Europe hit by Russia gas shortage

4 February 2012 Last updated at 01:28 GMT Even Rome has seen a rare fall of snow, closing schools and the Colosseum Freezing weather sweeping across Europe has led to a shortage of vital Russian gas supplies to several countries, officials say.

An EU energy spokeswoman said eight countries had seen a reduction in gas due to increased demand in Russia.

She said the situation was not an emergency but was being monitored.

The cold snap is being blamed for scores of deaths in eastern Europe where temperatures have plunged to below -35C.

Freezing temperatures have spread to Italy and France, and the UK is also on alert for snowfall over the weekend.

"I can confirm that there has been a decrease in gas deliveries in various member states - Poland, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and Italy," EU spokeswoman Marlene Holzner said.

"It's not a situation of emergency yet," she added.

Correspondents say the sudden drop in Russian gas supplies - which pass through Ukraine - is raising fears of a repeat of a crisis in 2009 when tension between Moscow and Kiev cut supplies to parts of Europe for about two weeks.

Countries including Bulgaria, Serbia and Bosnia are almost completely dependent on supplies via Ukraine.

Gazprom, the Russian gas export monopoly, said on Friday it was supplying as much gas as it could spare.

"We are doing everything possible... all the systems are working in a stable manner," spokesman Sergey Komlev said.

Meanwhile, Ukraine says more than 100 people have died from the freezing weather, most of them homeless.

Authorities have set up nearly 3,000 heating and food shelters across the country and instructed hospitals not to discharge homeless patients.

The Polish interior ministry said that eight people died from the cold on Friday and two others died of carbon monoxide poisoning from charcoal heaters.

In other developments:

Rome has seen some rare snowfall and Venice's canals have reportedly started to freeze overIn Bulgaria, parts of the River Danube have frozen overMore than 20 people have died from the cold in Romania and hundreds of school remained closedOfficials in Paris say they are trying to cram as many homeless people as possible into shelters as temperatures plummet

Meanwhile, the UK's Met Office has put severe weather warnings in place until Sunday.

It says heavy snow is forecast across much of England and Wales with southern and central areas likely to be the worst hit.

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Work programme on track: Grayling

3 February 2012 Last updated at 23:33 GMT Contractors are paid a fee when the job centre refers an unemployed person to them About 20% of unemployed people who have been on the government's main welfare-to-work scheme, the Work Programme, for at least six months have been found a job, the BBC has learnt.

The figures come from the trade body representing the main contractors delivering the programme.

The government says the figures show the programme is on target.

But several contractors have said they are struggling to employ the long-term jobless in the current climate.

"The early indications for those customers who started in June 2011 are broadly in line with expectations," said Kirstie McHugh, chief executive of the Employment Related Services Association (ERSA), which provided the figures.

"However, the economy is a concern so we are going to have to keep a close eye on things."

When the programme was launched in June 2011, the government said it hoped that 40% of people on it would get a job but speaking to the PM programme on BBC Radio 4, Employment Minister Chris Grayling said he was still pleased with the progress.

"The Work Programme is doing a good job and is on track. It is helping long-term unemployed people into work."

The overall figures provided by the ERSA may well hide regional variations and several contractors and sub-contractors spoken to by the BBC have expressed concerns about the situation in their own areas.

Other figures obtained by the BBC show that in some areas - one in central Scotland, one in south-west England - fewer than 10% of people on the work programme have been placed in a job.

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No matter how good the work programme is, there aren't jobs for people to go to”

End Quote Steve Houghton Leader of Barnsley Metropolitan Council In Liverpool, one of the main contractors, A4E, says it has managed to find work for 10% of people, while in Barnsley, the local council, which is one of the sub-contractors, says it is managing to place about 12% in a job.

"The problem we face is that the jobs simply aren't there," said Steve Houghton, leader of Barnsley Metropolitan Council, "so no matter how good the work programme is, there aren't jobs for people to go to."

Referral fees

Under the terms of the Work Programme, contractors are paid a fee, usually £400, when the job centre refers an unemployed person to them, typically someone who has been looking for work for a year.

Further, larger payment can then be made when a person has been in sustainable employment for up to two years. The harder the company has to work to find and keep someone in a job, the more money they get.

But Mr Houghton said the rules actually worked against the people the scheme was intended to help, the very hardest to employ.

"We are concerned that the providers, and we are doing this, are taking the low hanging fruit," said Mr Houghton.

"Even though the work programme gives more money for getting the really long-term unemployed into a job, the reality is that in order to help our cash flows and keep our organisation going, we have to take the easiest ones [to find work for] in the first instance."

Frustration

Thirty-eight year-old Martin Williams, from St Helens, has been on the work programme for five months.

Having been unemployed for eight years and attended previous back-to-work schemes with the same contractor, he is understandably frustrated.

"They haven't helped me at all. It dehumanises you, and you feel worse," said Mr Williams.

"It got to the stage where I thought I'd rather be hit by a bus than come in here which is not the right frame of mind to be in when you are looking for a job."

The challenges facing the Work Programme will be investigated by the Commons' Public Accounts Committee next week.

One witness at the hearing will be Professor Dan Finn of Portsmouth University, an expert in welfare-to-work programmes.

He says the scheme has had a difficult birth.

"It's been rapidly designed and implemented. [During that time] employment circumstances have deteriorated so inevitably it's had a rocky start," said Prof Finn.

