Business

A group of senior military officials and businessmen have been charged with trying to overthrow Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, the government says.A Justice Ministry statement said the group had "conspired to stage a coup d'etat and overthrow the president". Mr Jammeh himself came to power after a bloodless coup in 1994. His critics recently expressed concern over a wave of arrests of senior officials - some of whom have been in jail for months without charge. In recent years, Mr Jammeh has publicly threatened to kill gay people and rights workers. And last month the government expelled the envoy of the UN's children charity, Unicef.This article is from the BBC News website.  
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Chancellors are always tempted to indulge in a pre-election giveaway, whether they can afford it or not - but do they ever work As Alistair Darling puts the finishing touches to his Budget Brian Wheeler delved into the archives...1970 - ROY JENKINS, LABOURA giveaway budget would be "a vulgar piece of economic management below the level of political sophistication of the British electorate," declared Roy Jenkins, after steering the economy back into a modest surplus. The voters seemed to agree. Some say the bounce in Labour's opinion poll ratings which followed his Budget prompted Prime Minister Harold Wilson to call an early election, which Labour promptly lost. Some Labour figures blamed what they saw as Mr Jenkins' overly-cautious Budget, but bad trade figures announced four days before the country went to the polls, may have had a more decisive effect. GIVEAWAY RATING: Too tight for some ELECTION EFFECT: Unexpected defeat for Labour 1973 - ANTHONY BARBER, CONSERVATIVEEven if he h...  
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US consumer prices showed no rise between January and February, according to official figures, indicating little sign of inflationary pressures.The report from the US Labor Department showed the consumer price index was flat in February, though prices were 2.1% higher than a year ago. Core inflation - which strips away food and energy costs - saw a 0.1% rise. The figures reinforce the Federal Reserve's view that low inflation will allow interest rates to remain low. On Tuesday, the Fed said it would keep interest rates at near-zero for an "extended period" in the absence of inflation. Analysts said the weakness in the US economy had prevented retailers from charging more for their goods, while a rise in food costs had been offset by a fall in energy bills. A weak recovery is expected to keep inflation low for the rest of the year. 'Slow recovery'There was further encouraging data from the Labor Department on the state of the jobs market. Weekly figures showed that the number of new ...  
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By Christina Corbett BBC News, Madagascar A political crisis has engulfed Madagascar's leader Andry Rajoelina, who seized power a year ago. With the country's economy spiralling out of control, he now faces African Union sanctions for failing to set up a unity government.The letters clinging to the side of the hill are like a giant game of Scrabble. Madagascar's answer to Hollywood's own hillside signpost. But here, the towering white metal pieces don't spell out the name of a place where the streets are paved with gold. The letters spell out the name of Madagascar's capital city, Antananarivo. At least they would do if they were all there. The first A and first N are all that remain. The rest were apparently stolen by an entrepreneurial thief with a head for heights, looking to make charcoal cooking stoves with the metal. "Times are hard now," says Michel, who sells second-hand clothes in a street at the bottom of the hill. "People will do whatever they can to get by," he says, sha...  
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Facebook executives have "no objection" to installing a "panic button" on their site to allow users to report suspected paedophiles, says the Home Office.Officials from the social networking site met Home Secretary Alan Johnson to discuss the issue on Thursday. The conviction of Peter Chapman for the murder of 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall led to renewed calls for a "panic button". The convicted sex offender used a false identity on Facebook to lure the teenager before raping and killing her. This article is from the BBC News website.  
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By Denise Winterman and Finlo Rohrer BBC News Magazine Legal highs are back in the headlines. Several were banned last year, but now two deaths are being linked to another. But will the law always be one product behind the marketIt's a thriving market - and an increasingly worrying one for the government. Legal and herbal highs are nothing new, but ever stronger variants are emerging all the time and legal loopholes are being exploited to make them easily available. The death of Louis Wainwright, 18, and Nicholas Smith, 19, on Monday has raised concerns again. The two friends died after taking the legal stimulant mephedrone which is used as an alternative to ecstasy and cocaine. Their parents are now calling on the government to ban it. Under medicines legislation it is illegal to sell it for human consumption, but it is sold as a plant fertiliser and is available on the internet for as little as  
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A group of scouts say they were turned away from London department store Harrods after refusing to remove their neckerchiefs and woggles.The 1st Bordon Scout Group, from Hampshire, was in the capital to take part in an annual event. But as the group of about 10 explorer scouts and their leader went to visit the store they were refused entry. A spokesman for Harrods said although it had no record of the incident, management apologised "unreservedly". Scout leader Paul Kosinski told BBC News that wearing the uniform was part of his identity. 'Respectable group'Mr Kosinski said the party had offered to break into smaller groups, but were still told by security they could not enter because of their uniforms. Mr Kosinski said: "To my horror they said we were going to have to take off our neckers and woggles. "I said, 'definitely not', I'm a scout and it's part of my identity. "We're scouts, we're one of the most respectable groups in the UK. What would Baden Powell think of this" Mr Kosi...  
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British Airways' chief executive and the joint leader of the Unite union, Tony Woodley, have held face-to-face talks to avert this weekend's strike.Sources at the Unite union told the BBC that contact "had been made" on Thursday in an attempt to resolve the action by cabin crew. BA declined to comment on a Press Association report that chief executive Willie Walsh had asked for the talks. Cabin crew are planning a series of stoppages, starting on Saturday. The industrial action has been condemned by Prime Minister Gordon Brown as "unjustified and deplorable". Cabin crew had rejected a BA cost-cutting plan that the airline says is necessary to reduce huge losses. A settlement proposal was withdrawn by BA when Unite declined to withdraw its strike plans. Unite's joint general secretary Tony Woodley had said that negotiations to resolve the dispute could be re-started if BA put the settlement back on the table. BA has announced contingency plans that will allow it to fly 65% of its cus...  
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The UK government borrowed  
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The former chairman of Anglo Irish Bank is being questioned by Irish police about alleged financial irregularities.Sean FitzPatrick stepped down in December 2008 after admitting he had concealed millions of euros in personal loans from the Dublin-based bank. He hid the loans from shareholders by temporarily transferring them to another bank before each year-end to avoid revealing them in the accounts. The bank became a symbol for the decline of the "Celtic Tiger" economy. Last year, Anglo reported the biggest loss in Irish corporate history when it made a loss of 4.1bn euros (  
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