'Hacked off' boss's letter: The chairman of postal group Consignia sparked a row with union leaders yesterday after writing to workers saying that union officials and managers were struggling to find time for pay talks.

"They must all be in the Costa del Sol, or watching every game in the World Cup, so in theory the pay deal cannot go through," he wrote. "Frankly I'm hacked off with the whole lot of them and I wouldn't be surprised if you were too."

John Keggie, deputy general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, wrote back to Mr Leighton last night saying he was astonished, adding: "My fellow officers and I have in actual fact cancelled our annual leave over the last three months in an attempt to find a solution to this and other problems."

£2 games: British athlete Tanni Grey Thompson, who lives in Redcar, yesterday helped to launch a Commonwealth Games commemorative £2 coin. Coins are available by contacting the Royal Mint Coin Club on 01443 623456 or at www.royalmint.com

12,000 truants: A crackdown on truancy saw more than 12,000 children, some as young as seven, stopped in hundreds of high street and shopping centre sweeps, official figures show. Examples of excuses included "I don't like Mondays", "it's my birthday", "my hamster died and I need to buy a new one" and "because of a spot on my nose".

KIDNAP escape: Essex Police are hunting a man who tried to kidnap a nine-year-old girl from a park at a Basildon sports centre. The bearded white man grabbed the girl by her arm and tried to walk off with her, but was stopped by a friend, aged 12, who pulled her away.

£495m fury: Top Enron employees reaped £495m in payments and stock in the year leading up to its bankruptcy filing, the company has disclosed. Representatives of former workers and shareholders angrily accused the 144 senior managers of raiding Enron's coffers while leaving their clients with relatively little or nothing at all.

DISASTER trial: Cable car operators, technicians, government officials and other technical experts - 16 in all - went on trial in Salzberg yesterday charged with negligence over the deaths of 155 people in an underground cable car fire at the Austrian ski resort of Kaprun.

Garden goal: TV gardening expert Rachel De Thame (pictured) was helping yesterday to publicise a chance for fans to watch England take on Brazil in the unique setting of the BBC Gardener's World Live gardening show at the NEC, Birmingham.

Farmers' call: The National Farmers' Union said yesterday their industry was in crisis and demanded the Government do everything possible to help. It painted a picture of continuing job losses, falling wages, long hours and high rates of suicide.

AIRLINE sued: Welshman Stephen Olding, 48, who said he swallowed fragments of glass in a drink on a Singapore Airlines flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong, has been awarded £4,500 by a Singapore court.

CHARITY AD BAN: A British Heart Foundation advert showing a woman with a plastic bag over her head was banned yesterday amid fears it could lead to copycat incidents among children.

TRAINS crash: Two trains collided in Melbourne, Australia, yesterday, injuring an engineer and six passengers.