Photo exhibit documents life inside North Korea

NEW YORK (AP) -- It's a simple scene that repeats itself around the world.

A man gently lifts a small child by the arms as they reach the top of the escalator inside a modern department store.

In this particular photograph, the man and the child are in Pyongyang, capital of the communist country where life's daily activities are largely a mystery to the rest of the world.

A photo exhibit that opened Thursday at a gallery in New York includes images such as these, as well as magnificent landscapes, drab cityscapes and visits by foreign dignitaries.

"Daily life is really what I try to focus on when I'm there. ... It's unscripted, it's candid," said AP Chief Asia Photographer David Guttenfelder, who took some of the photographs in the show, and who has made who has made many reporting trips to North Korea since 2010.

EU steps up banking sanctions against Iran

The organization that facilitates bank transactions around the world said Thursday it has been instructed to discontinue its communications services to Iranian financial institutions that are subject to European sanctions, effectively cutting them off from the global financial system.

SWIFT -- the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications -- said the move followed a decision by the European Council, which represents the 27 members of the European Union.

The new European Council decision prohibits companies such as SWIFT from providing specialized financial messaging services to Iranian banks under EU sanctions. In a statement, SWIFT said that as it was incorporated under Belgian law it had to comply with this decision.

Small businesses in homebuilding industry see signs that people are ready to buy

NEW YORK (AP) -- Charles Ruma is suddenly busy. His company, Virginia Homes, is getting five to 10 visits from prospective homebuyers each weekend. During the last three years, he was lucky to get five in a month.

Through the housing crisis, the challenges of big regional and national homebuilders such as Beazer Homes USA Inc. and Toll Brothers Inc. were widely broadcast. But the devastation in the industry also was acute for many private homebuilders and other small businesses that are part of the housing industry. Ruma is one of many smaller homebuilders now seeing early signs that the housing industry is recovering.

"It's very encouraging to see traffic coming out," Ruma says. Between the houses that the central Ohio builder signed contracts on in the second half of 2011 and the homes it expects to sell between now and July, he estimates that the company will have 21 closings this year. That would be Virginia Homes' best performance since 2009 when it sold 12 homes. The company sold just six in 2010 and seven last year.

Private firms bidding to run children's services

It is thought to be the first time children's services have been put out to tender to such an extent in England, according to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH).

Virgin Care, part of Sir Richard Branson's group, is understood to be one of two profit-making companies bidding for the £130 million, three year contract.

The other is Serco, which already runs out-of-hours services and helps provides community health services for children in neighbouring Cornwall. Also bidding are Barnardo's and other charities.

Among the children's services that form the Devon contract are palliative care for the dying, therapy and respite care for disabled children, treatment for those who are mentally ill, and child protection.

Study: LinkedIn resumes more honest _ in some ways

NEW YORK (AP) -- A new study says people are less likely to lie about big things on resumes they post on the professional network LinkedIn compared with traditional resumes.

But the study, from researchers at Cornell University, says people are actually more deceptive about their interests and hobbies - things that are more difficult to verify.

The study says that websites such as LinkedIn can lead to greater honesty when it comes to resume claims such as experience and responsibilities. That's because claims are more easily verified in a public, online setting, so liars are more likely to get caught.