EU bank stress test results due

14 July 2011 Last updated at 23:01 GMT Allied Irish Bank passed the test in July last year but needed a government bail-out just months later The European Banking Authority (EBA) is set to publish the results of stress tests of 90 banks across Europe later.

The tests are designed as a financial healthcheck and aim to ensure banks have sufficient capital to withstand difficult economic scenarios.

Some say the tests are not strict enough, despite changes made after only seven out of 91 banks failed last year.

On Wednesday, German bank Helaba said it expected to pull out of the stress tests to avoid public failure.

It said it would have passed the test if regulators counted a debt-equity hybrid, called "silent participation", as a capital reserve, but the EBA, having initially said it would accept this, then changed its mind.

The bank said it was not allowing the EBA to publish its data and therefore expected to be excluded from the tests.

How robust?

The EBA has said that this year's tests would be tougher than the first round.

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If there's a sense that some banks are at risk of going bust, but it is not clear which, the rational response of any creditor is to shun them all”

End Quote Robert Peston Business editor, BBC News Last year, both Irish banks tested, Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank (AIB), were given a clean bill of health. But just months later, AIB needed a government bail-out.

The ratings agency Standard & Poor's has suggested the latest tests could still have been more severe.

"We consider that the European Banking Authority has pitched its stress scenarios at a level that attempts to be sufficiently tough to reassure markets, but not so stringent as to suggest material capital shortfalls," the agency said in a note.

"We consider that a moderately harsher scenario would add greater value in terms of assessing the resilience of the European banking sector."

Francis Fitzherbert-Brockholes, a banking and capital markets partner at law firm White and Case, also questioned the terms of the tests.

"Although the tests are apparently more robust now, they still do not assume a sovereign debt default, only a sovereign debt downgrade," he said.

'Cancer of uncertainty'

Up to 15 banks are expected to fail the stress tests this time round, which regulators hope will persuade investors that the EU is coming clean about the extent of its banks' problems.

BBC business editor Robert Peston said the most important thing about the stress test results is that they should include enough detail about the risks to which individual banks are exposed so that the banks' creditors know the risks they are running.

"The cancer for the banking system is the uncertainty about which banks are weakest - because if there's a sense that some banks are at risk of going bust, but it is not clear which, the rational response of any creditor is to shun them all," he said.

The test results are expected to be published at 1600 GMT (1700 BST).

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You haven't got mail

14 July 2011 Last updated at 11:02 GMT By Steve Rosenberg BBC News, Moscow Russian Post says most of its staff are very honest - and spread across a vast nation It's a long way from Siberia to London.

But when Sergei Lyapko from Akademgorodok saw an iPad going cheap in an online auction, he snapped it up. The Royal Mail duly despatched the item. But Russian Post failed to deliver it.

"The package arrived," Sergei told me by phone from Siberia. "But instead of a tablet computer it contained five stones!

"The weight of the parcel was almost the same as what it should have been with the computer, there was just 15 grams difference. I made an official complaint and now there are two investigations ongoing: one by Russian Post, the other by the police."

Enraged by the rocks he received, Sergei started his own website called Post Office Thieves, a forum for other Russian victims of mail theft. He has been inundated with stories. Among the victims to make contact with him are:

A customer who bought a cell phone on a Russian internet site - but received, instead, a bar of soapA man who ordered a video camera - but when the parcel came it contained a bag of sugarA husband and wife who collected a parcel at their local post office - they had been expecting a Mac Book 3 computer but the package was empty.

"I'm going to collect all these complaints," Sergei told me, "and take them to the Russian authorities, so that they see the need to carry out checks on Russian Post."

'Huge organisation'

It's not only Sergei who wants to clean up Russian Post.

At a rowdy press conference in Moscow this week, consumer protection official Alexei Samokhvalov clashed with representatives of Russian Post. He described the situation with parcel deliveries as "alarming" and "farcical". He also claimed the postal service had worked better in Soviet times.

Russian Post admits that thefts do occur. But the company strongly defends its record.

"Each year we receive, process and deliver more than 1.7 billion letters and 54 million parcels," says the service's spokesperson Raniya Yefimova.

"Of those parcels, 6.5 million contain goods from abroad, mainly items from internet shopping sites. Normally, no more than 3% of them go missing."

The Russian mail service says it does all it can to prevent such incidents and - when they happen - to investigate them.

"Russia has 380,000 postal workers at 42,000 branches," Ms Yefimova points out. "It's a huge organisation and there are all kinds of people working there. But most of our staff are very honest people.

"We don't like our staff being called thieves and bad words like that. Naturally we jump to their defence. Because we, more than anyone, work to prevent stealing."

