Italy coach plunge leaves 38 dead
By Anonymous on Jul 29, 2013 02:44 am 28 July 2013 Last updated at 18:19 ET 
At least seven people have been killed in southern Italy when a coach plunged 30m (98ft) down a steep slope, Italian media report.
The coach hit several cars before coming off a flyover near the town of Avellino, in the Campania region.
The driver is thought to be among the dead, according to the Italian news agency Ansa.
There were about 40 passengers on board, including children, the news agency said.
The group had been returning to Naples following a pilgrimage.
"I cannot yet confirm the number of victims - we are still pulling people from the vehicle," a police spokesman told the French news agency AFP.
He added that the Naples-Bari highway had been closed to traffic because of the accident.
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Energy watchdog 'failing consumers'
By Anonymous on Jul 29, 2013 02:36 am 28 July 2013 Last updated at 19:00 ET 
MPs say energy bills need to be much more transparent
The energy regulator Ofgem is not doing enough to ensure that energy company profits are transparent, according to a group of MPs.
The Energy and Climate Change Committee (ECCC) report said the watchdog was "failing consumers by not taking all possible steps to improve openness".
The Committee said that "working out exactly how their profits are made requires forensic accountants".
The big six are E.ON, SSE, British Gas, npower, EDF and Scottish Power.
"At a time when many people are struggling with the rising costs of energy, consumers need reassurance that the profits being made by the Big Six are not excessive," said Sir Robert Smith MP, on behalf of the committee.
The six companies have different divisions to deal with the different functions of their businesses: generation, trading and supply. The committee said that the divisions sometimes bought and sold services and energy from each other, making it difficult to work out how much money was being made overall.
"Greater transparency is urgently needed to reassure consumers that high energy prices are not fuelling excessive profits," the committee said.
Poor communication The MPs criticised Ofgem for having a "relatively light touch approach and for not fully implementing the recommendations of the accountants it commissioned to improve how energy companies report their profits".
"Ofgem needs to use its teeth a bit more and force the energy companies to do everything they can to prove that they are squeaky clean when it comes to making and reporting their profits," said committee member John Robertson MP.
Ofgem agreed that the energy suppliers had been "poor at communicating with their customers".
"Ofgem has made energy companies produce yearly financial statements, which have been reviewed twice by independent accountants and found to be fit for purpose," said Ofgem's senior partner for markets, Rachel Fletcher.
Which? executive director Richard Lloyd said that the public would not feel that they were paying a fair price for energy until prices were simplified and the costs that went into generating them were as transparent as possible.
"We want the Government to introduce simple energy pricing and a clear ring-fence between generation and supply businesses, so consumers can see exactly what they're paying for and be more confident that there is effective competition in the energy market," he said.
Fuel poverty The Energy and Climate Change Committee also reprimanded the government for not doing enough to help low-income families struggling with fuel poverty.
The committee argued that the use of levies on fuel bills to raise funds for social and environmental programmes could end up hitting those on low incomes.
Instead, they recommended such funding be raised through direct taxation.
Sir Robert Smith MP said: "Tax-funded public spending is a less regressive mechanism than levies on energy bills, which can hit some of the poorest hardest. Shifting the emphasis from levies to taxation would help protect vulnerable households."
Read in browser » Deadly car bomb blasts hit Baghdad
By Anonymous on Jul 29, 2013 03:01 am 29 July 2013 Last updated at 02:36 ET 
A series of car bomb attacks in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, has killed at least 23 people.
More than 100 people were wounded by the blasts in mostly Shia areas of the city, police and medics said.
This year has been one of the deadliest since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Although violence has decreased across the country since the peak of the insurgency in 2006 and 2007, bombings are still common. More than 700 people have been killed in July alone.
Read in browser » UK protests about Gibraltar delays
By Anonymous on Jul 29, 2013 01:40 am 28 July 2013 Last updated at 14:07 ET 
The delays at the border followed a dispute earlier in the week
The Gibraltar government has accused Spain of "unacceptable" behaviour by deliberately engineering border delays.
It said Spain created "deliberate hold-ups" to traffic travelling from Spain to the British territory on Sunday.
That was after nearly six hours of delays for those leaving Gibraltar on Saturday in temperatures of 30C (86F) as Spanish authorities searched "practically every vehicle".
It follows earlier accusations of Spanish incursions into British waters.
Spain disputes UK sovereignty over Gibraltar, which became a British colony since 1713.
Travel 'torture' In a strongly worded statement, the government of Gibraltar said on Sunday: "The Spanish Government has inflicted these unnecessary delays on the elderly, children and the infirm in up to 30 degrees of heat.
"This torture has resulted in an ambulance being deployed to treat people with medical conditions. On Friday, for instance, a Spanish man had to be taken to hospital with chest pains."
It said the delays had affected tourists and "thousands" of people who go in and out of Gibraltar every day to work.
Gibraltar's Deputy Chief Minister, Joseph Garcia, said: "Spain has again shown that she cannot resolve issues through normal diplomatic channels.
"Instead she merely resorts to heavy-hand tactics at the frontier. The behaviour of the Spanish authorities is unacceptable, un-European and illegal."
Fellow government ministers John Cortes and Steven Linares distributed water on Saturday afternoon to motorists caught in the queues at the border, and the Royal Gibraltar Police called in 10 additional officers to help with traffic control.
'Forgotten by UK' Gareth Gingell, who is a member of the Defenders of Gibraltar group, handed out water to people stuck in the queues at the frontier on Sunday.
