New streamlined workplace equality rules are due to be implemented.
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The national minimum wage has risen to ?5.93 an hour from ?5.80 and for the first time people aged 21 will benefit from the rate.
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The forthcoming shake-up of the NHS in England could undermine its stability and future, doctors say.
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The politician with the giggles, the man who loves swimming with a crocodile and the live TV heckler. It’s the week’s weird and wonderful video stories in Newsbeat’s Odd Box with Dominic Byrne.
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A Toronto anaesthetist is accused of sexually assaulting 29 women under his care, police in the Canadian city say.
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Computer maker Hewlett Packard (HP) names former SAP chief executive Leo Apotheker as its boss.
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The Freight Trade Association is unhappy at a fuel duty rise that will put 1p on the cost of a litre of petrol or diesel.
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Iran insists its nuclear ambitions are purely peaceful, but the US fears Tehran is pursuing weapons Four major energy companies are pulling out of Iran in order to comply with US sanctions, the state department says.
Royal Dutch Shell, Total, Statoil and Italy ENI will now avoid US penalties targeting companies which do business with Iran.
Naftiran Intertrade Co, based in Switzerland, will face new sanctions .
The US has tightened sanctions on Iran over concerns about its nuclear ambitions, which Washington fears are aimed at acquiring atomic weapons.
Tehran insists its nuclear programme is for purely peaceful purposes.
Recent legislation gives the US administration the power to penalise foreign companies which invest more than $20m ($12.7m) in Iran’s energy sector.
However, companies taking steps to comply with the law are exempted from penalties.
“People are increasingly reaching the conclusion that it’s simply not worth it to engage in activities with Iran,” Deputy US Secretary of State James Steinberg was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.
Other energy companies are under investigation for possibly breaching sanctions, but the state department has declined to name them.
Mr Steinberg described Naftiran – a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company – as a key conduit for cash into the Iranian oil industry.
In practice, US companies are already prohibited from doing most forms of business with Naftiran. But US officials say the extra sanctions will dissuade non-US companies from doing business with it.
This latest announcement comes a day after the US froze the US assets of eight senior Iranian officials accused of serious human rights abuses following the disputed presidential election in June 2009. They will also barred from travelling to the US and from doing business with companies there.
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President Correa told protesters the government would press ahead with reforms About 150 members of the security forces in Ecuador have taken over the runway at the airport in the capital, Quito, forcing it to shut down.
It comes as police and troops in the country stage protests over government plans to cut their benefits.
A bridge and main access road into the capital are reported to have been blocked by protesters.
President Rafael Correa has appeared before protesters at a barracks in Quito to appeal for calm.
He told them: “If you want to seize the barracks, if you want to leave citizens undefended, if you want to betray the mission of the police force, go ahead. But this government will do what has to be done.”
The troops and police are protesting against austerity cuts which would reduce their bonuses.
Television stations have shown images of police setting tyres on fire in the streets of Quito, Guayaquil and other cities.
The mayor of Quito, Augusto Barrera, said all flights were suspended from the Mariscal Sucre International Airport.
“Unfortunately a group of people have occupied the runway,” the EFE news agency quoted him as saying.
The unrest came as it emerged that Mr Correa was considering dissolving the national assembly after failing to pass economic reforms.
He would then rule by decree until elections could be held.
The move would have to be approved by the country’s Constitutional Court.
Policy Minister Doris Solis said it was “a scenario that nobody would want but it is a possibility when the conditions for change do not exist”.
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Two missing gas balloonists are either in a life raft or their balloon was hit by lightning and exploded, their ground crew say.
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