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A woman driver killed after her car was hit by a train on a level-crossing may have died trying to save rail passengers from derailment, it has emerged.

Thirty-year-old Moira Koune was left stranded on the icy crossing in South Drove, near Spalding, Lincolnshire, when her car clipped a Ford Transit van heading in the opposite direction.

She was struck moments later by the 8.33am Peterborough to Lincoln service as she desperately tried to reverse her car to safety.

Sergeant Dave Kay from Lincolnshire Police told the Daily Mirror: "I don't know what was going through her head and why she didn't get out of the car.

"But she may have been thinking of the passengers on the train and selflessly tried to save them."

He added at the scene: "She was making frantic attempts to get off the level-crossing but witnesses said it was very, very quick from when the barriers came down to the collision."

The accident happened shortly before 9am and involved a train operated by East Midlands Trains.

The van's driver managed to steer his vehicle off the crossing at West Road following the initial accident. He, along with one of his passengers, then tried to reach the woman before she was killed.

A spokeswoman for East Midlands Trains said none of the train's 18 passengers were hurt but that it was 11am before an engineer allowed the train to make the short journey to Spalding station.

From Spalding, passengers were taken to Lincoln by bus. Network Rail said the train was not derailed and was only slightly damaged.

-Nova

The statistics watchdog has reignited the row over Government knife crime figures with a detailed critique of a controversial Home Office press statement.

The UK Statistics Authority said last month's release made "unsubstantiated" claims and "selective" comparisons, drew "inappropriate" conclusions and failed to provide contextual information.

The analysis details 10 separate ways in which the press release, which trumpeted the Home Office's knife crime crackdown, failed to comply with the Code of Practice for official statistics.

The head of the authority, Sir Michael Scholar, last month criticised the release of the figures as "premature, irregular, and selective", prompting a House of Commons apology from Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.

The paper, prepared by the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) Monitoring and Assessment Team, states the Home Office documents appeared to be "inconsistent" with the provisions of the code, which was designed to protect the integrity of national statistics.

The watchdog highlights a string of apparent breaches including failing to follow a published timetable; releasing statistics alongside commentary; not protecting statistical reports from political pressure; not ensuring the statistics were produced according to scientific principles; and failing to identify potential sources of bias in the figures.

The press release and statistics sheet were also likely to undermine confidence in the independence of Government statistics, the report states.

In a detailed annex, the UKSA highlights missing information, confused or undefined terms, and weaknesses in the figures.

Statistics which compared results from June and October last year could be affected by "seasonal factors" and, because they are monthly figures, are "inherently volatile".

The report states: "Youth violence is reported as being 30% lower in Halloween week than in the previous year. 'Halloween week' is not a recognised period for statistical comparisons and no evidence is given about the reasons for this change - it could be because of the weather or other external factors."

-Nova

Gardaí in Co Dublin have seized more than 300kg of cannabis worth an estimated €2m in the first major drugs seizure of the year.

The drugs were found during a search of a transport company in Balbriggan.

A man was arrested at the scene and is being questioned at the Garda station in the town.
Officers from the Garda National Drugs Unit and the drugs squad in Balbriggan raided the company at around 9am this morning.

They discovered the cannabis resin in bags in a warehouse.

The man arrested, who is suspected of providing the storage facility, was held at the scene.

He has been taken to Balbriggan Garda station. He can be questioned for up to a week.

Gardaí are still trying to establish the source and the distribution destination for the drugs but they are believed to belong to a Dublin criminal gang.

RTE

Marks & Spencer unveiled a swathe of store closures and more than 1,200 job cuts in the wake of its worst trading for almost a decade.

Its decision to shut 25 underperforming Simply Food outlets and two main stores delivers the latest blow to a high street struggling in a deepening recession.

The company's UK like-for-like sales slid 7.1% in the 13 weeks to December 27 - its biggest collapse since July-September 1999 - despite heavy discounts in the run-up to Christmas.

M&S employs around 70,000 staff in the UK, but the closures will cost 780 jobs and up to 450 more will go from a cull of head office staff.

The group currently has 355 Simply Food stores in a total of 685 wholly-owned or franchised outlets in the UK.

Executive chairman Sir Stuart Rose said the closures and changes to its final salary pension scheme would keep the group "lean and mean" by slashing up to £200 million from running costs.

Union leaders were stunned at the scale of the job cuts and called for urgent talks.

John Gorle, national officer of Usdaw, said: "We want to talk to the company to get an understanding of the business case that has underpinned this decision. We are shocked at the severity of the cuts and we were not anticipating store closures. Our members will now be extremely worried."

Sir Stuart said the decision would be "difficult" for those staff affected, but added: "Given that we expect challenging economic conditions to continue for at least the next 12 months, we believe we are taking the right action to maintain the strength of our business."

The job cuts come just four months after M&S watered down its redundancy terms for staff - a move leaked by a disgruntled employee who was subsequently sacked. Sir Stuart denied the two decisions were linked.

-Nova

Thanks for the read.

High-profile British Jews have been warned to review their security measures amid fears of reprisal attacks as bloody violence continues in Gaza.

Celebrities, politicians and wealthy business people were among prominent names highlighted on a series of controversial web forums.

Among those singled out are The Apprentice boss Sir Alan Sugar, pop producer Mark Ronson, Labour peer Lord Levy and Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

Mr Miliband is currently in New York, where he is attending emergency talks on the Gaza crisis at the United Nations.

He insisted he will continue to state the Government's position on Gaza "without fear or favour" despite threats from Islamic militants who believe the UK is too supportive of Israel.

Two popular Islamic websites hosted forums with calls for a list to be drawn up with the names of British people who support Israel.

One user wrote: "It would be beneficial to start compiling a list so that we can write polite letters reminding them of the injustices of Israel."

