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

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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

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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

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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

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Counter-terrorism police captured the youngster at a location in east London toward the beginning of today.

She is as of now in guardianship at a focal London police headquarters where she is being addressed on suspicion of readiness of terrorism under area five of the Terrorism Act 2006.

Published: 03 July 2015

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The Bank of England today raised the caution over homebuyers tackling greater home loans presently keep on taking off in London.

In a sensational intercession, Sir Jon Cunliffe, the bank's representative senator for money related solidness, cautioned of the "danger" to Britain's economy from individuals heaping on obligation which they may battle to reimburse.

"Our worry is less about house costs, it is the chain between high house costs, costs becoming speedier than individuals' earnings, and individuals needing to take out greater and greater home loans and the obligation that families then have in respect to their wage development," he told BBC radio.

Published: 03 July 2015

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A female security watchman is battling for her life subsequent to being attacked by a detainee at a London court today.

The male detainee assaulted the Serco guard at Blackfriars Crown Court at around 1.30 this evening, police said.

Scotland Yard said the episode happened as the lady, thought to be in her 50s, escorted the detainee in the middle of court and a holding up van stopped outside.

The casualty was dealt with by doctors from the London Air Ambulance group before being taken to an east London healing facility.

She stays in a basic condition after the occurrence, police said.

Published: 29 June 2015

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A 103-year-old man and a 91-year-old woman held their wedding in Britain on Saturday, becoming the oldest couple to get married in the world.

George Kirby and Doreen Luckie – together for 27 years – looked delighted as they tied the knot at a hotel in the seaside town of Eastbourne, southern England, before close friends and family.

The bride wore a white dress with blue flowers while the groom, a former boxer, was dressed smartly in a suit and tie, and was in a wheelchair – bedecked with the logo of the London 2012 Paralympics – after sustaining bruising during a recent fall.

With a combined age of 194 years, the pair beat the previous record held by a French couple, Francois Fernandez and Madeleine Francineau, who had a combined age of 191 years.

Speaking ahead of the ceremony, Luckie said the couple had “no regrets” about not doing it earlier. “We didn’t want to bother about marriage before but eventually we did it,” she said.

The couple reportedly have seven children, 15 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren between them.

Published: 13 June 2015

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Princess Charlotte of Cambridge, the latest addition to Britain's royal family, will be christened on July 5 near Queen Elizabeth II's Sandringham estate in rural eastern England, the royal press office said on Friday.

Prince William and his wife Kate's daughter, who is fourth in line to the throne after the couple's first child Prince George, was born on May 2.

"The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are pleased to announce the christening of Princess Charlotte will take place on Sunday 5th July," read a statement from Kensington Palace, the couple's London residence.

Charlotte's middle names Elizabeth and Diana are a tribute to her great-grandmother the queen and the woman who would have been her grandmother, William's late mother Diana who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997.

Published: 06 June 2015

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Tony Blair resigned Wednesday as the Quartet diplomatic group's envoy, his office said, with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict he worked to end as troubled as ever.

There was some praise for the former British prime minister's work over eight years as delegate of the Quartet -- the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia.

But events on the ground showed how far away is peace -- although the goal of a two-state solution remains.

Israel carried out four air strikes on militants in the Gaza Strip, witnesses said. That came hours after a cross border rocket attack on Israel.

The situation on the ground is "not sustainable," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini warned.

The US State Department was among those thanking Blair, calling him a "valued partner" who has worked tirelessly to advance economic growth in the West Bank and Gaza.

But it acknowledged the Quartet's goal of a two state solution has not been met.

"So until that's achieved, you know, I don't think any of us can say that we've succeeded," State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said.

Mogherini called on the two sides to resume peace talks.

The last ones fell apart in April 2014. And prospects for their renewal seem bleak with a lack of trust between the sides exacerbated by the formation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new hardline coalition.

Blair tendered his resignation in a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, an official in Blair's office told AFP.

Sources close to Blair said he would step down officially next month.

Published: 29 May 2015

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