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The job market is healthier than at any time since the end of the Great Recession.

The number of people filing for unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest since May 2008, a sign that the waves of corporate layoffs that have defined the past few years are all but over.

“This is unexpectedly great news,” said Ian Shepherdson, an economist at High Frequency Economics.

It will take an additional step _ robust hiring, not just the end of layoffs _ to bring the 8.6 percent unemployment rate down significantly. Experts say that won’t happen until businesses are more confident about customer demand. And the European debt crisis could still cause damage here.

But the report on unemployment claims Thursday was the latest to suggest that the economy, two and a half slow years after the official end of the recession, may finally be picking up momentum.

The nation added 100,000 or more jobs every month from July through November, the first such streak since 2006. And the economy, which was barely growing when the year started, has picked up speed each quarter.

More small businesses plan to hire than at any time in three years, a trade group said this week. And another private-sector survey found more companies are planning to add workers than at any time since 2008.

The number of people applying for unemployment benefits came in at 366,000, down from 385,000 the week before. Applications are nearing their pre-recession level of about 325,000.

The last time claims were so low, the nation was six months into the recession but didn’t know it yet. The unemployment rate was 5.4 percent _ a level almost hard to imagine these days. Unemployment has been above 8 percent for almost three years.

That spring of 2008, Bear Stearns, an investment house that predated the Depression, had been hobbled by its investment in subprime mortgages and was sold near collapse to JPMorgan Chase for a paltry $10 a share.

The worst was yet to come. Lehman Brothers collapsed four months later, credit froze, investors panicked and the stock market plunged. Businesses began slashing millions of jobs. Unemployment claims peaked at 659,000 in March 2009.

Unemployment claims are a measure of the pace of layoffs, and they have declined steadily for three months. Another government report this week showed that layoffs are lower than they were in most months before the recession.

But that’s just part of the picture. Business aren’t hiring with gusto. Unemployment fell 0.4 percentage points last month, but about half the decline was because people gave up looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed payday loan lenders.

“One of the features of this recovery is that hiring is exceptionally weak,” said Jeremy Lawson, senior U.S. economist at BNP Paribas.

And that doesn’t necessarily show up in unemployment claims. Many employers cut staffs to the bone during the recession. If they worry that business will grow weakly next year, they may hold off on layoffs _ but not hire, either.

“The hiring numbers will continue to look good but not great,” said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Global Insight.

Besides waiting for demand to come back, companies have other things to worry about. A recession in Europe would hurt U.S. exports, and a collapse in European banks because of the debt crisis there would probably cause a worldwide panic.

Another concern: The economy has been here before.

In February, unemployment claims fell to 375,000. Companies added about 200,000 jobs a month for three months. But then oil prices spiked and Europe’s debt problem got worse. Employers added just 53,000 jobs in May.

The decline in unemployment claims comes as Congress wrangles over whether to extend long-term unemployment benefits, which are set to expire at the end of this year.

Lawmakers differ over how long benefits should last. The House passed a Republican bill Tuesday that would renew emergency aid but reduce the maximum duration to 79 weeks from 99.

Democrats want to keep the full 99 weeks. The measure is part of broader legislation in the Democratic-led Senate that would also extend a cut in the Social Security tax and put $1,000 to $2,000 in most Americans’ pockets next year.

In other economic news Thursday:

_ The prices companies pay for factory and farm goods rose 0.3 percent last month. The figure was pushed up by higher food and pharmaceutical prices. But energy prices barely rose, keeping inflation in check. In the year ending in November, wholesale prices increased 5.7 percent, the Labor Department said. It’s the smallest increase since March.

_ A mixed picture emerged for manufacturing. Factory output fell in November for the first time in seven months, according to the Federal Reserve. Manufacturers made fewer cars, electronics and appliances. But some economists noted that auto sales rose in November, suggesting that production will rebound. And the Federal Reserve Banks of Philadelphia and New York said manufacturing expanded in their regions. Manufacturing has been a key source of economic growth this year.

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BRUSSELS

When it comes to Christmas sweaters, even thrift stores lower their standards.

As she climbed through a stack of boxes in the back of the Goodwill store in south St. Louis County, a district manager explained that sweaters that are too faded, or have too many lint pills on them, are usually recycled.

