January 2, 2013
Rare version of Beatles album finally sells for £12,000
A rare copy of a Beatles LP signed by all four band members has finally been sold - for the sum rejected at auction in Sussex a few weeks earlier. Chris Collins, from Eastbourne, and his sister, Liz Chambers, from Worthing, initially turned down a…
January 2, 2013
The Hobbit holds on to box office crown
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has topped the North American box office for the third weekend in a row. The prequel to Lord of The Rings took $32.9m (£20.3m) over the weekend, dwarfing new releases Les Miserables and Django Unchained. Director…
January 2, 2013
Asian shares rise as US House passes fiscal-cliff deal
Asian markets have risen after the US House of Representatives passed a deal to stave off the fiscal cliff. A failure to agree a deal would have triggered spending cuts and tax increases worth $600bn (£370bn). There had been fears that the measures…
January 2, 2013
Portuguese budget sent to court to assess its fairness
The Portuguese president has said that he will send this year's controversial budget to the Constitutional Court. Aníbal Cavaco Silva said the budget didn't treat citizens fairly, and hit some of them worse than others. The right-of-centre…
January 2, 2013
Grece Former Finance faces prosecution
Greece’s coalition government called on Monday for the indictment of former Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou for allegedly removing the names of three of his relatives from a list of Swiss bank account holders whose tax records were to be…
January 2, 2013
Hollande vows to revive French supertax
France's President Francois Hollande says he still plans to raise the top rate of income tax after his 75% plan was struck down on technical grounds. In a national address on New Year's Eve, he said the law would be redesigned, adding, "we will…
January 2, 2013
Singapore growth beats estimates as it avoids recession
Singapore's economy has averted a technical recession, as it reported better-than-expected growth data for the fourth quarter. The economy expanded 1.1% in the October to December period, from a year earlier, advance estimates showed. On a…
January 2, 2013
Merkel warns Germans of tough economic times ahead
Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned that the German economic climate in 2013 will be "even more difficult". In her new year message, she also cautioned that the eurozone debt crisis was far from over. However, she did say that reforms designed to…
January 2, 2013
President Obama praises US ‘fiscal cliff’ deal
Barack Obama has hailed a deal reached to stave off a "fiscal cliff" of drastic taxation and spending measures as "just one step in the broader effort to strengthen the economy". The US president was speaking after the House of Representatives…
January 2, 2013
Thousands in Hong Kong Protest Against China-Backed Leader
Thousands of protesters in Hong Kong are calling for the city's scandal-ridden chief executive to step down and demanding that China allow them to elect their own leaders. Police say about 17,000 protesters joined a New Year's Day march through the…