Although there were also adults taking part in the disturbances, it was often youngsters who were taking part in the waves of destruction that shifted swiftly across London and other cities. Mr Lightman blames a toxic mixture of dysfunctional parenting and a consumer and celebrity culture which tells youngsters they should have whatever they want. He warns that too often schools are faced with pupils who have never had any boundaries in their home lives - where there has never been a sense of right and wrong.

"Parents are not willing to say 'no'. That short, simple word is an important part of any child's upbringing," says Mr Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders. "It's desperately important that children have a sense of right and wrong. But we often come across children who have never been told that something is wrong." Schools are often the only place where these youngsters have had boundaries put on their behaviour, says Mr Lightman. "Schools are the last havens of an orderly society for many young people," he says.

Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder of Kids Company which works with disturbed and excluded youngsters, says these are the actions of a "completely ignored underclass" who have developed a "perverse morality. They don't feel included in mainstream society, their role models... are the drug dealers and the drug dealers are their measure of powerful people. So when they're looking for heroes in their community they don't get the role models they need, what they're getting is people who've made it good through criminality."

James Treadwell, a criminologist from the University of Leicester, suggests that the argument over whether this is about a reaction to deprivation or the chaos of a "feral underclass", is missing what's actually happening. And that's looting. He says it's much less about riot and protest and much more about opportunistic theft, usually by young men. There are not the pitched battles between police and protesters that marked riots in the 1980s, or even the recent student protests, but are sporadic outbreaks of looting. "It's about the acquisition of goods, it's quite planned, it's about getting hold of a new laptop," he says, describing this as a kind of violent materialism. "This is where having a new pair of trainers is the most important thing, where success is measured by the mobile phone or the jacket you're wearing.."

Societe Generale bank, whose shares fell up to 20%, was also forced to deny it was under financial pressure. France's Cac share index ended down 5.5%. The UK's FTSE lost 3%, and Wall Street's Dow Jones had fallen 3.3%. The FTSE fell by 158 points to 5,007, taking 41 billion pounds off the value of the index. It has now lost almost 15% in the last nine trading sessions. Italy's FTSE MIB was down 6.7%.

Shares in Societe Generale ended 14.7% lower. UK banking shares were also hit, with Barclays down 8.7%, Royal Bank of Scotland 7.3%, and HSBC 5.3%. "The banks have all got exposure of some degree or another to sovereign debts," said David Buik, of BGC Partners. "And none of the banks are going to get away scot-free. There are going to be writedowns."

The French government's insistence that it will not lose its AAA credit rating was confirmed by the three main ratings agencies, Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch. But Lyn Graham-Taylor, fixed income strategist at Rabobank, said the markets were right to be concerned that France could lose its AAA credit rating: "We think from a fundamental perspective that France is due a downgrade," he told BBC News. "In essence, France is the country with a AAA credit rating that can least afford to pay into any future eurozone-wide bail-out scheme."

The incident occurred last Friday while Emma was visiting the town's Citizens Advice Bureau. When Aaron started crying, she asked if she could use an empty corner of the room to breast-feed him in, offering to face the wall.

But the receptionist told her it wasn't allowed as "some gentlemen had complained in the past" and suggested she use the public toilets nearby. Emma said: "You wouldn't eat your dinner in the toilets, so why should my son? She rang the manager who said 'You absolutely can't do that here'." A member of the complaints department then took her to a small room. Emma's friend Michelle Booth, 38, who was with her, said: "They were implying breast-feeding was offensive to Muslim sensibilities. It's political correctness gone mad."

Oldham Council yesterday apologised "unreservedly". Councillor Shoab Akhtar said: "We do not have dedicated breast-feeding facilities available. However, staff are now aware they should make every reasonable effort to assist a mother's need to breast-feed, whether she requests a private room or not."

Flames ripped through the historic building and spread to neighbouring businesses as firemen battled desperately to quell the inferno. But today it looked likely that the damage which was 'worse than the blitz' would force the ravaged building to be demolished and rebuilt.

Owner Trevor Reeves said: 'It has just provided (for) my family and the 15 or 20 staff and families that were supported, it's just completely destroyed. Words fail me. It's just gone, it's five generations. My father is distraught at the moment. It's just mindless thuggery.' His brother Graham told Sky News: 'Our lives are destroyed, it will probably be someone else next week. It's horrendous, 35 years I have been down here.'

