Channel Tunnel operator Eurotunnel says it will pay a dividend for the first time since it was created in 1986.

The Paris-based firm will pay four euro cents a share after making a net profit of 40m euros (£35.5m; $50m) in 2008.

The dividend came despite reduced passenger traffic after a fire closed the tunnel between Britain and France in September.

Eurotunnel recorded a profit for the first time in 2007 after successfully restructuring its huge debts.

ITV has announced it is cutting 600 jobs across its businesses, and plans to make other “significant” savings.

The announcement came as ITV reported a loss of £2.7bn for 2008 after a huge write-down in the value of its assets.

About 500 of the jobs will be lost in Leeds with the closure of its Kirkstall Road studios, which makes programmes such as Heartbeat and The Royal.

People in areas hit by extreme heat will be advised to stay indoors during hottest time of the day – between 11am-3pm – swap suits for casual loose-fitting clothes, avoid hot food, drink lots of water and use fans.

The alert was prepared by the Department of Health, in consultation with other agencies including the Met Office.

Met Office scientists have predicted that climate change means heat waves will become more frequent over the next two decades, becoming regular after 2030.

There was a 20.5 per cent drop last month with 148,000 few visitors from the UK than for January the previous year.
Spanish hotel price reductions of around two per cent have done little to offset the effects of sterling’s dive by almost a quarter to near parity with the euro.
Around 16 million tourists flocked from Briton to its bars and beaches in 2007, accounting for almost one in three of all visitors.
But there were around one million fewer last year, the decline starting in September when numbers were down five per cent and drops in subsequent months.
The latest figures released by Spain’s ministry for industry, tourism and commerce represent the lowest number of foreigners visiting the country since records began 15 years ago.
A source said: “These are the worst figures we have had since we began taking records of the number of foreign visitors.
“The drop in British visitors is most significant, as they are traditionally bar far our largest market. The fall is due to the worsening economic situation in the UK and the fall in the value of the pound.”

Sterling’s fall is also likely to result in an increase in the number of overseas visitors to Britain, the VisitBritain executive chairman, Christopher Rodrigues, added.

The pound is currently worth around 1.1 Euros, down from 1.35 Euros a year ago, while its value is now around 1.4 dollars, down from a high of 2.03 last year.

To capitalise on the expected demand for holidays at home, VisitBritain launched a £6.5 million campaign to run in Britain and abroad highlighting the domestic opportunities.

A Daily Telegraph survey of property experts showed their estimates of when UK house prices will be at their lowest ranged from last Thursday to May 2010. The mid-point is in seven-and-a-half months time.

The housing market is being hit by a combination of the mortgage shortage, rising unemployment and an expectation among potential buyers that prices still have further to fall.