North Korea: We Can Prove Hacking Wasn't Us

Flood Victims Hit By Huge Insurance Quotes

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 21 Desember 2014 | 00.02

By Siobhan Robbins, West of England Correspondent

Flood victims in Somerset say they are facing insurance quotes of tens of thousands of pounds to protect their homes from future flooding.

Sky News has seen one renewal quote of almost £100,000 for one year. That falls to just under £500 for the year if flood cover is removed.

The owners did not want to speak on camera but told Sky their property in Moorland would only cost around £120,000 to rebuild from scratch.

Neighbour Sally Vize has been told she won't be able to move back into her home until March - 13 months after the winter storms caused £120,000 worth of damage.

She is due to renew her insurance in the next few months, but is extremely concerned she won't be able to afford the quote.

"I think someone said £12,000 if they want to insure for floods again, who can afford that? It's ridiculous, and I think it's morally wrong," she said.

One in six homes in England are at risk of flooding and the Association of British Insurers (ABI) estimates between 300,000 and 500,000 UK households could struggle to obtain affordably priced flood insurance.

From next summer, in conjunction with the Government, the ABI is hoping to launch its Flood Re scheme which will allow insurers to pass the flood risk element of a home insurance policy into a fund that will pay any subsequent flood claim.

Mark Shepherd, from the ABI, explained: "In certain parts of the country this is becoming a much bigger problem and that's why we are working with the Government to introduce Flood Re, which in the future will ensure those homes at the highest flood risk will still be able to get affordable flood insurance."

Since the flooding began last Christmas, a group called the Somerset Emergency Volunteers have been helping those in need of immediate help.

They have filled a warehouse with donations including food, clothes, furniture and household goods to allow people to begin replacing what they have lost.

They are also providing 400 homes with emergency boxes and sandbags so they are prepared for any repeat.

"Moorland and Fordgate were only given six sandbags by the council when it was flooded - three for the front door, three for the back," said assistant operations manager Sadie Forster.

"We're giving them 36 reusable sandbags."

The Environment Agency has now dredged 8km of river in Somerset, with the Government promising to spend £4.2m on flood defences in the county.

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Luxembourg Bows To EU Over Big Firm Tax Deals

Luxembourg has agreed to give European Commission officials a list of hundreds of companies with which it has tax deals.

The low-tax territory has done a U-turn over the data, after originally threatening to take the EU to court in a bid to keep the multinationals' names secret.

Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said his country would now comply with the commission's demands over the deals signed between 2010 and 2013, as part of a new EU-wide order.

"If the rules are the same for everyone, we are really not in opposition to them," Mr Bettel said.

The volte-face comes after leaked documents showed last month that the small country - which has the highest per capita GDP in the EU - had tax deals with 400 multinationals.

Revelations included effective tax rates of less than 1% for some firms, causing controversy in Brussels for newly elected commission president Jean-Claude Juncker.

Mr Juncker was Luxembourg's PM for 18 years until 2013, covering the period of interest for the commission.

Luxembourg's population is around 560,000, with the financial sector accounting for more than a third of GDP.

According to the CIA, most banks are foreign owned and 40% of its workers are cross-border or foreigners.

A number of well-known companies have set their financial hubs in the country, channelling revenue and intellectual property rights from other EU nations into it.

Luxembourg is also being investigated aver claims it offered state aid to online retail giant Amazon and the finance division of Fiat.

Similar inquires by the EU have been launched into the affairs of IT giant Apple in Ireland and global coffee chain Starbucks' in the Netherlands.

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Falling Oil Prices Could Spell Serious Trouble

Paul Kenworthy has been an oilman for more than two decades. He is the owner of 10 wells near Midland West Texas and has seen good times and bad come and go, several times over.

But the precipitous drop in oil prices on what they called Black Friday last month has been painful all the same. Like everyone else he has seen the value of the black gold his pumps pull out of the Texas dirt go down by 40%.

He blames OPEC and the Saudis who have refused to cut production despite falling demand in Asia and Europe. But he says he understands what they are doing.

