Many of the world's main stock indexes, including the UK FTSE 100, have posted their biggest falls since the terrorist attacks of 11 September, 2001.

The FTSE 100 index tumbled 5.5% to 5,578.2, wiping £84bn ($42bn) off the value of its listed shares.

Indexes in Paris and Frankfurt slumped by about 7%, while markets in Asia, India and South America also dropped.

Investors questioned whether a plan to boost the US economy would do enough to avert a full-blown recession.

"It's another horrible day," said Francis Lun of Fulbright Securities in Hong Kong.

"Today it's because of disappointment that the US stimulus is too little, too late and investors feel it won't help the economy recover."

US markets are closed for a public holiday on Monday and will re-open on Tuesday.

Facebook is to be quizzed about its data protection policies by the Information Commissioner's Office.

The investigation follows a complaint by a user of the social network who was unable to fully delete their profile even after terminating their account.

Currently, personal information remains on Facebook's servers even after a user deactivates an account.

Facebook has said it believes its policy is in "full compliance with UK data protection law".

"We take the concerns of theICO [Information Commissioner's Office] and our user's privacy very seriously and are committed to working with the ICO to maintain a trusted environment for all Facebook users and ensure compliance with UK law," said a statement from the site.

SANDBAGS are being prepared for distribution in West Oxfordshire as river levels continue to rise.

An extra 40 tonnes of sand has been brought in to the district council's depot at Witney and batches sent for localised use to Bampton, Woodstock, and Chipping Norton. So far, 2,000 free sandbags have been issued.

Each morning at 9am, the council's emergency flooding team of officers was meeting to update the situation and what action needed to be taken, said cabinet leader Barry Norton. Plans are in place for emergency rest centres.

"The prospect is that, though we have so far had reports of water getting into several homes in Ascott-under-Wychwood and Burford, it is going to get worse on Friday and Saturday," he added.

People affected by the July floods in west Oxfordshire are to benefit from a government grant of more than £60,000 towards the clean-up.

The district council will receive £64,621 to cover the cost it incurred tackling the aftermath of the disaster.

The news follows a recent Environment Agency flood warning for the River Thames through Oxford, which was badly hit by last summer's floods.

The announcement was made by the floods recovery minister John Healey MP.

The Environment Agency has issued a flood warning for the River Thames through Oxford, which was badly hit by last summer's floods.

Pumps and emergency flood defences are being moved into the city.

The agency has warned that Botley Road could be flooded at about 2200 GMT and Osney Island later in the week.

Flood warnings, the second highest state of alert which means flooding is expected, is also in place for the River Thame and the River Ray.

If the Thame floods it could affect Dorchester, Moreton, Waterstock and Wheatley, as well as Chippinghurst and Drayton St Leonard.

The flood warning on the River Ray covers Islip, Ludgershall and Blackthorn, as well as Murcott, Wendlebury and Odington.

OXFORDSHIRE County Council has reminded people of steps they should take if their home is at risk of flooding.

If water levels rise to a level where flooding is likely, people should: - Sandbag their properties.

- Plug sinks and baths and put a sandbag in toilet bowls to prevent overflow.

- Prepare to be evacuate and pack essentials including nappies, pet food, a mobile phone and charger and blankets and sleeping bags.

John Kelly, Oxfordshire County Council's emergency planning officer, said: "At the moment there is no threat of flooding to property in Oxfordshire.

"However, we saw in July 2007 how situations can change quickly. We would like people to be as prepared as possible and studying our standard advice will help.

"Let us hope that water levels do not rise to the extent that people will need to deploy our advice. As things stand there is no cause for alarm."

Source: Witney Gazette

OXFORDSHIRE emergency officials today warned householders to remain on guard against flooding as rivers across the county spill over their banks - with more rain forecast tonight.

A number of roads in the county are already affected by flood water, including the B4044 between Botley and Eynsham and roads in Islip, Minster Lovell, Ascott-under-Wychwood, Challow and the road between Burford and Carterton.

Flood watches, the lowest level in the Environment Agency's advance warning system, are in place on the rivers Thames, Cherwell, Evenlode, Ock, Ray, Thame and Windrush.

John Kelly, the county council's emergency planning officer, said: "We're keeping an eye on this at the moment. We have circulated the flood warning around all the agencies who would need to respond. We will take positive action on warnings and severe warnings and provide whatever help we can.

A PROJECT group is to be set up to look into the future of Cogges Manor Farm Museum, in Witney.

The move follows last week's announcement that the county council will continue to subsidise for the next year the museum's annual losses of £250,000.

Jim Couchman, the cabinet member for social and community services, told the Gazette this week that the council had received 'several serious expressions of interest' in the future running of Cogges.

He added: "It is far too early to offer any names of organisations which have expressed interest.

"The cabinet will discuss, in confidence, future financial terms once the project group has had time to consider all suggestions and proposals and has recommended a shortlist of appropriate organisations offering a viable and prosperous future to this valuable local attraction."

