MEP has been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud the European parliament. West Midlands MEP Nikki Sinclaire, 43, was arrested along with three of her staff on Wednesday, according to another MEP for the West Midlands, Mike Nattrass of Ukip. West Midlands police confirmed a 43-year-old woman was arrested at a police station in Birmingham along with three other people on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud the European parliament. Two women aged 55 and 39 and a 19-year-old man were arrested at addresses in Solihull, Worcester and Birmingham and were taken to a police station for questioning on Wednesday. Searches were carried out at the addresses of the four people by officers investigating an allegation made in 2010 regarding allowances and expenses, a police spokeswoman said. All four were later released on police bail, she added. On her Twitter account, a spokesman for Sinclaire said the MEP attended the police station in Birmingham voluntarily and co-operated fully with the police. "This is particularly frustrating to Ms Sinclaire who is eager to clear her name and has nothing to hide," said another tweet. The MEP "disputes all allegations put towards her or her staff" the tweets said. Sinclaire and her office would continue to "fully co-operate with the police on this matter". In a statement, Ukip said Sinclaire, who formerly represented the party in the seat, ceased to be an MEP for the party in 2010. "It would be inappropriate for the party to make any comment during the process of an ongoing police inquiry," Ukip's statement said.
Oscars organizers have warned flamboyant British actor-comedian Sacha Baron Cohen not to try to pull a stunt at this weekend's Academy Awards show, but said he is not banned from attending. The Hollywood Reporter cited sources as saying the star has told Paramount, the studio behind his latest movie "The Dictator," that he plans to turn up on the Oscars red carpet in full bearded, uniformed character Sunday. Reports suggested that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had banned the "Ali G," "Borat" and "Bruno" star altogether, but a spokeswoman denied this Thursday. "The Academy would love to have Sacha at the show. We've let him know how we feel about using the red carpet for a movie stunt and we're waiting to hear from him," she told AFP. Baron Cohen, who is in Martin Scorsese's 11-times Oscar-nominated movie "Hugo," has a history of colorful stunts: in 2006 he turned up at the Toronto film festival in a cart pulled by a "peasant woman" to promote Borat. At the 2009 MTV Movie Awards, he descended from the ceiling on a harness dressed as an angel, eventually crashing into Eminem's lap, his buttocks in the rapper's face. Eminem voiced outrage, although it later emerged that the two men had organized the stunt in advance. In "The Dictator," due out in May in the United States, Baron Cohen plays the lead role in "the heroic story of a dictator who risks his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed." A representative for Baron Cohen did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the story.
Rupert Murdoch on Thursday fired the opening shot in his battle to reclaim Britain's Sunday newspaper market by announcing his newly launched publication would be half the price of his previous title. The 80-year-old tycoon took to microblogging website Twitter to reveal: "Regular Sunday price for The Sun only 50p -- and Saturday's Sun going down to 50p too! Great news for readers and the economy." Murdoch's News of the World -- the Sunday tabloid which shut seven months ago over the phone-hacking scandal -- cost one pound ($1.57, 1.18 euros), the same cover price as rivals the Sunday Mirror and The People. The 50 percent price cut announced for The Sun on Sunday, which will hit the stands this weekend, signals the Australian-born businessman's hunger to once again own the top-selling Sunday newspaper. The News of the World dominated the country's Sunday market with sales averaging 2.67 million when Murdoch took the decision to close it in July last year. Publisher News International said the US-based mogul would be in London to oversee the launch this Sunday and confirmed that the editor of the weekday paper, Dominic Mohan, would also edit the Sun on Sunday. Murdoch flew in to Britain last week to announce the creation of the new paper and to promise demoralised staff he would stand by them despite the arrest of senior Sun journalists over bribery allegations.
