set up by the Alzheimer’s Society to win justice for dementia sufferers with its Don’t Stop Dementia Drugs campaign.
The aim was to support the Alzheimer’s Society in its bid to overturn restrictions on a range of anti-dementia drugs.

Red squirrels are the focus of a conservation push by The Scotsman, which is asking readers to report back on what wildlife they see at home, near work or out and about.
The Wildlife Watch aims to put together a snapshot of what’s out there as the second in a series of four surveys during the year, season by season.

The Echo is pleading with Essex County Council to prevent Basildon becoming a dumping ground for rubbish from the whole county.
It says the council is making plans for a new waste complex which would process 700,000 tons of rubbish a year. More than 3,000 residents have already signed a petition to oppose the move, and the newspaper has launched its own online petition.

Lancaster University graduate Oliver Clarke has joined the Market Drayton Advertiser as a reporter.
He has experience at newspapers in north Wales but is making the move back to his home county after a month’s break in India.

The Belfast Telegraph has donated books to a primary school as part of the Business in the Community’s Time to Read programme.