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Gordon Brown hit out at huge interest rate hikes by credit card firms, warning that they must behave "responsibly".
The Prime Minister insisted it was unacceptable to saddle British customers with big increases as the recessions bites.
The Government would act to establish "clear principles" to make sure companies treated people fairly, he added.
Downing Street said Mr Brown had been alarmed by recent examples where credit rates had gone up by 10% overnight, and a store card which was charging 200%.
The intervention came after a study of 240 credit cards showed that, while the Bank of England had dramatically reduced its official bank rate from 5% in May to 3% this month, the cost of borrowing on cards had gone up.
The research by banking experts Defaqto for The Independent showed that since May, the average annual percentage rate (APR) on cards rose by 0.4%, climbing from 17.2 to 17.6%.
Speaking at his regular Downing Street press conference, Mr Brown said: "I think we have got to bring the credit card industry in to talk to them to join with us in establishing clear principles to apply to the costs people face on their existing debts.
"This new responsible approach to lending that I think that the credit card industry wants to support will help households through the difficult period that they have. I think by setting new rules and establishing clear practices, I think the public will be in a better position to look at the credit card industry as a whole."
The PM's spokesman said that Mr Brown had been "very concerned" by the actions of some credit card companies, which was "hard to justify". The industry has been summoned to the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform to discuss the issues, he added.
Mr Brown again dropped heavy hints that the Government is set to cut taxes in a bid to kick-start the economy. He also insisted that any reductions and investment packages should be co-ordinated globally to have the maximum impact, and called for a deal on liberalising world trade to be struck "within days".
-Nova
The jobs crisis has worsened with a spate of announcements signalling thousands of redundancies ahead of new figures expected to show the highest number of people out of work since 1998.
A number of household firms signalled more than 5,000 job cuts, adding to the worsening toll of redundancies spreading across manufacturing.
The biggest cuts were at cable group Virgin Media, which said it was axing around 2,200 UK jobs by 2012 under a sweeping restructure.
Yellow Pages directories firm Yell warned it expected to lose another 1,300 jobs from its business over the coming year, housebuilder Taylor Wimpey confirmed it had axed a further 1,000 jobs and it said property sales slumped by 27% since the beginning of July, and technology firm Psion announced more than 200 job cuts after the company warned on profits.
Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) added to the gloom by unveiling plans to close a factory with the loss of 620 jobs following a review of its activities. The site in Dartford, Kent, is earmarked for closure in 2013 because two of its largest products have been hit by a "substantial" decline in forecast demand. The company said the two products, for treating epilepsy and herpes, accounted for 60% of total manufacturing at the Dartford plant.
Virgin Media said it would not start cutting jobs until the fourth quarter of next year, with the majority of the role reductions taking place before the end of 2010. The job losses come as part of a group-wide overhaul following a review this year made in the wake of the firm's formation by the merger of Telewest and ntl in 2006.
The latest cutbacks at Yell will be felt across the company as the firm looks for annual cost savings of £100 million by the end of March 2010. Reading-based Yell reduced its workforce by a similar amount in the past year, but the company said it hoped the majority of the new job losses could still be achieved by non-replacement of departing staff. The owner of Yellow Book in the United States and Spain's Yell Publicidad employed 13,900 people in September.
The recent raft of job losses at Taylor Wimpey brings its total jobs cull to nearly 1,900 in the UK this year, with the firm offering little hope of better times as it warned there was no immediate end in sight for the property downturn.
Psion, the hand-held computer and mobile phone software specialist, said companies shelving IT projects amid the economic slowdown had hit sales and was now expected to have an impact on full-year figures. Psion is reducing its workforce by 15% in an attempt to save around £15 million a year, although this also includes aims to create 30 jobs by the end of 2008.
The jobless total is expected to top 1.8 million when new figures are released, the highest level since 1998, a year after Labour came to power. The number of people claiming jobseeker's allowance is predicted to jump by at least 40,000, increasing pressure on ministers to tackle the growing jobs crisis.
-Nova
The QE2, which had run aground hours earlier, has sailed serenely out of Southampton on a tide of emotion on its last-ever voyage.
With hundreds of passengers waving from the decks and thousands of spectators watching from the shores of Southampton Water, the 70,000-tonne Cunard liner headed off into maritime history.
Fireworks flashing from the shore, the Dubai-bound ship paused so that its master Captain Ian McNaught could tell the crowd, in a message shown in Southampton's Mayflower Park, how QE2 has been "a symbol of British excellence for 40 years".