He said the business was established in 1867, but he now had 'nothing', adding: 'Everything is just gone, we have just got nothing left. I was in the Brixton riots but this is worse. My life is destroyed.' One eye witness said: 'The building has survived the test of time. The damage last night was worse than the blitz. The area was known for the Reeves furniture store, and that part of the street had been named Reeves Corner.'

The escalating disorder in London began in Tottenham on Saturday evening. The iconic Carpetright building which had also survived the ravages of war and time was destroyed. Last night saw violence flare across the capital with Croyden being one of the worst towns to be hit.

A closer look at the extensive list of artificial preservatives, colourings and flavourings on its label suggests that the butter, which is entirely devoid of additives, is the healthier option after all. The margarine in question is a perfect example of a 'functional food' which, along with 'digestion-aiding' probiotic yogurts and 'brain-boosting' omega-3 eggs, claims to have fantastic, health-promoting properties.

Having investigated thoroughly, my opinion of these so-called 'super-healthy' products is that they are nothing more than a dangerous gimmick: Read the small print and you'll quickly discover just how jam-packed they are with sugar, sweeteners, artificial colours, flavourings and preservatives.

The problem is that they are marketed so effectively, it's easy to see why the 'worried well' of Britain are spending more money on them than ever before, in the hope of achieving better health. According to new figures from Mintel, we'll be buying a whopping 951 million pounds worth of functional foods every year by 2015 - but if it weren't for the convincing health claim on the box, they would look no different from any other highly processed junk.

I analysed ten products from the most successful brands on the market to find out what each of them really contains.

(Warning: my findings may shock you into changing your shopping habits for good.)

Article - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2024310/Actimel-Kelloggs-Optivia-Super-healthy-foods-simply-gimmick.html

The only thing that can be known about them is that if they are rating bonds at S&P, they can't possibly be good at rating bonds. The bond market is a multi-trillion market that is immensely lucrative. Bond trading is a great way to make a buck because there are unlimited bucks to be made - if, and only if, you know something useful about whether the bond in question actually has a lower or higher risk inherent in it than the level implied in the market's current pricing.

So if you are any good at all at rating the riskiness of debt instruments, you will not be working for a couple hundred thousand a year at S&P, you will be working for yourself, or for the bond trading desk of an investment bank or a bond hedge fund making tens of millions of dollars per year - or a lot more if you are running the hedge fund. Only if you are incapable of knowing something useful about the true risk profile of bonds will you take a job rating bonds at S&P. Or alternatively you actually know something useful but have no confidence whatsoever that you know do so you won't put any personal financial risk behind your opinions. In either case, the output is clear: because of the position you occupy, you are someone to whom no one should listen.

S&P is a subsidiary of publicly-traded corporation McGraw-Hill. S&P is driven to help McGraw-Hill march its quarterly earnings ever forward lest bad things happen to both subsidiary and parent. This is hardly the environment in which we are likely to find a huge agglomeration of public servants.

And remember the business model of S&P: it makes its money from charging those it rates lots of money to rate them. Prior to the crash of 2008, it was an awesome business because the use of its product was legislatively driven. That is to say, most institutional investors have regulatory fiduciary requirements that necessitate the use of credit ratings as part of their daily business. They may think that S&P really has no useful insights, but they still need to use its ratings. So this business is pretty much like any business that is given a legislative right to serve - like your local electric or gas utility: it doesn't need to worry much about being any good because the customer doesn't have much choice.

This is all theoretical, you might argue. OK then, let's go empirical. What is S&P's recent track record on understanding and rating debt instruments in the USA? Answer: disastrously bad. Three years ago it could not have possibly been more wrong on its ratings of US mortgage debt instruments. Chimps throwing darts would have been infinitely better than these so-called experts were.

So the question has to be asked again: Why on earth do we pay any attention whatsoever to S&P's downgrade of US government debt? It has a horrible track record and in fact helped enormously to get the US government into the crisis for which it now condemns the handling. Their raters wouldn't be rating bonds if they actually were any good at it. It operates in a protected industry that insulates it from the usual consequences of incompetence. And its business model is one big conflict of interest.