RBS boss calls for pay correction

3 February 2012 Last updated at 12:40 GMT Sir Philip Hampton, chairman of RBS: Mr Hester "entitled" to bonus

The chairman of the 82% taxpayer owned Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS6) has said banker pay has been "high for too long" and needs to be "corrected".

Sir Philip Hampton defended his decision to award a bonus to chief executive Stephen Hester.

Speaking to the BBC he said the board "underestimated" the public reaction that later caused Mr Hester to turn down his bonus.

RBS needed to be run by the "best people" on "competitive" pay, he said.

"Stephen Hester has one of the most challenging and demanding jobs, I think literally, in world business," said Sir Philip.

But he said the public hostility to bonuses had prompted the board to think again about how they provided staff with incentives.

"We are a commercial organisation competing in extremely competitive markets, I think its highly unlikely that we'll have the best possible people to do that if we don't pay appropriate amounts," he said.

"Now the amounts are high by absolute standards but by relative standards what Stephen Hester is getting is not high at all, in fact its quite low."

'Dislocation'

However, Sir Philip accepted that pay needed to come down in the industry as a whole.

"Essentially, particularly in the banks, particularly in the investment banks, shareholders have done pretty badly and employees have done pretty well. That needs to be corrected," he said.

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Bankers have made personal fortunes over the past decade, while anyone unfortunate enough to own shares in their institutions has been consigned to near penury.”

End Quote Robert Peston Business editor, BBC News Sir Philip said business people in general were "very aware" of the politics surrounding pay and of a "dislocation" between top business people and ordinary people.

He said elements of campaigns against inequality were "perfectly reasonable."

"Where I have more reservations is where the debate becomes hysterical rather than analytical or reasonable and I think we saw something of a witch hunt, something of a mob mentality around an issue," he said.

Social responsibility

Sir Philip's comments came as the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, called for a culture of "one nation banking" in which financial institutions are not "isolated" from the rest of society.

Mr Miliband had called for the government to block the bonus to Mr Hester and will press for a vote on bonuses in parliament next week.

Other top bankers have also warned about pay.

On Thursday, the chief executive of Deutsche Bank warned of a "social time bomb" from rising wealth and income inequality.

He suggested top earners have a "social responsibility" towards philanthropy.

Apple overturns Motorola's ban

3 February 2012 Last updated at 16:10 GMT Apple's German online store showed that all 3G models of its iPad 2 were unavailable for purchase Apple has been granted a temporary suspension of a sales ban imposed on some of its products in Germany.

Motorola Mobility had forced Apple to remove several iPad and iPhone models from its online store earlier today after enforcing a patent infringement court ruling delivered in December.

An appeals court lifted the ban after Apple made a new licence payment offer.

However, Germany-based users may still face the loss of their push email iCloud service after a separate ruling.

Patent consultant Florian Mueller, who attended the review, said that the suspension may only last a few days or weeks - but that Apple's revised proposal had been enough to allow it to restart sales.

"The Karlsruhe higher regional court believes that Apple's new offer needs to be evaluated before this injunction can enter into force again," he wrote on his blog.

"A suspension like this is available only against a bond, but Apple is almost drowning in cash and obviously won't have had a problem with obtaining and posting a bond."

He said that the bond amount was likely to have been about 120m euros ($158m, £100m).

Unresolved

A statement from Apple said: "All iPad and iPhone models will be back on sale through Apple's online store in Germany shortly.

"Apple appealed this ruling because Motorola repeatedly refuses to license this patent to Apple on reasonable terms, despite having declared it an industry standard patent seven years ago."

However, Motorola signalled that it would try to restore the ban.

"We are pleased that the Mannheim court has recognized the importance of our intellectual property and granted an enforceable injunction in Germany against Apple Sales International," a statement said.

"Although the enforcement of the injunction has been temporarily suspended, Motorola Mobility will continue to pursue its claims against Apple."

Pulled products

The sales ban relates to Motorola's patent for a "method for performing a countdown function during a mobile-originated transfer for a packet radio system".

Motorola licenses the patent to other companies on Frand (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) terms.

Frand-type patents involve technologies that are deemed to be part of an industry standard. In this case Motorola's innovation is deemed crucial to the GPRS data transmission standard used by GSM cellular networks across the world.

Companies must offer Frand-type patents for a reasonable fee to anyone willing to pay.

Apple had previously said it would be willing to pay the fee going forward, but the two firms dispute how much Apple should pay for failing to license the technology up until now. Missed payments are not covered by the "reasonable" rule, and Motorola is able to demand a more expensive price.

Apple's iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 had all been affected - but not its newer iPhone 4S. All 3G models of the iPad were involved, but not their wi-fi-only counterparts.

Email technology

The separate push email ban would only come into effect if Motorola decided to enforce a second judgement that Apple's iCloud and MobileMe infringed another of its innovations.

The patent relates to two-way communications between pagers and other devices and was granted in 2002.

If Motorola decides to enforce the judgement some iPhone users in Germany would lose the ability to automatically receive emails as soon as they have been sent. Instead they would either have to manually check their accounts or set their devices to periodically check for updates.

This patent is not deemed to be critical to an industry standard, so the firm does not have to license the technology to Apple even if the iPhone-maker offered to pay.

Apple said that it believed the patent involved was invalid, adding that it was appealing against the decision.

Although the two cases only apply to Germany they may have implications for other European lawsuits. EU rules say different countries' courts can reach different conclusions, but must explain why.

Mr Mueller Mr Mueller notes on his blog that Apple has brought patent claims of its own against Motorola in Germany, and that Motorola also faces a lawsuit filed by Microsoft which is due to be considered next Tuesday.