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UK gas field may close in tax row

Morecambe Bay provides about 6% of the UK’s annual gas needs

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Centrica, the owner of British Gas, says it might shut one of its major gas fields because of increased taxes.

The company is closing three fields in Morecambe Bay for a month of maintenance, and says it might not reopen one of them.

In his Budget, Chancellor George Osborne raised supplementary tax on oil and gas production from 20% to 32%.

Centrica says UK producers now face some of the highest taxes in the world.

The company has closed the Morecambe Bay North and Rivers gas fields for about four weeks’ planned maintenance.

It is also shutting the South Morecambe field for an unspecified period of work, and the firm says it might not be restarted.

“UK oil and gas producing fields are now subject to some of the highest levels of tax in the world,” a spokesman said.

“At these higher tax rates, Morecambe’s profitability can be marginal … Accordingly, we may choose to buy gas for our customers in the wholesale markets in preference to restarting the field after planned maintenance.”

“Companies are reflecting real concern… they just don’t need this grief”

Mike Tholen Oil and Gas UK

Morecambe Bay produces about 6% of the UK’s annual gas requirements, or up to 12% of residential gas demand, according to Centrica.

The company says the tax increase means its North Morecambe field is now subject to a 62% tax rate and South Morecambe 81%.

The Chancellor’s move, in his Budget in March, was designed to raise £2bn to fund a cut in fuel duty.

Industry bosses have criticised the new tax, describing it as short-sighted.

Mike Tholen from the industry body, Oil and Gas UK, says energy companies are working in a competitive industry and they are unhappy about three tax increases in the past decade.

He says: “I think companies are actually reflecting real concern for their shareholders because they are trying to manage long term businesses — of which the UK is part of a much bigger portfolio for many companies — and they just don’t need this grief.”

Industry leaders met the Chancellor to discuss the tax rise last month, and said they were “disappointed” that he disagreed with them over the impact of the tax.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

UN leaves Tripoli amid attacks

Damage from air strike on Col Gaddafi's compound in Tripoli. 1 May 2011

The villa in Col Gaddafi’s compound was severely damaged in the strike

The UN says it is pulling out all its international staff from the Libyan capital Tripoli, following damage to its offices there.

UN buildings and some foreign missions were targeted by angry crowds following a Nato air strike that reportedly killed a son of Col Gaddafi.

The UK says it is investigating reports that its mission had been destroyed.

Protests were also reported outside the US and Italian missions in the city but it is not clear if they were damaged.

Late on Saturday, the Libyan government said Saif al-Arab and three of Col Gaddafi’s grandchildren had died in a Nato attack on a villa in Tripoli.

Foreign reporters were shown widespread damage to the building in Col Gaddafi’s Bab al-Aziziya compound.

Nato has insisted its raid targeted a “command and control” building, and that all Nato targets were “military in nature”.

Early on Sunday, angry crowds gathered outside Western missions in the city.

“We are aware of reports that the British Residence in Tripoli has been destroyed, and are currently investigating them. We believe that other foreign residences have been attacked as well,” a spokeswoman for the UK’s Foreign Office said.

“Such actions, if confirmed, would be deplorable as the Gaddafi regime has a duty to protect diplomatic missions. This would be yet another breach of Gaddafi’s international obligations.”

The UK has withdrawn diplomats from Tripoli.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Investors in living wage campaign

The national minimum wage of £5.93 for adults is seen as too low by campaigners

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A group of investors worth £13bn are holding a rally on Monday to push major companies into paying a “living wage”.

The investor coalition, headed by religious groups and philanthropists in the UK and US, is lobbying the top 100 UK companies to improve salaries.

The group is writing to the chief executives of all 100 to ask them to apply “living wage standards”.

It says say £7.20 an hour should be the floor for wages outside London and £7.85 within the capital.

The living wage is what supporters of the campaign say is necessary for an individual to meet their basic needs.

The campaign, which has been running for 10 years, is backed by church groups, including the Methodist Church, as well as the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and unions Unison and Unite.

Collectively they hold £13bn of assets under management, including shares in major companies.

It says there are more than 3.5 million workers in the UK who earn under £7 an hour.

The minimum wage is currently £5.93 for adults.

Bill Seddon, the chief executive of the Methodist Central Board of Finance, said: ” We look at the relationships companies have with their employees, suppliers, and service providers. That leads us to consider not only executive pay levels, but also the lowest paid in a company.”

The campaign is being run by the organisation FairPensions.

Its chief executive, Catherine Howarth, said: “People are sickened by the ever-growing wage inequality in Britain’s biggest firms but we haven’t had an effective way to make our voices heard until now. The combination of major investors and members of the public working together to bring the remuneration debate down to the shop floor should be irresistible.’

The group plans to raise the issue of low pay at a series of major companies’ annual general meetings in the coming months.

FairPensions has already been to shareholder meetings of Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland to ask them about paying a living wage.

Over the next few weeks it plans to attend meetings at GSK, Capita, Arriva and others.