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Spain calls Iraqis on camp deaths

14 July 2011 Last updated at 18:11 GMT Relatives of the camp's 3,500 residents are pressing for an investigation A Spanish judge has summoned three Iraqi officers over a raid by Iraqi security forces on a camp housing an Iranian exile group.

The UN says 34 people were killed in the raid at Camp Ashraf, in Diyala province, in April 2011.

Judge Fernando Andreu has summoned Gen Ali Ghaidan Majid, the head of army, and two other officers to appear.

He is investigating allegations that crimes against humanity were committed during the raid on the camp.

The investigation is an enlargement of an existing probe on a separate raid which took place at the camp in July 2009, in which 11 people were killed.

Universal justice

Under Spain's universal justice doctrine, grave crimes committed in other countries can be prosecuted.

Judge Andreu said that the Geneva Convention applied to the case, as it addresses the protection of civilians in wartime and all those killed and injured in the attack were considered "protected persons" under the terms of the Convention.

According to documents released by Madrid's investigative court, a total of 377 "protected persons" were injured in the 8 April 2011 raid, 154 with bullet wounds.

More than 3,000 members of the banned opposition group, the People's Mujahideen of Iran (PMOI), have been confined by the US military at the camp since the invasion in 2003.

The group, considered a terrorist group by the US and Iran, were given permission to shelter in Iraq by former President Saddam Hussein during the 1980-88 war between the two countries and they have lived at the camp ever since.

In January, the judge had said he would close the dossier into the July 2009 attack if the Iraqi authorities opened their own investigation.

Iraq responded by saying it had carried out its own legal inquiry but this was not judged sufficient by Spanish authorities.

The three Iraqi officers have been summoned to appear before the Madrid court on 3 October 2011.

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Austria mourns Empire's last heir

16 July 2011 Last updated at 17:37 GMT Mourners gathered on the streets of Vienna for the funeral of the last heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Otto von Habsburg

The funeral of the last heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Otto von Habsburg, has taken place in the Austrian capital Vienna.

European royals and political leaders, many from nations that his family ruled over, attended the service.

The body of the last crown prince was buried in the Imperial crypt at a private ceremony. His wife, who died last year, was buried alongside him.

Mr Habsburg, a former MEP, died earlier this month at the age of 98 in Germany.

Thousands of Austrians and tourists lined the streets of Vienna's city centre ahead of a procession into St Stephen's Cathedral, where about 1,000 mourners had gathered.

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Burying the heart separately to the body was a custom used by a number of medieval European aristocrats:

Richard I (Richard the Lionheart): The English king's heart was buried at Rouen in Normandy after he died in 1199. His body was buried in AnjouRobert the Bruce: The king of the Scots, who died in 1329, is buried in Dunfermline Abbey but his heart is buried in Melrose AbbeyThe House of Habsburg has practised heart burial for centuries

But the practice was not limited to monarchs.

English writer Thomas Hardy's body is interred in Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey but his heart is buried in the grave of his first wife Emma in Dorchester.Vienna's Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn presided over a funeral mass, attended by European royals including Sweden's King Carl Gustaf and Queen Silvia, Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg and Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein.

Among the political figures at the ceremony were Austrian President Heinz Fischer, and the prime ministers of Croatia and Macedonia.

Members of historical societies wearing traditional uniforms mingled with mourners outside the cathedral watching the service on large screens.

Mr Habsburg's body was buried shortly afterwards in the Imperial crypt where his ancestors lie. However, his heart will be taken to Hungary for burial at an abbey west of Budapest on Sunday, in accordance with a Habsburg tradition.

A passionate advocate of European unity, Mr Habsburg served as a member of the European parliament for two decades.

His son Karl Habsburg said his father witnessed huge changes in Europe during his life.

"It would always be wrong to only remember him in the context of the old monarchy or only remember him in the context of the European Union. I think he should be remembered in the whole arch that his life has been creating... over the whole changes that happened to Europe in his lifetime," he said.

The BBC's Bethany Bell in Vienna says that there have been some complaints that the pomp surrounding the funeral is out of place in a republic.

'Life in exile'

Mr Habsburg was born in 1912, six years before the collapse of the empire at the end of the First World War.

Otto von Habsburg only relinquished his claim to the fallen Austro-Hungarian empire in 1961

He spent many decades exiled from Austria after his family fled in 1919, but relinquished his own claim to inherit the empire in 1961. Five years later he was allowed to return to Austria.

He was an opponent of the Nazis and spoke out against Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938.

In 1989 he helped organise the Pan-European Picnic demonstration on the border of Austria and Hungary.

