The John Lewis Partnership said yesterday that sales at Waitrose, its upmarket supermarket chain, had tumbled by 4.6 per cent last week, the worst result for the year to date. At group level, sales at John Lewis plunged by 14 per cent, in one of the most difficult trading periods in the retailer’s recent history. The figures will cast further doubt on the reliability of data published yesterday by the Office for National Statistics, which showed retail sales down 0.1 per cent in October, far short of the 0.9 per cent decline forecast by leading economists.

div class="rxbodyfield"p page="1" class="ArticleBody"Microsoft asked a federal judge Thursday to end the#160;a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/04/03/HNmsclassactionsuit_1.html"class-action lawsuit about its quot;Vista-capablequot; tag/a #160;that has been the source of a treasure trove of embarrassing insider e-mails that have showed the company bent to pressure from a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/inform.do?command=searchamp;searchTerms=Intel+Corporation"Intel/a and infuriated long-time partner a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/inform.do?command=searchamp;searchTerms=Hewlett-Packard+Company"Hewlett-Packard./a/pp align="right"a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" target="_blank" /img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" width="336" height="280" border="0" alt="" align="right"//a/pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"In a pair of motions filed with U.S. District Court Judge a href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/inform.do?command=searchamp;searchTerms=Marsha+Pechman"Marsha Pechman/a , Microsoft#39;s lawyers asked her to decertify the class and rule on a summary judgment to dismiss the charges./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"b[#160;InfoWorld#39;s#160;a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/robertxcringely/archives/2008/11/is_vista_capabl.html"Robert X. Cringely did a rundown of the legalese of this case -- and the humor of it/a#160;]/b/pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"If Pechman rules for Microsoft on the decertification motion, the case could conceivably continue, although it would no longer be a class-action with a large pool of plaintiffs; instead, each plaintiff would have to sue Microsoft separately. A ruling for the company on the summary judgment would effectively end the case./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Unlike recent filings by the plaintiffs, which have been packed with quotations from internal Microsoft e-mails that covered everything from a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasicamp;taxonomyName=Operating+Systemsamp;articleId=9120938"managers badmouthing Intel/a to others who worried how a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/inform.do?command=searchamp;searchTerms=Microsoft+Windows+Vista"Vista/a would be compared to Apple#39;s Mac OS X, Microsoft#39;s motions were densely worded and full of case citations./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"According to Microsoft, the plaintiffs have not demonstrated that the lowest-priced version of Windows Vista was not the quot;realquot; Vista, or showed that users paid more for PCs prior to the new operating system#39;s launch because of the Vista Capable campaign. That means the plaintiffs have not met the legal standards set by Pechman, and so have no case, the attorneys argued./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"quot;The evidence refutes Plaintiffs#39; claims that Windows Vista Home Basic cannot #39;fairly#39; be called Windows Vista,quot; Microsoft said in the motion for summary judgment. quot;Windows Vista Home Basic has nearly all of the same computer code as the rest of the Windows Vista family, and ... Microsoft never publicly defined Windows Vista in a way that would exclude Windows Vista Home Basic.quot;/pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Vista Home Basic, the lowest-priced and least-capable version of the operating system, is a key to the Vista Capable lawsuit; the plaintiffs have argued that they bought PCs before Vista#39;s January 2007 launch and expected them to be able to run more than just Home Basic. That edition lacks several advanced features found in some or all of the other versions, notably the Aero graphical user interface./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Elsewhere in the motion, Microsoft claimed that Vista Home Basic shared 93 percent#160;of the code found in Vista Home Premium, the next-most-expensive version and also the most popular of the consumer editions./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"The lawyers also hammered at the price inflation reasoning promoted by the plaintiffs. quot;Plaintiffs have no evidence that the Windows Vista Capable program (#39;WVC program#39;) caused an artificial increase in the demand for or prices of Windows Vista Capable PCs (#39;WVC PCs#39;) that were not Premium Ready,quot; the motion continued./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Last February, when Pechman a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasicamp;taxonomyId=89amp;articleId=9064520"granted the case class-action status/a, she blocked the plaintiffs from arguing that Microsoft deceived consumers because that would have required an individual determination for each member of the class action. Instead, she allowed them to pursue a quot;price inflationquot; line of reasoning, which would argue that PC buyers paid more than they would have otherwise, after Microsoft#39;s marketing boosted demand and increased the prices of systems that could run Vista Home Basic./pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"In the motion to decertify the class, Microsoft#39;s lawyers said that the plaintiffs had not met the bar Pechman set when she allowed them to explore the price inflation line. quot;With discovery closed, Microsoft asks the Court to decertify the class because Plaintiffs have done nothing and propose to do nothing to further develop their price inflation theory,quot; Microsoft said./pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"Discovery, the legal procedure where the each party is allowed to request documents from other, closed a week ago in the case. quot;The Plaintiffs have no viable method of establishing class-wide causation,quot; the motion continued./pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"Over several pages, Microsoft argued that the economist the plaintiffs brought in as an expert witness, Keith Leffler, of the University of Washington, had been unable to come up with a way to quantify the impact of the Vista Capable program on PC prices in the run-up to Vista./pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"quot;Dr. Leffler admitted that he cannot develop a model that would quantify the price inflation, if any, that supposedly affected the class, much less do so across the entire class period,quot; the motion said. quot;That fact, standing alone, mandates decertification.quot;/pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"Microsoft crafted the Vista Capable program to keep sales of PCs from flagging as the new OS#39;s release loomed. A message by a Microsoft director working on the campaign made it clear that was the top priority. quot;The primary goal of Ready PC [ an earlier name for what would be recast as Vista Capable -- Ed. ] is to limit stall of XP PC sales as we continue to build Vista buzz,quot; said Rajesh Srinivasan in October 2005. quot;We believe [the program requirements] strike a balance between limiting impact on XP PC sales, ensuring OEM support and participation in the program and providing a good customer experience after Vista upgrade.quot;/pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"The lawsuit, which began in April 2007, has become best-known as the source for hundreds of Microsoft e-mails that have been made public by the court. Earlier disclosures showed that Microsoft relaxed the requirements of Vista Capable to a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasicamp;articleId=9120299"accommodate Intel/a, a decision that then a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasicamp;articleId=9120478"enraged HP/a, and that company managers a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasicamp;taxonomyName=Managementamp;articleId=9120798"feared comparisons/a between Vista and Apple#39;s Mac OS X more than a year before Vista went public./pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"The case is currently set to start trial next April./pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"emComputerworld is an InfoWorld affiliate/em/p/divbr style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=356002944c77ec8ae016fae3e6c55e8dp=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=356002944c77ec8ae016fae3e6c55e8dp=1//a img src=http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=356002944c77ec8ae016fae3e6c55e8d style=display: none; border=0 height=1 width=1 alt=/

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/84645?ns=guardianpageName=Business%3A+Brutal+share+sell-off+in+US+as+oil+falls+below+%2450+for+first+time+in+3%26frac12%3B+yearsch=Businessc3=The+Guardianc4=US+economy+%28Business%29%2CBusiness%2CMarket+turmoil%2CUS+news%2CWorld+news%2CSharesc5=Investments%2CCredit+Crunch%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CBusiness+Markets%2CUS+Economyc6=James+Doran%2CLarry+Elliottc7=2008_11_21c8=1121682c9=articlec10=GUc11=Businessc12=US+economyc13=c14=h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FUS+economy" width="1" height="1" //divpWall Street suffered its biggest battering in more than 10 years last night, while fears of a long and painful economic slump continued to stalk the markets./ppBoth stockmarket indices in the US - the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and Standard Poor's 500 index - closed