“This sweater would normally never make it (to the sales floor) in a million years,” said Latrice Clayborne, as she pulled out a lint-infested brown cardigan with a snowman, a sprig of holly and white snowflakes on it.

But when it comes to “ugly Christmas sweaters,” Goodwill, like many resale shops around town, has started to make exceptions. They know that no matter the condition, these items of questionable fashion won’t last long once they put them out on the racks.

Yes, the holidays are approaching, which means that “ugly Christmas sweater” season is also in full swing no faxing payday loan. The sweaters, popular in the 1980s, have found a second life in recent years as part of an ironic fashion trend that pokes fun at the aesthetics of the garments.

“People are calling, desperate to see if we have any,” said Faith Sandler, executive director of the nonprofit that runs the ScholarShop. “They are going to events where they are trying to outdo one another with how ugly the sweaters are. The more stuff hanging from them, the better!”

She noticed an uptick in traffic to the stores’ holiday sweaters rack last year. But this year, they seem to be even hotter commodities, she said, so much so that they can hardly keep them in stock.

“I’m just so glad they’re cool, because for a while I was embarrassed by the rack,” she added.

Josh Goldman, 26, of Chesterfield, went to several stores over the weekend in search for an over-the-top sweater that would elicit chuckles

In one Northern Oklahoma county, oil and wind don’t mix.

That’s where plans by St. Louisan Tom Carnahan’s Wind Capital Group LLC for a large wind farm have run into a roadblock — claims by the Osage Nation that it would interfere with the tribe’s rights to tap oil and gas deposits.

The 15,600-member tribe sued Wind Capital in federal court in October to block the project, which would consist of 94 turbines spread across 15 square miles in Osage County, just northwest of Pawhuska. Power would supply Springfield (Mo.)-based Associated Electric Cooperative Inc., which provides power to regional and local electric cooperative systems in Missouri, Iowa and Oklahoma.

The case is scheduled for trial in 10 days. On one level, it pits green power versus fossil fuels. More specifically, it’s a contest between Wind Capital’s rights to erect 400-foot towers on a piece of the tall grass prairie in northern Oklahoma and the tribe’s rights to tap petroleum deposits beneath it.

“The crux of the case rests on the legal standing of the mineral estate and the tribe’s right to develop the minerals as they see fit,” Chris White, Osage Nation’s executive director of governmental affairs, said in an interview.

The dispute exists because Oklahoma is among the states where surface ownership of the land can be separated from rights to oil, natural gas and minerals deposits. Today, some states today are looking at whether to make wind rights separate from surface rights.

The Osage Nation, a tribe whose heritage reaches back hundreds of years, has controlled mineral rights to the 1.5 million acres in Osage County since 1906. Last year, oil and gas companies who lease mineral rights from the tribe produced $360 million worth of petroleum, White said.

Millions of dollars in royalties are distributed to some 4,000-plus tribal members, which own shares in the mineral estate that have been passed down for more than a century. Payments also help finance roads and schools in the county, according to the lawsuit.

Osage Nation officials claim the wind farm will interfere with development of oil and gas properties, which involves installing a network of pipes to gather the petroleum that’s produced.

St. Louis-based Wind Capital, which has leased 8,500 privately-owned acres for the Osage wind farm, disagrees.

In its legal filings and public comments, Wind Capital says it believes petroleum production and wind power can co-exist in the area. The company has promised to comply with the law that gives Osage Nation reasonable access to as much of the surface as necessary to produce oil and gas.

Shortly before the lawsuit was filed, the company said in a letter to the tribe that each turbine will require a foundation of only about 50 feet in diameter paydayloans. In total, the letter said, its equipment would occupy just 1.5 percent of land under lease, leaving plenty of room for oil exploration and production.

“The actual footprint of the wind farm facility is very small in relationship to the total project boundaries,” company executives said in the letter.

Construction was scheduled to begin Nov. 19, according to Wind Capital. A company spokesman said Friday that “pre-construction activities” are underway, but declined additional comment citing the pending lawsuit.

While the Osage Nation had sought an injunction to stop the wind farm, it was Wind Capital that asked the judge to hear the case so quickly.

The company, which operates five wind farms in northwest Missouri, said lenders are reluctant to release funds for construction with the lawsuit pending. And the project hinges on federal production tax credits, so work must be complete by the end of next year. The tax credits, equal to 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour, were most recently approved as part of the 2009 federal Recovery Act.

