A round-up of today's other stories in brief.

Wal-Mart told to pay workers $78m

A Pennsylvania jury said yesterday that Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, must pay $78.47 million (€62.72 million) in damages to Pennsylvania employees for forcing them to work "off the clock" or during rest breaks.

A state jury in Philadelphia found in favour of Michelle Braun and Dolores Hummel, formerly employed by Wal-Mart, saying the company violated Pennsylvania labor laws by failing to pay employees for the work.

The jury found in Wal-Mart's favour on the charge that it denied workers meal breaks. It awarded about $2.5 million for off-the-clock working and about $76 million for lost rest breaks between March of 1998 and May of 2006. - (Reuters)

AIB phases out travellers' cheques

Travellers' cheques are being phased out by AIB, the Republic's biggest bank, from January 1st, 2007, due to declining demand.

The cheques, which were once seen as the safest way to take money overseas, have fallen in popularity in recent years as people turned to credit and debit cards and it became easier to withdraw cash from ATMs in other countries.

AIB said sales volumes of travellers' cheques fell by 95 per cent between 1998 and 2005 and it has seen a 50 per cent drop in year-on-year sales. The bank has seen a 40 per cent increase in the use of credit cards abroad between 2002 and 2005 and a 100 per cent increase in the use of debit cards overseas in the past year.

Smurfit School named in top tier

UCD Smurfit School has been named among the top 13 business schools in Europe and 38th in the world, according to rankings published yesterday by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

The survey lists the school, in Carysfort, as the only Irish business school in the world's top 100. The school moved up from 53rd place in 2005. Professor Tom Begley, dean at the school, said it was aiming to be in the top 25 by 2016.

Mortgage Shop moving to Republic

The Mortgage Shop, the largest independent mortgage broker in the North, is moving into the Republic in a bid to take advantage of any potential refinancings resulting from higher interest rates.

The group, which is responsible for arranging one in 10 mortgages in the North through its 25 branches, is aiming to open another 25 branches in the Republic over the next three years. It will start off with a Belfast-based call centre and hopes to open five outlets along the Dundalk to Dublin corridor in January. The outlets will be operated as franchises, connected to all the Republic's main mortgage lenders.

The move is being headed up by the group's chief executive Siobhan Mcaleer.

Bayer suspends two senior staff

German drugmaker Bayer AG said yesterday it had suspended two senior employees over the company's failure to provide US regulators with data on its heart-surgery drug Trasylol.

Bayer also said in a statement that it had hired an independent counsel to investigate its actions regarding the disclosure of the preliminary results from the Trasylol study.

The US Food and Drug Administration began reviewing the drug earlier this year after two other studies published in medical journals linked its use to kidney problems. One of the studies also said the drug could increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

The FDA sought advice from a panel of outside experts last month over how to address the potential safety concerns.

The advisers ruled Trasylol was acceptable for preventing blood loss in certain patients undergoing heart bypass surgery.