South Africa: Shooting At Anglo American Mine

Security staff have been attacked with machetes and nine miners shot with rubber bullets, in the latest wave of violence to hit a South African mine.

Police confirmed a shooting at the Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) facility in Rustenburg.

Anglo American later confirmed that no one was fatally injured. It confirmed that nine employees were injured after its security personnel opened fire with rubber bullets.

The mine is owned by London-listed Anglo American, which saw a 2.5% fall in its share price on the FTSE 100 when news of the trouble emerged.

Machetes were seen during separate disputes in the country in 2012

Police spokesman Thulani Ngubane said a stand-off, allegedly between rival unions National Union of Mineworkers and the Association for Mineworkers and Construction Union, had deteriorated and fighting broke out.

"They are fighting for occupancy of the union offices," he said and confirmed an unknown number of injured had been rushed to a mine hospital.

It had earlier been reported that security guards opened fire to break up rival staff.

The violence follows a two-month illegal strike last autumn at the same site, 70 miles northwest of Johannesburg, where police used rubber bullets as well as tear gas and stun grenades to dispel striking workers.

The continuing dispute is related to anger over Amplats' plans to lay off an additional 14,000 workers amid poor company results which recorded a loss of $225m (£143m) for 2012.

It is among several mining companies in South Africa grappling with higher expenses amid the worst industrial action the country has seen for decades.

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FTSE 100 Firms' Legal Liabilities Shoot Up

The amount of money Britain's companies have set aside to cover regulatory and legal costs has shot up, according to legal publisher Sweet & Maxwell.

It said the legal liabilities reported by the FTSE 100 companies jumped by 22% last year to £22.1bn - up from £18.2bn the previous year.

This reflects the amount companies set aside to cover regulatory and legal costs in 2013.

Aggressive fines are the main cause of the increase, Sweet & Maxwell said - rather than more legal cases between businesses.

The banking industry saw the sharpest rise following a year in which it was forced to pay out billions of pounds to customers mis-sold payment protection insurance.

Legal liabilities in the sector, which made almost 30% of the annual total, shot up from £991m in 2011 to £6.3bn last year.

But it was the oil and gas industry that was hardest hit, setting aside £8.1bn - although this was less than the £8bn clocked up in 2011.

The managing director of Sweet & Maxwell, Teri Hawksworth, said: "When the credit crunch started there was the expectation that legal liabilities would rise as commercial pressure led to more litigation between companies.

"What was not so widely forecast was that the biggest source of this pain would be from regulatory bodies."

These include the Financial Services Authority in the UK and the US Securities and Exchange Commission among others, she said.

Ms Hawksworth added that it remains to be seen whether the fines are a result of normal processes or because regulators and Government agencies are following public pressure to punish "big business" more severely.

Businesses are responding to the rise in these costs by broadening the role of in-house legal teams, she said.

"In-house counsel is moving from a role of just managing the costs of external law firms to clear up after a problem to taking a bigger role in ensuring that legal problems do not arise in the first place."

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Horsemeat: Minister To Meet Supermarket Bosses

The Environment Secretary is meeting supermarkets and food retail bodies to press for details on how they will restore the confidence of shoppers.

Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons are among those confirmed to be attending the meeting with Owen Paterson in Westminster.

They will be joined by the Institute of Grocery Distribution and the Food and Drink Federation.

It comes as a leading charity claims the Government was made aware that illegal horsemeat was in the food chain more than a year ago.

World Horse Welfare says it had a sit-down meeting with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in 2011, to flag up the problem of horse passports being faked to allow the animals to be slaughtered.

Roly Owers, the charity's chief executive, told Sky News that problems had been reported ever since the passport system was set up in 2005.

"We know that in November 2011 we attended a meeting where the issue of the passport system ... was discussed with Defra and local authorities," he said.

John Young, a former manager at the Meat Hygiene Service, now part of the Food Standards Agency (FSA), told The Sunday Times he helped draft a letter to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in April that year.

But he told the paper the letter to former minister Sir Jim Paice on behalf of Britain's largest horse meat exporter, High Peak Meat Exports, which warned that flesh with possible drug residue getting into food could blow up into a scandal, was ignored.