The group will include cabinet members David Robertson and Louise Chapman, as well as John Jackson, director of social and community services.

The council plans to reduce its spending on Cogges after this coming financial year.

Source: Witney Gazette

TOWN and parish councils in West Oxfordshire are set to levy more than £2m from council taxpayers next year - an average increase of 5.4 per cent.

All 83 of the smallest of the local authorities who figure in next April's tax bills have now set their budgets for 2008-9.

In the main town, Witney, residents will be paying just over £90 for an average Band D property, an increase of 3.48 per cent on this year.

The town council's principal job is to maintain parks, recreation grounds, public halls, and the town cemetery.

There are wide variations in the demands among the parishes. A new project, like village hall repairs, can cause a large jump in local precepts, because the cost falls on fewer people. In Stanton Harcourt next year, the parish element jumps from an average £2.68 to £26.36.

In the other main population centres the parish taxes are (this year followed by next year's): Burford (£52.19) £58.74: Carterton (£57.75) £59.44; Chipping Norton (£51.02) £52.52; Charlbury (£62.38) £56.51; Eynsham (£47.60) £47.69: Woodstock (£40.30) £44.13.

The other elements of tax bills, provided by county and district councils and Thames Valley Police, have yet to be set.

West Oxfordshire District Council's cabinet meets on Wednesday to consider a preliminary budget, which would lead to a 4.9 per cent increase from this year's Band D £71.36 to £74.88.

Source: Witney Gazette

BUILDING work on Witney's long-awaited Marriotts Close redevelopment starts next Monday with closure of the town's Welch Way car park and the putting up of two-and-a-half metre high boarding around the site.

Motorists are being advised of the new parking arrangements in the town until the expected completion of the new development in September next year.

And this week, to herald the beginning of work, joint partners West Oxfordshire District Council and Simons Developments announced the latest stores signed up for the £50m centre.

Fashion retailers Monsoon and Accessorize, as well as Dorothy Perkins and Wallis, have signed up to be part of the £50m complex, joining the list of other high street chains, including M&S and Debenhams, which will be taking the two largest stores in the complex.

Barry Norton, council leader, said: "The aim is to provide a wider range of services and facilities locally, because of the haemorrhage of shoppers going out of West Oxfordshire to other regional centres. But also to keep the essential market town feel of Witney."

There are still eight shop units left, 3,000 square feet and under. Luke Pickering, Simons' managing director, said they have had to turn other high street retailers down because the spaces were not big enough for them.

Two of those going into Marriotts Close, New Look and Dorothy Perkins, are relocating from shops they already have in the town. It is understood that one has already been relet, and the other will soon be on the market.

A POPULAR farm museum, threatened with closure by Oxfordshire County Council, has been granted a reprieve - but only for one year.

There was outrage among fans of Cogges Manor Farm Museum, Witney, when the council last year announced plans to overhaul its museum service - including a suggestion that the 20-acre site could be sold for housing.

The proposal was part of a £250,000 package of cost-cutting measures which included compulsory staff redundancies.

Advertisement However, a county council report today recommended it continues to subsidise the museum at its current rate of £250,000 for the coming year, while work begins on a three-year programme to bring in outside finance.

The museum allows visitors to experience life on a reconstructed Victorian farm. More than 1,600 people signed a petition to save it.

Source: Witney Gazette

POLICE today appealed for witnesses after vandals attacked three cars and a house in Witney.

Sometime between 10pm on Friday and 2am on Saturday, the wing mirrors of three cars in The Springs were ripped off. The window of a house in Corn Street was also broken at about the same time.

PC Matthew Gorman, West Oxfordshire Auto-crime Co-ordinator, said: "Whoever is responsible for this damage has a total disregard and lack of respect for other people's property.

"The offender or offenders need to be brought to justice and I am appealing for anyone who may have witnessed these incidents or have information about who did it to call me."

PC Gorman can be contacted via the Police Enquiry Centre on 0845 8 505 505.

If you do not want to talk to police and do not want to leave your name, call the Crimestoppers charity anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Source: Witney Gazette

HOUSE prices in Oxford increased by more than £100 a day and were among the fastest-earning homes in the country last year.

Figures released by Nationwide, Britain's biggest building society, showed house prices in the city rose by 13 per cent.

The average-priced house in Oxford now costs £339,404 with the city ranked fourth in a survey of areas with the biggest percentage rise after Belfast, Aberdeen and London - and just beating Reading and St Albans.

However, in the last three months of 2007 house prices across Oxfordshire fell more than anywhere else in the country.

The average house price in the UK fell by 0.3 per cent - but in Oxfordshire values tumbled by five times as much - 1.5 per cent.

Chris Dixie, sales negotiator at Oxford-based estate agents Cluttons, said: "We have found people who have wanted to move have had to be prepared to deal on price in a way perhaps they haven't had to do before.

"We have not been seeing the amazing prices we were seeing in spring and summer.

A ROBBER snatched £80 in a knifepoint raid on a newsagent in Witney.