Separately, the PCS union is running a campaign to raise the pay of cleaners at the Royal Household, who are paid £6.45 an hour, above the legal minimum but below the notional “London living wage” of £7.85 an hour, which is supported by the capital’s mayor, Boris Johnson.

The union is sending a petition that states: “As £30 million of taxpayer’s money is paid to the Royal family annually for the upkeep of the Royal Households it is clear that the London living wage of £7.85 is affordable.

“Why then are the people who work so hard to maintain standards at The Royal Households, paid so little?”

It is asking the Culture Minister, Jeremy Hunt, to raise their pay to the London living wage.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Egypt in Palestine appeal to US

Nabil al-Araby’s call is not without risks

The Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil al-Araby has urged the United States to support the declaration of an independent Palestinian state.

The call comes after the reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah brokered last week by Egypt.

Both Israel and the US have said they will not deal with Hamas, and have until now opposed a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood.

The statement marks yet another big shift in Egypt’s foreign policy.

The new call marks a move away from Egypt’s past compliance with the United States and Israel, which have strongly opposed the Palestinian authority’s campaign to win backing for a unilateral declaration of statehood.

Mr Araby says Egypt now fully supports the Palestinian plan, and has urged the US to do the same.

He said the US should view a re-united Palestinian movement, including Hamas, as a positive development, and that it should persuade Israel to negotiate with it.

Both Israel and the US have insisted they will not deal with any side that includes Hamas, which they regard as a terrorist group.

Under President Hosni Mubarak Egypt used to take the same view, but the new government has moved quickly to distance itself from Israel, helping broker the Palestinian reconciliation deal last week.

This policy change is popular in Egypt, but it is not without risks.

It will be very unpopular in the US Congress, where the substantial annual aid package to Egypt must be approved.

Egypt is also seeking additional financial support from western and Gulf states, to help cover the immense cost to its economy of this year’s upheavals.

It must weigh up the benefits of a more populist foreign policy against those very real and immediate needs.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Boxing legend Cooper dies at 76

The former British, Commonwealth and European heavyweight champion Sir Henry Cooper passes away at the age of 76.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Brazil’s Rousseff has pneumonia

Dilma Rousseff took office at the beginning of the year

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Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is in hospital suffering from pneumonia, her spokesman Rodrigo Baena says.

Ms Rousseff had been admitted to a hospital in Sao Paulo on Saturday after suffering from severe flu symptoms for several days, he said.

He added that the president would stay a second night for further tests.

Ms Rousseff, 63, had to cancel her participation at the World Economic Forum in Rio de Janeiro on Friday because she felt ill.

Ms Rousseff underwent treatment for a cancer in the lymphatic system in 2009. She is said to have recovered well.

The first female president of Brazil, she was elected as the Workers’ Party candidate in 2010 and inaugurated on 1 January 2011.

During the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva she was energy minister and chief of staff.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Historic mill to reopen to public

The historic Grade II-listed Ashby Mill, as it was formerly known, was built in 1816

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Brixton Windmill is set to reopen to the public following a five-year restoration project.

The Grade II-listed Ashby Mill, as it was formerly known, was built in 1816.

It was still a working mill in the early 20th Century but fell into disuse in 1935 following the death of Joshua Ashby, grandson of the original owner.

The windmill, which was underwent a £581,000 restoration programme, is situated in Windmill Gardens in Brixton, south-west London.

It will now be able to begin production once again grinding locally sourced and grown wheat and barley.

A parade and walk will take place from Windrush Square at 1400 BST, followed by an opening ceremony in Windmill Gardens at 1500 BST.

The ceremony will feature bands and other entertainment.

The public is being encouraged to dress as May Day Queens or Kings, or wear a hat dressed with flowers or come as a miller.

There will also be guided tours of the windmill.

The restoration was funded by a £400,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund plus extra money from Lambeth Council and the Friends of Windmill Gardens.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Large turnout for Cuba’s May Day

Public health workers in Havana, Cuba, 1 may 2011

The rallies in Havana were carefully choreographed

Hundreds of thousands of Cubans have turned out for May Day parades in what was billed as a show of support for economic reforms.

Many marchers in Havana and other cities wore red or national colours, and held banners supporting Socialism.

The reforms were approved last month at Cuba’s first Communist Party Congress in 14 years.

They include to allowing Cubans to buy and sell property, and the release of self-employment licenses.

Salvador Valdes Mesa, the head of Cuba’s single government-approved trade union and the only official to speak at the Havana parade, said Cubans were showing their support for new economic policy.

“We do it because we support the accords of the party congress and the guidelines of the economic and social policy of the revolution,” he told the crowds.

However, details of the reforms are yet to be published and some in Havana expressed their impatience to see the guidelines.

The government is planning to cut hundreds of thousands of state jobs as it pushes limited market reforms.

The BBC’s Michael Voss in Havana says the authorities insist this is not a return to capitalism.

But they know that change is needed if the system is to survive, and with average salaries at barely $25 (£15) a month, the pressure is on change the island’s unproductive Soviet-style economic model, he reports.

In a break with tradition, this year there were no giant portraits of Marx, Engels or Lenin lining the parade route in revolution square.

