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For British student Carly Connor a trip to London for a city break would be impossible if she had to pay for a hotel so instead she rents a room in a Londoner's home. Connor, 26, is among a growing number of people taking advantage of a surge in the number of homeowners offering to rent out a room for a night or longer, with the cash a welcome addition to recession-squeezed budgets. This new wave of hospitality sweeping the travel industry was sparked by the success of "couch surfing", where people could go online to book a free bed in a home, and is being led by a blitz of new websites that let tourists bypass resorts and hotels. "A lot of the time you find yourself with a host who is more than happy to point you in the direction of a few local hot spots that you otherwise would have missed entirely," Connor told Reuters. But the increasing popularity of peer-to-peer rentals has lawmakers on the alert in some countries, scrutinising tax, health and safet

Barclays Plc ( id="symbol_BARC.L_0"> BARC.L ), the first bank to settle with authorities over alleged manipulation of the Libor interest rate, on Monday won the dismissal of a U.S. lawsuit by shareholders who claimed they lost money because of the British bank's activity. U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin in Manhattan said investors who owned Barclays' American depositary shares did not show that Barclays and other defendants, including former Chief Executives John Varley and Bob Diamond, misled them about Libor or took too long to reveal potential liabilities. She also said the investors failed to show that alleged Libor manipulation between August 2007 and January 2009 caused them to lose money through June 2012, when Barclays reached a $453 million settlement with U.S. and European regulators. "The notion that the market would fail to digest three years of non-fraudulent submission rates and other more detailed financial information, and would inst

Long Island Power Authority, a state-owned New York utility company that was criticized for its response during last year's Superstorm Sandy, will see most of its operations taken over by a private company, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Monday. _0"> Public Service Enterprise Group Inc ( id="symbol_PEG.N_0"> PEG.N ), a private utility in neighboring New Jersey, will take over management of LIPA's operations next year. Lawmakers faulted a bifurcated system where operations were partly run through a services agreement with UK power company National Grid Plc ( id="symbol_NG.L NG.L ).   _1"> Sandy in October left more than 90 percent of the 1.1 million LIPA customers on Long Island without power, some for more than two weeks. LIPA's services agreement with National Grid is due to expire at the end of 2013. PSE&G was already set to take over as the system's operator but the governor's proposal will see that role expande

The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mary Jo White, is on board with calls for a broad review of the framework of the U.S. equity market, which has been roiled by software glitches over the past year, an SEC commissioner said on Monday. _0"> White, who took over the SEC in February, has not discussed the issue in detail and nothing concrete has been decided, Commissioner Daniel Gallagher said after 20 industry officials discussed equity market structure at a roundtable. "We haven't talked too much in depth on market structure issues," Gallagher said. "I know that she is on board with the idea that it is a huge issue and we need to resource it and come up with a plan. "We have to do a holistic review. Nobody is arguing against it," said Gallagher, who had urged a wide-ranging review of the U.S. equity marketplace in a widely commented speech in October. Monday's roundtable was convened by Representative Scott Garrett, a Repu

More than a dozen of the biggest U.S. banks have questioned a proposed accounting change meant to boost reserves for risky loans, saying the results would be vastly different from those of a similar rule being developed by global standard-setters. A key reform arising out of the 2007-08 global financial crisis, the proposal would require banks to look ahead and reserve for expected losses on the day a loan is made. Currently, banks do not have to reserve for risky loans until there are signs of a loss.   Reserves were criticized as being "too little, too late" during the global crisis, when major banks were buffeted by defaults on loans and other debt. Many had to be bailed out because they had not set aside enough for losses. Numerous banking regulators have called for more timely reserves, though critics have also warned that proposed accounting changes would make quarterly earnings more volatile as banks adjust their expectations for losses. In a letter to account

Goldman Sachs Group Inc ( id="symbol_GS.N_0"> GS.N ) shareholders should vote against the Wall Street bank's executive compensation proposal because the board has "failed to link pay with performance," proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis said in a report on Monday. Shareholders should also vote against director James Johnson, Glass Lewis said, because of his position as chair of the compensation committee and prior roles at public companies that suffered financial issues and scandals. In its criticism of Goldman's pay packages, Glass Lewis said the company sets short-term compensation on a "purely discretionary basis" that is not in shareholders' best interest. The Federal Reserve has been pushing Wall Street banks to use more formulaic metrics in determining executive compensation, Reuters reported in March. "We believe shareholders benefit when incentive awards are determined on the basis of metrics with pre-established goals and ar

1939 Jay-Z look-alike staggering American public! Do you believe in time-traveler? A black-and-white photograph found on the official page Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture featuring a male figure that is similar to Jay-Z. Yeah! The photo actually depicts a black man who is very similar to Jay- Z, so anyone who saw it would actually think that the man in the photo is Jay-Z himself. The photo was taken in 1939 recorded on the streets of New York. For your info, photographer who responsible for the photo is Sid Grossman that is known as one of the professional photographers of his era, so do you believe in time-traveler? A detail of the photo is a male figure leaning on a fence with a view straight at the camera. This photo is really amazing New York public today because it is very similar to Jay- Z, a rapper whose face often appeared in various media, TV, Internet, and newspaper. Many famous people are impressed by the photo, and one of them is A. Sylviane Diouf,