Ulster Bank staff members are expected to hold 15 meetings across the country to discuss concerns over further job cuts and branch closures at the bank.

The bank has now has 5,800 staff and they are concerned over the uncertainty in the bank's future plans. The bank's hundreds of thousands of customers are also concerned over the prospects for the bank, according to the Irish Bank Officials Association (IBOA). Ulster Bank, which is owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), announced that it is committed to the Irish market but pointed out that it will have a smaller presence in the market.

The bank did not announce the number of jobs that might

  The banking unit of the Virgin Group headed by Sir Richard Branson, will join other lenders this week to announce that it backs high bonuses for bankers in the UK.

Virgin Money is planning to announce higher bonus for its senior executives, a move that might be against new European rules. The bank is expected to announce that its board has approved a plan to award up to 200 per cent of the salaries of top executives as bonuses. The bank said that bonus decision is restricted under the new European rules.

The European Commission has ruled that banks cannot pay more than two times a banker's salary in bonuses. Bank of England governor Mark Carney has

  Financial experts and the supporters of online currency, Bitcoin are still confidence over the future of the currency even after the collapse of Mt. Gox of Torkyo, which was of the world's largest exchange for digital currency transactions.

The government said that it will look at factors that resulted in the closure of the exchange, which was the leading exchange for bitcoin virtual currency. The currency did not have much value earlier but its value increased significantly after online traders began using it for business purposes. The value of increasing popular cyber currency, Bitcoin has risen to the mark of $1,000 for the first time since it was created.

  Bangalore has become India's first city to receive an electric zero-emission bus. Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy launched the environment-friendly Rs2.7-crore bus in the city on Thursday.

Mr. Reddy acknowledged that the electric bus is very expensive, but he stressed that it would likely prove to be a good deal in the long-term. He expressed hope that price of electric buses would likely come down in the future.

Speaking on the occasion of the official launch of the electric bus, the minister said, "The bus costs about Rs2.7 crore and this is expensive. But this is one bus in the entire country. Once the demand for the bus goes up and more

  Los Angeles, Feb 28 : Actor Leonardo DiCaprio has purchased the former estate of singer/actress Dinah Shore in the Old Las Palmas neighbourhood of Palm Springs for $5.2 million.

The 39-year-old bought the Donald Wexler-designed home that is spread over 1.3 acres and features six bedrooms, a pool, tennis court and detached gym, reports hollywoodreporter. com.

The sellers, Ben Lipps and wife Jude, bought the estate for $4.9 million in April 2011. The home was offered for $5.5 million Jan 16 and was promptly purchased by the actor for $5.2 million.

"This is the quintessential mid-century modern home," said a local architecture expe

Weighed down by prolonged slowdown of the automotive industry, Germany-based engineering & electronics giant Bosch on Thursday reported a fall of more than 19 per cent in net profit for the October-December quarter.

Bosch said its net profit fell 19.22 per cent to Rs 138.98 crore in the three months ended December 31, 2013, from Rs 172.05 crore in the previous three months.

The company suffered the fall in net profit despite an increase 1.4 per cent in revenue, from Rs 2,132 crore in the third quarter to Rs 2,162 crore in the fourth quarter.  It may be noted here that the company follows January to December financial year.

Announcing the

Washington, Feb 28  : Astronomers have found the reason behind some spiral galaxies being fat and bulging while others being just are flat discs, claiming that it's all about how fast they spin.

The research, led by the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Perth, found that fast-rotating spiral galaxies are flat and thin while equally sized galaxies that rotate slowly are fatter.

ICRAR Research Associate Professor Danail Obreschkow, from The University of Western Australia, said that with this paper they've made a step towards understanding how this came about by showing that the rotation of spiral galaxies is a key driver fo

New Delhi, Feb 27 : Industrial conglomerate Mahindra and Mahindra Thursday rolled out its electric vehicle e2o in Bhutan.

The launch followed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that it entered with government of Bhutan.

"With the Mahindra e2o we are taking the lead in not only creating a comprehensive ecosystem to nurture sustainable mobility solutions, but also partnering Bhutan to redefine the future of urban mobility," said Pawan Goenka, executive director and president, automotive and farm equipment sectors, Mahindra and Mahindra.(IANS) Source: Top News  

  Employees of information technology services provider Infosys will receive much lower than expected pay increments in FY2015, according to some media reports.

Citing unnamed sources, the Business Standard reported has reported that Infosys told its employees in India on Wednesday that they would receive pay increments of 5-7 per cent in the next financial year. The reported increment is well lower than employees' average expectation of 10-12 per cent.

Commenting on the report, a senior analyst with a domestic brokerage house said, "Everyone was expecting at least 10-12 per cent more. Five to seven per cent is really low. Already the company is

  Arvind Saxena, managing director of Volkswagen India, is reportedly all-set to leave the German vehicle maker and join General Motors (GM) India as the new chief executive officer.

Mr. Saxena will replace GM India's outgoing managing director Lowell Paddock. GM Indian decided to move out its Paddock midway through his term months after a government-appointed committee accused him of a corporate fraud.

A company executive, with direct knowledge of the matter, said Paddock would be shifted to GM's International Office at Singapore.

Paddock, who had joined GM India around a couple of years back, was one of the managing directors unde

  Islamabad, Feb 27 : The economy of Pakistan grew at an average rate of 2.9 percent per annum during the last five years, the country's Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) said in a report.