Labour MP Eric Joyce has been suspended from the party after he was arrested over allegations of an assault in a House of Commons bar. Police were called after reports of a disturbance on Wednesday night. Mr Joyce, 51, remains MP for Falkirk but cannot take the Labour whip until the police investigation ends. Speaker John Bercow has said he takes the matter "very seriously". The Conservative MP for Pudsey Stuart Andrew has alleged he was assaulted. The BBC understands officers involved in the investigation returned to the Commons on Thursday evening. The disturbance is believed to have happened in the Strangers Bar, which is reserved for MPs and their guests. Mr Andrew was in the bar following a Commons event organised by his Conservative colleague Andrew Percy, for the Speaker of the Canadian Parliament. 'Extremely serious' A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "We were called at approximately 10.50pm last night to reports of a disturbance at a bar within the House of Commons. "A man aged in his 50s was arrested by officers on suspicion of assault. He remains in custody in a central London police station. Inquiries are continuing." A Labour Party spokesman said: "This is an extremely serious incident. We have suspended Eric Joyce pending the results of the police investigation." In the Commons, Speaker John Bercow said: "Members will be aware of reports of a serious incident in the House last night. I have been informed by the Serjeant at Arms that the honourable member for Falkirk has been detained in police custody. "The matter is being investigated. I take this matter very seriously, as do the House authorities." Mr Joyce was elected in a by-election in December 2000 and has served as a parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to a number of government ministers since 2003. He was PPS to the then defence secretary Bob Ainsworth until 2009, and prior to that had been a parliamentary aide to John Hutton, Mike O'Brien and Margaret Hodge.
Emma Harrison, David Cameron's "families tsar", is to stand aside from the role in the wake of revelations that former employees of her firm A4e are subject to police investigations over alleged frauds. She has written to the prime minister saying she believes she should stand aside. Number 10 had been signalling for more than 48 hours that it was extremely concerned by the allegations and would ask her to stand aside from the role. "I have asked to step aside from my voluntary role as Family Champion as I do not want the current media environment to distract from the very important work with troubled families," she said. "I remain passionate about helping troubled families and I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute in an area where I have been active for many years." Her role has always seemed more titular than real with the bulk of the efforts on troubled families now being taken over by Louise Casey at the communities department. Harrison's A4e volunteered details of two investigations as it tried to counter claims that it was involved in "systemic" abuse of taxpayer-funded contracts. The government has said the bulk of the inquiries covered problems with the previous government's back-to-work programmes. The Department for Work and Pensions revealed it had launched nine fraud investigations into the firm in recent years. The prime minister appointed Harrison in 2010 to help get 120,000 "problem families" into work. A4e earned £180m from state contracts last year, when Harrison paid herself a dividend of £8.6m, despite the firm's failure to meet government targets on finding jobs for the unemployed.
Barclays has been clocking up over 1,500 complaints a day as its staff share £2.5billion bonuses. The bank had 281,484 customer gripes between July and December – up 12% on the first half of 2011. It blamed the surge on claims for mis-sold payment protection insurance. An Independent Banking Advisory Service spokesman said: “It’s coming back to bite them – although not quickly enough in our view.” All banks have to report complaints data for the second half of 2011 to the City watchdog the Financial Services Authority by the end of February. Barclays, which published its figures in advance, said PPI complaints hit nearly 123,000 between July and December - up by 67% from the first six months and double the number for the second half of 2010. Excluding PPI, total complaints dropped by 11% to 158,492 in the second half, or 336,363 for 2011 as a whole. Antony Jenkins, chief executive of Barclays Retail, said: “We can and will do more to improve service and go further and faster to drive down complaints. “We are aiming for further reductions in underlying complaints in the first half of 2012 as we continue on our journey to get it right first time, every time.” Eddy Weatherill, of the Independent Banking Advisory Service, said: “Barclays made a lot of profit from selling PPI and now it’s coming back to bite them. although not quickly enough in our view. “But I don’t think any of the banks are doing well on the complaints front, particularly when it comes to small businesses. “They have tried to ring every penny out of customers but, because of a lack of competition, people haven’t got decent choice when it comes to moving account.”
