Jobs 'at risk' amid car giant woe
Thousands of jobs at two UK car plants could be at risk following a warning from General Motors that it is running on empty.
The world's biggest car company, which celebrated its 100th anniversary this year, said it will be bankrupt within months unless it gets an emergency cash injection from the US government to help it ride out the global financial crisis.
General Motors, which owns Vauxhall, employs around 3,700 workers at plants in Luton and Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, which produce around 215,000 vehicles a year.
It needs at least £7 billion in cash to pay its bills each month, the Daily Mail reported.
The firm said it had called off merger talks with Chrysler and was asking the US government for help after using up 6.9 billion US dollars (£4.4bn) in the third quarter of 2008.
A spokesman for GM in the UK said no reference had been made to jobs at the British sites and that discussions between car manufacturers and US officials were ongoing.
The motor industry has been hit by falling demand across the world, with sales of new cars slumping to their lowest level in 25 years.
Figures released earlier this week showed new car sales in the UK fell 23% in October compared to the same time last year.
The reduced demand for new vehicles has prompted a number of UK-based manufacturers to scale back production.
German car giant BMW announced on Thursday that production of the Mini was to be curtailed, with workers at plants at Oxford and Swindon told the two-week Christmas shutdown would be extended to four weeks this year as a result of the credit crunch.
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'No chance' of British Obama
US President-elect Barack Obama would never have become the British Prime Minister because of "institutional racism" in the Labour Party, the head of Britain's equality watchdog has claimed.
Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, told The Times: "If Barack Obama had lived here I would be very surprised if even somebody as brilliant as him would have been able to break through the institutional stranglehold that there is on power within the Labour Party."
He said the Conservative Party had made more progress when it came to its selection procedures than Labour.
He said: "The parties and unions and think-tanks are all very happy to sign up to the general idea of advancing the cause of minorities but in practice they would like somebody else to do the business. It's institutional racism."
He added that he opposed all-black shortlists but said "positive action" was needed by all parties.
His views were supported by Adam Afriyie, Conservative MP for Windsor, who said he did not believe he would see a black PM in his lifetime.
But Sadiq Khan, Labour MP for Tooting, disagreed and predicted a black or Asian Labour PM would be elected in his lifetime.
A Labour Party statement in response to Mr Phillips said it continually reviewed its procedures to ensure its elected positions reflected British society.
A spokesman for the party said it has a "proud record of promoting ethnic minority candidates".
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Vital terror details 'not released'
Two thirds of council chiefs and police commanders involved in the Government's £86 million scheme to tackle violent extremism are not being given key terrorism information, according to a leaked report.
The report, commissioned by Communities Secretary Hazel Blears, suggests this failure to share intelligence is hampering the Government's pathfinder programme, which gives local authorities money to allocate to projects aimed at steering young people away from violent extremism, the Guardian reported.
Seventy councils have received £6 million in pathfinder funding in the last two years, with £45 million to be spent on expanding the programme in the next three years.
The joint report by the Audit Commission and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, due to be released on Monday, looks at the progress of the scheme in 14 areas, including several that have experienced the impact of violent extremism first hand.
According to the newspaper, the report showed one-third of chief executives and local police commanders interviewed did not have access to, or were not briefed on, terrorism data in their area, while two thirds were not entrusted with security information.
The report states: "Whilst it is vital assurances are sought about who has access to restricted information, councils already routinely handle sensitive information on a range of areas and the same trusting, business-like relationships need to be developed on this agenda as others."
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Teenager, 19, stabbed to death
Police have launched a murder inquiry after a teenager was stabbed to death.
The 19-year-old suffered fatal wounds on High Road, Ilford, Essex, at about 2.30am after an altercation with a group of men.
A second victim, aged 17, also suffered stab wounds and was taken to an east London hospital, but his injuries are not thought to be life-threatening.
Police said they believe they know the identity of the dead teenager, and are in the process of informing next of kin.
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Projections to light up cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral will become a lighthouse of text and light projections on London's skyline.
The project, entitled The Question Mark Inside, was created by public artist Martin Firrell.
The Dean and Chapter of the cathedral commissioned the work to mark the 300th anniversary of the topping out of Christopher Wren's iconic building.
Mr Firrell said the text came from three sources.
"I set up a blog so the public could contribute any ideas they had. The question we put was what makes life meaningful and purposeful," he said.
"The second thing was I interviewed the philosopher AC Grayling, the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's Cathedral, and I also spoke to novelist Howard Jacobson.
"I also included my own opinion about what I was being told and incorporated that."
The text will be projected in English, Sanskrit, Hindi, Latin, French, Portuguese and Arabic.
The projections will appear for eight nights on the dome, the West Front at Ludgate Hill and on to the Whispering Gallery inside the cathedral. They begin after the Lord Mayor's Show firework display, the largest in the country.
Three tonnes of fireworks will be set off in a 20-minute display. Spectators are advised to watch from the South Bank or Victoria Embankment for the best views.
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Tesco chief 'asked for rates cut'
The head of Tesco called for a cut in interest rates at a private meeting with the Bank of England's governor.
The meeting between Sir Terry Leahy and the Bank's Mervyn King took place in the days before Thursday's surprise 1.5% interest rate cut, according to The Guardian.
Sir Terry, chief executive of Britain's biggest supermarket chain, reportedly argued that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) should make a big cut to the cost of borrowing to help restore consumer confidence.
Tesco would not confirm whether or not the meeting took place, but Lucy Neville-Rolfe, Tesco's director of legal affairs, said: "The MPC did a very brave thing. Our concern is to make sure the banks pass the rate cut on."
Thursday's decision by the Bank of England to slash the base rate to 3% - its lowest level for more than 50 years - appeared to take the banking sector by surprise.
It resulted in a scramble by institutions to withdraw tracker products, which automatically track the base rate, with 33 lenders pulling their entire range of the deals for new customers to reprice them.
Banking chiefs were hauled in front of Chancellor Alistair Darling on Friday morning and told they must pass on the 1.5% interest rate cut to customers "as soon as possible".
Nationalised banks Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley were later among a host of lenders to announce they would pass on the cut in full to mortgage customers.
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Stabbed boy 'attacked before'
A 15-year-old who was stabbed outside the gates of his school was hit in the head with a brick in a previous attack.
The teenager suffered a punctured lung when he was stabbed shortly after 4pm on Thursday at Cardinal Wiseman Catholic School in Greenford, west London.
He was airlifted to hospital where he is being treated for injuries that are not life-threatening.
Officers arrested a 16-year-old youth around an hour after the incident. He is being held at a west London police station.
Police refused to confirm reports that the suspect attended nearby Brentside High School.
The victim's father told journalists his son had been attacked before.
He said: "There was an incident a month ago when ... he was hit in the head with a brick by another boy. I think that boy went to Brentside High School.
"There were a lot of witnesses and the police came to take statements so we were surprised that the offender has not been apprehended. I think that if the police had taken action that time, then this could have been prevented."
Scotland Yard said no further action was taken over the earlier attack because the victim withdrew his allegation.
A Yard spokesman said: "We received an allegation of assault on September 15 in Greenford. The matter was thoroughly investigated by the school's liaison officers and by officers based in Ealing. However the alleged victim withdrew his allegation."
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