Round-up: Don't be soggy, Cameron tells UK

Dire data from households and its impact on retailers, strike action talks, heads roll at UBS, and advice from the PM to Britain to reject "can't do sogginess" for the drive of China. Our round-up up of the nationals.

FINANCIAL TIMES
CAMERON URGES BRITAIN TO EMULATE CHINA
David Cameron has urged Britain to emulate the "energy, hunger and drive" of China, India and Nigeria as he attempted to inject a mood of optimism amid the country's stagnating economy. The prime minister told the Conservative party conference in Manchester that the world faced an economic crisis "as serious as it was in 2008" but insisted Britain could emerge stronger if it rejected a mood of "can't do sogginess".

FINANCIAL TIMES
EU SEEKS TO RETEST BANKS' STRENGTH
Europe's top banking regulator has started to re-examine the strength of the region's banks, modelling a big writedown of all peripheral eurozone sovereign debt. The exercise, conducted by the European Banking Authority, could potentially identify capital shortfalls across the banking system of as much as €200bn ($266bn).

INDEPENDENT
UNION BOSS'S PRIVATE TALKS WITH MINISTERS TO AVERT MASS STRIKES
Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, held private talks in Manchester this week with four senior ministers - including the Chancellor, George Osborne - in an attempt to avert next month's planned one-day strike, the biggest for a generation. Behind the scenes, Mr Osborne is coming under pressure from ministers to show more flexibility over cutting the bill for public-sector pensions.

DAILY TELEGRAPH
HOUSEHOLD SPENDING AT LOWEST LEVEL FOR 10 YEARS
The amount families spent on groceries, petrol and other day-to-day items has shrunk for a whole year, official figures show. Household spending on essentials has fallen to its lowest level in almost a decade as families tighten their belts amid growing fears over the economy.

THE GUARDIAN
RETAILERS LEFT REELING AS SHOPPERS TIGHTEN BELTS
A series of shock profit warnings from Mothercare and Supergroup as well as Tesco's worst UK sales in two decades painted a picture of a high street in crisis as soaring living costs force shoppers to batten down the hatches.

THE GUARDIAN
UBS EXECUTIVES RESIGN OVER ALLEGED ROGUE TRADING AFFAIR
The co-heads of global equities, Francois Gouws and Yassine Bouhara, resigned while a handful of others faced "disciplinary action", the Swiss bank stated, as it attempted to draw a line under the alleged affair which the bank has said caused $2.3bn (£1.5bn) of losses..

WALL STREET JOURNAL
IMF CONSIDERS EUROPE BOND BUYS
New initiatives emerged Wednesday as part of efforts to quell Europe's twin sovereign-debt and banking crises. Germany pushed a proposal to encourage the euro-zone's national authorities to announce backstops in case their banks hit difficulties, and a senior International Monetary Fund official said the IMF could step in to help shore up the bonds of troubled euro-zone governments.