Trains fiasco ‘to cost taxpayer’

6 December 2012 Last updated at 20:43 ETThe collapse of the £5bn West Coast Main Line deal will bring “a significant cost to the taxpayer”, a National Audit Office report has found.The government scrapped its decision to award the franchise to FirstGroup in October, owing to faulty calculations.It has already estimated the cost of reimbursing four firms for the cost of their bids would be £40m.The...

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Toronto mayor to stay in power pending appeal of ouster

TORONTO (Reuters) – Toronto Mayor Rob Ford can stay in power pending an appeal of a conflict of interest ruling that ordered him out of his job as leader of Canada’s biggest city, a court ruled on Wednesday.Madam Justice Gladys Pardu of the Ontario Divisional Court suspended a previous court ruling that said Ford should be ousted. Ford’s appeal of that ruling is set to be heard on January 7, but a...

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Casio’s new G-Shock smartwatch can display alerts from your iPhone [video]

Since the Dick Tracy cartoon days, every gadget nerd’s dream has been to have a smartwatch. And while smartphones have largely made the need for wearing wristwatches unnecessary, companies continue to search for ways to connect watches and smartphones. Casio’s GB6900AA G-Shock is the latest smartwatch that connects to Apple (AAPL) iPhone 4S and iPhone 5. Using Bluetooth 4.0, the watch can provide...

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Grammys spread the love with 6 top nominees

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Grammy Awards celebrated the diversity of music as six different artists tied for lead nominee — Kanye West, Jay-Z, Frank Ocean, Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, Mumford & Sons and fun.Auerbach received five nominations as a member of the Keys and also is up for producer of the year, earning a spot with the others at the top of the list as the Grammy’s primetime television...

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Researchers say form of Ecstasy may heal combat trauma

CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) – A South Carolina psychiatrist and his wife, a nurse, have taken an uncommon, controversial approach to helping war veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder by treating them with MDMA, a pure form of the party drug known as Ecstasy.Their studies have found that the psychoactive stimulant decreases fear and defensiveness while increasing trust in...

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Working families ‘hit by changes’

5 December 2012 Last updated at 23:43 ETWorking families from poorer backgrounds will be hit hard by changes to tax and benefits announced in the Autumn Statement, Labour has said.A working family with children on £20,000 a year would lose £279 a year from April, the party said.Meanwhile, the Fitch agency has said the UK’s AAA rating is under threat after the chancellor said the coalition would miss...

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Death toll from Philippine typhoon nears 300

NEW BATAAN, Philippines (AP) — Stunned parents searching for missing children examined a row of mud-stained bodies covered with banana leaves while survivors dried their soaked belongings on roadsides Wednesday, a day after a powerful typhoon killed nearly 300 people in the southern Philippines.Officials fear more bodies may be found as rescuers reach hard-hit areas that were isolated by landslides,...

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HTC, Apple ordered to show which patents were included in their settlement agreement

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Netflix to get Disney films in TV distribution deal

(Reuters) – Walt Disney gave a much needed boost to Netflix, becoming the first major Hollywood studio to use the video service to bypass premium channels like HBO that traditionally controlled the delivery of movies to TV subscribers.News of the deal, which enables Netflix to stream Disney‘s first-run movies to its subscribers, boosted Netflix shares by 14 percent.Liberty Media Corp, whose Starz...

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Women can tell a cheating man just by looking at them: study

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Women can tell with some accuracy whether an unfamiliar male is faithful simply by looking at his face, but men seem to lack the same ability when checking out women, according to an Australian study published on Wednesday.In a paper that appeared in the journal Biology Letters, the researchers found that women tended to make that judgment based on how masculine-looking the man...

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