Rupert Murdoch's Sun on Sunday tabloid rolled off the presses for the first time, with a pledge that the paper replacing the scandal-hit News of the World would abide by ethical standards.

The 80-year-old media baron personally supervised the production late Saturday at a printworks in Hertfordshire, showing his support for what he hopes will be Britain's most-read weekly newspaper.

The front page featured an interview with Amanda Holden, who came near death after the birth of her daughter, with the headline: "My heart stopped for 40 seconds."

Inside, an editorial titled "A new Sun rises today" said the paper was appointing a so-called Readers' Champion to deal with complaints and errors, while also vowing that its journalists would be ethical.

"You will be able to trust our journalists to abide by the values of decency as they gather news," it said.

It also said the paper would be "fearless, outspoken, mischievous and fun".

Published: 26 February 2012

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A coach taking 47 British holidaymakers home from a school skiing trip rolled into a ditch in northern France on Sunday, killing a teacher and injuring 23 people, officials said.

Six people were said to be seriously hurt, including a 13-year-old girl who was in a critical condition in hospital in Reims, they said. Most of those on board were children.

The driver, who is believed to have fallen asleep at the wheel when the coach crashed in the early hours of Sunday, has been detained, a local prosecutor said.

The British Solus travel coach was on a school trip and carrying 29 children from a school in Alvechurch, just south of Birmingham, and 18 adults in addition to two drivers, the Foreign Office in London said.

Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said: "Our thoughts and sincere condolences are with everyone involved in or affected by the tragic coach crash in Northern France earlier today.

"The French authorities are investigating the accident and we are working closely with them."

Burt said the British ambassador to France, Sir Peter Ricketts, had "seen many of the affected passengers this afternoon and has assured them that we are doing all we can to help them recover and get home.

The deputy ambassador would accompany some Britons back home Sunday, he added, and they would continue to assist those who were on the coach and their loved ones back in Britain.

Burt also thanked French emergency services "for all they have done".

Published: 20 February 2012

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Britain's unemployment rate hit a 16-month peak in the three months to December, while the number of people claiming jobless benefits struck the highest total in two years, official data showed Wednesday.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement that the unemployment rate stood at 8.4 percent. It was last higher in the three months to November 1995.

The so-called claimant count of people registered for unemployment benefit increased by 6,900 in January to reach 1.61 million, the ONS added. That marked the highest total since January 2010 and the eleventh straight monthly rise.

The number of unemployed people meanwhile increased by 48,000 over the quarter to reach 2.67 million. However, that was the smallest quarterly increase in unemployment since the three months to June 2011.

The data came as the Bank of England (BoE) predicted on Wednesday that Britain will likely avoid another recession but cautioned that the outlook was dependent on the debt crisis in key trading partner the eurozone.

"The latest jobs data were mixed overall but the underlying deterioration does appear to have eased recently which supports hopes that the economy will return to modest growth in the first quarter and avoid recession," said IHS Global Insight economist Howard Archer.

Published: 15 February 2012

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Britain's top-selling newspaper The Sun was in crisis Saturday after police arrested five of its journalists over bribery allegations, but owner Rupert Murdoch vowed to keep publishing the tabloid.

A Ministry of Defence (MoD) official, a member of the armed forces and a policeman were also arrested over allegations that journalists paid officials for information, police said.

Publisher News International said Murdoch had given a "personal assurance" that The Sun would not face the same fate as its sister paper, the News of the World, which he closed in July amid a scandal over phone hacking.

The tycoon will travel to London to meet with journalists, a person familiar with the situation told AFP, without saying when.

The arrested Sun journalists were deputy editor Geoff Webster, picture editor John Edwards, chief reporter John Kay, chief foreign correspondent Nick Parker and reporter John Sturgis, News International said.

In an email to staff, News International chief executive Tom Mockridge said the company was facing its "greatest challenge".

"You should know that I have had a personal assurance today from Rupert Murdoch about his total commitment to continue to own and publish The Sun newspaper," he said.

Mockridge said he had also written to Britain's police watchdog to "seek clarification" about the independence of the police investigation.

The tabloid's editor, Dominic Mohan, said he was "shocked" at the arrests but was "determined to lead The Sun through these difficult times".

The arrests come a fortnight after another four current and former Sun journalists were arrested and bailed over similar allegations.

Scotland Yard said it had now broadened its corruption probe, Operation Elveden, beyond payments to police, to include other public officials.

The five journalists were arrested in dawn raids at their homes in London and nearby areas on suspicion of corruption and of aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office, police said.

In the first cases of their kind, an MoD employee aged 39 was also arrested at her home in Wiltshire, and a 36-year-old man serving in the armed forces was arrested in the same area.

The pair, reported by Sky News to be an army officer and his wife, were held on suspicion of corruption, misconduct in a public office and conspiracy in relation to both offences. The MoD refused to comment.

A police officer in the county of Surrey, which borders London, was also arrested on suspicion of corruption and misconduct in a public office.

All eight were later released on bail.

Police said they had searched the offices of News International in Wapping, and the homes of those held.

The arrests were sparked by information provided to police by the Management and Standards Committee set up by Murdoch's US-based News Corporation, Scotland Yard and the company said.

The National Union of Journalists condemned the detentions, as well as News International and what it called a "witch-hunt" against journalists.

Published: 12 February 2012

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Queen Elizabeth II marks 60 years as monarch on Monday with a deliberately low-key programme of visits to eastern England, kicking off five months of diamond jubilee celebrations. The queen will visit the town hall in King's Lynn and then a nearby school, six decades to the day since she ascended to the throne after
her father King George VI suddenly died on February 6, 1952. The day in Norfolk kicks off a series of events culminating in a flotilla of 1,000 boats sailing up the River Thames on June 3, led by the queen in an ornate barge adorned with flowers.

