Tuesday newspaper round-up: Apple, UK house prices, retailers, Spain

Apple has launched a counteroffensive against the UK’s proposed new surveillance law saying the measures risk paralysing vast reaches of the technology sector across the globe and even sparking “serious international conflicts”. The intervention from the world’s most valuable company comes amid growing anxiety from big US tech groups that the British proposals will set a dangerous precedent, as other countries seek to upgrade spying regimes for the digital age. – Financial Times

UK house prices are set to continue rising faster than incomes next year as a rebound in interest from would-be purchasers runs up against a shortage of supply. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors predicts that average prices will increase 6 per cent next year. East Anglia will lead the pack with growth of 8 per cent, it suggests, with London growing at 5 per cent. – Financial Times

A string of retailers could face insolvency in the new year with tough trading on the high street in the run-up to Christmas leaving businesses fighting for survival, two influential industry bodies have warned. Widespread discounting and warmer-than-average weather have cranked up the pressure on high street retailers over the festive period. In the last few years a number of high street retailers have called in administrations either just before or after Christmas, including Woolworths, HMV, Zavvi, and Jessops. – Guardian

Tom Hayes, the former trader jailed for conspiracy to rig global Libor interest rates, has had his sentence cut to 11 years from 14, but failed to have his conviction overturned. On Monday three senior court of appeal judges reduced the sentence, one of the longest prison terms on record for UK white collar crime, after considering factors such as Hayes’s age, lack of seniority and his Asperger’s syndrome diagnosis. – Guardian

The implosion of a Greek mobile phone software company listed in London has led to an investigation into Grant Thornton, its auditor, by the accountancy watchdog. The sudden collapse of Globo in October, amid allegations of falsified accounts, has attracted the attention of the Serious Fraud Office, the City of London Police and the Financial Conduct Authority. – The Times

Spain risks months of political paralysis and a corrosive showdown with Germany over fiscal austerity after insurgent movements smashed the traditional two-party system, leaving the country almost ungovernable. The electoral earthquake over the weekend in one of the eurozone’s ‘big four’ states has echoes of the shock upsets in Greece and Portugal this year, a reminder that the delayed political fuse from years of economic depression and mass unemployment can detonate even once the worst seems to be over. - Telegraph