Officials said the lawsuit “jeopardizes the very existence of the wind facility.”

The parties disagree on whether the project would interfere with current oil and gas production. The Osage Nation says it will, while Wind Capital believes the matter involves only “possible future oil and gas exploration.”

Clashes between mineral rights and surface rights owners aren’t new in places like Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. But traditionally they’ve been disputes between oil and gas companies or lease holders and farmers and ranchers. Only more recently have wind companies and the petroleum industry fought over access to the same real estate.

In Oklahoma, the legislature passed a law earlier this year to address the oil industry’s concerns about wind farms on producing properties and existing oil and gas leases.

Among other provisions, the Exploration Rights Act of 2011 requires wind developers to provide oil and gas companies or leaseholders 30 days notice of intent to construct a wind farm.

The Kansas Independent Oil and Gas Association issued a notice to members outlining the industry’s concerns about wind energy development in oil- and gas-producing areas.

Locally, there’s been no conflict between wind and petroleum interests. Missouri has no significant petroleum production. And in Illinois, there’s little, if any, overlap with the oil producing area in southern Illinois and wind farms located in the northern part of the state.

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TOKYO — Honda Motor Co. is recalling 27,000 cars in Canada, and 304,000 vehicles globally, for airbags that may inflate with too much pressure in a crash, send metal and plastic pieces flying and cause injuries or deaths.

Honda said there have been 20 accidents so far related to this problem, including two deaths in the U.S. in 2009.

The Japanese automaker announced the recall Friday, which affects the Accord, Civic, Odyssey, Pilot, CR-V and other models, manufactured in 2001 and 2002.

Photos: A sea of Hondas left behind after Thailand flood

More: After harsh reviews, Honda scrambles to redo Civic in 2013

The recall spans 273,000 vehicles in the U.S., some 27,000 in Canada, nearly 2,000 vehicles in Japan and another 2,000 in other countries. It affected 359 vehicles in Europe — 200 in Germany, 158 in Israel and one in Great Britain, according to Honda.

The latest recall is an expansion of recalls for the same problem in 2008, and again carried out in 2009, as well as last year. The recall now covers about 2 million vehicles worldwide, according to Tokyo-based Honda.

Honda spokesman Hajime Kaneko said the cause for the latest recall was the use of incorrect material in the chemical used to deploy airbags.

The initial cause of the recall was excessive moisture in the inflator propellant, which is part of what inflates the airbag.

But that problem was found later to affect more vehicles than initially estimated, as incidents didn’t stop, and the recall was expanded to account for the possibility that the problem was caused by a defective stamping machine used during production, he said.

Honda is extremely sorry about the recalls but believes the problem has now been taken care of, with no more recalls linked to this problem expected, he said.

Also included in the latest recall are 912 airbag service parts sold for installation in vehicles for collision repair and other reasons, Honda said.

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The plan central banks announced Wednesday could ease financial strains that threaten Europe’s common currency and may tip the global economy into recession.

The Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the central banks of Canada, Japan and Switzerland said they’d make it easier for banks to get the dollars they need to lend.

The move was a powerful confidence-booster, a signal that central banks are prepared to act in concert to encourage lending.

Stocks rocketed in response.

“The coordination was a big thing,” said Michael Hanson, an economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “It had a psychological effect.”

Still, the plan isn’t a permanent fix. It doesn’t address the root of Europe’s crisis: Debt burdens are overwhelming Spain, Italy and some other nations and spreading fears that they’ll default. A default by one or more governments could topple the entire continent’s economy. Skittish banks that hold much of these countries’ bonds have been reluctant to lend to each other.

On Tuesday, the finance ministers of the 17 countries that use the euro failed to reach an agreement on resolving the crisis. Their failure raised the stakes for the leaders of the 27 countries in the European Union who will hold their own meeting next week. Investors will be looking to the leaders to show progress toward a longer-term solution.

Analysts say the eurozone nations ultimately must approve closer coordination of their spending policies so fiscal discipline can be imposed on individual countries.

Here are some questions and answers about the move and the European crisis.