the day at levels not seen since before the burst of the dotcom bubble in 2000. And the price of oil dropped below $50 a barrel for the first time in 3frac12; years./ppYesterday afternoon, what little confidence remained in the market was sapped by a record rise in US unemployment, and Washington's refusal to offer a financial bail-out to the country's so-called Big Three carmakers./ppIn the final two hours of trading, the sell-off was brutal: the Dow plunged 444.99 points - or 5.6%- to 7552.29. The SP 500 slid 6.7% to 752.44, its lowest close since 1997. Banking shares were perhaps the hardest hit, with Citigroup closing the day down 26%. This latest share collapse left Citigroup - once the biggest bank in the world - with a market value of $25bn. Less than two years ago, the group was worth more than $250bn./ppGM And Ford both closed up but lost massive gains made earlier in the day when the prospect of a bail-out was still on the cards. Their share prices plunged as Paulson revealed his distaste for government intervention in the car market ./pp"No one thinks a failure of any company in [the auto] industry would be a good thing. It's something to be avoided," Paulson said. But: "It doesn't make any sense to put any money in, if there isn't a clear path to viability."/ppThe slumping markets were further buffeted by the worst unemployment data in the US for 16 years. /ppInitial claims for state unemployment benefits were a seasonally adjusted 542,000 in the week to November 15, compared with 515,000 a week before, the biggest weekly increase since 1992. /ppCalifornia had the worst increase, with 15,000 more out of work over the week. New York also posted record gains, with 3,700 newly unemployed people as a large number of layoffs from Wall Street firms such as Goldman Sachs and Citigroup begin./pp"These numbers are rotten," said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard Poor's in New York. He said California's losses were so high because many businesses had been affected by the recent wildfires. America's national unemployment rate is running at 6.5%, while total claims lasting more than one week broke through the 4m mark, to hit a 25-year high./ppTo compound it all, the dollar weakened further still against major currencies. A euro cost $1.2534, up from $1.2526 on Wednesday. /ppIn the oil market, the cost of a barrel of benchmark Brent crude fell by almost $3 to $49.83 on commodity markets. US light crude, which tends to be slightly dearer than Brent, briefly dipped below the $50 level in New York trading./ppThe slump means British motorists are likely to see petrol prices come down by a further 7p a litre before Christmas./ppThe Opec oil cartel is contemplating supply curbs when it meets in Cairo next week, but oil analysts said the prospect of tumbling demand for oil outweighed any possible cut in production. /ppThe RAC said the tumbling cost of crude - dropping almost $100 a barrel since its July peak of more than $147 - would mean that it would be pound;17 cheaper to fill up the average car. But AA spokesman Luke Bodset warned that, while wholesale prices were being pushed down, "they are not necessarily being passed on to the consumer, because the pound has lost a quarter of its value over the last year"./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/useconomy"US economy/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/marketturmoil"Market turmoil/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa"United States/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/shares"Shares/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Businesscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227235575618112102461559266"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Businesscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227235575618112102461559266" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/41393?ns=guardianpageName=Business%3A+Bargains+galore+as+Christmas+comes+early+for+shoppersch=Businessc3=The+Guardianc4=Retail+industry+%28Business%29%2CChristmas+%28Life+and+style%29%2CBusiness%2CCredit+crunch+%28Business%29c5=Unclassified%2CCredit+Crunch%2CBusiness+Marketsc6=Julia+Finch%2CMartin+Wainwright%2CPatrick+Barkhamc7=2008_11_21c8=1121628c9=articlec10=GUc11=Businessc12=Retail+industryc13=c14=h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FRetail+industry" width="1" height="1" //divpShoppers were lured back on to the high street yesterday as stores slashed prices in an attempt to kickstart the vital Christmas trading period and shift unsold stock./ppIn the annual game of chicken between consumers and stores, the retailers have blinked first. There may still be 34 shopping days until Christmas, but over the past three weeks sales have fallen off a cliff for many retailers. Faced with what some analysts have warned could be the worst Christmas for 30 years as a result of falling house prices, rising unemployment and rock-bottom confidence, retailers have already resorted to