UK public sector borrowing rises

21 November 2012 Last updated at 06:39 ET

The government borrowed much more than expected in October, reducing the chances that the UK will hit its deficit reduction target in 2012-13.

UK public sector net borrowing, excluding financial interventions, hit £8.6bn in October, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

That marked a sharp rise from the £5.9bn borrowed in October 2011.

This is the last set of borrowing figures before the chancellor’s Autumn Statement on 5 December.

The headline figure was worse than expected – analysts had forecast borrowing of £6bn.

Corporation tax receipts fell nearly 10% in October, a month when there is usually a heavy inflow to boost the public coffers.

A rise in day-to-day departmental spending also contributed to the higher borrowing.

For the seven months of the financial year so far, borrowing has reached £73.3bn, excluding the one-off effects from the transfer of Royal Mail pension assets.

That is £5bn higher than the same time last year.

A spokesperson for the Treasury said: “The economy is healing, but it still faces many challenges.

“These numbers illustrate that, but also show the government’s plans to bring spending under control are on track for the year.”

But Labour’s shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Rachel Reeves, said the chancellor was borrowing billions more to pay for the cost of his economic failure.

“Having failed on jobs and growth, the government is now failing on the deficit too,” she said.

‘Wrong direction’ Continue reading the main story

AAA-rating

The best credit rating that can be given to a borrower’s debts, indicating that the risk of borrowing defaulting is minuscule.

Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, said the low tax receipts reflected the disappointing performance of the economy, which is experiencing weak growth and weak consumer spending.

He told the BBC that he could see no chance of the government now hitting its deficit target of £120bn for 2012-13. Current projections suggest this year’s deficit would come in closer to £130bn.

“So it’s moving totally in the wrong direction,” he said.

“The longer-term prospects are looking much more disappointing than the Office for Budget Responsibility and the government were hoping when they first set these targets out back in March.”

He added that Chancellor George Osborne was likely to announce increases in taxes, further cuts in spending, or a combination of the two, when he delivers his Autumn Statement.

Chris Williamson, Chief Economist at Markit

However, analysts at Credit Suisse said the figures were disappointing but not disastrous.

“To some extent, this poor reading was mitigated by improvements in last month’s figure, which was around £0.8bn lower (less borrowing) than previously thought.

“In addition, the good news is that the poor figure appears to have been driven by expenditure rather than receipts data. This suggests that the weakness in the numbers may not be due to weaker GDP performance feeding into weaker tax receipts.”

They also pointed out that, overall, central government receipts were up 1.8% on the year to October, while expenditure was up 7.4%.

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Greek PM presses for deal on loan

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece has reacted with dismay to the European Union‘s failure to agree to release vital rescue loan funds for the debt-ridden country, with the prime minister warning it was not just Greece’s future that hangs in the balance.

The delay prolongs uncertainty over the future of Greece, which faces a messy default that would threaten the entire euro currency used by 17 EU nations.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras stressed that Greece has done what its creditors from the EU and International Monetary Fund required. “Our partners, along with the IMF, also must do what they have committed to doing,” he said.

He said that “it is not just the future of our country, but the stability of the entire eurozone” that depend on the success of negotiations in coming days.

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Facebook proposes to end voting on privacy issues

NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook is proposing to end its practice of letting users vote on changes to its privacy policies. The company says it will continue to let users comment on proposed updates.

The world’s biggest social media company plans to announce Wednesday that its voting mechanism, which is triggered only if enough people comment on proposed changes, has become a system that emphasizes the quantity of responses over the quality of discussion.

Facebook began letting users vote on privacy changes in 2009. Since then, it has gone public and its user base has ballooned from around 200 million to more than 1 billion. As part of the 2009 policy, users’ votes only count if more than 30 percent of all Facebook’s active users partake.

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Elmo left behind on ‘Sesame Street’ as actor exits

NEW YORK (AP) — Even on “Sesame Street,” where everything is famously A-OK, problems can arise for its residents.

