Egypt prosecutor offers to resign

17 December 2012 Last updated at 22:31 GMT Judges and other legal officials were reported to be among those who were calling for the resignation Egypt's new public prosecutor has offered to resign from his post after protests about his appointment.

Talaat Ibrahim was appointed by President Mohammed Morsi last month after his predecessor was sacked.

The move prompted anger among members of the judiciary who saw the sacking of Abdel Maguid Mahmoud as an attack on their independence.

Judges and officials had demonstrated outside Mr Ibrahim's office on Monday, called on him to stand down.

Security forces prevented a group of the protesters from going into the office to demand a meeting, state-owned al-Ahram newspaper said.

More than 1,300 judicial workers who had gathered outside his office greeted news of the resignation letter with cries of: "God is Great! Long live justice!", Reuters news agency reports.

Controversial constitution

Mr Ibrahim had been given the job of re-examining all investigations into the deaths of protesters when ex-President Hosni Mubarak was in power.

In his letter of resignation to the Supreme Judicial Council, published by the Mena state news agency, he said he wished to "return to his work in the judicial system".

Mr Ibrahim had been in his job a matter of weeks

His resignation is expected to be presented before the Council next Sunday, a day after a final round of voting in a referendum on Egypt's controversial draft constitution.

The first round of the referendum was held over the weekend, with many judges boycotting supervision of the vote.

Opponents say the constitution has been rushed through and fails to protect the rights of minorities, particularly women.

There are growing tensions between President Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood supporters on one side, and his mainly secular political opponents and the judiciary on the other.

Mr Morsi adopted sweeping new powers in a decree on 22 November, stripping the judiciary of any power to challenge his decisions.

One of his first decisions was to sack Mr Mahmoud - first appointed as chief prosecutor by Mr Mubarak.

The decree spurred nationwide protests and clashes between Mr Morsi's supporters and opponents.

Under pressure, the president revoked the decree but kept the new prosecutor-general in place.

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Wonga offers loans at web checkouts

17 December 2012 Last updated at 12:57 GMT Wonga has been criticised for sponsoring football clubs and websites Online loans company Wonga has begun offering "buy now, pay later" services directly on retailers' websites.

Until now, loans from Wonga, which have been highly criticised due to an annual interest rate of 4,214%, have been available only through its own site.

The company has partnered with furniture firm Cotswold Company to launch its Paylater service.

A spokesman for Wonga said it intended to roll out the service to other retailers soon.

"Essentially, Paylater is providing an alternative to credit cards," he said.

"It takes the cost of your purchase, you pay an upfront fee of 7%, then there are three payments over subsequent months that cover the outstanding costs."

It means for an item that costs £100, a buyer will pay an initial fee of £7, followed by three monthly payments of £33.33.

'Legal loan shark'

The interest rates on Paylater are considerably lower than on its core business - short-term "pay-day" loans.

This side of Wonga's business has been highly criticised, with one MP calling the company a "legal loan shark".

Stella Creasy, Labour MP for Walthamstow, also led a campaign to have the firm's advertisements taken off the websites of teams in the Football League.

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Consumers should familiarise themselves with exactly how much they may have to pay back in charges”

End Quote StepChange Debt advice charity In May, Wonga was criticised by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) for using aggressive and misleading debt collection methods.

Speaking on Wonga's latest offering, debt advice charity StepChange told the BBC: "As with any form of credit, StepChange debt charity would urge people to carefully consider whether they absolutely need to use it.

"Crucially, consumers should familiarise themselves with exactly how much they may have to pay back in charges, interest and fees, and whether they can afford to make those repayments."

US expansion

Wonga's move will see it come into direct competition with the likes of Visa, Mastercard and other credit card companies that have taken their services online.

The planned expansion comes ahead of speculation that Wonga has its sights set on breaking into the US market as soon as possible.

A report in the Times newspaper earlier this month suggested Wonga had made a swoop to buy On Deck Capital, a US specialist online retailer.

But a Wonga spokesman dismissed the report as "rumours and speculation".

In 2011, Wonga chief executive Errol Damelin signalled his intent to expand the loan service worldwide.

"We built a platform that is definitely extendable and over time we will definitely be expanding the reach of the business to bring the service to customers around the world," he said during an interview with financial news service Bloomberg.

"The US has very particular regulatory constraints which make it an awkward market at the moment. We continue to look at the space and we will try and find a way to be able to bring the service to US consumers whenever we can."

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