GERMANY - German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said on Thursday he was concerned at US efforts to stimulate growth by injecting liquidity into its struggling economy. "I view that not without concern," Bruederle said, adding that a variety of measures were needed to solve the problem and it was not enough to pump in liquidity alone.
UK - Children from broken homes are nine times more likely to commit a crime than those brought up in stable families, a senior Cabinet minister warned last night. Iain Duncan Smith said the collapse of marriage had brought soaring crime rates, doubled the chances of living in poverty and cost the country an astonishing 100 billion pounds a year.
UK - Families trying to sell their homes have slashed a massive 500 million pounds off the asking price since the beginning of August, research has revealed. It warned many people are becoming increasingly 'desperate' to sell amid fears that house prices could be set to plunge, or because their family finances are at breaking point.
UK - Next had already cautioned that a steep increase in cotton prices in recent months could cause prices on its shelves to rise by between 5-8 percent over the first quarter of next year. However Lord Wolfson of Aspley Guise, chief executive, said yesterday that the price rises are now likely to be at the top end of this range. Further, he warned that prices could rise even more over the second quarter of next year if the cotton price keeps going up.
UK - Food prices have climbed at the fastest rate for more than a year due to a sharp spike in the cost of wheat and corn, new figures have shown. Prices rose by 4.4 per cent over the past year, the highest annual increase since June of last year, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) found.
MOUNT MERAPI, INDONESIA - Indonesia's deadly volcano sent a burst of searing gas high into the air Thursday, hours after its most explosive eruption in a deadly week triggered an exodus from villages and emergency shelters along its rumbling slopes.
After days of continual explosions, and warnings that pressure inside Mount Merapi may still be building, the province warned it was running out of money to help more than 70,000 people forced from their homes.
USA - If the US government doesn't act soon to reduce the deficit and debt, it will become like Greece in a few years, Senator Judd Gregg, (Republican for New Hampshire), told CNBC Wednesday.
USA - The Federal Reserve has announced that it will pump $600 billion (373 billion pounds) into the US economy by the end of June next year to try to boost the fragile recovery. This stimulus equates to $75 billion a month, in a second round of "quantitative easing" (QE).
UK - Children who haven't had the MMR jab should be banned from schools, according to a leading doctor. Dr Sohail Bhatti, a director of one of the largest health trusts in Britain, said the draconian measure was the only way to ensure higher uptake of the vaccine.
USA - Just days after the Federal Reserve will announce it has launched QE2, the Fed will hold a major conference at Jekyll Island, celebrating the secret meeting held 100 years ago that resulted in the creation of the Fed. The island is off the coast of the US state of Georgia.
UK - Up to three million households are on a financial precipice - and in danger of falling over it if interest rates rise. Leading economist Danny Gabay warned that a full-scale recovery will not take place until banks tackle the problem of the families who took out loans far beyond their means.
AUSTRALIA - Australia's dollar has blasted through parity against the US dollar after the country raised interest rates a quarter point to 4.75 percent to fight inflation.
USA - The prospect of more quantitative easing (QE) is driving government bond yields to levels that price in a depression. What happens, as seems more likely, if there isn't one? The answer is that an awful lot of people are going to lose an awful lot of money.
UK - Trading on the London Stock Exchange's cross-border platform, Turquoise, was disrupted for two hours yesterday, raising speculation it could have fallen victim to sabotage.
ICELAND - Just over two months after officials declared Eyjafjallajokull dormant, Icelandic geophysicists say a separate volcano is showing signs of life. Grimsvotn volcano may be about to blow its top - and European air travel could once again be affected.