Q. What did the Fed and other central banks do Wednesday?

A. They agreed to make it easier for banks to obtain U.S. dollars to fund loans all over the world. This should lead banks to loosen credit, which had tightened because of Europe’s financial crisis. Many banks lend in dollars because so much trade and investment is denominated in the U.S. currency. The Fed, the ECB and the other central banks agreed to lower the interest rate on dollar loans.

Q. How would this help?

A. The Fed has provided dollars to all five central banks since May 2010. But the interest rates were too high for many banks. The Fed and the other central banks are easing those rates. And the ECB will reduce the collateral banks must provide to get dollar loans. All this should lead more European banks to borrow dollars from the ECB. That’s important because those banks have had less access to dollars through other means, such as American money market funds. The money funds have reduced lending to European banks for fear the banks have too much debt from troubled countries. If those countries defaulted, banks in Europe could collapse.

Q. Does this mean the Fed is “bailing out” European banks?

A. No. Here’s how it works: The Fed provides dollars to the ECB. In exchange, it gets an equal amount of euros. The ECB then lends the dollars to banks. If the banks don’t pay back the loans, the ECB absorbs the loss. The ECB returns the dollars to the Fed at the same exchange rate as the initial swap.

Q. How will we know if this plan works?

A. One sign will be what happens when the ECB offers dollar loans on Wednesday. Most analysts expect many more banks to take advantage of the dollar loans now that the terms have eased.

Q. Will this do anything for governments like Greece and Italy that are on the verge of default?

A. Not really. It might help calm investors’ nervousness about the overall crisis. It could slightly lower rates that those countries pay. But it won’t reduce their debt burdens. It does buy European leaders time by keeping credit flowing. But investors will soon turn attention to the European leaders’ meeting next Friday. Geoffrey Yu, a strategist at UBS, said markets could plummet if that meeting doesn’t produce results.

Q: How did Europe get into this mess?

A: The euro made it easier to do business across Europe and made the continent a potent economic bloc. Yet the experiment was flawed. Countries were harnessed to one another despite different economies and cultures. Banks lent at low rates even to weaker countries like Greece. The euro meant lenders didn’t have to worry that individual countries would run up inflation that would reduce the value of the loans. Governments overspent for years and got away with it because they could borrow at low rates. But once the Great Recession struck, their debts became devastating.

Q: Why is a solution so hard?

A: The ECB and Germany have resisted aggressive action. Many economists want the central bank to buy the debt of Italy and other struggling countries. That would push down interest rates and ease those countries’ borrowing costs. The ECB has bought Italian and Spanish bonds. But it’s loath to do so in a big way. The ECB says it must control inflation, not be a lender of last resort to governments. And it doesn’t want to set a precedent for bailing out financially ailing nations. Germany opposes one idea _ creating joint bonds backed by the whole eurozone _ because it fears its own borrowing costs would surge if it had to borrow jointly with weaker countries.

Q: What options are European officials considering?

A: Things that would have been unthinkable just weeks ago. One option is to have countries cede control of their budgets to a central authority. That authority would stop countries from spending beyond their means. There has also been talk of forming an elite group of euro nations to guarantee each other’s loans. It would require fiscal discipline from any country that wants to join. Once that happens, the ECB might be more willing to buy government bonds aggressively, thereby pushing down interest rates and easing governments’ debt burdens. Analysts say that some progress toward such a solution at the summit next Friday is crucial.

Q: Can Europe’s leaders solve this mess?

A: The coordinated move the central banks announced Wednesday is expected to ease pressure on the financial system in the short run. But a lasting resolution requires persuading up to 17 countries and the ECB to agree to a solution to both ease government debt loads and impose budgetary discipline. “This is not just a crisis of Greece or this or that country,” says Nicolas Veron, senior fellow at the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel. “It’s a crisis of European institutions.”

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The 17 finance ministers of the countries that use the euro converged on EU headquarters Tuesday in a desperate bid to save their currency _ and to protect Europe, the United States, Asia and the rest of the global economy from a debt-induced financial tsunami.

The ministers were discussing ideas that would have been taboo only recently, before things got as bad as they are: countries ceding fiscal sovereignty to a central authority; some kind of elite group of euro nations that would guarantee one another’s loans _ but require strong fiscal discipline from anyone wanting membership.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated her support for changes to Europe’s current treaties in order to create a fiscal union, that will include binding and enforceable commitments by all euro countries.

