A British couple are believed to have been taken to Somalia and held for ransom, reports the BBC.
“A pirate called Hassan told the Reuters news agency: ‘The British couple are in our hands now. We captured them as they were touring in the Indian Ocean.’
The two captives were healthy and ransom demands would follow, [...]
Multi-lane speed cameras are set to be introduced in France within a year. If successful, they could be posted along Britain’s roadways soon thereafter.
“The hi-tech cameras will be bad news for truckers. Lorries often have a lower speed limit imposed on them than cars but get away with going above this as long [...]
TimesOnline reports on record bonuses totalling as much as £4 billion.
“The state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland is planning to hand out record bonuses of up to £5m each in a snub to struggling taxpayers.
The average employee in its high-risk investment banking arm is likely to take home £240,000, with the top 20 staff [...]
The Iraqi government has awarded development rights to a large oil field to British and Chinese firms.
Xinhua reports, “Even more important is the Iraqi Cabinet’s approval of the bid by Britain’s BP Plc and its Chinese partner CNPC to develop the 17.8 billion barrel Rumaila field near the southern city of Basra. The [...]
Representatives from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Iceland have reached a final agreement on Icesave, reports IceNews.
“According to IceNews sources and local news, changes have been made to the changes originally made by the Icelandic parliament last month. These changes are mainly such that Iceland takes on more responsibilities; but some middle [...]
The Guardian reports that the Royal Mail is hiring 30,000 temporary employees to keep the mail flowing.
“In a move that stunned union leaders and raised tensions between management and workers to new levels, Royal Mail said it had ordered the biggest recruitment drive in its history “to help keep the mail moving during [...]
[Photo copyright The Press Secretary Office of the President of Indonesia]– Iran claims that the United States and Britain were involved in a suicide attack on Revolutionary Guards.
News24 reports: “A suicide bomber blew himself up, killing seven commanders and 23 other people.
The headquarters of the armed forces blamed the bombing on ‘terrorists’ backed [...]
[The Prague Post]– Before signing the Lisbon Treaty, President Václav Klaus demands an exemption for the Czech Republic from a human rights protocol he says could open the country up to restitution claims from Germans expelled after World War II.
But the timing of his request and the increasingly intense rhetoric surrounding Lisbon is magnifying [...]
[guardian.co.uk]– The Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs is gearing up to pay huge year-end bonuses to its 31,000 employees after raking in quarterly profits of $3.19bn (£1.96bn), boosted by astute trading, resurgent stocks and a return to relative normality on the financial markets.
Goldman’s profits of $35m a day for the three months [...]
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced yesterday a massive 16 billion pounds (US$25.4 billion) sale of state assets, including the rail link from London to the Channel Tunnel, to cut soaring debt caused by the economic crisis.
Brown, facing a potential election wipeout next year at the hands of the main opposition [...]
