Some of the leading supermarkets have recently cut their fuel prices. The cuts are as a result of the recent drop in oil prices. Asda has dropped its prices by 3p a litre, Morrisons cut prices by 4p and Sainsbury's have said they will offer a 5p a litre reduction for customers who spend £50 or more in store.

Nike has withdrawn its range of Air Stab trainers due to the recent spat of knife crime. The trainers which sell for £90 will be taken off the shelves due to the current regarding knife crime. A spokesman for Nike said 'The shoe was first launched in 1988 as a stability running shoe, hence the name Air Stab. It has nothing to do with knives or knife crime."

The government is looking at introducing a rent first buy later scheme to inject some new life into the housing market. Under the scheme people with household earnings under £60,000would be able to rent a property at a discounted rate for two or three years. They would then have the option to buy part of it. The government hopes that the scheme will benefit 75,000 first time buyer households to get on the property ladder.

Intel has reported a 25% jump in profits for the three months to the end of June. Record sales of laptop chips have boosted the firms income to $1.6bn up from $1.28bn last year. Analysts had feared that demand for computer had been hit by tough economic conditions worldwide but the soaring demand for laptops and notebooks has helped Intel to continue to prosper despite this.

BT is going to invest £1.5bn in fibre optic cables to give around 10 million households access to faster broadband. Under the plans 40% of homes would be able to receive a faster service by 2012. They are also planning on putting fibre optic cables into 1 million homes giving those customers an even faster service. Remaining customers would be offered broadband speeds of between 40 and 60 megabits a second.

The Chancellor has scrapped plans for a 2p rise in fuel duty. The rise was meant to take effect in October but the Chancellor has said he will suspend the rise to help motorists and businesses through the difficult economic conditions. The rise has now been put off until next April when it will be dealt with in his next budget. Road user groups have welcomed the announcement but have said more needs to be done to help motorists and hauliers.

Ministers are looking at cutting stamp duty in an effort to boost the housing market. Under the plan first time buyers could be offered stamp duty "holidays" and other home buyers could have tax rates reduced. Ministers are also looking at the possibility of raising the price bands at which stamp duty is charged. Currently stamp duty in charges at 1% on homes between £125,001 to £250,000, 3% between £250,001 and £500,000 and 4% over £500,000. As a result homebuyers have paid a record amount of stamp duty over the last 10 years according to official figures. I certainly think the price bands need looking at, you can't buy much for less than £125,000 these days, perhaps a shed somewhere and for first time buyers finding that extra cash just to line the governments pockets can be really hard.

This article suggests that some fast food meal contain a whole days' intake of fat or salt. The National Consumer Council criticised the country's seven biggest fast food chains for not making it clear to customers what is in its food. It is calling for restaurants to print nutritional information on menus. The report was particularly critical of Pizza Express which shows no information of the levels of fat, sugar and salt that is in its dishes. Meals from KFC and McDonalds were also revealed to have high levels of ingredients linked to obesity and heart disease. A KFC Tower Burger meal contained nearly a days intake of salt whilst a McDonalds quarter pounder meal had 90% of the the recommended daily calorie intake for a woman. Personally I don't find this is surprisingly. We all know fast food is bad for us and many people only eat it every now and again. The problem comes if you eat food like this everyday.

I was thinking of getting a new car, perhaps something that has a lower fuel consumption to try and cut down on the fuel bills. Before I consider the car itself I thought I would check out an auto loan. Looking around I came across this website called up2drive that specialise in auto loans and say they can lower my payment. They finance all makes and models and have no hidden cost or application fees. You simply complete their secure online credit application and submit it online. The website also has a handy payment estimator so you can input the loan type and amount that you require and get an idea of what the rate will be before you even apply.

The Co-Operative Group has become the country's fifth largest food retailer after agreeing a £1.6billion takeover of Somerfield. The takeover will mean that the Co-op will acquire 3,000 outlets across the country and an eight per cent market share.

Santander have brought Alliance and Leicester for £1.26bn, less than half the UK lender's value at the end of last year. The banks had held talks about a possible deal last December when Santander was prepared to pay nearly 700p a share for the bank. Since then Alliance and Leicester's share price has dropped due to recent market turmoil. Santander will combine Alliance and Leicester with Abbey which it purchased in 2004. It also plans to inject £1bn of capital into Alliance and Leicester to cover rising bad debts and further treasury write downs.

Britain's first eco nightclub has opened in London. The night club offers free entry to cyclists and walkers. It also has its own wind turbines and solar energy systems. The venue has air flush waterless urinals and low flush toilets. It sells all of its drinks in polycarbon cups and has a high tech dance floor that generates its own electricity when people dance on it.