Across the world big businesses are worried about finding and keeping talent.
Good candidates may get more than one offer or be headhunted by a rival.
Chief executives tell leadership expert Steve Tappin about the best ways to recruit and retain staff.
An American journalist who was kidnapped and held hostage for several days last week by pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine has been describing his experiences.
Simon Ostrovsky says he was pulled out of his car and taken to the basement of a local security building by armed men.
He told Newsnight he was blindfolded, had his arms tied behind his back, and was thrown to the floor and beaten up.
Over 5 million - mainly customers of the Nationwide Building Society - will not be able to use the system fully until 2015.
The technology allows people to pay or receive money using a phone number, but without giving out their bank details.
All account holders need to do is to share the number of their mobile phone.
However around 30m customers of banks including Barclays, Bank of Scotland, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds, Santander or TSB will now be able to use the service, as soon as they have registered their mobile number with their bank.
Continue reading the main story
Register your mobile number with your bankUse payments app to select friend's mobile numberConfirm recipient, then press 'send'You can send up to £250 a dayYou still receive money, even if your phone is switched offNo need to give out sort code and account numberThey will be able to send up to £250 a day on their mobile phones through Paym, although some banks offer a higher limit.Computer problems Customers of RBS, NatWest, Ulster Bank, First Direct, Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks will be able to join the scheme later this year.
The RBS group has over 13m current account holders, and First Direct has 1.2m.
However those with current accounts at the Nationwide will not be able to make payments until next year.
Other banks, including Metro Bank and some of the smaller building societies, have not set a timetable for joining the scheme.
RBS, whose customers have faced a series of computer problems over the last year, said it was giving priority to improving its IT systems.
"We are prioritising the volume of system changes we are making to ensure we can deliver the best service to our customers. ," said an RBS and NatWest spokesperson.
The reluctance of some banks to be ready for the scheme's launch is not the only problem.
A survey from the market research company Consumer Intelligence suggests only a quarter of customers will be using it.
'Like a balloon'The survey, conducted earlier this month, claims that 47% of account holders will not be using Paym at all.
Their biggest worry is security.
"It's clear that the banking industry has a job to do educate many of them that mobile payments are a safe and consumer-friendly development," said David Black of Consumer Intelligence.
Others have warned consumers to watch transactions on their accounts very carefully.
"They will need to be vigilant and monitor their accounts to make sure that there is no suspicious activity, as with every advance in banking technology comes a new fraud risk," said Gabriel Hopkins of the from the data consultancy FICO.
"Fraud is like a balloon - if you squeeze it in one place, it bulges somewhere else - so banks need to stay alert and have the highest level of mobile fraud protection for customers," he said.
But the Payments Council, which is running the scheme, insists the technology is perfectly secure.
Customers still have to access their accounts through a banking app, which is password-protected.
Paym is a "safe and easy option", said Adrian Kamellard, the chief executive of the Payments Council.
Account holders can find out more from their bank's website, or by visiting the Paym website.
It is spacious, green - and oddly full of public clocks. The big steel factory - so vital to the rise and fall of this city - can be seen puffing out steam from the main shopping street.
Located in the east of Germany, close to the Polish border, Eisenhuettenstadt was built in the 1950s as a model socialist city by the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). And in many ways, the story of this town - once called Stalinstadt - is the story of East Germany.
In 1989 the factory employed 12,000 people. Nearly every family was in some way linked to it. After the fall of the Berlin Wall it was privatised - and now it employs just 2,500, leading many of the citizens of Eisenhuettenstadt to experience unemployment for the first time.
It is no surprise then that the young people have left in droves in search of work. The average age of Eisenhuettenstadt in its 1950s heyday was early 20s. Now it is approaching 50 and more than a third of the population is over 60.
Seventy-four-year-old Konrad Baldszus has lived there since 1966. He was among the lucky ones who successfully applied for work in the town after studying in nearby Dresden.
'Community feel'
Konrad Baldszus: In Eisenhuettenstadt since 1966 "I had a wife and two young children, so of course the nice new apartments were attractive to me. I also liked the job so I was very happy here," says Mr Baldszus.
"The work was better paid than in other parts of Germany because it was supported by the government."
Mr Baldszus is not misty-eyed about the old days. He was overjoyed when the Wall came down because it enabled him to see his son who had fled to the West. But there were some noticeable changes in day-to-day life.
"Before 1989 there was more of a community feel. We did more together - even if not always by choice. Now people are more focused on their family and their own lives," he adds.