“Our priority is to have the whole of the eurozone to be placed on a stronger treaty basis,” Merkel said Tuesday in Berlin. “This is what we have devoted all of our efforts to; this is what I’m concentrating on in all of the talks with my counterparts.”

Merkel acknowledged that changing the treaties _ usually a lengthy procedure _ won’t be easy because not all of the European Unions 27 member states “are enthusiastic about it.” But she dismissed reports that the eurozone, or some nations within the bloc, might go ahead with a swifter treaty between governments.

Changes to existing eurozone rules are being touted as one way the eurozone can get out of its debt crisis, which has already forced bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal, and is threatening to engulf bigger economies such as Italy, the eurozone’s third-largest. If Italy were to default on its debts of around euro1.9 trillion ($2.5 trillion), the fallout could spell ruin for the euro project itself and send shockwaves throughout the global economy.

Even countries outside the eurozone were ratcheting up pressure on the ministers to find a solution. President Barack Obama, meeting with top EU officials on Monday, said a European failure to resolve its debt crisis would complicate his own efforts to create jobs in the U.S. And even Poland, historically wary of German dominance beyond its borders, appealed for help.

“I will probably be the first Polish foreign minister in history to say so, but here it is,” Radek Sikorski said in Berlin. “I fear German power less than I am beginning to fear German inactivity. You have become Europe’s indispensable nation.”

Illustating the urgency is the fact that Eurozone goverments have euro638 billion in past debts coming due in 2012, of which 40 percent needs to be refinanced in the first four months of the year, according to a Barclays Capital estimate last week.

In a reminder of the urgency, Italy’s borrowing rates shot up Tuesday to rates above 7 percent, an unsustainable level on a par with rates that forced the others to seek bailouts. Markets rose generally for the second day on the expectation that the enormous pressures on European ministers would produce results.

At the top of Tuesday’s agenda is finding a means to more fully integrate the eurozone’s disparate nations _ ranging from powerful Germany to tiny Malta _ both politically and financially. And the ministers must do it fast, without the delays caused by democratic niceties like referendums that have led many EU reforms to take years to implement.

France’s finance minister, Francois Baroin, said Tuesday on France-Info radio that countries should integrate their budgets more closely and monitor one another’s spending.

“We have to modify eurozone governance,” Baroin said. “We definitely have to move toward more integrated budgetary consolidation, fiscal convergence with our neighbors.”

He said France and Germany _ which have largely been calling the shots on efforts to overcome the crisis _ will make proposals on how eurozone countries can monitor one another under such a new system.

The 17 ministers are expected to discuss jointly issuing so-called eurobonds _ an all-for-one, one-for-all way of having the different countries guarantee one another’s debts. Right now each nation issues its own bonds, meaning that while Italy pays above 7 percent, Germany pays about 2 percent.

Having stronger countries like Germany stand behind the general European debt would lower Italy’s borrowing rates _ and perhaps avoid a debt spiral that leads to a national bankruptcy. At the same time, it would raise Germany’s cost of borrowing, and that’s why Germany has been fiercely opposed to the eurobond proposal.

A French official said Tuesday that France may propose joint bonds among a subset of eurozone countries _ those with “triple A” credit ratings _ although Germany has said it opposes the idea. The French official said discussions about such so-called “elite bonds” is under discussion ahead of a summit of European Union heads of government in Brussels next week.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the sensitive, closed-door talks are still under way.

Proponents of elite bonds say the proceeds could be used to help the eurozone’s weaker countries deal with their debts, in return for strict conditions being imposed on their budgets. Critics argue that further fragmenting the eurozone into strong countries and weak countries would benefit no one.

On Monday, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble dismissed reports that such bonds were under serious consideration.

The whole world is watching the developments. It’s not just a currency used by 332 million people that is at stake. As German Chancellor Angela Merkel and others have said, if the euro fails, so too does the 27-nation European Union, a rousing diplomatic success that united a continent ripped apart by two world wars.

“The biggest threat to the security and prosperity of Poland would be the collapse of the eurozone,” Poland’s Sikorski said Monday. “And I demand of Germany that, for your own sake and for ours, you help it survive and prosper. You know full well that nobody else can do it.”

If the euro fails, bank lending would freeze, stock markets would likely crash, and Europe’s economies would crater. Nations in the eurozone could see their economic output fall temporarily by as much as 50 percent, according to UBS forecasters. The financial and economic pain would spread west and east as the U.S. and Asia get ensnared in the credit freeze and their exports to Europe collapse.