price cuts and promotions./ppIt was Marks Spencer's decision to hold a one-day 20% off "spectacular"- for the first time in four years - that prised many reluctant shoppers out of their homes and offices. /ppBut the shop windows in the West End of London were plastered with posters promising bargains. Debenhams was in the middle of a three-day 25% off sale and there were sale signs up in Jane Norman, Mexx, Clarks, H Samuel, and Sir Philip Green's Arcadia Group chains, including Burton, Dorothy Perkins and Bhs./ppNew figures from the Office for National Statistics suggested retail sales were proving unexpectedly resilient. The ONS said sales dropped by just 0.1% in October, leaving them 1.9% higher than last year. This was way ahead of forecasts in the City, where analysts had been predicting a slump of 0.9%./ppBut in recent months economists and retailers have repeatedly questioned the accuracy of the ONS figures. Even the Bank of England has suggested the data should be treated with caution./ppDavid Tinsley, an economist with nabCapital, predicted the official figures would soon catch up with reality: "The figure will probably crash around November or December."/ppSurprise sales can anger shoppers who have bought items at full price and yesterday some MS customers were certainly planning revenge. One woman, who asked to remain nameless, said several of her friends were buying items at 20% off which they had already purchased and planned to return with their original items another day to get a full refund./ppNevertheless, MS boss Sir Stuart Rose insisted the discounts had given the UK's biggest clothing retailer a much-needed boost: "It seems to have touched the spot. It's a riot."/ppShopper Judith Limbert, who had travelled to Oxford Street from Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire for the MS sale, said consumers were waiting for bargains: "In the runup to Christmas I suspect people are going to hang on and hang on, waiting for sales." /ppLimbert had been planning to buy Christmas presents in MS but had been waiting to see if it would offer reductions. She said her family would definitely spend less this year and would look for bargains on the internet. "We've got less money in that our utility bills are higher and food bills are dearer."/ppA survey yesterday said that 80% of consumers plan to spend less this year and there was more gloom from credit rating agency Moodys, whose chief international economist, Ruth Stroppiana, warned: "Britain's retailing sector is expected to come under increasing pressure in coming quarters as the country's highly indebted households continue to rein in expenditure." /ppOver at the new Westfield shopping centre in west London, in the basement food hall of MS's vast store, trolleys were clattering through the tills./ppWith a recession around the corner, it was clearly time to stock up on champagne. A couple from Dorset were piloting a trolley laden with MS bubbly. They bought 36 bottles - and saved nearly pound;450 on the shelf price. /ppThe champagne was a triple bargain. On top of the 20% off was another 10% discount and a pound;5-a-bottle reduction for buying more than 12 bottles. The result was a pound;26 ticket price slashed to just pound;13 a bottle./ppIsabelle Marsh bought 36 bottles for just under pound;500, compared with the pound;936 full price./ppMarsh runs Bournemouth-based Viva Las Vegas, a fun casino business for private parties, and the champagne will be used as prizes. /ppAt the next till her friends Kay and Roger Brahams, from Surrey, who are also in the casino business, were doing exactly the same. They also had a collection of blue spotted bow ties and waistcoats for their croupiers - four waistcoats, four bow ties and two pairs of black trousers for pound;124, down from pound;155 for one day only. "It's for the business," said Roger Brahams. "It is too good to miss." /ppOn the clothing floor, however, there were many shoppers who had used the discount day to bring forward purchases they were planning to make anyway. Mark, a BBC employee, had popped in to buy an pound;80 coat he had his eye on. "My wife rang me this morning to tell me about the sale," he explained. He paid pound;64 and walked away very pleased. /ppIn Sheffield city centre, Carolyn Bowler had nipped out in her lunch break to buy a box of Christmas crackers, but by the time she had heaved her way out of MS she had three of them, plus a new dressing gown./pp"You've to shop carefully these days," she said, as three women marched past with purple Debenhams balloons and leaflets promising "25% off plus look inside for half-price bonus deals"./pp"These offers are bringing people out, no question," said another lunchtime shopper called Marion - "please don't print my surname in case my children read the paper and it spoils their Christmas surprise". The surprise is that Marion is making them clothes herself this year, instead of buying new ones./pp"You've got to cut back at times like these," she said. "We certainly have anyway, because my husband's not had a job since the summer. No one knows what the future holds any more."