According to the Insurance Fraud Bureau, the cost of organised fraud to the industry is approximately £200m per year. While this is only a small portion of the estimated £1.6bn total cost of fraud, it is of particular concern because it is typically carried out by organised gangs, often using the money to fund serious illegal activity, such as people trafficking, arms dealing and terrorism. Although there are isolated examples of fraud rings operating in arson and disability claims, the vast majority of organised fraud involves motor insurance. It is an unfortunate truth that the criminal gangs instigating this type of fraud are rarely identified by insurers or the police, as they operate ‘behind the scenes’ — persuading others to make personal injury claims on the back of accidents that are either staged or entirely fabricated. Historically, those targeted by gangs to take part in fraud have largely followed a well-defined profile, predominantly males in the 25 to 44 age bracket, living in more deprived postcodes. These individuals also tend to have a history of suspect claims or minor criminality. There is mounting evidence, however, that this is changing, as the gangs behind the scams cast their net wider in search of the ideal claimant. This is borne out by analysis of the thousands of fraud ring cases investigated by Keoghs. Case analysis Analysis of cases handled over the past 12 months shows the number of fraudsters within the 18 to 25 age bracket has increased by 10%, compared with the previous year. Meanwhile, the proportion of fraudsters in the 26 to 30 bracket has fallen by 0.5%. This trend is also starting to be recognised across the industry; in a survey of Keoghs' insurer clients compiled in September, 83% of those noticing a change in the average age of fraud claimants said they had seen a marked decrease in their age. Another trend, more difficult to quantify, but suggested by anecdotal evidence, is that organised fraud is becoming a more middle-class pursuit, with the two groups increasingly involved being students and young professionals. The link between youth unemployment and youth crime rates is well established. In 2004, economist Steven Levitt analysed a wide range of data into the relationship and found that, controlling for other factors, almost every study showed a relationship between non-violent crime and the rate of unemployment. Levitt’s estimate was that a 1% increase in unemployment would cause a 1% increase in crime. In 2005, a study by the government’s Social Exclusion Unit found that nearly two-thirds of young offenders were unemployed at the time of arrest compared to 46% of those aged over 25. The latest figures from the Office of National Statistics reveal that youth unemployment is at a 20-year high, with more than one in five — 22.3% of 16 to 24-year-olds — out of work. More than two fifths of those out of work have been unemployed for more than six months. As a result, many are anticipating a sharp increase in the level of crime committed by young people and this appears to be borne out in the increase seen in organised fraud. Strain on finances There is also a suggestion that issues such as a rise in tuition fees for higher education and lack of availability of affordable housing is putting such a strain on young people in jobs and full-time education that many are now willing to take the risk of committing fraud to survive. In many cases, this is a last resort unlikely to be taken under normal economic circumstances, but which is now being used as an opportunity by the criminal gangs who recruit fraudsters. To make significant amounts of money from fraud, the criminals need to recruit willing volunteers to file bogus claims in exchange for a share of the pay-out. The most common scenario — that used by Mohammed Patel, the fraudster jailed in 2009 for causing 93 crashes — is for a fraudster to use a contact’s car, with their permission, to stage a collision on the road, following which the owner of the car can make a large claim for personal injuries. However, as insurers’ risk and fraud managers have increasingly grown wise to this and subjected claims from the most commonly affected postcodes to increased scrutiny, the gangs have shifted their recruitment strategies. There have been a number of cases of active recruitment of fraudsters in universities – with those taking part often studying for high-earning professions such as law or medicine, and coming from stable, middle-class backgrounds. In one case currently under investigation, the ringleader at the centre of the scam was a student who had crashed the cars of a number of fellow students in order for them to benefit from the pay-outs. So, what can insurers do to stop these practices? Rapid shifts In the face of such rapid shifts in the demographics of those involved in fraud rings — and the state of the economy driving people to turn to desperate measures and commit fraud for the first time — it is clear that concentrating on those with a history of suspect claims will not prove an effective deterrent. What is needed are all-encompassing fraud detection tools and techniques, based on a joined-up approach to sharing detailed information both internally in organisations and between insurers. Ideally, as soon as a potential fraud ring is uncovered, investigators should be able to cross-reference the details of the claims involved with all other relevant cases across the industry as a whole in order to identify and investigate any links. Investment in analytical techniques and technology, coupled with an open approach to sharing data on suspected fraud rings, is essential if the industry is to stand any chance of identifying and bringing to justice those at the heart of the problem.