Many of the buildings in Eisenhuettenstadt are disused 
A mural that dates back to the 1950s in Eisenhuettenstadt The ageing population in Eisenhuettenstadt is symptomatic of what happened in the former GDR more broadly. Post 1989, the country was left with a sharply diminished working population as the birth rate dropped dramatically and 1.1 million emigrants headed to the West, most of them under the age of 30.
'A bit surreal'Journalist and author Sabine Rennefanz and academic-cum-blogger Ben Kaden were part of the younger generation to leave Eisenhuettenstadt. They were both at school when the Wall came down.
Sabine Rennefanz left Eisenhuettenstadt for Berlin 
Ben Kaden, also now in Berlin, wrote a blog about Eisenhuettenstadt "I didn't know about it until the day after it happened," says Ms Rennefanz. "And to be honest, sitting at home watching the news and seeing people dancing on the Wall all seemed a bit crazy, a bit surreal. I grew up thinking it would be there forever."
Mr Kaden says: "Initially we were all very excited about what we could buy - Milka chocolate, Rittersport - brands that you couldn't get in the East."
Everyone from the former GDR got 100 deutschmarks when they crossed the border. Ms Rennefanz says that what you spent it on is still a point of discussion among East Germans today.
"I bought a purple Levi's jacket that I was very pleased with," she says.
From bottom-up to top-down
One of the many clocks around Eisenhuettenstadt But after the initial euphoria, Eisenhuettenstadt - and the former GDR - had to deal with the new reality of unemployment.
Ms Rennefanz says her father, who lost his job in 1990, never got over the experience of being made redundant.
"It was like an existential shock and one that he never recovered from. No-one was prepared for it. He was the main provider and suddenly there were money issues. But also just the practicalities of it were difficult - he didn't know how to fill in all the forms, what to do with himself.
"Even though he found work again he never really got over that strike in his life."
Mr Kaden adds that the reunification felt like a complete takeover of the East by the West. Suddenly people were told that everything they had done was wrong, their whole way of life was worthless.
"What started as a bottom-up movement ended up as a top-down order," he says.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on Germany's reunificationWolfgang Schaeuble, Germany's Finance Minister, was one of the key architects of reunification. As interior minister at the time, it was his job to implement it.
"Of course mistakes were made," he told the BBC, "but the biggest mistake would have been if we had not acted.
"There was no book in which you could read what should be done. In the end you have to be courageous enough to decide [to act]."
The West German government at the time made the decision to pour money into the re-integration. Exactly how much is not clear but estimates range into the trillions of euros [or deutschmarks at the time].
In a hurryMr Schaeuble points out that it was in the German constitution that if East Germany wanted to rejoin the West, they had the right to do so. And, he says, they were in a hurry.
"They felt they had been forced for 40 years not to live like their brothers and sisters in the West and they didn't want to wait a day longer.
"In the end it [reunification] worked... much better than anyone expected."
And it is true that East Germany has come a long way since then. From earning just 45% of their West German compatriots, East Germans now earn 70%. Emigration has reduced to a trickle.
And while it is difficult to see how Eisenhuettenstadt will recover its former glory, not even its citizens would want the Wall back.
"There may have been flaws [in the reunification]," says Mr Baldszus.
"But my wife and I, we were just so happy to see our son."
It Takes Two and the album of the same name were to be the band's biggest hits E-Z Rock, the Harlem DJ who found fame with rapper Rob Base with 1988 hip-hop track It Takes Two, has died aged 46.According to Rolling Stone magazine, the artist also known as Rodney "Skip" Bryce died on Sunday. The cause of his death has yet to be revealed.
It Takes Two enjoyed modest success on its first release but was later sampled by Snoop Dogg, Chris Brown, UK rapper Maxsta and many others.
Base paid tribute to Bryce on Twitter, calling him his "friend" and "brother".
The video for It Takes Two was partially set in a record store in homage to the turntable scene that spawned the band Rapper Biz Markie also took to the social media platform to mourn his death, saying he would "truly be missed".
Bryce and Base - real name Robert Ginyard - became friends at school and released their first single, DJ Interview, in 1986.
It Takes Two followed two years later, accompanied by a video in which E-Z Rock made a memorable dancing cameo.
Built around a "wooh-yeah!" vocal sample from Lyn Collins' 1972 song Think (About It), the track is known for its iconic couplet: "It takes two to make a thing go right / It takes two to make it outta sight."
The song initially peaked at 36 in the Billboard Hot 100 but went on to sell more than a million copies.
Methane hydrate, or fire ice, is a highly energy-intensive fuel source The world is addicted to hydrocarbons, and it's easy to see why - cheap, plentiful and easy to mine, they represent an abundant energy source to fuel industrial development the world over.The side-effects, however, are potentially devastating; burning fossil fuels emits the CO2 linked to global warming.