The FSA revealed on Friday that 2,501 tests were conducted on beef products, with 29 results positive for undeclared horsemeat at or above 1%.

The 29 results related to seven different products, which have already been reported and withdrawn from sale - Aldi's special frozen beef lasagne and special frozen spaghetti bolognese, Co-op frozen quarter pounder burgers, Findus beef lasagne, Rangeland's catering burger products, and Tesco value frozen burgers and value spaghetti bolognese.

Pub and hotel group Whitbread became the latest company to admit horse DNA had been found in its food, saying its meat lasagnes and beefburgers had been affected and removed from menus.

Horsemeat was also discovered in school dinners, with cottage pies testing positive for horse DNA sent to 47 Lancashire schools before being withdrawn.

The results of tests on further products are not expected to be available until later in the week.

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Reader's Digest Files For Bankruptcy Over Debt

The publisher of Reader's Digest has filed for bankruptcy as it seeks to cut its debt burden of $465m (£300m).

RDA Holding Company, which owns the 91-year-old magazine, launched the action in a New York court on Sunday.

It is the second time in nearly four years that the venerable journal, once a mainstay in doctors' surgeries and grandmothers' homes, has sought to stave off closure.

The publisher has struggled to remain relevant in the digital age amid a shift by consumers from print to electronic media.

It has also tried to sell-off non-core elements as it tries to focus on its US market.

"We have had an ongoing process to simplify and rationalise our international business by licensing our local markets to third parties, to other publishers, to other investors," Reader's Digest boss Robert Guth said.

"And that has been a big part of our effort to streamline the company and bring in proceeds to bring down debt."

The eponymous title has relied on a lucrative subscription customer base and is estimated to be read by 26 million people, with 55 million copies sold annually in North America.

The headquarters of Reader's Digest in New York state

The firm publishes 75 titles worldwide, including 49 editions of the digest and three other titles.

The owners of Reader's Digest first floated the firm in 1990 and it was bought by private equity firm Ripplewood Holdings in 2007 for $1.6bn (£1bn), which included some $800m in debt.

The purchasers were subsequently hit by a massive drop in advertising spends and subscriber drop off amid the global financial crisis.

The Chapter 11 filing was made in the US bankruptcy court in White Plains. The firm listed assets of more than $1bn (£645m) and debts of around $1bn ahead of equity restructuring agreed with Wells Fargo bank.

The final outstanding debt of $465m is forecast to be reduced by more than 80% to $100m by the end of the bankruptcy.

Chapter 11 allows US firms to reorganise under bankruptcy laws when it is unable to pay its creditors or service its debt repayments and empowers the trustee to operate the business.

If a separate Chapter 11 trustee is not appointed the debtor acts as trustee of the business.

As it seeks new life in the digital domain, the company said there had been over 450,000 downloads of its iPad app and cited its high ranking on the Kindle as positive signs.

"The much more modest debt level puts us in a position to continue to really execute these plans and push these brands forward well into the future, so it's a very good new lease on life," Mr Guth said.

"The Chapter 11 process, which will facilitate a significant debt reduction, will enable us to continue to redefine our business by focusing our resources on our strong North American publishing brands, which have shown a new vitality as a result of our transformation efforts, particularly in the digital arena."

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Heathrow Profits Soar Amid Fee Hike

Heathrow Ltd, the airport operator formerly known as BAA, has posted an 11.6% rise in full year profits amid a rise in airline charges.

Earnings hit £1.26bn from revenue of £2.46bn during 2012 following an average 12.5% increase in airport tariffs since April 2011.

The company said passenger traffic at London's Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, rose 0.9% to 70 million during the year, while traffic at Stansted fell 3.2% to 17.5 million.

Heathrow is operating at close to capacity and it warned this would limit the UK's ability to trade with emerging economies. There were 471,341 flights during 2012, just below its limit of 480,000 a year.

The group, owned by Spain's Ferrovial, last week announced a £3bn five-year investment plan for Heathrow, which could see passengers facing a rise in ticket prices.

The proposals include the opening of the new Terminal 2 next year, improved check-in and baggage facilities and more customer service training for staff.

The airport needs regulators to approve the plan, which will see the fees it charges airlines to use the airport rise over the period 2014 to 2019.

