Bank Greed - Got a basic bank account then piss off. - Honour killings and bits.

A report in yesterday’s financial section of the Daily Mail told how a High Street bank is asking customers on low incomes not to trouble bank staff by turning up with enquiries at branches.

Up to 3.7 million customers could be seriously affected by the plan of banking giant, HBOS to force holders of Basic bank accounts to deal with the branch via Internet and telephone, claiming it would reduce waiting times for other more lucrative customers.

Little choice

Many holders of Basic bank accounts are on low incomes, typically less than £15,000 a year, receive State benefits and include many pensioners. Denying these account holders access to personal support in a branch leaves the customers vulnerable and left with little choice, other than to use a 0845 phoneline which costs up to 4.2 p per minute, the network of cash machines which banks are being increasingly farming out to unscrupulous private companies who charge up to £1.75 to withdraw a tenner, or the Internet, access to which many pensioners and poverty stricken families do not have.

HBOS is testing the new approach at branches in East London, South London and South-East London. It has been writing to those with basic bank accounts - introduced to attract low income customers - to ask them to stop turning up at the bank counter.

The Government encouraged the banks to set up such accounts to ensure poorer families had access to services such as direct debits, standing orders, credit cards and loans.

But many banks see these customers as a drain on their profits. Halifax says its service to this group costs it £25m a year. It was one of the most proactive in setting up the accounts. Now, however, it seems basic account holders are regarded as a nuisance. The removal of face-to-face service will be a blow to such customers. They are generally most in need of help in understanding complex financial products.

Condemnation

The National Consumer Council condemned the Halifax scheme. A spokesman said: 'This undermines the whole ethos of basic banking and calls into question Halifax's commitment to financial inclusion.'

HBOS was created by a merger of the Halifax and Bank of Scotland in September 2001 and with assets of over £440 billion, it is the UK's largest mortgage and savings provider as well as being a major player in the provision of new current accounts and credit cards in the UK. Only last month the bank announced interim pre tax profits of £2.2 billion, up 15% on the previous year.

Dennis Stevenson the Chairman of the Board of Directors certainly has no need for a Basic bank account. His annual salary from HBOS is in excess of half a million a year. Nice money if you can get it!

Do what I do whenever I need some change, walk in the bank and say to the cashier "I would like to draw out 50p please, as I feel the need for a can of coke." - pisses the hell out of them!

HONOUR KILLINGS - nice to see the modern faith of Islam supporting womens rights.

DAHARKI, Pakistan (Reuters) - Her nose is bandaged from the bridge to the tip because, she says, her husband and his relatives tried to cut it off.

If they catch her again, 15-year old Lakhmira is sure she'll be killed.

Married just four months ago, this skinny girl will be lucky if she doesn't end up in one of the nameless graves in burial grounds reserved for "karo kari", or honour killing, victims in the tribal badlands of Pakistan's southern Sindh province.

Meeting secretly on a moonless night at her hiding place among the marshes surrounding Daharki town, 550 km north of the port city of Karachi, Lakhmira sobbed and shook with fear as she recounted her nightmare.

"If someone does not come to our rescue I will commit suicide," Lakhmira moaned softly, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"In our culture it is impossible for a girl to live after being declared a kari even if it is a false charge. Only God knows the truth." ...

Lakhmira's 40-year-old husband, Dilawar, declared her a "kari" [adulterer —ed.] after she told people that his nephews were molesting her, wounding male pride in an influential family of the Shar tribe.

Official estimates put the number of honour killings or karo kari murders at over 4,000 between 2001 and 2004.

KABUL, Sept 1: Taliban militants beheaded a cleric, saying he was a candidate in the Sept 18 elections. However, a provincial official said on Thursday that the dead man was not a candidate though he had been helping one.

Four candidates for the parliamentary and provincial elections have been killed with five election workers but the election commission says it does not regard all of the deaths as election-related.

A Taliban spokesman said Mullah Amir Mohammad was killed by Taliban fighters on Wednesday night. A provincial official confirmed the murder.

“He was beheaded,” said Wali Alizai, spokesman for the governor of Helmand province. “But he was not a candidate, he was killed because he was supporting a candidate.”

Even when muslims want to change the status quo they risk a sudden and violent end.

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