/ppIt was all music to the ears of Ian Fleming, who was supervising Debenhams balloon women. Enticing punters with the likes of a shimmer bow back dress reduced to pound;37.50 from pound;75, he said: "Shoppers will never get tired of good value and a bargain. This is working. It's even better out at the Meadowhall shopping centre."/ppThat, however, was impossible to check: reporters were barred from doing interviews in the sprawling complex beside the M1 because of the current spate of gloomy stories./ph2Key tactics for shoppers to cash in on stores' price war/h2pIt is the year of the tactical shopper, according to one retail expert, with yesterday's "flash" or "guerilla" sales at MS and Debenhams marking the start of what is likely to be a long and protracted war between high street stores. But for the savvy shopper hoping to secure the ultimate bargain, where and when is the time to strike? /ppIn order to secure the best bargain this Christmas, shoppers should look around and keep an eye out for promotional vouchers, said Lauretta Roberts, editor of Drapers magazine. /pp"My advice to shoppers is shop late. It's a buyers market out there and it is not going to be too difficult to find a bargain."/ppAnother way of saving money is to hit the shops before the official sale. "Even though they don't advertise the fact, many of the big department stores like Selfridges or Harvey Nichols discount their products from December 24. You get the best choice, unlike post-Christmas, when there often little left."/ppA further wave of price cuts can be expected from Boxing Day onwards, with January sales slashing 50% off many products immediately, she said. There are lots of other ways for shoppers to maximise their funds over the festive period. But it requires commitment and tactical thinking, said Martin Lewis, founder of moneysavingexpert.com. /pp"This is the year of the targeted and tactical shopper. As well as promotional sales we are seeing a rash of big discount shopping vouchers," he said. Vouchers currently featured on the website include 30% off at Gap, 40% off at Threshers and 20% off Shudoo, who sell Ugg boots, set to be a Christmas favourite. /ppAnother way of getting the best deal is to use price comparison websites, such as shopping.com, kelkoo.co.uk and pricerunner.co.uk, he said. For example, one Christmas must-have, a Wii Console + Sports Pack, costs pound;184.99 at Dixons, but on tdgstore.co.uk can be found for pound;179.99./pp"Different comparison websites are better for different products," said Lewis, who recommended find-dvd.co.uk for dvds and bookbrain.co.uk for books. /ppOnce the cheapest product has been identified, shoppers should try to buy it through a cash-back website, such as topcashback.co.uk, he added. "Cashback websites are paid 5% for sending you to a particular site, but instead of pocketing that cash they share the proceeds with their users by discounting products further."/ppHe also advises shoppers to use cash-back credit cards, such as American Express, which offers 5% back on purchases for three months. Using a credit card for expensive purchases also protects buyers, he added./ppIn 2007 the average British family spent pound;840 on Christmas. Choosing carefully this year, they could save 5% to 50%, said Lewis. /ppDoesn't all this calculating detract from the joy of the impulse buy? No way, he said. /pp"We are entering a recession, and there are two ways you can deal with it. Stop spending or make the money that you have got go further."br /strongAlexandra Topping/strong/ppstrongBargains/strong/ppstrongGap/strong/ppUltra-low rise jeans was pound;39.50 now pound;9.99br /Saving 75%/ppstrongDebenhams/strong/ppFour Royal Doulton crystal goblets was pound;80 now pound;32br /Saving 60%/ppstrongCurrysdigital/strong/ppLogik DAB digital radio was pound;139.99 now pound;59.99br /Saving 57%/ppstrongHouse of Fraser/strong/ppChristy Sorrento bath towel was pound;22 now pound;11br /Saving 50%/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/retail"Retail industry/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/christmas-xmas"Christmas/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/creditcrunch"Credit crunch/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Businesscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227227727742112100421654622"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Businesscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227227727742112100421654622" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/32700?ns=guardianpageName=Education%3A+Corby+and+Crawley+hope+to+become+university+townsch=Educationc3=The+Guardianc4=Higher+education%2CEducation%2CUK+newsc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CEducation+Weekly+Education%2CHigher+Educationc6=Anthea+Lipsett%2CPolly+Curtisc7=2008_11_21c8=1121635c9=articlec10=GUc11=Educationc12=Higher+educationc13=c14=h2=GU%2FEducation%2FHigher+education" width="1" height="1" //divpCorby, Crawley