And he claims he didn't know the meaning of 'failure'

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'Apprentice' reject faces bankruptcy
Fired Apprentice candidate Ian Stringer has admitted that he is facing financial ruin. "It has been hell. I'm on the edge of bankruptcy," Ian told the News of the World. "I can't pay my mortgage, I can't pay off my credit card, I owe my solicitor £600 but I can't even pay my £200 electricity bill. My home will be repossessed if we don't sell it fast. "I've got zero money in the bank, an empty fridge, and just £15 in my pocket. That's all I'm worth."
He learning fast.



Watch out for those 'kindly' locals

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'World peace' hitcher is murdered
An Italian woman artist who was hitch-hiking to the Middle East dressed as a bride to promote world peace has been found murdered in Turkey. The naked body of Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo, 33, known as Pippa Bacca, was found in bushes near the city of Gebze on Friday. She had said she wanted to show that she could put her trust in the kindness of local people.
Whoops!



Warders are the dealers at the heart of prison drugs scourge

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Prisoners get high on the warders' supply
The British prison service is spending £70m a year treating drug addicts when, according to insiders interviewed for a BBC radio investigation, corrupt warders are responsible for the majority of the drugs traffic into jails. At England's largest prison, Wandsworth, they have tried to put a figure on the amount of drugs being smuggled inside. "A crude estimate on the value of drugs in Wandsworth is about £1m a year," says David Jamieson, the chairman of Wandsworth's independent monitoring board. "What we're talking about is a large-scale business... there are some serious players involved in this."
The penny drops. Doh! Better late than never. Did anyone really believe all these drugs were being secreted in the nooks and crannies of assorted visiting girlfriends and wives. Jeez. OF COURSE it's the fucking warders. It always has been. We now have the ludicrous situation where it is, on average, easier to get drugs in prison than outside. Easier and less risky. There are no plain clothed coppers hanging around the yard ready to pounce on your latest drug deal, I can tell you. Warders are mostly low life. Supported by the last bastion of restrictive practices they are a law unto themselves. But no politician will grasp the nettle. And you can be sure that, ironically, the biggest defenders of these scumbags and the greatest opposition to reducing their power will come not from the right but from the left.

That's big of them

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Banks take blame for crisis
The world’s leading banks on Wednesday publicly accepted much of the blame for the credit crisis, as the International Monetary Fund slashed its estimates for global growth and warned that the US downturn will last longer than most people expect.

The IMF said the US would suffer a recession this year, recovery would not begin until next year, and growth would remain well below trend even in 2009.
Now, if our bank would just kindly cough up the three grand or so in overcharges it owes us I'll say no more about it all.