At about 4.20pm on Christmas Eve, police said a man, or youth, who had his face covered entered Star News Shop in Burwell Drive.

He produced a knife and demanded cash from the member of staff behind the counter.

About £80 in £5 notes was handed over and the man ran out of the shop and headed left.

He was about 6ft and of stocky build. He was wearing a black hooded top with the hood up and a scarf wrapped around his face underneath the hood so only his eyes were visible.

The scarf was patterned, with blue, white and cream stripes. He was wearing dark blue jeans, white trainers and black woollen gloves.

The knife was approximately 6cm in length and the blade was made from shiny steel, with some sort of badge or pattern at the handle end of the blade.

Det Con Kevin Middlecote, of Witney CID, said: "No one was hurt in this robbery, but the staff member involved has been left shocked and it is important we find this man before he tries something like this again.

"If you saw someone acting suspiciously in the Burwell Drive area on the afternoon of Christmas Eve, please get in touch."

Det Con Middlecote can be contacted via the Police Enquiry Centre on 0845 8 505 505.

If you do not want to talk to police and do not want to leave your name, call the Crimestoppers charity anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Source: Witney Gazette

SHOPPERS in Witney will have an extra 250 car parking spaces in the days just before Christmas.

They are at the temporary car park in Woodford Way, which will be open on Saturday, December 22 - several weeks earlier than planned.

Parking, as in the town's two other main car parks, is free.

It includes ten disabled bays, and is covered by a new CCTV camera, monitored from the nearby town police station.

Woodford Way will stay open as a replacement for the Welch Way car park, which closes in the New Year, when construction starts on the Marriotts Close development.

Source: Witney Gazette

DAVID Cameron's constituency party has admitted receiving more than £7,000 in invalid donations, it was revealed today.

The Witney Conservative Association has agreed to forfeit the sum to public funds because the benefactors were not on the UK electoral roll.

The news will be embarrassing for the Tory leader, who has been scathing in his criticism of Labour over the "proxy" donors scandal.

However, aides insist privately that the latest funding incident was the result of a "genuine mistake", and point out that Mr Cameron has stressed that errors will always occur at a local level.

Records on the Electoral Commission website show that two donations received by the association on August 21 this year were subsequently found to have been impermissible.

Roger Fletcher gave £5,900, while Geoffrey Dobbs provided an auction prize worth £1,500.

A total of £7,400 was handed over to the Electoral Commission on November 16.

A Tory spokesman said: "As soon as we became aware that these two donations were not permissible we declared and voluntarily forfeited them to the Electoral Commission."

Source: Witney Gazette

WITNEY MP David Cameron drew on personal experience when he visited the town's under-threat Cogges Farm Museum to discuss rescue plans.

The Conservative Party leader has family time with his wife and three children on Sundays at their home in Dean, near Chadlington, but has never been able to visit, because the museum is shut that morning.

It is also closed almost five months of the year, from the end of October until late March.

Mr Cameron dropped in to meet trustees and county council officers trying to end £250,000-a-year losses and remove the threat of closure.

"The first thing that needs to be done is keep the museum going for the next year and find ways forward," he said. "The place needs more visitors.

"It needs to be open all the year round. I have not been able to bring my children here, because it is closed on Sunday mornings when we have time to take the family out. Instead, we've been to the Cotswold Wildlife Park. That needs to be looked at.

"There could also be a role for business in this. We need to keep the education and spirit of the place, but a commercial partner may be what we are looking at."

The county council is reviewing the future of Cogges because of the drain on its funds.

David Freeman, the chairman of the museum's trustees, said: "We're now looking at possible commercial partners and to have it open all year round."

Source: Witney Gazette

WITNEY MP and Conservative Party leader, David Cameron, was due to visit Cogges Manor Farm Museum today to reassure the under-threat attraction he would do all he could to save it from closure.

Last month, the Witney Gazette revealed the Oxfordshire County Council-run attraction was losing £250,000 a year and could be axed as part of a cost-cutting exercise.

Source: Witney Gazette

THE number of people claiming unemployment benefit in Oxfordshire has hit a new six-year low.

Latest official figures show there were 3,366 people claiming benefit in November, a drop of 51 on the previous month.

The count is at its lowest since December 2001.

Source: Witney Gazette

THE future of Cogges Manor Farm Museum is dependent on better marketing, senior county councillor David Robertson has said.

Already he has received suggestions about how to take the loss-making Witney museum forward, including a voluntary one to provide expertise.

Mr Robertson, deputy leader of the council which owns and manages the museum, lives in Witney and the museum is in his local ward.

He said he had received many suggestions about ways to improve the threatened museum following the revelation that it is running up a loss of £250,000 a year.

"Some of them are very helpful," he said. "My own view is that we should keep the museum the same, but with extra going on there.

"I wouldn't want it to become a theme park, but it needs better marketing. Among the suggestions I've received are things like a morning cafe for mums to meet, a gardening club, children's parties, renting it out to film and TV crews.