A roundup of today's other stories in brief.

US investors seek sizeable carbon cuts

Leading US financial investors joined some of the largest US companies yesterday in urging the US government to follow Europe by setting mandatory targets to reduce carbon emissions.

The group, which represents more than $4,000 billion (€3,004 billion) worth of investor capital, including funds managed by Merrill Lynch, Calpers, Allianz and Calvert, said Washington should end investor uncertainty by establishing "sizeable, sensible long-term cuts" to US carbon emissions.

The group, known as Investors and Business for US Climate Action, constitutes the largest array of US private-sector leaders that has so far come together to call for radical action on global warming. - (Financial Times service).

Late payments hurt small firms

Late payments are "crucifying" small firms, with 20 per cent of small companies waiting longer for payments than they were this time last year, business group ISME has claimed.

Only one in four companies are being paid for their goods and services within 30 days, with 28 per cent experiencing delays of 90 days or more. The average payment period in the Republic is 52 days, the group said.

ISME chief executive Mark Fielding said the longer waiting periods showed that legislation introduced to alleviate the problem five years ago was not being adequately policed.

Inquiry into UK cement industry

The British Aggregates Association, BAA, has brought in a specialist firm to investigate claims that the UK cement market is not operating properly.

The move is in response to a growing number of complaints about material shortages, high prices and a perceived lack of genuine competition among suppliers, the BAA said.The global supply of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) is now dominated by six international companies, among them the Irish company CRH.

Call for Brown to focus on key skills

A group representing small businesses in Northern Ireland has called on British chancellor Gordon Brown to tackle a lack of literacy and numeracy skills among school-leavers in his budget speech tomorrow.

In its pre-budget submission, The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), which represents 6,000 businesses in Northern Ireland, said the education system should provide people with basic skills and that this was not the role of employers.

"Onerous" employment legislation is putting businesses off employing people, the FSB said.