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Angela Charlton in Paris, Melissa Eddy and Juergen Baetz in Berlin contributed to this report. Don Melvin can be reached at http://twitter.com/Don_Melvin

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A series of blasts in central Iraq apparently targeting street vendors and day laborers killed 10 people on Saturday, police officials said.

The first two bombs were planted in the early morning in a spot where day laborers gather in the mostly Sunni village of al-Zaidan, near the town of Abu Ghraib west of Baghdad. They killed seven people and wounded 11 others, the officials said.

Hours later, three bombs exploded near the kiosks of vendors selling CDs and military uniforms in central Baghdad, killing three people and wounding eight others.

Health officials at Abu Ghraib’s general hospital and at Ibin al-Nafis hospital in Baghdad confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they w not authorized to release the information.

Violence has ebbed across Iraq, but deadly bombings and shootings still occur almost daily as U.S. troops prepare to leave by the end of the year.

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Deutsche Telekom and AT&T vowed Thursday to press ahead with the planned sale of the German company’s T-Mobile USA unit to the U.S. cell phone operator despite concerns raised by American authorities.

Nevertheless, AT&T said it plans to take a pretax accounting charge of $4 billion in the current quarter to reflect the break-up fees that would be due to Deutsche Telekom if regulators block the deal.

The two companies said they had withdrawn applications to the Federal Communications Commission regarding the merger and intended to seek its approval again “as soon as practical.”

They took the step to consider “all options at the FCC and to focus their continuing efforts on obtaining antitrust clearance for the transaction from the Department of Justice,” which filed a lawsuit in August to stop the deal, AT&T said in a statement.

“Both companies are continuing to pursue the sale of T-Mobile USA to AT&T,” Deutsche Telekom stressed.

Both U.S. agencies worry that the deal would hamper competition and lead to higher prices for consumers.

Deutsche Telekom AG and AT&T Inc. made their move after the chairman of the FCC earlier this week came out against the merger.

Julius Genachowski made his position known in a document he circulated to fellow commissioners Tuesday.

He recommended sending AT&T’s proposed $39 billion takeover of T-Mobile to an administrative law judge for review and a hearing. That’s what the FCC does when it opposes a merger.

In a research note Thursday, Jefferies International analyst Ulrich Rathe said the withdrawal of the FCC application, as well as the opposition by the Justice Department, indicate that “the companies are already well into working out a new version of the deal.”

The analyst, who rates Deutsche Telekom “Buy,” said the charge confirms the break-up fee will be difficult for AT&T to avoid if the deal is not completed.

In Frankfurt, Deutsche Telekom shares closed down 0.6 percent Thursday at euro8.69 ($11.67), almost mirroring the 0.5 percent decline in the DAX index of blue-chip stocks.

The proposed deal, announced in March, would vault the combination of America’s No. 2 carrier AT&T and No. 4 T-Mobile into the top spot ahead of Verizon.

Dallas-based AT&T has about 101 million wireless subscribers. T-Mobile, the Bellevue, Washington-based subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG of Germany, has 34 million.

Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC, has about 108 million, while Sprint Nextel Corp. has 53 million.

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The parents of murdered teen Milly Dowler say that phone hacking on behalf of a British tabloid made them think that she was still alive.

Sally Dowler told the inquiry investigating Britain’s media ethics that her 13-year-old daughter’s phone had been cleared of some messages shortly after she disappeared in early 2002, suggesting that she was checking her voicemail.

In fact Milly was dead and the person clearing the messages worked for the News of the World tabloid.

The Dowler parents have previously made similar statements, but Monday was the first time the pair spoke out on national television.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

LONDON (AP) _ Celebrities and crime victims whose personal lives have been exposed in Britain’s press will testify at an inquiry into media ethics payday advance low fees.

The Leveson inquiry is run by a judicial body that could recommend sweeping changes to the way Britons get their news.

Britain’s media ethics probe was set up in the wake of the scandal over phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World, which was shut in July after it became clear that the tabloid had systematically broken the law. Most horrific was the news that the tabloid had broken into the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler in its search for scoops.

Actor Hugh Grant and the Dowler family will be some of the first to give evidence Monday.

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