April

"Spain created more than 400,000 jobs in 2014, a clear sign that the country is finally starting to emerge from its labour market crisis. Over the last 12 months, 434,000 jobs were created, bringing the overall unemployment rate down to 23.7%. It is the first such annual net job increase since 2007, when unemployment dropped to just below 8%. However, the collapse of the housing and construction sectors, followed by the euro-zone crisis, saw Spain 's jobless rate soar to 27% by the end of 2012. Deputy Prime Minister Soraya S�enz de Santamar�a said the new figures showed the reforms were paying off. ""This change in trend is the beginning of a new era, a positive sign for those Spaniards who are still waiting for an opportunity, and a sign that clearly shows that the objective of creating a million jobs between 2014 and 2015 is realisable."""

Two men who made and sold thousands of counterfeit identity documents to criminals and illegal immigrants across London have been jailed, following an investigation by the National Crime Agency. Medi Krasniqi acted as the 'broker ' for the pair, collecting information and payment from clients who needed fake IDs. Albanian national Arsen Meci was the forger, creating thousands of fake identity documents. The pair is believed to have charged their clients between ?80 and ?500 for made-to-order documents, depending on what was required. Both men pleaded guilty to conspiring to produce false identity documents, possession of false ID and money laundering charges. Meci was jailed for six-and-a-half years while Krasniqi got five-and-a-half years. Meci will also face deportation.

Durham Region Police have announced some welcome changes to the guidelines the force follows on criminal background checks. Starting Feb. 1, police will, in most cases, no longer release non-conviction records, meaning people applying for jobs or volunteer positions will no longer be adversely affected by any past involvement with police. The changes came about after much-publicized accounts across Ontario of people who lost out on jobs or couldn't become volunteers due to disclosures in police background checks about past brushes with the law, even if there were no convictions or even charges. The new guidelines aim to strike a balance between providing information about individuals applying to work with vulnerable people and the rights of those applicants to privacy and the presumption of innocence, members of the Durham police services board were told recently.