An oil company chaired by a former leader of Britain's ruling Conservative party is being investigated for alleged corruption in Somalia, claims the company slammed as "defamatory".

Soma Oil and Gas, a private company chaired by Lord Michael Howard, on Monday denied paying more than half a million dollars to government officials to protect an oil exploration deal signed in 2013.

Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said on Friday it had opened a criminal investigation into Soma following allegations of corruption in Somalia.

The allegations stem from investigations carried out by the United Nations Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea, set up to detail infringements of arms embargoes on the countries.

The investigators say that $690,000 (630,000 euros) worth of payments were suspicious. They allege that at least $580,000 paid since June 2014 as part of a "capacity building programme" may have been corrupt payments to Somali government officials.

An April 2014 "side letter" from Soma to Somalia's petroleum minister said the company would pay salaries and equipment costs to support the exploration programme up to a total of $400,000. The agreement was extended in April 2015, since when a further $90,000 has allegedly been paid.

Published: 06 August 2015

Read more ...

Britain is to give up to £5 million for projects that tackle the illegal wildlife trade, which threatens animals such as elephants, rhinos and tigers, the government is to announce on Wednesday.

"The illegal trade in animal products is putting some of our most iconic species like elephants, rhinos and tigers in severe danger," Environment Department minister Rory Stewart will say, according to released remarks.

"This funding will help to reduce the supply of illegal wildlife products by supporting local communities to find new ways of earning a living and stopping poachers and criminal networks from controlling this barbaric trade.

"It will also support action to reduce demand for these products."

Published: 05 August 2015

Read more ...

Sweden's sexual assault inquiry on Julian Assange is being pinched by time, with the statute of limitations about to expire on one charge and investigators unable to access Ecuador's embassy in London to question the WikiLeaks founder.

Swedish prosecutors petitioned the Ecuadorian embassy in June to interview Assange, who has been holed up in Quito's London mission since 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden on allegations of rape and sexual assault -- charges Assange vehemently denies.

But access has thus far been delayed on procedural grounds, leading some people involved in the case to suspect Ecuador of playing the clock until mid-August, when the statute of limitations on the sexual assault accusation will expire.

"I am very critical of Ecuador's position. It can't really be said they did what they could to allow Sweden to question Assange," said Claes Borgstrom, a lawyer for one of the two women who accuse the WikiLeaks founder of having assaulted them in 2010.

Swedish prosecutors initially insisted Assange return to Sweden for interrogation -- a condition the 44-year-old Australian rejected on fears Stockholm could deliver him to US authorities, who may try him for leaking nearly 750,000 classified military and diplomatic documents in 2010.

In response to his enduring embassy asylum, Swedish prosecutors in March agreed to Assange's compromise offer to question him inside the London mission, but have yet to see their requests to see him approved by Ecuador.

If Swedish justice authorities are not allowed to question Assange before the statute of limitations on the sexual assault charges expire on August 13 and 18, Borgstrom said he was pretty sure the case will be dropped.

Published: 04 August 2015

Read more ...

A British trader was jailed Monday for 14 years for rigging the Libor lending rate while working for UBS and Citibank, in a landmark conviction the judge said would send a message to the banking world.

Tom Hayes, 35, is the first person to be found guilty by a jury of rigging the benchmark inter-bank lending rate, a key reference for financial products around the world from consumer loans to savings accounts.

"The conduct involved here must be marked out as dishonest and wrong and a message sent to the world of banking accordingly," judge Jeremy Cooke told Hayes as he sentenced him at London's Southwark Crown Court.

Many of the world's top banks have been hit by scandals over the rigging of the Libor rate, which is estimated to underpin some $500 trillion of contracts.

Following his arrest in December 2012, Hayes admitted his crimes to Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in a bid to avoid extradition to the United States, where he also faces charges.

However, he later pleaded not guilty, insisting his actions were "commonplace" in the banks.

Published: 04 August 2015

Read more ...

Greece has Syriza, Spain has Podemos and Britain may soon have its own anti-austerity political force if bearded socialist veteran Jeremy Corbyn becomes leader of the Labour party.

Corbyn, 66, only stood for the Labour leadership as a wild card to broaden debate over its future following a dismal showing in May's general election won by the Conservatives.

But to everybody's surprise, including his own, the softly-spoken vegetarian who wants to scrap nuclear weapons is now the bookmakers' favourite to win a ballot whose results will be announced on September 12.

"I have been in Greece, I have been in Spain. It's very interesting that social democratic parties that accept the austerity agenda and end up implementing it end up losing a lot of members and a lot of support," he told the Daily Mirror.

"I think we have a chance to do something different here."

To his supporters, Corbyn is a breath of fresh air and a return to Labour's left-wing roots as a movement for working people after the market-friendly New Labour years under former prime minister Tony Blair.

The party's last leader Ed Miliband, who quit in May, had tried to shift Labour leftwards but still accepted the need for spending cuts, only at a slower pace than those advocated by Cameron.

"We think that it is time for a change... There is a virus within the Labour party and Jeremy Corbyn is the antidote," said Dave Ward, general secretary of the Communications Workers Union (CWU), as he endorsed the MP, praising his left-wing values.

- 'Sexy old sea dog' -

Published: 03 August 2015

Read more ...

A piece of metal was found Saturday on La Reunion island, where a Boeing 777 wing part believed to belong to missing flight MH370 washed up last week, said a source close to the investigation.

Published: 03 August 2015

Read more ...

From adulterous middle-aged marrieds to millennials who say only freaks chat up people in bars, millions of Americans are finding love online as technology corners the market in romance.

