Italians Protest Against Pension Reforms
The cuts introduced by the government are part of efforts to bring Italy's debt under control. Al Jazeera's Claudio Lavanga reports from Rome.

State Pension Reform: £140 a Week for Everyone
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Pensioners are to receive a flat-rate universal retirement payment of £140 a week that will end the injustice of working mothers being penalised for taking a break to raise children, under reforms to be signalled by Iain Duncan Smith today.

The Work and Pensions Secretary will pledge to sweep away a host of complex rules and "fundamentally simplify" the basic state pension.

Insiders said Mr Duncan's Smith's intervention represents the start of a Coalition drive to replace the existing state pension regime with a "single tier" retirement payment.

Official estimates suggest that many women who take time out from work for family reasons are left up to £40 a week worse off by rules that base pension payments on National Insurance contributions.

Charities said a universal pension would "reduce fear for those approaching retirement."

In a speech to charity leaders and pension experts, Mr Duncan Smith will condemn the pension system as a bureaucratic mess that leaves many people confused and puts young people off saving. >>> James Kirkup, Political Correspondent | Monday, March 07, 2011

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Pension changes Q&A: who will win and lose? – News that the Government plans to introduce a universal state pension have been welcomed by many. It will replace the current hotchpotch of basic state pension, earnings-related “top-up” payments, plus additional means-tested benefits. >>> Emma Simon | Monday, March 07, 2011

Protesters to Hit France en masse
THE TELEGRAPH: Protesters are due to hit the streets in France en masse in the sixth such demonstration in two months against Nicolas Sarkozy's unpopular pension reforms.



Airport staff, bus and train drivers, teachers, postal workers and armoured truck drivers who stock cash machines will join refinery workers and others in a day of nationwide strikes against Mr Sarkozy's plan to raise the retirement age.

Fuel shortages will worsen as refinery strikes go into an eighth day, and the authorities will be alert for any escalation of sporadic violence on Monday in some cities, with small groups of troublemakers torching vehicles and scuffling with police.

A school in Le Mans, northwest France, burned down in the early hours of Tuesday after an apparent arson attack but it was unclear if the apparent arson attack was linked to the protests.

Michele Alliot-Marie, the justice minister, told Europe 1 radio the situation was not a crisis, but warned protesters that "the right to demonstrate does not mean the right to smash things up."

Tuesday's protests are a last-ditch challenge to the centre-right government before a final Senate vote this week on the pension bill, which the government says is vital to rein in a ballooning pension shortfall as the population ages. >>> | Tuesday, October 19, 2010