The US provided $47 million in "development aid" to China in 2010, even though the nation is already a military and economic giant and the world's only other true superpower. The aid helped rural Chinese get on the Internet and improve public infrastructure - including metro train service in Guangzhou. Much of the aid is also channeled through the US National Institutes of Health. "Here we are sending money to a nation that we are diametrically opposed to in a time when America is broke," said Andrea Lafferty, of the Traditional Values Coalition. "People are losing their homes and jobs, so why are we giving money to China?"

The Traditional Values Coalition completed a lengthy analysis of NIH funding to China. It found US taxpayers foot the bill for Chinese students to study retirement in Beijing, reproduction in Shanghai and prostitution in the Yunnan Province. The NIH also gave American university professors' millions to study in China, from why children lie to why the Chinese smoke tobacco.

"We are calling for a moratorium for all behavioral science and foreign aid grants out of NIH until some adult can oversee what is going on and monitor the craziness out of there," said Lafferty. Webb and Senator James Inofe also say it is time to cut China off from the taxpayer gravy train. Both the United Kingdom and Australia announced earlier this year they would no longer provide direct assistance to China.

Angela Merkel, the chancellor, and her finance minister Wolfgang Schauble face a revolt among their own supporters in both the Christian Democratic Union and the Free Democratic Party, junior partner in the ruling coalition in Berlin, over the deal they agreed last month with their 16 eurozone partners in Brussels.

The complex political landscape means that Ms Merkel is determined to resist pressure from her partners, and from the European Commission, for any further measures - such as increasing the size of the 440 billion euros European Financial Stability Facility, or introducing eurozone bonds - for fear of losing her parliamentary majority. Some members of the CDU have already called for an emergency party conference to debate the government's entire eurozone strategy. They include new powers for the EFSF to buy eurozone government bonds in the secondary market, and to issue precautionary loans to countries with liquidity problems, and to recapitalise banks.

A separate move by dissidents in the FDP to call an emergency session of the Bundestag seems likely to be blocked, because the opposition Social Democrats (SPD) back the government line to wait for the parliament to reconvene in September. The German government is also facing a highly critical press in the wake of the weekend decision by the European Central Bank to buy Italian and Spanish bonds, a move that was welcomed by Berlin, although it is opposed by the Bundesbank, Germany's highly independent central bank, in Frankfurt.

The greenback declined versus the majority of its most-traded peers as the Fed said growth was "considerably slower" than it expected and it's prepared to use a range of policy tools to boost the economy. The meeting came a day after economic weakening and a Standard & Poor's US credit-rating cut spurred a global stock rout. Commodity currencies recouped losses sustained just after the meeting. Stocks and gold surged.

"With the Fed saying they have tools available that they are willing to use and giving a more definitive time frame, that is overall going to be a dollar negative," said John Doyle, a strategist in Washington at the currency-trading firm Tempus Consulting Inc. "Swiss franc and gold have absolutely been the beneficiaries of uncertainty."

The dollar fell 4.5 percent to 72.09 Swiss centimes at 5 pm in New York, from 75.50 yesterday. It dropped as much as 6.3 percent, the most since the beginning of Bloomberg records in January 1971, touching a record low 70.71 centimes. The euro dropped 3.2 percent to 1.0364 after touching the record low 1.0075. The US currency depreciated 1.4 percent to $1.4376 per euro and fell 1 percent to 76.96 yen.

"The Swiss franc is a falling knife, and no one wants to catch it," said Vassili Serebriakov, a currency strategist at Wells Fargo & Co in New York. "It will take a policy action to stop and reverse the uptrend in the Swiss." Gold for December delivery reached a record $1,782.50 an ounce today. Central banks intervene in foreign-exchange markets by selling or buying currencies to influence prices.

GREAT BRITAIN - In late June, half the public schools in Britain were closed by a massive protest over public pensions cuts, including three major teachers' unions, customs and immigration officers, and air traffic controllers. Some 750,000 people took part in the protest. London's press has reported that discontent has been simmering among Britain's urban poor for years, in neighborhoods like Tottenham, where the riots started. But as one man told NBC News about an economic protest two months ago, "There was not a word in the press about our protests. Last night (Saturday) a bit of rioting and looting and now look around you."