"To use a line from The Godfather, 'It's business it's not personal'," he told Sky News. "They're trying to maintain market share and they're going to do what it takes to maintain that market share."

OPEC, he says, is responding to a massive increase in US oil production because of the revolution in fracking.

Hydraulic fracking has brought boom times to places like Midland not witnessed since the 1980s. The average income in the town is the fastest growing in the country, and currently stands at $82,000 a year.

It's not just the oil industry that has been booming.

Mark Payne is a homebuilder and says it's been impossible to keep up with demand from people flooding in to take advantage of the oil money.

'It's been really all you can get and nobody has been able to keep up. Early on, it was how much can you sell - now it's just how much can you build to meet demand?"

But fracking is expensive and not profitable if the price of oil goes below a certain level.

From cities like Dallas and Houston they are watching nervously, asking the multi-billion-dollar question: How low will the price go and for how long?

The answer is important for people far beyond America. Its economy is the only one that's showing signs of a sustainable recovery currently. Much of that recovery has been driven by the oil boom.

Lower oil prices can help that further. They give people more money in their pocket - between $500 to $1,000 a year, according to current estimates. That should drive consumption and lower fuel prices make production cheaper too.

But if the price stays too low, the oil industry could be in serious trouble. That would threaten the wider economic recovery here and because what happens in America spreads to Europe, including the UK.

Bruce Bullock, director of the Maguire Energy Institute in Dallas, says it's a Goldilocks question. The oil price cannot be allowed to get too high or two low.

"If it were to rebound up to $65 or $70 a barrel, I think on balance it will help the economic recovery. If it were to drop further I think it will harm the recovery. There's a lot at stake here for America and for the rest of the world."

Something worth bearing in mind before getting too excited by plunging prices at the pump.

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Can Putin Survive Sustained Economic Pain?

When Vladimir Putin came to power in 1999, oil cost around $10 a barrel.

During his first two terms the global oil price rocketed - it gave the impression of an economy that was booming, and a real increase in the standard of living for some.

A small elite got very, very rich, and a new middle class got used to owning the latest iPhone and taking the family on holidays abroad.

After the chaos of the 1990s under Boris Yeltsin, culminating in the default of 1998, Putin's rule seemed to be delivering stability and order.

Pensions and salaries were being paid on time, and the new strongman president was reasserting Russia's place in the world.

The oil wealth helped pay off the national debt, and build up vast reserves - what it didn't do was develop Russia's economy.

Russia was, and remains, heavily dependent on sales of oil and gas - they make up two thirds of the country's exports, around half the national budget.

The president says the current situation (he refuses to call it a crisis) will help diversify the economy, but that is the opposite of what has happened under his leadership thus far.

Under Mr Putin, much of the nation's wealth and natural resources have been concentrated in the hands of large, state-controlled companies, and a select group of billionaires.

But personal fortunes and wealth here can disappear.

The billionaire owner of telecoms company Sistema was recently held under house arrest for several months, and his company's holdings in Bashneft (one of Russia's largest oil companies) were seized by the Russian state.

Vladimir Yevtushenkov was released shortly before Mr Putin's annual press conference this week, but his treatment is unlikely to reassure would-be investors in Russia that their money is safe.

The case evoked memories of Yukos - once one of the world's largest oil companies, it was broken up and its assets acquired by state oil giant Rosneft in 2003. Its owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky spent a decade in a Russian prison camp.

Capital flight over the last 12 months is expected to top $125bn - hardly a vote of confidence in the Russian economy.

And then there are the international sanctions imposed over the crisis in Ukraine.

Mr Putin estimates they are responsible for 25-30% of the current economic damage.

By themselves they might not have been earth-shattering, but combined with the falling oil price they are having an effect - cutting off some of Russia's biggest companies from access to credit on foreign markets, forcing them to appeal to the state to finance their foreign debt.

Russia has large foreign exchange reserves, but they are not endless - it has already spent at least $80bn of an estimated $360bn fund defending the currency so far this year.

These policies - both foreign and domestic - all lead back to Mr Putin's Kremlin. But with almost complete control of the country's main media outlets, that is not the story that is being told here.

