News Headlines - 23 March 2013
▽Syria chemical weapons: finger pointed at jihadists - Telegraph
A Syrian Army source gives the first account of what is believed to have been a chemical attack - and it could mean that one of the West's biggest fears is about to come true. Channel 4's Alex Thomson reports.
▽Cyprus prepares a 20 per cent levy on some of the island's big savers - Telegraph
Cyrpus is preparing to seize up to a fifth of the value of wealthy savers’ bank accounts in a desperate attempt to stave off financial meltdown.
▽Boris Berezovsky: The rise and fall of an oligarch - Telegraph
Once a mathematics professor in the Soviet era, earning a pittance, he became one of the richest men in the world, a flamboyant billionaire who helped put two presidents in the Kremlin. He became the enemy of one of them and was forced into exile. He lived in a world of limousines and private jets, penthouses and country estates, bodyguards and lawyers – but the details of his life were laid bare in a court room in London two years ago, when Berezovsky sued his former friend, Roman Abramovich, for breach of trust and breach of contract.
Teachers will demand the resignation of chief schools inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw after what they claim have been "a stream of negative and inaccurate comments" about their performance in the classroom. The demand will be made at the National Union of Teachers' annual conference next weekend when delegates will also debate a motion calling for a boycott of school inspections by education standards watchdog Ofsted.
▽E-commerce in China: The Alibaba phenomenon | The Economist
ON ITS way to becoming the world’s biggest economy, China is passing another landmark. Its e-commerce market is overtaking America’s. And one giant firm dominates the market: Alibaba, by some measures already the world’s largest e-commerce company. Last year two of Alibaba’s portals together handled 1.1 trillion yuan ($170 billion) in sales, more than eBay and Amazon combined. Alibaba is on track to become the world’s first e-commerce firm to handle $1 trillion a year in transactions (see article). Yet despite such extraordinary success, many people outside China have barely noticed the rise of this privately held behemoth.