If approved, the charges would increase from the equivalent of £19.33 per passenger for 2012/13 to as much as £27.30 in 2018/19 - extra costs airlines have opposed.

Heathrow has been at the centre of a debate on the UK's aviation future, with a Government review led by Sir Howard Davies due to report in 2015 on the country's airport capacity amid opposition to the prospect of a third runway.

It is examining whether Heathrow or an alternative site would best serve the UK's needs.

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India Visit: Cameron Reveals UK Trade Plan

David Cameron has told an audience in Mumbai he will make it easier for businessmen and students to come to Britain - but in return he wants India to tear down barriers to investment from the UK.

He also launched another broadside against aggressive tax avoidance, warning that in return for low tax rates, businesses must be prepared to pay their fair share.

Mr Cameron is keen to drum up business for British firms in India, where he is leading the largest trade mission ever to travel overseas with a prime minister.

On the first day of his visit, the PM has also laid a wreath for police victims of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and found time to tweet a picture of himself playing cricket with local youngsters.

But there is a risk that his trip will be clouded by corruption allegations surrounding the sale of luxury AgustaWestland helicopters to India.

Mr Cameron announced the creation of a new "same-day" visa service for Indian businessmen and said there was "no limit" to the number of Indians allowed to study at UK universities and stay on in graduate-level jobs.

Mr Cameron laid a wreath for victims of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks

Speaking to workers at the Mumbai headquarters of the Anglo-Dutch Unilever group, Mr Cameron said: "Britain is one of the most open, easy-to-invest-in countries in the world. We are incredibly welcoming.

"I think, in return, we should be having a conversation about opening up the Indian economy, making it easier to do business here, allowing insurance and banking companies to do more foreign direct investment into the Indian economy."

He added: "We are looking with your government at whether we can open up a whole corridor between Mumbai and Bangalore of growing towns and developments, and work and plan that with you."

Mr Cameron is accompanied on his three-day trip by a delegation of more than 100 representatives of major corporations, small businesses and academic institutions, as well as football's Premier League, the London Underground and nine parliamentarians.

He said he may raise the possibility of India buying part British-made Eurofighter Typhoon jets over the French preferred bidder for a £6.4bn contract when he meets the country's prime minister and president tomorrow.

On tax, the PM warned: "I believe in low taxes. Governments should be trying to get their rates of tax down so they are competitive, but then I think it is only fair to ask businesses to pay them.

The Prime Minister has been speaking to Indian and UK business leaders

"The message to business should be, 'If we are cutting this rate of tax down to a good low level, you should be paying that rate of tax, rather than seeking ever more aggressive ways to avoid it'."

Mr Cameron also said the Conservative Party, British business and the judiciary need to do more to get women into senior positions.

He revealed that his wife, Samantha, has pressed him for action on the issue.

He said: "My wife likes to say that if you don't have women in the top places, you are not just missing out on 50% of the talent, you are missing out on a lot more than 50% of the talent - and I think she probably has a point."

The Prime Minister offered a message of support to British employees of helicopter manufacturer AgustaWestland, which has been mired in corruption allegations.

He said it was up to the Serious Fraud Office to decide whether it should investigate after the chief executives of AgustaWestland and its parent company were arrested, sparking fears that a £480m deal with India could be affected.

But he told workers at the company's factory in Yeovil, Somerset: "What I am telling people here is that AgustaWestland is an excellent company, with highly-skilled workers who make brilliant helicopters."

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Half Of Train Firms Lagging In Passenger Poll

More than half of train companies have a customer satisfaction score of 50% or lower, according to a Which? survey.

Overall, only 22% of train travellers feel their service is improving despite above-inflation fare rises in January.

Bottom in the 19-company satisfaction table was First Capital Connect, with only 40% of its passengers satisfied with its service.

The next least-satisfied passengers were those travelling on Greater Anglia trains,  with the company only scoring 42%.

Other companies where satisfaction levels were low included Southeastern (43% satisfied), First Great Western (43%), Northern (44%) and London Midland (45%).

Also below 50% were South West Trains (47%) Southern (48%) and Arriva Trains Wales (48%). The East Midlands Trains' figure was 50%, leaving 10 companies at 50% or worse and nine at better than 50%.