And that includes the Muppets. Cookie Monster grapples with an eating disorder. Oscar the Grouch gets cranky. Mr. Snuffleupagus gets the blues.

But Elmo seemed immune to any of that. Since enjoying his breakout success more than two decades ago, the 3 1/2-year-old red monster has radiated good cheer, love and trilling giggles. No wonder everyone — adults as well as children — adores him.

The key to Elmo is “his innocence, his positiveness and his sweetness,” according to Kevin Clash, the man who created him and once told The Associated Press, “I would love to be totally like Elmo.”

Now Clash has been scandalously separated from Elmo and from “Sesame Street,” the TV series where he reigned behind the scenes for 28 years.

Clash spoke of “personal matters” as the cause of his resignation Tuesday after an unthinkable nine-day stretch that began with an unnamed man in his 20s claiming he had sex with Clash at age 16. That allegation was quickly recanted. But then came another accusation of sexual abuse, and a lawsuit.

That second accuser, a 24-year-old college student named Cecil Singleton, said the actor had engaged in sexual behavior with him when he was 15. He is suing Clash for $ 5 million.

“I am deeply sorry to be leaving,” said Clash in his parting statement, “and am looking forward to resolving these personal matters privately.”

But privacy may no longer be possible for Clash, the 52-year-old divorced father of a grown daughter who acknowledged last week that he is gay. Singleton’s lawyer, Jeff Herman, said he has been contacted by two other potential victims of Clash and expects additional legal action.

At a news conference Tuesday, Singleton said he and Clash met on a gay chat line and then, for a two-week period, they engaged in sexual contact, though not intercourse. Sex with a person under 17 is a felony in New York if the perpetrator is 21 or older.

Singleton said he didn’t know Clash’s profession until years later, when he Googled the man’s name.

“I was shocked when I found out what he did for a living,” said Singleton.

Now that career has ended for Clash, who, in his dream job as a puppeteer for “Sesame Street,” was assigned a little-used puppet now known as Elmo, then turned him into a star. In the process, Clash won 23 daytime Emmy awards and one prime-time Emmy. He published his 2006 autobiography, “My Life as a Furry Red Monster,” and was the subject of the 2011 documentary “Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey.”

Elmo overshadowed Big Bird and other “Sesame” Muppets in popularity and screen time, while marginalizing the cast of live actors. Since 1998, he has had his own show-within-a-show on “Sesame Street” in addition to appearances elsewhere in the hour.

He is also a major moneymaker for Sesame Workshop, the New York-based company that produces the show, and for licensees. At his merchandising height in 1996, he inspired the Tickle Me Elmo doll, which became a cultural phenomenon and that Christmas season’s hottest toy.

This year’s Elmo dolls, “LOL Elmo,” which giggles, and “Let’s Rock! Elmo,” which sings and comes with a microphone and drum set, haven’t made any of this year’s hot toy lists. Even so, Elmo toys probably account for one-half to two-thirds of the $ 75 million in annual sales the “Sesame Street” toy line generates for toy maker Hasbro, estimates BMO Capital Markets analyst Gerrick Johnson.

Johnson said he wasn’t sure how this week’s news might affect sales of Elmo toys this holiday.

“How many people are going to want to explain to their kid why they’re not getting an Elmo?” he asked.

On Tuesday, Hasbro issued a statement saying “We are confident that Elmo will remain an integral part of Sesame Street and that Sesame Street toys will continue to delight children for years to come.”

Despite his resignation, Clash will remain an integral part of “Sesame Street” for the foreseeable future. Taping of season No. 44 will wrap by mid-December and will begin airing next September, according to someone close to the show who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to publicly discuss details of its production. That means new episodes with Clash performing as Elmo will presumably continue well into 2014.

As for who might take over as Elmo, other “Sesame Street” puppeteers were already being trained to serve as Clash’s stand-in, Sesame Workshop said. It’s part of an understudy policy being adopted for all the major Muppet characters.

But no one knows how Elmo will fare going forward. Will the jokes spurred by Clash’s downfall leave a lasting mark on Elmo’s image? Will there be parents who see him tainted by association with the man who brought him to life?