And as reserves of oil, coal and gas are becoming tougher to access, governments are looking ever harder for alternatives, not just to produce energy, but to help achieve the holy grail of all sovereign states - energy independence.
Some have discovered a potential saviour, locked away under deep ocean beds and vast swathes of permafrost. The problem is it's a hydrocarbon, but unlike any other we know.
Huge reservesOtherwise known as fire ice, methane hydrate presents as ice crystals with natural methane gas locked inside. They are formed through a combination of low temperatures and high pressure, and are found primarily on the edge of continental shelves where the seabed drops sharply away into the deep ocean floor, as the US Geological Survey map shows.
And the deposits of these compounds are enormous. "Estimates suggest that there is about the same amount of carbon in methane hydrates as there is in every other organic carbon store on the planet," says Chris Rochelle of the British Geological Survey.
In other words, there is more energy in methane hydrates than in all the world's oil, coal and gas put together.
By lowering the pressure or raising the temperature, the hydrate simply breaks down into water and methane - a lot of methane.
One cubic metre of the compound releases about 160 cubic metres of gas, making it a highly energy-intensive fuel. This, together with abundant reserves and the relatively simple process of releasing the methane, means a number of governments are getting increasingly excited about this massive potential source of energy.
Technical challengesThe problem, however, is accessing the hydrates.
Quite apart from reaching them at the bottom of deep ocean shelves, not to mention operating at low temperatures and extremely high pressure, there is the potentially serious issue of destabilising the seabed, which can lead to submarine landslides.A greater potential threat is methane escape. Extracting the gas from a localised area of hydrates does not present too many difficulties, but preventing the breakdown of hydrates and subsequent release of methane in surrounding structures is more difficult.
And escaping methane has serious consequences for global warming - recent studies suggest the gas is 30 times more damaging than CO2.
These technical challenges are the reason why, as yet, there is no commercial-scale production of methane hydrate anywhere in the world. But a number of countries are getting close.
'Enormous potential'The US, Canada and Japan have all ploughed millions of dollars into research and have carried out a number of test projects, while South Korea, India and China are also looking at developing their reserves.
The US launched a national research and development programme as far back as 1982, and by 1995 had completed its assessment of gas hydrate resources. It has since instigated pilot projects in the Blake Ridge area off the coast of South Carolina, on the Alaska North Slope and offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, with five projects still running.
"The department continues to do research and development to better understand this domestic resource... [which we see] as an exciting opportunity with enormous potential," says Chris Smith of the US Department of Energy.
The US has worked closely with Canada and Japan and there have been a number of successful production tests since 1998, most recently in Alaska in 2012 and, more significantly, in the Nankai Trough off the central coast of Japan in March last year - the first successful offshore extraction of natural gas from methane hydrate.
'Game changer'Of all the countries actively researching methane hydrate, Japan has the greatest incentive. As Stephen O'Rourke, of energy consultants Wood Mackenzie, says: "It is the biggest importer of gas in the world and has the highest gas import bill as a result."
However, he points out that at just $120m (£71m; 87m euros) a year, the Japanese government's annual budget for research into gas hydrates is relatively low.
Continue reading the main story Methane hydrate is in the form of a 3D ice structure with natural gas locked insideThe substance looks like white ice, but it does not behave like itIf methane hydrate is either warmed or depressurised, it will break down into water and natural gasThe energy content of methane occurring in hydrate form is immenseIn the Gulf of Mexico, gas hydrate resources have recently been assessed at more than 6,000 trillion cubic feetSource: US Department of Energy
The country's plans to establish commercial production by the end of this decade do, then, seem rather optimistic. But longer-term, the potential is huge."Methane hydrate makes perfect sense for Japan and could be a game changer," says Laszlo Varro of the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Elsewhere, incentives to exploit the gas commercially are, for now, less pressing. The US is in the middle of a shale gas boom, Canada also has abundant shale resources, while Russia has huge natural gas reserves. In fact, Canada has put its research into methane hydrate on hold, and deferred any additional funding.
China and India, with their rampaging demand for energy, are a different story, but they are far behind in their efforts to develop hydrates.
"We have seen some recent progress, but we don't foresee commercial gas hydrate production before 2030," says Mr O'Rourke.
Indeed, the IEA has not included gas hydrates in its global energy projections for the next 20 years.
'Mad Max movie'But if resources are exploited, as seems likely at some point in the future, the implications for the environment could be widespread.