It was all so different from the vessel's earlier inglorious entry into Southampton when, as strong westerly winds blew, the liner had run aground on a sandbank near the Isle of Wight.
Passengers had spoken of feeling a shudder as the vessel - packed with 2,700 customers and crew - came to a halt. A combination of five tugs and a favourable tide helped refloat the vessel, which arrived at its Southampton mooring more than an hour late.
Later, as the Duke of Edinburgh toured the ship meeting present and past crew members, two divers went down to check the state of the vessel. Cunard bosses said later that there had been no damage to the hull and that the final departure could go ahead.
The ship moved off from its berth in Southampton's eastern docks and was halted alongside Mayflower Park before finally sailing away from Southampton on a 16-day voyage to Dubai.
Last year Cunard announced that it was selling the QE2 to the Dubai World company for around £50 million, with the vessel becoming a floating hotel and tourist attraction.
In his farewell message, Captain McNaught said: "For almost 40 years, QE2 has been acclaimed all over the globe as a symbol of British excellence."
He added that the vessel had returned to Southampton 726 times in its long career, having been launched by the Queen in 1967, and having come into service in 1969. But this time the ship would not be coming back, he said, adding: "QE2 has striven to serve Southampton and serve her country with flair and fortitude. But now her sea days are done and she passes on to a new life in a new home. We wish her well."
-Nova
The annual rate at which house prices are falling continued to accelerate during September to hit a new record of 5.1%, Government figures show.
The fall left the average property in the UK costing £208,583, nearly £12,000 less than a year ago and the lowest level since March 2007.
But homes lost only 0.1% of their value during September itself, well down on August's drop of 2.7%.
The figures came as the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said estate agents sold an average of just 10.9 properties each during the three months to the end of October, dropping to only six homes in London.
Around 81.8% more chartered surveyors reported seeing price falls than those who saw price rises.
But on a brighter note, a balance of 20% of those questioned said they thought sales levels would increase during the coming three months.
House prices are now falling in all regions of the country on an annual basis, with Northern Ireland seeing the biggest drop of 15.8%, followed by the East Midlands and West Midlands at 7% and 6.8% respectively, according to the Communities and Local Government department (CLG).
Scotland has seen the lowest level of house price falls, with properties losing just 0.8% of their value during the past year.
The annual rate at which house prices are dropping eased in three of the UK's regions during the month, although it accelerated in the other nine.
The figures also showed that while the average cost of a terrace house fell by 1.3% during September and the price of semi-detached homes dropped by 0.7%, there was a 1% increase in detached house prices, while prices for flats and bungalows rose by 0.6% and 0.7% respectively.
-Nova
A 21-year-old man has been charged with the murder of teenage model Amy Leigh Barnes, police said.
Ms Barnes was taken to hospital with stab wounds after police were called to her home in Farnworth, Bolton on Saturday. The 19-year-old died as a result of her injuries.
Ricardo Morrison, formerly of Birmingham, is due to appear before Bolton Magistrates' Court, Greater Manchester Police said.
The privately-educated teenager had worked on modelling assignments for Cosmopolitan and Nuts magazine and appeared in the teen drama Hollyoaks.
Friends and family paid tribute to the 19-year-old, who was described as having "a personality so bright it just shone through".
Premier League footballer Benni McCarthy said he was "devastated" by Amy Leigh's death.
In a statement issued by his club, the Blackburn Rovers striker said: "Amy Leigh was a friend of mine and I am obviously devastated to hear of this tragedy. My condolences go out to her family and friends at this sad and difficult time."
Footballers have also left comments on a Facebook tribute group to the model. Oldham Athletic player Paul Black wrote "r.i.p. x", while West Bromwich Albion striker Ishmael Miller posted the message: "R.I.P. Amy Leigh."
After leaving Lords Independent School, where her mother Karyn had worked as an art teacher, Amy Leigh studied performing arts at Pendleton Sixth Form College in Salford.
Head of admissions Paul Brown said: "Amy Leigh had a bright future ahead of her. She was very enthusiastic, very keen and talented - somebody with a personality so bright it just shone through."
-Nova
A terminally-ill teenager who won the legal right to die at home said she was "really shocked" when health bosses tried to force her to have a heart transplant against her wishes.
Officials used a court order to try to take Hannah Jones, 13, from her family and make her have surgery. She had been warned that the transplant might result in death.