Top of the satisfaction table, compiled from responses from 7,500 regular train users, was West Coast main line operator Virgin Trains with a score of 67%.

First Capital Connect fared worse in the league table

London Overground was second with 65%, while the London to Tilbury and Southend company c2c and Merseyrail both scored 64%.

On London Overground, where new trains have been introduced in recent months, 60% of users said they felt the service had improved in the past two years.

But Which? said at the other end of the scale, a quarter of passengers reckoned they were now getting a worse service on London Midland where staff shortages have caused problems in recent months.

Which? said: "One First Capital Connect customer told us: 'The price has increased and the trains get more and more crowded. I never see any improvements for the extra money I am paying'.

"And a Southeastern passenger said: 'The prices are terrible, the service is bad and trains are often delayed, cancelled and dirty.'"

The survey also showed that 40% of train travellers are likely to reduce the number of journeys they make as a result of the recent price increases which have season tickets rise by an average of 4.2%.

But a third of commuters said they did not have an alternative way of getting to work and would just have to pay more.

Responding to the Which? survey, a spokesman for the Association of Train Operating Companies said: "The independent watchdog Passenger Focus surveys up to eight times as many people a year and last month reported 85% of passengers are satisfied with their service - a record high."

Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT transport union, said: "It is about time these basket-case private train companies like First Capital Connect were booted off Britain's railways for good and their franchises returned to public ownership.

"This current tolerance of these private rail spivs by the Government is reward for total and abject failure on an epic scale."

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Tax: HMRC Sends Out 850,000 Penalty Notices

By Pete Norman, Sky News Online

Tax officials are sending nearly one million penalties to taxpayers who failed to file self-assessment returns by the end of January, Sky News has learned.

By February 20, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will have completed a mail-out of £100 fixed fines to around 850,000 taxpayers.

The letters are being sent to those registered for self-assessment (SA) but who failed to file personal 2011-12 tax year returns online by January 31.

The penalty payments will boost HMRC coffers by around £85m. The late filing figure is down on the penalty number for the 2010-11 tax year.

But the final figure is expected to grow significantly as those who fail to pay the penalty and file returns by the three-month cut-off incur additional daily fines.

Around 60,000 late tax returns have already been lodged between February 1 and 15 - but those taxpayers are still liable to pay the £100 penalty.

An HMRC spokesman told Sky News: "Anyone who hasn't yet sent their 2011-12 tax return to HMRC will have already incurred a £100 late-filing penalty.

"Non-filers have to file online now to avoid further penalties or contact us to ask to be taken out of self-assessment, and provided they meet the criteria, we will take them out of SA and cull any penalties incurred."

The Tax Office expects to have finished processing all 850,000 penalty letters by February 20.

Most of those hit by the late filing penalty are expected to receive their letters within seven days.

HMRC has so far received approximately 9.76 million returns, both paper and online, for the 2011-12 tax year.

In the previous tax year, 80.9% of the 10.5 million SA taxpayers filed on time for the January cut-off.

Taxpayers who fail to file returns after three months are hit with a daily £10 fine up to a maximum of £900, along with the initial £100 fine.

Those who allow the filing delay to extend beyond six months are also hit with another £300 fine or 5% of the tax due, whichever is higher.

HMRC is then entitled to hit those who fail to file within 12 months to a tax demand up to 100% of the tax due instead.

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British Worker Kidnapped In Nigeria

Armed men in northern Nigeria have kidnapped a group of foreign workers including one Briton, Sky sources have confirmed.

A picture purportedly showing the hostages kneeling on the ground in front of several masked men holding rifles was released to Nigerian media.

The armed men abducted the seven foreigners after attacking a construction company camp and killing a guard, police said.

"From the report we have received, the hostages are seven in all. They include four Lebanese, an Italian, a Briton and a Greek," Bauchi state police spokesman Hassan Auyo said.

This would make it the biggest kidnapping yet in a region that is under attack from Islamic extremists.

Greece, Lebanon and Italy have all said their citizens are involved. However, Britain's Foreign Office has not confirmed if a Briton is among them.

The kidnapping on Saturday night happened in Jama'are, a town in a rural portion of Bauchi state.

The gunmen attacked a local prison first, burning two police trucks, another Bauchi state police spokesman, Hassan Muhammed told the Associated Press.