New York has a reputation as a party capital of the world, where sex is free and easy and unmarried adults outnumber their married counterparts.

Glued to smartphones at every waking moment, New Yorkers shop online for everything from jobs to food. So why not love?

Promises of lasting happiness, a kinky affair or a one-night stand -- all at the click of a button -- are dangled before lonely hearts who sign onto a dazzling array of dating sites.

Andrea Morales, a 25-year-old graduate student from Costa Rica, used to think Internet dating was a bolt-hole for the desperate. Then she moved to New York.

"A lot of people I met here started telling me it's super normal," Morales says. "At first I felt weird about it... but it's really hard to meet new people apart from your friends."

She signed up to Tinder and OkCupid, and found herself going on three dates a week. She met her last girlfriend online. The couple dated for seven months before breaking up.

"I didn't have any really horrible experiences," says Morales. "But most of my straight friends had horrible stories, because there are creepy men out there."

Online dating is all the more attractive in a city where friendship groups are tight, relationships at work can be perilous and where dalliances in bars are viewed with suspicion or quickly forgotten.

About 31 percent of people now meet their last love interest online, anthropologist Helen Fisher told CNN.

Match.com, which claims to be the world's largest dating site, says it has created more than 10 million relationships in the United States in 20 years.

But there are pitfalls: hackers breached the online adultery website Ashley Madison -- which claims millions of users worldwide -- and threatened to expose data on users.

Published: 30 July 2015

Read more ...

Tony Blair rarely gets involved with Britain's Labour these days but the risk his party could pick an old-fashioned left-winger as leader prompted him to do so Wednesday, as his legacy looms over the contest.

While still vilified by many for leading Britain into the Iraq war from 2003, Blair is Labour's longest-serving prime minister and believes the party would not be electable if it picks Jeremy Corbyn as its next leader.

There are signs it could be about to do so, as other candidates have struggled to make an impact outside Westminster.

A new YouGov/Times opinion poll has put the bearded Corbyn, whose views one colleague said were the closest thing Britain had to those of Greece's hard-left Syriza, ahead of his three rivals.

Labour will announce its new leader on September 12 after Ed Miliband stepped down in May.

He quit in the wake of a crushing election defeat by Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives which notably saw Labour lose all but one of its seats in Scotland, a former heartland.

Blair and Corbyn could hardly be more different.

Blair, prime minister for 10 years from 1997, devoted his career to dragging Labour to the centre ground.

"When people say my heart says I should really be with that (leftwing) politics -- well, get a transplant, because that's just dumb," Blair, tanned and in an open-neck shirt and dark suit, told a packed meeting of Labour supporters in London.

"You win from the centre, you win when you appeal to a broad cross section of the public, you win when you support business as well as unions. You don't win from a traditional leftist platform."

Nicknamed "Comrade Corbyn" by the press, the 66-year-old backbench lawmaker, who usually wears a worn beige jacket and slacks, opposes austerity measures, was a vocal campaigner against the Iraq war and wants to scrap Britain's nuclear weapons.

Labour in 'emotional trauma' -

Most Labour insiders believe it is unlikely Corbyn will actually win the leadership race, particularly amid questions over the reliability of polls after their failure to predict May's election result.

Published: 22 July 2015

Read more ...

Troubled British bank Barclays, plagued by forex and Libor rigging scandals, announced Wednesday that it has fired chief executive Antony Jenkins with immediate effect.

Barclays management has "concluded that new leadership is required" to accelerate an overhaul of the beleaguered group, it revealed in a statement on the surprise decision.

Jenkins has left the group with immediate effect, a spokesman confirmed to AFP. Chairman John McFarlane has been appointed executive chairman until a successor to Jenkins is found.

"I reflected long and hard on the issue of group leadership and discussed this with each of the non-executive directors," said deputy chairman Sir Michael Rake.

"Notwithstanding Antony's significant achievements, it became clear to all of us that a new set of skills were required for the period ahead."

Jenkins replaced Bob Diamond in July 2012 -- who himself was forced to resign after the damaging Libor rate-fixing scandal.

The retail banking veteran had vowed to bring a new culture of decency to Barclays, and oversaw drastic restructuring that shrank its investment bank.

He leaves the bank with 12 months' notice and will receive his current annual salary of £1.1 million ($1.7 million, 1.5 million euros), as well as £950,000 in "role-based pay" and a pension of £363,000 a year.

Back in 2012, Barclays was fined £290 million by British and US regulators for attempted manipulation of Libor and Euribor interbank rates 2005 and 2009.

- Damaged reputation -

Jenkins has however struggled to restore the group's damaged reputation which was also tarnished by forex rigging.

"In the summer of 2012, I became group chief executive at a particularly difficult time for Barclays," Jenkins said in Wednesday's statement.

"It is easy to forget just how bad things were three years ago both for our industry and even more so for us."

He added: "I am very proud of the significant progress we have made since then. Our capital position is much stronger, our business model is more balanced, we are much more disciplined on cost management, we have made good progress in rebuilding our reputation and we are seen as a leader in the application of technology to our business."

Under Jenkins, Barclays slashed more than 19,000 jobs, but the group has struggled to recover from the Libor fallout.

Published: 13 July 2015

Read more ...

UK innovation new companies got a record measure of subsidizing in the initial six months of the year, as per figures from London & Partners.

In the middle of January and June, the division figured out how to draw in just about £900m in funding venture, which contrasts with a similarly little £640m raised amid the equal period a year ago. In 2013, speculation for the entire year was lower than both of these figures.

Published: 03 July 2015

Read more ...