The president blames "external factors" and the nefarious forces that, to use his analogy, are trying to chain and de-fang the Russian bear.

The question is whether his popularity can withstand a sustained period of economic pain.

And whether a weaker Russia, in the manner Mr Putin's cornered bear, might not be a much more dangerous animal.

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New EBA Rules To Crackdown On Card Fraud

New rules aimed at cracking down on card payment fraud have been revealed.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published the more stringent guidelines, making payment service providers toughen up on customer identification before proceeding with payments.

In the last four years alone, the annual cost of card fraud in the UK has risen from £365 million, to over £450 million.

Almost two thirds of that came from the tactic known as skimming.

That is where small amounts of cash are removed from victims' accounts without them noticing, rather than large withdrawals that may be automatically flagged by software.

There has also been a rise in digital attacks using malware, usually downloaded after victims unwittingly open contaminated emails, according to the EBA.

Lost or stolen cards account for just over a quarter of the annual fraud.

UK card fraud hit a record of £610m in 2008 before dropping each year to a low of £341m in 2011.

Since then it has risen again, to £388m in 2012 and jumping 16% on that figure to £450m last year, according to Financial Fraud Action.

It said over the past decade there has been a significant shift in tactics used by fraudsters, amid the rise of online shopping and improved PIN and chip security.

In 2003, 29% of fraud was by so-called remote purchase - where a card is not shown to a retailer - but that figure jumped to 67% last year.

Use of stolen cards over the same period dropped from 27% to 13% and card usage taken from mail delivery plunged from 11% to 2%.

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BlackBerry Stems Loss To Just Over $1m A Day

Struggling smartphone maker BlackBerry has seen its share price plunge almost 10%, after revealing losses of more than $1m a day.

In early trades on Friday the share price dropped 8.5%, after it reported its financial results for the fiscal third quarter. The price later eased.

The Canadian company said it lost $148m (£94m) in the three months, compared to $4.4bn (£2.7bn) in the same period last year.

Revenue declined to $793m in the period from $1.19bn, some 14% below analysts' expectations.

The company was once an industry leader with mobile keyboard devices, allowing email access wirelessly in 1999.

As recently as 2009 it commanded 50% of the US smartphone market.

But it failed to adapt amid the rise of innovative alternatives and cheaper devices.

In September BlackBerry launched a square smartphone aimed at business users - its traditional core market.

The company has sold off swathes of property, downsized its workforce and outsourced upstream logistic supply in an effort to cut costs.

Earlier this year the company revealed a revenue drop of 60%.

On Wednesday, Blackberry launched the Classic, a new phone that reverted to a traditional keyboard at a time when rival Apple and Android phones - and most smartphone customers - have embraced touch screens.

Blackberry said that it continues to target sustainable profitability, but admits it will not likely reach that target until some time in the 2016 financial year.

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Pump Prices: Cheap Petrol Comes With A Warning

Tumbling oil prices are resulting in lower petrol costs, but there are warnings the good news for drivers may not last.

With prices falling by more than 40% since June's high of $111 a barrel, there have been an increasing number of reports suggesting petrol prices across the UK could soon fall below £1 per litre - the lowest level since the end of May 2009.

Experts at the RAC believe petrol could fall to 99p a litre next year, while economists at Goldman Sachs also believe petrol could fall close to £1.

But AA president Edmund King insists this possibility remains "remote".

He said: "A 6.6p-a-litre drop in the price of petrol releases a potential £3m-a-day switch of consumer spending from fuel forecourts to other businesses.

"It will also lower the cost of transporting goods, hopefully also to be passed on to customers."

Mr King went on: "However, the parallels with the 2008 crash, albeit that was a market in freefall while this one has been engineered by OPEC and could be stopped any time, carry a warning from the ghost of Christmas past.

"In 2009, a new year brought a new assessment of the market and pump prices started to rise again on January 5."

Analysis by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) also suggests petrol prices are unlikely to fall below £1-a-litre in the coming months.

But while the ONS said the price consumers pay at the pumps for petrol and diesel were "strongly related to the price of crude oil", it highlighted that price changes were "less volatile and the effect of changes in crude oil prices are delayed".