At the age of 85, the queen's programme will be restricted to Britain over the next five months, but other members of the royal family will
criss-cross the Commonwealth in her place.  The diamond jubilee festivities have been scheduled over four days on June 2-5, and will also include a chain of beacons being lit across the Commonwealth and a pageant of horses and performers in the grounds of Windsor Castle.

On Sunday, the queen braved snowy weather to attend a church service alongside her 90-year-old husband Prince Philip, who appeared sprightly despite undergoing heart surgery just before Christmas.

After the service, she was presented with flowers by local children outside the church, which lies on the royals' private Sandringham estate.

Published: 06 February 2012

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Temperatures have plunged to minus 11C as Britain braced itself for more bitterly cold conditions ahead of a spell of snow this weekend.

Chesham in Buckinghamshire recorded a temperature of minus 11C at 5am, and forecasters expect a maximum of 2C across the UK during the day.

It comes after the Met Office raised fears for the elderly and ill by issuing its first country-wide Level 3 Cold Weather Alert of the winter.

The alert, which is the second most serious, is tied in to the Government's Cold Weather Plan and are relayed to organisations such as Age UK, which help the elderly through winter.

Meanwhile, severe weather warnings are in place until Sunday, with icy conditions expected in parts of the England and snow forecast in Wales, south-west Scotland and much of England.

Tom Tobler, a forecaster with MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association said: "Most places will see temperatures of no more than 1C or 2C today and a few won't get above zero. By tomorrow morning there's some patchy rain and snow arriving in north-west UK.

Published: 03 February 2012

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People living in Wales and the far west of England could wake up to a widespread dusting of snow on Monday as they start the working week.

Wintry conditions affected higher altitudes in the west of the country on Sunday, with some snow showers also hitting parts of The Pennines and the North York Moors.

But forecasters expect snow to spead to lower areas of Wales and the South-West peninsula by morning.

Rachel Vince, forecaster with MeteoGroup, the Press Association's weather division, said: "It should affect lower areas by tomorrow, especially in Wales, including some of the bigger population centres.

Published: 29 January 2012

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Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron launched a stinging attack on his European partners Thursday, slamming the eurozone as uncompetitive and branding a planned transaction tax "madness".

The British premier took the stage on the second day of the World Economic Forum in Davos, the annual get-together for the global business elite, and revived his simmering feud with the ailing single-currency bloc.

In a speech destined to delight his own eurosceptic party back home and infuriate France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, Cameron scornfully dismissed French-led plans to introduce a tax on all financial trades.

"Even to be considering this at a time when we are struggling to get our economies growing is quite simply madness," he declared.

"Of course it's right that the financial sector should pay their share. In the UK we are doing exactly that through our bank levies and stamp duty on shares. And these are options which other countries can adopt."

Published: 26 January 2012

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Corby /PRNewswire/ --

As the economy continues to struggle, new research shows consumers are more likely to turn to coupon promotions to make Christmas as special as ever -

Key findings:

• 32% of women (vs 27% of all shoppers) are looking for more promotional offers than they were this time last year as the belt tightening seen in 2010 continues to get worse this Christmas
• Almost a quarter of shoppers (23%) who are looking for more promotions state they have less money than they did a year ago (up from 12% in April 2011)  
• Only 8% of shoppers would remain loyal to their supermarket of choice if other retailers were offering better discounts at Christmas
• 78% of shoppers are planning to use promotional offers when doing their Christmas shopping this year, with 54% stating they intend to use three or more different promotional mechanics
• 74% of wealthier AB shoppers plan to use money off vouchers when Christmas shopping vs. the average of 59%

New independent market research from Gfk NOP commissioned by Valassis ltd, shows that more than ever, deal hungry consumers will be turning to coupons and vouchers to make their budgets stretch further throughout the festive period. The UK's flagging economy continues to put a squeeze on shopping habits, and surprisingly even time poor, cash rich AB shoppers intend to make smart use of coupons and vouchers to keep down the Christmas bills.

According to the research, 32% of women are looking for more promotional offers than they were this time last year (versus 27% of all shoppers). Top of the list of mechanics people intend to use for saving money was 'money off' product coupons, with 65% of shoppers planning to use this mechanic when doing their Christmas grocery shopping. Meanwhile 59% of shoppers will use 'money off' vouchers, which would, for example, give them £5.00 off a £40.00 basket spend, when doing their Christmas grocery shopping.

Published: 15 December 2011

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Manchester /PRNewswire/ --

As the festive period approaches, Christmas shoppers are being warned about expensive postage for Christmas gifts and cards. It is an issue that has been raised by Consumer Focus, which released a warning to those wishing to send Christmas cards and parcels over the next week. The consumer watchdog issued research that showed how the UK could save up to £75 million if people were to wise up to money saving alternatives.

It was revealed that eight out of ten people did not know the last dates for Christmas deliveries and that leaving post to the last minute could result in expensive postage fees and failed deliveries. Speaking to MyFinances.co.uk, Richard Hammond, Director of Postal Policy and Regulation at Consumer Focus, discussed the need to save money and avoid disappointment: 

'We'd urge people to start thinking about Christmas post and stocking up on second class stamps now. Posting and ordering gifts early will save money and ensure things arrive in plenty of time. Mailing early also gives your postie a fighting chance to deliver the huge surge in Christmas post on time."

Published: 15 December 2011

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