Thousands of Jobcentre Plus staff in the UK are to stage a 24-hour strike in an escalating row over working conditions and a “target driven culture”, it was announced today.

A Francis Bacon masterpiece broke the artist’s record at auction when it sold for £43m (€53.9m) in New York, Sotheby’s said today.

IT should be a time for a new coat of paint, the smell of freshly-mown grass and a joyful lift of the spirits as a new football season approaches.

A pay dispute which has plunged Northern Ireland’s civil service into disarray intensified tonight after Jobcentre staff were suspended without pay.