The border was briefly opened, an event credited with helping usher in the fall of the Berlin Wall months later.

Mr Habsburg then dedicated himself to having the former communist-ruled states of eastern Europe brought into the EU.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso paid tribute to him as "a great European... who gave an important impetus to the European project throughout his rich life".

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Quake still rattles Sony Ericsson

15 July 2011 Last updated at 09:37 GMT Android smartphones are central to Sony Ericsson's line-up Sony Ericsson has blamed the the Japanese earthquake for a 50m euro (?44m; $71m) loss during the three months to June.

The mobile phone maker said the quake last March had caused "supply chain constraints", which meant that about 1.5m phones were not ready for sale.

Smartphones now make up more than 70% of Sony Ericsson's total sales, up from just 40% at the end of last year.

Sales of smartphones using Google's Android operating system grew 150%.

Sony Ericsson estimates that it now has an 11% share of the Android smartphone market - by both value and volume.

During the first quarter of the year, Sony Ericsson had managed to achieve net profits of 11m euro, but on an extremely slim operating margin of just 2%.

During the past few years the mobile phone firm has seen a steady erosion of its share of the mobile phone market, losing out to Apple with its iPhone models and quickly growing Asian rivals like Samsung and HTC.

The company has gone through a cost-cutting exercise, including making 4,000 staff redundant.

Sony Ericsson is a 50-50 joint venture of Japanese entertainment electronics firm Sony and Swedish telecoms equipment maker Ericsson.

Ericsson's shares fell 1.3% on news of Sony Ericsson's losses.

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Austen script sells for £993,250

15 July 2011 Last updated at 07:47 GMT The moment a rare Jane Austen manuscript sold for ?993,250

A rare Jane Austen manuscript will remain in the UK after being sold for ?993,250 ($1.6m) in London.

Auction house Sotheby's had originally valued the unfinished novel - entitled The Watsons - at no more than ?300,000.

The manuscript, originally owned privately, was purchased by the Bodleian Libraries of Oxford.

It is thought Austen wrote the tale, about a young woman who returns home to her father's household after being brought up by a wealthy aunt, in 1804.

Richard Ovenden, from Bodleian Libraries, said they were "delighted" to have secured "such a valuable part of our literary heritage".

"We are glad it will stay now in Britain," he added, saying the "priceless manuscript" would be made available to the general public as early as this autumn.

Much of the money came from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF), through a ?894,700 grant.

"This was an unprecedented opportunity to acquire the only surviving original draft of a novel by one of our greatest and most popular writers," said Carole Souter of the NHMF.

Other organisations who donated included the Friends of the National Libraries, the Friends of the Bodleian and the Jane Austen Memorial Trust.

Sotheby's specialist Gabriel Heaton said the work was "particularly informative" because it is "very much a working draft".

Every page is littered with crossings out, revisions and additional text between some of the lines.

The BBC's arts editor Will Gompertz, who attended the auction, said there had been a very real possibility of the manuscript being sold to a foreign buyer.

This could have been the Morgan Library in New York, which already owns an eight-page element of the manuscript.

Austen published six complete novels, including Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Sense and Sensibility, before dying in 1817 at the age of 41.

With the exception of The Watsons, two draft chapters of Persuasion and two other works named Lady Susan and Sanditon, few of her draft works have survived.

The Bodleian Library already holds her Volume the First, a manuscript of Austen's juvenilia (early writings).

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Austrian anthem changed to honour women, too

14 July 2011 Last updated at 13:12 GMT Austria's national anthem has not kept up with progress in women's rights Austria plans to recognise its "great daughters" in the national anthem, alongside its "great sons".

The main parties in the Austrian parliament have agreed that part of the anthem's text will be changed. The new version may be ready by January.

The phrase "Home of great sons, you are" is likely to be changed to "Home of great daughters, great sons".

Women politicians from the three main parties said experts would be consulted to settle on a final version.

The anthem's text dates back to 1947. The drive to change it suddenly gained momentum last Friday, when a former women's affairs minister, Maria Rauch-Kallat of the Austrian People's Party (OeVP), put forward a motion to amend the text.

Austrian media say it took several days for male politicians in the conservative OeVP to back Ms Rauch-Kallat's motion.

At a joint news conference on Wednesday the spokeswomen of the OeVP, the Social Democrats (SPOe) and the Greens announced that the change would go ahead.

The move is expected to get the official green light in a parliamentary vote in the autumn.

"Of course there are more important women's issues for us to tackle," said Greens spokeswoman Judith Schwentner. "But this concerns a great symbol - our federal anthem."

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