Work programme ‘to miss targets’

27 November 2012 Last updated at 04:11 ETGovernment figures assessing the success of its welfare-to-work programme are expected to show a crucial target has been missed.Firms and charities are paid to help find jobs for the long-term unemployed in the hope of helping 2.4m people.But the first set of official figures, due out at shortly, are expected to show they are getting less than 5% of jobseekers...

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UN climate talks open in Qatar

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — U.N. talks on a new climate pact resumed Monday in oil and gas-rich Qatar, where negotiators from nearly 200 countries will discuss fighting global warming and helping poor nations adapt to it.The two-decade-old talks have not fulfilled their main purpose: reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that scientists say are warming the planet.Attempts to create a new climate treaty failed...

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Betfair pulls out of Greece over permits row

LONDON (Reuters) – Online gambling exchange Betfair said it would withdraw from the Greek market until there was greater clarity on gaming regulation in the country.Betfair, which has not yet applied for a permit to operate in Greece, questioned the cost and conditions attached to permits required by gaming firms to trade in the country.“According to legal advice received, the value of these permits...

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Dog bite sidelines ‘Dirty Dozen’ trumpeter Towns

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Dirty Dozen Brass Band trumpeter Efrem Towns is recovering at home in New Orleans from a vicious attack by a Rottweiler at an Atlanta motel.He missed performances in Colorado and New Orleans after the attack on Nov. 18, and doesn’t know if he’ll make the band’s next scheduled gig on Dec. 28, The Times-Picayune (http://bit.ly/XOJoNr) reported.He and baritone sax player Roger Lewis...

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Body of Turkish ex-leader shows signs of poisoning: paper

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – An autopsy on the exhumed body late President Turgut Ozal, who led Turkey out of military rule in the 1980s, has revealed evidence of poisoning, a newspaper reported on Monday.There had long been rumors Ozal, who died of heart failure in 1993 aged 65, was murdered by militants of the “deep state” – a shadowy nationalist strain within the Turkish establishment of the day. He had...

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UBS fined £29.7m for Adoboli case

26 November 2012 Last updated at 06:09 ETThe Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined UBS £29.7m ($ 47.6m) for failings that led to trader Kweku Adoboli losing £1.4bn.The fine, the third largest imposed by the FSA, was for “system and control failings” that allowed him to trade in London well beyond authorised limits.The trader was last week convicted of two counts of fraud and sentenced to seven...

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Egypt’s Mursi faces judicial revolt over decree

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi faced a rebellion from judges who accused him on Saturday of expanding his powers at their expense, deepening a crisis that has triggered violence in the street and exposed the country’s deep divisions.The Judges’ Club, a body representing judges across Egypt, called for a strike during a meeting interrupted with chants demanding the “downfall of...

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‘Gangnam Style’ most watched YouTube video ever

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean rapper PSY‘s “Gangnam Style” has become YouTube’s most viewed video of all time.YouTube says in a posting on its Trends blog that “Gangnam Style” had been viewed 805 million times as of Saturday afternoon, surpassing Justin Bieber‘s “Baby,” which has had 803 million views.The blog says the “velocity of popularity for PSY’s outlandish video is unprecedented.”PSY’s...

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Europe mulls banning ‘boxes’ for abandoned babies

BERLIN (AP) — German pastor Gabriele Stangl says she will never forget the harrowing confession she heard in 1999. A woman said she had been brutally raped, got pregnant and had a baby. Then she killed it and buried it in the woods near Berlin.Stangl wanted to do something to help women in such desperate situations. So the following year, she convinced Berlin’s Waldfriede Hospital to create the city’s...

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Greece Waits for the Next Check From Europe

Given the way the euro crisis has played out during the past three years, it was no great surprise that euro-zone finance ministers were not able to agree in the early hours of Wednesday morning on a formula to reduce Greece’s unwieldy public debt. That is of little comfort, though, for an increasingly anxious Greek government that faces further financial and political pressure as a result of the...

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