He told the BBC the Guardia Civil was "only letting one car through about every thirty minutes".
"It's taking about four hours for people to get through," he said.
"We've had to endure this kind of thing all yesterday and all the day before. I feel like we've been forgotten by the UK government."
It follows a dispute earlier in the week that led the British government to say it would make a formal protest to the Spanish government.
The Foreign Office said Spanish Guardia Civil vessels "attempted to disrupt the activities of a contractor commissioned by the government of Gibraltar to carry out civil works" on Wednesday and Thursday when they unlawfully entered British Gibraltar Territorial Waters.
The Royal Navy Gibraltar Squadron, Royal Gibraltar Police and Gibraltar Defence Police were later deployed to prevent the disruption.
'Gridlocked' A resident of Gibraltar, David Gibbins, told the BBC Saturday's delays meant the tiny British overseas territory - which has a population of less than 30,000 - was "gridlocked".
"It blocked the whole town," he said.
"People couldn't go to the beach, they couldn't go to their houses and they couldn't go to see their families."
He caught the tail-end of Saturday's queue to leave the island.
He said border guards were "checking every bit of paperwork", which he said never normally happened.
Spain has yet to respond to the accusations it deliberately caused the delays.
Read in browser » Fees for employment tribunals begin
By Anonymous on Jul 28, 2013 07:14 pm 28 July 2013 Last updated at 19:14 ET 
The fees were first proposed by the chancellor two years ago
People bringing employment tribunals must now pay a fee, for the first time since they were created in the 1960s.
Under the new Uk rules, they will have to pay £160 or £250 to lodge a claim, with a further charge of either £230 or £950 if the case goes ahead.
The higher charges will cover cases like unfair dismissal, the lower ones issues such as unpaid invoices.
Employers welcomed the fees as a way of "weeding out" weak claims, but one union said the move was "draconian".
The Unite union said the measures would make British workers "some of the worst protected in the EU".
Another union, the GMB, will stage a protest outside an employment tribunal in central London later.
Those claimants unable to pay may apply to have the tribunal fees reduced or waived.
Justice Minister Helen Grant said: "It is not fair on the taxpayer to foot the entire £74m bill for people to escalate workplace disputes to a tribunal.
"We want people, where they can afford to do so, to pay a contribution.
"It is in everyone's interest to avoid drawn out disputes which emotionally damage workers and financially damage businesses. That's why we are encouraging quicker, simpler and cheaper alternatives like mediation."
From Monday, workers in the UK will be charged a fee to bring a claim, a fee if the claim is heard and a further charge if they want to appeal against the decision.
In the Employment Appeal Tribunal, the fees are £400 to lodge an appeal and another £1,200 for a full hearing.
Costs are reduced in instances of multiple claims, where two or more people bring claims against the same employer.
Employers' organisation the CBI welcomed the fees, saying they were a good way of "weeding out weak claims".
"Fear of the costs of fighting a tribunal - even when you are in the right - is a massive confidence killer. With firms and employees waiting over a year for a tribunal at the moment, something has to be done to speed things up," the CBI added.
A legal challenge to the introduction of fees has been made, and HM Courts and Tribunals Service said it would refund people if the bid was successful.
'Throwback to Victorian times' The number of tribunal claims rose by 81% between 2001 and 2011, with the administrative costs being borne by taxpayers up until now.
Chancellor George Osborne announced the plans in 2011. "We are ending the one-way bet against small businesses," he said at the time.
A spokesman for the Federation of Small Businesses said: "For an employee, an employment tribunal can be seen as a 'no cost' option."
"The FSB hopes the introduction of fees will curb the number of speculative claims and help reduce the perceived risk of taking on staff."
Unite estimated that this would affect 150,000 workers a year and pledged to pay the employment tribunal costs of its members.
"What we are seeing today is injustice writ large as this worker-bashing government takes a sledgehammer to workers' rights - this is a throwback to Victorian times," Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said.
"Seeking redress for unfair dismissal and discrimination and other injustices in the workplace is a fundamental human right - but now ministers are putting up insurmountable financial hurdles for working people in pursuit of justice."
Andy Prendergast of the GMB, said: "The imposition of such fees represents the latest in a number of attacks on employment rights by the government.
"Bad employers are being given the green light to continue exploiting their staff."
Some in Scotland welcomed the move. Eilidh Wiseman, a partner at law firm Dundas and Wilson, said: "I believe anything which helps reduce frivolous claims and speeds up the tribunal system will be welcomed by employers
"One of the effects of the new system should be a rise in the value of settlement offers for low-value claims. Offering £500 as an economic offer to settle is not likely to be attractive to a claimant who has paid £1,200 to bring a claim."
There were 186,300 claims accepted by employment tribunals in the year to March 2012, according to the Ministry of Justice. Of those, 31% were for unfair dismissal, breach of contract and redundancy.
Twenty-seven percent of the 186,300 claims were withdrawn - but employers in those cases still had to pay legal fees in preparing a defence.
In 2011-12, the Employment Appeal Tribunal received 2,170 appeals.
Read in browser » Mid-East peace talks to resume
By Anonymous on Jul 28, 2013 05:21 pm 28 July 2013 Last updated at 16:20 ET
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will resume peace talks in Washington on Monday, the US State Department has announced.
The talks, stalled since 2010, follow months of shuttle diplomacy by US Secretary of State John Kerry.
The statement was released hours after the Israeli cabinet approved the release of more than 100 Palestinian prisoners.
The release is to take place in stages over several months.
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