Banks try to head off crisis after third day of falls

The prospect of a full-blown financial crisis edged nearer yesterday as fears of black holes in the accounts of British, European and US banks sent confidence in the sector spiralling downwards.

A third successive day of falls in the values of Britain’s banks, led by Barclays, mimicked declines on the continent and the US following concerns that banks had failed to own up to all their debts and trading problems resulting from the global credit crunch.

Banks try to head off crisis after third day of falls | | Guardian Unlimited Business

Markets fear banks have $1 trillion in toxic debt

A new phase in the credit crunch, one of “$1 trillion losses” seems to be dawning. The crisis at Citigroup and renewed doubts about some of the world’s leading banks disquieted stock markets on both sides of the Atlantic yesterday, with the fractious mood set to continue.

The FTSE 100 fell 69.2 to 6,461.4, with Alliance & Leicester (down 4 per cent) and Barclays (off 3 per cent, to a two-year low) singled out for punishment. In New York, Citigroup, down |4.9 per cent to multi-year lows, weighed on the Dow Jones index, which fell 51.7, or 0.4 per cent, to 13,543.4. Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers also dropped on speculation they face more writedowns on top of the $40bn (£19bn) announced in the past four months.

Bill Gross, the chief investment officer of Pacific Investment Management, said US mortgage delinquencies and defaults would rise in 2008. “There are $1 trillion worth of sub-primes, Alt-As [self-certified] and basically garbage loans,” he said, adding that he expects some $250bn in defaults. “We’ve only begun to see the pain from rising mortgage payments,” he added. Brian Gendreau, an investment strategist at ING, commented: “Financials are 20 per cent of the S&P 500 and if that sector doesn’t do well all bets are off. People just don’t know what’s on the balance sheets.”

Markets fear banks have $1 trillion in toxic debt - Independent Online Edition > Business News

Campaign to reduce UK’s £8bn food waste

British households are in effect throwing away every third shopping bag of food they buy, most of it ending up in landfill at huge environmental and financial cost, according to research.

Some 90% of consumers admit they are unaware of the amount of food they regularly bin. They are being urged to change their ways through a national campaign - believed to be the first of its kind in the world - funded and backed by the government. The main reasons given for waste are buying too much through unplanned and excessive shopping, poor storage and not eating short-shelf-life items quickly enough.

Campaign launched to reduce UK’s £8bn food waste mountain | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics

Criminals ‘could go free from local prisons’

Criminals could escape jail if their local prison is full under Government plans to tackle overcrowding, it is claimed.

A review of the Prison Service by Labour peer Lord Carter of Coles is expected to recommend not jailing people who have been sentenced to six months or less if there is no space in the system.

The measure, for a limited period, comes at a time when Britain’s prisons are already over maximum capacity of about 81,000 - with the population estimated to reach 102,000 by 2011.

Criminals ‘could go free from local prisons’ - Telegraph

Soldiers need more support

Distorted expenditure and failure to adjust to future threats are setting Britain’s armed forces on a “dangerously unsustainable course” at a time of growing turbulence and risk, ministers and military chiefs are warned today. “Stretched budgets remain tied up in big-ticket, high-profile, hardware while the ’software’, the men and women who make up the armed forces, are overlooked,” says a report by the thinktank Demos.

Anthony Forster of Durham University, a co-author of the report, said: “Most expenditure is going on what the military calls ‘platform’ expenditure - very expensive aircraft carriers, for instance - when the priority should be human issues such as salaries, the chronic and appalling state of housing and support for families whose loved ones are overseas.”

Speaking before the report’s publication, he said: “If the priorities do not change then Iraq and Afghanistan may spell the end because generals, admirals and air marshals will be left with armed forces that are not fit for purpose.”

Soldiers need more support, thinktank warns ministers | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

Teacher attacks reach record high

The number of violent and verbal attacks against teachers in Scottish schools has increased by a record 4.3%, new council figures show.

In the last year there were 4,608 physical attacks on teachers, the equivalent of one every 14 minutes of the school day in 2006/07.

The figures, released under the Freedom of Information Act, showed a total of 7,306 physical and verbal incidents.

Politicians and teaching unions called for greater curbs on unruly pupils.

BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Tayside and Central | Teacher attacks reach record high

Graduates ‘earning less than their debts’

Many students are leaving university with more debt than their annual salary, official figures suggest.

Despite an overall pay increase in recent years, one in four graduates still work in bars, cafes and other low-level jobs several years after leaving university. Some are being forced to take poorly paid jobs to clear debts amid unprecedented competition for the best graduate positions.

About one-in-five of all graduates are unemployed at least once in the first few years after finishing their course. Men continue to earn more than women.

The conclusions provide the most comprehensive snapshot yet into graduate employment under Labour.

Graduates ‘earning less than their debts’ - Telegraph

Government targets ‘insufficient’

The government’s ambitious housebuilding targets have been struck a fresh blow after an advisory body suggested that they are, in fact, not ambitious enough.

According to the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit (NHPAU), the current aim of building three million homes by 2020, the equivalent of 240,000 each year, will not stop first-time buyers from finding it even harder to buy a home in the future.

Consequently the target should be raised to 270,000 a year, but even this will only serve to keep the price/income ratio at its current level, the group added.

“If the government proceeds as planned, house prices will continue to out pace earnings leaving those with aspirations to home ownership cast adrift,” advised Jill Craig, head of policy and public affairs at Rics.

Government targets ‘insufficient’

Racist attacks up 12% in a year

RACIALLY and religiously motivated attacks have risen 12% in the past year, according to government figures to be released this week.

The Ministry of Justice statistics show there were 41,000 racially or religiously aggravated offences in 2005-06, the latest year for which figures are available.

Experts are likely to link the increase to fears related to terrorism and immigration.

Following the attack on Glasgow airport in June, racist incidents across Scotland have soared, with sharp rises in violent attacks, abuse and harassment in the four weeks after the car bombing. The worst cases included attempts to blow up an Asian shop and a mosque.

There was a similar rise in attacks on Asians in Britain after the 9/11 atrocity.

The figures out this week will also show black people are seven times more likely to be stopped and searched than white citizens. Black suspects are also far more likely to go to court and prison.

Racist attacks up 12% in a year - Times Online

‘Humanity’s very survival’ is at risk, says UN

The speed at which mankind has used the Earth’s resources over the past 20 years has put “humanity’s very survival” at risk, a study involving 1,400 scientists has concluded.

The environmental audit, for the United Nations, found that each person in the world now requires a third more land to supply his or her needs than the Earth can supply

per cent of amphibians, 23 per cent of mammals and 12 per cent of birds are under threat of extinction, while one in ten of the world’s major rivers runs dry every year before it reaches the sea.

The bleak verdict on the environment was issued as an “urgent call for action” by the United Nations Environment Programme, which said that the “point of no return” was fast approaching.

‘Humanity’s very survival’ is at risk, says UN - Times Online