Banks have been forced to hand back £1.9billion to customers who were wrongly sold Payment Protection Insurance as part of a 'loan protection racket'. However, consumer groups have accused the finance giants of dragging their feet on refunds which, eventually, could top £8billion. The Financial Ombudsman Service is receiving a staggering 1,000 complaints a day about the mis-selling of PPI. Consumers have a right to take a claim for a refund to the watchdog where they feel they have been unfairly fobbed off by their bank. In total, the ombudsman service has received over a third of a million PPI complaints, with the majority related to policies sold by banks alongside credit cards and loans. The watchdog upholds around three out of four cases in the consumer’s favour, with the average pay-out running at £2,750. The failure to offer speedy refunds has allowed a raft of hard-sell claims management firms, who are looking to cash in on the scandal, to flourish. These firms are spending millions of pounds in advertising to offer to pursue refunds. This involves bombarding the nation with TV advertising and recorded message telephone calls to both landline and mobile phones.
Royal Bank of Scotland is to pay out just under £400m in bonuses to its investment banking staff for their work in 2011, according to Sky sources. The day before RBS announces its full-year results, the bank is understood to have agreed with the Government that it can pay out between £390m and £400m in bonuses this year. The bonus pool, revealed exclusively by Sky News City editor Mark Kleinman, is likely to further stoke recent controversy over banker pay. The pot represents a cut of about 60% on last year's investment bank bonuses at RBS, which is 82% owned by the taxpayer. It comes as the bank prepares to report an expected full-year loss of up to £2bn, making the prospect of the taxpayer breaking even on the £45bn investment made in RBS during the 2008 banking crisis as remote as ever. The rewards follow a year in which thousands of employees were made redundant as Stephen Hester, the bank's chief executive, accelerated a restructuring of the business. Despite the reduction in the overall bonus pot, scores of RBS bankers are expected to collect packages worth more than £1m. The biggest payouts will be largely paid in shares and deferred over a three-year period. Ministers have insisted that RBS enforces a £2,000 cap on the cash element of bonuses for the third successive year. Angela Knight, chief executive of the British Bankers Association, defended the latest RBS payouts, saying bonuses for investment bankers were set according to the international market. RBS boss Stephen Hester caved into pressure to waive his 2011 bonus She told Sky News that if UK banks failed to compete with global compensation levels they would lose the best employees, and in the case of RBS this could damage the long-term interest for the taxpayer. The bonus revelation came as Sir Philip Hampton, RBS's chairman, claims in a Sky News documentary with Jeff Randall, that the era of big banking bonuses is over. A YouGov poll for Sky News also showed that three-quarters of people believe that bosses at Britain's state-backed banks should not receive a bonus. Mr Hester waived his £1m bonus several weeks ago, while Antonio Horta-Osorio, chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, also decided to rule out receiving a bonus. The 2011 pool is the lowest awarded to RBS's investment bankers since the bank was rescued by taxpayers in 2008.
Bailed-out banks worth just HALF the £1,000 it cost each person to save them - as they get ready to admit £6BILLION losses RBS cost £45.5bn to bailout but the stake is now worth just £26bn £20bn paid to bailout Lloyds but shareholding is now worth HALF But executive pay has soared and Lloyds boss Antonio Horta-Osorio entitled to £3.46m a year Comments (14) Share The bailed out banks are now worth just over half the £1,000 per person cost of saving them - and are set to reveal combined losses of £6billion. Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds received a total of £65.5bn of taxpayers' money - but the Government stake is now worth just £36bn. Their are fears it will be years before the share price rises and taxpayers can get their money back. Bumper pay: Stephen Hester (left), who hates this picture being used, is paid £1.2million a year and waived a near-£1m bonus. Fred Goodwin, right, received £4.2m in 2007 But despite their poor performance the pay of top bankers like disgraced RBS boss Fred 'the Shred' Goodwin and Stephen Hester has rocketed over the last decade. More... Three of the UK's five largest banks have lost shareholders' money over past decade while bosses reap rewards £500 for EVERY British household: UK faces added £1billion bill to bail out Greece and save crisis-hit euro Don't tell Sid! How the bank shares wipeout hit the savings of the windfall generation Fred Goodwin saw his total pay rocket from £1.27m in 2000 to £4.2m in 2007 - when he received a £2.86m performance-related bonus. Stress: Antonio Horta-Osorio is entitled to £3.46million this year Since 2000, the value of the bank has fallen by 91 per cent. New boss Stephen Hester enjoys a £1.2m salary and only waived a £963,000 shares bonus after being put intense pressure. However, he is still in line to receive shares worth about £660,000 that were awarded as part of the £2m bonus he was handed for his 2010 performance. But as the bosses receive bumper rewards, RBS has announced that 3,500 jobs will go on top of 2,000 which went last summer. Lloyds has more than tripled the amount it pays its chief executive over the past decade. Over the same period the average UK wage increased by just under 40 per cent, to £26,135. In 2000, they paid £856,000 to former boss Sir Peter Ellwood. New chief-executive Antonio Horta-Osorio is entitled to £3.46m this year, although he waived his £1.06m bonus last month. He had six weeks off work at the end of last year because of stress and fatigue. Tomorrow RBS will announce losses of around £2bn while Lloyds is expected to reveal losses of £3.5 billion on Friday. They will blame the poor figures on the eurozone debt crisis and increased regulation. Plans to give the shares directly to taxpayers to ease some of the public anger about the pay enjoyed by bailed-out bankers are reported to have been ditched because the investments are too shaky. Bailed out: Royal Bank of Scotland is set to announce losses of £3.5bn on Friday. It is worth £26bn - and the Government paid £45.5bn The Government injected £45.5bn to take an 82 per cent stake in RBS but those shares are today worth around £26bn despite a 40 per cent rise in the share price in recent weeks. It needs shares, which are currently trading at about 28p, to rise to 50p before it can break even. Lloyds cost £20bn to bailout - but the Government is currently nursing losses of nearly £10billion. Their shares are valued at around 35p and they must rise to 63p. The bank recoveries have been made more difficult because the Government has announced new regulations in a bid to prevent a repeat of the financial crisis. They will be forced to separate their retail and investment banking arms which will be expensive to implement and hit profits. The current malaise in the world economy and the Greek debt crisis has added to banks’ woes. The Government is paying £500 million a year in interest payments on the money it borrowed to bailout the banks. 'BAILED OUT BANKERS SHOULD NOT RECEIVE A BONUS' Three out of four people think bosses at bailed-out banks should not get a bonus, according to research. And 58 per cent of respondents to the YouGov poll, commissioned by Sky News, said Britain’s business reputation is being damaged by the actions of bankers. Sir Philip Hampton, chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland, said bonuses cannot continue at the current level. 'Part of the reason for the pay is that the profits were not sustainable,' he told Sky news. 'They were there for a few years but they were not sustainable and the pay moved up to that level of profits and it now needs to be corrected down.' Sir Philip turned down a £1.4 million bonus earlier this month. But Nigel Rudd, former deputy chairman of Barclays, claimed he would have paid more money to Barclays’ former chief executive John Varley. He said: 'Bob Diamond (current chief executive) and John Varley made a huge difference to Barclays as they went through this terrible period. 'You realise Barclays never made a loss throughout all this period? I think John Varley was underpaid actually ... because I think what he did throughout that crisis was phenomenal.' The comments come after weeks of conflict over bankers’ bonuses, in which RBS chief Stephen Hester turned down his £963,000 bonus amid mounting pressure and Lloyds boss Antonio Horta-Osorio waived his payout following a leave of absence.