In the wake of a personal tragedy that may still be unfolding, Elmo’s innocence, positiveness and sweetness will be put to the test.

___

AP Television Writer David Bauder and AP Retail Writer Mae Anderson contributed to this report.

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Positive Outlook Helps Seniors Heal

Older patients with positive attitudes on aging may be more likely to fully recover from severe disability compared with those who can’t see the bright side of life, a new study found.

A positive stereotype about aging was associated with a 44 percent greater likelihood of recovery from severe disability versus negative stereotypes, according to study author Becca Levy from the Yale School of Public Health and colleagues.

Holding positive stereotypes in older age was also significantly associated with a slower rate of decline in activities of daily living, the researchers wrote in a letter published in the Journal of the American Medical Association online.

“Further research is needed to determine whether interventions to promote positive age stereotypes could extend independent living in later life,” the authors noted.

Read this story on www.medpagetoday.com.

The researchers sampled patients through the Precipitating Events Project study and included 598 mostly female patients with an average age of 79, who belonged to a Connecticut health plan. All participants lived in a community, were nondisabled, and experienced at least 1 month of disability from active daily life during the follow-up period.

Can A Positive Outlook Keep Your Heart Healthy? Watch Video

The participants were interviewed monthly for up to 129 months and filled out home-based assessments every 18 months over 10 years.

The researchers established age stereotypes by asking participants for five terms or phrases they associated with older individuals and coding those descriptors on a five-point scale, with 1 being most negative (such as decrepit) and 5 being most positive (such as spry). The participants scored a mean 2.12 on this scale.

Participants’ severity of disability was based on the number of activities of daily living compromised by disability, including bathing, dressing, transferring, and walking. Three or four compromised activities were considered severely disabled; mild to severe disability required assistance with one to two activities, and mild to no disability required no assistance with activities of daily life.

The researchers grouped patients on whether they held positive or negative age stereotypes and compared rates of recovery from severe or mild injury to no or mild disability. Patients between groups were well-matched for age, sex, nonwhite ethnicity, frailty, education, chronic conditions, mental status, depression, and whether or not they lived alone. The nature of the disabling events was not described.

Patients were significantly more likely to recover from any state of injury to either no or mild disability if they fit positive age stereotypes, including from severe disability to no disability, severe disability to mild disabilit and mild disability to no disability.

The researchers also noted that the positive age-stereotyped patients “showed an advantage in the absolute risk increase percentages” in likelihood of recovery, in addition to “a significantly slower rate of [activities of daily life] decline.”

Study limitations included recruitment from a single community and an undersampling of black patients.

Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Wall Street edges up as bargain hunting offsets HP, France

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks inched higher on Tuesday, reversing earlier declines after bargain hunters stepped in to buy beaten-down shares and offset the impact of Hewlett-Packard‘s accounting charge and France losing its triple-A credit rating.

The S&P 500 briefly dipped below its 200-day moving average at 1,382, but recovered to trade slightly above the key technical level, which is seen as a support mark.

Stocks rallied for the last two days on optimism that Washington politicians could agree on a deal to avoid the U.S. “fiscal cliff.” But the gains followed two weeks of sharp losses.

“We got into a very oversold condition on just about any indicator and then you had intraday reversals in just about all the indexes,” said Jeffrey Saut, Raymond James Financial‘s chief investment strategist in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Shares of McDonald’s shot up 1.3 percent to $ 86.11, leading the Dow industrials’ slim advance.

Moody’s Investors Service cut France’s sovereign rating by one notch to Aa1 after the market’s close on Monday, citing an uncertain fiscal outlook as a result of the weakening economy.

While the move was expected after Standard & Poor’s made a similar downgrade in January, it was a reminder of the headwinds buffeting the global economy and the danger of contagion by the euro zone’s debt crisis.

