Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who opened his easyCinema in Milton Keynes last month offering no-frills cinema seats for as little as 20p, told the Commons Culture, Media and Sports Committee inquiry into the British film industry yesterday that his business was not helped by the six large companies which control 90 per cent of film distribution.

He said: "The biggest problem I have encountered so far is the refusal of the distributors to deal with us fairly. Some of them refuse to even talk to us."

4x4 SAFETY: The Land Rover Freelander 4X4 emerged as poor - the lowest category - in the first-ever side-impact crash tests conducted by the US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The Subaru Forester and the Ford Escape performed best among the 12 small 4X4s tested, receiving "good" ratings. The only other vehicle tested with side airbags, the Hyundai Santa Fe, received the second best "acceptable" rating, while the others earned 'marginal" or "poor" scores.

ceasefire pressure: The US began piling the pressure on the Palestinian leadership yesterday to halt attacks on Israelis and save the latest Middle-East peace effort. President George Bush's Mideast envoy John Wolf held talks with Palestinian premier Mahmoud Abbas as part of the effort to salvage the road map to peace thrown into doubt by a surge of violence and failure to extract a ceasefire pledge from violent Palestinian groups.

KLAN jailing: A reputed member of the Ku Klux Klan was sentenced to life without parole yesterday for the 1966 murder of a black man who was shot in what prosecutors say was a plot to lure the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr to Mississippi to be assassinated. Ernest Avants, a 72-year-old stroke victim who suffers from heart failure, was convicted in Mississippi.

WORK SHY rap: Germany's economics minister yesterday railed against the nation's short working hours and long holidays, calling for a "change or mentality" as studies showed the outlook for Europe's largest economy darkening further. "Anyone who looks at the relation of working hours to free time and dares to make an international comparison has to have their doubts," Wolfgang Clement told Stern magazine.

spy jailed: A Swedish mobile phone company engineer who sold secrets to the Russians was jailed for eight years yesterday. Afshin Bavand, 46, handed secret Ericsson company documents to Russian intelligence agents which could have harmed the Sweden's national security, the Stockholm district court said.

jail ESCAPE: Three prisoners who fled Dartmoor jail took advantage of reduced checks by staff, a Prison Officers Association spokesman claimed yesterday. They scaled the wall of an exercise yard at the remote Devon jail and two of them are still on the run.

SEA FARM: A wind farm is to be developed in the Irish Sea to provide electricity to about 16,000 Irish households. The first wind project in the Irish Sea will be a joint venture by US giant General Electric and Airtricity, Ireland's largest renewable energy company.

SCHOOL bomb: A bomb blast yesterday damaged the Spanish school in Rome, breaking windows and smashing the gate but causing no injuries. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Get Message: Inflight e-mail and instant messaging are about to become fixtures of the US skies. United Airlines announced yesterday that it will be the first commercial carrier to offer two-way e-mail capability aboard all its domestic flights.

COPTER CRASH: A sight-seeing helicopter flying over an active lava flow from Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii crashed into rugged terrain, killing the pilot and all three passengers.

JOBS BEFORE LOVE: Nearly 80 per cent of young workers in Japan say they would miss a date if asked to stay in the office and do overtime. according to a survey. Nearly 85 per cent of the women polled chose overtime, compared with 75.2 per cent of the men.

PRISON RIOT:

Three inmates were killed and 18 injured by fellow prisoners using homemade knives and firearms during a riot in a prison in eastern Venezuela.

CRIME CRACKDOWN

More than 1,000 new police officers will patrol Rio's streets and homeless people will be targeted in a series of new measures aimed at combating an increase in gang-related crime, Brazil security officials said