Terror expert Mark Gardner, of The Community Security Trust (CST), said prominent Jewish individuals had been warned to take potential threats very seriously.

He said: "We sent out a security advisory note when the violence began and updated it today. It is a notice reminding people to ensure security routines are properly implemented, that CCTV cameras are clean and working.

"We were aware of these chatroom postings and of course we have spoken to people, I cannot say everyone that is mentioned, but we have discussed it with some of them."

-Nova

Banking giant Barclays is to axe 400 jobs in its IT departments after a review of its operations, it was announced.

The bank said it would try to mitigate compulsory redundancies by releasing contractors, closing vacancies and offering workers the chance to apply for other jobs.

The Unite union said the job cuts were a "bitter blow", especially in the current economic uncertainty.

Barclays said in a statement: "Barclays continually reviews its operations and resources so that it functions as efficiently as possible as business needs and customer requirements evolve.

"As part of this process, we have identified some aspects of our technology operations where the organisational structure impedes performance, and roles and responsibilities for colleagues are unclear. In some cases, roles are obsolete or being duplicated elsewhere within the bank.

"This will affect around 400 positions - 158 permanent staff and 250 contractors. All of the roles affected are UK-based, principally in Cheshire and London. None of the roles are being offshored."

Derek Simpson, joint leader of Unite, said 410 jobs will be lost, describing the announcement as a bitter blow to the IT workforce across Barclays.

"At this time of economic uncertainty, staff across the industry are working under immense pressure and there is a great deal of nervousness regarding their job security.

"This loss of jobs, all of which are highly-skilled roles, is a serious loss to the UK's skill base.

"Unite will be working with Barclays in order to avoid compulsory job losses and looking to explore all the opportunities for redeployment. Over the next few days Unite officials will be meeting with our members at all the sites impacted."

-Nova

A woman was jailed for seven years for crushing a 15-month-old toddler under the wheels of her car.

Katie Gutierrez-Perez, 40, was drunk as she ploughed her speeding 4x4 off Cavendish Road in Chingford, east London, killing Finlay Woods as he waited in his pushchair at a school's gates.

Snaresbrook Crown Court in London heard that the mother-of-two was driving to hospital after a failed suicide attempt.

Moments before the crash in September last year, a car tax inspector had tried to stop her driving the powerful vehicle.

Jailing the former restaurateur, Judge Timothy King told Gutierrez-Perez she had devastated the boy's family, including his mother, 31-year-old Tina Woods.

The judge said: "Clearly, the offence is manifestly so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified.

"As far as the family are concerned, no sentence I impose today could be too long, and I have to balance the feelings of the family, the crime and my duty to the public in administrating justice. You were aware of the school, you were aware of the presence of any children, and if you were not aware, then you most certainly should have been.

"I have a statement from Tina Woods, the boy's mother, and it's a moving document.

"It's a testament to the devastation that your behaviour has visited on this family, and I quote Mrs Woods' statement: 'I have constant reminders of Finlay's short life - his toys, clothes and cot, which is still made up from the morning on 18th September.

"'It is difficult to come to terms with the loss of such a young life.'"

-Nova

Women's clothing firm Viyella, which dates back to 1784, has become the latest well-established retail firm to call in administrators.

There has been speculation for days that the future of the company, one of the UK's longest established clothing manufacturers, was uncertain.

The design and retail chain, which has 120 stores and concessions in the UK as well as an online sales operation, employs hundreds of staff.

It is owned by Birmingham-based investment group Harris Watson, which said in a statement: "Following an assessment of the current economic situation and the prospects for the future, the directors have reluctantly decided that they have no alternative but to place the business into administration.

"We believe there will be a strong interest in the Viyella brand and hope the joint administrators will be able to conclude an early sale which protects the brand name and many of the jobs within the business.

"We should like to express our thanks to all the Viyella team for the hard work they have put into the business. Unfortunately the current economic downturn has undone all the efforts of the last five years."

Unions said they hoped there would be a strong interest in buying the chain.

Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB union, said: "City fat cats and their hangers-on who brought us the credit crunch have now brought down another iconic brand.

"The clothing jobs that were once a mainstream of manufacturing first migrated to China, while those within retail have gone as well now."

-Nova

Passengers have suffered a sixth successive day of travel chaos on a main London to Scotland railway line on which a £9 billion upgrade has just been completed.

Overhead cable problems - the latest setback to hit the West Coast Main Line - meant neither Virgin Trains nor London Midland could run any services in or out of Euston station in London during the morning rush-hour.

In freezing conditions, passengers had to be taken by bus to London from the Midlands, with journeys taking up to 90 minutes longer than normal.

London Overground, which operates suburban services out of Euston, was able to run trains in the morning rush-hour but many passengers travelling further afield arrived at Euston to be greeted by empty departure boards.

Virgin and London Midland did manage to begin Euston services around mid-morning but both companies were running a reduced number of trains.

Virgin called on Network Rail to check whether there was "an underlying issue" with the power supply, while the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) estimated that the disruption on the line had cost business around £38 million over the last three days.

The BCC also said it thought the recent disruptions had occurred because the West Coast upgrade had been "rushed" so it could be completed by the end of 2008.

Network Rail said West Coast services from Euston were finishing early on Wednesday evening to allow engineers time to complete overnight repairs to the damaged overhead power lines at Kenton, near Wembley in north-west London.

This incident followed overhead cable problems at Bletchley in Buckinghamshire and at Rugby in Warwickshire which had hit services on Tuesday.

Before that, West Coast services on Sunday and Monday had been affected by overhead cable problems at Watford in Hertfordshire and the line had been shut for a period after a light plane had crashed close to the tracks near Stafford on Friday in an accident which claimed three lives.

-Nova