Hewlett-Packard Co shares tumbled 10.5 percent to a 10-year low at $ 11.91 as the computer and printer maker swung to a fourth-quarter loss. The company said it took an $ 8.8 billion charge related to its acquisition of software firm Autonomy, citing “serious accounting improprieties.

A bright spot for the economy came in data showing U.S. housing starts rose to their highest rate in more than four years in October, suggesting the housing market’s recovery was gathering momentum. The PHLX housing sector index <.HGX> jumped 2.4 percent, led by PulteGroup Inc , up 4.8 percent at $ 16.67.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was up 10.34 points, or 0.08 percent, at 12,806.30. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index <.SPX> was up 2.17 points, or 0.16 percent, at 1,389.06. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> was up 3.41 points, or 0.12 percent, at 2,913.48.

The S&P 500 index had fallen 5.3 percent between election day two weeks ago and the start of the rebound as angst over a possible U.S. budget deal drove investors to sell stocks and limit the impact of expected tax increases on capital gains and dividends.

President Barack Obama and congressional leaders hope to start serious negotiations after the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday to avoid the “fiscal cliff,” a series of mandatory tax hikes and spending cuts that would go into effect early next year – if a deal is not reached – and could push the U.S. economy back into recession.

(Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak Editing by W Simon, Kenneth Barry and Jan Paschal)

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U.S. fiscal impact of great concern to Canada: Canada’s Harper

TORONTO (Reuters) – Any fiscal problems that would significantly slow the U.S. economy would be of great concern to Canada, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Monday.

The United States needed a credible medium-term fiscal plan, Harper said at a business forum in Ottawa, adding that he was following the U.S. fiscal debate with “great interest.”

(Reporting by Solarina Ho)

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Interpublic exits Facebook

(Reuters) – Interpublic Group of Cos said it sold its remaining investment in Facebook Inc for $ 95 million in cash.

Interpublic said it expects to record a pre-tax gain of $ 94 million. It had recorded a pre-tax gain of $ 132.2 million for the third quarter of last year from the sale of half of its 0.4 percent stake in Facebook.

Interpublic paid less than $ 5 million for the stake in 2006.

Shares of Facebook, which debuted with a market value of more than $ 100 billion in May, have lost nearly half their value since then on concerns about money-making prospects.

“We decided to sell our remaining shares in Facebook as our investment was no longer strategic in nature,” Chief Executive Michael Roth said in a statement.

Interpublic also authorized an increase in its existing share repurchase program to $ 400 million from $ 300 million. The company repurchased shares worth $ 151 million, as of September 30.

Shares of the company were up 1 percent at $ 10 on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

Facebook shares were marginally up at $ 23.00 on the Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bangalore; Editing by Joyjeet Das)

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Phillip Phillips looks at life beyond “American Idol”

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Like the 10 winners before him, Phillip Phillips faces the uneven road from “American Idol” victor to pop-chart mainstay.

After the success of his Top 10 hit, “Home,” the Georgia native is facing a new challenge – to replicate the mainstream successes of past “Idol” winners Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson on his debut album, “The World from the Side of the Moon,” released on Monday by Interscope Records.

Phillips, 22, spoke to Reuters about making his first proper studio album, what he might do differently on a second one, and whether he could have won “Idol” with this season’s panel of judges.

Q: How do you plan to transition from “American Idol” winner to a mainstream music career?

A: “It’s pretty funny that you mention that because the majority of the people I meet don’t even know that I was on ‘Idol.’ It’s really cool to hear that. When I go home, people ask, ‘What’ve you been doing? I’ve heard your song,’ but they don’t even know that I’ve been on ‘Idol.’”

Q: Your first single “Home” has gone twice platinum. You’ve said that it isn’t a song you would have written yourself. What’s your relationship now with your first hit?

A: “It’s amazing how well it has done, and I look at all the stories that I hear like how it has helped families out with their situation, or something’s happened with their kid, mom or dad, or if their child’s overseas in the war. Something like that’s pretty amazing how many different stories come out of it.”

Q: Did you have any ideas on how you wanted to develop your sound finally getting into a big-time studio?