President Raul Castro led a march in Santiago de Cuba, while in Havana that role fell to Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, the 80-year-old appointed recently as the party’s second secretary.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Ticket sellers in anti-fraud move

The delay in tickets being posted to buyers has allowed fraudsters to scam people

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Two of the biggest live event organisers in the UK have agreed to a police idea to protect people from fraudulent ticket websites.

Festival Republic and Livenation will send out tickets as soon as possible, rather than waiting, sometimes for six months, until just before performances.

Police say the delay makes it difficult to prove fake sites did not have the tickets to sell in the first place.

The National Fraud Authority says £168m is lost annually through ticket scams.

Genuine ticket sellers claim the delay in sending out tickets is meant to limit the time counterfeiters have to copy the originals.

But an unintended consequence of this has allowed tens of thousands of people over the past five years to buy tickets from fraudulent websites, without realising the tickets will not arrive at all until it is too late, reports BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours.

Fraudsters claim their suppliers have let them down or that they have simply gone bust.

Police have reached an agreement with two of the biggest concert organisers, including Festival Republic, which is behind the Leeds and Reading festivals, that tickets will be posted immediately to customers. They will then assess the impact on counterfeiting.

Det Ch Supt Steve Head, from the City of London Police, says promoters’ delay in the sending of tickets makes it difficult to prove fraud, and that printing the tickets earlier could be the key.

“We believe that would stop a lot of people being the victims because we’d be able to act on it quicker, convicting the kind of people we want to convict,” he added.

“It’s not about business; they are fraudsters”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Trump builds up lead over Higgins

Judd Trump leads John Higgins 10-7 after the opening two sessions of the World Championship final in Sheffield.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

VIDEO: Air France data recorder found

One of two flight recorders from an Air France plane that crashed off the coast of Brazil in 2009 has been recovered, officials say.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Germany allays labour influx fear

German employment fair in Wroclaw, Poland

German employment fairs have been held in Poland to advise potential new workers

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German government ministers have tried to reassure workers that their pay won’t be undercut by workers from central and eastern Europe.

It comes as the German labour market is fully opened to workers from Poland and seven other countries which joined the EU in 2004.

Germany held out until the last moment against opening its economy to workers from the former communist countries.

Ministers have promised to protect German workers from cheaper labour.

Estimating that 100,000 people would migrate each year, Labour Minister Ursula von der Leyen told the popular Bild newspaper that there would be more checks on industries like construction and catering where German unions were particularly fearful of pay being undercut by immigrants.

She said inspectors would ensure that agreed minimum wages were paid and that incomers were registered.

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said his ministry would have an additional 150 officials monitoring industries to detect illegal workers.

As well as Poland, workers from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia will be eligible to join the German labour market.

Ministers chose popular newspapers to make their promises, perhaps indicating the political unease among ordinary Germans, even as employers say the economy needs outsiders to do skilled work.

What employers don’t say, but unions fear, is that firms also want unskilled workers at lower rates of pay.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Britain expels Libyan ambassador

Aerial view of the British residence in Tripoli

The British government currently has no diplomatic staff based in Tripoli

The Foreign Office is investigating reports that the residence of the British ambassador in Tripoli has been “destroyed”.

It said in a statement that it believed other foreign residences had also been attacked.

“Such actions, if confirmed, would be deplorable as the Gaddafi regime has a duty to protect diplomatic missions,” said the Foreign Office.

It added that the UK currently had no diplomats in the Libyan capital.

Instead the UK has a diplomatic presence in Benghazi, the largest city in the rebel-held east of the country.

Meanwhile, the BBC’s Kate Peters in Tripoli said the United Nations was pulling out all its international staff from the city.

The reports of the attack on the British residence – which the BBC understands come from sources on the ground – come after the Libyan government said a Nato air strike on Tripoli had killed a son of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

“The targeting policy of Nato and the alliance is absolutely clear”

David Cameron Prime MinisterNato strike ‘kills Gaddafi’s son’

Saif al-Arab and three of Col Gaddafi’s grandchildren are reported to have died at their villa in the Bab al-Aziziya compound.

A spokesman for the regime said the Libyan leader himself was in the villa at the time but was unharmed.

Nato said it had hit a “known command-and-control building” in the area, adding it did not “target individuals”.

Prime Minister David Cameron also defended Nato’s operations in Libya.

“The targeting policy of Nato and the alliance is absolutely clear,” he told the BBC.

“It is in line with UN resolution 1973, and it is about preventing a loss of civilian life by targeting Gaddafi’s war-making machine.”

Mr Cameron did not comment on whether British aircraft were involved in the attack that reportedly killed Col Gaddafi’s son.

The UK has taken a lead role in military action against Libyan government forces since the UN Security Council voted on 17 March to use all means necessary – short of foreign occupation – to protect civilians in the country.

This has taken the form of attacks by RAF Typhoon and Tornado jets, and missiles fired from Royal Navy submarines.

The RAF is also continuing to enforce the no-fly zone over Libya.

In addition, the UK has sent British military advisors to the rebels.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

UN ‘to quit Tripoli’ amid attacks