17/07/2013 World Business Report

and Israel. Those are the latest headlines from

BBC World News. Now for the latest financial news in World Business

Barclays again. Its fined nearly $500 million for manipulating the

electricity market in California. All eyes on Bernanke - the Fed

chairman gives his views on the health of the world's largest

economy and how soon he's planning I'm Sally Bundock. Also in the

programme: Profits triple at Alibaba - China's largest e-commerce

company. We'll have the details. British bank Barclays is once again

paying for the sins of its past. It's been fined nearly $500 million

by US regulators for manipulating energy markets in California and

other states from November 2006 to December 2008. It has 30 days to pay

the fine. Barclays has denied any wrongdoing, and says it will fight

the case in court. Michelle Fleury has the details from New York.

Barclays was's reputation has taken a blurred. -- are clays reputation.

They allegedly tried to read California's electricity market in

2006 and 2008. When traded his colourful language to boast how they

manipulated the market. Barclays said the penalty is without basis.

It intends to vigourously defend this matter. This is the latest

scandal to affect the bank. Regulators on both sides of the

Atlantic find the company over its role in the LIBOR scandal. This fine

is much bigger than the one it paid than.

It happens just twice a year but when it does, the financial world

sits up and listens. Chairman of America's Central Bank Ben Bernanke

will face US lawmakers today when he testifies on Capitol Hill. And it's

important he gets his message just right this time. When grilled by an

economics committee in Washington on May the 22nd the Fed Chairman made a

rare misstep and left markets confused as to when and to what

extent he will begin to scale back stimulus. Samira Hussain reports.

Gears are the future titans of Wall Street. -- these are the future.

They may only be high school students, but as members of the

future investors club of America, they are learning about the US

economy. I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn everything

when I am young. It would be valuable information. I have learned

all of the basics about stocks and what to do with your money. While

there is no better place to learn about stocks and Hugh on Wall

Street, these future investors also spent time in the classroom. As they

learn about its beginnings, the wider financial world is trying to

interpret the Federal Reserve's plans for the economy. They analyse

domestic and comic -- and economic conditions... The Federal Reserve

has been supporting this country's economic recovery by purchasing

bonds and keeping interest rates near zero. That means understanding

the US central bank has become pretty key to financial literacy.

The Federal Reserve bank has a big job. And so does its chairman. When

he makes his way to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, his message has to be

clear as he reassures investors. Although the Fed may start slowly

reducing its policies in the next few months, that will be a slow

process. Don't panic. It will take a long time and they will keep

interest rates very low for very long. He will repeat that message

over and over again. Ben Bernanke could take a lesson from these

students. Perhaps speaking to investors as if they are high school

students could he exhorted that clarity. -- could be that door to

that priority. Now let's turn to the shadowy world

of political lobbying. British Prime Minister David Cameron is expected

to bring out new rules today in an attempt to clean up the industry.

The bill will force political lobbyists to declare who is paying

them to try to influence government policy. It's not just an issue in

the UK. A recent report by Transparency International says that

only six countries in Europe have some form of regulation over

lobbying. In Brussels, it's estimated that up to 30,000 people

could be employed to influence European legislation.

With me is Kevin Craig, managing director of PLMR. That stands for

Political Lobbying & Media Relations.

Good morning. Tell asked what we are expecting in terms of these rules

today and if they will make any change. -- tell us. We do not know

what the bill would contain. It is not published yet. It is a long

overdue bill to force lobbyists to register that they are doing this

work in and around the British Parliament. A couple of huge

problems for the Prime Minister, who is a former lobbyist, we believe the

requirements will be only applicable to those working in consultancies

like mine. They will miss a huge raft of people who lobby in-house.

If they are going to ask professional consultancy personnel

is to register, the whole thing is pointless and it will miss the

intention that the coalition set out for it. Those of us who are not

inside the political world, as it were, we as she that there is

backhanders going on all the time. In the past, we had cash for

questions dramas. How bad is it? This whole notion of large amounts

of money being passed around in dark corners is a myth. As a lobbyist and

public relations person, I am fed up. The recent lobbying scandals has

been about dishes lobbyist trapping naive MPs and peers who lose their

senses for a moment. -- fictitious. Lobbying is how you make your case,

how to make the government to pass legislation declined your working

for once. What there is is a misunderstanding. In the last year,

public misunderstanding has gone up by 10%. Something needs to be done.

The coalition promised it. But the legislation we expect today is going

to miss the Pointe. America, which has an effective revelatory regime,

is the best examples so far. In Europe, 1500 amendments in the

current Tobacco directive. Many offers are worried that the British

legislation will miss the boat. -- of us are worried.

Coca-Cola is struggling to sell more soda. The world's largest beverage

maker says bad weather at home and flooding in parts of Europe caused

its profits to fall 4%. But demand for soda has been falling overall as

consumers become more health conscious.

Internet giant Yahoo continues to struggle, reporting declining ad

revenue in the second quarter of 2013. It made a profit of $331

million. That's up 46% on the same time last year, but it was due

mostly to the company's investment detail. It is China's largest

e-commerce company has seen its net profits triple in the first quarter

of this year. An impressive performance that's fuelling the

speculation the company is poised to announce it's ready to float on the

financial markets. Rico Hizon joins us from Singapore.

Nice to see you. Feel us in. numbers surprised many analysts. The

catalyst for this a lot performance is the online pay in system and

China's booming commerce. The company's public offering could be

around the corner. The chief executive said the firm is ready for

an IPO but has not decided when or where to invest the shares. But

ahead of the public offering, they made some key investments this year.

They invested in a travel website. It follows the into other

investments made by other companies. It bought an 80% stake in a Twitter