A: “I already had the songs written, and it was just a matter of throwing in ideas and then just trimming it down to what felt right, because we only had three weeks to do this album. So it was kind of pressured, but that kind of helped out as well. It didn’t make us overthink anything.”

Q: Was there anything in particular you wanted to achieve?

A: “I wanted to make it similar to what I did on the show – a horn section and some rock. I tried to be a little artistic. I just wrote what came from my heart and what felt right.”

Q: Unlike many of the other contestants, you went into “Idol” as a songwriter, how many of the album’s songs did you write?

A: “I think five. Some of the co-writes, (the writers) really just kind of pushed me, so I kind of wrote most of those myself. But it was a lot of fun; it was a great experience.”

Q: Would you do anything differently next time?

A: “It’s still early, but I’d definitely want a little more time to do it. But that’s really about it, because three weeks is just really quick, and also I have just so many other things going on. … It was very kind of stressful and hopefully for the next record I’ll have a little more time.”

Q: What would that time allow you to do in the studio?

A: “Just being able to listen to it a little more. We all knew that it sounded really good but also having to listen to, like 17 songs in a row. You say, ‘Yeah that sounds great’ but you listen to it more and more and (say) ‘Maybe I would’ve brought this instrument down a little bit or brought it up a little bit more.’”

Q: Would you have fared any differently on ‘Idol’ with the current judges Nicky Minaj and Mariah Carey?

A: “I don’t know. I’m curious to see how they’re going to judge. It’s a completely different panel this year. … I don’t really know how I would’ve turned out. Maybe I’ll have to go out and audition again (laughs).”

Q: Would you have had to change your roots-y style?

A: “Naw, I would’ve still been the same dude. If they wouldn’t have sent me through, they wouldn’t have sent me through. And if they did, that’d be awesome.”

(Reporting By Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Gunna Dickson)

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Women With Breast Cancer Wait Weeks Before Surgery

FIRST PERSON | New research shows that Medicare patients with breast cancer wait as long as 32 days before surgery. This wait is typical in the United States. It is not only older women that have a long wait. I first found a lump in my breast in September 2011. My first surgery was not until November 2011. The wait was not on my end — in northwest Arkansas, it takes at least three weeks to get an appointment with anyone.

The study

MedicalXpress reports that the Fox Chase Cancer Center published its findings in the Nov. 19, 2012 edition of The Journal of Clinical Oncology. The study evaluated data from over 72,000 Medicare patients with non-metastatic breast cancer and found that in 2005, at least half of the breast cancer patients waited a minimum of 32 days before having surgery. This data shows a marked increase from 21 days back in 1992.

Breast cancer diagnosis

It is interesting that they looked only at non-metastatic breast cancer. When you first go to see your doctor about a breast problem, like a lump, you have no idea if it is even cancer, much less if it has spread to other parts of the body. Diagnostic mammography, breast MRIs, and ultrasound cannot tell you if the area of concern is cancer. Only surgery can determine breast cancer — that means either a needle biopsy or other invasive procedures.

The waiting can kill you

Medicare had nothing to do with my time delays, as I have private insurance. I have non-metastatic breast cancer. It took 3 weeks to see my OBGYN, then it was another week before I had the imaging done. From there, it took three weeks to schedule a wire-guided surgical biopsy. I had the biopsy in mid-November 2011. It was then I received a cancer diagnosis and was told that it was a high-grade tumor — meaning it was very aggressive. At the same time of my diagnosis, my surgeon ordered more tests. We waited until late December 2011 to discuss a mastectomy. The wait was due to him wanting to see the results of genetic testing. Personally, I was uncomfortable with the long wait time.

Long waits are not just for Medicare recipients and for people in large metropolitan areas. Here in rural Arkansas, wait times are long because there is a shortage of physicians. The area is growing but the medical community is not keeping up with the growth. Patients like me who have serious medical conditions are traveling to other areas in order to get better care.

Lynda Altman was diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2011. She writes a series for Yahoo! Shine called “My Battle With Breast Cancer.”

Diseases/Conditions News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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