However, Fusion will initially be available only to people with a BT Broadband internet connection, although the company already has 1.7 million customers signed up for high-speed internet access, and they will form BT's initial target market.The launch of a combined fixed-line and mobile telephone service is a significant technological landmark but faces tough competition before it proves itself commercially.Mobile phone rivals immediately moved to rubbish Fusion. It carries calls on a mobile network when customers are out and about.BT claimed that as well as convenience, the service would make use of cheaper fixed-line tariffs, compared with existing mobile networks, and offer higher quality connections and coverage than mobiles when used inside. It said 3,500 people registered for the service yesterday.Fusion includes a free Motorola mobile handset that can place calls over BT's fixed-line network when a customer calls from home or in the office. BT Group and Motorola have joined forces to launch the world's first phone service that works both as a mobile and a traditional, fixed-line telephone. BT said its Fusion service would generate the lion's share of an expected £1bn of revenue from new mobile services for the company within five years and anticipates "millions" of customers will join. The engineer, seized by a group calling itself the Shura Council of the Mujahedin was the first national from Australia to be abducted in Iraq.The Iraqi military said the rescue yesterday was led by "specific intelligence". US and Iraqi forces rescued an Australian hostage in Baghdad while the death toll continued to rise across the country with suicide bombers killing 26 soldiers and eight policemen. Douglas Wood, a 64-year-old engineer, had been held for 47 days in Ghazaliyah, a western suburb of the capital. Job vacancies fell, with particularly sharp falls for retailers, manufacturers and transport companies.However the labour force survey measure of employment showed a fall of 15,000 over the three months to April and the number of redundancies over the same period hit a 10-year low..

"But nearly 1,000 of those have now obtained a job and many more are going into training," he said.The rest of the labour market data showed a mixed picture, with the employment rate falling despite a rise in numbers in work as the increase in population exceeded the number of jobs created. "This extra supply of relatively young and low-paid workers may be displacing UK residents," he said. "It is notable the claimant count has risen particularly among people under 25 since mid 2004." The figures showed the number of manufacturing jobs lost since Labour came to power had broken through the 1 million mark.David Willetts, the shadow Trade and Industry Secretary, said: "Labour has made life harder for manufacturers, asking them to shoulder heavier burdens at a time when competing in the global economy is getting harder." David Blunkett, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, said half of the increase in the claimant count was due to the losses at MG Rover. Unemployment rose for a fourth successive month in May, the longest run of increases for 13 years, as the collapse of MG Rover added to the jobless total. Selling £10m of shares on flotation.Michael Jackson: Chairman, £1.5m bonus for flotation.Brian Larcombe: Deputy chairman, £1m float bonus.Anurag Dikshit: Founding shareholder, making up to £460m by selling some shares on flotation.Ruth Parasol: Founding shareholder, will pocket up to £238m from share sales on flotation.Vikrant Bhargava: Founding shareholder, will get up to £130m selling some shares on flotation..

Shares in the company, which drives traffic to online gambling sites, listed at 175p and rose to 190p before closing at 173.5p.Royal flushRichard Segal: Chief executive, gets free options worth up to £51m. The four founders will retain a 70 per cent interest in the company.Bonuses paid to the board are likely to be controversial. Michael Jackson, chairman of the software group Sage and PartyGaming's chairman, will get £1.5m for floating the business; its deputy chairman Brian Larcombe will get £1m. These bonuses will be subject to tax, and the entire net proceeds will be reinvested in PartyGaming shares.Investor sentiment towards online gambling was not helped by Empire Online's flotation on AIM yesterday. All proceeds of the float will go to the founding shareholders, who are pocketing more than £1bn between them by selling part of the shareholdings.