ISRAEL - Some 250,000 people took to the streets of Tel Aviv, Israel, on Saturday over the rising cost of living. Demonstrations actually began last month when a few people set up tents in an expensive part of Tel Aviv to protest rising property prices. The protests have moved to other cities in Israel, where some 50,000 people rallied.

GREECE - In late June, riots broke out in Athens and other parts of Greece as the country's parliament voted to approve severe cutbacks in government spending. Greek lawmakers made the cuts in order to receive more bailout money from the International Monetary Fund and European Union - or run the risk of defaulting on their debts.

SPAIN - Thousands of people turned out in late May to protest the country's 21 percent unemployment rate.

They also demonstrated against government corruption and austerity measures to reign in the country's debt. Hundreds of people set up tents in a Madrid square and spent a week there in protest.

PORTUGAL - Saw massive strikes and protests last March in response to government spending cuts. At least 200,000 people gathered in Lisbon.

THE PHILIPPINES - Thousand of workers took to the streets throughout the country in May of this year to march for higher pay. They demanded better wages in light of rising inflation, including higher oil prices.

They called on the government of President Benigno Aquino III to do more to help protect jobs.

CHINA - Nearly 1,000 cab drivers in eastern China blocked traffic and protested on August 1 over rising fuel costs. It was the latest sign of discontent about the country's surging inflation. Inflation is hitting China hard, with food prices recently increasing 12 percent. Many Chinese officials are reportedly concerned that inflation, along with rising property prices, could lead to even more unrest.

SYRIA - In another legacy from the Arab Spring, protests and riots in Syria against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad have been going on for five months. Reports say at least 1,600 people have been killed by government forces. The demonstrations are a combination of calls for economic as well as political changes.

It begins with a few dry weeks strung out end on end, cloudless skies and hot weather. Lawns brown as if toasted, and river and lake levels drop, like puddles evaporating after the rain. Farmers worry over wilting crops as soil turns to useless dust. But for most of us, life goes on normally, the dry days in the background - until one moment we wake up and realize that we're living through a natural catastrophe. Weather experts like to call drought the "creeping disaster." Though it destroys no property, and yields no direct death toll, drought can cost billions of dollars, lasting for months and even years. The writer Alex Prud'homme - author of a great new book on water called The Ripple Effect - compares drought to a "python, which slowly and inexorably squeezes its prey to death."

This summer, the python has gripped much of the South, from the burnt fringes of Arizona - singed by record-breaking wildfires - to usually swampy Georgia. Ground zero is Texas, which is suffering through the worst one-year drought on record, with the state receiving just six inches (15 cm) of rain since January. At the end of July, a record-breaking 12% of the continental US was in a state of "exceptional drought" - the most severe ranking given by the National Drought Mitigation Center.

More than 2 million acres of farmland in Texas have been abandoned, streets are cracking as trees desperately draw the remaining moisture from the ground, and ranchers whose pasture land has gone dry are selling off cattle by the thousands. "This historic drought has depleted water resources, leaving our state's farmers and ranches in a state of dire need," said Texas agriculture commissioner Todd Staples last week. "The damage to our economy is already measured in billions of dollars and continues to mount."

Addessing the social crises that exacerbate drought and adapting to the dry conditions that are unavoidable will help, but there might be limits to what we can do in the face of the creeping disaster - after all, we still can't make it rain. Churches in the South - and politicians like Texas Governor Rick Perry - have offered prayers for rain over the course of the drought. So far those pleas haven't been answered, but those in prayer would do well to remember the old saying: God helps those who help themselves.

- Fresh violence flares tonight in Birmingham, Wolverhampton, West Bromwich, Manchester and Salford

- 16,000 officers on London's streets to control violence

- Tense situation with yobs and riot police in Canning Town, east London

- Capital is on lockdown as shopkeepers boarded up businesses early to protect them

- Pubs, businesses and schools sent workers home early

- Prime Minister David Cameron will recall Parliament on Thursday

Sporadic disorder and looting have been reported in Birmingham, Wolverhampton, West Bromwich and Manchester tonight - although police appear to be containing the unrest so far. In Salford, the Central Housing office has been set alight while youths have smashed shop windows and looted businesses.

