London (CNN) — Gas prices might have breached the $4 per gallon mark in the U.S., but there won’t be much sympathy for the American plight in Europe. In fact, that U.S. price of £2.52 a gallon looks highly affordable compared to the UK’s current average cost of £6.22 ($9.85).

In some places here you’ll pay an eye-watering £7.27 ($11.52) for a gallon of super unleaded. And prices throughout the rest of Europe are similarly high. But it is worth sparing a thought for the hard-pressed Norwegians who’ll pay £7.28 ($11.54) for a gallon of the regular stuff across their country.

If the price of oil was the only factor to dictate the expense of gas it wouldn’t be such a bitter pill. But

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New graduates have become a key market for Siam Commercial Bank as it expands its credit-card base this year, says executive vice-president Araya Phuphanich.

“Also, the high revolving rate of the new customer group will contribute to better income in the unsecured loan business,” Ms Araya said.

The bank’s total credit card base is about 2 million, with a planned increase of 150,000 cards this year, of which 100,000 would be for younger customers.

SCB will mainly focus on first-jobbers under 30 years old who earn 15,000-30,000 baht per month.

Ms Araya said the new client group would partly originate from the bank’s existing 12 million deposit customers, of which about 6 million are in the bank’s target range in terms of age.

Upper-income clients who earn at least 40,000 baht a month are the bank’s largest group, representing 60-65% of its total credit card base.

The younger generation represents 5% of card holders.

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America consumers say they continue to strongly favor solar power, wind turbines and greener cars as energy solutions, but their overall support for clean energy concepts is eroding, Pike Research finds.

The slippage is among the more striking trends seen in the latest Energy & Environment Consumer Survey from Pike, which annually queries U.S. adults about  their perceptions and awareness of energy concepts.

From 2009 to 2011, the average favorability rating for various solutions fell from an initial 50 percent to 43 percent, according to recently released findings of a survey conducted late last year.

Solar power, wind energy, hybrids and electric cars are the four most favored concepts for a third year in a row.

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Paris (CNN) — Police in France on Tuesday were questioning former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn as they investigated an alleged prostitution ring that may have operated out of two French hotels.

Strauss-Kahn has been urging authorities since September to question him over his alleged involvement in the ring, saying it would help clear his name.

His attorneys released a statement in November saying Strauss-Kahn wanted to address the so-called “media lynching” that he says falsely links him to sex parties with prostitutes in Europe and the United States.

The attorneys’ statement called the allegations against Strauss-Kahn “unhealthy, sensationalist and not without a political agenda.”

Strauss-Kahn attorney Henri Le Clerc acknowledged in an interview with radio station Europe1 in December that his client attended such sex parties, but said Strauss-Kahn was unaware the women in attendance were prostitutes.

“I challenge you to distinguish a naked prostitute from a ‘woman of the world’ who is naked,” he told the station.

Another lawyer, Frederique Beaulieu, accompanied Strauss-Kahn to the police station in Lille Tuesday, but did not make any comment, a police spokesman in the northern French city said.

The questioning was going on behind closed doors, and was extended Tuesday night for another 24 hours by the magistrate police.

His lawyers in Paris could not be reached for comment Tuesday because they had traveled to Lille.

Strauss-Kahn has been linked with a number of sex scandals in the past year — one of which torpedoed his expected plan to run for the French presidency this year — but he has not been convicted of any crime.

He stepped down from the top job at the IMF after a New York hotel maid accused him of sexual assault and attempted rape in May.

The case ultimately fell apart after the alleged victim posed significant credibility issues for prosecutors, despite forensic evidence that showed a sexual encounter had occurred.

The prostitution probe, nicknamed the “Carlton Affair” by the French press, kicked off in October.

It centers around the city of Lille, where investigators began looking into claims that luxury hotels, including the Carlton, served as a base for a high-profile prostitution network.

While prostitution is not illegal in France, profiting from profiting from the prostitution of another person is against the law, according to the French Penal Code.

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The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) selected Thai Life Insurance Co to provide life coverage for the bank’s 2.6 million good debtors.

BAAC president Luck Vajananawat (middle), chaired the signing function between the bank’s vice-president Ouychai Akaravanitlert (left) and Thai Life Insurance Co’s chief executive officer Apirak Thaipatanagul (right).

BAAC president Luck Vajananawat said the move aims to promote good discipline among borrowers, which are mostly farmers. In

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If theres one, top-level truth about the state of green business, its that no matter how much innovation companies are doing to reduce their impacts or improve the greenness of their products, its that most individuals are not willing to pay more for a sustainable product.

So its perhaps fitting that eBay was one of the companies on stage this morning at the third and final GreenBiz Forum in San Francisco. CEO John Donahoe took the stage this morning to discuss how a company that was not founded with green in mind has benefited from the green passions of its employees and users.

“[eBay founder] Pierre Omidyar did not found it as a green company, but as a way to connect buyers and sellers,” Donahoe said.

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London (CNN) — A trader accused of fraud over a $2.3 billion loss in unauthorized trading reported by Swiss banking giant UBS pleaded not guilty in a London court Monday.

The trader, Kwaku Adoboli, was ordered held in custody, and his trial was scheduled to begin September 3.

Adoboli faces a charge of fraud by abuse of position between January and September 2011, and he also faces two counts of false accounting.

His lawyer said he was “sorry beyond words” in a previous court appearance in September.

The loss would potentially be among the largest ever to a bank in unauthorized trading.

The trader was charged in September, a day after he was arrested in connection with the discovery of unauthorized deals at UBS.

Britain’s Financial Services Authority, the Serious Fraud Office and the Crown Prosecution Service are also involved in investigating the case.

UBS said no client positions were affected by its $2.3 billion loss.

UBS posted a profit in the third quarter despite “the unauthorized trading incident,” it said in its quarterly report, but its investment banking division recorded a loss of 650 million Swiss francs ($708 million).

UBS chief executive Oswald J.

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