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[JohnCenaFan28]

Thousands of fresh redundancies have been announced as the Prime Minister hosted a jobs summit aimed at helping the growing army of unemployed.

Gordon Brown pledged that people thrown out of work would not be "abandoned" by the Government.

He announced a series of measures, including a so-called "golden hello" of £2,500 for firms recruiting people unemployed for more than six months, extra apprenticeships and "intensive" support aimed at helping up to 500,000 people over the next two years.

But the relentless toll of redundancies, which is cutting deeper into British industry by the day, continued with almost 700 job cuts at heavy machinery giant JCB, almost 1,000 at logistics firm Wincanton and almost 400 at troubled china and crystal maker Waterford Wedgwood.

A further 420 jobs were under threat at Findus frozen food firm Newcastle Productions after the firm went into administration, while there were fears for the future of 1,000 jobs at furniture retailer Land of Leather after the company suspended its shares.

Hull-based Honda dealership deVries, which employs 130 workers, said it had appointed receivers after being hit by a fall in sales. Meanwhile, leading auction house Christie's, which employs 2,100 staff around the world, announced a reorganisation expected to lead to job cuts.

However, supermarket Morrisons gave a boost to Gordon Brown's jobs summit by flagging up plans to create 5,000 jobs this year.

Rival Sainsbury's also said at its Christmas trading update last week that the group would create 4,000 jobs this year. And Iceland bought 51 stores from the administrators of collapsed retailer Woolworths last Friday with plans to create 2,500 jobs.

The Prime Minister told an audience of 150 business, union and voluntary sector leaders at the jobs summit that the Government aimed to help 500,000 people into work or work-focused training over the next two years.

"We will do everything we can to prevent the global recession turning into a global depression, prevent short-term unemployment turning into long-term unemployment, and to prevent losing your job meaning losing your home. My message is simple - we won't give up on you, but in turn you must not give up on work, on skills and on training."

-Nova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Opponents to the creation of a third runway at Heathrow are fighting a furious war of words with supporters of expansion at the west London airport.

The Government is expected to give the go-ahead to the £9 billion expansion package later this week despite opposition from some Labour MPs.

The pro-runway lobby brought out the heavy artillery in the form of leaders of airlines, big business and unions who said that expansion was vital for the future of the UK economy. Opponents including the Conservatives, Tory London Mayor Boris Johnson and "green" groups countered by saying there was no environmental or economic case for a new runway.

While the business leaders, members of the Future Heathrow group, stressed at a media conference in London that a new runway could create 65,000 new jobs, Mr Johnson said he would challenge in the courts any decision to give expansion the green light.

Baroness Valentine, chief executive of business group London First, admitted the Government had a difficult decision to make but that a third runway was essential.

British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh said the new runway would probably not be completed until around 2019/20, by which time new aircraft would emit 55% less CO2 than planes in the year 2000.

The Unite and GMB unions both expressed their support for Heathrow expansion, with Unite assistant general secretary Paul Talbot saying the runway work could create 50,000 new jobs and there could be another 15,000 positions once the project was completed.

Mr Johnson claimed that a legal challenge to expansion would be "supported by the overwhelming majority". He added that the extra runway faced "all kinds of quite insuperable battles" - including emissions, congestion and noise pollution - which the Government had no answer to.

Shadow transport secretary Theresa Villiers said it was time Labour dropped "their misguided and unpopular plans for a third runway at Heathrow" while Liberal Democrat MP Susan Kramer said Heathrow expansion would be "a disaster for west London and a disaster for the climate".

The Society of British Aerospace Companies said Heathrow expansion was "the right decision to take for the benefit of the country", but Friends of the Earth countered by claiming the economic case for expansion was "biased and fundamentally flawed".

-Nova

[JohnCenaFan28]

One of the four remaining British First World War veterans has died at the age of 108, friends said.

Bill Stone, who joined the Royal Navy in Plymouth as a stoker at 18 before progressing to the battleship HMS Hood, died at a nursing home.

Dennis Goodwin, secretary of the World War One Veterans Association, said he had endured an ongoing battle with chest problems.

"He was always a battler," Mr Goodwin said.

Mr Stone took part in the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940 on the minesweeper HMS Salamander.

Mr Stone's daughter and son-in-law were with him at his residential home near Wokingham, Berkshire, when he died, Mr Goodwin said.

Mr Stone was born the 10th of 14 children in Kingsbridge, Devon, at the turn of the last century. Yet he was still rattling a tin for the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal as recently as five years ago.

Speaking in recent years, Mr Stone said: "I've had a wonderful life. I've always worked hard, never stopped for a minute and it's kept me going all right."

Mr Stone travelled to Cape Town, Tasmania, Jakarta, Newfoundland, Buenos Aires and Malta during a career which saw him work as a barrow boy, steam engine driver, barber, tobacconist and farm hand.

"War is terrible," he once said. "I saw Plymouth flattened and at the end of the war I went to Germany and all their buildings were flattened too. We were guarding an island there but there was no trouble because the Germans were as glad, as we were, that it was all over. They didn't want war just as we didn't."

-Nova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Prince Harry's controversial "Paki" comment was branded unacceptable by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, as Defence Secretary John Hutton confirmed the young royal would be interviewed by his commanding officer.

But the premier also declared he thought the prince would be given the benefit of the doubt by a public conscious of his combat service and charity work.

Mr Hutton confirmed Prince Harry would be interviewed in the next few days by his Household Cavalry commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Harry Fullerton, about the incident captured on video and disclosed by the News of the World.

Harry was caught on film three years ago referring to Pakistani platoon member Ahmed Raza Khan as "our little Paki friend".