and Croydon are bidding to join Cambridge as university towns, it was announced yesterday. Basildon, Basingstoke, Dudley and Stockport are also among 27 areas in England bidding for funding to launch new higher education (HE) centres, said the universities secretary John Denham. They are among the first places to apply to take part in the government's "university challenge" initiative, launched in March./ppDenham said the project would help regions hit by the recession by providing education and regeneration in rural areas as well as cities. Opposition MPs accused the government of "knocking up" the idea to compensate areas which had been earmarked for casinos but missed out after the project was scaled back at the beginning of the year. /ppPartnerships of regional development agencies, local authorities and colleges have put together bids for the universities centres, which will teach a range of degrees but fall short of being standalone universities because they will not have their own degree-awarding powers or privy council approval. /ppUniversities in neighbouring areas will be a crucial element in the partnerships accrediting the degrees. The government wants 20 new higher education centres planned within the next six years. The new centres could provide study places for up to 10,000 students./ppMinisters want the centres to open up the chance to study for a degree for people who would not have given much thought to a degree previously. According to economists, every extra job a university creates is matched by another elsewhere in the economy, such as in restaurants and bars, to cater for the student population./ppBut Martin Freedman, head of pay, conditions and pensions at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: "Some of the 27 towns interested in setting up higher education centres already have successful further education colleges. We don't want these colleges and new universities to compete for students at each other's expense./pp"In the light of the government's cap on the number of extra HE students, this proposed university expansion raises questions about how additional universities can function if limits are placed on the number of students?"/ppUniversities are already struggling to fill their places after ministers were forced to cut the numbers funded to go to higher education next year. Last month, Denham froze additional student numbers after admitting the government had botched its estimates for student grants and could no longer afford its support package./ph2University hopefuls/h2pAreas bidding to run universities: Accrington, Basildon, Basingstoke, Corby/Kettering, Crawley, Croydon, Doncaster, Dudley, Ebbsfleet, Halifax, Havering, Herefordshire, King's Lynn, Milton Keynes, Rochdale, Rotherham, Sandwell, Scarborough, Shropshire, Somerset, Stratford Island, Stockport, Swindon, Thurrock, Wakefield, Wallsend and Wirral/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/highereducation"Higher education/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Educationcountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227227727773112100421654622"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Educationcountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227227727773112100421654622" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/132132/How-the-Mighty-Have-Fallen-Buffett-Other-Legends-Feel-Bear-Market-Bite?tickers=BRK-A,FMAGX,CGMFX,LMVTX,IEP,LM,GS"Influential billionaires/a like a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122670709684029837.html?mod=article-outset-box#printMode"Carl/a, a href="http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article5192145.ece?print=yesrandnum=1227222958111"Thomas/a, a href="http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12480897"Kirk/a, and a href="http://www.forbes.com/business/2008/11/19/warren-buffett-berkshire-biz-wall-cx_lm_1118buffett.html"Warren/a have been a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039sid=aqhtAQRFPDGsrefer=home"losing their shirts./a And it's a href="http://www.forbes.com/2008/11/12/richest-Indian-billionaires-biz-indiarichest08-cx_nk_1112indiaintro_print.html"being felt/a around a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/01/china-recession-super-rich-billionaire/print"the world. /a br / Warning - First link plays video immediately and without warning.

p style=text-align: center;a target=_blank href=http://storage.canalblog.com/28/83/102430/32729551.jpgimg height=450 border=0 width=342 src=http://storage.canalblog.com/28/83/102430/32729551_p.jpg alt=20081122issuecovUS400 //abr /br /a href=http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12637043All you need is cash/abr /a href=http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12636353Desperately seeking a cash cure/abr /a href=http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12637090The end of the affair/a/p