[economy] deep in debt but still saving

Debt consultants One Advice report that almost two million people in the UK owe more than £10,000 on credit cards, overdrafts or other unsecured loans. About 500,000 owe more than £20,000. About half of those owing £10,000 had taken out loans, about 350,000 had used credit cards, and 83,000 overdrafts. Others owed family and friends money.

Most personal borrowing in the UK is in the form of mortgages, where the loan is secured on the property. But this survey found many people are running up big unsecured debts too. People aged between 35 and 44 were most likely to have run up significant debts, with around 650,000 people in this age group owing more than £10,000.

Chris Holmes, chief executive of One Advice. But more than 200,000 18 to 24-year-olds also owed at least £10,000 - about one out of 20 people in that age group. "With many unsecured borrowing products having high interest rates, many people are entrapped in debt, often only paying off the interest accrued every month as opposed to the capital they have borrowed," said Chris Holmes, chief executive of One Advice. "Those caught in this situation need to take action otherwise it is likely that they will fall further into debt."

Last year, about 70,000 people in England and Wales became insolvent - for most, this means being declared bankrupt which can make it difficult to borrow money in future. However, an increasing number of people are reaching deals with their creditors called individual voluntary arrangements, which involves a partial repayment.

Earlier this month, the government announced it was providing £45m to employ 500 independent debt advisers over the next two years. The money will be used to help people in England and Wales gain personal advice on how to cope with their debts. Through the government's Financial Inclusion Fund, it is being channelled to a number of organisations such as the Citizens Advice Bureaux.

The good news is that regular savings are on the increase. Average monthly savings were 87.85 pounds in the three months to end-July, up 8 percent on the year. This savings rate -- equal to 6.8 percent of average income -- is second only to a high of 89.11 pounds recorded in autumn last year. Around 54 percent of the population put money away each month. They are saving 174.50 pounds a month -- a 10.3 percent increase on this time last year.

[health] canadian breakthrough on birth defects

New research shows that ensuring an adequate intake of vitamins and minerals by taking a single, cheap pill on a daily basis sharply cuts the likelihood of a wide range of severe birth defects, including neural-tube defects such as spina bifida, brain-damaging hydrocephalus, heart malformations, truncated or missing limbs, urinary-tract abnormalities and cleft palate.

"The data are really very striking. It seems almost too good to be true that a prenatal multivitamin can have such an impact. But it is true," Gideon Koren, director of the Motherisk Program at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children, said in an interview.

Based on the study, he said all women of childbearing age should be taking a prenatal vitamin daily. Dr. Koren said the recommendation should apply to all women but he stressed that they should take a specific prenatal multivitamin. These differ from standard multivitamins in three important respects: More folic acid, more iron and less vitamin A -- high levels of which can harm the fetus.

This results in a:

# 48 per cent reduction in neural-tube defects;

# 39 per cent drop in cardiovascular defects;

# 47 per cent lower rate of limb deformities;

# 58 per cent reduction in cases of cleft palate;

# 52 per cent decrease in urinary-tract defects;

# 63 per cent drop in hydrocephalus (a dangerous accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid on the brain).

The research did not show any decrease in the number of cases of Down syndrome, pyloric stenosis (which causes chronic vomiting), undescended testis or hypospadias (a malformation of the penis).

summary of the article by Andre Picard, Globe and Mail

[muslim anger] howard refuses to apologize

John Howard has done it again by refusing to back down on his call for some sections of Australia's Muslim community to conform to Australian values by learning English and by treating women with respect.

The chairman of the Government's Islamic advisory committee has warned of more Cronulla-style riots unless the Prime Minister tones down his rhetoric on Muslim migrants. Dr Ameer Ali warned of trouble unless the Prime Minister backed down.

'When you antagonise the younger [Muslim] generation, the younger group, they are bound to react,' Dr Ali told Macquarie Radio. 'They're bound not to like these comments. Then you're going to have trouble.'

But Mr Howard today stood by his comments.

'I don't apologise,' he told reporters. 'I think they are missing the point and the point is that there's a small section of the Islamic population which is unwilling to integrate and I have said generally all migrants ... they have to integrate.

They must integrate and that means speaking English as quickly as possible, it means embracing Australian values and it also means making sure that no matter what the culture of the country from which they come might have been, Australia requires women to be treated fairly and equally and in the same fashion as men.

And if any migrants that come into this country have a different view, they better get rid of that view very quickly. I don't retreat in any way from that. It doesn't involve singling out a group.'

[interview] samantha brett and the city

Did you catch the e-interview with Samantha Brett?

Economist, journalist, television presenter, blogger, agony aunt, heart-throb?

You decide.

[proche-orient] l’ue veut éviter des sanctions contre l’iran

Iranians hold capsules of uranium aloft to demonstrate their peaceful purposes

Regrettant le rejet iranien de l'ultimatum des Nations unies, les Européens souhaitent tout de même poursuivre les discussions avec Téhéran. Mais Washington prône la fermeté.

L'Union européenne (UE) veut encore croire à la solution diplomatique dans le dossier nucléaire iranien. Bien que Téhéran ait de nouveau refusé jeudi de suspendre ses activités d'enrichissement d'uranium, le chef de la diplomatie européenne, Javier Solana, a estimé qu'il n'était « pas raisonnable d'avancer » vers des sanctions alors que les discussions se poursuivent.

Commentaire d' un anglais au sujet du Iran: prévisible, arrogant, fanatique, déplacé, avec un ordre évident

le figaro

[blogwatch] clive davis, melanie phillips, black quill

Clive Davis quotes Rod Liddle on Michael Vestey:

The BBC had very few right-wing journalists when I joined it in 1989. It has scarcely more now. I have no objection to left-wing points of view and still consider myself of the Left, sort of; but it is that suffocating, moronic, politically-correct, anti-liberal leftism at the BBC which both revolted Michael and, in the end, did for him.

The standpoint which insists not that alternative views may be mistaken, even though held in good faith, but are clearly, objectively wrong — no argument — and therefore cannot possibly be countenanced.

Melanie Phillips comments on the rebirth of truth:

While western ‘liberals’ become ever more morally degenerate in their approach to the Middle East and Islamic terror, signs of frankness and honesty are starting to emerge from even the most unlikely quarters within the Arab and Muslim world.

What has happened to Black Quill? I seriously think Abe has got to him.