Infozone Breaking World News

A recent survey conducted by the Nationwide, says that UK house prices have fallen another 1.4 percent in October. This takes UK house prices to 14.6% lower than the same period of last year and brings the average house price down by nearly £30,000 to £158.872.

Nationwide went on to add that the latest results were due to a fall in house sales, which is currently at its lowest for 34 years. The figures show that house prices have fallen for the 12th month in a row, although October’s drop was slightly less than July, August and September.

Russell Brand toady resigned from his radio show, after a barrage of complaints following a prank phone call to actor Andrew Sachs. Brand and fellow presenter Jonathan Ross made a series of calls during a Radio 2 Show, in which they left obscene answer phone messages on Mr Sachs phone about his granddaughter Georgina Baillie.

Earlier this week, both Brand and Ross were suspended by the BBC and all of their shows taken off the air as the BBC start a full investigation. There have been over 27,000 complaints to the BBC about the incident, which was part of Russell Brand’s Radio 2 show that was pre-recorded and aired on the 16th October.

In a statement released by Brand, he said he took “complete responsibility” for the incident and that he was resigning from the show.

In a separate statement, Jonathan Ross said “I am deeply sorry and greatly regret the upset and distress that my juvenile and thoughtless remarks on the Russell Brand show have caused.”

Jonathan Ross was supposed to pre-record his BBC One Friday Night TV show yesterday, but due to the suspension no filming was done. Amongst the guests booked for the show was comedian Frank Skinner, Sir David Attenborough and indie band The Killers. It is not yet known what will be shown in its place.

Police have started to use fingerprint scanners in a pilot scheme designed to speed up investigations and enable more police to be on the beat. The pilot scheme, which involves 20 police forces throughout England and Wales, will use 200 portable fingerprint scanners that cross-reference those in the national police database.

If the scheme is successful, it could see every police force in the UK having fingerprint scanners in the next 18 months. Codenamed Operation MIDAS (Mobile Identification at Scene), the new system is designed to save time when suspects wait to have their fingerprints taken, meaning that an additional 360 officers on the beat as opposed to being in the custody suites.

The current fingerprinting system can take up to an hour, whereas the new fingerprint scanners would take a couple of minutes; an officer can scan suspects on the street, send them to be referenced through the police database and if matched relevant information will be sent back to the officer.

The police have insisted that prints taken with the fingerprint scanners will not be submitted to the national database.

Figures released by the BBPA (British Beer and Pub Association) show that UK sales of beer has fallen by 7.2% in the months July through September of 2008. This marks the biggest Q3 sales decline for over 10 years.

Sales of beer in pubs, clubs and restaurants were worst hit, falling by 8.1% and beer sales in supermarkets and shops also saw a 6% fall compared to the same period of last year. It is estimated that there could be as much as 160 million fewer pints sold in Q3 in 2008, equating to 1.8 million fewer pints being sold a day.

The latest figures reinforce the reality that people are cutting out luxuries due to the credit crunch and the forecast of a UK recession. Also published were the figures that as many as 5 pubs a day were closing due to the downturn in the market.

In a new report released by uSwitch, researchers have found that over a million broadband users in the UK have either gone over their broadband usage limit or have come close to.

Once these users have reached their limit or have been deemed to be using the system too much, the internet providers issue a Usage Cap on the line, limiting the speed of their internet connection. The majority of people issued usage caps are confused about it, especially if they have an unlimited data plan.

 The research also found that over half of the internet providers that provide unlimited data plans, will issue usage caps and even disconnect people who are deemed to be excessively using the service.

The internet providers went on to say that these usage caps were necessary to keep prices for the consumers low and to continue to provide the best service to all of their customers. Fair usage policies are common practise now and are usually in the internet providers terms and conditions, but according to the survey only 25% of customers actually read them.

In latest figures released by Apple, the hi-tech firm announced that its quarterly profits were up by 26 percent over last year. Apple’s success has been put down to its latest iPhone, which has been hugely popular and sold an estimated 6.9 million since its release.

In Q3 of 2008, Apple made an astonishing net profit of $1.14 billion; this is compared to $904 million it made for the same period in 2007.

Together with the success of the iPhone, Apple also sold 11 million iPods (up 8%) and 2.6 million of its computers and laptops (up 21%). Despite the good figures, Apple are still vary of the economic downturn and how it will affect the sale of their products, especially as the crucial Christmas period is coming.

British confectionary firm Cadbury has announced that it will be sponsoring the 2012 Olympics in London. The sponsorship deal ensures that all of the confectionary and ice cream sold within the Olympic Park will be Cadbury’s, and also means that Cadbury can use the Olympic logo on its products.

Sponsorship for the games is split up into three tiers 1, 2 and 3, with tier 1 sponsors funding around £40 million each; this includes companies such as EDF Energy, BP and Adidas. Cadbury is a Tier 2 sponsor and is expected to donate around £20 million to the games, with tier 3 sponsors contributing around £10 million each; there are currently no tier 3 sponsors.

With the new deal, London Olympic organisers are thought to have raised around 65% of its target of £600 million from domestic sponsors.

Government figures, released yesterday showed that the amount of jobless people in the UK rose by 164,000; the biggest rise since 1991. The figures, taken between June and August, takes the total number of unemployed to 1.79 million and raises the unemployment rate from 5.5% to 5.7%.

The figures also showed that applicants for the Jobseekers allowance rose by nearly 32,000 during September. The amount of people in work and the number of jobs available both fell between June and August, as the economic crisis shows no sign of slowing down.

In a statement from the government, they pledged to make an additional £100 million available to train workers who have lost their jobs as a result of the economic slowdown.

The UK government today release a bailout plan for the UK’s banking system. The new plan sees three of the largest UK banks HBOS, Lloyds TSB and the Royal Bank of Scotland being given a £37 billon lifeline.

The government will be injecting around £5 billion into the Royal Bank of Scotland, and underwriting a further £15 billion of its shares. HBOS and Lloyds TSB will also receive a £17 billion emergency fund, on condition that the merger of the banks is reworked.

In return for the £37 billion rescue plan, the government will get to make decisions on how the banks are run, as well as have control over how bonuses are paid to management. Alistair Darling also added that no bonuses will be paid at HBOS and the Royal Bank of Scotland this year.

As the economic crisis continues to affect the global markets, the US government’s debt has rocketed to over $10 Trillion, meaning that the National Debt Clock located near Times Square in New York no longer has enough digits to display the figure.

The National Debt Clock was erected in 1989 to highlight the nation’s growing debt, which stood at $2.7 Trillion. The original clock was unable to go backwards and was unplugged, only to be turned back on in September 2000 when the national debt was around $5.7 Trillion.

The US government’s debt now stands at over $10 Trillion, meaning that the dollar sign has made way for the extra number(a sticker now donates the dollar sign). The clock’s owners have said that they plan to add two more numbers to the clock early next year. This means the National Debt Clock would be able to record up to a quadrillion dollars of debt. Let’s hope it never hits this number!