But after Hannah insisted to child protection officers that she did not want the operation, High Court proceedings were abandoned and she will now spend her remaining time at home.
Explaining her decision to Sky News, the former leukaemia sufferer, from Marden near Hereford, said she had suffered "too much trauma associated with hospitals".
"I just decided that there were too many risks and even if I took it, there might be a bad outcome afterwards. There's a chance I might be OK and there's a chance I might not be as well as I could be but I'm willing to take a chance," she said.
Her mother Kirsty, 42, a former intensive care hospital nurse, said there was a "chain of unfortunate events" which nearly saw her daughter dragged from the family home.
She said a locum doctor, who had not dealt with Hannah before, rang late on a Friday night and said if they did not bring her into hospital straightaway, police and an ambulance would come to get her. But the family still refused. "It was terribly frightening," she said.
But she said a "fabulous" child protection officer came to the house to help. "She could see what Hannah wanted and she went to the barristers' chambers on the Monday morning and put Hannah's side across, and that ended the proceedings."
Hannah said: "I was shocked really to hear that they could do such a thing, but they didn't do it. I was really shocked."
The teenager has a hole in her heart - meaning it can pump only a fraction of its normal capacity. The damage was caused by treatment for leukaemia diagnosed when she was four. She was previously warned that she had only six months to live and that the only potential long-term solution was a heart transplant.
-Nova
A jury has been sworn in to try the mother of schoolgirl Shannon Matthews, who went missing for 24 days earlier this year.
Karen Matthews, 33, stood in the dock at Leeds Crown Court along with Michael Donovan, 40, as the jurors each took the oath.
Both are on trial charged with the kidnap and false imprisonment of Shannon, who was nine years old at the time. Matthews and Donovan have already pleaded not guilty to these charges and have also denied perverting the course of justice.
Shannon disappeared on February 19, sparking a massive search operation by West Yorkshire Police which became one of the highest-profile missing person inquiries ever seen in Britain. She was found less than a mile from her home on Moorside Road, Dewsbury Moor, West Yorkshire, 24 days after she vanished.
Donovan, of Lidgate Gardens, Batley Carr, was arrested on the day she was found. Formerly known as Paul Drake, he is the uncle of Matthews's ex-partner, Craig Meehan.
After the jury of seven men and five women was sworn in, Matthews and Donovan sat a few seats apart in the dock separated by a woman security officer.
The potential jurors were asked a number of questions, including whether they had been involved in the search for Shannon.
The judge, Mr Justice McCombe, also asked them whether they lived in Dewsbury or a number of other places in the Dewsbury area.
They were then asked if they had any connections with organisations including the police, the Courts Service and the Crown Prosecution Service.
The trial was adjourned until Wednesday.
-Nova
Any attempt by Britain to "scuttle away" from Afghanistan before the mission there is complete would deal a "profoundly dangerous blow" to the UK in the fight against terrorism, Defence Secretary John Hutton has warned.
In his first major speech since his appointment last month, Mr Hutton said the premature withdrawal of British troops would send a signal of weakness around the world.
Speaking at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, he said the national security argument for a British military presence in Afghanistan was now even stronger than it was in 2001 after the 9/11 terror attacks.
"If walking away then would have damaged those interests, scuttling away now would deal them a profoundly dangerous blow," he said.
"In my view, our engagement is as much a security priority for the UK today as the world wars or the cold war of the last century.
"Terrorism is a constant threat, one that actually cannot be understated, wished away or appeased. It has to be confronted wherever and whenever it threatens our security here at home. That is why we have 8,000 troops in Afghanistan."
Mr Hutton acknowledged that the international forces face another "tough year" ahead, and that ultimate success in the campaign against the Taliban would require patience.
But for Britain to pull out now, he said, would have serious consequences both at home and abroad, enabling al Qaida to re-establish its training camps in the country. "The victims of that kind of defeatism would be the British people," he said. "We would have abandoned our ability to tackle terrorism at source and we would then have to deal with it here on our own streets, for that is where al Qaida would eventually manifest itself.
"I do not want to see British youngsters being indoctrinated into extremism in new al Qaida camps ruled by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Withdrawal would confirm al Qaida propaganda that Britain, like the Soviet Union before it, bombed and then bolted. We would be portrayed as wrong, callous or weak.
"The lessons our friends, vulnerable states, potential aggressors and terrorists would take is that contrary to our experience in the world wars, the Falklands and Northern Ireland, we would give up and go home. I believe very, very strongly we should never send such a message."
-Nova