Headlines

Jobless Britons could be forced to do community work to keep their unemployment payments, Britain’s top economics minister said Monday, announcing the latest in a series of moves to tighten benefits rules and crack down on “welfare dependency," the International Herald Tribune reported. Under the plan, those out of work for more than two years could be required to take on tasks like cooking for the elderly or cleaning up litter to keep their payments. The initiative represents a significant hardening of policy in a country that once considered the idea of “workfare” taboo.

Irish voters are preparing to shutter one of the two chambers of parliament in a referendum that will take place on Oct. 4, one of the few examples of austerity reducing the number of politicians, The Wall Street Journal reported. Having survived in one form or another for an almost uninterrupted stretch of over 90 years, the parliament's 60-seat upper house now faces oblivion if voters decide by a simple majority to get rid of it. Opinion polls suggest that over 60% of those voting Friday will cast ballots for the 'Yes' proposition, sealing the fate of the upper house.

Three affiliates of embattled Tong Yang Group on Monday filed for court receivership as a last resort to avert bankruptcy after they failed to secure funds to keep afloat, the group said. South Korea's 38th-largest conglomerate said its three units -- Tongyang Inc., Tong Yang Leisure Co. and Tongyang International Inc. -- requested a court's order earlier in the day for a corporate revival process, Global Post reported on a Yonhap News Agency story.

Investors awaiting the finer points of Monte dei Paschi's restructuring plan could soon find themselves wishing their bank had run aground at another time and place in the euro zone financial crisis, Reuters reported. After approving more than 5 trillion euros of state aid to its financial system over the past five years, the European Union has switched the burden of bank bailouts away from taxpayers and onto shareholders, bondholders and big depositors.

Stimulus vs. debt reduction. That big question has tormented advanced economies in recent years, as they juggle attempts to lift sluggish growth with curbing unsustainable borrowing. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe this week will try to have it both ways, The Wall Street Journal reported. Brushing off warnings that Japan's nascent economic recovery, stirred by his own package of bold stimulus policies, is still too delicate to withstand austerity measures, Mr.

OGX Petróleo e Gás SA and OSX Brasil SA, the oil company and the shipbuilder controlled by Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista, will seek court protection within a couple of weeks, Veja magazine reported on Saturday without saying how it obtained the information, Reuters reported. Efforts to reach spokeswomen at OGX and EBX, the parent company of Batista's crumbling empire, were unsuccessful. A spokeswoman at OSX did not have an immediate comment on the report.

The Gathering has failed to halt the flow of companies in the Republic’s hospitality sector going to the wall, according to the latest figures, the Irish Times reported. Figures highlighted yesterday by the Insolvency Journal show show that 118 companies in the hospitality industry went to the wall between January and September, a 2 per cent increase on the same period in 2012, when the number was 116.

When Choi Jong Hyun found his 50 million won ($46,415) annual salary wasn’t enough to cover the 8 percent jump in rent for his Seoul apartment, he decided to cut back on stock investments rather than take on debt. “I would rather cash out the stocks I now hold and not pay additional interest,” Choi, 32, who works in the financial industry and has about 50 million won of investments, said by phone on Sept. 24. Investors like Choi are exiting South Korea’s stock market as rental costs climb to the highest level since at least 1986 and household debt rises to a record.

Hundreds of depositors here have been trooping to the Rural Bank of Hagonoy Inc. in Barangay (village) Guihing in Hagonoy, Davao del Sur for two weeks now in the hopes of withdrawing their hard-earned money but went home without getting a centavo, The Inquirer reported. Loloy Diabordo, Hagonoy town information officer, said most of those wanting to withdraw money were small time depositors – mainly laborers or sari-sari store owners. “What greeted them was a large-sized notice that the bank is now under receivership by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp.

The head of the euro zone's bailout fund has cast doubt on official assessments of how much Greece's debt is really weighing on its economy, in the latest signal that the currency bloc is stepping away from commitments to reduce the country's debt mountain.