Clapping and cheering echoed through the inner city streets where Stephen Gately grew up today as the diverse worlds of loose freshwater pearl pop celebrity and a working class Dublin community united to say farewell to the Boyzone star.

Three and a half thousand people stood behind crash barriers outside the St Laurence O'Toole Memorial Church while 600 mourners inside heard Gateley's bandmate Ronan Keating describe the 33-year-old as "a man, a friend, a brother, a son, a hero".

A mourning fan wears a hat with a photograph of Stephen Gately at the Boyzone star's funeral A mourning fan wears a hat with a photograph of Stephen Gately at the Boyzone star's funeral in Dublin. Photograph: Peter Muhly/AFP/Getty Images

Choking back tears during a eulogy for cultured freshwater pearl  his friend at the end of the funeral mass, Keating said Boyzone would "pray for his guidance to now show us the way. It is with a heavy heart that I have to say that the world has lost one of its brightest stars."

The collective grief over the loss of Gately, described by his old neighbours in Dublin's Sheriff Street area as "one of our own", was compounded by anger over the Daily Mail and its columnist Jan Moir's take on the tragedy.

In her column yesterday, Moir wrote under the pearl jewelry headline "There was nothing 'natural' about Stephen Gately's death" that the circumstances "are more than a little sleazy" and told how he and his civil partner, Andrew Cowles, had taken a Bulgarian man to their flat in Majorca after an evening clubbing. Gately reportedly smoked cannabis on the night he died, Moir added.

A government sting operation targeting hundreds of pearl jewelry wholesale employers across Britain has uncovered widespread racial discrimination against workers with African and Asian names.

Researchers sent nearly 3,000 job applications under false identities in an attempt to discover if employers were discriminating against jobseekers with foreign names. Using names recognisably from three different communities ¨C Nazia Mahmood, Mariam Namagembe and Alison Taylor ¨C false identities were created with similar experience and qualifications. Every false applicant had British education and work histories.

They found that an applicant who freshwater pearl necklace appeared to be white would send nine applications before receiving a positive response of either an invitation to an interview or an encouraging telephone call. Minority candidates with the same qualifications and experience had to send 16 applications before receiving a similar response.

The alarming results have prompted Jim Knight, the employment minister, to consider barring companies that have been found to have discriminated against employees from applying for government contracts.

"We suspected there was a problem. This uncovers the shocking scale of it," he said. "Candidates with an Asian or African name face real discrimination and this has exposed the fact that companies are missing out on real talent."

Researchers from the National Centre for pearl jewelry Social Research, commissioned by the Department for Work and Pension (DWP), sent three different applications for 987 actual vacancies between November 2008 and May 2009. Nine occupations were chosen, ranging from highly qualified positions such as accountants and IT technicians to less well-paid positions such as care workers and sales assistants.

A government sting operation targeting hundreds of employers across Britain has uncovered widespread racial discrimination against workers with African and Asian names.

Researchers sent nearly 3,000 job freshwater pearl bracelets  applications under false identities in an attempt to discover if employers were discriminating against jobseekers with foreign names. Using names recognisably from three different communities ¨C Nazia Mahmood, Mariam Namagembe and Alison Taylor ¨C false identities were created with similar experience and qualifications. Every false applicant had British education and work histories.

They found that an applicant who appeared to be white would send nine applications before receiving a positive response of either an invitation to an interview or an encouraging telephone call. Minority candidates with the same qualifications and experience had to inflatable water games send 16 applications before receiving a similar response.

The alarming results have prompted Jim Knight, the employment minister, to consider barring companies that have been found to have discriminated against employees from applying for government contracts.

"We suspected there was a problem. This uncovers the shocking scale of it," he said. "Candidates with an Asian or African name face real discrimination and this has exposed the fact that companies are missing out on real talent."

Researchers from the National Centre for Social Research, commissioned by the Department for Work and Pension (DWP), sent three different applications for 987 actual vacancies between November 2008 and May 2009. Nine occupations were chosen, ranging from highly qualified positions such as accountants and IT technicians to pearl jewelry less well-paid positions such as care workers and sales assistants.

Pakistan threw more than 30,000 soldiers into a long-anticipated ground offensive against al-Qaida and Taliban strongholds along the Afghan border yesterday, following two weeks in which militants have killed more than 175 people across the country. Early reports suggested the advancing troops were meeting fierce resistance from pearl jewelry Taliban fighters.

The United States has been pushing the government to carry out the assault in South Waziristan, which it must now attempt to complete before the onset of winter snows in early December.

Pakistan has fought three unsuccessful campaigns since 2001 in the region, which is the heartland of Pakistani insurgents fighting the US-backed government. The area is also a major base for foreign militants planning attacks on Nato forces in biwa pearl Afghanistan and on targets in the west. Pakistani sources claim there are up to 1,500 foreign fighters and 10,000 local Taliban fighters in the region.

After months of aerial bombing, Pakistan's cabinet yesterday ordered troops into the region from several directions, heading to the insurgent bases of akoya pearl Ladha and Makeen, among other targets.

At least 11 suspected insurgents were killed, while a bomb hit a security convoy, killing one soldier and wounding three others, intelligence officials said.

At least 10 Labour MPs are considering taking legal action against their own party over the way in which they have been treated during the expenses scandal, according to senior party figures.

The group includes Jim Devine, MP for Livingston, who was deselected by Labour's "star chamber" in a row over disputed claims worth £4,500 for pearl jewelry office costs.

The threats are the latest evidence of a backlash by MPs against the punishment being dealt out by party leaders. Last week Devine was given a clean bill of health by Sir Thomas Legg, the former civil servant called in to review expenses, and was not asked to pay any money back.

Devine said he had a  sterling silver jewelry lawyer who was "foaming at the mouth" and wanted to challenge the party for referring him to its star chamber. Labour says Legg had been investigating only claims made by MPs under the additional costs allowance (ACA) and had not looked at those under "incidental expenses", which cover office costs.

Others who are said to feel badly treated include David Chaytor, MP for Bury North, who announced in June that he would step down before his case was considered by the star chamber. Chaytor, a respected member of the education select committee, faced likely deselection after it emerged that he claimed almost £13,000 on a biwa pearl non-existent mortgage.

Friends of Ian Gibson, the former Labour MP for Norwich North, who stepped down in the summer after being summoned to the star chamber and told he could not stand again, said recently that he felt he had "grounds to sue" over his treatment. He had claimed £80,000 on a London flat in which his daughter lived and where he stayed.