UK News: PM remains in France after father's death

Prime Minister David Cameron remained in France today following the sudden death of his father Ian yesterday.

Mr Cameron rushed to his 77-year-old father's bedside in hospital in the Mediterranean port of Toulon after he suffered a stroke while on holiday yesterday.

Pay rises below inflation

Take-HOME pay increased by 1.3 per cent in the last three months, well short of the rate of inflation, a study showed today.

The figure increased from 0.8 per cent in the quarter to July, but remained below the consumer price index of 3.1 per cent, said payments firm VocaLink.

Cable warns UK unions against strikes over cuts

Business Secretary Vince Cable warned unions not to talk themselves into a "winter of discontent" with threats of industrial action over impending public sector cuts.

Mr Cable insisted that the Government was not seeking confrontation with the unions and said he hoped for a "productive working relationship".

Ahead of next week's TUC conference, Mr Cable cautioned that the public would have little patience for talk of strike action.

Fresh phone-hack claims

Labour will today seek to step up pressure on the Prime Minister's communications director Andy Coulson, as the Commons debates allegations of phone-hacking at the News of the World.

The emergency debate came amid fresh allegations by a former senior reporter on the Sunday tabloid that journalists routinely used private investigators to hack phones when Mr Coulson was editor.

Tempah storms Mobo list

Rapper Tinie Tempah headed the nominations for this year's Mobo Awards ahead of other urban stars as shortlists were announced.

The 21-year-old Frisky hitmaker, from south London, is up for four awards - the highest tally of any act for the 2010 awards.

Stoke-on-Trent: Police are hoping to hunt down a gang of thieves through stings the offenders suffered when they disturbed a wasps' nest on an allotment.

The crooks are thought to have got more than they bargained for while stealing property from sheds in Bucknall.

London: A business jet had a near miss with a Heathrow-bound airliner with 232 passengers aboard, an accident report revealed today.

The German-owned Citation 525 jet passed only just over half a mile away and 100ft to 200ft below the Turkish Airlines' Boeing 777 in July.