Ian Taylor, chief executive and president of Vitol, the world's largest oil trading company, told Sky News' Ian King Live that although the future was difficult to predict he believes the market "will steady up".

He said: "As you know oil traders are pretty useless at predicting price, but we sort of feel that inevitably at these price levels that several areas of the world will begin to cut back on capex (capital expenditure) and we'll see some reductions in supply and a big transfer of income to the consumers - hopefully lower petrol prices in the UK etc - and that will increase demand.

"We feel at the current prices and with Brent at $60 a barrel we should begin to see some stability, but oil has been a lot lower than this and a lot higher so it's difficult to predict just at this moment - but I do begin to believe the market will begin to steady up."

He added: "It's a pretty big tax cut for every single consumer in the world and it's a huge transfer of income from oil producers to world consumers. It's pretty positive for the UK, Europe and other big consuming countries around the globe."

Petrol pump prices have plunged in the last month with the mid-November to mid-December fall the third biggest in 25 years, according to the AA.

The motoring group said that between mid-November and mid-December UK average petrol prices fell 6.6p to 116.32p a litre.

Only the October-November 2008 fall of 11.5p a litre and the August-September 2006 dip of 7.9p have been greater than the most recent decline.

The AA also said that average diesel prices have fallen 5.27p a litre to 122.16p over the mid-November to mid-December 2014 period.

And the fall does not include the very latest 2p-a-litre petrol reduction by the four biggest supermarkets which took effect on Wednesday.

Currently, south west England has the cheapest petrol, at an average of 116.1p a litre, while East Anglia has the dearest, at 117.1p.

The cheapest diesel is to be found in Northern Ireland, at 121.8p a litre, with the most-expensive in Scotland, at 122.7p a litre.

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Push To Get More Women Into The Cockpit

By Charlotte Lomas, Sky News Reporter

More than four decades after the first British female pilot took to the skies in a commercial airliner, there are still few women choosing flying as a career. But why are there so few female pilots?

Of the 3,500 pilots employed by British Airways, just 200 are women and this is more than any other UK airline.

Globally, 4,000 of the 130,000 airline pilots are female and fewer still are captains - worldwide there are around 450.

Helen Macnamara has been a British Airways pilot for 14 years after enrolling on a sponsorship scheme once she left university.

"I like to see the world and different places and I enjoy the magic of flying itself," she said.

"Once you have the passion for it, then that's it really".

Helen, 38, believes the reason so few women go into flying may stem from a lack of opportunities in the past.

She said: "I think historically there were less women involved in aviation and that has been changing throughout my career.

"I think it's important females see this as an option and that there are role models in our industry."

One such role model is TV presenter and now fully trained pilot, Carol Vorderman.

She is planning to embark on a solo round-the-world flying trip and is supporting a recruitment drive by British Airways to get more women in the cockpit.

Carol said: "I always wanted to be a pilot since I was very young.

"It was the reason I read Engineering at Cambridge, and ideally would have joined the RAF or a commercial airline after graduating, but sadly this was not an option then.

"I think the reason so few women enter the profession can be traced back to schools, home and the media. Girls need to be encouraged more to pursue sciences, maths and technology at school and realise different paths are open to them."

Although many women work in the aviation industry as a whole - piloting is still very much a male-dominated profession.

Jim McAuslan, the general secretary of BALPA, the British Airline Pilots Association, is hoping this will change.

He said: "Women make great pilots, unfortunately only five percent of our members and British pilots are women, and that's disappointing.

"So we're reaching out to women to find why they're not coming forward. Perhaps it's because of their choice of careers at an earlier age. Engineering is a great way to get into flying, so perhaps people should look at their careers early on.

"But our big message would be: have the dream."

Some critics argue that women face prejudice when considering a career in flying.

In 2009 a Virgin Airlines advert featuring glamorous female flight attendants flanking a male pilot received complaints it was sexist.

So too did an Air New Zealand in-flight safety video where women were dressed bikinis.

But Helen says that she has never experienced any negativity. Most passengers are simply surprised to have a female pilot, she said.