It is not all bad news - one way to free the methane trapped in ice is pumping in CO2 to replace it, which could provide an answer to the as yet unsolved question of how to store this greenhouse gas safely.
But while methane hydrate may be cleaner than coal or oil, it is still a hydrocarbon, and burning methane creates CO2. Much depends of course on what it displaces, but this will only add to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Methane hydrates are found mainly under ocean seabeds and Arctic permafrost However, this may be a far better option than the alternative. In fact, we may have no choice.
As global temperatures rise, warming oceans and melting permafrost, the enormous reserves of methane trapped in ice may be released naturally. The consequences could be a catastrophic circular reaction, as warming temperatures release more methane, which in turn raises temperatures further.
"If all the methane gets out, we're looking at a Mad Max movie," says Mr Varro.
"Even using conservative estimates of methane [deposits], this could make all the CO2 from fossil fuels look like a joke.
"How long can the gradual warming go on before the methane gets out? Nobody knows, but the longer it goes on, the closer we get to playing Russian roulette."
Capturing the methane and burning it suddenly looks like rather a good idea. Maybe this particular hydrocarbon addiction could prove beneficial for us all.
The most high-profile of the schools caught up in the claims, Park View, has rejected the allegations Right now, there are four investigations going on into Birmingham schools, following on from the so-called "Trojan Horse" letter. That document claimed to outline a plot by Muslim hardliners to take over some Birmingham schools.Ofsted, the Department for Education (DfE), West Midlands Police and Birmingham City Council are, between them, looking at 25 schools. Reports from those investigations are starting to seep out. But it is worth quickly recapping where we now are:
• The focus is not on a "conspiracy". The "Trojan Horse" letter is now widely assumed to be a forgery, and appears to have been written to alarm people. (If the document is genuine, the plotters are not competent). Even so, it highlighted real concerns.
• There is worry - principally among some local liberal Muslims - about the influence of some religious conservatives in schools. In Birmingham, the majority of Muslims are from the relatively relaxed Barelvi grouping. The conservatives attend mosques that are described as Salafi, Wahabi and Deobandi.
• There is also a particular focus on one clique of friends. The chair of governors and head teacher at Park View School are the core of a group of about a dozen people who are local governors and teachers. Inspections will need to deal with claims of nepotism (NB - teachers always think there is nepotism going on).
• Some of the schools are definitely now socially conservative. There is, however, parental support for that attitude. You can see that in how heavily subscribed Park View School is, for example.
• Lots of non-Muslims in the city support the schools. For some, such as their fans at the council, it is because they want schools to cater to what parents want. For others, including some who work in the schools, it is because they think the ethos helps drive up results. And Park View, in particular, gets spectacularly strong results.
• But hardline religious conservatism alone can cause problems. If a school's centre of gravity is far off-centre, it may attract staff with rather odd, extreme views. Newsnight has revealed how some teachers at Park View School had - contrary to school policy - taught creationism as science and that wives had no right to refuse sex to their husbands.
Chris Cook speaks to teachers from Park View School• There is also concern that hard-line conservatism can create the underpinnings for radicalisation. Newsnight has also revealed that three people at Birmingham schools - two at Park View - were reported to the authorities in 2010 for having crossed into extremism.
• That potential for crossover is also why the authorities do not treat Islam as it does other religions. The past few weeks has reaffirmed that. Recent examples of Jewish creationism, for example, have not fostered the same concerns. They are dealt with in a very different way.
• The government spends a lot of money in the West Midlands on counter-extremism. This machinery has been monitoring some of the people involved in this story for years. That explains part of why there is hostility among officials to Peter Clarke, the DfE's investigator into the issue. He's stepping on a lot of toes. The fact that his background is in counter-terrorism has annoyed local Muslims, too, who see this as an issue about the role of religion in schools.
It is worth pointing out a few other things:
• This is turning into another argument about academies. Labour wants to point out that academies - all 3,849 of them - are monitored from Whitehall. And the DfE is struggling with this role. Some of the schools being investigated, however, are under LA oversight.
• The events in Birmingham highlight a dilemma for school choice advocates. Setting aside the more extreme stuff, the atmosphere at some of these schools is what some parents are after. There is strong demand for a traditional moral core to local schools.
• Parental choice goes beyond the state sector. Some local parents wouldn't trust more liberal schools. This would affect girls, in particular. Blunt secularisation might lead to more pupils going to one of the nine private Muslim girls' schools in Birmingham - which are less liberal.
• The English school system is quite weird. In some cases, what is alleged to be happening would be acceptable or expected in faith state schools, but not in a normal school. In those cases, some of these worries might feel more like legal pedantry than a grand scandal.