In an era before Twitter, paparazzi, gossip websites and the voracious appetite for the scandal and sex lives of the rich and shameless, Hollywood was swinging with the kind of wild sexual liberation that can still seem shocking today. Post-war Hollywood was churning out the family-friendly, conservative-values movies that chimed with the politics and repressed sexuality of the '40s and '50s. But the unacknowledged irony was that these motion pictures were being made by actors, writers, directors and studio chiefs who were engaged in lifestyles that could not have been more different from those they created on screen. Two decades before the sexual revolution of the 1960s, Los Angeles was already a sexual playground for movie stars and the international jet set, who were protected by a powerful studio system that could keep their more outrageous behaviour out of the public eye. Stars such as Noel Coward, Cole Porter, Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant -- and non-industry figures like the former King Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson -- had a sexually licentious lifestyle within the closed Hollywood community. And where you have rich, sexually voracious movie stars and powerful men, you will also need pimps, procurers and a steady stream of young men and women. Scotty Bowers, a handsome, bi-sexual, former Marine paratrooper, became a part of this underworld when he relocated to Hollywood following service in the Second World War. The ex-Marine became the go-to guy for those who wanted sexual adventure, building up a network of "friends" who traded in sex with the greatest stars of the era. Now, Bowers has revealed all, in Full Service -- My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars, an autobiography that claims to tell the true story behind the rumours and scandal that have filtered down from the closeted era of sex and the stars. Written with the collaboration of Emmy-winning writer Lionel Friedberg, Full Service is published as Bowers prepares to celebrate his 89th birthday. In Scotty's own words, he became a Hollywood insider, or at least a fixer of sexual liaisons, almost by accident when he moved to Los Angeles immediately after the war and began working in a gas station. A chance encounter with the actor Walter Pidgeon, who stopped by to have his tank filled, led to an afternoon of sex with the then-happily married Pidgeon and a male friend. Handsome, friendly and totally relaxed when it came to sex (Bowers attributes this to his wartime experiences and his Illinois farm-boy background), the ex-Marine quickly gained a reputation for knowing a lot of young men and women who were prepared to "trick" for as little as $20. However, throughout his memoir, Bowers is at pains to point out that he was neither a pimp nor a prostitute. "When it came to my own sexual liaisons, I was always more than happy to pocket the tip that anyone offered me for a night of sex," he says. "But I never charged for my matchmaking services when hooking-up other people. I would set up the trick and then the two of them went off together and money changed hands between them. "It was only fair. My operation -- if you want to call it that -- was not a prostitution ring. I was only providing a service to those who wanted it and, as recorded history has shown, throughout the ages there has always been a need for high-quality sex". To hear Bowers tell it, the '40s and '50s in Los Angeles were golden decades of sexual experimentation, where stars and their willing acolytes enjoyed never-ending pool parties under the Californian sun. Sex was an obsession and a currency for stars young and old. Mae West, even as she was in her late-60s, kept a string of young bodybuilders on call 24 hours a day. Bowers got to know Rock Hudson, whose homosexuality was an open secret in Hollywood, in the mid-'50s and also knew his wife, Phyllis Gates, a lesbian who had been persuaded to marry Rock to quell the gossip magazine whispers about his sexuality. "This phony marriage must have been hell on them both. Rock had a voracious, almost uncontrollable sexual appetite. In later years he cruised the streets every night, picking up vagabonds, strangers and young men all over town," says Bowers. The Los Angeles police vice squad was a constant threat, with LA Confidential-style shakedowns, blackmail rings and the vicious persecution of gay men in particular (or at least those who couldn't afford high-powered lawyers and the protection of the studio bosses). Pay-offs to the right cops, the activities of studio fixers and the complicity of the media ensured that very little scandal leaked out. Bowers' memoirs read like a roll-call of just about every major star in the studio system of the time and he cheerfully dishes the dirt. He claims Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy were never really involved in a great love affair, painting Hepburn as a sexually voracious lesbian who needed Tracy as a cover for her lifestyle. The list of stars who get the Bowers treatment includes Edith Piaf, Vivien Leigh, Cary Grant, Rita Hayworth, Joan Crawford, Bob Hope and William Holden (to name but a very, very few). Non-industry figures like Edward and Wallis Simpson, FBI boss J Edgar Hoover and Beatles manager Brian Epstein, flit in and out of the picture, indulging in a wild array of pan-sexual activities. Bowers had been friendly with the movie star Tyrone Powers since their days together in the Marine Corps and once they met up again in Los Angeles, they "enjoyed quite a few sexual shenanigans together". "Women swooned over him and he bedded quite a few of them, but he much preferred men," says Bowers. "Some of his sexual tastes were rather odd and offbeat, but none of the guys seemed to mind." The sexual exploits of the golden- era stars still fascinate, and readers may never look at classic movies like The Wizard of Oz or Bringing Up Baby in the same way again. It can't all have been glamorous pool parties in the Hollywood Hills and smiling, handsome film stars driving around in Cadillacs and Bentleys. But to hear Bowers tell it, after surviving the Depression and then World War Two, the young Americans who flocked to California in the '40s and '50s had little concern for the kind of sexual puritanism apparently making a comeback in the US.