Palace officials said the 24-year-old Prince was "extremely sorry" for the comment and stressed that Harry had been speaking to a friend without malice.

But the soldier's father, Muhammad Yaqoob Khan Abbasi, accused Harry - who is third in line to the throne - of using a "hate word" against his son.

Mr Brown, asked about Harry's comments, told GMTV: "I think the sincerity of his apology cannot be doubted.

"It was a mistake, he has made the admission of that and, once he has made his apology, I think the British people are good enough to give someone who has actually been a role model for young people and has done well fighting for our country, gone into very difficult situations with bravery, I think they will give him the benefit of the doubt."

Mr Hutton told MPs at Commons defence question time: "I think we would all accept that the use of that kind of language has no place at all. Prince Harry has made a very genuine apology and I also believe that no individual offence was intended by his remarks. Harry himself, I understand, will be interviewed by his commanding officer in the next few days."

Colonel Paul Farrar, the Army's deputy head of recruiting, said the use of words that could cause offence was "unacceptable".

-Nova

[JohnCenaFan28]

An ice-skating coach who collapsed and died from a brain haemorrhage gave birth to a baby girl two days later.

Jayne Soliman, 41, was declared brain-dead at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital but doctors managed to keep her heart beating long enough to deliver her little girl, Aya Jayne, by caesarean section.

Members of her club expressed their "immense sadness" and "great regret" for what happened but said Mrs Soliman's daughter was "doing well".

A statement on the Bracknell Ice Skating Club website read: "It is with great regret and immense sadness that we have to inform you that coach Jayne Soliman died suddenly on Wednesday afternoon as a result of a brain haemorrhage."

The statement continued: "The baby is very small but doing well. Our prayers are with her."

Mrs Soliman, a professional skater who had competed in international galas, was only 25 weeks pregnant when she collapsed in her bedroom, having gone to bed complaining of a headache.

She was airlifted to the John Radcliffe Hospital but was pronounced dead at 8pm.

Doctors said the skater had suffered from a haemorrhage caused by an aggressive tumour which had struck a major blood vessel.

But they were still hopeful her baby could be saved.

Mrs Soliman was given large doses of steroids to help the child's lungs develop and within 48 hours, she gave birth to a baby girl weighing two pounds one and a half ounces.

-Nova

[JohnCenaFan28]

The former children's services chief who lost her job over the Baby P tragedy lost an appeal against her sacking.

Sharon Shoesmith, 55, was dismissed without compensation from her senior position at Haringey Council in north London last month after a damning report into her department's failings.

She launched an attempt to overturn the decision to sack her but a panel of councillors rejected her appeal.

Children's Secretary Ed Balls sent inspectors into Haringey Council after the trial of those responsible for 17-month-old Baby P's death.

The inspectors identified a string of "serious concerns" about the local authority's child protection services, which they described as "inadequate".

Mr Balls removed Ms Shoesmith from her post on December 1 but she remained suspended on full pay until Haringey councillors decided to dismiss her a week later.

Ms Shoesmith's appeal hearing before a panel of three Haringey councillors began on Wednesday last week and lasted three days.

A Haringey Council spokesman said: "A panel of councillors has rejected an appeal by Sharon Shoesmith against her dismissal on December 8 2008.

"The decision was taken today by a different panel of councillors from the ones who made the original decision. Ms Shoesmith will not be returning to work in Haringey. She will not receive any compensation package. She will not receive any payment in lieu of notice."

Baby P, who cannot be named for legal reasons, died in a blood-splattered cot in August 2007. He had suffered more than 50 injuries at the hands of his mother, her boyfriend and their lodger despite being on the child protection register and receiving 60 contacts with the authorities over eight months.

-Nova

[JohnCenaFan28]

The formation of a UK "super bank" has been rubber-stamped with a court giving its approval for Lloyds TSB's takeover of HBOS.

The Court of Session in Edinburgh gave the green light to the deal after a legal hearing lasting all day.

The move came after shareholders of the two banking giants voted before Christmas in favour of the tie-up.

Meanwhile, both banks confirmed that taxpayers are set to own almost half of the new bank created from the takeover.

The court hearing was a largely procedural process examining the legal preparations involved in the deal. The deal is being conducted as a Scheme of Arrangement, which required court approval.

Judge Lord Glennie said he was prepared to grant the orders approving the scheme.

Wednesday is set to be the last day for trading in HBOS shares.

The new enlarged Lloyds Banking Group should begin trading on the London Stock Exchange from next Monday.

The takeover, brokered as HBOS became increasingly vulnerable in last autumn's financial crisis, will be one of the sector's biggest ever deals.

The "super bank" that will be created will boast around 145,000 staff and 3,000 branches.

-Nova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Two Britons who have been held hostage for four months are "alive and well" but will not be released until the leader of Nigeria's main militant group is freed, the organisation said

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta released the first pictures of Robin Barry Hughes and Matthew John Maguire, who are believed to have been among 27 oil workers, including five expatriates, kidnapped by militants when their vessel was hijacked on September 9. The other hostages were later released.

In an e-mail sent to reporters, the group said the two Britons, who were pictured wearing shorts and flip-flops in what appeared to be a thick forest, would not be released until the Nigerian government frees the group's leader, Henry Okah, who is currently being tried on charges of arms trafficking.

The statement said: "We intend to hold on to them for as long as a very sick and dying Henry Okah is held hostage by the Nigerian state.

"Since their fate is now tied to his, God forbid that Henry Okah should die in detention."

It added they were "alive and well" and that the militants would continue to kidnap "high value oil workers from Western Europe and North America" in 2009 to keep pressure on the government to empower the inhabitants of Nigeria's oil-rich states.

In the pictures, the pair look dishevelled but did not appear to have been injured.

-Nova