Then they targeted a workers' camp for a construction company called Setraco, which is in the area building a road, Mr Muhammed said.

The gunmen shot dead a guard at the camp before kidnapping the foreign workers, he added.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office in Britain said: "We are aware of the reports and are making inquiries with local authorities."

Sky's foreign affairs editor Tim Marshall said the Nigerian Islamist group that claimed responsibility for the kidnapping is a breakaway faction of the Boko Haram sect.

Known as Ansaru, the group is linked to al Qaeda and was blamed for a deadly attack on Nigerian troops travelling to Mali in 2012.

Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north has been under attack by Boko Haram in the last year and a half.

The country's weak central government has been unable to stop the group's bloody guerrilla campaign of shootings and bombings.

The sect is blamed for killing at least 729 people in 2012 alone, according to an AP count.

Foreigners have been frequently abducted by militant groups and criminal gangs for ransom in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta and have become increasingly targeted in Nigeria's north as the violence has grown.

Sky News Special Correspondent Alex Crawford said: "Nigeria, particularly the north of Nigeria, has got a big problem. It's the scourge of the country and has been for many years now.

"Local Islamist groups called Boko Haram have been largely responsible for carrying out the kidnappings.

"This is one of the militant groups who have operating inside Mali. They are one of five extremist groups who are believed to have been running operations inside Mali and around the Sahel."

Gunmen who authorities say have links to Boko Haram also kidnapped an Italian and a British man last year in northern Kebbi State.

They were later killed during a rescue operation by Nigerian soldiers backed up by British special forces. The sect later denied taking part in that abduction.

Chinese construction workers have also been killed by gunmen around Maiduguri, the northeastern city in Nigeria where Boko Haram first began.

Setraco Nigeria, a construction and civil engineering company, is a subsidiary of Setraco International Holding group.

The Nigerian company, which was established in 1977, is currently working on expanding a major road in the north of the country.

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Amazon Fires 'Neo-Nazi' Guards In Germany

Online retail giant Amazon has fired a security firm amid reports that foreign workers hired in Germany had been harassed and intimidated by guards with alleged neo-Nazi links.

An Amazon spokeswoman in Germany said on Monday the company had ended its relationship with Hensel European Security Services (HESS) "with immediate effect".

She added Amazon has a "zero-tolerance" approach to "discrimination and intimidation and expects the same of other companies it works with".

It follows the screening of a documentary last week by German broadcaster ARD.

The programme had interviews with seasonal agency staff who claimed they had been mistreated by employees of the security firm, whose initials spell out the surname of Adolf Hitler's deputy Rudolph Hess.

It showed how workers, mainly at a warehouse in Bad Hersfeld and from countries including Spain, were subjected to constant surveillance by the guards in black uniforms with shaved heads.

One woman from Spain claimed she was threatened by security staff and after complaining about their behaviour her contract was terminated the following day without any explanation.

Two guards in the film were shown wearing Thor Steinar jackets - a clothing brand closely associated with far-right politics in Germany.

The documentary claimed Amazon paid seasonal workers at its German packing and distribution centres less than advertised and that their belongings were regularly searched in the temporary housing they were provided.

It was also alleged foreign staff were initially promised direct jobs with Amazon. However, when they arrived in Germany, they were assigned to an agency and given contracts for temporary placements which they could not understand because they were in German.

German services union Verdi has long accused Amazon of paying its temporary workers unfair wages and going overboard on surveillance.

The US company, which has about 7,700 people on staff in Germany and hires additional temporary workers at peak times to work at its seven packing and distribution centres there, has come under mounting criticism since the documentary was aired.

It launched an immediate probe into the allegations and said it would not tolerate intimidation at its sites.

HESS also denied any wrongdoing. However, it confirmed its guards had carried out room searches.

"The accusation that our company harbours far-right views or supports them is false," it said in a statement.

On Sunday, Germany's employment minister Ursula von der Leyen called for a thorough probe into the claims. She warned any proof of wrongdoing could result in serious consequences for the temporary employment agency used by Amazon.

"There is a strong suspicion here which is why we need to lay all the facts on the table," she said.

"If the investigation shows there is something to the accusations against the temporary placement agency then its licence is at risk."

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