"Actually when members of the public come to our flight simulator where we train, it is usually the women who fare better than the men.

"They are softer with the manoeuvres and males can be more heavy handed."

In an industry where fewer than 5% of pilots are women it's hoped more will be landing safely on the tarmac in future.

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North Korea: We Can Prove Hacking Wasn't Us

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North Korea says it can prove it had nothing to do with the cyber-attack on Sony and proposes a joint investigation with the US.

The North Korean news agency KCNA warned there would be "grave consequences" if the White House declined the offer.

State media called the FBI's claim that North Korea was behind the attack on the entertainment giant a "slander".

The North's foreign ministry, quoted by KCNA, said: "As the United States is spreading groundless allegations and slandering us, we propose a joint investigation with it into this incident.

"Without resorting to such tortures as were used by the US CIA, we have means to prove that this incident has nothing to do with us."

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Gallery: Kim Jong Un Seen Amid US Tensions

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un smiles as a huge crowd surrounds him while he gives field guidance at the Kim Jong Suk Pyongyang Textile Mill

North Korea stated it can prove it had nothing to do with the recent cyber-attack on Sony and proposed a joint investigation with the US

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The North Korean news agency KCNA warned there would be "grave consequences" if the White House declined the offer. Continue through for more images

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President Barack Obama said on Friday that the US would "respond proportionally at a time and manner that we choose" against North Korea after the FBI said a "significant overlap" existed between the infrastructure used in the Hollywood studio hack and previous malicious cyber-activity linked to North Korea.

The hack prompted Sony Pictures on Wednesday to cancel the release of the comedy The Interview, which depicts a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.

The decision to pull the film was made after the group claiming responsibility for the cyber-attack made terrorist threats against US cinemas that showed the movie.

The FBI said technical analysis of data deletion malware used in the data breach provided links to malicious programs previously developed by North Korea.

"North Korea's actions were intended to inflict significant harm on a US business and suppress the right of American citizens to express themselves," the bureau said in a statement.

"Such acts of intimidation fall outside the bounds of acceptable state behaviour."

Sky's Asia Correspondent Mark Stone said: "Korea-watchers are split on whether the FBI and US government have got this right or not because so many bits don't add up.

"After all, if Kim Jong-Un's people did somehow manage to hack Sony he wouldn't be admitting it, and if he didn't do it and everyone's accusing him of doing it surely he and his government would keep quiet because then it would look as though they were more powerful and capable than they are.

"The other thing I find interesting is this suggestion of terrorist attacks on US cinemas if they ran the film.

"Well, North Korea is accused of some pretty bad things but one thing it has never done is threaten terrorist attacks - certainly not on American soil. And the FBI still haven't given us any proof that North Korea was behind this."

The hackers, who call themselves Guardians of Peace, praised the decision to cancel the film's release in a statement provided to CNN on Friday.

The group also said it would keep Sony's data secure if the company continued to comply.

Lt Col Chris Parker, former Chief of Staff of the Desert Rats and a cyber security expert, told Sky News: "We probably have to wonder whether the FBI's allegations are there to create waves - have they got evidence? No one perhaps knows at this stage.

"The North Koreans would learn an awful lot about what is known by the FBI and the Americans by conduction a joint investigation. If they were to get away with that they would have a win-win."

:: North Korea on Saturday vowed to bolster its nuclear capacity in the face of a United Nations resolution calling for it to be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) over its human rights record.

The UN General Assembly on Thursday adopted a resolution by a strong majority that asks the Security Council to refer North Korea to the ICC and to consider targeted sanctions against the Pyongyang leadership for the repression of its citizens.

North Korea's foreign ministry said in a statement carried on the official Korean Central News Agency that it would increase "efforts to bolster up in every way its capability for self-defence including nuclear force".

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Flood Victims Hit By Huge Insurance Quotes

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 21 Desember 2014 | 00.02

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Falling Oil Prices Could Spell Serious Trouble

Can Putin Survive Sustained Economic Pain?

New EBA Rules To Crackdown On Card Fraud

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Push To Get More Women Into The Cockpit

North Korea: We Can Prove Hacking Wasn't Us

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