Fashion retailer Miss Selfridge in Market Street, Manchester has been set on fire and about 100 yobs have looted shops including Foot Asylum in the Arndale Centre. Windows have also been smashed at Marks and Spencer, Patisserie Valerie and Ugg in the city centre. Meanwhile, West Midlands Police said that there was some disorder in Wolverhampton, after yobs gathered in Queen Street, Dudley Street, Wulfruna Street, Princess Street and Market Street shortly after 4.30 pm.

David Cameron this morning warned rioters they would face the 'full force of the law' as shops were boarding up their windows across the capital amid fears of more violence. Businesses, pubs, schools and even medical centres were sending staff home early in a desperate bid to avoid the dramatic scenes that have rocked the capital since Saturday evening. Large swathes of London were on lockdown this afternoon as the city yet again braced itself for a fourth night of feared violence.

It is feared that gangs could descend on a string of town centres to embark on mindless rampages of destruction and looting.

Given the tumult of the Great Recession, this may be hard to believe. But the economy is much weaker than it was at the outset of the last recession in December 2007, with most major measures of economic health - including jobs, incomes, output and industrial production - worse today than they were back then. And growth has been so weak that almost no ground has been recouped, even though a recovery technically started in June 2009.

"It would be disastrous if we entered into a recession at this stage, given that we haven't yet made up for the last recession," said Conrad DeQuadros, senior economist at RDQ Economics. When the last downturn hit, the credit bubble left Americans with lots of fat to cut, but a new one would force families to cut from the bone. Making things worse, policy makers used most of the economic tools at their disposal to combat the last recession, and have few options available.

Anxiety and uncertainty have increased in the last few days after the decision by Standard & Poor's to downgrade the country's credit rating and as Europe continues its desperate attempt to stem its debt crisis. Unlike during the first downturn, there would be few policy remedies available if the economy were to revert back into recession.

Assad's five-month campaign against street protests has emerged as one of the bloodiest episodes of the wave of democratic revolutions sweeping the Arab world this year. Killings have worsened sharply in the past week after Assad ordered tank assaults on two cities.

Other Arab leaders had been cautious about criticizing one of their peers, but Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah broke the silence with a rare intervention overnight, demanding an end to the bloodshed and recalling the Saudi ambassador from Damascus. Hours later Kuwait and Bahrain recalled their envoys too. Syrian tanks and troops poured into the eastern Sunni city of Deir al-Zor in the latest stage of a campaign to crush centers of protest against 41 years of Assad family rule.

Later Monday Assad fired defense minister Ali Habib and replaced him with chief of staff General Daoud Rajha. The state news agency said Habib was ill. Habib had been added to an EU sanctions list last week for his role in crushing protests. Syria's military is effectively under the command of Assad's brother Maher. Many officers are from the Assad family's minority Alawite sect.

The sudden withdrawal of ambassadors of Gulf Arab states leaves Assad with few diplomatic friends. Western states have imposed sanctions on top Syrian officials and countries with close ties to Damascus such as Russia and Turkey have warned Assad he is running out of time.

Then, flanked by dozens of law enforcement and community leaders, he spelled out a substantive (though temporary) change in the city's curfew for two key areas - Center City and University City - on Friday and Saturday nights. Anyone under 18 in those areas must now be off the streets by 9 pm. And when parents come to pick up curfew violators, the mayor said, they'll be told to keep track of the child. "If you don't even bother to pick up your child, we are immediately calling the Department of Human Services, and you can then be taken to court for other violations including neglect of your child," he warned.

The latest 'mob' cut right through the heart of Center City and now the Mayor is promising changes on how the city handles the problem. The sudden, random violence of these mobs we've seen in the city and Upper Darby make them hard to predict and even harder to prevent. In all, 59 people were beaten and briefly hospitalized.

"I'm anxious to see what the Mayor's plan is and see where he takes it from there. Hopefully they can stop them from having this happen again, because it is not something you want to come across," said Center City resident Alex Grace. Police say the group, numbering between 20 and 40, rampaged through Center City around 9 pm. Four people were arrested in connection to Friday's "flash mob." An 11-year-old boy, along with a group of teenagers ranging from 16 to 19 years old were arrested.

Mayor Nutter released a statement Monday saying "We do not tolerate violence by any individuals in our city, and we will continue to respond with the full force or our city's justice system to kids who disrespect their city."