The dangers of daily life for modern men are manifold, it seems. Alongside transfats in foods and oestrogen in drinking water, they must also beware 'Piranha Women'. Or so says divorce lawyer Diane Benussi. In her daily life overseeing the unraveling of families' personal lives, she claims to have observed a new breed of avaricious woman. This lady, according to Ms Benussi, is manipulative and devious to the core -- a romantic mercenary in a mini-skirt. Increasingly, Ms Benussi observed to a tabloid newspaper, beautiful young women, disinclined to make an honest living, are targeting vulnerable wealthy men in a bid to win a share of their assets. Their weapon of choice is their fertility. They lure unsuspecting gentlemen into unprotected sex and then fall pregnant, using the resulting progeny as a siphon on the unsuspecting man's bank account. Poor love. As anyone knows, well-off men in middle age represent one of society's most vulnerable minorities. Not only that, but they are, apparently, completely incapable of taking care of something as simple as contraception. I don't know about you, but personally, in my three decades on earth, I've never met a Piranha Woman. This pantomime trope of a scheming madam who uses sex purely as strategy exists for me only in fairytale. There are women, sure, who find an affluent man who can prove his worth as a provider and an alpha male attractive. But I don't know a single female who has used her womb as a honey trap in order to save herself the bother of buying lottery tickets. I have, on the other hand, met plenty of men who are convinced that they must protect themselves against female strategy and acquisitiveness. One, whom I dated briefly in college, told me outright one evening that he knew as a successful, ambitious guy (at this point he was still a student) he had to beware the advances of ladies with alluring eyes and sinister agendas. His mother, he informed me gravely, had warned him that he was exactly the kind of man that women would try and become pregnant by. Thus, he must be extra careful with contraception. Needless to say, that comment was turn off enough to have me on the next bus home to my own bed. Contrary to what he and his mother thought, I was rather less convinced than they were of the value of his precious sperm. It's possible, of course, that there are a few Piranha Women out there. But I'd guess that they are an extremely rare species. There's a cultural precedent for this belief, of course. (Not to mention a great history of paranoia on the part of many men about the dark arts of female sexuality). That precedent is called a WAG. In an era when we have become more than familiar with women winning fame, wealth, and cultural influence on the strength of their association with rich men, it's not a far stretch to create the myth of the Piranha. We know well that the WAG seeks out partnerships with wealthy footballers, within which a transactional trade-off of beauty for lifestyle and luxury is transparently part of the deal. The notional Piranha simply takes this a step further, by, we are told, using her sex appeal to cut out the romance and go straight for the cash, by way of a baby. This, says Ms Benussi, has become an accepted way for a woman to make a living. One could argue that, as a divorce lawyer, she's likely to know. But I don't believe it. There's a huge leap between falling in love with a fit, rich, attractive young footballer and seducing a wealthy singleton with middle-aged spread to get straight to his bank balance. Sure, there are plenty of women who consider affluence to be an attractive attribute in a man. It bespeaks success, competence and a certain capacity for influence and agency in the world -- all sexy qualities, let's be honest. But outside of a pure sex-for-money transaction -- from which, for most women unlucky enough to have to resort to it, pregnancy as a result is usually the least desirable outcome -- I have never met a woman myself who would put it above sexual desire and a genuine emotional bond. The invention of the storybook villain Piranha Woman seems suspiciously like dredging up bitter old cliches in order to further divide the genders around issues of separation and divorce. Relationships are rarely so simple. And perpetuating these kind of tropes and stereotypes serves no one except the divorce lawyers.
