National / International News

Dr Sugata Mitra, the man who set up computers in wall in the slums of India, has won the coveted $1m TED prize.

Vatican headache over Benedict XVI's new status

Ulster Bank has reported losses of more than £1bn for 2012, a slight increase on the previous year - as part of parent group RBS's £5bn losses.

Motorists in south Wales could lose their licences immediately if their eyesight is found to be too poor, as police introduce random checks.

The administrators of HMV sell its six shops in Hong Kong and two in Singapore to private equity firm Aid Partners.

Former Motown vocalist Richard Street, a member of the Temptations for 25 years, dies at the age of 70.

The number of young people not in education, training or work in England has fallen slightly since this time last year.

Office groping is back in the headlines. But it's a difficult subject to talk about and even define.

People living near the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan have an increased risk of developing some cancers following the 2011 disaster, the World Health Organization says.

UK internet service providers must block access to three more sites offering links to pirated material, the High Court rules.

Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider have witnessed particles called D-mesons flipping from matter into antimatter and back.

In a stunning interview with BBC Radio 5 live, Chelsea manager Rafael Benitez criticises the club's fans for the lack of support and says it was a massive mistake to name him as "interim" boss.

Despite the horsemeat scare hitting sales Britain still spends more than any other European country on ready meals. Food writer Matthew Fort discusses their allure.

Canadian astronaut snaps Scotland from ISS

Ricky Gervais will reprise his role as David Brent, former manager of Slough paper merchants Wernham Hogg, in The Office Revisited for Comic Relief.

Bankers in Europe could be facing a cap on their bonuses as early as next year. EU officials announced an agreement today that would restrict pay at all banks based in Europe -- and any units of European banks based abroad.

 

If passed, bankers' bonuses may not exceed the amount of their basic salary, but the amount can range higher with shareholder approval. Predictably, reaction from the banking community has been unfavorable.

"It is going to exert at the very least some kind of constraint on what bankers can get paid and they would really rather not have any such restrictions," says the BBC's Economics correspondent Andrew Walker.

 

There is a fear that if the bonus cap is made into law, banks may decide to move operations to the United States or other business centers in Asia that do not have such tight restrictions.

A 4D printing process is demoed at TED which could herald an age of self-assembled objects say experts.

The U.S. is now just a day away from the sequester -- the $85 billion in across-the-board federal spending cuts that came out of the debt ceiling debacle of 2011. While it’s tough to find an economist that thinks the cuts are smart policy, the sequester is unlikely to be averted before tonight's midnight deadline.

U.S. Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) joins Marketplace Morning Report host Jeremy Hobson to discuss the sequester and its likely impact on the economy.

On whether the sequester can still be avoided:

It's a done deal for a short period of time, possibly a long period of time, but there is no way there is going to be a bill to the president for signature before March 1, so then you do go into sequester. I don't think there is going to be any immediate impact, but people will seriously negotiate [at that time].

On whether the sequester will be undone retroactively:

It's pretty difficult for me to predict. But strategy and the way congress operates and the fact that most people don't believe these automatic, across-the-board reductions are the best way to do business. Common sense dictates that you go to the table and you work out something. But if it doesn't get worked out, then this is going to be the policy through September 30.

On Washington's continual fiscal deadline crises:

To be perfectly candid, I think legislative bodies -- not just the Congress -- tend to function under deadlines. But you also have to remember that Congress is not the only player here. The president of the United States suggested this during the summer of 2011 because he didn't want to have any votes on increasing the debt limit prior to the election. Now it looks like the president is showing the leadership that he should have shown over the last 18 months.

On whether Washington will face a government shutdown next month:

Absolutely not. We learned a lesson in 1995 that you don't save any money by shutting down the government. Continuing resolutions will be passed to fund the government at the same level [as the last six months]. It's pretty common sense, if government can function for six months under X-number of dollars, they can fill out the year under those same X-number of dollars.

Aviation analyst Chris Yates explains how staff at Birmingham Airport may have been carrying out secret luggage searches illegally, by not completing the required paperwork.

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