However, GDP grew at 3.6 percent during 2012-13 financial year, against the fixed target of 4.3 percent, the Daily Times reported Thursday citing the report.

Sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing and services remained below their capacity.

The recent European Union (EU) approval of duty waiver in the form of awarding GSP PLUS status (Generalized System of Preferences Plus) brought some positivity to the economy of the country.

The ene

  General Motors India has slashed prices of its various models by up to Rs 49,000, thanks to the excise duty cuts announced by Finance Minister P Chidambaram in the interim budget for FY2014-15.

P Balendran, Vice-President of GM India, said the company reduced prices across models by Rs 12,000 to Rs 49,000.

GM India sells hatchbacks Spark, Sail, sedan Sail U-VA, premium sedan Cruze, multi-utility vehicles Tavera, Enjoy and premium sports utility vehicle Captiva.

The Indian arm of the U. S.-based car manufacturer also unveiled refreshed version of Chevrolet Beat. The base variant costs Rs 3.98 lakh, while the top model has been priced at Rs

                            Washington, Feb 21 : Facebook announced its WhatsApp acquisition plans for an eye popping 19 billion dollars and the market went dizzy with the initial sticker stock, however, the biggest question still remains whether mobile messaging eventually bring death to the traditional SMS text messaging.

Although, for Facebook, the deal means more user base, more penetration in emerging markets , but until the deal goes through, SMS stands no chance of vanishing so soon.

According to PC World, texting is simply too ubiquitous, and essentially tot

Washington, Feb 21 : Hewlett-Packard has reportedly surpassed its expected first quarter earnings and revenue as the PC business delivered sales growth amid enterprise demand.

The company's first quarter earnings reached 1.4 billion dollars or 74 cents a share, on revenue of 28.2 billion dollars, against Wall Street's prediction of 84 cents a share on revenue of $27.2 billion.

According to Cnet, on a constant currency basis, HP's revenue was up slightly, while non-GAAP earnings for the first quarter were 90 cents a share.

Meanwhile, the company said that it expected a second quarter non-GAAP earnings of 85 cents a share to 89 cents a s

  Washington: Social networking giant Facebook has reportedly acquired messaging application WhatsApp for a deal priced at a whopping 19 billion dollars.

The billion-dollar acquisition deal includes 183,865,778 shares of Facebook stock, worth 12 billion dollars and 4 billion dollars in cash along with 45,966,444 restricted stock units (RSUs) to WhatsApp founders and employees, amounting to an additional 3 billion dollars in value to the deal.

The billion-dollar deal is eye popping not just for the price tag involved but for the reach into Europe and emerging markets that Facebook aspires to have, Tech Crunch reports.

According to the report

  New York, Feb 19 - India's Ranbaxy Laboratories and Israel's Teva pharmaceutical Industries are set to settle over allegations that the two rival generic drug makers made an unlawful agreement to restrict competition, according to a media report.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman plans to announce the settlement Wednesday with US units of the two companies, the Wall Street Journal reported saying Schneiderman's office had confirmed the settlement.

As part of the deal, the companies will terminate an agreement not to challenge each other's rights to sell certain generic drugs exclusively in the US, the newspaper said.

London, Feb 19 - China was the largest gold market in the world for the first time in 2013, according to a report.

The report released by the London-based World Gold Council (WGC) Tuesday said the demand for gold in China set a remarkable new record of 1,066 tonnes, a rise of 32 percent year-on-year, reported Xinhua.

The consumer-driving demand of gold was largely attributed to the sharp fall in the gold price in the second quarter, it added.

Globally, the demand in 2013 declined 15 percent to 3,756.1 tonnes compared to 2012, while jewellery demand saw the largest volume increase since 1997 to full year demand of 2,209 tonnes, up 17 percent year-o

  New York, Feb 19 - Oil prices jumped Tuesday as traders expected cold weather in the US will boost the demand for heating fuel.

Consumption of heating oil is expected to surge as a winter storm swept across the northeastern US, Xinhua reported.

About 25 percent of households in the US northeast use heating oil to warm their homes, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The EIA is scheduled to release its weekly inventory data Thursday. US heating oil inventories dropped in the past several weeks.

China's credit growth increased in January, which also helped to lift crude prices. The market believed th

  Los Angeles, Feb 19 - Singer Noel Gallagher has been approached by a studio to make a film about band Oasis.

The band's former guitarist, who has barely spoken to brother Liam since their group split in 2009, has said that he is considering the offer, reports contactmusic. com.

Speaking at The Weinstein Company BAFTA after party Sunday, he told The Sun newspaper: "People have seriously approached me about that. It's something that's very strange but very tempting.”

"If it means I get to come here and watch Brad Pitt eat a bit of salmon, then I'll make a film a year if I can."

The 46-year

New Delhi, Feb 18 : The latest equity infusion of Rs. 5,500 crore into Air India by the government will be used for meeting day-to-day expenses, an airline official said Tuesday.

"The fresh equity infusion will be utilised for day-to-day expenses and other capital requirements of the company," the official told IANS.

"The infusion is part of the turnaround plan which is being adhered by the company. We are on track in completing all the parameters set for us under the turnaround plan and the equity
According to the official, who did not wished to be named, the fresh equity infusion will help the airline in bridging the revenue shortfall.