It will be the first time a British bank has exercised a “clawback” option on executive pay packages since the financial crisis and will lead to calls for similar moves at other lenders, including the Royal Bank of Scotland. The Daily Telegraph has learned that Lloyds is taking back a bonus from senior bankers over their role in the mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI). Eric Daniels, Lloyds’ former chief executive, will lose at least £360,000 of his 2010 bonus. Four other current and former directors will each have to forgo about £250,000. The move comes after weeks of pressure from politicians and consumer groups for the banking sector to answer concerns that some bonus awards do not match individual performances. The Financial Services Authority has also called for Britain’s banks to reflect one of the worst customer mis-selling scandals in recent memory in the pay packages of those responsible.
Greece may be scrambling for revenue, but the French treasury has just banked some 550 million euros for doing nothing — simply letting the French franc, created in 1360, finally perish. Enlarge This Image Thibault Camus/Associated Press People lined up at a bank in Paris on Friday to convert old French francs to euros, the common European currency, before the francs were rendered worthless. Connect With Us on Twitter Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines. Twitter List: Reporters and Editors Friday was the last day that French francs could be turned into the Bank of France, the central bank, in exchange for the common European currency, the euro, a little more than a decade after it was introduced as bills and coins. The approximately 550 million euros represents the francs still outstanding, somewhere, which are now worthless, and which will be registered as revenue for the French state. As the franc died, it is the future of the euro that seems at question now, an irony that hardly escaped some of those waiting in line at the bank to exchange the francs they had found stashed away in drawers, coat pockets and old purses. (Only bills were exchangeable; coins went out of circulation in 2005.) Emmanuelle Hamon, 47, said she was dubious about the fate of the euro. “I want to believe in it,” she said. “But I don’t know how, concretely, we’re going to make it.” A former advertising executive and journalist, she said she felt a bit betrayed, as if Europeans had been handed a bill of goods, now that floundering countries like Greece are causing troubles for the entire euro zone. “I was attracted to the notion of community,” she said. “We were all hoodwinked.” And like many, she believes that the euro brought with it higher prices. She had found 220 francs, or 33.54 euros at the fixed rate of 6.55957 francs to the euro. She is planning to give her bonus euros to a charity that fights hunger, she said. As for the franc itself, she said she had no special sentiments. “I thought they were pretty, that’s all I can say.” For some it was a sad day, to be sure. As Ms. Hamon noted, the franc notes and coins were varied and beautiful. The euro, on the other hand, seems like the product of an off-day at the design studio, made worse by the fact that the bills feature no recognizable buildings or portraits. The theory behind keeping some images off was that any European — even Beethoven, whose music was used for the European Union anthem — would be too national. Aurélien Duchene, an 18-year-old student, said that he liked the idea of the euro as a way to gather countries together, but that it meant prices went up. Pulling his earphones out to hear questions, he remembered that when he was 8 or 9 years old and the currency changed, he said, “For one franc you got a big bag of candy, and for one euro, one got less.” The current economic crisis had various causes, Mr. Duchene said. “But I think that changing from the franc to the euro is also a cause.” (Indeed, fixed rates and the common currency have meant countries cannot adjust the value of their currency in response to differing economic circumstances.) Shanel Maklouf, 17, said earnestly, while her friends giggled, that the euro had been “very bad for France,” and had helped cause its economic difficulties, “which grow day by day.” Going back to the franc is impossible, she said, “even if it would be a good thing,” especially for the poorer classes. “My mother waits for only one thing, that the franc returns.” The far-right National Front candidate in the coming presidential election, Marine Le Pen, is the only significant politician calling for France to pull out of the euro zone — and the European Union — and return to the franc. More mainstream politicians and economists regard the idea as folly, even as some Greeks begin to consider returning to the drachma. The Greeks, by the way, have until March 1 to switch their old drachmas into euros. Tania Capo-Chichi, 30, is a hairstylist, currently unemployed. She waited in line at the bank with her 5-month-old son in a stroller and a small windfall — 1,000 francs, worth 152.45 euros — she found digging through various bags, she said. She had no attachment to the old franc, but no idea how the current euro crisis, which she said no one was really explaining to people, would end. “It won’t come to a stop overnight,” she said. But she was sure the euro would endure, one way or another, as Europe evolves. “It’s ours,” she said, “even if we don’t necessarily like it.