OBR interim chairman Sir Alan Budd (left, with George Osborne), is expected to face searching questions at the Treasury committee next Tuesday. Photograph: Chris Ratcliffe Pool/EPA Fears rose last night that job losses in the public sector will be higher than forecast by George Osborne’s... 

AP2002 Singer Jimmy Buffett makes a surprise appearance at the annual Parrot Heads in Paradise convention in Key West, Fla., Friday Nov. 1, 2002. More than 3,000 of the singer’s fans have gathered in Key West through Sunday, Nov. 3. There are now almost 160 Parrot Head chapters in the U.S., Australia... 

A scene from Avatar, the biggest grossing movie of all time. Photograph: 20th Century Fox One was the year of A Clockwork Orange and decimalisation. The other was that of Avatar and the shattered economy. But while 1971 and 2009 were wildly different in terms of the technological limits of... 

Top of the plops … Kings of Leon Kings of Leon were forced to cancel a show last week after being showered with pigeon droppings. The flock of avian music critics brought the St Louis concert to a cooing halt after just three songs. “You may enjoy being shit on,” explained... 

JP Morgan said second-quarter net income was up to $4.8bn from $2.7bn. Photograph: Chris Hondros/Getty Images Wall Street banking group JP Morgan Chase has put aside $5.8bn (£3.8bn) in the first six months of the year to pay its investment bankers around the world. Even though revenue in...